Marie PhD
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Feminism

6/16/2015

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Recently I realized that there are all kinds of feminism, but to me there is really only one feminism.

My thesis is basically I don't know what a "real woman" or "real man" is. We are all just people. We all need each other.

What suits you, may not suit me, and vice versa, we must tolerate each others difference and this is a fundamental tenet of my feminism.

We are all of equal value and I don't mean that in a monetary sense, I mean it as no one is intrinsically more important than anyone else.

That doesn't mean that some people aren't better at some things than others, it just means that we are all different and this is why our society works so well because we all do different things. Not all people want to be exceptional, not all people want to be leaders, some genuinely want to be followers.

It doesn't mean that everyone must be paid the same amount for their work but some work is more valued than others and some work is considered worthless, like being a mother - a job most mothers perform for free, despite turning each of her children into members of our society.

Currently we live in a world where some people have more power than others and until we learn how to fix this power ratio, there will always be problems with unaccountability. This is where we really fix our society.

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God

6/16/2015

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You can't prove God exists anymore than you can prove God doesn't exist.

My proof is simple.

First of all we have to agree on a definition of what God is, which is probably going to vary from person to person. Secondly, we don't know everything that exists in the universe as we know so little about ourselves and the universe therefore we cannot definitively say that this is God and this is not. Since we don't know what God is or isn't, both the argument for God's existence or non-existence will fail.

Therefore the best an atheist can really be is agnostic.

To me, Richard Dawkins is just another fundamentalist, the same as any other religion, except his belief is an absolute certainty that God doesn't exist, but he hasn't satisfactorily proven to me God doesn't exist.

There are people who believe in God but they cannot prove it exists.

Some people who believe in God may feel they have had direct experience of God but their personal proof could also be put down to good/bad luck or coincidence, until they can reliably repeat their experience and demonstrate how others can repeat it and assuming others can't think of other ways to explain the experiences, then they cannot prove their God exists. For instance, some will try to prove their God exists by getting what they want, which others may explain with pop psychology systems that will tell you how to get what you want, like NLP, the law of attraction, Tony Robbins etc..

If someone feels the need for the existence of such an thing, and if God works for them, fine, I have no problem with that just as I have no problem with people having no need for God. Just so long as people don't try to force what they believe down my throat, believe what you want to believe.

Tolerance for what others believe and enough respect for the rights of others to believe something other than what you do is fundamental to a good society.

However if you do believe in God you must remember that prayer is one thing. The other is that if you believe in a creator god, then God gave human beings the power to act. People have the power to affect the whole planet with what we do, so we must take responsibility for our actions. We must take responsibility for the quality of life of all beings on this planet. If we want wilderness we must plan to preserve it. If we want a safe society we must make sure that the poorest have plenty of money and homes. If we want a justice system, it must be blind to bank accounts and skin color.
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Asking For IT

6/6/2015

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I'm sitting here viewing the umpteenth million copy of the vanity Fair cover featuring Caitlyn Jenner and wondering if conservative "Christians" would think "she is asking for it".

Of course I don't think anyone is asking for it but recently a number of men have claimed young children were "asking for it".

I know a lot of libertarian males say rape is bad but admonish women to be careful.  I wonder if Caitlyn has to be careful too? You see women generally are careful but the implication is a) that we are stupid and need this sage advice, and b) this implies that women who are raped are to blame for their rapes because they weren't careful enough, so basically yes, it is implying it's the woman's fault. But it's not women's fault, it's the rapists' fault - and I refuse to be sexist and say men just can't control themselves, men can control themselves.

I welcome all transgender people because it might get people to think more about gender. I think we know so little about ourselves, and hopefully it will impact what they are really saying when they make accusations of "asking for it". We never say men are "asking for it" and we know men have to survive rape too.

But in a country that is as "Christian" as many US GOP representatives would say it is, why are there so many men being caught out behaving appallingly? Between Hastert and the Duggars, and that the Duggars are now saying it should never have been brought to the media attention because the incident was so minor... (I can only wonder how the daughter feels...) so, basically, this is just the tip of the iceberg, because the Duggars feel it is so commonplace. In other words, these aren't aberrations, they are the norm. Surely something is very rotten with conservative "Christians".

It's well known that red states view the most pornography, I can only assume that this is because conservative women are taught that they shouldn't enjoy sex or otherwise they'll be sluts. With the purity movement in southern red states and the endlessly increasing list of sexual impropriety by conservative "christians" and the GOP, the party of conservative "Christians", isn't it time to run like hell from the loud and proud self-righteousness of being conservative "christian"?

For the record I have no problem with people who are genuinely Christian but you can tell who they are by their actions rather than what they say.
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The Free Market

6/4/2015

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The free market will fix everything says every libertarian ever and corporations are overly burdened with regulations preventing them from making money. this is called regulatory capture supposedly. It works thus: BIG corporations chat to their friends in government saying "we need to regulate competitors, you government types should create legislation that will make it more difficult for new players to compete against us. Such as the need to buy expensive new equipment, employ some kind of specialialist, meet some impossible requirements, ..." depending the field.

Recently a senator from NC was asked for an example and cited employees being forced to wash their hands after using the bathroom as being burdensome on business. 

While it is extremely unlikely that employees not washing their hands will kill us, except perhaps if our food comes into contact with e-coli if we don't get antibiotics in time, the usual answer is that the 'free market' will solve the problem. How is the free market going to solve this problem unless we notice the employees are not washing their hands and spread by word of mouth that this restaurant doesn't oblige employees to was their hands.

The senator does say the restaurant would be obliged to put up a sign saying that employees aren't required to wash their hands - but then again this is another burdensome regulation and may cause customers to go else where, when they might not have if they were kept ignorant, and hence would cut into profits.

We tried letting corporations not have regulations and they behaved extremely badly which brought the regulations down upon them. Corporations can't be trusted because corporations try to get away with what they will try to get away with. 

And ultimately the free market will work because corporations will get their way and have all regulations removed and they will sell us rat poison in our cookies, the free market will finally fix that because all their customers will be dead, then the business will go out of business, so the free market will work! (Um Yeh)

The biggest problem with assuming the 'free market' will fix problems is that it takes time for people (or other corporations), which is what the market consists of, to react. It takes time for information to disseminate. People are creatures of habit, as are corporations, because corporations are operated by people. People are busy doing other stuff and can't continually monitor for new businesses and better competitors - people call it loyalty, the reality is it takes time to find better competitors.

The main emphasis on free markets is to promote free trade deals, it is spin from libertarian think tanks to promote things like the TPP. But mostly the free market works because people perform mind experiments that prove the free market works when no one has ever seen a free market and if there ever was one, this is the end result of the experiment.

I know people who operate small businesses and don't experience any regulatory capture. Perhaps those who do need to be more adventurous and engage in creative destruction. Perhaps people who think washing hands is too burdensome for their business should get into another business anyway.
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    I am interested in progressive politics, women's rights, science & art. I believe the only way we'll survive is if we help each other.

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