It almost sounds like he is suggesting to keep an open mind and learn about other cultures, religions & mythology in order to understand those perspectives; and overall to be humble to the mystery: that we do not know.

In my opinion some of his opinions were a little contradictory - he doesn't believe in any sort of god or gods, but it seems that a wiser statement would be that he doesn't know, which would correspond with the "I don't believe in atheists" theme.

Furthermore, I honestly don't think that those who (in Hedges' words), "do not explore the religious impulse" are inhuman. Even if someone never explores it in their lifetime. In my opinion - the late bloomers who have disconnected themselves from all inclination of organized religion or spirituality, to find it on their own later in life might have a few more advantages than those that did not disconnect themselves from it at some point.

My personal preference is that I do believe in god because I want to believe in god. Whether it's a metaphor, completely abstract energy, a point in spacetime, a massive intelligent energy field that existed long before the big-bang, a life-force found only on Earth or the Milky Way or a fucking super mega alien technological consciousness program experiment or even a microscopic white dude flying on a microscopic magic carpet or all of the above and none of the above. I just believe even though my version of whatever creation/god is, is completely unidentifiable, it's everything and it's nothing.

My wife was a teacher at a middle school where several teachers were assaulted (pushed, punched, etc.) yearly and there were almost daily fights between students--no exaggeration. School policy is that teachers can't touch the kids for any reason, even to break up fights where one student is kicking another on the ground, due to threats of lawsuits in such cases. The police officer is there mostly to diffuse/stop such instances because they are allowed to get physically involved. They are also on hand to file charges against threats of assault, rape, or when drugs are found.

And this is all at a middle school where the kids range in size from pre-pubescent four footers to early-bloomer six foot plus and much larger than some of their female teachers.

The efficacy of this is obviously influenced by the individual cop, the school administration and how the students and their parents view police in general.

This was absolutely incredible! Many late bloomers have an incredibly important 'coming out of their shell' experience, and it's often when they role play as a person with higher confidence. It's a transforming experience that imbues high self-confidence and esteem onto the individual, when these were typically dwindling traits beforehand. I've known several (self included) who experienced this by either internet games or old fashioned role playing games. It's very interesting that she found this role play experience by creating an alter ego as a porn star. She even found solace for her previous sexual baggage. I learned a hell of a lot from this, and won't be viewing the porn industry the same way again. Despite many of the evils in the industry that she hinted at in this series, this is an incredibly great thing that she pulled from it, and is obviously even more valuable than the ostracizing she's experiencing because of it.

I also hope that she knows a bachelor's in sociology qualifies her for no skilled labor jobs. She better either go to grad school, or get some real skills...otherwise, porn really is her career, and it only lasts as long as her looks. It's good that she's not going into debt for that degree.

@bareboards2
you totally misunderstood my comment.
my point is that it is the ATTENTION that is the main focus,not the penis.

let me try this another way.

what if the girl was lesbian?
would male attention be her focus?
seewhatimsaying?

this attention seeking behavior usually starts young,when a young girl is unsure,insecure and vulnerable.(just like every other teen).
maybe they were the first girl in class to sprout boobs.
maybe she was a late bloomer and was nerdy and gangly all through high school.

in any scenario you wish to portray there will always be the common denominator that at one point she began to receive attention and that attention validated her as desirable,sexy even.
this may have led to dressing more "sexy" to garner even more attention.

the danger here is that the beauty of youth is transitory....it always results in entropy and if a woman finds validation solely in the form of attention,she will find it harder and harder to get the validation she has become accustomed to receiving.
this may lead to even more dramatic practices i.e:higher degree of provocative dress.bargaining flirtations for sexual promiscuity.actively seeking attention by way of nightclubs,bars and other venues where a source of attention may congregated.

we all wish to be desirable in one way or another and attention can be a powerful validation that we are desirable.the problem arises when the girl/guy is unaware of their own motivations to be validated and in the process allows themselves to become objects rather than human beings.

attention=validation *no penis required

men can be just as vulnerable to this validation seeking but our culture does not impose the same amount of pressure that young women have to endure and ultimately over-come.

what i believe you are saying,and its a point i agree with.is that young women should be more self-aware and be comfortable with who they are rather than what society thinks they should be.

the fact that i am male should not automatically disqualify me from expressing an opinion on female matters.i may fall short due to not owning a uterus but i feel my point is valid

she's wearing bloomers!

And it's quite possible that she forgot to hold down her dress as part of the choreagraphy

>> ^Drax:

I only downvoted ant's comment for the sake of irony...
walks off cackling madly


And I upvoted it for the sake of vaginas...

Thank you!

In reply to this comment by moodonia:


*promote

>> ^Payback:

When I was that age, I'd say "vagina vagina vagina..." in math class. And home room. and social studies. during lunch... crap, I guess it was like every other word. Vagina at least I vagina got over vagina it.


Vagina! Vagina! Vagina!

>> ^mindbrain:

>> ^luxury_pie:
Despite the name of the teacher, what reference is there to Mr. Lovecraft?

Many. The last names of the students reference some of his tales: Noreen Dunwich (Dunwich Horror) Larissa Insmouth (Shadow Over Insmouth) and Jimmy Pickman (Pickman's Model). The principal's last name is Peters, but my knowledge of Lovecraft is not specific enough to pick up on a common name like that. Anyone? Bueller?
Also his stories are almost always first hand accounts which usually end up revealing the doom and/or madness of the story-teller. Several notable creature names/aliases were spoken during the incantation.
Finally the method of descriptive prose used in this piece is heavily inspired by Lovecraft.


I think there are some Call of Cthulhu references too (it looks like an octopus)...

I just started reading Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H. P. Lovecraft and it is an AWESOME book.

>> ^luxury_pie:

Despite the name of the teacher, what reference is there to Mr. Lovecraft?


Many. The last names of the students reference some of his tales: Noreen Dunwich (Dunwich Horror) Larissa Insmouth (Shadow Over Insmouth) and Jimmy Pickman (Pickman's Model). The principal's last name is Peters, but my knowledge of Lovecraft is not specific enough to pick up on a common name like that. Anyone? Bueller?

Also his stories are almost always first hand accounts which usually end up revealing the doom and/or madness of the story-teller. Several notable creature names/aliases were spoken during the incantation.
Finally the method of descriptive prose used in this piece is heavily inspired by Lovecraft.

SS is a Ponzi setup, plain and simple. The government isn't "investing" the money into anything but the government and returning that to their tax investors. It requires a larger working population coming on board to subsidize the older holders. The only reason it hasn't blown up is we have had continual increases in population as well as a mostly growing economy. Throw in a major economic paradigm change where population isn't tripling every century or the economic growth doesn't increase exponentially and the problem hits you in the face. You either have to raise taxes, lower the value of the dollar, reduce distributions, or raise the age cap; there is no other solution. With the baby bloomers finally coming of age, the change of this system to something that doesn't completely implode has to happen sooner than later.

There is no "surplus" in SS. That surplus it in U.S. government bonds which tie their worth to the general perception of the health of the US economy. The surplus owns no real assets in other words. Your 401k invests in actual companies, the SS trust invests in the government. For there to be an actual "trust" like a 401k, then the totality of nation wide spending would have to remain consistent and taxes be the same.

"From an economic standpoint, the question of whether the trust fund is fact or fiction comes down to whether the trust fund contributes to national savings or not. If $1 added to the fund increases national savings by $1, the trust fund is real. If $1 added to the fund increases national savings by $0, the trust fund is not real. A substantial body of economic research argues that the trust funds have led to only a small to modest increase in national savings and that the bulk of the trust fund has been spent."

http://www.nber.org/papers/w10953
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=233130

The proof is in tax cuts and increased spending via the Bush/Obama spending packages and tax breaks. This has a net effect of the government spending more. If they are spending more then they are saving, it doesn't matter where, then there effectively is no actual trust via inflation tax. To put it more plainly, the government has spent in 2 years what ss has taken decades to accumulate...there is no savings really.

I am a total late-bloomer when it comes to CYE (just since season 6), but Leon has got to be one of the funniest characters on TV right now.

Him and "Sheldon" from The Big Bang Theory are the two I get most excited for to watch every week.