It doesn't matter what course you choose to take. If you leave the psychopaths in positions of power, then whatever system is used will only lead to further misery.

These problems can only be solved by the recognizing and removal of non-humans. I'd start at the banking level, remove the psychopaths from that system, undo usery, and then work down.

If the ability to experience empathy is a pre-requisite before one can be considered human, then Psychopaths are not human. They are a predator population which has embedded itself at the highest levels of power and social control. If you want to treat them kindly, then that's fine, but whatever happens, they need to be removed from their positions or we will continue to live in a state of war, poverty and misery.

-FL

I like your version of reality better than the one I live in. I'd sign up in a heartbeat if I felt you could deliver. :(

-FL

Thank you for the advice, but I'm going to ignore it. In fact, the more I learn, the more fascinating the world becomes and the less apathetic I grow. I certainly don't disagree that governments are incapable of imagination, but I don't see how that proves your point; 9/11 was utter Bruce Willis shlock designed for a low-brow TV addicted nation.

Maybe your books, people, experiences, practices and modes of thinking need to be updated?

Or maybe you need to avoid tap water? Fluoride poisoning is one of the leading causes of apathy.

-FL

Wrong. Scientific method is such a necessity because so many people refuse to do anything more than pay it lip service.

If you stop putting on a nice civilly compliant act of knowledge seeking and go and actually seek some knowledge, you'll be much richer for the experience. You'll be ostracized, of course, but only by a bunch of cognitively dissonant muggles utterly unworthy of any respect whatsoever, so who cares?

-FL

This reads like "Project Blue Book" crap, which was later admitted by those involved to be nothing more than a public relations lie factory.

A cursory flip through these documents reveals them to be a sampling of sleep-worthy accounts, (points of light in the sky which are easily identifiable as satellites or other mundane objects) and a collection of letters written by school children and un-balanced people along with the patient responses from overwrought defense officers charged with the duty of replying to this nonsense. -Along with a bunch of internal memos where clipped newspaper articles were circulated among government staffers.

Either New Zealand's military, police and air traffic officials are blissfully excluded from the rest of the planet which has lived through hundreds of events of a far more dramatic nature and which include multiple witness accounts including people who are not allowed to omit documenting their experiences.., or this whole release is carefully edited spin.

I mean, come on. This is published by a government! As anybody who has experienced anything to do with any government anywhere, the people involved must exist in a state filled with 800 pound gorillas and the game-theory proven reality is that never, ever sticking your neck out is simply the only way to survive as a civil servant.

The only interesting point in all of this is that somebody somewhere decided that spin was in fact needed. THAT means there is a fear that the population was threatening to become a little too informed and needed to be tucked back in.

I'd say that Richard Dolan is largely responsible for this response, and he's been soundly dealt with over the last year or so; a man who was once a premier UFO researcher of impeccable academic quality and grit has been given quite the mind-fuck lately with a lot of weird influences introduced into his life. (Creepy psyops people). He's been seduced into doing those idiotic TV shows for heaven's sake!

This kind of release would help along the impression that his work is just a bunch of bunk.

Oh well.

-FL

Somebody is clearly writing this nonsense.

If their insight into the reality of what makes the human mind react is this thin, then I can only imagine that the punchline/plot-twist/grand-finale is going to be just as campy and groan-worthy.

If they hadn't already softened up (force-fed) their audience with twenty years of the most embarrassingly and increasingly low-brow circuses humanity is capable of viewing without actually drooling into their popcorn, I'd venture to guess that nobody would buy any of this farce.

-FL

If you want to see how much traction false media stories can achieve, just look at pretty much every second news item.

This is why discussion forums are so important; so that people from diverse backgrounds can network and compare notes and at least make an attempt to figure out what is really going on.

News stories are usually, I find, only valuable in terms of meta-information which can be used to extrapolate reality. Deliberately poisoning the mix with lame information is nothing new, the only difference here is that in this particular case, we've been let in on the starting point of the corruption.

-FL

You just described half the people I've known over my lifetime. Why would I expect socially advanced humans to grace the screen just because they happen to be in space?

And that was the very reason I couldn't stand BSG. Petty, self-serving, over-wrought people doing stupid things. I know art imitates life, but I'm loath to watching sad people do painful things on my computer screen when I can do that just by walking around downtown. It takes work to be happy and successful in life, and I want to see some decent examples, not a bunch of fictitious people mired in misery. I want to see people being their very best. That's why STTNG was so great! (Though, those old episodes seem extremely dated and abrupt today).

SGU, with all its high production values, was a huge leap over the super-fluff SG series, but where it won out in increased attention to detail, both social and technical, it lost through being so hopelessly derivative. It seemed like a production company's attempt to cobble together aspects from fan favored items, (BSG in a big way, and that Summer Glau clone who was even playing a character like River and that Terminator). The whole thing was disingenuous. Any good things in it were accidental bits of story which evolved on their own, though so many of the script ideas were Star Trek re-treads asking the question, "What if inadequate, burned-out miserable people were faced with Star Trek problems? Maybe the public will like that. They sure ate it up in BSG."

The one thing which did interest me was a bit of meta-story.

If the old SG1 McGyver crew were to have been dumped on the Destiny, they would have wrapped up the whole adventure in one or two episodes. They wouldn't have gotten stuck out in space for months on end. Why? Because they were happy and brilliant mythical figures and they would have found solutions. There was an episode where Young was being upbraided by McGyver for dragging his ass on the mission, and I was thinking, "Yeah, if McGyver had been there, none of this crap would have happened." -Now, I know it was not done on purpose, but it struck me that maybe when characters are happy, advanced and brilliant, their adventures just seem fluffier and more up-beat as a direct result of the character's outlook. Perhaps misery is linked to ones level of social advancement? I mean, honestly, can you see any of the old SG1 crew acting like selfish, whiny pricks?

Me neither.

The annoying part was that just as the characters in the show began showing some decent qualities, just as they were pulling together, and just as they were beginning to question the nature of reality itself, that's when the show got canned.

-FL

Those who haven't yet figured out that FOX News is for fools are, regrettably, too stupid to live, as is currently being demonstrated by the all-powerful engine of Reality which is at this very moment gobbling up your rights, homes, savings, jobs, food and fairly soon, your bodies.

So moving right along. . .

While FOX News ranks at the very tippy-top on the American Propaganda charts, it remains a further regrettable truth that NO news on TV is any damned good. There are huge realities which the human media shies away from like a powerless mother incapable of dealing a child's disobedience, or perhaps the horrible truth of a molesting father. In the same way, the media pretends a whole raft of astonishing truths simply do not exist, all in order to keep this weird little charade we call, "normal" puffed up with just enough air to keep all the slaves limping toward the death camps.

The result is that our entire society is completely mind-fucked. Surviving day to day in a state of cognitive dissonance where everybody is either acting with a fake smile or is so lost that they really believe their actions and minds are their own. We must pity those fools; They are the ones who spend time actually watching FOX News with a straight face.

-FL

Well. . , I don't know how I'd define "Insanity" exactly, but a certain level of cognitive dissonance certainly seems to be required to enter into military work. But it's a state, I think, that one can emerge from.

In any case, laws and procedures don't make something sane. They just make it easy to feel like one is part of a rational entity while performing insane functions. I'm sure the cells in a mad man's muscles are little different than those in any other person.

Though in this instance, some of those cells seemed to be getting quizzical looks on their faces. I noted the part in the article where, "The defense official said blocking the New York Times was a misinterpretation of military guidance to avoid visiting websites that post classified material."

But as for Slashdot spiraling downward into the depths of ignorance. . .

I would very much like to argue with you on that point. I can't! I think it's a symptom of several larger problems. Fortunately, there are numerous examples of Slashdotters who are moving in the opposite direction. For some, seeing the world sink provides exactly the kind of Grist for the Mill which feeds the machine of awareness.

-FL

I'm sure the first typeset stories were pretty impressive. People probably wanted to see them and go, "Ooh. Ahhh!" simply for the production techniques.

While that was probably a fun period, it's also fun being able to live in a world awash with books where the quality of story-telling is the important thing, not the typesetting.

-FL

You want to know where the next terrorist act will take place?

Just ask the Mossad.

Fer feck's saik!

Is anybody really still fooled by this bullshit? Because, as we know, governments NEVER plan in secret or attempt to manipulate the populace.

Why haven't those monsters been hauled out by their scrotums yet?

Sheesh.

-FL

What's the deal with battery chemistry, anyway?

I mean, correct me if I'm wrong or if I'm missing information, but the whole idea behind a battery is that there are more electrons in the plate of metal at one end than there are at the other, right? The electrolyte just frees up the electrons and lets them move from one end of the battery to the other. So any fluid which allows a metal to break down and which can transport electrons is doing the job; even potato or lemon juices work.

So what exactly is so special about Lithium? What's wrong with salt water? Or lemon juice? --I'm not saying that I have some superior insight here, I'm honestly asking. And please don't jump in with the assumption that just because it is in use means it's the best idea and that I need to be punished for not agreeing with the herd; I need thinkers and skeptics here, not true believers.

Also, I've heard that regular Alkaline batteries can be recharged if you rig a charger to do it in stages with cool-down periods in between. That Alkaline chemistry doesn't fart out like Lithium does.

The conspiracy guy inside me is very dubious about all of this and wants to say that the industry is deliberately picking battery chemistry in order to maintain sales. (I mean, when you do the math, these rechargeable lithium batteries end up costing quite a lot more than alkaline in the long run.)

So what gives? Is there a valid reason for Lithium to sit between the metal plates rather than any other medium?

And. . .

Wouldn't it also make sense to just replace the plates and mineral water to a battery rather than try to recharge them? I'm not saying it should be done that way, but is there anything about that which makes it a poor option? Metal and minerals are pretty darned portable and water is pretty abundant. . .

-FL

You think I've not considered this? Trust me; I've given it long hard thought.

Psychopaths are not people. They never were. This is entirely new. It's not racism, or nationalism or jingoism or propaganda or class warfare. No. This is a medical, clinically measurable reality. This is NEW.

It appears that you have done no real thinking or research on this subject whatsoever. You need to inform yourself. Also look up "Stockholm Syndrome" whilst you're at it. Do you understand who you are protecting here? Monsters. Abusers. Rapists. Murderers. And yes, those masquerading as fanatic idealists who, really, are just more sociopathic egomaniacs using chaotic social climates to find personal benefit.

Saying that sociopaths stop at "What benefits ME, personally" as though this were some sort of consolation or that it means they do not have a hand in the political sphere is, I'm sorry, entirely wishful and naive. Did you not read the article this story is attached to? Go back and read it and ask yourself if that psychopath stopping at "What benefits ME, personally" would have been a valid excuse to not identify and deal with him. If he had decided, as many clearly do, to seek "personal benefit" through the climbing of political ladders, (where there is great wealth, ego-power and the opportunity to bully and torment people to be gained), then do you think that, "What benefits ME, personally" will allow a real human standing in the way to escape unscathed? Or entire populations?

Apply some deductive reasoning please.

That's because you are not using reason yet. How would you know where the line of reason is if you don't even understand what basic sociopathy encompasses?

I know that suggesting that we identify and destroy certain individuals is upsetting. Society has followed the road of dehumanizing people in order to justify genocide before. It's horrific. And that is what a purge looks like at the hands of a political psychopath. This is very different. For one thing, I am not dehumanizing anybody. If compassion is an essential part of the human equation, as I believe it is, then psychopaths were not human to begin with. Further, I have no desire to torment or extract punishment or pain. I just want to identify and remove non-humans from circulation because they are KILLING us. -Not metaphorically. Not in some jar-headed racist notion of the term. I mean Directly. They are directly responsible for the destruction of humanity both in the small sphere and the large. It is a plain fact that psychopaths cause harm as a basic function of their being, they cannot be rehabilitated, and they will not stop if they do not have to. If you don't want to kill them, then that's fine. Identify and contain them. That alone would prevent enormous suffering. We wouldn't have to go to war anymore. This is a world-wide issue.

This is what you need to understand. . . All of the old models of thinking about managing society fail because they assume that all the participants are Human Beings capable of compassion. We KNOW now that this is NOT the case. If we solve this oversight, then we solve just about everything.

-FL

You didn't finish your sentence, but I'll go ahead and assume you meant to imply that not having a certificate in a given field means that I am not allowed to think or speak about a subject. That's bullshit. If you disagree with me, go for it, but I'm afraid pulling the idiotic, "Are you a doctor?" argument isn't going to work here. Are you a mathematician? No? Then you're not allowed to discuss math. Are you an astrophysicist? No? Then you're not allowed to discuss the solar system. This is a PUBLIC discussion forum, not a court of law.

In any case, the term "Psychopath" "sociopath" "Narcissist" are indeed labels which have numerous definitions depending on who you read. I'm only talking about those who were born incapable of experiencing compassion. Those who CHOOSE to suppress emotion are a whole other ball of wax, and I feel comfortable leaving them in the purview of the legal system. (Though, I'd feel a lot better if we purged the legal system of psychopaths first.)

You're both wrong and you're splitting hairs at the same time. I would recommend a battery of "Diagnostic" (See? I used your word. Happy?) personality tests which look for warning flags, followed up with imaging scans which would determine whether or not the frontal lobe is active in a given subject.

I agree. It's a huge hair ball of a challenge and one which is not best serviced by error-capable humans. But it is necessary. We identify child molesters and track them, we don't let them become teachers, etc. The issue here is that we are talking about a non-treatable genetic condition resulting in shrewd calculating biological machines with no community value, who by default, are highly destructive. AND we can start tracking from the moment of detection. We should make such tests mandatory for high public offices and law-enforcement professionals. (At which point, who cares about the label you choose? If there the person is only wearing the mask of sanity, they should be prevented from entering any office, period.) Further, if we prevented these types of biologicals from infesting our community systems, (including the medical and medical insurance fields), then I suspect misuse of these kinds of regulatory powers would be nowhere the problem it is today.

Of course it's unethical. But I'm not talking about killing people. If you are a calculating shark in human form with no possibility of understanding ethics, let alone compassion, then you are not a person. You are a dangerous animal which should be treated as such. Extending compassion to biological Turing machines (which would kill you if they got the chance to do it and get away with it) is foolhardy. But I DO understand the difficulties you are expressing, and those difficulties are exactly why the psychopath has been able to flourish and destroy our world. We are fooled into having compassion for them, over and over. What I am suggesting is that we inject clinical reason into the equation. This can absolutely be done without sacrificing our human qualities. Through education and study, we can learn to understand the problem and solve it. If we don't, we continue to suffer.

Yup. This is absolutely true. Which is why people involved in the process would have to be among the very first to undergo a battery of tests. This problem is not beyond our ability to understand and solve.

No. If you knew the subject, you would recognize that this particular behavior trait is well-recognized among those who study and write about the condition. I'd urge you to do some reading on the subject. Hare and Cleckley are two good starting points.

Yes, seriously. And by the way, a point is not invalidated simple by repeating a claim with your eyebrow raised. You write well enough to know better than that, I think.

You must agree that diagnostics are best performed when there is a large amount of sample data to work with, right? After 8 years in office, the sample of publicly available observed behavioral data for Bush and Cheney is absolutely enormous. And no, I am not a psychologist, but I am smart and informed, and I am wise enough to consider the opinions of those who DO hold such training and who have made exactly the determinations I am reporting here. Again, it sounds like you could benefit from researching the subject.

You're right. Executing mentally ill people is wrong. But Psychopaths are not ill. They are functioning perfectly according to their nature. I'm advocating controlling a predator population, like wolves or coyotes. Just because they look human, doesn't mean they are. Don't be fooled; that's exactly how they work, by exploiting the assumption that real humans make about them. This isn't make-believe. This is a real situation and it has been studied extensively. It is now time to use that knowledge. We need to test our politicians and power brokers. If you don't want to kill them, then fine. But maybe it would be a good idea at the very least to prevent them from crashing the economy, starting wars for profit, and filling the Gulf with oil and toxins and ignoring/harassing those who are dying as a result?

I'll go away when people like you wake up and start taking the problem seriously. Start by learning about the subject you are reacting against. You'll find it helps. Knowledge does that.

-FL