Odracirys

I have long been a fan of the idea of microstates. I think it lets good ideas flourish. You need to focus on those people who live within the same city or small number of cities, instead of focusing on how people feel 3,000 km away...whom you will never meet outside of some national campaign. The UAE could have been part of Saudi Arabia. Kuwait could have been part of Iraq. Singapore could have been part of Malaysia. I'd be for an independent Bali. I'm certainly for an independent Kurdistan. The UN lists the countries with the highest GDP per capita as Monaco, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Qatar, Norway, Macau, and Bermuda. Of those, only Norway is a relatively large country. But even Norway just has a bit over 5 million people. Macau and Bermuda aren't even full-fledged countries, but they act as microstates. The richest country in Africa appears to be the Seychelles...a small island nation which also has the smallest population of any African nation. It seems that more c...

It is really strange. When I joined Google+, I thought I would be writing about liberal ideas. Now, for those skimming through my posts, they might mistake me for a far-right conservative. I haven't changed that much, but I have been getting more and more fed up with what a very large percentage of "liberals" appear to be in this day and age. This group is often referred to as "Social Justice Warriors" (SJWs) and "regressive leftists". They are a group who will fight for almost any group that is a minority in the West (no matter if the group is conservative to the point of fascism). About the only minorities they won't fight for (and actively harass) are the minorities within the minorities...such as black conservatives (= Uncle Toms), Middle Eastern critics of Islam, etc. The SJWs are an extremely hypocritical bunch, and while far-right conservatives definitely represent a grave threat, this brand of liberal is no less dangerous, as they...

It looks like Google has gone full Social Justice Warrior (SJW) on us. I often like looking up information about Google Doodles to find out more about the person pictured. ( https://g.co/doodle/h9zb77 ) Well, here are some quotes from Wikipedia (and some of my comments) concerning what I found out about Yuri Kochiyama: "She is notable as one of the few prominent non-black Black separatists. Influenced by Marxism, Maoism, and the thoughts of Malcolm X, she was an advocate for many revolutionary movements." Interestingly enough, if Marxism and Maoism had gotten a foothold, there would be no Google today at all. "Then, they moved to New York in 1948, had six children, and lived in public housing for the next twelve years." Isn't it always the case that those who hate the system the most are the ones who irresponsibly procreate and live in public housing that is subsidized by the taxpayer? "Kochiyama in the mid-1960s joined the Revolutionary Action Mo...

Once upon a time, slavers ravaged the coastal towns of the European continent. Eventually, the response to that would include clear proof that the United States is not founded on a religion. Soon thereafter, European imperialism would become the driving force for the abolition of slavery around the world. Continue reading to learn more. The Barbary Slave Trade is a relatively small part of the Arab Slave Trade, which itself is only one part of the Islamic Slave Trade (which besides Arab slavers, includes Turks enslaving Europeans and Africans, Muslim invaders of India and Sub-Saharan Africa, Malay enslavers of local minorities, and other Islamic slavers). For example, the Arab Slave Trade may have enslaved up to 18 million people over its span (not including those born enslaved), while the Barbary Slave Trade enslaved some number over 1 million. Bear in mind that this number is three times the number of enslaved people (roughly 388 thousand) sent to the area of the United Sta...

When I was a Christian, I still had some semblance of logic.  I had questions, but they were never answered in any coherent way that would make the answers seem fair.  That definitely pushed me towards atheism, although I don't remember an exact moment of transition.  Anyway, here are two questions I had when I was a Christian: 1) Will pets (like the family cat) go to heaven? The answer I got was, "Yes."  I asked if animals go to heaven, and the answer was something like animals don't usually go to heaven, but my pet cat would go to heaven because it was something I wanted there, and God would give me whatever I wanted.  I don't think I said more, but I felt that was an incredibly unfair system, because my cat would be equally deserving to go to heaven even if she didn't have a human family that wanted it in heaven.  (Note that an answer of "No" would have also been incredibly unfair as well.) 2) Did Native Americans and other unreachable peopl...

This might come a little late, and it may be controversial (which isn't new for me), but I wanted to mention how I try to treat everyone the same in similar circumstances.  When police officers kill or otherwise hurt or harass people who did nothing wrong (or perhaps did something very minor), then I take issue and want them prosecuted to the full extent of the law.  However, when people commit crimes and then resist arrest, especially in a dangerous fashion, then I do not shed a tear when they are shot and killed. Such is the case with both Michael Brown (of Ferguson, who committed robbery and later wrestled with a cop for his gun, and after the gun went off and he fled, he again confronted the officer) and LaVoy Finicum (who illegally took over public property, said he would rather die then go to jail - that worked out for him! - and pretended to surrender to officers only to reach for his gun). When I see an outpouring of support for people like these, I wonder if the popul...

No Homo: How I'm a Genus of One. I have something to tell you, which I have not spoken about until now. You probably know that I'm not like everybody else. But honestly, it goes deeper than that. Let me try to explain. The truth is that while I am a person, I am not a human. Although there are multiple definitions floating around, in a philosophical and sometimes legal sense, a person is a self-conscious being, and people should enjoy rights. This sense is not species-specific. "Human", on the other hand, always refers to Homo. Specifically, Homo sapiens . And I'm no Homo. If you want my binomial name, it is Logicius symponeticus . I pronounce the genus name something like [lo 'g ɪ ki ɨs ], but I guess [lo ' dʒɪ ʃə s] is also fine. I discovered my species when I recognized that I am so divergent from humanity that I warrant my own grouping. It's not a preposterous concept at all. In evolution, it is not that one monolithic specie...