Category Archives: Philosophy

Health, Philosophy

Executive Function Of The Brain

This post is inspired by a post by “The Diary of a CEO”. Inherent to the piece is the debilitating effects of short form media on the brain. Studies are being done and apparently results are starting to roll in. What we are about to learn will be unsurprising to us people watchers who have been witnessing a degradation in human interaction.

The writing I’m doing today is in advance of a skating occasion booked for 135 minutes from now quite distant from my seated position. Since time is short, I could have decided to spend the time in passive short form but instead I chose an active pursuit requiring executive function. Consequently, there will be something more of value produced.

This blog has been active since 2009. That’s a fairly long time and has required a continual application of small bursts of periodic energy in context of what’s deemed to be a fair distribution of my time. I do it because I care. I do it because I know it my heart that I offer value for folks who are open. I know through experience and statistical history that few have an attention span for this despite my eloquence. I am gifted with the written word so others’ lack of attention in no way is attributable to a perception of poorly focused fodder. The technical connection between search engines and posts also plays a role but my intuition concludes that folks are more inclined to seek more immediate stimuli in quest of their appetite for gratifying brain nourishment.

The headline in Calgary this morning is that a toddler in a stroller was run down in a cross walk. Parents survived. It was in broad daylight on a Sunday. The child has died. I’ve witnessed impatient drivers all over town. There have been deaths and there is no question in my mind that the affects of technology is contributory. People are less compelled to engage in conversation because they now value text over voice. Folks are reticent to complain because of the gaslighting effect. Kids are isolated because this condition is preferential to being bullied. Then there is a school shooting and we rightfully mourn but carry on without implementing real change. The rate of which police officer are absent on stress leave is 30 per cent while infractions are unenforced because they are deemed innocuous. Those unenforced laws lead to the kind of behavior creep that emboldens 4×4 trucks to run intersections thereby killing kids. Is the retracement of our civil society going to continue or are we going to return to principled conduct exemplary of frontal cortex executive function?

Lifes Lessons, Philosophy

Deliberate or Reluctant – You Choose

Are you going after what you want or is life happening to you? Perhaps a combination of both? Conditioning plays a significant role and if you can acknowledge it for what it is and exercise presence in the context of backdrop built on apathy – you are one step ahead of most.  There is a propensity to turn to the routine first. However; the routine typically pays the least. Commerce reward the creative and the risk taker but particular cultures have an infused bias toward safety. Were you sporty in your youth? Then you have an advantage. Were you comfortable in the wilderness? Then you have an advantage. Were you effective at handling oppressive influences? Then you have an advantage. 

If you’re still concerned about others perception of you – you are disadvantaged because you hesitate. If all the puzzle pieces need  to be in place before you move – then you second guess and shutter. If you are worried about your retirement – then you’ll fall in line. 

An output requires the continual realization of regular inputs along with patience. You need to be able to “not see it to believe it” while also manifesting a visualization of seeing it within your mind’s eye. This output requires a keen affinity toward the merits of your individual uniqueness in context of a market which may not be readily apparent. 

As you go about your business, take a look around. There is so much that you don’t know but you are immersed in the psychodrama of micro problems of which the resolution of such may be immediately outside of your control. When you come to learn of the microcosm from which you operate and the limits of such space, then your curiosity evolves. Now…take it from there in a spirit of deliberate movement.   

Philosophy, Politics, Uncategorized

Tepid Response To U.S. Invasion of Venzeuela

The chest beating continues as Trump produces a “narco-terrorism” argument against Maduro whilst at the same time in his mind righting a wrong of American business interests during decades past. What an inept mind fails to realize that countries have a responsibility to enforce law by prosecuting drug crimes. Americans have failed in its duty at its borders. It has failed in its duty in its streets and now turns outward for blame.

Shareholder of corporations should know the risk of investing in business outside its own borders. Geopolitical risk is inherent depending on what country one wants to invest. However; when you have an extortionist leading the charge in Washington, fair rules and fair risk are discounted. This is Donald Trump…the man who uses the courts to bully and has been named himself or on behalf of his companies in over 4,000 lawsuits between 1973 and 2016.

Right now, the first world is aghast and are treading lightly and diplomatically because they know they are not only dealing with a man of mal character but one who is emboldened and who has an extreme right wing cowardly group of politicians behind him. The first world is acutely aware of the stakes and will absolutely be convening in group like fashion in order to gain full appreciation amongst themselves whether his explicit threats will go further. Thoughtful democratic people of goodwill are wondering if political leaders are going to denounce the autocratic war mongering rhetoric spewed by Donald Trump or whether they are going to take a defiant stand against the Donald Trump White House and more aptly characterize it for what it is.   

Our world has become so vastly different since the October 7, 2023 atrocity in Israel. This particular slaughter based on hate has galvanized and radicalized and demented. Some 70,000 Palestinians have been killed of which almost half were women and children.

We must not fall prey to false narratives spewed as rationale for breaching international borders.  We must be vigilant to call out the determined effort of money motivated interests to lie and deceive. 

We must now do a hair pin turn in absolute terms and denounce evil for what it is. The annexation of countries and the exploitation of another country’s resources via threat and coercion shall not stand.          

Philosophy, Politics

Thursday Morning Trump In Trouble


So…..a couple of more Republicans have figured out that the “Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t so beautiful. In the back of my mind upon learning that that Senate needed amendments in order to pass it, I pontificated that this could be just the opportunity for particular conscience driven House members to step up. The one name being floated as a flipper is Thomas Massie from Kentucky. The Republican hold outs stand at five into the very early hours of Thurs July 3rd. The interesting context is the timing in which Elon Musk has made a dramatic post indicating the establishment of a new party if this thing passes. Moreover, if these Republicans stand their ground in principle on subsequent legislative efforts, there would be a substantive mark finally driven on the idiot’s grip on power. Some fluttering from nightmare’s REM state tonight. Massie has an interesting background and doesn’t appear to be the quivering sort. A quote of from him tonight “There’s no reason to bankrupt the country because you want to go shoot off some fireworks.” An amusing adjunct…..I guess during the Senate’s negotiated amendments, a provision was included to restrict poker player losses at 90 per cent and ironically the World Series of Poker’s “Main Event” just got underway.

Philosophy, Politics

Uncivil Civil Society Canada Vs U.S.A.

In Canada, we do not execute people. It’s a barbaric act in contradiction to the essence of our human soul. We protect our citizens from such heinous individuals and we pay a price in treasure to ensure no future acts by such perpetrators unfold. This system of protection absent of execution not only protects our person physically but also our collective consciousness as a civil being of higher order.

Canada is not perfect. Aberrant beings arise and are not always managed in ways to perfectly protect from their deeds. There are occasions where offenders repeat when they should never have been given an opportunity. Work needs to be done during stages of growth and development. We need to not turn away but to engage when witnessing conduct unbecoming of healthy contributing citizens. Teachers need empowerment. Households require two parent families. Social service agencies require funding and programming. Citizens should be incentivized to help given that there has been failure and indifference.

Turning a blind eye to deviance is indifferent and akin to sanctioning the “firing squad”. If we want to make better citizens and prevent heinous crime and murder, we must fixate on the earliest signs of distress expressed by a young person and show them love and belongingness and paths forward for fulfilling lives. A society needs a mechanism for this in a digital world absent of from emotional connectedness. 

On April 11th, 2025 the State of South Carolina put to death a man named Mikal Mahdi by firing squad. Global News has reported the execution as botched despite what was estimated to be the method with the least probability of producing a problem with protocol. Witnesses watched a man with a bag over his head scream out, flex his arms and gasp intensely for 80 seconds before expiring limp. A legal system had determined his fate 19 years prior yet had kept him waiting in a jail cell whereby he apparently without rehabilitative resources had attempted yet another murder but this time of a penitentiary employee. The legal system sought clemency up until the last remaining minutes (not hours) of gunfire.

Was Mikal Mahdi possessed with the devil from birth or was there a cause and effect element to an erratic childhood, a family afflicted with alcoholism, a depressive disorder, and a self-esteem problem which had been identified but not necessarily addressed? His father had struggled with work so Mikal was sent to live with his Aunt at one point. While incarcerated he had spent 75 days in solitary confinement from the ages 14 to 17 and another 8 months of solitary confinement at the age of 21.

The death of Mikal Mahdi was the fifth execution by firing squad in the United States since 1976. On January 25, 1996 Billie Bailey died of hanging sanctioned by the State of Delaware. Gas chambers, electrocution, lethal injection, and nitrogen hypoxia remain as alternatives for States still implementing this form of “justice”. Although not referenced as a feature whereby Canadian society distinguishes itself from the U.S. during the tumultuous first 100 days of the Trump Presidency, this one goes without saying.