Raising Innocent Kids in A complex Universe

"So, get this: David and I are expecting twins this fall. We're super excited/nervous/thrilled."
The above is a quote from one of two expectant fathers about their double whammy bundles of joy expected to land on their laps soon. The whole story can be read here

These two long term same sex partners are apparently talking about twins being carried on their behalf by a surrogate mother.

Well, in a world where everything is Hollywood picture perfect and all kinds of deviant behaviors like drug addiction, extreme sexuality, DUIs, repeated domestic assaults and of course outlandish sexual orientation are acceptable, one can only offer their hearty congratulations to an up and coming alternate family lifestyle.

But the world is not all Hollywood. Like most of the movies made by the celebrities, Hollywood lifestyle is mostly virtual and all showpiece. The real world is far more complex and demanding than the most dramatic Hollywood movie. Raising a child in the real world is not some reality show where actors hide and seek between rigged movie props. This is why there has to be answers to some very cogent questions.

To begin with, it should be recognized that ours is a very complicated universe. A slight change in the pH level of the blood for example can make all the difference between life and death for any individual. If the earth deviates one inch from its orbit, the end result can be very disastrous. Humans as a race have from the very beginning conspired according to the Bible The Bible for Dummies to add layers of abstraction to the already existing complexity just so to spite their creator. For the average human being, keeping it simple (The KISS Principle) just does not apply. If it is not complicated, it cannot or should not be broached.

So question one is, who really donated the sperms that is going to be the expected twins? If it is the expectant fathers, then perhaps questions of bonding Bonding: Building The Foundations Of Secure Attachment And Independence and relating is partly solved. The other unsolved parts will be how to truly raise a new baby without making them live a lie all their life. How do you teach a child to understand the dynamics of what the kind of relationship in which they grow up in is about? What do you expect such children to learn from a society that is already stratified beyond reasonable limits? How do you justify imposing your personal beliefs on totally fertile minds without being guilty of indoctrination - i.e not forgetting that the hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world?

If, on the other hand, the expected twins are the products of an anonymous sperm donor, then it will seem that a very complex layer of abstraction has been introduced into the equation. I can only let anyone reading this to let their imagination run wild as to what the ramifications of this can be.

Assuming question one has a positive answer, question two will be how do two men raise two recently born kids without running afoul of several natural laws? The American Paediatrics Society believes breast feeding an infant for a certain length of time is the best method for raising a healthy baby. Suppose one or both babies refuse to be bottle fed, which one of the two fathers is going to breast feed them and how? The Nursing Mother's Companion: Revised Edition

In a thriving traditional family, the mother plays a very important role - that of acting the glue that bonds all aspects of the pieces. She is like Sponge Bob square pants absorbing all the pains, yet giving all the love. The mother is the good cop, whose duty it is to shield the kids from heavy handedness of a loving but very stern father. Mothers bond to fathers through daily interactions while babies growing up become one with their mother through caring and feeding. Babies that grow up under such benign and properly orchestrated circumstances are the ones that go on to excel in society.

So, it does not matter what the intentions of a two father family is, it is obvious that the growing kids are being denied a certain part of their birth right. The right to excel and become productive members of society.

What all this boils down to is that a segment of society that is first to shout out aloud 'intolerance' or 'homophobia' in the face of any member of the rest of society which seem to criticize their peculiarity, seem to have set out to hamper the natural development process of two new members of society without their tacit approval - they're too young to give it.

Two men raising a pair of twins may be an experiment, but eventually, it cannot turn out to be a good experiment, because it was not meant to benefit anyone else but the selfish and egocentric beliefs of its perpetrators. Selfishness and egocentricity of course is the root cause of most of the destructive wars on our planet. As an outsider looking in, I personally think aligning ones life on the basis of sexual orientation is absolutely not a way of life that an advanced civilization will want to live. Rather the reduction or control of sexuality that will lead to management of population growth and total elimination of all the vices that emanate from our sexiness would be priority number one.

In effect, going where no man has gone before is a good idea until we start encountering what no man has encountered before. Of course, it will be awesome if like Captain Kirk's USS Enterprise, we can go back to sleep after watching a particularly gripping episode, except unfortunately, it is not.

Honor Killings - or Battle of the Sexes

Three news items from three separate sources all about virtually unrelated events but seemingly addressing the same issue: violence against the less powerful, a plague that has eaten very deep into the fabric of our society.

News item one comes from Canada in the form of a warning from Canada's female affairs Minister, Ms. Ambrose who was issuing a warning to those who commit heinous crimes in the name of honor to be prepared to face the music as this kind of activity will not be tolerated in Canada. Full coverage of this news item can be found here



News item two was about Mel Gibson's alleged meltdown and his total dumping on his former girl friend Oksana. Audio tapes of his violent rantings were supposed to have been exposed on some websites leading to investigation by law enforcement authorities. Full coverage of this news item can be found here

News item three is about an estranged lover who set out to kill his girlfriend at her workplace but ended up killing six innocent employees before turning the gun on himself. Full coverage for this news item can be found here

It should not take an Einstein to recognize a common thread in these three unrelated stories. It does not matter how well people try to cover it up, relationships between the opposite sexes on this planet is totally out of sync with innate wishes of its inhabitants.



Starting with honour killings, this is a so-called religio-cultural activity designed many years ago to gain and maintain absolute control over the female species. The rational behind it could be anything including jealousy or the wish of a man to have absolute access to his female partner. The biblical theory that God created Eve by means of a bone extracted from Adams side seems to cement the idea that for every man there is a woman whose role in life is to be the slave. Add to that the idea that "thou shalt not commit adultry" and it will start to become clearer why some men feel challenged to go to the extremes to maintain their honor. It is appalling though that human beings can take the laws into their own hands violating God's commandment that says "thou shalt not kill".



The problem with honor killings though is that it has a name and a face with many cultures which seem to accept it as a way of life. In the Eastern and Arabic countries, honor killings are practiced openly with the backing of the law in some cases. In the west however it is an entirely different story. Canada's Minister for Women affairs is pushing for a law that will see people engaged in honor killings be subject to punishment to the full extents of the law. From her perspective, it will seem as if honor killings are a special kind of crime associated with a particular group of people. This is far from the truth however. Murder of an innocent victim by any name at all is still murder and should all be treated accordingly. A spate of knifing of innocent women these past few weeks in the Toronto area are samples of what might be classified as honor killings.

Honor killings are not an isolated practice. When women were accused of witchcraft and burnt at the stake by the church, that was more or less honor killings. When somebody as highly placed as Mel Gibson rants and raves about killing his girlfriend, that qualifies as an attempted honor killing. The estranged lover in news item three who set out to kill his girlfriend but ended up taking the lives of many other innocent citizens has committed the act of honor killing. Criminal organizations all over the planet will kill anyone of their own who strays from a set code of ethics.

Murderers, serial killers and other such criminal elements do what they do, either because they are absolutely insane or are out on some kind of personal vendetta. Some murderers are known to have even set out to kill other people, only because they cannot destroy the object of their affection which happens also to be their major irritant.

What this all boils down to is that the war of the sexes that has been part and parcel of humanity since the beginning is an ongoing saga and its presence can be felt across all cultures and nationalities. Perhaps if the big picture is viewed from this perspective, then the healing can begin.





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How Are The Mighty Fallen? - Toyota recurring recalls

When in college I had a professor who vouched for the fine and lasting qualities of the Toyota brand. His Toyota at the time was at 1 million kilometers and was still going without rust or engine damage. This of course was in the late nineties, before the era of exotic computer chips under the hood.

Today, the news is different. First it was a slew of recalls that has now ballooned into what seems like an auto-Armageddon for Toyota. Toyota itself has attributed the fault in its most recent recalls to a faulty accelerator pedal that can be quickly and easily fixed. The easy fix does not seem to be working as the recent news about a self accelerating Toyota Prius which may indicate a more deep rooted problem.

So, what could be the root of Toyota's problem? Steve Jobs the CEO of Apple Computers has tried to point out the possibility that the problem might be electronic in nature. One other expert has testified that it was possible to tweak the electronics in Toyota Cars to make them self accelerate.

Without sounding like an apostle of doom or trying to scare all car drivers out there, the computer chips under the hood of many modern cars are probably vulnerable to cracker or hacker attacks just like the computer chips inside desktops, huge road signs or even your washer at home. So. perhaps the issue is security rather than electronics. If some people have found a way to use their wireless devices to tap into computer chips that modern cars rely upon for virtually all their functionality, then no car on the road is eventually going to be safe.

Toyota ought to take very seriously the issue of the security from external influence of the computer chips that operate their vehicles. If security is an issue that has been overlooked, then it is probably better to inform their customers of the real issue and to start immediately to find a permanent solution.


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"Apple takes a bruising over iPad name"

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - As Apple takes a bruising over the moniker of its latest creation some technology analysts are shrugging off the fuss over the name to focus on what's inside the iPad: a speedy new chip.

Critics and fans have been filling the 60-day void between this week's unveiling of what Apple chief executive Steve Jobs hailed as a "revolutionary" device and the time the first models will begin shipping globally.

By Friday, talk of the iPad's technical strengths and weaknesses was drowned out by comic awe rooted in Apple picking a name seemingly fit for a feminine hygiene gadget.

"It's always those kinds of words that are suggestive of feminine menstruation," said Michael Cronan, whose eponymous branding specialty firm in California named Amazon's Kindle electronic reader and the TiVo television digital recorder...... The remainder of this story can be read here

Apple has become attached to the "i" brand that seems to sell its products effectively. The iPad is definitely something very different. My first reaction upon hearing about this product was that it must have been designed with idle housewives in mind. Apple perhaps may want to drop the "pad" in this particular product and use something like slate or abacus for example. Slate is a piece of erasable portable blackened wooden board we used to carry to school as kids and abacus of course is the chinese bead calculator. Slate sounds ultimately universal, gender neutral and appealing. iSlate will obviously attract many.