Excuse me, I have a question

 Okay, maybe a few questions.

For this piece, unlike the Awkward Question of the Week (AQW), more simple and practical questions to the reader, rather than some sort of a ‘gotcha’.

Q1) In the rush to Net-Zero to avoid climate-change, is there any expectation that the majority parents will happily downgrade the quality of life for their children, and their children’s children?

Q2)  Am I expected to agree that it is best to fill perfectly fertile land with wind-farms and solar panels, requiring food to be imported by cargo ships that burn a petroleum byproduct, a ship by the way that can be converted to nuclear over simply taking that nuclear engine and placing it somewhere near the fertile land on a much smaller foot-print?

Q3) Does chemically and surgically altering socially confused and sexual-preference confused pubescent children, the majority of whom are on the autistic scale, falls under the ‘do no harm’ principle included in the Hippocratic Oath?

Q4) If it turns out that the majority of post pubescent people who have transitioned claim that they are same-sex attracted, will the pro-transition crowd apply any level of braking to avoid ‘cutting’ homosexuals out of society? 

Q5) What does Willie Sutton’s response on robbing banks, ‘because that’s where the money is’ tell you about those people who want to introduce K-Grade_8 children to sexually charged materials and exhibitions?

Q6) Do the following talking points adequately explain some of the impacts of millions of square and cubic meters of asphalt/concrete and sewers respectively have on the climate: 

a) Asphalt/concrete is a heat sink, 

b) Rain drainage pipes reduce ground absorption and lower water tables, 

c) Rain drainage pipes reduce water filtering and the nutrient enrichment of the soil?

Q6a) Did you know that Lester B. Pearson International Airport (YYZ), commonly known as Toronto Pearson International Airport has 926,346 square metres of asphalt/concrete for just and only the existing five runways? 

Q7) Recently the United Nations Security General is quoted as saying that “the era of global warming has ended” and “the era of global boiling has arrived” leading to two questions: the first being, was the second quote hyperbolic, with the second question being, in a closed ecosystem where and what will happen to the steam?

Q8) By what measures and metrics do you feel the various assertions that, ‘all cultures are equal’, are made upon?

Q9) Did you know that in Qatar, tourists and residents can consume alcohol in restaurants, bars, and certain licensed hotels without applying for a personal permit?

Q10) Please read the exchanges below, blatantly copied from the British TV show Yes Prime Minister:

[Survey one]

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Mr. Woolley, are you worried about the rise in crime among teenagers?

Bernard Woolley: Yes.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Do you think there is lack of discipline and vigorous training in our Comprehensive Schools?

Bernard Woolley: Yes.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Do you think young people welcome some structure and leadership in their lives?

Bernard Woolley: Yes.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Do they respond to a challenge?

Bernard Woolley: Yes.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Might you be in favour of reintroducing National Service?

Bernard Woolley: Er, I might be.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes or no?

Bernard Woolley: Yes.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Of course, after all you've said you can't say no to that. On the other hand, the surveys can reach opposite conclusions. 

[Survey two] 

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Mr. Woolley, are you worried about the danger of war?

Bernard Woolley: Yes.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Are you unhappy about the growth of armaments?

Bernard Woolley: Yes.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Do you think there's a danger in giving young people guns and teaching them how to kill?

Bernard Woolley: Yes.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Do you think it's wrong to force people to take arms against their will?

Bernard Woolley: Yes.

Sir Humphrey Appleby: Would you oppose the reintroduction of conscription?

Bernard Woolley: Yes.

So, do you trusts surveys or polls that only provide the outcome without given access to the original questions used for soliciting a response? 

Q11) At what point does a state that supports a ‘stand your ground’ policy for all legal residents in statute, provide a state level ‘stand our ground’ policy for all legal residents?

Q12a)  According to the ACLU, the US federal government defines a “reasonable distance” for the CBP to operate is 100 air miles from any external boundary of the U.S, begging the question – would you sell your property within that 100 air mile limit and allow your State government to erect a wall thus blocking illegal immigrants on to what ever property you retain and or could purchase? 

Q12b) Considering the number of people who intended to illegally invade the U.S  and died crossing the Rio Grande river, does that river still show itself to be an effective moat for both countries on the Mexico U.S. border considering the number of people who survived the trek? 

Q13) With consideration toward the acts of prostitution and online applications such as OnlyFans and Instagram, should men righteously be held responsible for objectifying women, when so many women present themselves as a commodity? 

Q14) Buhamster, a music chart analysis company, found that the average lifespan of a music track in the TOP-100 charts is 45.3 days, in the TOP-10 charts the result is 44.9 days, in the TOP-3 charts it is 28 days, and the TOP-1 songs live for 16.5 days on average; are you still surprised with the number of personal-pronouns being pushed out by so many youths?

Losing Faith in Atheism

Circa the mid to late 1980s, I would’ve been just around or just over the age of twenty, and by that time I’d already taken up the position of being a secular man; but was I really? Around these same years the world was introduced to ‘the new atheism’ via the work of the Four Horsemen: Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett all of whom put forward the idea that a person can be one of the good people without needing the double edged promises of God. 

A lot of things have changed in the last twenty-five or so years, both publically and for me personally; the most obvious public change being that the Internet went public. The Public Internet was heralded as the provider of freedom, a platform to advance science, and a means by which the world will come together; these lauded promises have of course been perverted. In recalling that the Internet is based on work funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is a branch of the United States Department of Defense; I’m left to wonder how anyone ever thought that the general public was ready for, or would even be capable of unfettered access to everyone else without conflicts arising or the anticipation of the need of some to control others. 

In my youth I attended the churches of both sides of my familial tree, this didn’t work well for me at a very young age as I just wanted to climb trees, jump in puddles, and do other fun stuff. As I got older, still nowhere near puberty, the God/Gaia archetype was pretty simple: father set the rules and handed out the punishments, while mother provided the love, empathy and bounty. As I continued to age, the God/Gaia archetype was still well entrenched seeing as I was starting to realize that a relationship had been formed resulting in the creation of and the benefit for my older brother and I. Admittedly, I am probably romanticizing my childhood experiences seeing as I am the product of my parents actions, literally. 

Going further back, way before my own day of birth, there was this thing we now call the Enlightenment. The rise of the Enlightenment came about 130 years after the invention of the Gutenberg press and it lasted for about 150 years. A number of hypotheses have been put forth as to the causal rise of the Enlightenment including though not limited to: the Gutenberg press, crop abundance due to the rise in regional/global temperature, and of course Christianity is also mentioned seeing as it was the regional religion of that time. 

Personally, of the three potential reasons highlighted above for the Enlightenment, I can not and will not put the entire load onto just one. Typically nothing happens for just one single reason or act, seeing as every moment in history has been preceded by some other moment of history, potentially including but not limited to that moment of Creation or the Big Bang. 

Author’s Note: The Big Bang v. Creationism narratives are for me effectively a distinction without a difference because my parents taught me how NOT to be a thief, a murderer, a rapist, or a child molester; all the while not relying on God as the crutch in their teaching of good moral and civic values; my parents passed on that some things are just right and some things are just wrong, and yes it is that simple.  

As I’m now going for the meat on the bone I’m going head off some of my critics, be they friend or foe, in admitting that I’m not an expert on the Bible, nor have I read the majority of the Bible. What I have done, as a secularist, is be to witness the impact and outcome of a lot fewer people reading the Bible. 

Admittedly, the Christians got it spot on with their claim that everyone is born flawed, though in a society under God those flaws are limited to one’s character rather than one’s immutable physical characteristics. Medical and pharmaceutical advances now allow people to wear a gender based skin suite with seemingly little to no regard towards sorting out why such solutions are being sought.  

Another thing that the Christians got right for many years was the idea of the family, where the family includes a father and mother joined in marriage, and a child or more. This probably sounds pretty ripe coming from a divorced and childless man, or does it? Up to and beyond the day of my wedding, my plan was to mimic my father as best as I could, unfortunately for me, my mother being one in a million coupled with me not having the patience to search the globe for one of the approximately 5,300 women who would have been perfect for me mathematically; and once my plans started to unravel my only solace was then, and still is now, is that no innocents ran afoul of the mistake I had made. 

Nudge theory, is the current name for a principle that has been around for years; that previous term being ‘baby stepping’. If you wish to test ‘baby stepping’ try this, start a conversation with a friend while the two of you are standing, then take a half step forward, a few moments and then shuffle forward again; most people will, out of politeness, shuffle backwards until they bump into something that used to be somewhat behind them until the distance becomes no longer somewhat.

‘If you're not growing, you're dying’, and while typically this saying is attributed to the world of business, in a way, many organized religions do come across as some sort of business. ‘Nature abhors a vacuum’ is another common saying, though this saying has a broader cross discipline reach. These two axioms were selected to provide an overly simplistic explanation on how our society got to where it is today. 

The equation “f=L÷ (4×π×d²)” explains what we all know to be true, the further one gets from a light the dimmer things get, until it become so dark that reading ones moral compass becomes nigh if not impossible. And, so here we are with way too many people now wandering around with ‘A Heart of Darkness’; by the way, everyone is encouraged to read that book.

Most people want an easier life, which is made evident by the inventive tendencies found throughout human history. Most people want a secure life, which is made evident by the inventions built for both defense and offence found throughout human history. Most people want a social life, which is made evident by the numerous villages, towns, cities, and this list can continue all the way up to the county state. And, most religions have for many years supported this trinity of the basic wants for many people, what is being talked about here are layers the second and third layers of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. 

Recalling that nature abhors a vacuum, something had to come in and fulfill the wants, or needs if one agrees with Maslow, mentioned earlier; for me what stepped in to fill the void was Political Correctness, circa mid 1980s, or as it is commonly abbreviated - PC. Being PC meant that one’s social behaviour had a new rule-book, this new rule-book came with two big problems in my opinion: the first problem being that the rules lacked maturity and the second problem being that the rules were never properly codified. It seems that the Torah, after being an oral tradition for generations was first written down approximately 2,500 years ago or so Google has informed me. 

Being PC stumbled along for about a decade or perhaps a little longer and eventually it need to be re-branded, and so Social Justice came into being, which is what happened in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Social Justice was much like what Political Correctness was though with harsher words being deployed; the tone of the movement at this point took a turn for the worse in my mind. When the words correctness and justice are considered, the first implies how to treat others, while the latter implies what can be done to help those set upon. To paraphrase Yoda of Star Wars fame, ‘the victim wars begun they have’; and as such, any swim towards the social top required a preemptive claim to be drowning at the social bottom based on an immutable characteristic with a total  disregard of an individual person’s fiscal reality. 

Even Social Justice had no survivability and so another re-branding was in order, and as such what started out as being Politically Correct morphed into Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity (DIE) in just a few decades; any reference to the individual has at this point been summarily ripped out of the social narrative for the sake of pushing a convenient ‘truth’. 

In 1971 John Lennon claimed to want everyone to ‘Imagine’ a world without the Divine, and I’m left to wonder what Mr. Lennon would say today about the Utopian dream now partially realized, for which  he advocated for in that song some 55 years ago. I feel that the result of Lennon’s dream can best be described by Conan the Barbarian in his answer to the question ‘What is best in life?’ and Conan replied: ‘To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women’, though I will speculate that Conan could at least answer the question ‘what is a woman?’ 

Of the two, John Lennon or the barbarian Conan, which one seems to have their thumb on pulse of how mankind works my wager, is on Conan. Inspired by the Divine, artists and architects of years past made spectacular works, by comparison the works of the creative class today mostly fail to make me go WOW in quite the same fashion. The banknotes of the USA still carry the phrase ‘In God We Trust’, which I’d like to point out, now seemingly holds more value than the worth of the bill itself; and that should tell you something. For those who may have questions, my personal moral frame work is: be kind when you can afford it, treat others as you’d want to be treated, and oppose evil when and with whatever you are capable. 

Dear Erica, a letter

Context: Recently I had a discussion with a young adult human female (Erica), her aunt (zia in Italian), uncle (zio in Italian), and others; though most of those people didn’t really participate except for the odd comment injected occasionally. I’m making this letter public because Erica’s argument style, in my opinion, was to simply parrot the talking points she absorbed without any consideration to critical examination. While this letter is addressed to Erica, it was more of an exercise for me as this falls into the category of ‘I should have said that instead.’

Dear Erica, 

Before I get into the meat of this letter, I’d like to get the politeness out of the way and thank you for a most interesting conversation. I’ll do my best to recall some of the main talking points of the discussion and welcome any corrections you offer up, if and only if you will allow me to respond to your correction; so, if you don’t want a response than don’t make a correction. 

I feel the most basic and significant point in the discussion was on, and about, the words ‘respect’ and ‘politeness’. If I recall correctly, your position was that everyone deserves respect, while my position was that politeness should be a social standard while, respect is something that is to be earned. Without clarity on this one point, I feel that all of the other topics discussed should be considered as condiments on the burger. We were at a BBQ after all. (Insert smiling emoji here)

As a noun, the word respect has two entries, as provided below:

1. A feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

2. Due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of others.

Given the two definitions above, it seems obvious to me that I was working with #1, while you were working with #2. For me, the two definitions provided have a distinct difference: the first definition allows for the giver of respect the choice of respecting or not, while the second implies something close to an obligation. 

As a child, I was told to love and respect my parents, and I didn’t know what that meant at the time, though I did understand fear; what I quickly learned was that if I saddened or upset my mother, my father would ensure that I changed my ways. Later on in my life, somewhere around the age of 24, when I reflected upon the actions my parents took in regards to my brother and me that I truly understood definition #1. 

So, I’ll ask you this: what is the obligation of those whom demand I respect their personal pronouns, to respecting my feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions? Your zio David, made the point that he has to watch his words where he works, lest he becomes sanctioned or suffer some other punishment; as outside of the tyrannical, it must be considered proper for those who demand respect to offer it up equally if is to be a civil society. 

Another, point we touched on was a discussion about transgender children. I was pleased that you drew a line on top and bottom surgery for teens. I’ll now head you off at the pass as it were, while a 19 year old is technically a teenager, they are afforded more rights along with more responsibilities than those who are younger and so we might as well refer to them as uber-teenagers or pseudo-adults; I offer up these two terms as most people’s brain doesn’t reach maturity until around the age of 24. 

I’d like you to reconsider your position on puberty blocking medications though. Please consider the history of athletics in our school system and beyond. At the public school level, especially the lower grades, genetically born boys and girls play on mixed gender teams. There is little to no noticeable difference in performance at those ages, yet once there is an onset of puberty the changes in performance are quite distinct. The boys on the path towards manhood develop larger hearts and lungs, along with greater upper body strength due to an increase in both muscle mass and bone density. Chemically retarding such aspects during their growth will put them at risk later on; if there is a change a mind; while the scars of top and bottom surgery are obvious, these internal changes can be just as damaging. 

The next argument I’d like to put forward is to ask why the people who support the change of what I consider to be an immutable characteristic are so bigoted. There are some people who will not accept a change to another immutable characteristic such as race; thus demonstrating their lack of open mindedness. Perhaps we should role out the term ‘transracialaphobia’ and add it to our social zeitgeist. 

Here are some talking points for you to consider moving forward:

• Gender affirming care is being presented as a cure for gender or body dysphoria, which is a significant distress or impairment as noted in the DSM-5.
• Anorexia Nervosa, also listed in the DSM-5, yet the sufferers get no positive support for their condition. Should the state not simply buy them buckets to puke in?
• Biological males who take puberty blockers and Estrogen supplements suffer from osteoporosis at and early age.  
• Consider that everyone who transitions will be on gender hormone therapy for life, and that those drugs are not free. Could there be a money motivator somewhere in this situation?
• Look up Dr. Money, twin boys, botched circumcision and then look for the term suicide in the reading.
• Those people who opt-in for a neo-vagina must stretch their new ‘bonus hole’ daily. Keep in mind that the human body sees this as a deviation from normal, a wound that needs healing as it were. 
• Those who take-up bottom surgery will never feel the sexual pleasure of clitoral or penal stimulation again, thus rendering them simply a sex toy for the pleasure of others. 
• About 30,000, or 5 percent, of the ‘cisgender’ people in a study have autism, the researchers found, whereas 895, or 24 percent, of the gender-diverse people do[1] .

Eugenics is a set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population; leaving me to wonder if that last bullet point, presents an effort to clean up the gene pool. 

Erica, please accept that this is not attack on you, just some of the ideas you promoted during our very pleasant conversation. Choices have consequences, and I just don’t think many young people are taking the time to consider what awaits them ahead, willingly or not. Oh and of the people I’ve listened to who have de-transitioned, they seem to eventually came to the conclusion that they were always simply a confused homosexual going through puberty and looking for answers to questions they didn’t even know to ask. 

I’ll leave you with this simple question: would you encourage and support your younger cousins in the setting their own menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner; and if not why not? 

All regards, 

-RD-

[1] https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/largest-study-to-date-confirms-overlap-between-autism-and-gender-diversity/