bad ideas

Some ideas should not be introduced.  Once thought, they cannot be un-thought. If encountered they must be strictly rejected by adhering to true principles.  Thoughts are altered by exposure to ideas, good or bad. Bad ideas lead to bad things and the innocent must be protected against them.  Perhaps one may think this is a form of censorship. Yes, I think bad ideas should be censored. There must be a word that represents the protection of innocence without the negative connotation of censorship. The only way to combat the bad thought is by correct principles that let you recognize the idea as negative and destructive. Then a logical choice to avoid the bad is easy to make. So good principles must be taught. The difficulty of introducing evil before a principle is understood is that it can often cause confusion.

Example: I have heard and read that copycat suicides are a real thing. Once the mind is opened to the possibility of death by suicide then it becomes an option. When a young person kills them self then others see it and consider the option of suicide. If they do not know it is wrong then it may be an alternative they choose to deal with problems.  Copycat suicides are a real thing. A bad idea leads to more bad results.  Because of the danger, action must be taken. There is urgent and immediate response: education, counseling, hot lines. Quiet conversations that explain principles are effective. The worst thing you can do is advertise it. Loud media coverage only spreads the contagion to more people.

Agreed? I would be glad to hear arguments against this.

Because if one's thoughts can be altered about killing oneself by just hearing about it then I think it only a small leap to consider that it change one's opinion about same sex attraction.

Kate's Faceplant

One time we went out and Katherine did a faceplant. First question- which one? Yes, she was an adventurous lass and often got hurt. She frequently got herself in sticky situations. On a nice evening Linette and I went out for ice cream with Dan and Casey in Phoenix. We were standing outside on the sidewalk enjoying talking and treats. It must not have been summer. I don’t recall if Linette was holding Asher or if he was old enough to try to follow Katherine around. That was his favorite thing to do but it took a long time before he was good at it. Most likely he was sitting and eating his ice cream, preparing the bulk he would need to stretch to 6’-3” later on. Katherine was climbing up and down a wood slat bench and jumping off. She had crashed so often in her life that Linette and I had become immune to such behavior. She was wearing sandals, I think. Linette loved salt water sandals. On one of her jumps the front of her shoe caught in the wood slat as she leapt forward. Her foot stuck fast and her momentum catapulted her face first down onto the concrete. Four adults gasped. This was going to be a bad one. Were we going to finish our ice cream on the way to the urgent care center? How many teeth would she lose? Sprained ankle? Well, a bloody nose for sure. We were all too far away to catch her, with just enough time to lean forward. Then someone kicked the diaper bag. Just right. Katherine faceplanted into mom’s magic bag filled in diapers and bounced right up to climb the bench again.

We all looked at each other and let out our breath. Yikes, that was close. No broken bones were likely but the fall would have ended a delightful evening. I turned to congratulate someone on the soccer skills. It was a perfectly timed, perfectly aimed kick. Right under her nose, just in time, without overshooting. I didn’t see who did it. Everyone denied touching the bag. Odd. I wasn’t even sure where it had come from. I swear we had left it next to the bench. We questioned each other and laughed. None of us new what had just happened and Asher wasn’t telling. 

I think Dan was the first to suggest something incredible had happened. We didn’t know what exactly but it was unusual, perhaps miraculous. I think it was angelic protection after having had time to think about it. It was nice to think that we could receive such simple assistance and didn’t need to deal with tears that night. We were grateful that the accident was avoided. It was a small miracle but loving proof that even the insignificant events, like ice cream night, don’t go unnoticed. 

The video is not the most honest three minutes on TV

Rebuttal to the “Most Honest Three Minutes in Television”

Great acting sure, but terrible ideology. This 3 minute youtube video is edited, less convincing in it’s original form with him hallucinating about the lady in the audience writing him cue cards. 

First, I am sick of the profanity.  His language is unacceptable. 

The video is about a forum, apparently on a college campus, where a conservative, a liberal and a TV show guy are being asking questions, moderated by a fourth person. The left are right are shown to be endlessly bickering. A girl asks why America is great. The first answer from the is the best. America is the greatest nation because of freedom. Short and simple. If our standing is diminished, it is because of loss of freedoms. The man in the video (Will?) claims that all countries have freedom. Not true, and which would you move to?  None.  He lists some great countries and I am glad that they are allies. They have some freedom but they are less free than the United States. I would love to visit Australia, but they have a gun control problem, in that the government restricts gun ownership. Perhaps because everyone knows that Australia is entirely peopled with thieves. 

Will lists some stats about education, none of which are meaningful. Are these numbers from mandatory, high stakes testing that we all revere so much? What matters with his statements is results. US produces the best equipment, cars, technology etc. The US is not 178th in infant mortality. It’s a lie but the numbers on infant mortality are misleading. US has the best medicine and the highest regard for human life.  We try to save even the most hopeless of cases and have incredible success. We are constantly improving and teaching the rest of the world how it is done. There are some bad numbers for infant deaths in the US but in most countries these don’t even count as viable pregnancies.  Stats and lies. I am not sure what being fourth in labor force even means.  

Where do we lead the world? He lists three. First, incarceration rate. Maybe we need to get some religion back in schools and teach people some good behavior. Impossible to say what he meant by this. Does he think we have an increase in bad ethics or unlawful imprisonment? Not sure. Is it about drugs? If so, I have little sympathy; the marijuana obsession needs to stop. Second, Americans believe in angels. Good, I am Christian so I believe in angels and I think it is a good thing if people do. Third, defense spending. I think we spend too much on weapons but much of our budget is spent defending the next twenty five countries combined. We don’t use the funds to attack them. And again the numbers he gives are not correct. The two countries behind us are not our allies.  That would be Russia and China and they are currently being aggressive militarily.  

We don’t wage war on the poor. He says we used to wage war on poverty instead. Yeah, that was tried.  A huge socialist failure. It was never designed to help the poor, and they still are poor. That is the goal of socialism. Will lists a lot of good things that America has done. Art, building, technology, space exploration. He says, “We were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed.” I don’t get it. Informed is pretty vague. Informed about what? What are we not informed about now? He says in the next sentence “by great men” but he doesn’t say who they were and why they were revered. I think Washington is great but some think that Marx or Cronkite was. It’s meaningless without some context. My guess is that if you find his statement profound it is because you are thinking of someone you think is great and you would love to have learned from them. But I am certain it is not the same revered person as the liberal was thinking of when he wrote the script. 

I think America is still the greatest country in the world. We have problems, and I agree with him that the first step in solving a problem is recognizing it. One of the biggest problems, in my opinion, is that people don’t value liberty.