LIVING IN THE NOW LIKE SELFISH CATS

Today I will be going on and on about Dr.Daniel G.Amen Change Your Brain Change Your Life and PSYCHOLOGY TODAY Living In The Now.

Let's start with the centre of our universe which is the 3 pound glob of jello holding your ears apart, the Brain.

The average Human Brain makes up 2% of your body weight, receives 15% of the cardiac output, 20% of total body oxygen consumption, and 25% of total body glucose utilization.

"From a philosophical point of view, it might be said that the most important function of the Brain is to serve as the physical structure underlying the mind. From a biological point of view, though, the most important function is to generate behaviors that promote the welfare of an animal."

Neuroscience seeks to understand the nervous system, including the brain, from a biological perspective.

Psychology seeks to understand behavior and the brain.

Neurology refers to the medical applications of neuroscience.

Psychiatry the branch of medicine that works to study, prevent, and treat mental disorders.

Cognitive Science seeks to unify neuroscience and psychology with other fields that concern themselves with the brain, such as artificial intelligence and the mind body quandry is one of the central issues of Philosophy.

The correlation between the physical brain and the Human mind is the ultimate wonderment. Personally I think that we are our Brain but how are the Mind and Brain connected? There are three ways to look at it:

Dualism holds that the mind exists independently of the brain, hmmm.

Materialism holds that mental phenomena are identical to neuronal phenomena, HELLO!and Idealism holds that only mental substances and phenomena exist..

doo doo doo, doo doo doo.

In any event let's agree on two things;

one, that clinically, death is defined as an absence of brain activity and two, a lot of people who lose their mind say that they have never felt more alive!

Ok enough background..the other night I was watching Dr. Daniel_G._Amen, the author of 22 books, promoting his Change Your Brain, Change Your Life infomercial on PBS. A quick Googlkipedia check and I discovered that he received his MD degree from the now-closed medical program at Oral Roberts University. Amen from ORU? Up goes my God-dar.

Amen calls the Brain The Hardware To The Soul and his homespun approach combined with imoprtant sounding-scientificky lingo had me going for about 12 minutes...Humans have huge frontal lobes, which are involved in self-control, planning, reasoning, and abstract thought..then he started talking about his Pets, he has a Cat and a Dog. Amen goes on to say that Dogs have teeny frontal lobes but Cats not-so-much, so that's why Cats don't worry about the past and don't think about the future.

When was the last time a Cat looked and acted guilty for doing something naughty while you were away and you found them hiding behind the Sofa?

Amen said Cats live in the NOW.

Which is cool..and ironically that is what most Psychologists want modern Humans to do. The cover on my new issue of Psychology Today is HOW TO LIVE IN THE NOW..the link to the article is up at the top..it's quite interesting.

In the main article a Buddhist scholar states that "We're living in a world that contributes in a major way to mental fragmentation, disintegration, decoherence." The article goes on to say that when we are at work we fantasize about vacation and on vacation we worry about work piling up. The paradox of living in the moment is that when we think about a future reward, our brain kicks into future mindset and then mindfulness is thwarted..we hoist our own petards.

Author Jay Dixit writes that MINDFULNESS or Living in the moment, is when you realise that you are an observer of your thoughts from moment to moment without judging them..to stop doing and focus on just being.

So basically we just need to be more like Cats?

Anyway, Dr Amen went on with his infomercial saying that many adults have ADHD and actually when he rattles off the list of traits and almost everyone in the studio audience nodded their heads in acknowledgement.

If you get overwhelmed by mental ANTs, Automatic Negative Thoughts, you need to learn how to question their validity...don't just accept your defeatism. Since all of us have the symptoms at one time or another...I agree that we do need to fix our 'stinkin' thinkin' and please note that I do not mean to make light of genuine psycho-physical challenges that many of us inherited.

Amen suggests using esreveR psychology on dealing with drama queens because hey, it works on 2 year olds! Attentionally challenged Adults need to feel like everything is their idea because their brains are stuck. Amen suggests that they have a sticky thought shifter thingamabob part of the brain and so we need to ingest Fish Oil to lubricate it, ooh omega fatty whatchamacallits.

Guess what the most effective remedy aside from reading his book or a visit to his clinic is? STOP THE PRESSES! exercise.

Personally I found it hard to concentrate on his infomercial (HELLO!) and I could not get past the idea that Cats are stuck in the NOW because of their tiny selfish brains.

Now I know why Humans love Dogs, because Dog brains are hardwired for robo-slave pack mentality which forces them to seek our approval at all costs. The domestication of the Wolf had a huge influence on our road to Civilization. They helped us hunt, protected us, ate our garbage, pulled heavy crap.

Cats? Well, they were different alright but we must have liked them for other reasons..they prolly killed mice so we let hang around the cave.

Some Cat lovers will be furiously defending their pussies in the comment section and claim that their Cat is super smart and even occasionally affectionate. OK they might be smart I have seen Cats learn to flush a toilet on Youtube.

What about Lions? Don't they exhibit planning, self control, and reasoning when they are hunting Gnus or out killing competitors like Hyenas, Humans, and Cheetahs? Oh sure Lions sleep about 22 hours a day but maybe that's because they are so efficient at killing things in the NOW?

Anyway Dr. Amen got written up on QUACKWATCH.ORG*, a nonprofit that investigates health-related frauds, myths, fads and fallacies by Dr. Harriet Hall, a retired family physician, who wrote "Amen's recommendations defy science, common sense and logic. He's selling vitamin supplements and he's selling his own line of products. He's turned into big business."

According to its Web site, Amen Clinics charges $3,250 for a "comprehensive evaluation, which includes the patient's history, two SPECT scans, a physician consultation, and a 30-minute treatment follow-up appointment. Follow-up scans after treatment are $795 each".

But wait a second, isn't it the American Way to oversimplify complex obstacles, repackage and brand them with your catchphrase and sell it to the great unwashed? Millions will beat a path to the doorstep of your franchise if you can offer a simple solution to changing your Brain but I don't BUY IT.

We can change our behavior and live healthier lifestyles that promote greater bloodflow to the Brain...but would it not be simpler to live in the NOW and just be more like Cats.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

btw: To be fair, Amen's attorneys replied, unsuccessfuly I might add, to the criticisms here .

REDUX AD INFINITUM
To paraphrase R. M. Nixon;

This is the 469th time I have spoken to you from this Blog, where so many comments have been made that shaped the history of my story.
Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected a modicum of interest.

In the past few weeks, since the beginning really, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough basis for rehashing this crap to justify continuing this format. I now believe that this phase of my Blogospherial purpose has been served, and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.

To those who have read me during these past three years, to my family, my friends, to many others who joined in supporting my cause because they believed that it was sort of interesting, I will be ethernally grateful for your support.

And to those who have not felt able to give me your support, let me say I leave with no bitterness, bastards, toward those who have lurked, tossers, and not commented, wankers, because all of us, in the final analysis, have been concerned with finding shorter, more interesting crap.

I have done my very best in all..OK, most of the days since, to be true to the Blogger's Pledge...to be Charming and not Tedious, no, it was never, no, always..

Be brief-Be bright-Be GONE!

Therefore, effective immediately, I shall resign my duties as President of the What's HE goin' On & On & On About Now Club, and limit my crepuscular activities to commenting on your Blogs for the remainder of the month of November...


just another common tater.








This December I shall rise like a phoenis and begin anew.











Best Regards,
Mr. Coppens, HE, Homo Escapeons, Donnnnn, Prof. Plotzenheimer, Lord Tennisanyone.
XX OO

WHATEVERPEG

Last night my city was featured on the American version of the hit TV series, THE OFFICE.

WhatEVERpeg has also been skewered by The SIMPSONS.

note the caption:

WE WERE BORN HERE

WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE?

Personally I think that it's our weird & wonky name that attracts comedy writers.

Winnipeg is a First N'Asians word.

Loosely translated it means ho-ly f*ck is it cold...

hence the colloquial expression man is it nippy.

WhatEVERpeggers are famous for their ability to endure brutally cold Winters, the coldest wind chill reading ever recorded was −57.1 °C (−70.8 °F), on February 1, 1996,

and hot humid Summers, the highest humidex reading recorded in Winnipeg was 48 °C (118 °F) on July 25, 2007.

Our envi-wrong-mental saving grace is that we average 317 sunny days per year so nyeh!

The CMHR CANADIAN MUSEUM for HUMAN RIGHTS is going to really put us on the worldmap.

I suspect that many visitors might be hesitant to visit WINTERpeg during the colder Months...

whatever WUSSIES?!

GOIN' RETRO

It's Monday and time for some fun.

Irene at MY PREGNANT PAUSES has done it again!

I don't know how she finds these spots but she was the blogger who hooked me up to PHOTOFUNIA .

So now she has found

YEAR BOOK YOURSELF

I feel like Woody Allen in Zelig?

1950

1966

1968

1974

1982

1984

1986

1998






Knock yourself out!

DISSing DISCRIMINATION

What made Christian Black Voters diss Gay Marriage Rights on November 4th?

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was invented so that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex...

this meant that a Man wouldn't be jailed if he spent Election day in a whorehouse and didn't bother to vote.

I'm kidding.

What this means is that the American Woman

dunna-nunna-na na-na

finally won the right to vote when the 19th was ratified in..

wait for it..

1920!
Isn't that special.

50.8% of Americans are Female.

Fifty years earlier in 1870, Black MEN were gaurandamnteed the right to vote when the 15th Amenment was ratified. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. No reference to the majority of Americans who had ovaries.

Baby this is a Ma-a-an's World

Sure Black MEN could vote, but in many parts of the States they were prohibited from entering White Only restaurants or sharing public washrooms.

Isn't that special.

It wasn't until 196 f*cking 4, nearly a Century later, that LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act making it illegal to compel segregation of the races.

Incredible as it sounds, in the Prezimadenshul eelekshuns ov '68, five Sawthun' States voted FOR George WallASS's seg-e-gation fo' tha nation.

One of the luxuries of being an Agnostic is that I am exempt from basing my cosmology on any particular religious doctrines that need to be adhered to as the gospel truth. I get to be more pragmatic than dogmatic and don't have to worry about being shunned or burning in hell for eternity.

So basically issues about ethics & morality fall into the Biology and Social Studies category based on historical, scientific, and empirical data.

Now before anyone sends me the hate the sin not the sinner sermon puhleeze..

I served my sentence..

I spent a decade debating against the notion that being ghey is the direct result of demonic activity with many of my fellow Pentechostiles.
I finally strayed and left the fold.

Have you ever noticed that one does not often find Agnostics or Atheists carrying placards that read God Hates Fags...Flags maybe. The reasons for this should be self evident.

Think about it...where did people get the notion that sexual orientation was a decision? Tragically many received this message from fire n' brimstone, tongue talkin', preachers who look like game show hosts or perfectly positioned predatory pedophiles pontificating in purple robes..

which in turn exacerbates the ludicrous notion that all gay men are pedophiles.

Who told the parishioners that homosexuality was a choice that was driven by satanic demons instead of say, oh I don't know, how about genetic predisposition?

You only get one guess.

Incredible as it seems, apparently 5% of Earthlings, 330 Million, have decided to be Gay...which coinky-dinkly equals the population of the third largest country on Earth, the USA.

Now I found it interesting that more African Americans voted against gay marriage on the same day that a biracial man was elected President. One CNN commentator stated that this is reflective of the Black Community being very "religious" ...

for which I am eternally grateful because the simultaneous election of a Black President while rescinding marriage rights for homosexuals presents quite the paradox.

The separation of Church & State could not be fuzzier.

Racial discrimination is really bad in this politically corrected world, but Sexual Orientation discrimination is not as bad and as we go down that road we find that lesbians are cooler and not as bad as Gay men.

Examining the predicament of Middle America's favorite, daytime, Lesbian, TV hostess, Ellen DeGeneres..

who replaced Rosie O'Donell who was Middle America's last favorite, daytime, but only rumored to be Lesbian, TV hostess who was finally outted..

so much for making Tommy Cruise your beard.

Middle America really, really, loves Ellen (because she is AWESOME) but the 800 pound Gorilla in the studio audience remains her relationship with her adorable, petit, partner Portia de Rossi.. who prolly weighs 100 pounds soaking wet. Portia was funny as hell on Arrested Development .

Yikes this is a whole other post but let's agree that Middle America is slowly coming around..

and that Lesbians are easier to swallow than Gay Men...

if you know what I mean?

I don't understand why Gay people can't have the right to be as miserable as the 50% of heterosexuals whose 'til the death do us part marriage implodes in divorce? For those who do not prefer Homosexuality, couldn't the legal right to a messy, expensive, gut-wrenching, divorce be considered enough of a cruel and unusual punishment?

I presume that discrimination in the 21st Century is still viewed as sort of a cafeteria and you can pick and choose your whichever discrimination suits your situational ethics. I mean if an African American is a Christian that's one thing, but if he is Gay that is quite another matter.

I realise that Martin Luther King Jr, a Black Baptist Minister, would have been elated to witness Obama climb the mountain, but that he too would have empahtically voted against the right for a Gay Christian Black couple to be married.

Since Gays and Coloureds are not a separate sub-species of White People it would be safe to assume these are Human Rights issues.

I would venture to say that 99% of protestors against furthering the cause of Human Rights are motivated by religious beliefs who have been convinced that their faith trumps their political sensibilities because their exclusive doctrine is an absolute and eternal certainty, while their societal duties are only temporal and subject to situational ethics.

I had better wrap this up..switchin' to decaf..

of the +/-300 MILLION Earthlings who are US citizens:

50.8% are Female & 49.2% Male

77% of them are labelled as "White" People

12.7% Hispanic

12.5% Black

3.6% Asian

and yes I know that adds up to 105.8?

Of those 300M Americans:

78.5% call themselves Christians and 55% of them are Protestant & 44% Catholic

10.8% of the Protestants are Evangelical Baptist

7.5% are classified as "other" such as

Jews 1.5% and Muslims 0.9% and Rastafarian?

14% are in the purgatorial no-man's land of Non Religious or "whatEVER" since it seems that only 4% of Americans just come right out and confessed that they're Agnostic or worse yet, an Atheist!

To put things into perspective, 4.2% of Americans claim to be Gay.

So there are more Gay people than there are Jews and Muslims combined.

So let's take one last look at the slippery slope of deciding who can and cannot get married.

Let's say that only Heterosexuals could get married..wait they already did that..

OK then let's say that the majority of the population who just happen to be White Christian Protestant Heterosexuals voted that their group were the only ones allowed to enter into wedded bliss before half of them dissolve into a spiteful winner takes all, no-holds-barred, he-said/she-said, expensive legal battle, that ends in bankruptcy, and will scar them both for life.

No wait we'll go one better and imagine that the largest Protestant subgroup, the White Evangelical Baptists could get married!

A-ha now we're getting somewhere..

if we separated the religious notion from the political process, like it is supposed to be, then being gay or naturally better at sports or good at math or even wearing white after Labour Day, is simply a matter of fact, and not something that a bunch of church ladies or virulent, anti-gay, crusading, hypocrites like Ted Haggard can vote on.

Here endeth today's very preachy sermon from the Book of FIRST THEY CAME

A DEMONSTRATION OF DEMOGRACY

The election of President Obama was as much about Demography as it was about Democracy. The result of the American Presidential Election last night was a paradigmic shifting that exposes that change IS on the way.

This latest Democratic exercise exposed how one half of my cohorts, the Baby Boomers, failed to finish what we started during our youth...we talked the talk.

We are now painfully aware that half of the BABY BOOM GENERATION erroneously white washed as the Hippy/WE Generation morphed into the Yuppy/ME Generation who perfected the Cult of Materialism which unceremoniously imploded in the Marketplace a few weeks ago.

Congratulations.

Now we step out of our ridiculously over-mortgaged Sidewalk free Suburban McMansion and drive our gas-guzzlin SUV's to a concrete wasteland of garrish Big Box Retail Outlets and wait in the Drive-Thru for a fancyschmancy coffee that costs $6.

Way to go!

Mercifully two thirds of the younger Generation, including our children, who listened to us talk the talk about equality and compassion, are walking the walk and came to the rescue!

DEMOGRAPHICS:

If you look HERE, you'll see that Obama's support came from 66% of the voters aged 18-29 and 52% of those aged 30-44.

From there we see that about one half (49%) of the Baby Boomers, now aged 44-64, voted for Obama. You might find this surprising given all of the hoopla about Peace, Love, and Unicorns back in the tumultuous 60s when the Boomers entered the political scene.

Less than half (45%) of those 65 and older voted for change.

Another equally important fact is that 56% of women voted for Barrack while only 49% of the men concurred.

GEOGRAPHICALLY:

Aging Middle America voted for the Republican John McCain and Traditionalism. Change schmange!

Look at this MAP
If I drove straight South from my home I would drive through Republican Red States all the way to Mexico.

It also came as no surprise that the Segregated South still has a tinge of Red around the neck..the reddest necks (close to 60%) are evident in Oklahoma, Wyoming, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Idaho and Nebraska.

In a nutshell, the future will be molded by a more Moderate Feminine Electorate. Females make up the majority of Earthlings and since all vertebrates are formed as females (creating males requires a mutation) this would seem to be a return to homeostatic normalcy.

I for one look forward to the Global Feminization of Human Affairs..male domination has made this world a violent, inequitable place.

It seems logical that those of us who are designed to create, carry, and nurture Life, are better suited to preserving it.

Now it even seems possible that an American with ovaries might someday sit in the oval office.

Is the Old Boys Club really on it's way out?

VOTE EARLY & VOTE OFTEN!


Monster by STEPPENWOLF 1970

"And though the past has it's share of injustice
Kind was the spirit in many a way
But it's protectors and friends have been sleeping
Now it's a monster and will not obey

The spirit was freedom and justice
And it's keepers seem generous and kind
It's leaders were supposed to serve the country
But now they won't pay it no mind
'Cause the people grew fat and got lazy
And now their vote is a meaningless joke
They babble about law and order
But it's all just an echo of what they've been told

Yeah, there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watchin'
Our cities have turned into jungles
And corruption is stranglin' the land
The police force is watching the people
And the people just can't understand
We don't know how to mind our own business
'Cause the whole worlds got to be just like us
Now we are fighting a war over there
No matter who's the winner
We can't pay the cost
'Cause there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watching


America where are you now?
Don't you care about your sons and daughters?
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster"

Congratulations #44!

PRE-POSTHUMOUS AWARDS

My treasure chest of awards from some very, very, generous bloggers;

CYBERPETE



OLD KNUDSEN

SCARLET BLEU

TIDAL GRRRL

ANGEL

EROSWINGS & CYBERPETE

ELIZABETH & REBECCA

GAUTAMI

RANDOM CHICK

CHRIS

UM?

ME

TAKING IT TO THE STREETS
I am a member of the Citizens On Patrol Program.

Basically a few of my neighbours and I walk around at night wearing bright, yellow, vests.

The idea is to be conspicuously visible to the local Teens or YOOTS, and hopefully deter them from tagging or engaging in lillicit activities in public areas.

A recent encounter with a large gathering of Yoots confirmed my belief that this generation cannot read so good. One of them asked us if we were Cops.

The two 'P's on our logo seems to completely puzzle them.

What are ya gonna do?

I suppose that many local residents prolly think that we must be some half-assed vigilante group...it is a fairly new program.

A bunch of victimized, middle-aged, Charles Bronson wannabes, who have had it up to here with crime and are out to get some payback.

Not so much!

However, the other weekend the mere presence of our strolling posse was enough to convince some Yoots to stuff a lot of things into their pockets and exit the Park at a high rate of speed.

This past Thursday Night was Gate Night, the night before Halloween when Yoots traditionally toss eggs and flaming bags of dog crap at homes.

The Yoots that we did encounter were visibly annoyed by our pesky patrolling. We did not see any evidence that they had managed to pelt anyone's house with eggs or flaming bags of dog crap...although they did fling toilet paper into a few trees.

Our 7 year-old thinks that it's funny that my name is Coppens and I go out COPPing in my COPPstume, but my good-lady-wife always tells me to be safe before I go out the door.

I tell her not to worry. I'm not really scared of the illiterate YOOTS and I can easily outrun everyone else in our patrol group.

Last night was Halloween and as you can see,

this is about as as close as I'll ever get to meeting this Dude.