EXOTIC FOREIGNER ALIAS: (Favorite Spice + Last Foreign Vacation Spot)
Cinnamon Tours
SOCIALITE ALIAS: (Silliest Childhood Nickname + Town Where You First Partied)
Neener Nuts Springfield
"FLY GIRLGUY" ALIAS (a la J. Lo): (First Initial + First Two or Three Letters of your Last Name)
F-Ba
DIVA ALIAS: (Something Sweet Within Sight + Any Liquid in Kitchen)
Jellybean Karo
GIRLGUY DETECTIVE ALIAS: (Favorite Baby Animal + Where You Went to High School)
Cub Harrison
BARFLY ALIAS: (Last Snack Food You Ate + Your Favorite Drink)
Corn Dog Pina Colada
SOAP OPERA ALIAS: (Middle Name + Street Where You First Lived)
Coffman Fox
(PORN STAR ALIAS: (First Pet's Name + Street You Grew Up On)
Dixie Park
Your Jedi Name:
First name: First three letters of your first name, first two letters of your last name
Last name: first two letters of mother's maiden name, first three letters from city of birth
Title: last three letters of last name, backwards, first three letters of make of first car, OF, last medication taken.
Fraba Comou, of Yelfirzer
-Frank
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
25 Random Things About Me.
1. The only party I remember being
invited to in high school ended up with me singing Weird Al songs from a
high place while everyone laughed. With me or at me I'm not sure.
2. Being an atheist, I am probably not going to ever enter a church again unless it's for a wedding or a funeral. If it's my own wedding, I'll have to try for an Oscar at the religious parts, but that'll be the least of my problems if that day comes, trust me.
3. I got kicked out of a Catholic Church in Springfield once for taking communion while not being a Catholic. The person who invited me there really should've explained that being a no-no.
4. When I was in kindergarten, I got punched by a coach for defying his orders to get on the monkey bars as part of P.E.
5. I have a superstition about Walgreens kitchenware. The stuff is cursed, I swear. NOTHING works right for long from that store's kitchen section. It all falls apart or simply fails to function outright.
6. I can't chop wood. Something must be lacking in the technique, because all I do is create dents in wood.
7. If I could, I would audition for American Idol. I'd get laughed off, but I just want to hear what Simon would come up with.
8. I am amused every time I hear chefs complain about having to bake on Food Network. Yeah, all your speed and multitasking won't save you now bitch.
9. Lemon meringue pie is my culinary kryptonite. Only when I have conquered this troublesome pastry will I feel I have fully mastered baking.
10. Song lyrics are often open to hilariously incorrect interpretation in my hands. Example: I lean against a zebra while you get your tetrahedron and you get it while it's goin' but not while it's for free and all your sister Christians singin' 1-2-3: real lyrics, I ain't got a fever; got a permanent disease and it'll take more than a doctor to prescribe a remedy I got lots of money, but it isn't what I need gonna take more than a shot to get this poison outta me and I got all the symptoms count 'em 1 2 3.
11. My best physical feature is my hair, which I'm losing, and my worst physical feature is my weight, which I'm not.
12. I think I can sing in Latin and German respectively when I hear Adeste Fideles and O Tannenbaum.
13. I peeled, quartered, and shocked with ice water over 20 pounds of turnips recently and I didn't have to eat a single one. Get is not the word to use in reference to turnips. They are definitely a have food.
14. The only reason I want a lawn is so I can put a smoker and grill out on it. Also a fire pit like Kate and Vic have would be nice. S'Mores a poppin'!
15. I recently learned through Shinga (a webcomic artist and livejournal writer I have come to follow) that there is a website dedicated to 80s T-shirts. This could have a serious effect on my disposable income for a while.
16. If I wasn't pretty sure they'd be terribly uncomfortable, I'd wear a monocle.
17. I have watched and liked exactly three animes ever that I liked. Dragonball Z, Cowboy Bebop, and Lupin the Third. Dragonball Z is silly and infinitely mockable, I must note.
18. My Starbucks order takes ten words to say. Am I officially a yuppie?
19. I once had a gaming room decorated and built expressly for that purpose, complete with dice jars and a handmade table. The gaming community in Northwest Arkansas sucked though, so it existed as a mausoleum to a formerly great hobby for three years that I lived there.
20. I own a black pipe from a company called Dunhill. It is among my most prized possessions.
21. I bought a baker's shelf to lighten up the storage load in my kitchen and the thing is still overflowing with equipment.
22. I have been informed never to return to Disney World unless I'm with a kid. Last time I went, I was 12. If I go again, the magic may be gone without at least someone having that sense of wonder.
23. I had a dog briefly named Simon. He was named after Firefly's Simon Tam and, if he hadn't had to be put down due to a disease called globoid leukodystrophy, i would've eventually gotten a second dog and named her River.
24. My Hotmail account (frankcritic@hotmail.com) was originally made in college to refer to me being the school newspaper's movie critic. Now it just sounds like I'm hypercritical or something.
25. Saturday morning cartoons will never return to their former glory. Why do kids even get up at all on Saturdays now? I used to be up at 5:30 so I could eat real quick before CBS' lineup started.
-Frank
2. Being an atheist, I am probably not going to ever enter a church again unless it's for a wedding or a funeral. If it's my own wedding, I'll have to try for an Oscar at the religious parts, but that'll be the least of my problems if that day comes, trust me.
3. I got kicked out of a Catholic Church in Springfield once for taking communion while not being a Catholic. The person who invited me there really should've explained that being a no-no.
4. When I was in kindergarten, I got punched by a coach for defying his orders to get on the monkey bars as part of P.E.
5. I have a superstition about Walgreens kitchenware. The stuff is cursed, I swear. NOTHING works right for long from that store's kitchen section. It all falls apart or simply fails to function outright.
6. I can't chop wood. Something must be lacking in the technique, because all I do is create dents in wood.
7. If I could, I would audition for American Idol. I'd get laughed off, but I just want to hear what Simon would come up with.
8. I am amused every time I hear chefs complain about having to bake on Food Network. Yeah, all your speed and multitasking won't save you now bitch.
9. Lemon meringue pie is my culinary kryptonite. Only when I have conquered this troublesome pastry will I feel I have fully mastered baking.
10. Song lyrics are often open to hilariously incorrect interpretation in my hands. Example: I lean against a zebra while you get your tetrahedron and you get it while it's goin' but not while it's for free and all your sister Christians singin' 1-2-3: real lyrics, I ain't got a fever; got a permanent disease and it'll take more than a doctor to prescribe a remedy I got lots of money, but it isn't what I need gonna take more than a shot to get this poison outta me and I got all the symptoms count 'em 1 2 3.
11. My best physical feature is my hair, which I'm losing, and my worst physical feature is my weight, which I'm not.
12. I think I can sing in Latin and German respectively when I hear Adeste Fideles and O Tannenbaum.
13. I peeled, quartered, and shocked with ice water over 20 pounds of turnips recently and I didn't have to eat a single one. Get is not the word to use in reference to turnips. They are definitely a have food.
14. The only reason I want a lawn is so I can put a smoker and grill out on it. Also a fire pit like Kate and Vic have would be nice. S'Mores a poppin'!
15. I recently learned through Shinga (a webcomic artist and livejournal writer I have come to follow) that there is a website dedicated to 80s T-shirts. This could have a serious effect on my disposable income for a while.
16. If I wasn't pretty sure they'd be terribly uncomfortable, I'd wear a monocle.
17. I have watched and liked exactly three animes ever that I liked. Dragonball Z, Cowboy Bebop, and Lupin the Third. Dragonball Z is silly and infinitely mockable, I must note.
18. My Starbucks order takes ten words to say. Am I officially a yuppie?
19. I once had a gaming room decorated and built expressly for that purpose, complete with dice jars and a handmade table. The gaming community in Northwest Arkansas sucked though, so it existed as a mausoleum to a formerly great hobby for three years that I lived there.
20. I own a black pipe from a company called Dunhill. It is among my most prized possessions.
21. I bought a baker's shelf to lighten up the storage load in my kitchen and the thing is still overflowing with equipment.
22. I have been informed never to return to Disney World unless I'm with a kid. Last time I went, I was 12. If I go again, the magic may be gone without at least someone having that sense of wonder.
23. I had a dog briefly named Simon. He was named after Firefly's Simon Tam and, if he hadn't had to be put down due to a disease called globoid leukodystrophy, i would've eventually gotten a second dog and named her River.
24. My Hotmail account (frankcritic@hotmail.com) was originally made in college to refer to me being the school newspaper's movie critic. Now it just sounds like I'm hypercritical or something.
25. Saturday morning cartoons will never return to their former glory. Why do kids even get up at all on Saturdays now? I used to be up at 5:30 so I could eat real quick before CBS' lineup started.
-Frank
Things I Wish I'd Said To My Exes
Strap In.
This one is going to be mean.
I will at least try to keep the misogyny to a dull roar.
1. You know how you're afraid your sister is hotter than you? She is. Know who else is? Your mother.
2. If you want me to cheer you up every single day over every little thing, how about I make you cry? Reverse psychology don't you know?
3. If you make me overdraw on my bank account again, I'm sneaking crumbled bacon into your food you vegetarian harpy.
4. You're crazy, and not in the good way. In the, "We the members of the jury find the defendent," sort of way.
5. I think your parents love me and you're lying to me about them complaining about me behind my back. They always act like they like me, and I'm not backing off if they're going to be dicks, so safe difference either way right?
6. I don't believe your stories. Any of them. At this point, I don't believe the name you've given me is a real one. Christ, you're worse than the Janitor on Scrubs.
7. Yes, you're fat. You are, in fact, fatter than my own fat ass. In that dress, in those shoes, after you eat salt, in a plane, in a train, with green eggs and motherfucking ham, you're a plus-sized Orca of a fat woman.
8. I'm just going to sit here and think of legal ways to make you cry.
9. Don't threaten to kill me you psychotic bitch. We both know you'd never set me completely free that way.
10. You know what, after a year of me reading books, taking sex and psychology classes, buying expensive equipment, and trying just about everything under the Sun to try and get you off, if you still can't maybe that's your fucking problem.
11. You have enough clothes and for fuck's sake you're in college and could get by on pajamas alone with your lifestyle. Quit begging for money.
12. Yes. You hate my mother. I get it. Can we move on please? Not that she doesn't hate you too, as does nearly everyone I knew before you, but still.
13. If you keep trying to manipulate me, I'm going to Just For Him and smoking something that tastes better than your vagina.
14. I made promises I couldn't keep about self-improvement. You cheated on me twice and had lesbian affairs that remain unnamed. The moral high ground is not yours.
15. You have the spine and moral integrity of a Jew in 1941 Poland showing the Nazis where all the other Jews are hiding.
16. Good God almighty, never spawn. Your children will grow up in a house of madness.
17. It's surprising, I know, but telling endless stories about how much better every other guy you've ever been with was in bed than me is fucked up psychologically abusive behavior.
18. Honesty is, believe it or not, applicable in situations where it does not make you feel better.
19. I've been having dreams where you die in horrible ways. I'm hoping dreams are a window into alternate realties and these are really my own personal you snuff films.
20. You know how you like cutting yourself during sex and playing with the blood? I hope whoever you're with in the future thinks he's a vampire and that, when you inevitably manage to find an artery, he chokes to death trying to drink it and it gets infected and you die from the infection, which will also be incredibly painful. And the hospital's out of painkiller. And bullets to bite on.
21. People should try to not to mispronounce words and that's a noble ideal to have. Punching people because they mispronounce words is not acceptable behavior though. You abusive cunt.
22. Knocking people around from the moment they are a passenger in your car by driving so erratically that they don't even have the chance to get the seat belt on is also abusive behavior, not to mention passive-aggressive bullshit.
23. Punching people for saying songs you don't like on iTunes? Also not okay.
24. Your hair is not a unique snowflake. It is like steel wool and smells funny.
25. Get the hell out of my home and enjoy the freefall in your standard of living that will ensue you ungrateful bitch.
-Frank
This one is going to be mean.
I will at least try to keep the misogyny to a dull roar.
1. You know how you're afraid your sister is hotter than you? She is. Know who else is? Your mother.
2. If you want me to cheer you up every single day over every little thing, how about I make you cry? Reverse psychology don't you know?
3. If you make me overdraw on my bank account again, I'm sneaking crumbled bacon into your food you vegetarian harpy.
4. You're crazy, and not in the good way. In the, "We the members of the jury find the defendent," sort of way.
5. I think your parents love me and you're lying to me about them complaining about me behind my back. They always act like they like me, and I'm not backing off if they're going to be dicks, so safe difference either way right?
6. I don't believe your stories. Any of them. At this point, I don't believe the name you've given me is a real one. Christ, you're worse than the Janitor on Scrubs.
7. Yes, you're fat. You are, in fact, fatter than my own fat ass. In that dress, in those shoes, after you eat salt, in a plane, in a train, with green eggs and motherfucking ham, you're a plus-sized Orca of a fat woman.
8. I'm just going to sit here and think of legal ways to make you cry.
9. Don't threaten to kill me you psychotic bitch. We both know you'd never set me completely free that way.
10. You know what, after a year of me reading books, taking sex and psychology classes, buying expensive equipment, and trying just about everything under the Sun to try and get you off, if you still can't maybe that's your fucking problem.
11. You have enough clothes and for fuck's sake you're in college and could get by on pajamas alone with your lifestyle. Quit begging for money.
12. Yes. You hate my mother. I get it. Can we move on please? Not that she doesn't hate you too, as does nearly everyone I knew before you, but still.
13. If you keep trying to manipulate me, I'm going to Just For Him and smoking something that tastes better than your vagina.
14. I made promises I couldn't keep about self-improvement. You cheated on me twice and had lesbian affairs that remain unnamed. The moral high ground is not yours.
15. You have the spine and moral integrity of a Jew in 1941 Poland showing the Nazis where all the other Jews are hiding.
16. Good God almighty, never spawn. Your children will grow up in a house of madness.
17. It's surprising, I know, but telling endless stories about how much better every other guy you've ever been with was in bed than me is fucked up psychologically abusive behavior.
18. Honesty is, believe it or not, applicable in situations where it does not make you feel better.
19. I've been having dreams where you die in horrible ways. I'm hoping dreams are a window into alternate realties and these are really my own personal you snuff films.
20. You know how you like cutting yourself during sex and playing with the blood? I hope whoever you're with in the future thinks he's a vampire and that, when you inevitably manage to find an artery, he chokes to death trying to drink it and it gets infected and you die from the infection, which will also be incredibly painful. And the hospital's out of painkiller. And bullets to bite on.
21. People should try to not to mispronounce words and that's a noble ideal to have. Punching people because they mispronounce words is not acceptable behavior though. You abusive cunt.
22. Knocking people around from the moment they are a passenger in your car by driving so erratically that they don't even have the chance to get the seat belt on is also abusive behavior, not to mention passive-aggressive bullshit.
23. Punching people for saying songs you don't like on iTunes? Also not okay.
24. Your hair is not a unique snowflake. It is like steel wool and smells funny.
25. Get the hell out of my home and enjoy the freefall in your standard of living that will ensue you ungrateful bitch.
-Frank
25 Most Offensive Article Topics
Here's how this works. I will come up with 25 hypothetical article topics
that are intended to get me yelled at more often than my standard fare.
From the title of the hypothetical articles, you should be able to get the
gist. From there, it works like a dare in reverse. Everyone will vote
for which one they actually want me to write and whichever one
wins, I have to write it. No exceptions. Voting can only be done by
people on my friend list, which are also the only people who can see it.
Mostly I'm doing this just to see how many people vote and also
because I'm curious if I can write something that actually offends
someone enough that it gets me physically wounded. That said, here are
the articles topics, pretty much off the top of my head.
1. My thoughts on pornography and when, if, and what age it's okay to be exposed to it.
2. The following people at Just For Him are worthless assholes I never liked but have shut up about until now.
3. Anime sucks, and here is why in great detail.
4. The world would be better off if the following people I know personally were never born.
5. My thoughts on global warming and environmentalist nitwits.
6. The following non-anime media franchises liked by my friends are worthless bags of fail.
7. Humans are superior to other animals and here's why.
8. All the people in high school I should have gotten in a physical fight with at some point.
9. All the people I made friends with whom I shouldn't have done.
10. The following women are all people I would've liked to hook up with during college.
11. I will name ten female porn stars and ten male porn stars without looking anything up just off the top of my head.
12. Top ten most doable animated characters.
13. The following songs that the rest of you seem to like suck.
14. The following women I know are fat.
15. These are my views of prostitution.
16. Pornography is superior to regular sex for the following reasons.
17. Why smoking should be allowed everywhere outside of hospitals and in baby's faces.
18. These are my views of drugs.
19. No holding back: Going medieval on religion's ass.
20. Pro-death: How deep the rabbit hole really goes.
21. Why freedom from other people's children is important.
22. Children should be able to defend themselves from bullies by any means necessary.
23. Selfishness: A virtue I will defend to the death.
24. Toys need to be dangerous again, a lot more dangerous.
25. A comprehensive explanation of my view on sex with all the gory details.
So there they are. Any one of those in its fully composed and highly offensive version could be written. To vote, simply leave a comment with the number of the article you'd like me to write. Voting lasts until 10:30 a week from this posting, after which all votes will be null and void. This should be fun.
-Frank
1. My thoughts on pornography and when, if, and what age it's okay to be exposed to it.
2. The following people at Just For Him are worthless assholes I never liked but have shut up about until now.
3. Anime sucks, and here is why in great detail.
4. The world would be better off if the following people I know personally were never born.
5. My thoughts on global warming and environmentalist nitwits.
6. The following non-anime media franchises liked by my friends are worthless bags of fail.
7. Humans are superior to other animals and here's why.
8. All the people in high school I should have gotten in a physical fight with at some point.
9. All the people I made friends with whom I shouldn't have done.
10. The following women are all people I would've liked to hook up with during college.
11. I will name ten female porn stars and ten male porn stars without looking anything up just off the top of my head.
12. Top ten most doable animated characters.
13. The following songs that the rest of you seem to like suck.
14. The following women I know are fat.
15. These are my views of prostitution.
16. Pornography is superior to regular sex for the following reasons.
17. Why smoking should be allowed everywhere outside of hospitals and in baby's faces.
18. These are my views of drugs.
19. No holding back: Going medieval on religion's ass.
20. Pro-death: How deep the rabbit hole really goes.
21. Why freedom from other people's children is important.
22. Children should be able to defend themselves from bullies by any means necessary.
23. Selfishness: A virtue I will defend to the death.
24. Toys need to be dangerous again, a lot more dangerous.
25. A comprehensive explanation of my view on sex with all the gory details.
So there they are. Any one of those in its fully composed and highly offensive version could be written. To vote, simply leave a comment with the number of the article you'd like me to write. Voting lasts until 10:30 a week from this posting, after which all votes will be null and void. This should be fun.
-Frank
The Subject Of Suicide
Here's the article that inspired a lot of what I'm going to say here, if you're interested. http://townhall.com/columnists/KathrynLopez/2009/04/17/suicide_isnt_a_painless_debate
So, I'm going to be advocating suicide in this one. If that's going to affect your blood pressure to the point where it might kill you, or at least shave off a few years of your life expectancy, you probably should just stop reading. Of course, regular article readers will know I'm pro-death in general. Hell, I consider abortions mercy killings, so much does life suck. However, I'll also talk about people like me in this article, by which I mean people who think life sucks just as much as someone who is suicidal typically does, yet aren't actually suicidal. Not killing yourself is an option I respect just as much as I respect the alternative and there are many valid arguments for it, just few that people actually tend to make. So in that sense, this will be a balanced article. For most of it, I'll categorize different types of suicidal people, starting with the most justifiable cases and moving down to more objectionable levels.
Terminally Ill/Chronic Pain Cases: Within this category, you have varying degrees. Guys like Kevorkian used to kill who would die in minutes without round the clock nursing care anyway, just because they keep almost swallowing their own tongue or something, to people who just have severe chronic pain that will never go away no matter what they do. Severe paralytics also fall into this category. People tend to be most okay with this form of suicide because it's pretty inescapable that these people live in hell. They can't do anything anymore because their condition is just too prohibitive. Dogs in their condition, hell, ANY SPECIES, other than their own, in their condition would be put down to ensure a merciful death, and you would face animal cruelty charges if you didn't, in fact. Personally, if I'm ever that bad off and you can kill me but you don't, I'm finding a way to haunt you.
A Comin' Cases: My clever name for these people is based on the fact that they're suicidal because they know something really bad is a' comin. Maybe the enemy army is about to overtake their castle, in olden days, so they fall on their sword, or maybe they just lost all their money in a market crash, in the modern era, so they eat a gun. Not all cases like this are so dishonorable. Some prisoners facing torture situations commit suicide rather than face more torment, something John McCain attempted at one point. Completely understandable. Other examples include murder suicides or suicide by cop, which I assume are self-explanatory.
Loser Cases: The difference between losers and the previous type is that a comin' cases know that something bad enough to kill themselves to avoid is imminent. Losers just don't have any more reason to stay alive. Maybe they don't have any kind of a career, no lovers, no kids, no friends, and sometimes not even any family. You might be tempted to call these people depressed, but people who are depressed are sad even when things are going good for them. In the case of the loser, it just sucks being him. There's no place in this world for him. No love, no mercy, no compassion, no pity. He's just an insignificant man neither loved nor needed by anyone. Why are you trying to convince him he shouldn't kill himself? How many guys like that do we need?
Mentally Ill Cases: The thing about mentally ill cases is that some people believe that everyone who wants to commit suicide is mentally ill. That makes no sense to me. Acting out of desperation or wanting to end suffering, for instance, isn't crazy. It's perfectly rational. Now maybe you insist that there's always a better way than killing yourself, but you can insist on anything by definition. Doesn't make it true. Sometimes it is the best possible option for both the person committing suicide and the society that shall be rid of them. Now, if you're talking actual mental illness, as in they're not actually capable of making rational decisions, that's different. People who are clinically depressed or bipolar or whatever are not making a rational decision if they kill themselves. Their madness makes that decision for them. So we should try and get them lucid if at all possible.
Sad Cases: These are cases where someone is simply sad about something, like a death, a temporary loss of employment, or even something as trivial as a band breaking up. Someone I know likes to say that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. For the most part, I agree with that on this level. The only defense I could make for suicide in these kinds of cases would be a Darwinian one, because it's pretty clear the weak are dying off and therefore not reproducing, but that's more relevant to my next category.
Suicidal Teen Cases: Okay, I realize defending teen suicide is kind of extreme, but we have enough teens already and I'm pretty sure most of the people who think they won't be missed are right. That said, I'm effectively against it, I guess, because I believe in parents having the right to make decisions regarding their children until they're 18, including decisions regarding killing oneself. I can easily imagine cases where I can sympathize with them though, because they sense they have no place in the world. Some of them don't fit in either at school or at home. They know a loneliness that you can only know in a school cafeteria. At one time, I would've told them things get better in college, but that's temporary. Workplaces are much like a high school, and they're going to get pushed around and picked on for the rest of their life if it's already happening. Whether that's enough reason to kill themselves, well, that's up to them. I've made my choice. They might make a different one.
Okay, now that I've spent a lot of the article defending suicide as a personal choice, I'll give you some reasons to live. I consider the conventional reasons to keep living, beauty, love, religion, not hurting your loved ones' feelings, nonsense. These reasons do not assume life doesn't suck, because it does. You'll be hard pressed to find someone more consistent on that than me. However, I continue to live. Here are a few reasons why.
1. Curiosity: You gotta admit, this is a great show. No matter what kind of life you're living, you never know what's going to happen tomorrow. New and interesting things are blowing up all the time on the macro and micro level. If you're pessimistic and think the world's just gonna burn here soon, stay and watch. They'll be enough guns around for a situational suicide if peril becomes imminent, don't worry.
2. Revenge: If you're like me, you know there are a lot of people out there whose life would be better if you were dead. Do keep in mind that you don't like these people. In fact, they suck. Why are doing them a favor? Whatever sort of suffering you're enduring by living, give back as good as you get. I say if other people would rather die than live in the same reality as you, you win.
3. Practical Reasons: Any form of suicide can fail. Know what happens after a failed suicide attempt? Life sucks worse than before! Think you'll get a second shot? No! Everyone will make sure of that. So you'll have less freedom and you'll be mangled or crippled or something. Fantastic. No, better to endure the slings and arrows of a natural lifespan than risk a failed suicide attempt.
4. Stubbornness: You want to make sure they win? Is that what you want? You know they they I mean. The ones that you've been pushed by your whole life and you've been pushing back. Doesn't even have to be actual people. It can be unseen forces or ways of your culture. Heck, even God. My mom offered me to move out of Harrison after 9th grade and go to school in Springfield, but I stayed because, whatever else I did, I wasn't running from those bastards. So now they'll never have that. Can't say they scared me off. Can't say they made me quit. No, I was there all through the spitting and the smacking and taunting. Sometimes they're still in my nightmares, their twisted twangs torturing my slumber, but I stayed until the end and not even the ghosts of the past can change that.
5. The Ending: Gotta know how it ends don't you? Sure you do. There are a heck of a lot of people betting against me right now. Some think I'm basically a retarded child man. Others think I'm a useless spoiled rich boy who won't ever do anything with his life. Still others root for me to fail because of my politics and the deeply immoral man they believe they make me. So we'll see how I end up. Will diabetes slowly eat away at me until I'm dead or well and truly wish I were? Perhaps medicine and my own discipline will mitigate things. Can I start Bailey's Bakehouse and make it work? Can I even get my first pastry job? You know what? None of it's certain. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves. The enemies and mistakes I've made in life are lined up against me and I stand ready to take them on. That's the real advice for any person out there who's actually suicidal. I'm not like the others, I respect and condone your decision...but maybe you shouldn't forfeit the game just yet. Maybe you're going to show the fuckers a thing or two and you just don't know it yet. Be a shame to miss that, is all I'm saying.
-Frank
So, I'm going to be advocating suicide in this one. If that's going to affect your blood pressure to the point where it might kill you, or at least shave off a few years of your life expectancy, you probably should just stop reading. Of course, regular article readers will know I'm pro-death in general. Hell, I consider abortions mercy killings, so much does life suck. However, I'll also talk about people like me in this article, by which I mean people who think life sucks just as much as someone who is suicidal typically does, yet aren't actually suicidal. Not killing yourself is an option I respect just as much as I respect the alternative and there are many valid arguments for it, just few that people actually tend to make. So in that sense, this will be a balanced article. For most of it, I'll categorize different types of suicidal people, starting with the most justifiable cases and moving down to more objectionable levels.
Terminally Ill/Chronic Pain Cases: Within this category, you have varying degrees. Guys like Kevorkian used to kill who would die in minutes without round the clock nursing care anyway, just because they keep almost swallowing their own tongue or something, to people who just have severe chronic pain that will never go away no matter what they do. Severe paralytics also fall into this category. People tend to be most okay with this form of suicide because it's pretty inescapable that these people live in hell. They can't do anything anymore because their condition is just too prohibitive. Dogs in their condition, hell, ANY SPECIES, other than their own, in their condition would be put down to ensure a merciful death, and you would face animal cruelty charges if you didn't, in fact. Personally, if I'm ever that bad off and you can kill me but you don't, I'm finding a way to haunt you.
A Comin' Cases: My clever name for these people is based on the fact that they're suicidal because they know something really bad is a' comin. Maybe the enemy army is about to overtake their castle, in olden days, so they fall on their sword, or maybe they just lost all their money in a market crash, in the modern era, so they eat a gun. Not all cases like this are so dishonorable. Some prisoners facing torture situations commit suicide rather than face more torment, something John McCain attempted at one point. Completely understandable. Other examples include murder suicides or suicide by cop, which I assume are self-explanatory.
Loser Cases: The difference between losers and the previous type is that a comin' cases know that something bad enough to kill themselves to avoid is imminent. Losers just don't have any more reason to stay alive. Maybe they don't have any kind of a career, no lovers, no kids, no friends, and sometimes not even any family. You might be tempted to call these people depressed, but people who are depressed are sad even when things are going good for them. In the case of the loser, it just sucks being him. There's no place in this world for him. No love, no mercy, no compassion, no pity. He's just an insignificant man neither loved nor needed by anyone. Why are you trying to convince him he shouldn't kill himself? How many guys like that do we need?
Mentally Ill Cases: The thing about mentally ill cases is that some people believe that everyone who wants to commit suicide is mentally ill. That makes no sense to me. Acting out of desperation or wanting to end suffering, for instance, isn't crazy. It's perfectly rational. Now maybe you insist that there's always a better way than killing yourself, but you can insist on anything by definition. Doesn't make it true. Sometimes it is the best possible option for both the person committing suicide and the society that shall be rid of them. Now, if you're talking actual mental illness, as in they're not actually capable of making rational decisions, that's different. People who are clinically depressed or bipolar or whatever are not making a rational decision if they kill themselves. Their madness makes that decision for them. So we should try and get them lucid if at all possible.
Sad Cases: These are cases where someone is simply sad about something, like a death, a temporary loss of employment, or even something as trivial as a band breaking up. Someone I know likes to say that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. For the most part, I agree with that on this level. The only defense I could make for suicide in these kinds of cases would be a Darwinian one, because it's pretty clear the weak are dying off and therefore not reproducing, but that's more relevant to my next category.
Suicidal Teen Cases: Okay, I realize defending teen suicide is kind of extreme, but we have enough teens already and I'm pretty sure most of the people who think they won't be missed are right. That said, I'm effectively against it, I guess, because I believe in parents having the right to make decisions regarding their children until they're 18, including decisions regarding killing oneself. I can easily imagine cases where I can sympathize with them though, because they sense they have no place in the world. Some of them don't fit in either at school or at home. They know a loneliness that you can only know in a school cafeteria. At one time, I would've told them things get better in college, but that's temporary. Workplaces are much like a high school, and they're going to get pushed around and picked on for the rest of their life if it's already happening. Whether that's enough reason to kill themselves, well, that's up to them. I've made my choice. They might make a different one.
Okay, now that I've spent a lot of the article defending suicide as a personal choice, I'll give you some reasons to live. I consider the conventional reasons to keep living, beauty, love, religion, not hurting your loved ones' feelings, nonsense. These reasons do not assume life doesn't suck, because it does. You'll be hard pressed to find someone more consistent on that than me. However, I continue to live. Here are a few reasons why.
1. Curiosity: You gotta admit, this is a great show. No matter what kind of life you're living, you never know what's going to happen tomorrow. New and interesting things are blowing up all the time on the macro and micro level. If you're pessimistic and think the world's just gonna burn here soon, stay and watch. They'll be enough guns around for a situational suicide if peril becomes imminent, don't worry.
2. Revenge: If you're like me, you know there are a lot of people out there whose life would be better if you were dead. Do keep in mind that you don't like these people. In fact, they suck. Why are doing them a favor? Whatever sort of suffering you're enduring by living, give back as good as you get. I say if other people would rather die than live in the same reality as you, you win.
3. Practical Reasons: Any form of suicide can fail. Know what happens after a failed suicide attempt? Life sucks worse than before! Think you'll get a second shot? No! Everyone will make sure of that. So you'll have less freedom and you'll be mangled or crippled or something. Fantastic. No, better to endure the slings and arrows of a natural lifespan than risk a failed suicide attempt.
4. Stubbornness: You want to make sure they win? Is that what you want? You know they they I mean. The ones that you've been pushed by your whole life and you've been pushing back. Doesn't even have to be actual people. It can be unseen forces or ways of your culture. Heck, even God. My mom offered me to move out of Harrison after 9th grade and go to school in Springfield, but I stayed because, whatever else I did, I wasn't running from those bastards. So now they'll never have that. Can't say they scared me off. Can't say they made me quit. No, I was there all through the spitting and the smacking and taunting. Sometimes they're still in my nightmares, their twisted twangs torturing my slumber, but I stayed until the end and not even the ghosts of the past can change that.
5. The Ending: Gotta know how it ends don't you? Sure you do. There are a heck of a lot of people betting against me right now. Some think I'm basically a retarded child man. Others think I'm a useless spoiled rich boy who won't ever do anything with his life. Still others root for me to fail because of my politics and the deeply immoral man they believe they make me. So we'll see how I end up. Will diabetes slowly eat away at me until I'm dead or well and truly wish I were? Perhaps medicine and my own discipline will mitigate things. Can I start Bailey's Bakehouse and make it work? Can I even get my first pastry job? You know what? None of it's certain. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves. The enemies and mistakes I've made in life are lined up against me and I stand ready to take them on. That's the real advice for any person out there who's actually suicidal. I'm not like the others, I respect and condone your decision...but maybe you shouldn't forfeit the game just yet. Maybe you're going to show the fuckers a thing or two and you just don't know it yet. Be a shame to miss that, is all I'm saying.
-Frank
Proper Nostalgia
Living in the past is bad
thing, but so is forgetting it. The past is important and you'd be a
fool to think otherwise. Nostalgia is a phenomenon that I am very
familiar with and which we are all familiar with, at least a little bit.
For me, an autistic who has difficulty both understanding or accessing
his emotions, nostalgia is some of the most ready access I have to
positive emotions. Raw nostalgia is probably not much good for
anything, but if you can harness it, channel it, and learn to focus on
what's good about it while using your rational mind to keep in
perspective and context what needs to be kept in perspective and
context, it can be a powerful way to access positive emotion and know
how one can and ought to live in the present. A discussion of nostalgia
could go all over the place, but I will limit myself to three different
varieties, which I do believe basically cover it. You've got nostalgia
for youth, nostalgia for a time in your life, and nostalgia for
fiction, and they all work a little bit differently. What they have in
common though is a sense of possibility, and, more specifically, an
implied hope. If things were once good or it's possible to think of
things as being so good, then we may make them so. When you get older, nostalgia probably
seems different in important ways, but, as someone who has recently
completed growing up, at this age, it's all about what growing up
entailed, because it entailed so very much and there is so much to draw
upon for the future, which still lies ahead.
We'll start with nostalgia for youth, which is defined, in a general way and to varying degrees, as a time of less responsibility, less disillusionment, and less general worry. There are two important lessons to draw from here. The first is that happiness derived from naivete cannot and ought not be sought again and the second is that being less busy, less cynical, and worrying less do, in fact, make you happier. You don't really want to be a kid again though, because you had fewer rights back then. That didn't matter because you didn't have the responsibilities associated with those rights, but that doesn't mean the tradeoff's uneven. For my part, the rights you get are way better. If someone's annoying you socially as an adult, you get to leave and not be forced to be there by your parents or the government. Bullies are now subject to actual laws and you can get an actual concealed carry license (unless you live in Illinois). Also, you get whatever you want for dinner, whether that's steak, cookies, or spray cheese. Now that we've recognized the negative of youth, what of the positive? Well, disillusionment is about finding out things you loved weren't so awesome or that the world works in horrible ways. Some things, such as romantic love in my own case, are horrible and you just have to move on from them. However, the whole world doesn't suck because, as it turns out, the world is a pretty big place with a lot of stuff in it. If you can get a career you enjoy going, find a place to live you like, and, if you're not me, find love, you don't have get your illusions back because you can be happy with your life as it is. Sure, it's always going to be a compromise, but you can find enough magic in the world to make it worthwhile.
When it comes to nostalgia for a time (or place for our purposes), it's all about matching up the actual version of events with your recorded one. Take Drury from fall of 1999-spring of 2000. You know when Harry Potter is leaving Hogwarts in the first movie and he's euphorically happy with his new life and knowing he'll come back next year? That was me as I walked along campus to my car with my old friend Jon looking back on how awesome the year had been. Harry and I are both being ridiculous though, and for largely the same reason. In Harry's case, he had found out a powerful dark wizard had wanted him dead his whole life and, in fact, murder was attempted again that school year, his best friend had nearly died playing wizard's chess, and he'd been granted his own personal dedicated bully. For my part, I had alienated advisors in two majors, been bullied and intimidated by most members of my group of friends who were sporting a festering misogynistic streak, lost a scholarship to bad grades in political science, had developed a pathetic crush yet again, and ended the semester by destroying my roommate's painstaking drawing of his supervillain headquarters (we became best friends, actually). Why do Harry and I, absent reminders from our sense of logic and our contemporaries, have such a positive vision of our first year? It's because it was the greatest rush of hope for the future we'd ever had. Neither of us believed we'd ever have any friends, so the rush of excitement of having them was amazing enough to cast everything else we experienced in a much more kindly light. How do you apply this? Well, basically it's important to remember why you're nostalgic for a time or a place because it's not about that time or place, not really. Believe me, I've walked around Drury and I'm now just a stranger, so that rules of place. Talking to your peers from the time is all you can do to gauge what the time really was. All that matters and all that you need to worry about recapturing is the positive emotions that that time and place created in you.
Nostalgia for fiction is probably fairly unique to people who get fairly geeky about said fiction. Several different examples exist within my own life. If you're talking my teenage years, it's Star Trek, Xena, and Babylon 5. My college years would be Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter, and Stargate SG-1. Further back, you've got Dr. Seuss, The Indian In The Cupboard, and My Teacher Is An Alien. One of the things that's different about nostalgia for fiction is that the fiction still exists. For instance I HAVE The Lord Of The Rings on Blu-Ray and regular extended editions on my shelf right now. If I so choose, Frodo will get his uncle's ring again, have to destroy it again, and Pippin will have to stop Faramir from burning alive again. That might be fun, as I haven't done that in a while, but that's not why the dwarves singing Over The Misty Mountains Cold in the trailer for The Hobbit sends chills down my spine as I realize that world is back. As good and timeless as the fiction may be, it's either about what it got you through or who was with you when you were first exposed to it. Star Trek mattered so much as a teenager because it presented a world of intelligence and conversation where I would have something to bring to the table that had never mattered or been acknowledged in Harrison, AR. Lord Of The Rings mattered so much both because of the strange symmetry that developed between the initial shock of 9/11 and the alternately escapist and pragmatic themes of confronting evil in one's time and because it was my baptism into geek culture officiated over by my best friend and many other people, many of whom remain great friends of mine. When I saw Return Of The King, a rising cheer unanimously developed each time Gandalf struck Denethor and THAT is what I'm nostalgic about in that case. We were all united in our disdain for leaders gripped by cowardice and madness because it was all so very relevant to our lives. So when I get nostalgic for Harry Potter, as I certainly found myself doing at the park in Florida, it's not really about the stories, but about going through them with my friends. It seems to me if that if you're nostalgic about fiction because it helped you get through a time, you should probably watch or read it again to get through tough times to begin with. Hope springs eternal, as does messages of it. However, if you're nostalgic about fiction because you went through it with your friends, that probably just means you need to have friends over more often. Of course, it could also mean that you miss your friends, like I do in too many cases, and there's nothing for that.
Through nostalgia for the time and place that was Drury in my day, I will remember to be optimistic because that will make even the bad stuff not seem so bad. From the nostalgia for fiction I shall remember that one must always keep, remember, and respect one's consolations and that it is not really what you experience, but with whom it is experienced that counts. All nostalgia is rummaging through the past and all of us will do it, but we have to understand, or, indeed, have in the first place, a purpose for such strenuous sifting. However you go about your personal nostalgia and whatever or whomever it may be about which you are nostalgic, just remember that it's a powerful thing and an efficient tool for accessing positive emotion. What you must remember is that nostalgia is only useful in any important sense if it is useful to your efforts to build a better life in the present and in the future. Fiction for which I feel nostalgia tells me this. Samwise has his family, the greatest adventure of all. Harry grows up and sends his children on their own adventure. Maybe I won't have a family, but I'll go to the oldest of all nostalgia for me and say that I HAVE THE POWER!!!
-Frank
We'll start with nostalgia for youth, which is defined, in a general way and to varying degrees, as a time of less responsibility, less disillusionment, and less general worry. There are two important lessons to draw from here. The first is that happiness derived from naivete cannot and ought not be sought again and the second is that being less busy, less cynical, and worrying less do, in fact, make you happier. You don't really want to be a kid again though, because you had fewer rights back then. That didn't matter because you didn't have the responsibilities associated with those rights, but that doesn't mean the tradeoff's uneven. For my part, the rights you get are way better. If someone's annoying you socially as an adult, you get to leave and not be forced to be there by your parents or the government. Bullies are now subject to actual laws and you can get an actual concealed carry license (unless you live in Illinois). Also, you get whatever you want for dinner, whether that's steak, cookies, or spray cheese. Now that we've recognized the negative of youth, what of the positive? Well, disillusionment is about finding out things you loved weren't so awesome or that the world works in horrible ways. Some things, such as romantic love in my own case, are horrible and you just have to move on from them. However, the whole world doesn't suck because, as it turns out, the world is a pretty big place with a lot of stuff in it. If you can get a career you enjoy going, find a place to live you like, and, if you're not me, find love, you don't have get your illusions back because you can be happy with your life as it is. Sure, it's always going to be a compromise, but you can find enough magic in the world to make it worthwhile.
When it comes to nostalgia for a time (or place for our purposes), it's all about matching up the actual version of events with your recorded one. Take Drury from fall of 1999-spring of 2000. You know when Harry Potter is leaving Hogwarts in the first movie and he's euphorically happy with his new life and knowing he'll come back next year? That was me as I walked along campus to my car with my old friend Jon looking back on how awesome the year had been. Harry and I are both being ridiculous though, and for largely the same reason. In Harry's case, he had found out a powerful dark wizard had wanted him dead his whole life and, in fact, murder was attempted again that school year, his best friend had nearly died playing wizard's chess, and he'd been granted his own personal dedicated bully. For my part, I had alienated advisors in two majors, been bullied and intimidated by most members of my group of friends who were sporting a festering misogynistic streak, lost a scholarship to bad grades in political science, had developed a pathetic crush yet again, and ended the semester by destroying my roommate's painstaking drawing of his supervillain headquarters (we became best friends, actually). Why do Harry and I, absent reminders from our sense of logic and our contemporaries, have such a positive vision of our first year? It's because it was the greatest rush of hope for the future we'd ever had. Neither of us believed we'd ever have any friends, so the rush of excitement of having them was amazing enough to cast everything else we experienced in a much more kindly light. How do you apply this? Well, basically it's important to remember why you're nostalgic for a time or a place because it's not about that time or place, not really. Believe me, I've walked around Drury and I'm now just a stranger, so that rules of place. Talking to your peers from the time is all you can do to gauge what the time really was. All that matters and all that you need to worry about recapturing is the positive emotions that that time and place created in you.
Nostalgia for fiction is probably fairly unique to people who get fairly geeky about said fiction. Several different examples exist within my own life. If you're talking my teenage years, it's Star Trek, Xena, and Babylon 5. My college years would be Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter, and Stargate SG-1. Further back, you've got Dr. Seuss, The Indian In The Cupboard, and My Teacher Is An Alien. One of the things that's different about nostalgia for fiction is that the fiction still exists. For instance I HAVE The Lord Of The Rings on Blu-Ray and regular extended editions on my shelf right now. If I so choose, Frodo will get his uncle's ring again, have to destroy it again, and Pippin will have to stop Faramir from burning alive again. That might be fun, as I haven't done that in a while, but that's not why the dwarves singing Over The Misty Mountains Cold in the trailer for The Hobbit sends chills down my spine as I realize that world is back. As good and timeless as the fiction may be, it's either about what it got you through or who was with you when you were first exposed to it. Star Trek mattered so much as a teenager because it presented a world of intelligence and conversation where I would have something to bring to the table that had never mattered or been acknowledged in Harrison, AR. Lord Of The Rings mattered so much both because of the strange symmetry that developed between the initial shock of 9/11 and the alternately escapist and pragmatic themes of confronting evil in one's time and because it was my baptism into geek culture officiated over by my best friend and many other people, many of whom remain great friends of mine. When I saw Return Of The King, a rising cheer unanimously developed each time Gandalf struck Denethor and THAT is what I'm nostalgic about in that case. We were all united in our disdain for leaders gripped by cowardice and madness because it was all so very relevant to our lives. So when I get nostalgic for Harry Potter, as I certainly found myself doing at the park in Florida, it's not really about the stories, but about going through them with my friends. It seems to me if that if you're nostalgic about fiction because it helped you get through a time, you should probably watch or read it again to get through tough times to begin with. Hope springs eternal, as does messages of it. However, if you're nostalgic about fiction because you went through it with your friends, that probably just means you need to have friends over more often. Of course, it could also mean that you miss your friends, like I do in too many cases, and there's nothing for that.
Through nostalgia for the time and place that was Drury in my day, I will remember to be optimistic because that will make even the bad stuff not seem so bad. From the nostalgia for fiction I shall remember that one must always keep, remember, and respect one's consolations and that it is not really what you experience, but with whom it is experienced that counts. All nostalgia is rummaging through the past and all of us will do it, but we have to understand, or, indeed, have in the first place, a purpose for such strenuous sifting. However you go about your personal nostalgia and whatever or whomever it may be about which you are nostalgic, just remember that it's a powerful thing and an efficient tool for accessing positive emotion. What you must remember is that nostalgia is only useful in any important sense if it is useful to your efforts to build a better life in the present and in the future. Fiction for which I feel nostalgia tells me this. Samwise has his family, the greatest adventure of all. Harry grows up and sends his children on their own adventure. Maybe I won't have a family, but I'll go to the oldest of all nostalgia for me and say that I HAVE THE POWER!!!
-Frank
The Moral Concensus
There's an awful lot of different kinds of people I know at this point. Sure, some of them
are actors and actresses I have enjoyed late at night on premium cable,
but there's still a surprisingly large number of people I've met in real
life. Rich and poor, nonbeliever and believer, right and left, young
and old, straight and gay, white with a tiny minority of exceptions, they're all here, and I disagree with just about any random one of them a
lot for any number of reasons. Yet, we get along, whatever pyrotechnics
of argument may present themselves. So what is it, exactly, that we
all agree on that allows for a basic moral consensus. Atheists and
believers HAVE to share a certain set of core values in order for them
to exist civilly together in the same society or, especially, the same
room. That I see this, or its corollary with other diametrically
opposed individuals, on a daily basis underlies that we are
significantly less opposed that we suspect. A Christian and an atheist
arguing over what is the best way to raise productive adults who will be
moral and capable of raising their own productive adults are,
unknowingly in most cases, conceding a great deal of common ground.
Consider a Christian arguing with an ancient Aztec about whether it
would be better to have a productive adult capable of raising other
productive adults or a human sacrifice victim with his chest ripped open
to appease the gods and ensure the sun would rise, and you'll find out
really quickly that atheists and Christians have more important
priorities than nonbelief and belief. As an atheist, you can believe in
Jesus all you want, go to church four times a week, and you know what? I'll take you over an atheist Stalinist who thinks it's okay for people
to die horrible deaths in the gulags, because there are more important
underlying things. With all that as a jumping off point, here are ten
things that pretty much all people I'm willing to consider my moral
equal must believe.
1. Suffering is, at best, unfortunate, and needless suffering is a damned tragedy. Inflicting suffering upon nonconsenting individuals is evil, regardless of context, and all the moreso if done to children.
2. Activity that harms none but those consentingly participating cannot be evil. Such activities are, at worst, inadvisable and dangerous.
3. Looking for excuses to hate people who have done nothing to harm you is evil and a profound waste of time.
4. Exceptions to rules must exist because people who are exceptions to the rule exist. Stubborn adherence to the rules in the cases of these individuals is evil because it represents a willingness to grind those who do not and cannot conform in the gears of efficiency and convenience.
5. Withholding compassion and/or empathy is always evil. However evil the individual suffering, it still hurts and they are still human and flawed. Vulnerable, naked, and afraid, the most evil person who ever lived, whoever that might have been, would've deserved compassion. It neither picks your pocket nor breaks your leg to show compassion to your enemies. For some, such compassion might be the only good in this world they'll ever see.
6. Humanity has potential and it is exciting to think about where it may be going. However cynical one might be about our species and however many appalling reversals one might have seen or experienced in the progress of humankind, it simply must be considered an objective fact that we have come further as a species than we ever had any right to expect and that this upward momentum is far from done with us.
7. Pursuing happiness is the right of all persons and, insofar as it does not interfere with the happiness of others, respecting said pursuit is a moral imperative.
8. Romantic love that involves loving the other person more than you love yourself is redundant. Romantic love that does not involve this is not romantic love at all.
9. When people speak about their own lives, it is a moral imperative to believe them.
10. The collectivization of guilt is never morally justified.
-Frank
1. Suffering is, at best, unfortunate, and needless suffering is a damned tragedy. Inflicting suffering upon nonconsenting individuals is evil, regardless of context, and all the moreso if done to children.
2. Activity that harms none but those consentingly participating cannot be evil. Such activities are, at worst, inadvisable and dangerous.
3. Looking for excuses to hate people who have done nothing to harm you is evil and a profound waste of time.
4. Exceptions to rules must exist because people who are exceptions to the rule exist. Stubborn adherence to the rules in the cases of these individuals is evil because it represents a willingness to grind those who do not and cannot conform in the gears of efficiency and convenience.
5. Withholding compassion and/or empathy is always evil. However evil the individual suffering, it still hurts and they are still human and flawed. Vulnerable, naked, and afraid, the most evil person who ever lived, whoever that might have been, would've deserved compassion. It neither picks your pocket nor breaks your leg to show compassion to your enemies. For some, such compassion might be the only good in this world they'll ever see.
6. Humanity has potential and it is exciting to think about where it may be going. However cynical one might be about our species and however many appalling reversals one might have seen or experienced in the progress of humankind, it simply must be considered an objective fact that we have come further as a species than we ever had any right to expect and that this upward momentum is far from done with us.
7. Pursuing happiness is the right of all persons and, insofar as it does not interfere with the happiness of others, respecting said pursuit is a moral imperative.
8. Romantic love that involves loving the other person more than you love yourself is redundant. Romantic love that does not involve this is not romantic love at all.
9. When people speak about their own lives, it is a moral imperative to believe them.
10. The collectivization of guilt is never morally justified.
-Frank
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