Thursday, March 01, 2007

H-h-harm

You may know the old joke:
"I was beaten as a child. It didn't d-d-d-d-do m-me any har-har-harm!"

Funny enough I once met a man who said exactly that, and he was actually a stammerer!

---
Update: I suddenly see why a commentator thought this post was "harsh". Well, obviously I don't mean it's funny that somebody is a stammerer. But it is funny that he was living this joke, and just like the man in the joke he was completely overlooking the very likely evidence right in his face that his statement was dead wrong. It seems quite likely that the terror of living with violent parents could turn somebody into a stammerer.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Life is good?

Define "good." How long does good last? What part of the earth do you inhabit? If in Africa where people are ate up with starvation and AIDS that cannot be good?
Yet if you live in America with a big bank account and plenty to eat life is good, yes?
Yes...........life is so very good. I wanna live forever because I am enjoying my good life sipping a cold pepsi and munching on a pizza. Join me please and pass the garlic sticks.

Anonymous said...

Harsh.

Anonymous said...

Weedeater,

Easy on the sodas, buddy. They're bad for the bones, kidneys and stomach. Some over-enthusiastic youngsters have the skeleton of a 75 y/o (a 75 y/o in bad shape!) at barely 25, with extreme osteoporosis. And a man who drank more than a liter a day of a leading brand completely destroyed his kidneys in less than three years. Seriously!

It's all because of chemistry. Essentially, the phosphoric acid they put in this stuff. Very bad if you consume too much of it. I've nearly stopped all sodas. In average, I drink about one can every two weeks, maximum. And I prefer a fruit juice!

Given the choice, better drink milk than a soda. Drinking good milk is a very healthy american habit. (As long as you don't have a tendancy to kidney stones, but these are very easy to treat nowadays.)

As for pizza, a well-designed one is actually a very nutritious food. You just need to eat other stuff too, for diversity, and go easy on the cheese.
You should taste the home-recipe pizza my mom cooks. It's all-natural, and very popular. With stuff like that, we could open a successful restaurant! :-)

Life is definitely better when you take care of your health.

Allright, this is even more off-topic, but I heard a very positive news info about Africa yesterday: paludism is about to get punched in the jaw. For about $1.5, it can now be cured in three days, and the treatment is going to be supplied at production price to the poorest countries. This is great news. Because AIDS prophylaxy is MUCH easier than malaria. So a tiny amount of sense might go a long way very soon in Africa.

All's not rosy. But all's not black either. One step at a time, my friend. The same could be said about Lebanon where I live. The horizon seems fenced in most directions, but we're still heading there looking for the openings. And if we find none, we'll make some!!!

"As long as there's life, there's hope." But I'd like to say, hope is essential to a real life. LIfe with no hope isn't living. Instead of giving up, let's stand up when we fall, and keep trying to improve things. Heck, it ain't a worse way of wasting one's time than living a life of gloom!

"Think positively, dude." Smile and the world will smile back. Life's short. Instead of complaining, I prefer to try my best to improve it and change the world.

Say, are you done with these peanuts?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Geez, now they say that juice is no better! They're killing me.

Maybe water with a little juice in it.

Anonymous said...

Easy on the sodas, buddy. They're bad for the bones, kidneys and stomach.

Hey Dude,
I've been drinking mountain dew every day for nearly 40 years now and feel great and work in a factory!
They say eggs were bad, than good, than bad again, I don't buy into that rubbish, sorry Doc, it don't jell baby.
PS......I smoke two packs of cigars a week and enjoy it. I'm nearly 70.
Gimme a soda any day of the week and a fat cheeseburger with onion rings on the side!

Anonymous said...

Say, are you done with these peanuts?

Peanuts are bad for your stomach and indigestion. I've heard that they are considering banning from the ballpark all because of the dangerous side affects.
Besides, they don't sell well anymore cept for the carnivals (elephants and chimps)
Food for thought (not for eating ;)

Anonymous said...

A chicken farmer in the U.S. had eaten 18 eggs a day for the last 30-40 years. Nutrition researchers thought he would make a great real life test case. Problem: his blood cholesterol levels turned out to be perfectly normal.

When asked about this, the guy answered he had no idea eggs were supposed to be in anyway unhealthy to you. He had not heard of the concept "cholesterol" before.

His cholesterol levels were normal because no one had told him they shouldn't be.

Anonymous said...

Please excuse me for a little while. These comments require a thorough explanation from my part that'll take some time to type. I'll get back to you ASAP.

Anonymous said...

OMG, there's a dissertation coming. :-/

Anonymous said...

Allright, guys, let's be serious for a sec, okay?
First of all, single cases are everywhere. Statistics showing that some habits are VERY detrimental to life expectancy are the only reliable fact. "It didn't harm ME" is never a scientific proof, no more than "bullets didn't kill ME" after a battle. People have varying susceptibility. Risk factors are just that : they increase, greatly but usually far less than from 0 to 100%, the likelihood of some health problems. Asbestos causes mesothelioma, which is a very nasty (and otherwise extremely rare) cancer. It causes it 20 to 40 years after the exposure, but the direct link is established.
You may very well find me dozens of smokers who DON'T get lung cancer. But lung cancer loves smokers (and those who are subjected to others' smoke).

My own grandfather was killed by smoking. Very painfully. At the age of 70-something, but the cause was undoubtable. He had a lung embolism (twice in a week's time), which becomes way more frequent in smokers because of two factors:
-Smoking increases the coagulability of blood. The clotting proteins become more active, causing easier, more frequent clots.
-The chronic hypoxemia caused by CO2 and CO (carbon monoxide) in smokers stimulates the growth factor EPO, made famous by pro sports scandals. EPO increases red blood cells when your body lacks oxygen: in anaemia, after a bleeding, or if you live at high altitudes. Artificially-induced excess red blood cells increase the blood viscosity of smokers and dishonest athletes. They risk all the known types of clotting accidents: heart attack, brain stroke, thrombophlebitis of the legs, lung emboly... My granfather's genes could have made him to live 100 years. If he hadn't been a heavy smoker since he was seven...
He was also a drinker. Smoking increases the risk of the abovementioned problems about 4 times, in average (depending on how much you smoke). Alcohol abuse increases it the same. But BOTH, brought together, increase the risks tenfold! So, Chewy F, you're certainly free to play Russian Roulette with your life. Just ask yourself this: how lucky do you feel? And give the answer to inspector Harry Callahan...
I've spent months in Cardiology services. Heart disease (coronary atherosclerosis) patients, I've seen maybe hundreds of them. People in this case, who are neither smokers, nor known for having a genetic hypercholesterolemia, I've seen maybe two in my whole life. And I forgot to ask them about second-hand smoking, or to run a genetic lipidemia diagnosis. So... almost ALL heart disease patients (I.E. atherosclerosis) are smokers. I'm one of the professionals who have seen the bigger picture with their own eyes, on the field. You draw your conclusions.
Tobacco smoke contains at least 200 known toxic substances, 40 of which are proven to cause cancer. You can expect the cancer risk of a smoker to be about 65 times higher than a tobacco-free individual, who's never even subjected to second-hand smoking. I have yet to meet a single lung cancer in a certified non-smoker. Once in a blue moon, maybe...

Onto eggs now, because this part is short. Egg yolk is one of the richest known foods in cholesterol. However, normally, our body NEEDS cholesterol. For instance, it is vital to brain development in infants. {Or chicks, hence its abundance in eggs!) About one-third of our daily needs come from food. The rest is... synthetised by the body itself! It is made from glucose. Sugar, if you like. So, essentially, eggs are bad for people with body cholesterol abnormalities, and only for them.
What causes those abnormalities?
-Genes. Some populations (like the Lebanese) have a markedly high incidence of inherited cholesterol imbalances. If you're carrying hazardous genes, eggs could kill you, or shorten your life. If you've received good genes, you'll be much more resilient, and may even not notice a thing. But don't expect to be invulnerable to tobacco-induced cancer or atherosclerosis, there are only stronger and weaker individuals. Nobody's luck is everlasting, my friends.
-Overweight. Being fat disturbs the body's cholesterol cycle, even though obesity comes FAR MORE from excess intake of sugar and fatty acids. It's a whole system, related to periods of starvation during evolution. My grandma's genes saved her during the WW1 famin in Lebanon in 1917, and decades later these same genes gave her type2 diabetes when she became overweight, eventually killing her...
So, a healthy farmer, with regular physical activity, normal weight, and no grave genetic disorder, would be perfectly normal if he eats lots of eggs without feeling any negative effects. Eggs are dangerous when you need a cholesterol-free diet to try and save your heart's arteries. Now, eggs plus sugar, as in cakes? Better not overdo it there, the recipe may be tasty but it's nasty for your body.

Basically, ordinary foods that humans have consumed for centuries, milleniae, are not bad per se. We are genetically adapted to them. Eggs? Okay. Fruits? Okay. Vegetables, bread, cereals, meat, milk, peanuts? Okay.
But in populations which historically haven't consumed milk, like native americans, the frequency of genetic lactose intolerance is high. Because they didn't used to consume milk, and often lach the lactase gene.

What's the problem with eating then? Essentially, excesses, imbalances. That article about fruit juices, Eolake? It doesn't say that juice is bad. If you read it carefully, it says only this: high calories resulting from adding sugar to over-sweeten fruit juices cause obesity, which is bad. It's only the sugar. And because it is in excess. "Juices are worse than sodas" for the overweight, because they're heavy on sugar, that's all. Normal fruit in normal people is harmless. Peanuts too. Except that usually, the peanuts you buy are salted. Heavily. And cooked. Raw nuts, almonds, etc. are beneficial, and their lipids are high in unsaturated fatty acids, which reduce cholesterol blood levels. (With one exception, coconuts.) The way foods are prepared can be paramount.

Oh, and that bit about "The fiber is the good part of the fruit and the juice is the bad part of the fruit"? Baloney. It's not the fruit's fault. The vitamins are NOT in the fiber, d'uh! As for fructose being the sweetest sugar? It is the sweetest of natural sugars IN TASTE. Only your tongue feels any difference. Energetically, it is identical to glucose and galactose. The enzyme glucose-fructose isomerase can turn any into the other one with litterally no energy used or produced, and it is part of the Krebs Cycle, which powers all animal cells by burning glucose. Even in wolves and lions and dung-beetles.
Receiving fructose from, say, a fruit you press yourself, cannot harm you if you're not overweight (and therefore at risk of developing type2 diabetes, by definition). ADDED fructose in industrial juices, now, that's another matter entirely. Notice, he did say "EXCESS acetyl-Co-A". There's no excess with natural fruits if your diet isn't FOCUSED on them.

Having said that, of course, when you're simply thirsty, better drink good quality water. Good hydration is excellent for the body and health. [Exception to the rule again : if you have a heart or kidney disease, things *sometimes* become different. Ask your physician.]
This article doesn't contradict me. He mentions a kid who drank too much soda (just like I said), and another who was morbidly obese (therefore in an abnormal health state), drank A LOT of juice, which is nowhere mentioned as being ordinary juiced oranges either. Notice the expression "fructose-laden beverages". If it's industrial stuff, don't expect me to ever recommend it!!!
Fruit = okay. Industrial fruit juices = be careful. Vewy, vewy caweful.

(Snaps knuckles. Bad habit for the finger joints, but very cool-looking.) Now, for sodas. This is gonna get rough.

"Firstly", sodas are known to contain a lot of sugar, and being responsible in no small part in the Western obesity problem.
"I'll take a triple cheeseburger with large fries... and a Diet Soda that will compensate the excess calories!" Tell me YOU've never heard that one in real life before.
But that's only part of it. Sodas, by definition, contain carbonic acid and phosphoric acid. To create that fizz, the bubbles, and the taste you all know.
Ah, but... time to give you a little course in body chemistry. I'll try to make it simple and relatively short. And to summarize months of college classes in a few lines.

The body's metabolism produces acid. H+ ions. The Krebs cycle and the mitochondriae. This acid production needs to be eliminated, because a VERY stable internal body acidity is vital for survival. This branch is called the "Acid/Base Disorders" and is very complex.
The body uses chemical buffers to dampen the H+ production. For instance, when an anaerobic effort like a sprint race suddenly produces lactic acid. These buffers have to be restored by eliminating the H+. This is done by the kidneys, which is why urine is usually acidic. And by the lungs : H+ + HCO3- = CO2 + H2O. By eliminating more CO2, the lungs remove acidity. And the carbonic acid in sodas simply comes from dissolved CO2 under pressure.

Now, for the bone metabolism. The bone is a composite material, like armed concrete. The "steel" consists of collagen fibers, and the "cement" of Calcium Phosphate, Ca3(PO3)2. This combines Calcium ions, and Phosphate ions, both coming from our food. Like milk. Problem is, Phosphate also comes from phosphoric acid... found in large quantities in sodas! So, sodas bring you H+ and phosphate ions.
H+ increases internal acidity. In spite of the buffer systems, the slight chemical effect causes over time a marked demineralization of the bones, by turning Calcium Phosphate back into ions. Remember the experiment of a chicken bone left in vinegar: it turns all soft and bendy. And the regulating mechanisms are such made, that an excess phosphate IS eliminated by the kidneys... but the Calcium gets dumped with it.
Result : bone demineralization, AKA osteoporosis. Like with smoking, you don't see or feel much normally. Until the day where a relatively moderate shock breaks your brittle bones. Expect a hip replacement way before you're 80. Especially if you love both sodas and "extreme" sports, like on MTV.
Other results. Gastritis, possibly even ulcers. The stomach uses elaborate mechanisms to digest food with enzymes and chlorhydric acid without also digesting ITSELF. Also by various acid-protecting mechanisms, the details of which I'll spare you. Just know that sodas are very acidic. As much as vinegar, maybe more (with a pH of 3 to 5, which is intense), except that the masses of sugar compensate the taste and you don't FEEL like you're sipping vinegar. But the stomach feels it, and over time it gets weary of the extra effort. Result : acidic gastritis, and eventually ulcer. Which is when the sick stomach actually starts digesting its own tissue in a weak spot. Take my word for it, you DON'T want to get casual with catching an ulcer. A huge pain to treat. Can evolve into stomach cancer. But only in 45% of the cases.
I'll finish with the kidneys. These are awesome living machines. Suffice it to say those huge man-made dialysis machines, which strain to do a half-decent job at replacing them, weigh more that the patient they treat. Very elaborate organs... and very delicate, too. Most drugs and toxins are eliminated there. Heavy metals, like lead and mercury, damage them when leaving. And there are thousands of other natural or artificial substances that go by. Force upon the kidneys an important extra load of phosphate, and calcuim, and H+, and over the years they might resign, exhausted. Depends on your individual luck, of course. But basically, sodas are a totally artificial creation, which brings no advantages to the human body, and can bring a lot of harm. Just like cigarettes!!!

Now, nobody's forcing you to listen to a doctor that's giving you free advice for your good.
I don't care about being always right, you know. I always focus on LEARNING what's right, and what's false. When I turn out mistaken, I admit it and change my beliefs.
The rest is up to you free responsible adults. You can shag with no protection and risk catching AIDS too, I have no orders to give you. Just ask yourselves whether you trust me, or think I'm an attention-craving loud-mouth.

Now, on another subject, I'd like to get back briefly on this "Life is good" matter.
Apparently, some may feel that Eolake sees the world as a happy, ideal place. That's not how I understand it. It seems to me that, instead of griping over everything you don't like, you can notice all the fine things that also are in your life. A nuclear WW3 is definitely ruled out. Today, in the West, the poor are not horribly skinny: they are obese from eating BADLY, not insufficiently any more. So it's no more a matter of hunger. Medicine has beaten, or pushed back, LOTS of once fatal diseases, including leukemia, syphilis, tuberculosis, cholera... Not everybody can afford it everywhere, but the means finally exist. Civic rights, democracy, women's rights... have greatly progressed, and it's only up to us that the struggle goes on successfully. There are no more official racist regimes and constitutions, nowadays racism is ALWAYS a shame when exerted, and it is denied, hidden. Damn, thanks to the internet, I can get War and Peace from Project Guttenberg for free in less than five minutes, and most other ancient litterary classics. This is awesome, guys! Censorship of all the press has become practically impossible on most of the planet: anything that can be written, I can read it.
If the glass is half empty, it means the other half is full. And for most people in the "civilized world", it's still part empty, but it's far more than half full. Life IS good.
Plus, we care more and more about improving the life of those who don't have it as good. Selfish ignorance is over. If you're selfish today, it's knowingly.

Today, I have gotten rid of much of the ignorance I was taught as a kid. I know "injuns" aren't the bad guys, they're the victims of ignoble and massive crimes. Even the fierce tribes among them. I know people born in black Africa, yellow China or brown Australia are just as intelligent as me and capable of learning quantum physics or classic music or Medicine. I know women only need a fair chance do be as great as men. I know a child or baby feels and understands from the instant it is born, not at the same age as me. I know it's not just "okay" to cut a tree for the log cabin I want to build, because Nature is not just a God-given commodity I can plunder at will. I know there are no "bad" animals, even the lethally infectious mosquitoes are just mothers trying to give birth to their young ones. I know you can swat a fly in your kitchen, but it's wrong to pluck its wings because even if it can't scream it feels the pain. I have improved, and the world with me.

Life IS good. Let's make it better together, shall we?

Anonymous said...

May I repeat those important words that are glowing somewhere in your report:you free responsible adults

Anonymous said...

but it's wrong to pluck its wings because even if it can't scream it feels the pain.

flies. good, let them pestering things suffer. they are worthless. why they were ever created are beyond me. hideous multi-eyed little monsters.........well satan is referred to as the lord of the flies, that makes sense.
some people just don't know when to keep quiet. i don't believe all the mumbo jumbo either about second hand smoke either. it's just another myth like all people are good.
so go ahead dr pascal keep preaching because not everybody agrees with your textbook fairytales.
no argument or insults intended.
i just wanted my say.

Anonymous said...

Easy on the sodas, buddy. They're bad for the bones, kidneys and stomach.

Hmm, tell my granny that. She's been drinking coke for over 60 years now, she turned 98 last week and still walks around and can bend over and such with no problem.
No kidney problems either.
Oh yeah, she eats eggs every other morning, fried, scrambled, boiled.

Anonymous said...

His cholesterol levels were normal because no one had told him they shouldn't be.

Normally I disagree with most of your thoughts ttl but this one you got right.

Anonymous said...

Having said that, of course, when you're simply thirsty, better drink good quality water.

I'll grab a 7-up cola anyday over water. Yeah, I drink water sometimes but it's nasty tasting to me.
Don't believe everything the medical clones tell ya. And don't start on me Mr Lebanon man, this isn't directed at you. I don't want a 100 page response okay?

Anonymous said...

Monsieur Beep said...
May I repeat those important words that are glowing somewhere in your report:you free responsible adults

Even when I disagree with you, I still like you because you are not hostile or sarcastic with your answers. That tells me you're a mature adult who knows how to handle a disagreement. If more bloggers had your temperment that would be an asset to all.

Anonymous said...

I know there are no "bad" animals.

Yeah, tell that to the mother of a little girl that was brutally attacked and killed by a pitbull for walking on the sidewalk in broad daylight playing with her doll. She was five years old.
Care to "Unleash" anymore fabrications Pascal?

Anonymous said...

Censorship of all the press has become practically impossible on most of the planet: anything that can be written, I can read it.


Naive aren't we all? And anything you say can be scanned or reproduced to make you look suspicious of anything. Anything.
Are you looking forward to having a micro chip put under your skin so the government can keep track of your whereabouts? They already do it to animals, we will be next.
Welcome to 1984. It's all just a matter of time before the shit hits the fan.

Anonymous said...

Witness said...
I know there are no "bad" animals.


How can "bad" be defined? I've been wondering about this for quite a while.
Is a pitbull bad because it attacks a child? Isn't it rather its brain and instinct which tell the dog what to do?

A 9-year-old boy was killed by a sex murderer a few days ago here in Germany. The man was caught after a while. Is it sufficient to say that this man is bad? He will be punished, imprisoned maybe for all the rest of his life (life-long usually means a span of some 25 years or so in legal terms).
It is his misfiring brain which tells him what to do and what makes him dangerous to the public.
What's a punishment good for in this case? It won't change the man's general disposition. When he comes free he will try again to fin d another child and do what he has to do. It's happened over and over again.

So shouldn't we try to eliminate the misfiring spots in this sick brain in the first place?
Many murderers start with minor offences before they take to the real crimes.
So shouldn't we repair that brain after it has commited the minor offence, and a screening tells us a major crime will follow sooner or later? We have the technology and
in the end this solution would be much safer for our children.

I do not want to imagine what the thoughts of the boy were when he was confronted with that bastard.

Anonymous said...

Witness said...
I know there are no "bad" animals.


How can "bad" be defined? I've been wondering about this for quite a while.
Is a pitbull bad because it attacks a child? Isn't it rather its brain and instinct which tell the dog what to do?

A 9-year-old boy was killed by a sex murderer a few days ago here in Germany. The man was caught after a while. Is it sufficient to say that this man is bad? He will be punished, imprisoned maybe for all the rest of his life (life-long usually means a span of some 25 years or so in legal terms).
It is his misfiring brain which tells him what to do and what makes him dangerous to the public.
What's a punishment good for in this case? It won't change the man's general disposition. When he comes free he will try again to fin d another child and do what he has to do. It's happened over and over again.

So shouldn't we try to eliminate the misfiring spots in this sick brain in the first place?
Many murderers start with minor offences before they take to the real crimes.
So shouldn't we repair that brain after it has commited the minor offence, and a screening tells us a major crime will follow sooner or later? We have the technology and
in the end this solution would be much safer for our children.

I do not want to imagine what the thoughts of the boy were when he was confronted with that bastard.

Anonymous said...

ttl said...
OMG, there's a dissertation coming. :-/


Mister TTL, you'd better study it well. There'll be a test tomorrow, first thing in the morning.

Wow, all these reactions! Talk about kicking the nitro barrel, eh?
(Sorry for the noise, Eolake.)

Monsieur Beep said...
"May I repeat those important words that are glowing somewhere in your report:you free responsible adults"


You may definitely use that material as if it were your own. :-)

Anonymous said...
"flies. good, let them pestering things suffer."


Bad karma, dude. Destroy them if your health is at stake, but I'm sure free cruelty is not to God's liking. Even to a pest.
Flies are absolutely necessary in Nature. Without them, rotting carrions wouldn't decompose, they would fester with tons of highly harmful bacteriae. Fly maggots actually compete with bateriae to eat dead flesh.
To such an extent, in fact, that scientists are now studying the immune system of flies, hoping to make priceless discoveries to benefit humankind. No other living organism is as formidably adapted to resisting germs without getting sick. Sterile-bred maggots are even useful in Medicine, to clean some wounds. They only remove dead tissue, not touching the healthy parts. The only side effect is... it tickles! Leeches too are very useful after some surgeries. (You may go "yuck!", but it's true. And clean.)
All God's creatures have a purpose. Did you know that some viruses exclusively target bacteriae? By infecting our germs, they could become an awesome natural medication. Fighting disease with a counter-disease! How cool is that? Like giving itches to mosquitoes. :-)
As a plus, while chemical antibiotics may encounter evolutionary resistance, phages can adapt to a bacteria's adaptation by co-evolving... and at zero cost, life just does its stuff.
Expect to hear a lot more about that in the future. Once people just come to accept the idea of receiving a virus that heals. It's going great in Georgia (the former soviet State, not the american one).
Respect Life, folks. Don't just stomp what you don't understand. Hey, bees are also "multi-eyed little monsters". But we like THEM.

Anonymous said...
"i just wanted my say."


Hey, even if somebody expresses opinions I don't like, it is their sacred right, and I'll fight to defend it. Because that's the kind of world I want to live in. You talk like a polite, civilized person and are not insulting, so you may have your say with me anytime.
:-)
Diversity of ideas is a precious treasure.

Gilbert,
You say your granny is active. This is the key. Physical activity is vital for preventing osteoporisis in the elderly, no medication alone can replace it. Healthy living again. I'm sure that your granny is not obese, right? Therefore, she's probably not eating against all sense.
She definitely has good genes, too. Good for you, it's a valuable inheritage.

Sarah said...
"Don't believe everything the medical clones tell ya."


Do you really think I look like a medical clone?
And there I thought I was slightly out of the mould. Looks like I was only "cloning around"...
(Is that short enough for you, dear lady?) :-)

People who want a custom-made 100-page response will have to pay for it. Contact my editor for the details.

Witness said...
"Yeah, tell that to the mother of a little girl that was brutally attacked and killed by a pitbull"


This is a dangerous animal, and a tragic event. Still, pitbulls were deliberately bred by Man to be dangerous, powerful and aggressive. They are also often trained to attack, or become screwed up by being raised without regard for the subtleties of canine behaviour and psychology. A dog is not by nature a "bad" animal. But a pitbull can often be a lethally dangerous dog. (Not always.)
And wild animals tend much more to avoid trouble when possible. "Domesticated" animals lose part of their natural instincts by getting accustomed to us. A wolf is intimidated by the towering sight of a standing adult human.
The dog you mention is dangerous, and would quite understandably have to be killed. But the responsibility doesn't end there. People breed pitbulls, with inbreeding making some of them more unstable/moody, and raise them to become fierce. I call that manufacturing a living, partly uncontrollable weapon. An aggressive combat dog is not unlike a loaded weapon that can remove its own safety.

I'm more of a cat person. But some dogs are pricelessly useful too! They can guide the blind with lifelong fidelity, rescue people at sea or in avalanches, or even sniff out an undiagnosed cancer. Dogs are not "bad animals" by themselves. The only animal that commits gratuitous evil for the sake of it is Man. Homo homini lupus. Even that pitbull had its reasons. Bad reasons, sure. But it didn't come out of the blue. I got that from numerous dog experts. Animals often kill, especially carnivores. But never for no other reason than the pleasure of it. Unless their mind is messed up by deliberate man-made breeding. It's not their NATURE.

I stand by this : cruelty to any animal has no justification. No more than racism has. Bad individuals exist. Not bad populations. Never. The worst regimes in the world always have their own dissidents to repress!

Quarter in the Bottle said...
"Are you looking forward to having a micro chip put under your skin so the government can keep track of your whereabouts?"

The limitation of freedoms and the temptation of tyranny is ages-old. Only the methods change. Remember the Spanish Inquisition. Slavery. McCarthy. The Stasi...
It's not the times that are wrong. As I've said, the struggle for improving the world goes on, and the effort must continue. Technology is neither good or bad, only what we make of it.
Botox is, originally, a lethal poison. Same for invaluable heart medications like digitalin, atropin...
If we focus, the world WILL become better, not worse. But it won't come easy, that's all.
I'm not God, I don't have all the answers. Do YOU?

Monsieur Beep said...
"A 9-year-old boy was killed by a sex murderer a few days ago here in Germany. The man was caught after a while. Is it sufficient to say that this man is bad?"

Is it sufficient to say Man is bad?
Ant yet, I insist that animals are not like us regarding this good/evil thing. The human mind is something unique in all known Creation. I think there may be something to this "Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil" story. It simply wasn't an apple, that's all. But we are different. Animals do not follow our criteria.

The animals that are most similar to us, primates, are by far more "civilized". Gorillas are so gentle, that they may come extinct by our hand, without ever even thinking of fighting back. Ponder this...

I've already expressed my position regarding criminals. They must be prevented from doing any further harm by any necessary means, and helped to reform when possible. This takes into consideration the two extremes:
- Most juvenile delinquents (and perhaps future hardened criminals) would end up differently if given a decent chance in life, instead of exclusion and hopeless misery.
- Most sex offenders (or criminals) have a mental pathology. This is not meant as an excuse, but... some of those actually ASK for help. They may volunteer for surgical castration in hope that it'll suppress their abnormal urges. It is well known that they will usually relapse at any given chance. So, society and innocent children must be VERY CAREFULLY protected from them. And yet, it is no reason to have them eaten alive by rats. They are twisted human beings. So they are still human beings.
The worth of a society is measured by the way it deals with its undesired elements. We CAN be just and at the same time humane.

Having said that, if it happened to a child I love, I'd probably want to rip the bastard's throat out with my teeth. Or something. So I really, really hope there's somebody to hold me back at that moment, because I know I'd regret doing it after I came back to my senses.

Anonymous said...

For some reason I'm reminded of this song:

I get up early when the sleeping pill wakes me
I take a wake up pill and fill with energy
I power on hard and I check my messages
But I don’t have any messages
I take a driving pill and head to my car
I drive around a bit cuz work isn’t very far
I call my phone and I check my messages
But I don’t have any messages

All I know is driving on drugs feels better when they’re prescription
All I know is the world looks beautiful, the world looks so damn beautiful

And I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.
And I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.

Work is anything but quiet these days
I try to medicate my concentration haze
I can feel the day unfold in front of me
So I take the stairs and hit the gym
The phone is ringing when I get to my desk
What was a stinging’s now a sharp pain in my chest
So I take a Calminex and just chill
And then it’s time for lunch again

All I know is work is easy when you don’t stress out about deadlines
All I know is I take my medicine I always take my medicine

And I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.
And I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.

Sometimes I’d like to slow things down
Enjoy the moment
But when I look the moment’s gone

Work is over but I can’t stay to work late
Got to leave and get ready for my second date
With a pretty girl that I met at the pharmacy
Right in the prescription line
I take a pill for my social anxiety
I get a table and a nice bottle of chablis
Now it’s getting late and there’s still no sign of her
I have another glass of wine

All I know is the wine lasts longer when you don’t gotta share it with someone
All I know is my steak tastes better when I take my steak tastes better pill

And I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.
And I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.

Anonymous said...

Peaceful Blade,
What incredible lyrics. Who sings this? I want to get a copy of it.
PLEASE RESPOND :)

Anonymous said...

Having said that, if it happened to a child I love, I'd probably want to rip the bastard's throat out with my teeth. Or something. So I really, really hope there's somebody to hold me back at that moment, because I know I'd regret doing it after I came back to my senses.

Pascal, I would feel the same way. They would need to chain me to a tree or something. I know about being sexually abused as a child......I was. The memory still haunts me like an evil demon in shadows. All I have to do is see an Army Green jacket (military) and the breath of darkness comes.

Anonymous said...

Terry,

The song was sung and written by an artist named Jonathan Coulton. You can find all of his music and the lyrics at: http://jonathancoulton.com

And if you want to hear the song before you buy it there's a video of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIX1nFsxIwY

Other songs of his that I'd recommend are, "Skullcrusher Mountain", "Chiron Beta Prime" and "re:Your Brains." The first is a song dedicated to all those evil geniuses that just wanna be loved, the second is a Christmas greeting from a family enslaved by robots that're forced to mine on an asteroid, and the third is about diplomatic zombies in the work place.

Anonymous said...

Terry,

Ouch. I can imagine, a little bit. As I said, I've always know I got very lucky, relatively. I just tasted enough (and saw the rest around me) to have an idea what REAL suffering must be like.

You'll never forget, as in, the memory completely vanishing. But you can hope to overcome it, to render it near-powerless. To face it one day without trembling. With a trauma as big as yours, it's very hard. Still, it's possible.
One day, those who did this to you will be old, weak, and pitiful. And you'll know for sure it's over, it's been over for many years. Time is your ally and your friend.

Just think : "I have my whole life for that very worthwile effort. At my leisure, at my own rhythm."

Good luck. In everything.

You already have a forgiving heart. This is an impressive accomplishment. You're doing well as it is.

Anonymous said...

Peaceful Blade said...
Terry,

The song was sung and written by an artist named Jonathan Coulton. You can find all of his music and the lyrics at: http://jonathancoulton.com

Thank you Peaceful Blade :)

You already have a forgiving heart. This is an impressive accomplishment. You're doing well as it is.

I appreciate your words dear friend. They mean a lot to me Pascal. Thank you and yes I believe what you say. I'm glad you are on this blog and peaceful blade too because you fellows often give me insight. So does eolake. Bless you all.