Comments

Episode-1514- Listener Calls 2-6-15 — 27 Comments

  1. I think a key difference in the Chris Kyle versus Brian Williams debate; Kyle was paid to kill people, Williams is paid to presumably tell us the truth.

    • Given how the “truth” the media tends to tell is used and the motivations behind it, I fail to see much of a difference.

  2. On the gay marriage comments at the beginning of the show, one point: The specifics of the case I’m aware of nobody was saying ‘we won’t serve gay people’. Rather, it was specific to a wedding cake, that the baker felt there was a moral issue on them ‘being involved’ or ‘supporting’ the idea of two homosexual people being married, by making them a cake for the wedding. If that same person came in asking for a box of donuts, my understanding and expectation is that they would have gotten their donuts.
    I don’t know that I’d make that call, but I think there is an arguable distinction there. Again, I don’t know how much difference that distinction makes to folks, but I think there’s a big difference between ‘we won’t serve…’ this or that group – and we won’t make a cake for this particular type of event because we have a moral understanding or belief on that matter.
    That said, I agree it’s not the governments business to decide who can do what with whom any more than it’s their business to destroy a business for their moral convictions. For that matter it’s not governments business to say what marriage is and isn’t in the first place.
    Just my perspective…

    Mick

    • Mick here is my point, it should not matter.

      I find the owner to be a bigot, but I support his right to be a bigot. If he wants to refuse service to a gay person so be it, let the market judge his actions. If he wants to refuse to serve me because I am a redneck fine, I will get my donuts elsewhere. If he wants to say “no soup for you” because he simply feels I don’t appreciate the quality of his product fine. It doesn’t matter, no one should have to provide service to anyone IF THEY OWN THE COMPANY and IF THE COMPANY IS PRIVATELY HELD.

      That is all, the end, done. If that was the case half of the bullshit we hear in this space would never happen.

      As to the gay people who sued. They are either idiots or puppets or both. I swear to God this is the dumbest shit I have ever heard. Spouts just put up a sign denying my right to carry. Fine bitches! I didn’t sue, I posted a picture of this picture and suggested that those of us that believe in right to carry, simply don’t shop there. I deny them my business and move on.

      These gay people that sue when a company won’t do business with them don’t know their own power. In all these situations I think people need to study this graphic!

      http://sadhillnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/the-people-dont-know-their-true-power-tc-cartoon-sad-hill-news.jpg

  3. I think there’s something to the geographic millennial syndrome. I grew up half an hour south of nowhere in Minnesota, where the primary exports were meth and plastic injection molded parts. For the poor half of us it was, “oh shit, there isn’t shit for opportunity here and I don’t want to end up like my parents [overweight, gray, missing teeth, alcoholic, and sometimes addicted to drugs] so I’m gonna freaking bust ass to make shit with my life.” The kids whose parents weren’t miserable and half stuck in the welfare trap also are busting ass.

    I think the entitlement mentality really gets entrenched when someone is forced (or *feels* forced, really) to get defensive over it because someone is attacking them for it, digging each side deeper into the ant lion trap of the false dichotomy. And it seems like the people I grew up with haven’t been in the world long enough for that to take effect (I’m only 20) plus I’m pretty sure there is a little bit of bullshit resistance there.

      • That’s the plan, as soon as I drag myself out of the backslide of my physically/financially/emotionally abusive family situation. Fortunately I have podcasts like yours to keep me positive while I work my way out of it.

  4. Haven’t finished the episode yet, but–Thank you Jack!!

    I’ve been arguing for a while now that people should be allowed to refuse to serve whomever they want–race, sexuality, strapping a gun to one’s hip–and then facing the consequences.

    Incidentally, pretty much a non-sequitor:
    The Atari…
    The web series I’m in shot some scenes in a game store that had a couple of displays. Not having had a video game console for over a decade, I was completely at a loss at seeing some of the new releases.

    Then I look down at the “old” display case. “HEY!! Star Raiders!!”

    • You might like this. About 10 years ago when my son was in his mid teens we found a atari 2600 reproduction. Looked half sized and no cartridges. All the games were inside of it. Like 70 of them, centipede, combat, space invaders, river raid, missal command etc.

      It had two of the old school one button joysticks.

      So the kid and I hook it up and I clean his clock in ever game we played. Last time I had touched a video game had likely been about 20 years ago. He got very frustrated that despite being so good at all these new games his old man was just killing him in of all things atari.

      What made him the most pissed was combat, you know where you get a guy lined up and just smack his plain or tank over and over and over and over and over.

      How can you do this all with only one button and one controller, etc. LOL

      In the end there wasn’t a game he could beat me in, even the games I never played as a kid.

      This has me wondering how quickly certain skill sets erode. Sure this is just a stupid game but it is all technique, timing and muscle memory. How many old school skills have masters that might never be recreated?

      The rules of this stupid video game apply to carpentry, making spokes, black smithing, etc.

  5. hi, I was born in the 60’s and when in Jr. high school received a notice in the mail saying anyone inoculated this year need a booster shot for chicken pox and will not be allowed to enter the next school year without it. so my father sent me walking 8 blocks to my Dr to get the shot walking back i felt sick and feverish from the shot, my father called the Dr and he asked to look at how red was the area on my arm where I got the shot, it was light pink and the Dr. said good its working…
    When i started the next school year i found that i’m the only one in my homeroom with the form to turn in that i got the booster. the homeroom teacher did not know what i was talking about the notice. the noticed was not enforced and hell for all i know i was probably the only one stupid enough to hand in the form. The one person i knew that contracted chicken pox. was a year younger than our group and we all were exposed to him the day he got it. My friend Lisa his girlfriend was with him for 4 classes that day and i’m sure was kissing him at any given opportunity that day greatly increasing her exposure and was with him after school. Lisa and everyone in our group did not get the booster. and none of us in our group of say 6-8 kids got the chicken pox. very few if any in homeroom and choraliers held in the same room of 100 kids were exposed and did not get it.

  6. I generally take Jack’s advice and don’t pay attention to national news. For this reason, I have no idea who Chris Kyle is, or what he did. I know who Brian Williams is but didn’t know why he was in the news either.

    I find it interesting when I learn about things on this podcast that are in the news. The things that apparently everyone and their brother are talking about, but I’ve never heard.

    If I don’t pay attention to the news, it’s actually harder to follow the podcast on these days.

  7. Thanks for your response Jack (I kept the question general on purpose because I already have a fair amount of available advice specific to the local market and it’s more important for me to fully grok the universal risk management strategies first). I really like what you said about finding ways to add value as an alternative to lowering prices. Local merchants in Mongolia are not shy about adjusting prices (comes with the high-inflation/high-growth/rapid-change economy) but I would say very few of the businesses there that I’ve observed in my time there actually pursue adding value as their main way to stay competitive. Most just adjust prices.

    Interestingly enough, I would say more people than not among my friends and at work actually think it’s a cool endeavor. Perhaps some are just being polite, but most seemed to have their interest piqued by the idea. I’ve been thinking that perhaps that’s a good sign that more Americans are starting to reconsider their preconceived notions of how one becomes ‘successful’. Though on the down side, at the same time few seem to express any strong desire or motivation towards taking a chance or pursuing a dream beyond just ‘finding a better job’ or the like. Most want to ‘play it safe’ it seems, which as you point out is not all that safe. Or alternately they feel trapped by their career path (advice to engineers and tech professionals… many gov’t and gov’t contractor positions pay well but the nature of the work can lead to stagnation in important skill development!). While on the surface our jobs would be considered ‘good jobs’ (i.e. they pay well), apart from the pay nobody was all that excited to work here. Gov’t dysfunction runs deep, and I’d say in my short time here the most important things I’ve learned are various things NOT to do when managing or running an organization 😉

    – Nick

  8. I’d like to use the punchline ‘let them eat cake’, but I guess someone would want to boycott me for being politically incorrect.

    Strange days we’re living in. Strange days, indeed.

  9. A note on the attention deficit thing .. I somehow doubt that every so called human trait is really some disease or whatever .. but I have been listening quite a bit to the audio book of Swami Kryiananda called “money magnetisim”.
    He makes many points about what is true wealth and so on. He also mentions many businessmen who take to the spiritual path make rapid progress because of their discipline and ability to concentrate. I like this book and it’s many point and have been listening to parts of it over and over again lately ..

    I think it is quite true that meditation can help improve one’s ability to concentrate and it seems to be one of the many benefits of meditation and a good reason to consider meditation might be that one feels they have difficulty in concentrating or has the so called “attention deficit” ..

    Kriyananda was a disciple of Yogananda

    http://www.amazon.com/Money-Magnetism-Attract-What-Need/dp/1565891414

    “Offering simple but powerful techniques for attracting material and spiritual success, MoneyMagnetism is a practical, easy-to-understand guide, sure to produce results. Filled with fresh,new insights about how to attract true wealth, Money Magnetism goes far beyond the scope of other books each of the principles discussed can not only be used for wealth building, but alsohelps readers attract whatever they need in life, when they need it.

  10. Thanks for the most level headed and logical discussion on vaccines I’ve heard.
    I just have 1 question: why do you feel that the vaccine debate will just go away? I was thinking for a while that “they” were waiting for an excuse, and Disneyland gave them one.

    • Oh the debate will never go away, the hype around this cycle though is about to peter out.

      Get ready for a few weeks of ISIS will kill us all with “WWIII is coming with Russia over Ukraine” peppered in heavily.

      That cycle will run 2-6 weeksish and then something new will be brought to your attention.

      Time for a new round of bullshit soup is all. They can only scare you about something that doesn’t happen for so long and then it starts to wear off. Psyopps is a science, much like torture, do the same thing for too long and it stops working.

  11. I’m not seeing the link to the vaccine PDFs that was mentioned in this show. The ones from Merck, Phizer, and whoever else makes vacccines.

  12. Thank you for the reply Jack! I’ve got a real nice 40 gal steel drum I picked up for $5 to make comfry tee and sell. Now I know where I’ll be planting a lot of the comfry 🙂

    On a side question, should I put some kind of liner inside the drum? It was previously a drum that a bakery received their frosting in and is painted.

    Thanks Jack,

    Matt

  13. Jack you were talking about rotary dial phones. Growing up in the country in the 70s I can remember crank phones. The crank phones weren’t replaced with rotary phones until 1978.

  14. Some observations on the vaccine link: Seems to me the side effects of the vaccine’s are some of the exact symptoms of the virus you would be trying to avoid, and the the reason is that you are purposefully giving yourself the virus; albiet “attenuated. Also looking at some of the financial info it is interesting how much money they spend each year on Marketing vs Research and development. Example 2013- Marketing 11.9 million vs R&D 7.5 Million. I wonder why if their products are so successful why is there the need for such a large Marketing campaign every year?

  15. Hi Jack. I was diagnosed with ADD probably 12 or 13 years ago. The doc said that he had something that would help. He gave me Strattera (SNRI) and it was freaking amazing. I wasn’t even aware how bad I had gotten. It worked great for about 3 years then began tapering off in effectiveness. At 5 years, it was worthless. I’ve tried going back on it a couple of times in hopes that whatever ‘tolerance’ my body had built up would have diminished… it hasn’t. I’ve tried several of the other meds- none of which really did much of anything. Ritalin helped marginally, but I got tired of having to physically go to the Dr’s office to pick up a paper script each month. The last thing the doc said he wanted to try was an anti-depressant. I balked at that (last damn thing I need is something else screwing with my brain. lol).
    Unfortunately, nothing else has seemed to help and I’m currently just trying to manage it with regiment and ritual (Always put stuff in the same locations, post-it notes, etc.) It helps, but things always seem to slip through the cracks so to speak. I often joke that I can hide my own Easter eggs. 🙂
    You mentioned being able to learn things that you WANT to learn. Yeah, I do the same thing. A lot.

    Anyway, thanks Jack. I genuinely enjoy your show. Best to you and yours. 🙂

  16. Since diagnosis last month with ADHD and OCD, I am 9 sessions into a neurofeedback protocol to treat the diagnosis and to make my brain work better. In neurofeedback, the patient is hooked to an EEG and the desired brainwaves are used to progress through a simple video game. With positive feedback, the brain changes itself based upon the phenomenon of neuroplasticity. Neurofeedback is expensive and often not covered by insurance; it can cost $5000 without insurance for 40 training sessions. Some of the neurofeedback games are based on Pac-Man, btw. Incidentally, the video game was invented in New Hampshire. I once rented a house that was next door to a mansion that was once owned by the inventor of Pac-Man (according to local lore; Wikipedia says otherwise).
    I have never tried Adderall. I have been drinking tea and coffee since a child in lieu of medications. I stopped daily caffeine a few months back but I still consume it on occasion. I also use nootropics like aniracetam and piracetam. I found going gluten-free and then Paleo to be extremely helpful. I also found that my symptoms are aggravated by drinking alcohol for a day or two afterwards.
    Speaking of video games, I am reminded of a scene from the movie “Survivors” with Robin Williams (1983) where William’s character, a “survivalist” as portrayed in the mass media, was ranting on how everything was going to hell in a hand basket; everything was getting worse and he then asked his teenage daughter to name one thing that was getting better. She declared emphatically that video games were getting better.

  17. For the caller with ADHD, I would recommend looking at the GAPS Diet (Gut And Psychological Syndrome). I have had success myself using it to treat depression/anxiety, insomnia, and autoimmune disease. I also know people using it for Celiac’s and Autism.

    Being an ecological farmer, I find it fascinating the parallels between the GAPS Diet (which is about fixing the chemistry of your body by repopulating/balancing the microbiology in your gut to enable proper digestion and absorption) and permaculture/biological farming methods that also focus on soil microbiology for the health of the plants….the soil is the plants “digestive system.”

    If you are interested in GAPS, I highly recommend finding someone to help guide you through the processes. It is a very difficult “lifestyle” to get started correctly on your own!