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jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 393 (view)

Why Men Love Bitches Posted: 11/7/2009 9:40:29 AM
Because ****es are tailor made for one night stands.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 73 (view)

non smokers Posted: 11/3/2009 5:26:52 AM
as for your point about pollution being bad. I agree. If it was commonplace to have a traffic jam of running vehicles indoors I would hope that the government would make a law against it..oh wait..they did...that's why mechanics run the exhaust to the exterior of the garage. I'm a smoker who pretty well refuses to smoke indoors. But at the same time, don't you see the difference between indoor cigarette smoke and car/motorcycle emissions??? The former might result in some helath problems for you, while the latter will KILL you. Exhaust emissions are lethal. And yet every day millions of lazy people in Industiralized countries climb into their vechicles for the most mundane or frivilous purposes. And who doesn't know the exhaust fumes are there??? The odor is pretty strong to me, especially at intersections. Then there are all of those pretty pavement "rainbows". And have you ever noticed some of the wicked city sunsets we've all seen in our lifetimes? You want to know what makes them so wicked? That big thick cloud of smog that hangs over our cities, our tourism driven coastal cities no exception. And you can't just step outside to get away from it, cause outside is where it is. Ever see the lunges of a non-smoking rural person as compared to the lunges of a non-smoking urban person? BIG difference. Now, I'm not saying that smoking isn't bad. Or that anyone should have to suffer anyone elses secondhand smoke. But no one should have to suffer another's second hand smog either. So as far as concern for public health goes, there are most definitely much filthier habits and much bigger fish to fry than cigarette smokers.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 294 (view)

You're in a relationship, but you have a profile on POF just for the threads? Really? Posted: 10/22/2009 1:56:00 PM
There are tons of online forums out there. Seems at least a little bit, ahhh, "fishy" for a person in a relationship to be a member of a DATING site. Now, maybe it's entirely innocent. Wouldn't be the first time. But personally, I would be a little more concerned with how it appeared to my woman, and how it might make her appear in the eyes of others, ie. like a chump. I mean, considering I could get the same internet conversation from a non-dating site forum, it's not a big deal to switch it up. But if one doesn't mind leaving themselves open to criticism like that, it's not my honour in question.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 12 (view)

Question for all of my fellow comic book superhero fans: would a mask really hide your identity? Posted: 10/21/2009 4:40:18 AM
I have a fellow comicbook fan friend that is also in the security buisness and up on all of the latest technologies. According to his expert opinion, there is no way that a simple Batman or Green Lanter style mask is going to hide you identity if the powers that be want to know. Even a form fitting Spidey-type mask still yields alot of data by which to extrapolate a fair likeness. Of course, hi-tech aside, most people are not trained observers and in crisis situations the adrenaline dump does alot of crazy things to one's perceptions and memories of events ... which is why eye witness testimony is often contradictory and not the final word that we would like it to be in a court of law. But as for why Lois Lane and friends cannot clearly see that Superman and Clark Kent are one and the same ... beats the hell outa me. Must be another of Supe's umpteen, got-it-if-I-need-it-and-any-given-writer-wants-me-to-have-it powers. Or maybe they just think that Supe's is really Bruce Wayne, cause classic Clark is just to much of a dork to be Superman. lol.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 13 (view)

Technological civilizations destroy themselves?... Posted: 10/13/2009 2:23:41 PM
It usually is NOT the technology nor the civilization that has that that destroys itself. It is mor eoften than not an outside influence. (Barbarians at the gate!) Greece, Rome, most of the ancient cultures fell to overwhelming odds to people less technologically advanced. Simply not true my friend. Rome fell as a result of it's own socio-cultural ineptitude and the resulting social decay, as evidenced in the near spontaneous rise of numerous "urban salvation cults", eg. Christianity, throughout the Empire. Barbarians weren't responsible for the ever growing under-class that came top populate the urban ghettoes of Rome's trade cities. Barbarians weren't repsonsible for forcing nations into union, or for Rome over extending it's reach. Barbarians weren't resonsible for the class snobbery and various other forms of socio-cultural alienation that came to plague the Empire, or for the fact that natives of the Empire had little interest in defending it and so forced the Empire to rely increasingly on foreigners to fight for them. And barbarians weren't responsible for the assassination of over 15 Emperors within the space of the single century. In fact, what Germanic barbarians are responsible for is being PUSHED by the Huns out of Eastern Europe on through the lines of Rome. These tribes, even when they came together in alliances were smaller than the population of the city of Rome alone, to say nothing of the Imperial might of the Empire itself. In it's Imperial heyday, Rome, with it's large standing army of professional soldiers, had little problem beating these barbarians back. What these barbarians did was protect the abandoned province of Britain, protect the abandoned province of Gaul, and come into rulership over Spain and Italy, propping Western Civilization back up on it's feet and ensuring that the Western Empire would enjoy at least another couple of centuries of existence. The idea that barbarians destroyed Roman or any other civilization is simply the historical propaganda of people who are disinclined to take responsbility for their own mistakes, and so arrogant in their assumptions of superiority that they need a scapegoat to explain their own failures.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 35 (view)

Favorite MMA fighter? Posted: 10/11/2009 11:34:27 AM
More like Dana's afraid to give Fedor everything he wants only to see him get upset in his first fight. Even if Fedor were to win his first fight, which I would take to be the most likely scenario, agaisnt Lesnar no doubt, who the hell is he going to fight next? Couture? Nog? Mir? Cro Crop? Any other broken fighters and once were's I failed to mention? Or the many other second tier heavies? The heavy weight division is incredibly shallow. The fact that Tim "Jens-Pulver-made-me-cry" Silvia once held the title, and Brock Lesnar now does pretty well says it all. Yaaaawwwwnnnnnnn. Clearly, Dana has a lot of work to do with the heavy weight division. Bringing in Fedor isn't going to fix things, and until it's fixed Fedor simply isn't worth what he thinks he's worth. A one fight contract would be nice though ... just to watch Fedor decimate Lesnar.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 84 (view)

How does one define what is a recent photo? Posted: 10/7/2009 5:57:58 PM
I don't think it really matter how recent, so long as that, upon meeting, the person bares a striking resemblence to the person in their photos. It doesn't matter if it was taken a minute ago if it's all lighting and make-up and angles and push up bras or any of the other "fakery" thats out there.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 59 (view)

Boxing question Posted: 10/6/2009 9:51:38 PM
Good post, bodypro8! I don't think the assessment of the cruiser weight mentioned is very fair though. It could be equally said that guys try to keep it standing because they're scared of going to the ground. Guys who are good with their hands tend to want to keep it standing. Guys who are good on the ground will want to take it there long before they are ever in trouble on their feet. It's a tactic, like anything else. If something isn't working for you, you switch to something else that might work better. It's that plain and simple, and makes things a little more interesting then two guys just planting themselves and exchanging blows, with no defense, until one falls. Is footwork, positioning, head movement, covering up signs that a guy is scared? Or is it a sign that he's smart, proficient, and something more than a drunken brawler?

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 21 (view)

Favorite MMA fighter? Posted: 10/6/2009 4:07:32 PM
While it is true you don't stop fighting until the referee tells you to, Henderson did admit afterwards that he knew Bisping was unconscious and threw that last punch anyway. So while Dan followed the letter of the law, he didn't follow the spirit of the law, which is to protect fighters from unnecessary punishment. Exactly. You won't hear me complain too often about a fighter continuing to hit after it appears their opponent is out. And if I do, it would be a complaint against the ref. I've seen fighters dominating their oppoent more or less plead to the ref to stop the fight. I mean, no one is out (or at least shouldn't be out) to seriously injure their opponent. And alot of these fighters do have a conscience there. They don't want to pound on someone that is defenseless. But Dan admitted to knowing that Bisping was clearly KTFO'd, but wanted to hit him again anyway.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 17 (view)

Is there something universally important about the evolution of the humanoid form? Posted: 10/6/2009 6:16:33 AM
Well, given precisely the same circumstances, with no flies in the ointment, I see no reason why you wouldn't get the same result. There are however all kinds of variables that, in reality, would influence the evolution of life on another Earthlike planet.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 14 (view)

Favorite MMA fighter? Posted: 10/5/2009 4:16:29 PM
I believe Bisping got what was coming to him. Maybe he did. Bisping has a smart mouth. No arguing that. But the fact remains that MMA is a SPORT. It is not a trial by combat or ritual duel, in which one is out to prove a crime or avenge an insult. It is a SPORT that is struggling for crediblity in the eyes of people who think it is just a ciovneinet way of being allowed to engage in violence without consequence. I like Hendo, but he knew Bisping was OUT cold. And with Bisping unconscious and his head flat on the mat, he dive bomb punched the guy. Thats the kind of shit I expect from losers on the street. The kind of thing that can result in grievious physical injury, right up there with Marty McSorely's cheap shot years ago in hockey ... and those that followed. Someone being an *hole simply isn't an adequette excuse. He had already STFU'd Bisping by KTFO'ing him. That second punch was overkill. And personally, I have been jumped on the street, with my life in danger and no one around to help. And you want to know what? When the guy, who was definitively a bigger *hole than Bisping could ever be, wwhen he was beat, he was beat. You don't kick a man when he's down. And certianly not an honourable combatant. That's WRONG. People need a lesson in good sportsmanship. And generally I would point to Hedno as a good example, and still would, except for that one instance. Call a spade a spade. That second shot was WAY out of line.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 201 (view)

Does this change your mind about spanking your child? Posted: 10/3/2009 3:13:42 PM
I think this is all bogus B.S. Of course, I'm feeling rather negative today. As a parent spanking IS part of my arsenal. But mostly I actually spend time, daily, with my son, share and discuss all manner of things with him, and most importantly I behave in a manner I would like my son to emulate. We are all a buncha primates afterall, and monkey-see-monkey-do is the rule that we all ultiamtely harken to. You might be able to bullshit yourself, but don't think for a minute you can bullshit your kid. Too many people like to think that there are easy answers, so they can get around to all of the other things they would rather be doing than raising the children they brought into this world. But life isn't easy. Relationship aren't easy. And raising children is no exception. If people would work on their relationships or their children as hard as they work to accumulate material things, and maintianing an image that they are something that they are not, we'd all be living in a much better world.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 202 (view)

women with a lot of male friends Posted: 10/3/2009 10:15:15 AM
I do not find platonic relationships between a woman and a man to be unheard of. I have had a strictly platonic friendship with a female or two in my time. BUT, it is also my experience that a woman (or man) that has ALOT of friends of the opposite sex are, if not just butch (or effemminate), simply just trying to keep their bases covered. What's worse, this also seems to be previlaing wisdom on relationship ... to always have another option at hand, just in case. That's pathetic, and contrary to prevailing "wisdom", screams insecurity and a slack-willed inability to deal with life issues.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 39 (view)

Gold-digger is just a term men invented to Posted: 10/3/2009 9:56:19 AM
Man, so many of you people are just so full of ****. No, you're all right, money doesn't change anyone. Parents that neglect their children really are just doing it for the kids, and not for themselves and their image; while communites go to shit and they blame rock'n'roll or rap or tv. People who find themselves into tons of money never find themselves surrounded by droves of false-friends. And there most certainly are no 60 year old millionaires out there with veritable harems of 20 year old bombshells. Wake up. You live in a society that is materialisitic. That places materialism first. That is all about the accumulation of material things for one's own individual happiness. But, wait, let me guess, that's just cynicism right? Let's not let the facts confuse the matter.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 10 (view)

Favorite MMA fighter? Posted: 10/1/2009 2:18:49 PM
While I like both Bisping and Hendo, I basically have alot more respect for Hendo's personality. I appreciated the kind of man he is. BUT, that second blow, after Bisping had been KO'd ... a fact which Hendo admitted he knew for a fact ... that was a NO class act. I can't ****in believe people celebrate that shit. Then again people these days also celebrate swarmings and other clear mismatches, so I guess it's anything goes. As for Machida; I definitely like his style. The guy never gets hit! Anyone who calls him a coward for that is a fool. Machida is a warrior. And if you go to war as opposed to merely play games, you don't want to ever get hit.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 5 (view)

Favorite MMA fighter? Posted: 9/30/2009 11:53:20 AM
I don't know who my favourite is ... hmmm ... Kenny Florian is pretty cool, well rounded, positive attitude, intelligent, a good representative for the sport. I always liked Chris Horadecki too. That boy has some sick power. There are of course alot of interesting fighters, fun to watch, who's names or organizations I could never tell ya, but I'm not really a "fan" type so to narrow it down to one favourite would be an effort in futility for me. Wish I could say Fedor, but that guy just pisses me off. Yay, he's a shrewd businessman. Do I give a shit about his business suavey?

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 51 (view)

Boxing question Posted: 9/30/2009 11:45:18 AM
Well, 2008 was a terrible year for boxing and has forced a shift from ppv to network in a scramble to keep people interested. Meanwhile MMA has enjoyed a progressively greater profile in Canada and Britain, while Fedor and his team are working as hard as they can to bring the UFC to Russia. MMA didn't exist as a sport prior to the early 90's; at least not since the days of the ancient Greeks. Now, a mere 2 decades later, it's on everyone's radar. It's funny that I can generally step into an MMA thread and never hear a bad thing said about boxing, but step into a boxing thread and it's "fans" seem obsessed with attacking MMA. Feel threatened much? But really, you can have the best of both worlds and enjoy the best that both sports have to offer. Unfortunately, a few dumbass boxing fans make an otherwise great sport harder and harder to enjoy.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 14 (view)

Ever think you'd be better off living in another place and/or time? Posted: 9/21/2009 7:33:13 PM
Actually, that feeling that one was born in the wrong time and place is fairly wide spread in modern society; brought on by failings of previaling culture to provide it's people with common vision, common values and a sense of security and belonging. It's not unique to any one particular culture, as individuality ensures, but is far more wide spread in multi-cultural urbanized societies. Throw in the exceeding degree of transcience/mobility found in modern society, and one can see why we have it worse than Imperial Rome for instance ... which began spawning urban salvation cults, eg. Christianity, in droves after a certain point in it's imperial evolution. Of course, while some times might indeed have been more "Golden" than others, I also think that alot of people have a romanticized notion of what they'd be in for in an elder age ... especially after having grown up amidst the luxuries of our own. In some ways, except for the most extreme, "the past" is no further away than a few miles outside the city and off the grid. Inentional communities seem to be a fairly hot thing these days. And are faring much better than, say, the poorly thought out hippie communes of the 60's ... and exceeddingly better than say Jonestown, which is just another matter, unique unto itself, altogether. A definite worst case scenario.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 14 (view)

Pure Nothingness, good imagination Posted: 9/17/2009 7:43:59 AM
I might add to the above that this Ginnungagap was also the seed of the World Tree, best known as Yggdrasil (Horse of Terror), but called MjotvidhR (Measuring Rod) within the context of the Creation Poem, Voluspa. MjotvidhR is said to have nine roots which penetrate each of the nine worlds of Nordic cosmology. In the initiation of the god of wisdom, Woden (Old Norse - Odhinn), upon the Tree he is said to have gazed "down to depths" (of Creation) to a mysterious 10th root which no one could tell waht it was rooted in. Not surprisingly perhaps, when fire and flood and the forces of entropy and trandscience, bring an end to the Nordic cosmos in an event called Raganrok, meaning the Dimming of the Deities (in the minds of men), the World Tree alone weathers the event and acts as a fall-out shelter of sorts to other survivors. Interestingly, the word tree and the word/s true, truth, and troth all stem from the same root; no pun intended. Makes for some interesting ponderances.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 13 (view)

Pure Nothingness, good imagination Posted: 9/17/2009 7:25:17 AM
The preChristian Norse already handled the evolution of existence and the flowering of Creation in almost exactly this way in the Voluspa nd Prose Edda; except their view of "nothingness" was oxymoronic. The void of nothingness, called Ginnungagap (Gap of Mystical Bewilderment) was actually pregnant with "all-potential". So, Ginnungagap was a pregnant void ... a primordial quantum probability field in which all that owuld or conceivably could happen was happening, all at once ... a state of chaos and dynamism that was so raw as to surpass human kenning and defy all categories of thought ... the concept of "nothing" included. Thus the second layer of existence was Muspelheim, a land of pure fire ... chaos and transience given form. A third layer arose in which the land of ice and stasis evolved in the north of the Gap, forcing Muspleheim to the southern regions. But in accordance with Germanic thought and the rule of precedent, there was nevertheless a seed of the dynamism of Muspelheim in Niflheim, given rise to venomous rivers of ice and slag which flowed toward the center of the Gap. Where these rivers met the rivers of fire flowing out of Muspelheim, Father Nature (hostility, adversity) sprang into being, soon to be followed by Mother Nature (nurture). In sustaining herself, Mother Nurture inadvertently gave rise to pure consciousness, to the first of the deities; which represented the culmination of this a-conscious process of evolution. The force of consciousness then spotted the pattern that led to it's birth, and consciously carried it forward, thus lifting existence up to a state of Creation. Check out Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda for a detailed account. If you can read it in the original language even better, but not ENTIRELY necessary.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 44 (view)

UFC 104: Machida vs. Rua announced Posted: 9/14/2009 7:11:19 PM
MMA's growth both within and without of the US speaks for itself. I love boxing, but the truthing is it is floundering on it's home turf. As for Dana White and his business skills; the UFC is alive and thriving under his guidence. It's rivals have all died. How much are those fighters that work(ed) for it's rivals making? How good are their contracts? As for Floyd Mayweather, he spoke shit and then chased a paycheck into WWE ... fake wrestling ... rather than being a warrior and proving it. That speaks for itself. And as for Ti Silva ... he sucks. He's always sucked. The fact that he was at one time the dominant heavy in the UFC is simply a testament to the depth of the heavy weight division. Now, we could sit here and ** back and forth about what is the superior combat sport, but all that would make us is a bunch of **es. Warriors test it and prove it, they don't debate it. But incidently, the ancient Greeks were real warriors, who fought and died up close and personal, looking their opponent in the eyes and smelling his blood all the while. And they valued pugilism, wreslting, and pankration, ie. mixed martial arts, each in their own right. I'd don't know what the problem with some boxing fans are. Their lack of confidence betrays itself.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 87 (view)

Good and Evil Posted: 9/14/2009 5:16:05 AM
That's very true! Christianity also stole a large amount of its mythos from Norse Mythology. Well, I'm not so sure Christianity stole alot of it's mythos from the Nordic/Germanic people. And "stole" might be a little too strong of a word. What Catholcism did was accomadate much of the indigenous beliefs and practices of the Germanic peoples as a means of facilitating an otherwise problematic conversion; which took over 500 years give or take! Christ certainly was made over into the image of the archetypal hero-king, as we see in the Anglo-Saxon poem Dream of the Rood. The Norse deity Balder underwent a reverse make-over for some reason; from the warrior-king that is at the root of his name and as presented in the work of the Danish monk Saxo- Grammaticus to the more Christ-like passive and universally loved deity of the Eddas. Saxo's tale contains many of the same elements as the Norse version, but he is not a deific figure, but a hero-king. As with the Eddas he is invulnerable, and as in the Eddas his tale revovles around his disputes with a rival king, HrodhR .... who playes his blind and gullible brother and fellow son of Odin in the Eddas. One will not that as Kings, both would have traced their pedigrees back to Odin, ie. they were his offspring. But there were also core religious concepts, such as good and evil and holy ... each of which are indigenous Germanic words rooted in "protoGermanic"; the reconstruct proto-language that ALL of the Germanic tribes spoke between about the 800 BCE and the opening of the Common Era. It was not all just taking over a few holy sites and festival names. It was an attmept to convert a group of nation that were at the time, the rulers of the Western World. A group of tribes that were largely rural, who an urban message would not have appealed to, and who had a exceedingly high degree of in-group solidairty and along history of heroic amongst not only themselves but their nieighbours. ... thus making the message of Christ equal, ahem, "worthless" to them. Now, I know some people will think, "heroic toward hteir neighbours??? Are you on crack???", but to be blunt, I'm right and your wrong. The Germanic tribes did not hate Rome, and they did not tear it down. In fact, Western History owes much to the powerful Gothic and Frankish kings for it's survival in the West. And the Anglo-Saxons got a bad rap. Afterall, they had left their fields untilled so that they could go fight the Picts to protect the Brits ... whom Rome had abandoned. This was done under the understnading that they would be paid when the job was done, and King Vortigern betrayed their contract. Would you allow your family to starve??? During the Iron Age and the Migration Age Germanic kings or their chosen champions would meet in single combat to decide issue that otherwise would have been matters of warfare. Unfortunately, pretty well ALL things Nordic/Germanic have gotten a raw deal sionce the time of Hitler; as a result of him and his Nazi's. And people of Germanic descent are the last to see that, in accorandance with the cultural character of our people, from Arminius forward, our nations roundly defied him. He had to look to Italy and Japan for Allies. No Germanic or Germanic descended nation would support him! Anyway, having strayed off topic I tie this up before I go any further. :)

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 91 (view)

Nogueira vs. Couture confirmed for UFC 102 Posted: 9/7/2009 4:14:27 PM
I've been hit by plenty of boxing gloves, and a bare fist or two ... though I've never been such an idiot as to stand there and LET someone do it. lol The force of the boxing glove punch is still concentrated to the fist area and significantly less where there is just pad. It is not evenly distributed.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 82 (view)

Nogueira vs. Couture confirmed for UFC 102 Posted: 9/7/2009 2:08:04 PM
They have actually scientifically measured the force produced from a punch while wearing an mma glove, a boxing glove and no glove at all. And I'm sorry, but the boxing glove provided for the weakest hit. Not by much in comparison to the mma glove, but less ... as a matter of quantifiable fact as opposed to opinion. And really, you don't have to think too much to see the sense in it, anymore than comparing a boxing glove to no glove. It's elementary, in fact.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 22 (view)

Riseing levels of Depression in the 18-30 age range. Posted: 9/6/2009 3:55:42 PM
Human beings are by nature a social animal. And never before in history have we been so alienated from our fellow man and yet so crowded by him at the same time. Add to that the various other stressors of modern life and you have the perfect formula for the manifestation of all forms of psychological and physiological pathologies. This observation was made by a number of cults with the rise of densely populated "multicultural" urban centres over 2000 years ago. Take the foundation of Christianity for instance.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 27 (view)

Santa Claus and Zeus Posted: 8/31/2009 4:12:22 PM
Actually, the most pervasive colour associated with the "original" Santa Claus was blue and this stems not from the Celtic beliefs but from the indigenous beliefs of the Germanic peoples. In fact, the basic image of the Old World "Father Christimas" was of a tall, lean old man dressed in blue. This corresponds to the Germanic deity Woden (Old Norse - Odhinn), who was in fact also known as the YuleFather of old. Like most of the Germanic deities, Woden was believed to live in the "North". He was also known to lead a procession of spirits "and" elves through the heavens over the winter months, riding an eight-legged horse (obviously) capable of travelling through the sky, and reciprocal gift-giving was at the core of all his relationships. Amongst the Anglo-Saxons another one of his by-names was Wusc-frea or the Lord of Wishes. Many of our modern day Yuletide customs do in fact stem from Germanic heathenism; which was a powerful force in Western Europe from the 5th century forward and who's conversion was muchly facilitated by a papal "Policy of Accomodation", as made glaringly evident in letters written by the Popes (to various missionaries, eg. Mellitus, Boniface) in the 7th and 8th centuries CE.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 16 (view)

Santa Claus and Zeus Posted: 8/28/2009 2:40:07 PM
the Icelandic culture is a very different social organisation to the Norwegian (Norse) one, patron deity is commonly Thor (Norse is commonly Tyr or Odin) and even the rights of landowners is different, there are no chieftains (priestly councils form government) and it is speculated by some anthropologists as an early form of democracy. All Norse/Icelandic culture does do away with serfdom I wouldn't go so far as to say that Iceland did away with any of the basic social ranks of the typical Germanic social hierarchy. Thralls were kept amongst both the Norse and the Icelanders ... though one will note that even on the eve of the Norman Conquest the thrall population of Anglo-Saxon England was only something like 10% of the total population. As for democracy; it was present in Germanic culture since the first records. Universal sufferage was not a feature of their democracy, but then again, nor was it present in ancient Greece. But Germanic society has always had features of democracy, as far back as Tacitus (1st century CE) and presumably well before. Also Indo-European culture didn't influence evolving Norse Well, Norse and general Germanic is an Indo-European sprung culture/language; as is Slavic and Baltic, Celtic, Roman and Greek, etc. The Germanic deities I mentioned in my earlier post appear to be the very oldest, including of any heroic figures. Odin and his less remarkable blood kin, and Freja, Loki, Baldur (which is odd as some equate the bleeding god with Christ, but no, certainly earlier by centuries in the same way Horus the Egyptian child god is also popularly equated with Christ, as is the Celtic Mabon figure) and various giantish figures almost certainly predate any other Scandinavian mythology, appearing represented in finds around the Rhine region dating to a few generations after Celtic settlement. I don't think that you could rank Odin for instance as one of the ledest of the Germanic deities; at least not frm an academic pov. The god-name TyR for instance is at least as old, far more widespread, and looms much larger than Odin, and stems frolm the same root as Anglo-Saxon Tiw/Tio/Tiu/Tig, Old High German Ziu/Zio, Gothic Tius, Baltic Dweios (sp?), Latin Jovis, Greek Zeus, Ancient Hittie Sius, Sanskrit Dyaus, etc. He seems next to absent in the Germanic Bronze Age, where the practice of inhumantion and the various symbols found on the rock-carvings of the era and locality, suggest that FreyR and what might (perhaps not very accurately) be called the "Vanir" loomed VERY large. The Vanir seem to be a later, Viking Age, and explicitly North Germanic, ie. Scandinavian, idea, as there is no evidnece such a divine tribe was known to the other Germanic peoples, and the earliest myths we have make Ing (FreyR) and Irmin (Odin) brother and patrons of groupings of Germanic peoples ... with Ingui-FreyR being the patron of all the original tribes living along the seashore, and Odin being the patron of those tribes that settled the interior of the Continent. Without speculating on the origins of Woden (who does have one Indo-European counterpart, etymological relative in the Indic Vata), his cult seems to have been very minor prior to the Iron Age, and might well have only existed within the context of the cult of Tiw in his role of high judge of the legal assembly ... in which Woden represented in some way shape or form the spirit of the gallows, on which capital offenders were hung. He might well have existed alongside Loki even then, even as the gallows existed alongside the bog as a (distinctly) form of capital punishment for a ditinctly differnt form of capital offender. But the changes that the Iron Age brought to Germanic society clearly brought about a great evolution in our ancestors understanding of this spirit, and with the turning of the Era (BCE to CE), we see the rise of many prominent features of his cult, from the return of the practice of inhumation to the use of the runes to his appearance in the geneologies of various Germanic royal houses. I would say his worship as supreme deity of the pantheon did not cement until the end of the Migration Age; which also happens to be when the bog disposals mentioned in my previous post came to an end. The way I see things happeneing is that, with the Iron Age, the excess population of the original tribes of Scandinavia -- themselves a unique mixture of indigenous "Old European" and Indo-European migrants -- settled the lands of modern day Germany, where, perhpas through contact with Rome, they began to evovle new ideas and insights of their own the resulted in an evolution of the elder organization of the pantheon. This new understanding in turn travelled back northward and had a great influence. Snorri Sturluson states as much in his preface for the Prose Edda, when he states that Odin came first (from Greece lol) to Germany before making his way to the Scandinavias. Anyway, we shold probably give this thread back to it's original subject ... whether anyone makes use of it or not. lol I'd be more than happy to go on discussing Germanic belief, but perhaps we should make a new thread for it? Cheers mate!

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 12 (view)

Santa Claus and Zeus Posted: 8/27/2009 5:47:22 AM
the moral of Germanic myth is typically complex and favours the antihero over the deific, many remark the Germanic pantheon to be almost unique in their humanity although others like the Greek are also noted for their rather humanlike failings. Well, don't forget that our most extensive and comprehensive sources of Germanic myth were written and recorded under the aegis of the Church, and so had to passed along in a certain unbecoming manner lest one be labelled a devil worshipper or heretic for writing them. In contrast to the tales of Snorri Sturluson and Saxo Grammaticus, we have Germanic religious art, in which the deities are depicted as humanlike in form, but only vaguely human. As Germanic artisans were quite capable, restrained only by available resources and not technical skill, we can only presume that the vagueness was intended. This was undoubtedly as a result of a pervasive cultural understanding of the ultimate mystery of the divine and the will that man should refrain from defining them too sharply. This idea gels well with the implicit meaning of the term wihaz and it's various offshoots, ie. seperate, other, mysterious, it's general application to such things of specifically religious significance, eg. altar, idol, and the idea that it was the energy that made things haligaz (holy, whole, healthy) as evidenced in various runic charms. The idea of halig, from whence we get the terms holy, healthy and whole, is fundamentally a matter of divine power being presented in earthly/temporal form/s. The celebration of the anti-hero is more of a feature of later Viking Age legend, as social structures were being assailled, the lure of the great wealth of southern Europe was exceedingly strong, and kings were tyrannizing their people in order to force Catholicism upon them. Viking Age literature, and more specifically the Icelandic corpus --Viking Age Iceland having been the Wild West of NW Europe, and thus not a fair representation of Germanic society in general -- is dominated by such figures such as Egil Skallagrimsson, Viga-Glum, and Erik the Red. Earlier legends celebrate such heroes as King Offa of Old Anglia, Walter of Aquitaine, Beowulf, and Hrolf Kraki and his heroic retainers. And history offers us such prominent figures as Arminius of the Cherusci, Penda of Mercia, Widukind of Eastphalia, and Godfrid of Denmark, each of whom must have enjoyed great renown and had (or could have had in the case of some of the later ones) legends and sagas of their own. These were all different kinds of heroes than those from the Viking Age, which clove to the age old heroic aesthetic that the Indo-Europerans undoubtedly carried into southern Scnadinavia in the late Stone Age, which was celebrated and cleaved to in the warm and abundant Bronze Age, but which found it's beliefs sharply challnege as a result of the climate change that was in full swing with the opening of the Iron Age. In the former Age's the raid was as much the national sport of the Germanic peoples as anything. No one was going hungry or suffering any great want during the Bronze Age. In fact, the infant surivial rate quintipled with the opening of the Bronze Age. However, when the climate began to grow colder and more moist, the resources of the land began to shrink, and the various tribes were forced to act, not out of an aesthetic sense of how things (such as war) should be conducted, but out of do-or-die collective necessity. The Germanic deities, particularly THE deity of heroic conduct (Tiw/TyR/Zio) , did not condemn the folk outright for this, but it is at the same time that we see the beginnings of the practiced of disposing of the bounty of war into the lakes and bogs of the North. No longer could the hero take pride in these traditional tokens of glory, but he could still find glory in the continued surivival of his people ... presumably so long as such heroes kept true to this custom of disposal. While some acadamics, going off of Conrelius Tacitus' remarks on the custom, insisting that this was done as an offering to the "war-gods", and refer to the bog sacrifices of the Bronze Age to back this up, their own back up betrays them. Afterall, the bog sacrifices are characteritically comprised of high quality objects lain into the bog in precise and careful order, with great care. In contrast, the spoils of war was hacked up, kicked in, ripped apart, and broken before being bogged. In this, the spoils of war was treated much more like the worst variety of felon known to the Germanic peoples ... ritually tortured and then bogged as a shameful disgrace. We see these "treasures" still peaking through the folk conscious in later legends, in the form of the cursed treasures of Beowulf and that of Sigurd's Volsung saga. What I think is special about Germanic heroic literature is it's ability to celebrate both the deific type hero, AND ALSO the anti-hero. And remember, these legends were often woven in their highest form and made possible under the patronage of Kings ... who we might expect to be all about the loyal hero, which fortified his position as King, but not so keen on the celebration of the anti-hero. But there it is. Anyway, end of thread hijack. :)

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 8 (view)

Santa Claus and Zeus Posted: 8/26/2009 7:01:47 PM
Well, there are various levels of belief in any society. While tribal peoples tend to have a sincere devotion to their deities, there is evidence aplenty in the various Indo-European sprung religions for instance to see that it was known, at least amonst some, that the ultimate reality of the divine is unknowable to men. This is certainly true in the beleifs of the various preChristian Germanic people, as indicated by the Anglo-Saxon word *weoh (Old Norse - ve, Gothic - wih, etc) and various other facets of their belifs that has been preserved, eg. the testimony of the Northumbrian high priest, Coifi, on the eve of his conversion. This is likely the reason for the great religious tolerance of the elders; as they would not be inclined to say "this is the divine, period" as though the divine can be quantified and easily fit into some little manmade box. Rather, they would be more inclined to say "this is how the divine presents itself to us", with full knoweldge that the divine might express itself differntly to different cultures, each according to the their cultural character. One of the problem with looking back on modern Western society, as with Imperial Rome, is that there is no common culture. This interpretating various things becomes alot like dream intepretation ... where each book has a different intepretation of the same symbols ... because their is no common culture informing these symbols anymore. And of course, there is something to be said for participatory observation, which revolutionized the fierld of anthropology ... and prior to which investigations into tribal man and his beliefs always resulted in conclusion thats looked like something from a B horror/adventure movie, totally coloured and distorted by the observers prejudices as he watched from the outside. As for Santa, he is only a "fairytale" so long as one regards the spirit of generosity as a fairytale ... probably by getting to stuck on the form. I personally do not, and thus still believe in the Jolly ol' Elf from the North. ;) There is a very fine line. Certainly the ancients of the past didn't apply the same logical reductionism to their religions that we see Christians for instance doing; as though such things are literal verifiable universal matter of fact, like gravity.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 28 (view)

B.J. Penn accuses George St. Pierre of taking steroids Posted: 8/24/2009 10:14:46 PM
The accusation of steroids is like the "are you still beating your wife?" question. Accusations are easier to make than to prove, and some are more likely to be believed as a result of NOTHING to do with the actual person being accused, ie. alot of people in sports are using steroids, therefore ... The tactic is totally transparent, and Penn should be ashamed of himself. Maybe Penn is just a racist and doesn't like Frenchmen and/or Canadians. In fact, I bet he is racist you know? ;)

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 39 (view)

Dating frustration in your 30s? Posted: 8/24/2009 6:23:21 AM
I can get dates. Getting a date isn't necessarily the difficult part. What I find frustrating is either women not meeting my standards, or me not meeting theirs, when it comes to a long term relationship. Alot of women that are around my age have kids that are getting ready to leave the nest. They don't want some guy with an 8 yr old kid. Those women around my age that have kids around the age of my son tend to be professional types, and don't want some guy in my income bracket. The one's that don't have any kids either don't want kids period, or they want kids of their own, ie. don't want to deal with some other woman's kid. Generally 20-something'ers gravitate to me in a social setting , but, you know, I'm 37 with a kid, so however well we might get along we both know its going nowhere. And they know it better than me. I basically try not to think about it too much. I never was a smooth talking lady's man or anything like that. I've fulfilled my biological imperative, and am enjoying raising my son. And if thats as much of the "family" experience as I can get, then so be it. Cause you know what? It's not my loss. I mean, damn, I'm a one woman man by nature, but the more I try to find that one woman --- and my standards are reasonable bhy any estimation --- the more appealing one night stands seem. And the more I feel like a dunce beside the lot of jabronies who've been objectifying women and doing one nighters all along. lol

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 50 (view)

Should Mythology be completely ignored ? Posted: 8/13/2009 5:52:28 PM
It's ignored because there are better things to focus on. Like a 12th grader not wanting to spend a lot of time with a preschooler, some of us recognize and understand the progress that has been made, and throwing 12 yr olds into volcanoes to quench a god's thirst, well, seems a little silly by contrast. So said the uninformed preschooler.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 49 (view)

Should Mythology be completely ignored ? Posted: 8/13/2009 5:47:43 PM
So for example the Romans have Venus the goddess of Love and its actually Venus the planet which is identified as the mythological character ? whereas the Norse mythology has Freya their goddess of love also venus the planet ? hopefully someone can give more detail on the above , is it correct ? Actually the Norse never associated Freyja with Venus that I am aware of. I could be wrong, but not likely. However, when Rome cast it's gaze northward they (ultimately) equated Freyja with their native goddess, Venus, who herself had long since been made over in the image of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Freyja is not simply the goddess of love, but rather the goddess of aesthetic sensibilities, sensuality, and passion. What is interesting about Venus is, on the one hand, it's beauty from afar, and it's sheer inhospitability once you get up close. Now, compared that with some of the most beautiful women of history! lol As for mythology; there are differnt kinds of myths. Not all contain mystical or spiritual insights. Some are just stories, composed largely for entertainment value. The various myths about ThorR (Old English Thunor, Old High German - Donar) are a good example.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 342 (view)

Is Anderson Silva the World's Best MMA Fighter? Posted: 8/12/2009 7:18:11 AM
Anderson is good but he got his title shot after beating Leben LOL Anderson didn't just beat Leben. He knocked Leben out COLD. And you could take a freakin baseball bat to that guys head and he'd coming at you. That KO was IMPRESSIVE. But really, it's not even so much what earned him the title shot. Or the fact that he successfully claimed the belt thereafter. Rather, it's that he has defended it against the best middle weights in the world, and taken on a couple of light heavies to boot, and he has made it ALL look embarrassingly easy. And when it gets right down to it, there (was) way more depth to the middle weight division than the heavy weight division could ever hope for, so Fedor being the best amongst them is, well, really not that spectacular. Of course, talk is talk. Answers are found in the ring ... or cage as the case might be.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 37 (view)

One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown Posted: 8/9/2009 3:22:22 PM
Yeah cause the ufc is the be all and end all of mma right No, but then the NFL isn't the end all be of football either. It's just where the majority of the elite talent gravitates.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 33 (view)

One man to blame in UFC-Fedor breakdown Posted: 8/8/2009 10:02:33 AM
I hate to say it, but Fedor has succeeded in making himself IRRELEVANT. Next.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 16 (view)

B.J. Penn accuses George St. Pierre of taking steroids Posted: 8/8/2009 9:59:05 AM
Okay. Now I've heard it all. Did you know that George is a racist, woman beater, and child molester too??? lol Unreal. Penn is a scumbag.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 3 (view)

How did God(s) begin? Posted: 7/29/2009 7:23:27 PM
According to preChristian Germanic Creation belief, as best expressed in the Norse-Icelandic Eddas, the emergeance of divinity/creative consciousness was the end result of a natural process that was born in a "pregnant void" and involved the emergeance and synthesis of polar opposites. The emergeance of divinity represented the polar opposite of the physical world, which then set about "ordering" existence ... and/or shedding light on nature's implicit order. The idea that physical universe required a Creator is absent in Germanic thought. All it required was the necessary prime materials and action, and from there probability ensures evolution. On a more mundane level, the idea of god was most probably born out of man's experience of awe and mystery ... the idea that is at the very heart of the Germanic sprung term god. People brought different experiences to the table of their tribes, and a collective cultural understanding of deities (plural) began to emerge and be refined and expanded upon over time. Throughout this process various "prophets" amongst the various nations of men were attributed with divinity. Eventually, there came civilization and imperialism, resulting in highly ecclectic urban populations that had no common cultural consensus regarding the divine, and much confusion regarding the divine, which in return resulted in an analystical stripping away of cultural forms of the divine and the rise of monotheism, as it attempted to return to the quintessential essence of divinity, that being "awe/mystery". And the fallout of this attempt, which couldn't avoid subjectivity any better than any other religion, and which was far worse at acknowledging it in their own interpretations, led to the analytical stripping away of the divine itself and the rise of atheism as a true cultural force (in the West).

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 36 (view)

What is your idea of heaven? Posted: 7/29/2009 6:05:16 AM
Your idea of heaven closely matches my own. Maybe we should have been born a thousand years ago (or as some might believe, maybe we were) Well, parts of our being most certainly far older than our individual selves. The elder Germanic belief did in fact perceive the soul as a gestalt, a whole made up of many parts, some of which were unique to the individual and some of which were inheritted from ancestors of body and spirit. How old is basic human nature for instance? Or the male instincts that dictate the framework human notions of manhood evolved in? Of course, the "modern" world has it's charms. And some of the best parts of the "old" world are not really that far away; being more a matter of where you chose to live than when. What could be finer than a place where one could be with their loved ones, hone and practice their craft, learn new things, enjoy the comradeship of their brothers and even love the enemies they battle enough to quaff a few with them at the end of the day. Have you noticed how much our idea of heaven sounds like the lives we live now? Maybe we are in heaven already and don't know it. Some people might not know it. But then, some people have no appreciation for what they have. But it's not suprising that our notions of heaven, or of the divine in general, are a reflection of our culture and experience. Afterall, what other points of reference can we use? In fact, in preChristian Germanic thought, the heavens were most properly known as Esegeard (Old Norse - AsgardhR), and were perceived as existing in a special relationship with the world of man, known as Middengeard (Old Norse - MidhgardhR). Together they made up the "innangeard" (literally "inside the yard", cultivated/settled space), as a thing overlaid upon, but poignantly distinct from the "utangeard" (outside the yard, the wilds). Nothing in Germanic cosmology really existed entirely separate from anything else, being more a cosmology of wholeness and inter-relationship, where the accent was on synthesis over analysis, and the notion that Middle Earth sat at the centre of all this was not an expression of vanity, but an observation/acceptance of the fact of human subjectivity. In the end, whatever the "afterdeath" might hold is, probably, unlike anything we might perceive. And like you say, everything that we imagine heaven to be like can be had in some measure here on earth, in this life, so why begrudge life because it's not some neat and tidy little laboratory experiment? And of course the one thing you can't do once you're dead is represent yourself. This is your only chance for that. And not so much for the pleasure of some deity, though I'm sure they'd be tickled pink, but for the example you'll leave to your people amongst the living. It really must suck for some people ... to not be able to look back and know that they have done right by those that loved and/or trusted them, or to see only missed oppurtunity. What a waste. A life gone as though it had never existed ...

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 10 (view)

What is your idea of heaven? Posted: 7/27/2009 5:46:52 AM
I share the ideas of my Germanic ancestors; that Heaven is a vast and varied place, with differnt layers, and with the various halls of the various deities who entertain the greatest of men, each according to their own deific inclinations and interests be they war, craftsmenship, music/poetry, aethetics/sensuality, etc. But their would also be smaller more humble halls and abodes sprinkled across the the heaths of heaven, where more modest and common folk dwell ... with their their loves ones and kinsfolk. Ideally, I would be able to get into any of the halls of the deities to soaked up whatever each had to offer. Naturally, there would be a rough-and-tumble field in Heaven, in which, if someone slandered or insulted you, or if you just wanted to test yourself, you could scrap to your hearts content. And I ain't talking UFC here, though you could find that too, but I'm talking 5th century Germanic barbarian combat. And we'd kill each other. Buuuuut, at the end of the day we would all rise up, and return to the hall of the battle-god and all be happy and good with each other in the true spirit of sportsmanship ... (and a pint or two) ... even as we and ours plan out the following days raid on the opposition. I couldn't bare to suffer an eternity of everything going my way, or of sameness. Heaven would have to be diverse for me, and contain challenges and obstacles. But I would need the homebase too, the humble hall of kith and kin. That would come first and be most dear.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 14 (view)

UFC 101: Florian vs. Penn Posted: 7/23/2009 10:55:17 AM
Yep. He sure has. It was really surprising/impressive that Machida for one wasn't able to finish BJ, for all that he did win by decision. BJ's a tough dude. The difference of course is to be found in the attitude of the fighters. Florian has an excellent attitude and a strong work ethic. Penn ... not so much. And his martial talent only serves to shine a spotlight on all of his personality flaws.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 12 (view)

UFC 101: Florian vs. Penn Posted: 7/22/2009 6:16:56 PM
I'm pulling for Florian. You gotta admire a guy that puts on some 30 pounds of pure flab just to compete and then comes in second vs. a host of much larger athletes, ie. on the Ultimate Fighter. The only lightweight match I'm looking forward to more than this one is a Florian/Sanchez rematch.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 3 (view)

Floyd Mayweather takes a dumb cheapshot at UFC Posted: 7/22/2009 8:55:23 AM
Bah. I've grown up around black folk, competeing with black folk, and the truth is that it's all about numbers and oppurtunity, as opposed to somekinda "inherent ability" that Hollywood cooked up and rich little white boyz swallow without question. Boxing provides alot of poor black folks with oppurtunities they wouldn't otherwise have ... just like it did , once open a time, with Irish immigrants, or still does with Hispanics, or is doing with Eastern Europeans. In contrast, there are far less "white" kids entering into boxing. And those who are tend to have more oppurtunity, or at least the percpetion of such, outside of boxing and so act accordingly. So, if you have a group of 1000 people with no other oppurtunity, and measure them against a group of 100 people with plenty of other oppurtunities, then it is OBVIOUSLY going to be amongst the larger group that the greater talent emerges. But you put any black guy in a fight for his life against any white guy, and its anyone's ball game. As for Mayweather; he likes to talk smack against mma, which in and of itself is not so bad a thing, except for that he is unwilling to back it up ... prefering to pull a "reverse Lesnar" and chase a paycheck into the WWE. But everyone thinks they're the best, until their forced to ante up. And then we see what they're really made of. And we've seen what Mayweather is made of in the face of mma. Mayweather KNOWS mma is a threat to his legendary status, and so he'll avoid it like the plague no matter how much money Dana or anyone else offers. You can't pay him enough to take a beating like Sherk would give him in front of millions. It would destroy his image. And it would destroy the image of all boxers like him. So he does the only thing he can do ... he talks ... and talks ... and talks. Mayweather is unarguably an AWESOME boxer. He'll stay there ... where its safe.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 50 (view)

taking God out of School/Government..good/bad? Posted: 7/8/2009 2:35:25 PM
Have you ever heard of the "No True Scotsman" fallacy? You're employing it right now. Have you ever heard of the fallacy of generalization? Pigeonholing? Bigotry? Because that is what you're doing when you blame the deeds of a specific religion, or denomination thereof, on all religions regardless of their very evident differences, associations, and origins. To blame Shintoism for instance, or Buddhism, for the deeds of Catholicisms or Islam, makes about as much sense as charging you in the world court for Nazi war crimes ... because hey, you're human, or white, or male, or whatever, afterall. Accusing me of employing the "No True Scotsman" fallacy, simply reveals a gross misunderstanding of what I wrote born of ignorance regarding religion and human spirituality. You might have a point if I had of said "those weren't real Christians that did it". I however did not say anything of the kind; as anyone who knows that religion extends far beyond the Abrahamic faiths ,and who simply scrolls back up and reads my post, can immediately tell you. Back that certainly underscores my point of why public schools should have a mandatory course on religion and human spirituality. The degree of ignorance surrounding it, amongst otherwise bright and critical minds, is ... simply disturbing.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 40 (view)

taking God out of School/Government..good/bad? Posted: 7/8/2009 6:15:54 AM
Really? How many crusades were conducted in the name of footy? How many inquisitions carried out in the name of zodiac signs? How many witches burnt at the stake? Sorry mate - no matter how you paint it, religion is squarely behind these atrocities. That's the problem with religious folk - if something good happens, religion gets credit; something horrible, and it's people's fault. Actually, "religion" isn't behind those atrocities at all. Specific brands of a specific religion were associated with those atrocities. Many atrocities have occured though that were not motivated by religion, amongst numerous beliefs systems, cultures, and creeds. Science has furnished us with some of the most atrocious weapons ever known to man ... nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons, to name but a few. One of the two dominant themes of nature, the other being nurture, is violence. From the most mind boggling interstellar phenomenon to single celled organisms, look where you will, and you will see violence. Violence is an inherent part of nature; human nature being no exception. You deny human nature at your own peril.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 23 (view)

the key to being happy Posted: 7/6/2009 5:53:01 PM
I think the key to being happy can be summed up in one word ... perspective. Most of us have it pretty damn good, but there is a general trend in society to devalue what we do have and yearn for all of the things we don't have. Must suck.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 20 (view)

When are you most happiest? Posted: 7/6/2009 6:53:02 AM
Hmmm ... When I watch my kid interact with others ... most of the time! Or when I see him beginning to master something ... including that arm-bar he threw on me a few weeks back! lol Other than that ... When I'm playing catch with my pal ... I love moving, I beat a dog all to hell when it comes to "go fetch". When I'm giving some random person a helping hand. When I'm with just the right lady sharing just the right moment ... though this is just too damn rare. And when I'm singing ... at least when no dust is bugging me. I dunno ... I'm a pretty happy/content guy. I have my sorrows, and allow them, but they're kinda good in a way themselves. Not in an of themselves of course, but a little bit of sorrow makes the good things better. :)

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 117 (view)

Does anyone have anything good to say about their EX? Posted: 7/6/2009 6:35:00 AM
I had a few months of absolute contempt for my son's mom after she left ... mostly due to some shadey circumstance surrounding her leaving. But certain things were settled between the men involved, and she has since gone on to marry that other man, and I'm good with him too. lol And you know, since she's my son's mom it's not like I can hate her. I love my son and she brought him into this world for me, and he is ... he's my son. And the boy deserves better than squabbling parents. I just look at our past more from a friends perspective rather than a "relationship" perspective, and look at how happy I was when I was with her ... which was increasingly depressed and and moody and morbid of thoughts. And I'm a better man than that. So, I thank her for being less of an Irishman than me, even though she's more Irish than me. Everybody's happier now and that's what really counts. And no, I would never get back together with her. She's precisely the wrong type for me.

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 15 (view)

taking God out of School/Government..good/bad? Posted: 7/6/2009 6:05:08 AM
I'm likewise of the opinion that public school is not the place for education in specific religions. At least not in a pluralistic societies, such as ours. However, an anthropological treatment of human spirituality and religion might not be a bad idea; if for no other reason then that is is a very significant part of the human experience, and people should have an idea of what it is they're really looking at when the run into some religion or another, rather than relying on Hollywood, Conan novels, Joe Atheist, or St.Christian Himself might have indoctrinated them with. But for the specifics of a specific religion or denomination thereof, hearth and home, and temple, are where it's at. And I mean, really, do you want to leave the subject of religion in the hands of the public education system???

jmars

Joined: 10/14/2006

Msg: 27 (view)

Dana Whites Says That He Sees Fedor Coming To The UFC Someday Posted: 7/5/2009 4:02:18 PM
Nah, Dana has a problem with the specifics of the contract ... the things Fedor's team is trying to get that are peripheral to Fedor and the actual fight. Like agreeing to sign Russian fighters and staging an UFC event in Russia. It's not just a straight Fedor will fight Couture and make X amount of dollars contract.

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