The question before Dan and Jane is, “Is banning all Muslims from the U.S. a viable option to protecting the U.S. from terrorism?”

by Dan the Man

When the Mediterranean fruit fly threatened the citrus industry in Florida they banned all suspected fruits.  The USDA walked into yards and removed private citrus trees with a promise of future replacement (never happened).  They were serious about saving an industry.

I understand and I appreciate that America is a beacon of freedom.  I also understand that freedom for religious beliefs and minorities  (in this case women must be protected.

I can say without hesitation that most Muslims are not bad, evil, terrorists.  However, since the Muslims have done little to stem, yet alone condemn, the violence we MUST assume they are either afraid (as we should be) or complicit in these actions.

Why do I say complicit?  Because their Koran says they must not accept the infidels.  No matter your belief , faith, race or gender you can easily fit under the category of infidel.  Heck. according to them I am an infidel.  Nearly every woman on the street is an infidel by their dress code alone, let alone their education.

Sometimes the baby has an incurable illness and must be thrown out with the bath water.  Sounds cruel but it is survival.  Another possibility is to have them renounce their religion and choose any other religion and you will see that religious freedom means something.  Unfortunately it means religious domination as their Book preaches.

The Saudi royal family does not adhere to the moral doctrines the Koran preaches.  They drink, have open sexual encounters and engage in rampant deceit (along with US leaders)  I care very much for the safety of my family.

The meteoric rise in weapon purchases is due to President Obama’s speech hoping to ban guns as well as his promotion of civil unrest.  Make no mistake,  there is a plan to neutralize the once great nation of America.

by Plain Jane.

Dan, why can’t you just admit that your way of thinking is over.  Accept that you are stupid and get out of the way.  People are people.  They want what we have a chance to improve their life.  They want to go to school.  They want to go to their mosque and worship their God.  They want to be Americans.

They are coming from a war torn country.  A war that the U.S, government has tried to quash but has failed to do so.

Their religious leaders have repeatedly stated that the Islamic religion is a peaceful religion as they have lived and developed great nations.

How can you consider the atrocity of WW II when we interred the Japanese?

Your conservative position is so outdated.  You may as well have a “members only” sign at the border.  America is great because of our ability to absorb and meld with other cultures, religions and races.

The best example you can conjure is a Mediterranean fruit fly?  Come on.  Be progressive.

RESPONSE by Dan the Man

We have already seen the terrorist results in our country.  Countries in Europe are expelling the Muslims because of the Muslim non acceptance of the home country to their religion.  It’s not a matter of being progressive.  It is survival.

The U.S. did not try to broker a peace they caused the unrest.  The Islamic countries have been at war with each other for centuries because one sect did not hold true to the doctrines as interpreted by the other group.

I don’t want you crying in tears wishing you had a weapons , an assault weapon no less, from the converging Muslim mob.

I will go a step further.  We have had worse race relations under the current administration and now a religious divide looms.

The Islamic religion does not want their women educated, driving or wear anything save a bed sheet.  Unless you give me exclusive rights to the Islamic fashions, I am against their invasion and fully accept throwing the baby out with the bath water until the baby learns to play nice with others and does not repeat the world domination message of their Koran and chop off heads and bomb innocents.  What sort of mad thinking are you engaged in?

Yes they want to go to the mosque but not only to prey but to plan the end of the infidels in the protected walls of a U.S. right.  This is the story of the three little pigs.  I am the third pig.

 

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by Pat Pillar

When collecting data and then analyzing it, you find correlations between and among certain data points.  You can use certain mathematical processes to view the strength of your data.  If the numbers reach a certain level you can call them factors.  This process is called factor analysis.

For example if you gathered two groups of people, for the sake of this argument, one group is heavy alcohol drinkers and the other group is total abstinence, and you gave them a questionnaire.  If one group continually responded to a question while the other group did not, you would have a correlation.  This correlation would be between the one group and a certain question.

Let’s say the alcoholic group liked the color orange while the non alcoholic group liked the color brown.  Because you are the experimenter you get to name the factors.  You might simply say the brown and the orange group.  And you report these simple findings.

The press is looking for articles.  They report that alcoholics like this color while non alcoholics like another color.  Another article says while alcoholics like orange they dislike brown.  (this is not necessarily true but they can use the data and twist it to fit an agenda)

Years ago there was a classic study performed where a group of twelve members, eleven of them were confederates (part of the study) while the one lone subject was being measured.  The twelfth member was the subject.  The members passed around pictures of lines of various length and they either said they were equal or unequal.  The degree of total agreement was very high.  Then there came a very significant difference in line length.  Anyone could see them as unequal.  The eleven confederates agreed the lines were equal and when it came to the twelfth subject they more times than likely agreed with the group.

Occam’s Razor is a statement that says if you have two possible explanations choose the simple or less complex.  For example if the choice of out appendix being a vestigial organ or an alien implant, choose the former.

A recent study revealed that if only five percent of a population exhibits vocal protest, the five percent can  significantly speak for the remaining percentage.

So we have statistics, media, group pressure , Occam’s Razor and the five percent rule.  We will combine them to understand how we think.  The addition of money managers and religion will trump any of these.  That is another article.

Statistically there are more conservative thinkers in the U.S. than liberal thinkers.  The liberal sector is more vocal but the extreme conservatives are even more vocal (I threw religion in here to balance the extreme left) Statistics show that the inner city is heavily Democrat while the rural areas are more Republican.  The US Constitution provided for this in the electoral college by balancing the urban v. the rural sectors.

Let’s take a real issue but be clear I show no preference either way but will show how we are forced into a decisions that we really know little about.

Let us look at homosexuality.  The liberals tend to openly accept this while the conservatives are less accepting of this.  So if I need statistics to support an agenda I need to poll groups, sections, areas that will support my agenda.  At some point the numbers have no meaning because of the skewing of the data and what gets reported. The best example is the current US unemployment rate

Homosexual groups are extremely vocal.  Their voice has riled the extreme right, exposing the beliefs of the extreme right to reflect on the whole of the conservative thinkers.  (My thoughts are not important to this discussion but I need to express that I believe that I must show my cards here.  I believe that the US voting is rigged but not by who the media suggests.  I really don’t think your vote counts but I digress).  In my readings I learned that the Republican party overcame the Democrat party in the civil rights vote giving these rights to the blacks.  Then how is it the blacks are in the party that voted against them?

There is a misplaced focus at work.  As the groups battle these issues out another group (of foreigners) will solve the homosexuality issue by extrication, death and example.  This group will scare even the far right.

So I decided to use research to defend my beliefs on homosexuality.  I found that using real scientific data I could not support my beliefs.  I simple think our technology is not there yet.  Regardless I wanted to know how I came to believe  that science supported my beliefs.  The mathematical differences between male and female homosexuality suggests a future issue.  But I know how they will use the five percent rule, the group pressure and the media agenda and the exclusion of Occam’s Razor to get their ideology across.

My point is simple.  My world has been changed with the understanding of how my thoughts have been manipulated.  By whom?  I don’t know but they are good. at that task.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by Leslie Logg

Synopsis:  This patient lives in Cuenca and is a single male.  His chief complaint is loneliness.  He is in his mid sixties and cannot find a suitable mate.  He has had the opportunity to get involved on many occasions but repeatedly it ends before it begins.

“Am I just afraid to make the same mistakes I’ve made in the past or,” he said and froze his speech.

I am suddenly interested.  He has a thought that may hold some insight, “Or what?”  I ask in a psychological tone.

“Maybe, just maybe I have found something that really matters,”  he said wearing a look of transparent understanding.

“What did you find that is so important?”  I quizzed.

He looked at me with eyes that looked through me as if seeing something beyond me, “Me.  I found me.  And I like me”

These are words every psychologist loves to hear.  We seem to think that this change occurred because of us.

“I’m not sure I understand how you went from trying to connect with someone and finding “me?” I said.

“All this time I tried using an old thought process when it was the new thought process that kept telling me to remain on course.” he said.

“Now, I’m really lost,” I said.

“I’ve changed.  Not the core me but the sharp edges.  I see things for not only what they are right now but what they will be later.”

“Still confused,” I added.

“The women here are so angry.  I can feel the anger.  Those that aren’t angry believe in weird stuff.”

“What kind of weird stuff?”

“They believe in the unbelievable.  They talk about energy fields but can’t define energy.  They interpret the Bible the way they see fit.  And I avoid  their beliefs but I don’t tell them.  I just sit among people and have no one to talk with that is rational. They insist on being ‘right.'”

Earlier we had discussed the angry single women in Cuenca in great detail.  What he appeared to be challenging currently was that he was lonely by choice.  He accepted people but their belief so differed from his that he would rather remain alone.”

“I found two women who had the same temperment as me.”

“And what happened?”

“That’s it.  I know now, at this time, that it would not work.  Besides the usual issues in a relationship these ladies brought fear of a relationship.  They made demands for perfection.  They didn’t call it perfection.  But you had to believe and feel certain things.  Things they wanted.  You couldn’t just be you.”

“How does this solve your loneliness?” I asked.

“I guess it doesn’t  But I am comfortable with being alone rather than ever lose me again.”

“Do you believe you are right?”

“I gave up trying to be right years ago.  I just want to be content.”

This proved the patient who taught the doctor.  I learned much in the way of senior romance.  I found his angry woman theory to hold merit.  I also found that seniors do best when they recognize the changes in their social needs.  They replace security with understanding, sex with communication, activity with alone time.  I also think this is different than in the U.S.  When you don’t admit these changes you revert to a previous failed thought process.  I will review these thoughts in the future.

 

 

 

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by Kimberly Kross

Much of the time, writers look for ideas to write about.  Politics is easy because every one has their own opinion.  Not until one must lead does one realize that the world is irrational.  The absurdity of politics books is easily viewed by looking at the facts, not the truth, the facts.  Since most politicians do not understand logic or research, it becomes easy to see that nothing gets done that makes sense.

UNLESS you actually “follow the money.”  We talk about it, we make movies about it, we read about it, yet we do very little to stop it.  In fact, we consider it business as usual.

If you want to find a topic to write about just look at FaceBook or the Huffington Post.   I just saw a post that provided an example of a red herring.  The person who posted this obviously dislikes Republicans.  He took the four big topics that the Democrats failed to address and blamed it on the Republicans.  I will repeat this over and over again.  There is only one party — the money party.  As long as you insist that the other party is the enemy, this will continue.

Of the top ten Congressmen millionaires, eight are Democrats.  Yet the Democrat constituency claims the Republicans are the rich money barons.  Get over it.  BOTH sides are making deals.  In order to stay on the gravy train you need pinheads like the guy I mentioned to promote the one side is the problem.

In order for him to make his point he had to drag a red herring across the issue because by making the other side defend the indefensible his side appears the ‘right’ side

The issue of Obamacare, the ADA , has always been a ruse– a way to make money for big business.  Let me be clear, AS LONG AS YOU HAVE A FOR PROFIT HEALTH CARE YOU CAN NEVER BE AFFORDABLE.  But we already knew that, ignored that and refused to discuss that.

So get off the conservative /liberal issue and realize that anyone, ANYONE, who gets elected is working for Wall Street and a select few.  Anyone who dares to threaten this will be eliminated (as JFK was).

Follow the logic.  Look at the Red Herring. Look at Huffington Post openly admitting that Trump must be dealt with differently.  Watch how the headlines have slanted the short attention span of the reader.

Just another reason I live in Ecuador.

by Plain Jane

The discussion (battle ) over the first question and the ground rules brought about much contention.  I don’t think that the difference in thought, between me and my counterpart, are always diverse.  But we do hyperbolize our ideas.  In so doing, we find out beliefs we can’t justify.  We agreed that we would still defend beliefs we wished we had kept hidden, much like in a debate forum.

I an retired in Cuenca because I wanted my US dollar to have some value in my less intense years.  I said this was contentious mainly due to the following, “If you liked where you lived and the culture and langusage and life style  Why are you in Ecuador?”

I wanted a change.  I wanted to understand other cultures.

As agreed I hand this over to Dan for his comments and then can rebut his erroneous thinking. –Jane

by Dan the Man

Jane there are two kinds of liars — those who lie to others which is bad and like you those who lie to themselves which is worse.  You told me you were here because you felt the need to escape the ‘End of Times’ in the U.S.  You almost cried at the admission that your liberal thinking and vote brought about the horror that President Obama brought about in his “Hope and Change’ gimmick.  You admitted that having elected a Muslim that the religious bigots in the US would get their “just desserts”.”  All of a sudden I am here to learn other cultures.  You may as well say, “I am here to spread my liberal bullshit and ruin this culture.”

I am tired of people like you who say nice things to people to their face but when the going gets tough, thanks to stupid thinking like yours, you run, you leave the country.  I came to Ecuador to get away from the likes of you.  But it seems the lot of you and your thinking has more countries to poison.  Your views on guns, for example, the only thing that keeps Americans safe from the government is those guns.  The second amendment was written for this exact time. And you and your foolish, sorry, I meant stupid liberal friends are smelling cheaper flowers in other countries because you screwed up the only good one.

Your hatred of conservative thinkers is hypocrisy.  You want to bring in killers into the US and you decry the thoughts of your fellow Americans as evil.  You preach acceptance of others at the expense of denial to those who do not agree with your thoughts.

Jane, tell the truth for once, tell the world what you think and they can judge your hypocrisy.  –Dan

REBUTTAL

You religious bigot!  You believe in a god who does not exist.  You don’t like women or blacks or homosexuals or poor people trying to make a better life.  I think it is you who needs to tell your thoughts and have the world see how a narrow mind works.  I refuse to dignify your stupidity.  — Jane