Freethinker's corner

    
    Due to cannabis products of greater potency the risks of addiction and psychosis are increased. Also, the availability of this drug promotes the idea that it is safe. However, it is not safe. Some of the negative effects can have a lifelong impact on health. Adolescence, the teenage years, when the brain is undergoing rapid changes, is an extremely risky time for cannabis use.

    The pre-frontal cortex is altered by THC. This area of the brain that is important for solving problems and emotional control experiences accelerated thinning due to cannabis use.    

    The risk of depression and ideas of suicide are doubled in teen users of THC. Those that used it daily were more likely to develop dependence and use other drugs and attempt suicide.

    The risk of schizophrenia is also related to cannabis use.

    Another affliction called cannabis hyperemesis syndrome that leads to nausea, abdominal pain, and repeated retching can result from use of high potency cannabis.

(source “Science News” Feb 10, 2024 issue)

    The cowards sit back, afraid to act, afraid to contradict a fascist. We know who to blame should the United States become a dictatorship led by an immoral man, a thief, a greedy and crude man. We of America know that these sheep are being threatened… with what we don’t know as they meekly keep their silence.

    The Republican Party is a party shepherded by a madman intend to destroy a Democracy: the U.S.A.

    It doesn’t matter what you vote… voting doesn’t matter anymore. When the madman loses, which he will, he will claim he was cheated, that it was stolen from him, that he really won. Then once again, the insurrectionists will appear in hordes to do his bidding. They all know, they know very well, that his orders, Trump’s orders, come from Moscow.

    Serving the people or the will of the people, means nothing to Republicans. Power is their only idol. In absence of power, they would rather the country fell. Causing misery does not deter them. If that were the case they would never have invalidated Roe vs Wade. They hide behind the cloak of religion, in this case Christianity. Their intent is clear… to forcibly convert everyone to their beliefs. There is only one other thing that they will allow, in place of conversion, and that is your death.

    Yes, the only thing that Trump can do to help America now is to die. It seems though, that evil doesn’t die. Despite looking like a man who died several weeks ago, a man who can’t remember his own name half the time, a stumblebum and clown, he continues. The foolish still support him. He is determined to tear down their very support systems, and they applaud. Many on Social Security still wear his hat and fly his flag. When they feel the knives entering their backs… someone remind them that it was they that pushed them in.

    If by some chance the U.S. survives this round, there is always the next round as these evil people will never go away.

    No human should plan on dying.

    Planning should continue up to the point that it is not possible any more.

    Examples of planning to die include, but are not limited to:

• Preplanning your funeral
  
• Making sure adequate life insurance is purchased
  
• Always having everything in order with no loose ends (Affairs in order mentality)
  
• Never planning ahead
  

    What value is life insurance, what good? Peace of mind? What mind? You will be dead. When you are dead, your cares are dead too. Worries are gone. There are no obligations. Dead means an eternal nothingness.

    Funeral planning? Do you care what happens to your body when you are dead?

    Everything in order? That means you are sitting around with nothing to do. That will kill you faster than many diseases.

    Never planning ahead? Have you done everything? Isn’t there anything you haven’t done and would like to try? A bucket list?

    The value of always having something to do keeps you ever looking forward.

My life memories are compartmentalized. Think of it like an old house with many rooms. Some rooms are warm and inviting, some are sealed… never to open again.

    Some memories deserve to be treated like this. They are memories I’d rather not have. I will act as if they never happened, if asked.

    I do not mind rerunning the good memories over and over. I do not want to live there, I only want to remember.

Often, in print, on the broadcast media, and scribbled on walls in graffiti there is the message: “GOD IS DEAD”. I often warn humans about making assumptions. When you assume positions without adequate information, you are usually proven wrong. That is true in this case as well…

The phrase “GOD IS DEAD” necessarily implies that something living has died. This is not the case here. God, Gods, all gods are fabricated from the human imagination. Therefore, God having never lived, cannot die.

It would be better to state “GOD IS NOT ALIVE”, or better yet, “THERE ARE NO GODS”.

    The battle against ingrained programming continues.

    Just when I believe the battle is won, the struggle over, I am returned to the beginning of the battle. How does one overcome what seems like embedded firmware?

    What is normal? Normal presents no challenges to perception. You see, and understand, and know what to expect from normal. Normal is easier to negotiate with. Normal does not leave you aghast and flailing.

    Abnormal is comprised of ideas and perceptions that are not familiar and have never been dealt with. Abnormal creates feelings of nausea and dread. The fight or flight reflex is sometimes brought to life.

    What the hell am I talking about?

    I am talking about LBGTQ.

    I have attempted to eradicate ingrained ideas about the LGBTQ community. This battle has gone on for several years. Many times success seems attained, only to evaporate. Firmware is described as “permanent software programmed into a read-only memory”.

    That seems to explain my difficulty.

    My position can be squelched only. I can accept abnormal only so long as it is perceived as an aberration, an anomaly not consistent with what seems my firmware.

    I not only feel uncomfortable with this view, I am uncomfortable that I am uncomfortable.

    If only there was a reboot feature.

Human society possesses surprising diversity. There are humans that I have been taught to believe normal, then there are many variations. Normal has always been, in my experiences, a heterosexual relationship, committed by the rite of marriage, to the formation of a family. This seems to provide great benefit, especially to those couples who would rather bind with those they desire than be coaxed by force to commit to another. The arrangement tempers the ability of the aggressive individual to dominate others.

    To keep a home means, among other things, establishing levels of sanitation and order. Everyday life proceeds more capably when things are where they are expected to be. A satisfactory level of sanitation contributes to the health of the family.

    Human society, however, is widely flawed. There are those amidst society that are slovenly. They do not value order. They are often ill due to poor hygiene. Their personal hygiene is neglected and their environment, both order and sanitation, are unsatisfactory. From day to day observations of their behavior, it is clear that the manner in which they live is either preferred or irrelevant.

    It is not just hoarders, but also those who let things drop where they may. Examples:
1. Newspapers and magazines stacked in various places in disarray.
2. Things, be they tools, or personal items, simply cast to the floor, not for disposal, but to keep.

    I cannot envision this level of apathy for order. Even if they are in a psychological depression, at least a modicum of order is necessary for continuity… but it is often lacking. From day to day, it is clear, that they are just fine with this condition. Nothing changes. If criticized, they become angry. If you ask for an explanation they seem not to understand what it is you are asking. Everything, the disorder, the unsanitary conditions, seems normal to them.

    These “derelicts” then, what are they? Are they devolving? They came from apes… are they returning? Civilization is always tenuous, without order and thought about the environment, civilization could very well evaporate. Perhaps this was the destination meant for humans all along, to become again, over and over, primitive creatures based on tooth and claw. Up and down, with no permanence. From ape to man and back again.