That blue guy on Oprah again

In the 'some people never learn' department, I saw that blue guy that was on Oprah (who had turned himself blue by ingesting silver which is obviously not a good idea to ingest and you would think that he would know that now) while I was in the UK doing an interview on one of those shows.

And he still takes silver!

And he doesn't seem to be getting any other benefits from it, really, and I say 'other' if looking like a Smurf can be construed as a benefit.

It bolsters my theory that there really is not with some people anything that could actually happen to them to make them say 'gee, maybe I am wrong about that.'

Yes, it CAN hurt

I have found that my war against naturopathy is not only fought completely alone, but it makes people very angry, an I am not really sure why. Because pretty much the thing that people say about my articles is that I make really good points that they haven't heard before anywhere else and they really don't know exactly how to counter many of them but that somehow they just in their gut don't agree. This is why I really think people should try to stop thinking with their guts.

Because I have seen the harm that it can do. I had a cousin die

http://www.helium.com/items/1027218-people-argument-pursue-natural

(I can't do links to day so sorry about cutting and pasting if you want to read the rest of this but I am sure that you know how.)

Why some people don't like to discuss how much money they make

This is really a filler blog because I keep thinking of something new to put on this one and haven't been able to think of much lately. I have been either just doing silly family stuff or Helium lately (it pays much much better) and am neglecting all of my important pointificating.

But I have often wondered in the past why I never seem to get the etiquette right when it comes to the appropriateness of mentioning to the actual number how much money Slade makes. I didn't really see anything wrong with it really, certainly when he only made 3.35 no one else thought it was a problem either. People love to talk about how much they pay for things and save with coupons and such, and in general people like to talk about their talents and accomplishments at certain things. If someone is young or pretty or thin often they like to talk about it. Or if they have run a certain number of miles or made a certain number of quilts. And in this case I wouldn't be even talking about my own accomplishments at all because I am pretty much a freeloader at the moment.

Some people argue that they don't want to know how much people make because it would make them have bad feelings toward that person if the other person made more. I can't say as I sympathize with that, nor does my husband. Slade and I would absolutely never have bad feelings toward anyone else no matter how much more than us they made. But when I slipped one time and miscalculated after Slade started working and mentioned his income and I got a big verbal spanking from a certain relative, it has made me think about why ever since. Especially when I heard that relative saying how proud they were of another person for the good money they made, it made me wonder when it is ok to talk about salary without any such censure.

Then it hit me. People like to not know the specific dollar amount that someone makes nor do they like to reveal how much they themselves make because some people like to speculate about others' incomes, and of course it is much more fun and flexible to do so without conclusive proof to end their fun. And many others and often the same people like to mischaractarise their own incomes. The I'm so poor and can't afford anything game. Particularly things that they don't want to afford.

This is why I haven't liked the whole income taboo, and certainly not because we make a lot of money at all. It is because I hate these kind of games. I really don't want to characterize or mischaracterize my own financial situation at all beyond what it actually is, nor am I interested at all in what anyone else makes particularly if I weren't actually right about what I thought. If I had any actual opinions on someone else's income which I really am not interested in anyway, I wouldn't want it to be based on idle speculation.

I say, if people really feel that it is taboo to discuss incomes, they should extend that to even vague discussion of them including people saying they are poor and can't afford things like everyone else supposedly can. I also hate it when people say oh they or you can obviously afford x when they don't know what they are talking about and interestingly they don't seem to want to know. I feel that if someone doesn't want me to know an actual number, they shouldn't expect me to believe them when they tell me how poor they are. And if someone wants to speculate that someone else is so rich then they should be willing to look at the sad truth of their tax statement, and certainly not be offended that someone is breeching social ettiquette if they simply want to have people talking about how much money they have and not being right. If people think that incomes are so taboo that I would actually vote for them not talking about them at all, but ironically it is the same people that love to speculate and hate to know. It has to be for these reasons, otherwise it doesn't make sense. In fact I am quite sure that this is why the person that I offended was offended, because it ended her ability to speculate that we might be in fat city and that was no fun.

It is all in the numbers folks. I should say it is all in the careful avoidance in order to characterize the numbers. I say total openness or don't use lack of knowledge to help you say something critical of another person. Just my two cents, or however much, I am not saying.

Of course if I am not yet right about this I would like to hear other theories, but I really think this is it. Nothing else makes as much sense or is as consistent with people's behavior.

Magnets for medicine? Pull-ease!

This is something I wrote for Helium that basically outlines my arguments against naturopathy in a more concise format. Enjoy, or not, depending on what side you come down on.

http://www.helium.com/items/917345-magnets-obviously-lived-human

For those interested in third world poverty in Africa

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/151

Here is a fascinating speech at TED, one of the few that is not part of the liberal freakshow on parade that it usually is.

He offers a lot of support to what I have said arguing that it is liberal hubris to assume that saving the third world and leftist politics need to go hand in hand.

He makes a point that I actually forgot. Most third world countries actually have more natural resources at their disposal than the US. South America and Africa definitely do. Our wealth has been generated symbolically through free trade and capitalism, and theirs has been stifled and kept from the people by communism and other forms of dictatorship.

Audios Castro, Fortunamente

What could possibly appeal to anyone I know about a communist dictator that all in his own country but his inner circle fear dread and flee with only the shirt on their back I will never know. They flee to this country, and vote republican. Buenvinidos!

And if it seems I am going overboard in my revulsion to such affinity, which I probably have, sorry, but what can I say it was a bit shocking to me to hear someone like this praised by any source, it is in my opinion proportionate to the threat. See the thing is the United States is really the only capitalist country. It is the rising tide that lifts all the boats in the world. United States wealth (generated in very little time since we ourselves were a third world country thanks to the GOD GIVEN MIRACLE of capitalism) is treated hypocritically by this country's detractors as the answer to third world salvation, and I guess that says a lot about whether they want to save the world if they would look this gift horse in the mouth.

And I am very familiar with the kind of response I would get if I said this around any of the people who think this in person. They would get hostile and snippy. But I am not like that. I don't think that supporters of Castro are evil. I don't feel the need to spank them verbally like I was their mom. THEY ARE WRONG. I don't accuse those who dissagree with me of being evil selfish or having no soul. THEY ARE WRONG. And people forget that they don't get to just declare themselves right because they think they are superior.

None of this is personal, so I always get surprised when anyone thinks it is. If you love your ideas so much, argue for them and don't make it about who is evil. It is not about who wants to save the world and who doesn't. We all want to save the world. It is a disagreement about methods. I choose not to think (because I am not racist and have no superiority complex) that I am entitled to enjoy the fruits of capitalism while others suffer because of my militant ideology. If people want what the United States has, they should fight to make their countries more like the United States. To quote a recent blog post I saw, Duh! I would heartilly support that effort in whatever way possible. I would send my sons to die for it.

The ironic thing is that absolutely all of the people that I know who say such things in my personal experience have absolutely no idea what it is like to be poor. They like to spend time around poor people because it makes them feel better about themselves for some reason, but those poor people don't have that opportunity to switch countries for a self-indulgent change of scenery. Slade has paid his own way in life since he was twelve. He didn't get sent all over the world and financed till he was near thirty. When you actually have to struggle and make your way in life you come to understand a bit more about how things work. And you won't have to excorcise your guilt by hostility to others and how they choose to live.

So anyone who interprets what I have said as being hostile to them personally hasn't understood me. I don't feel that people who I disagree with are evil or have 'no soul.' Just because someone may feel that about me and my beliefs doesn't make it mutual. And I also think they discount the immense condecension of their own opinions. Things like hating BYU because its graduates are obsessed with how their education might actually translate into a vocation as if this is a selfishess problem is hostility. Those supposedly selfish BYU students are ironically living their own lives and not returning the insult. That is exactly what I am trying to do. I am not trying to make this about who is evil, and I am not trying to be hostile. But I am sorry communist sympathy is misplaced, and I will argue that to my dying breath whatever the personal cost to me.

All pampered rich Castro fans like all the citizens of this country have the right to live on communes, kibbutzes or flee the evils of this country to any other they choose. I have a feeling that any who support communism or any of its relatives are really not about their own rights. They are about taking away mine. And I am from a pretty proud history of not letting that happen too easy.

Perdon, compadre.

So because this is not personal and I love all my relatives dearly whether or not they agree with me, all I have been doing was running with a ball I was thrown, since very implicit in communist/leftist rhetoric is implied criticism of those who don't agree. It is the hubris that one person knows better than another what is good for them and can enact it by force that is behind all of it.

I did not have Castro on the mind today. I have tried to put him way out of mind, way back to the dated 1960's regime he belongs in. So please delete my posts on the other Castro blog, I would do it myself if you had a Google blog, and I am done now. =) I did cold turkey off some meds recently, for some bizarre reason that I am actually rethinking. Just back to the usual grind of horrible pain and its associated irritability and difficulty coping with life. And the fact that it always makes me feel extremely raw to go back to life au naturalle may feature prominently in why I got so excited. But most likely these are things I believe, just usually don't say, which I admit isn't always a bad thing.

That blue guy on Oprah

Seriously I don't usually end up seeing Oprah but for some reason I watched it for a few minutes the other day and happened to see that blue guy that took a lot of silver and because it is actually not a good thing to take silver or actual members of the medical communuity might recommend it, he turned blue. QED.