Slipping Away

If you think it’s been too long

Well then it has been

If you think that I’m the same person you left behind

Well I’m not since

Since I waited- for you

Didn’t want to lose out

And I have no more gnosis

Now no more doubt

You’re slipping- slipping away

And I’m burning down the bridge

Ashes to the grave

And I don’t believe in ghosts or fate

Maybe for us it’s just too late

Goodbye

Letting you go

If you think I wasn’t worth your time

Well you were wrong

It was the other way around

Can’t be redrawn

And I’d hold out- for you

Just sit and wish

But I tried that for too long

Caused too much anguish

You’re slipping- slipping away

And I’m burning down the bridge

Ashes to the grave

And I don’t believe in ghosts or fate

Maybe for us it’s just too late

Goodbye

Letting you go

And if I lost my sanity

Then it’d be time for profanity

Oftentimes I use too many words

There’s only one that needs to be heard:

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

Letting you go

Chapter Seventy-Six: On the Nature of Evil
            I mentioned earlier, I’ve been reading Mein Kampf. I was initially a little afraid about starting to read it, in fear I’d be sucked into a vortex of his ideology- trapped like so many people before. Then I decided that I shouldn’t be afraid of enlightenment and that there should be some insight on the nature of evil.
            I’m only in the first thirty pages or so of the book, but it astonishes me how charismatic, how humanistic Hitler comes across in these pages. Not surprisingly, Mein Kampf apparently had been running neck and neck on the German bestseller’s lists with the Bible.
            Hitler seems, ordinarily enough, like a regular person. He talks about his father wanting him to be a civil servant, and he wanting to be a painter. He talks with passion about the love of his father and his want of devoting himself to his dream tearing him apart. Most of his ideas have me nodding in agreeing to them- that history should not be a taught accumulation of dates and facts, but rather an understanding, the vicious cycle of poverty and the ignorance of the wealthy who ignore it. He sees his people needing an inner pride of their country for the ‘possibility of educating the individual’, he sees the difference between the wisdom of the ages and the genius of the youth, he talks about the horror of the conditions of the ‘morally poisoned’ world he sees and a vision of it being so much better.
            Hitler does not seem to be the callous, evil dictator that he is often pegged as- he has much love: of his family, his homeland, of his ideals. He talks sadly about men being morally poisoned, of sin, and often he cries out for Providence, God and following God-unlike the ‘atheistic’ picture that is often painted of him and assumed that his morals come of that (which is untrue and contrary to the fact).  
            It seems like the most dangerous and horrific happenings stem from wanting to make the world a better place, and that the worst evil stems from love.

Chapter Seventy-Five: Awkward Moments, Junk Food Tax and Quebec as a Nation
Awkward Moments
1) Quoting Shakespeare’s “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty” only to have your friend’s mother walk in on the line ‘unsex me here’ and look at you weirdly.
2) When being asked how you will spend an extra hour or so, casually mentioning you have time to read Mein Kampf and then realize you’re talking to a Jewish person.

Junk Food Tax
            Frankly, I don’t see how putting sales tax on junk food is actually going to discourage anyone from purchasing it. The second is, how is one to define what is junk food and what is not? Evidently companies will protest against their foods being labeled junk foods, and how about all the foreign imports? It seems like a ploy by the provincial government of a way of collecting some extra cash while looking socially and health conscious in an appeal to the voters. Wouldn’t it be better to reward the buying of healthy/organic products rather than hit taxes on junk food, which makes neither the junk food companies nor the general public (even the healthiest people consume some sort of junk food at some point in time).I think it’s a scam.

Quebec as a Nation
            Now that Quebec (or the Quebecois) have been considered ‘a nation’, the general public seems to hold the opinion that First Nations should receive such a title as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if this turned into an avalanche of various groups wanting to be called nations within a nation. Now, it was smart for Harper (I give him that) to make that move, just to calm all the bobbing little separatists down, but now the floodgates are open and there’s no turning back. I wonder if I have any merit to be considered a nation. One newspaper writer wrote that perhaps Chinese Canadians should receive nation status since they made such a contribution to the building of the CPR. I’m pretty sure my great or great-great grandpa has something to do this. I want to claim nation status! Wonder if there’s any perks..

 Chapter Seventy-Four: Textbooks Should Be Textbooks
            Textbooks should be just that, textbooks. They should present instructional information, present the facts, be as humanly free of bias and unnecessary opinion as possible. Of course this is not completely possible, but there is some sort of limit.

            Initially, I was thrilled with my AP Psych text. It was gorgeous, new (2007! Edition), shiny white pages, big pictures, pretty diagrams, understandable reading. Then I noted the subliminal-ish Adam and Eve picture stuck in there (which our teacher also noted), and previously the Lord’s Prayer used, not to mention the little unneeded fact about some survey about God. But hey, they weren’t completely out of context and the guy is entitled to slip a few things in there.

            Then, I couldn’t help noticing the mentions about faith in adoption studies and then the outright “So is parenting a fruitless venture? No. The genetic leash may limit the family environment’s influence on personality, but parents do influence their children’s attitudes, values, manners, faith and politics. A pair of adopted children or identical twins will have more similar religious beliefs, especially while still at home during adolescence, if reared together. Parenting matters!” Almost as if religion was the one deciding factor emphasized with an irritating exclamation mark.

            Then it got even more frustrating with an outright anti-abortion stance and suggesting that abortions could somehow (with a non sequitur) lead straight to Huxley’s Brave New World (explicitly mentioned) and that it poses ‘ethical dilemmas’. Uh, remind me how that completely is not applicable to the form of molecular genetics research and let alone completely off topic and what an unnecessary sensitive subject to bring up? It’s disgusting. It virtually turned into a pro-choice ad for half of the objective.

            Not to mention is so-called criticisms of the Evolutionary Perspective. Only two of them even had merit. And then to even suggest (so blatantly) that investigation into evolutionary psychology ‘absolves people from taking ethical and moral responsibility for their sexual behaviour’ and then to even bring up the point that it could be used for polygamy crossed any sense of logic I thought this textbook possessed.

            Stick to your Psychology, Myers.

Chapter Seventy-Three: Random Thoughts
Chapter Summary: Lots of Good News!
1) Democrats win the house! Huzzah!

2) Kent Hovind is going to jail (where he belongs), on charges of:
· Filing a frivolous lawsuit against the agency demanding damages for criminal trespass.
· Filing an injunction against an IRS special agent.
· Filing false complaints against the IRS for false arrest, excessive use of force and theft.
· Making threats against investigators and those cooperating with the investigation.

3)  We are all Echinoderms.

4) What ruler promoted secularism, gave added freedoms for women, extremely modernized public health care system, established free universal schooling up to highest levels, received award from UNESCO for work, and revolutionized his country’s energy resources? Saddam Hussein. Go figure. Take into mind this is the same guy who had his Health Minister’s (who suggested Hussein promote peace negotiations) chopped up body delivered to his wife.

5) Did you know that according to CBC:
”Establishing a Tim Hortons location in Kandahar has cost about $1.1 million for the first 12 months, according to the Department of National Defence. The Kandahar location serves more than 1,000 cups of coffee a day to more than 7,000 personnel from Canada and other countries.”