Conspiracy theories

When I read about a man who found out that he was dating a conspiracy theorist on James Randi's blog, I was quite taken by his statement that he was happy to baptise his kids, even though he did not believe in any of that "religious stuff". He just wanted to keep peace within the family.

I am with him on this....I have found that if something does not hurt anyone, it is best to let the sleeping dog lie.
I would baptise my kids to keep peace in the family, you bet! It hurts no one, and makes a lot of people happy.
The same cannot be said for circumcision. Or ear piercing. Or tattoos. Or breast implants. Or root canals.
The discipline to guide a line of thought is difficult to master. Even to oneself, it is hard to do.
I have gone to great lengths to suppress my knee jerk reaction, and if I have the time, I will ask the person spouting the nutbar theory a simple question.
"Why do you believe that?" And I don't accept "well it said so on TV, or that is what my mom believed." "Why do YOU believe that?"
On several occasions, I have been given considered and well thought out replies, which make me question my initial rejection of the theory. My reasoning is subtle...usually if it really IS a nutbar theory, the basis for it will not stand up to light of day. (Mr. Randi's famous on-stage explanation of how homeopathic medicine is made, with all the concussion sideways and up and down is a good example of that. For instance, the theory behind Chiropracty, or nearly any other alternative medicine similarly does not look good when you simply state the reason why you think it works.)
Once in a while, I am convinced that the nutbar theory is actually credible. I have changed my mind on a myriad of things...everything from gays and women in the military to the war on drugs, to continental drift, global warming to the value of a government, the usefulness of cheerleading and martial arts for children. All these things I changed my lifelong views upon by simply asking the person who was expounding the theory de jour "So why do you believe that?"
So its not a matter of changing them...it is a matter of learning to think clearly, learning to control yourself, and to always keep an open mind. Who knows, maybe Big Pharma really IS making people sick just to sell them drugs! But I doubt it. But hey, why do YOU believe it?

You Tube

Will be the death of me.

William Shatner singing to George Lucas....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDIBchVxSmE&feature=related

Ormie the Pig

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=FrTbnczYAd4&feature=player_embedded

BarBeQue

Pictures from our trip to Ottawa's answer to the Syracuse Dinosaur....

smokey goodness.....

Discounts

At my last Barter Club dinner, I was buttonholed by Mike. "Bill, I have started a new business!" Well, Mike, you start a new business about once every two years. Whats this one about? "Well, we want you to provide a discount coupon (on line of course) which we will send to thousands of people and you will get hundreds of orders as a result. All we want is for you to provide content, and we will get it "out there" and of course, we expect a piece of the action.

This went on for awhile, as I tried to understand how this would be a sustainable business model. First of all, it certainly seems that there are many companies that are doing just that. As far as I can see, what I would get out of this is a pile of "leads". Thats ad man talk for "email addresses". Possibly targeted addresses in that it would include a pile of people that are actually interested in my product.

In other words, spam.

I dunno. I suspect that I would get a huge list of people who are looking for cheap stuff, instead of good stuff. I don't think I want to "deep discount" my work. It cheapens it.

Scotch

On the vertical axis whiskies are plotted as how smoky they are [the flavours which come principally from the peat used in drying the barley, which all Single Malts are made from] or how delicate they are [whiskies which contain unpeated barley and have no peat-smoke flavours].

On the horizontal axis whiskies are plotted as how light they are [whiskies with fresh flavours such as green grass, fresh fruits and barley] or how rich [flavours ranging from vanilla and nuttiness to cigar box, chocolate and dried fruit].

Read more of Mr. Broom's reviews of fine Scotch Whiskeys here.

http://whisky.scotsman.com/flavourmap.aspx