Athena

Thank you so much. I knew a woman who was beat up and left for dead. I have also fought my way out of a couple of bad situations, and sweet talked my way out of other scary situations. The closet I came to being raped was the "nice boy" down the street who lied about his mother being in her bedroom taking a nap. Fortunately his parents came home in time, but not before I bit his arm so hard a bone was chipped. He told his mother, someone stepped on him with foot ball shoes. I said nothing to her about what happened because he said she had a bad heart. Besides, "it' did not actually happen, but I never saw him again. A few years later he became a police officer. On the other hand, the "bad boy", my mother didn't want me to see, never tried to force himself on me. He became a Hell's Angel. And proudly I was still a virgin when I married a man I met in college. I imagine it would be difficult for males to relate to women's fears, because they do not have our experience, but when every man, seems to see you as a score, and many become very unpleasant when told "no" one can begin to feel like prey. I resolved this problem by getting married very early. Then I had to deal with my father-in-law and brothers-in-laws, but once that was settled, well, it was a whole lot better than dating and dealing men's sex urge and egos. However, several years later, I learned age does not change this particular male behavior. However, the best part about being old is sometimes being able to enjoy a man's company without sex being an issue, because I am less attractive, thank heavens. But then, I have a 86 year old female friend who is having a very hot relationship with a man 10 years younger. With age, many of us become weaker, and feel more vulnerable, so we avoid going out at night, or at least stay on side walks with people, because we know there are angry men just looking for victims and we want to avoid the risk. Just the fact that many men behavior like sexual predators, leaves women fearful. Some deal with this by carrying mace or guns, or taking karate classes. I have to add, a college professor taught his class that women who are out at night are intentionally asking to be raped. He really believed this. Care to consider what his male students thought when a female said no?

I thought things would go badly when the US continued to cut taxes during a time of war, but it never occurred to me congress would agree to pay for war, but not budget for it. How could they do this? Personally I think everyone who voted for paying for war without insisting this cost be in the budget, should be voted out of office. John Boehner seems to me the most corrupt man ever, as he lays blame for the mess the Bush administration got us in on Obama, and says nothing about the war debt being part of our national debt problem, because somehow congress approved of the spending but not how to cover the cost, pushing the problem of paying for the wars into the future. Watch our war debt grow http://costofwar.com/en/

There can not be divorce if there is not marriage. In patriarchies, married women have been like property. The culture of the link didn't have marriages, and property went from the mother to her children. The important male in the children's lives was the mothers brother. What kind of difference do you think this might make? Did you sexuality class talk about bonobo, where there is no rape because the females stay together and defend each other. On the other hand, these primates also do a lot of touching to comfort each other, and some of associated this touching with being sexual. Is all touching sexual? Where might we draw a line between sexual touching and non sexual touching? Might our Puritan back ground, have an influence on our touching? How might a society with a lot of touching, be different from one with very restricted touching?

I am so glad you said you are a nudist, because that hits on what I was trying to say about the different cultures. It is perfectly normal for some people to be nude, and not have a problem with sexual arousal. However, in cultures where people keep their bodies covered, showing an ankle can cause arousal. I don't think the issue is exactly clothing or lack of it, but how in different cultures, people respond to the exposure of the body differently. Does that make sense. I would not be as judgmental as you about those who have a problem with self control. I helped a friend with a store near a high school, and one young man was so sexually stimulated by his teacher, it was an intense problem for him. My heart went out to him. I don't know why he was like that, but the feeling was so strong, it prevented from him thinking of anything else. Certainly his studies suffered, because sex was so much on his mind. This is a hormonal thing, as well as a mental thing, and young people don't have a lot of experience for dealing with their feelings, nor all the thoughts more mature people have. For God's sake, we get much more concerned with the law as we age, and I think we should be much more tolerant of youthful folly than some here seem to be. It is not just youth who can be overwhelmed by feelings that lead to sex with perhaps the wrong person. Such as the teachers who are charged with being inaproperiate with a student. ( wonder if this is made clear in college classes for teachers?) There have been a few dramatic cases where female teachers were so infatuated with student their personal emotional termoil lasted for years. My God, when this happens, it is so obvious counseling is needed. May be I am too liberal, but I keep thinking "there but for the grace of God go I". We are so complex and I prefer understanding to knee jerk judgments and punishment. Then with understanding, for sure, there are some who should never be around minors. For these, it makes sense to put restrictions on where they live and what jobs they do. But we should be more discriminating on who had just a moment of bad judgment, (keep in mind, the guy probably drank too much too) and who will be troubled with inarppropriate feelings for many years and possibly for life. And then I feel sorry for these people, just as I would sorry for someone with cancer. We have to be realistic and we have to protect society from people who have problems, but darnit, we can be compassionate when someone has a problem, and we can be more just by deciding who is likely to repeat a crime and who is not. All rapes are not monstrous, hostile acts, and I tend to believe the very harsh laws are the result of men hating, hostile females, and overly self righteous males, having too much political power. On the other hand, if a male gets more than two females pregnant without the ability to support the women and children, I would recommend sterilization, and the same for a woman. The act of sex, just is not that terrible, and we should stop creating as intolerably terrible. I don't understand why people are making such a big deal about it. But having children without the being responsible for them is a terrible thing. Knowingly transmitting a sexual disease is also a terrible thing. You are incorrect. Being charged with a crime is what comes before anything else. Being charged with a sex crime can have terrible consequences, even if the person is found innocent. A teacher's or politician careers be ruined just by the charge. Parents can loose their children, because their children can be taken, without even a trail to prove guilt, and they can be denied visits too. I knew a man who was denied visits with his children for many years, because he was accused of molesting his daughter. Several years later he was given his children, because it was determined the guy his X wife was living with, was the one who molested the girls. Stores lock up cigarettes because people steal them. Obesity is very harmful and we push the products that lead to obesity. Cigarettes help to prevent weight gain, and in some cases are better for a person if this person is likely to be obese without them. Now this is totally off subject, but should anyone be allowed to promote a product that can be harmful? Should schools have vending machines loaded with pop and candy? Just how far should our laws go to protect us from ourselves? Back on subject- I remember when TV put and movies put husbands and wives in separate beds, and many words were taboo. We promote sex in advertizing and TV and movies use sex to attract audiences. Hum, may be this isn't as off topic as I thought. PS warnings on products are not ridiculous. Especially not for products with peanuts or peanut oils, because peanuts are deadly for some people. Ignorance can be deadly.

Most assuredly, the concern is not limited to some weird hypothetical web site. It is a major legal concern for everyone, because attitudes and laws have changed and many are not aware of this. Here is another site that some may think is more respectable... http://www.criminald...s/date-rape.htm women should not need to protect themselves? Why not? Perhaps I should not laugh at the statement that women should not need to protect themselves, but I have been a female for 64 years and well, ah, I think some things come naturally to men, and some things do not. The sexual impulse seems pretty natural to me. The Muslims are not all wrong in assuming women should cover themselves, and should not go to town alone, nor be alone with a man other than her husband. Polynesians and Africans have managed sexual behaviors differently. Perhaps we should not be too judgmental, and try to understand the differences? I do believe cultures are different and that this differences makes a big difference in how we experience life. I think it is dreadfully wrong to label a young man or young woman a sexual predator and restrict his/her job opportunities and where s/he lives for life, just because s/he had sex with someone who could have been willing but was under age. There is a difference between having a strong sex urge, and a problem with a self control, and being a predator with intent to harm someone. And really folks, how wrong is it to have sex with a willing partner, but too young? Thank you so much. When I came of age, it was made very clear that a female should dress modestly, and there were restrictions on our activities. It was made very clear, a young woman should not be alone with a male. If the warnings given me were not enough to convince me of this, the behavior of the males was! It just makes sense to me that females need to take responsibility for protecting themselves. Why are we so uptight about sex any way? I am really blown away by some of the responses. Why would a girl claim she wasn't willing to have sex, when she dressed for it, and put herself in a situation where things were apt to lead to sex? What is she wanting if it is not sex? (be careful, this is a trick question). The need to define the degree of the sexually inappropriate behavior, is essential to justice. In many cases action should stop with mandatory classes and perhaps some restitution. Sometimes the restitution should go to parents, because the child could be willing and even the instigator. I think we have several social problems involved here, including widespread disrespect of parents, and in general a lack of personal responsibility. I appreciate the discussion. We have shifted personal responsibility to state responsibility, and the state is doing a poor job of dealing with the human problems.

Matriarchy is tied to the subject of rape, because rape is tied to personal power or lack of it. Sites objecting to the treatment of males charged with rape, warn the US is becoming a matriarchy, which I find very funny, but in some areas of our lives females have gained power and males have lost power. A matriarchy is a female dominated society, and a patriarchy is male dominated. Can you imagine how the reaction to rape might be different if a society that is female verses male dominated? For sure the warning that the US is becoming a matriarchy, is an expressed concern about males loosing power. I remember when my daughter was in high school and I was asked to sign a paper giving my daughter permission to attend a sex ed class. I asked the male teacher how he addressed the subject of condoms, and he laughed and said, "we all know that is for the girls protection". I refused to signed the permission form because I did not like his attitude. Preventing pregnancy is not just about protecting the girl , but not that long ago, males could seduce large numbers of young females, leaving them pregnant and walk away with no responsibility, never having to pay child support or comfort and sick child, or in any way contribute to the rearing of the child. My oldest granddaughter is one of these children, and there is much pain and suffering in the wake of such of irresponsibility, especially in our culture where we put much importance on having a father and mother. This practice of not holding males responsible for children, did not change until females gained greater political power. Now we seem to be going to the other extreme of being too harsh on males, which is a subject of another thread, but I want to make it clear that we have been a patriarchy, worshiping a Father in heaven, holding the man as the of household, and holding the female in the position of slaves to men, denying them even the right to the own clothes in some places, and many places having laws making it legal to hit wives to make them obey, and limits on how badly she can be hit. I am providing a link that describes a matriarchy so we can aware of how different things can be. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Mosuo-One-of-the-Last-Matriarchal-Societies-36321.shtml

I was googling about rape in matriarchies, and across this: http://www.mensaid.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=5901 Seriously I am opposed to rape but the punishment for date rape is way too excessive! I think we should unite and fight for more just laws. Actually I think things are far worse since we announced everyone can have sexual freedom. The laws and policies have become so reactionary, and just plain stupid! When a 16 year old is carrying an identification saying she is 21, and she is drinking, she is getting herself into any trouble she gets into, and it is not a young man who should be severely punished. It is the natural consequences of her bad behavior. As I told my daughter when she lied to me and put herself in rape situation, the rules I gave her are not my rules made up just to have power over her, they are the rules all females must follow. The rules are for our own protection and if we don't follow them, no one can protect us from our failure to protect ourselves. There was a time when we agreed individuals are responsible for their own behavior, and it is not a good thing to attempt to make government overly responsible. We have perversed this. We have perversed the meaning of freedom and liberty, leading our young to believe they can do anything, and then stomp on them heavily with the law if they do something that we self righteously think we can control with law. This is so wrong!

Okay, but what happened to discussion of rape? It looks maybe both discussions came to an end? The nice thing about science is it doesn't stimulate the feelings than other human subjects can stimulate. If we observe male dominate chips and female dominate bonobo, we see rape is more likely in the male dominated culture of primates.

Now this is a different subject from rape, but connected. What does education do for a person? It often leads to better pay and personal power is directly connected with money. When the male children are more likely to be educated, you have a patriarchy, male domination. A patriarchy can be as protective of females as a buck is protective his herd, and the young studs will also lurk around hoping to get a female and may be even, someday, the whole herd. The females may enjoy the best life has to offer, because this is what the buck is suppose to provide, or the alpha male of any species for that matter. If a woman and her children are not being well cared for, she didn't marry very well. The male is to protect her, and in our reality, females are less protected since they were "liberated". You might google for information before questioning what someone says.

Interesting, except higher pay for men also goes with patriarchy, which is male domination, and male domination goes with rape. It should be said, this is not just male domination of women, but also male domination of men. It is like a colony of chimpanzee where the alpha male takes whatever he wants by force, and everyone caters to him. In contrast to the bonobo which are just like chimps, except they are female dominated, a matriarchy. The important difference between these two groups of primates is there food supply. Bonobo are situated where there is an excellent food supply and the food supply for chimps is not as good. Biologically I don't think there is much difference between a chimp and bonobo, but culturally they are different. I am sure if you do a cross cultural study of humans, you find, some cultures have more rapes than others. I seriously do not believe rape is as likely in matriarchies. It should also be said bonobo are very intimate with each other, and use touching to smooth each other. Researchers have associated this touching with sexual behavior, however, we might question if the researchers have confused affection with sex, because that is our cultural bias? Heck, we can look at a banana and see a sexual organ, and use sex to sell everything. I think we need to question if there is something happening in our society that increases the likelihood of rape, but I also want to point out Muslims are so male dominated women assume they and the children should eat after the men have their fill. They also want the women to completely cover themselves, as did Puritans in the US also promoted covering the body, and punished women for exposing so much as an ankle, because it is assumed we can not show our bodies without trigger sex urges. Questioning cultural factors that increase the likelihood of rape, and does include different expectations of males and females is legitimate, and I regret the changing of this thread. In fact, I realize I am feeling very angry about this change, because this subject is so important to our safety, and beneath my anger is fear. If we do not talk about this stuff, the evils remain in the dark and grow. The thread needs to be about rape, with questioning if preferential treatment of females discussed as a possible cause of rape. Some cultures will realize more rape than others, and also, historically, women are treated much better when people enjoy the safety of a high standard of living. Our present economic troubles increases our risk. The more secure men feel, the less apt they are to abuse others in any way, and this thread should be about that. Men who victimize women will victimize women, regardless of who they believe has victimized them, because victims look for someone weaker to victimize, and being unemployed and loosing everything, and not having hope for doing better, is most certainly connected with feelings of being victimized. Feelings of being victimized in a highly competitive patriarchy, makes life dangerous for women.

During the recession that started in the 70's I became an advocate for homeless people, and very aware of the discrimination against males. There are complaints that the rich US does not give its share of charity to the world, but neither are we very caring with each other, and I think women's liberation in some ways made things worse, because now we are almost as careless of homeless women and children as we are of men. Actually, when we "liberated" women, there was a rise of women and children being involved in crime, both as victims and perpetrators. Women and children are less protected than they once were, but things remain worse for males. I think we should question what does it mean to be civilized? When I was an advocate for the homeless, the men were associated with crimes and rape, but college males are far more apt to rape than a homeless man, and the argument that we should not protect these undesirable males, included ignoring the women and children who needed help. While the homeless men I was working with, were very concerned about the safety of women and children. Mind you this was a time of economic crisis and we are in economic crisis again. The life risk and suffering I was dealing with as an advocate still weigh heavy on me, and it seems to me if we what healthy society, we must protect males as well as females, because a male who is in a good situation is more able to help the women and children, and when treat others well, that becomes the standard for how we treat others. I think we need to think wholistically about these relationships. <br><br>I reviewed the original question, and how would a female rape a male who was not aroused? It isn't the same for women, because arousal is not required for their rape. However, I have heard priest seducing children of either sex is very harmful to them. Going by the news, may be priest should learn this and pass a test on their understanding of it, before being made ordained priest? <br>

I read the suns poles reverse every solar cycle and the nest one is due 2012. This appears to happen without effecting the earth, but periodically the earths poles also shift, and I have read we are due for a pole shift and the climate change could be part of this shift. What are the thoughts on this?

Thank you Hal. If I were young, I would study weather. It is strange what turns us on and what leaves us cold, because it is different from everyone. Weather and the effects of weather, is one thing that really excites me. I love the mystery of weather, and that mystery has gotten a whole lot more exciting. Here it is in the middle of July and I am wearing winter clothes and have a blanket over my legs. This is nuts and can not be good for many crops, but I hope this works for my cold weather crops that have not fully matured yet. I am hoping this means a mild fall than extends later in the year, so other plants might produce before freezing. We have had warm spring in November, when other places where devastated by ice. And this makes me suspect.Could we be experiencing the beginning of polar shift? At the site I posted is an explanation of the troughs that cause wind and the moisture in them to be separated from the main west to east flow of air. However, the explanation of troughs is incomplete. They can cause rain for days, before they get picked up by the main flow of air again. As I understand this, the west to east flow of air carries moisture, and a trough can move some of this south where it than dumps rain. Exactly what Texas needs right now. But all this moist air is dumping rain in the northwest instead of moving west. Dry hot land will cause air to rise (low air pressure), and cool land will cause the air to drop (low air pressure), and the earth's spin makes it seem like the wind is moving west to east. Then there are these troughs . What causes a trough, that pulls the moist air south and dumps rain on Texas? Actually, the west to east stream of air, is the earth spinning, not the air moving, right? Could we understand more if our perception of what is moving were more accurate?

Moving water would not resolve the weather problems that destroy crops, and it is to protect our food supply that we need to control weather. Because it is easier to move things like water and food, and we have a surplus of both, we have not been that highly motivated to discover the mysteries of weather, but I think that is about to change. The mass of humanity on the earth, resulting in water and food shortages, puts more pressure on us to control weather, and increase food production. I do not believe that we cannot learn more about weather and then how to control it. Not that long ago, it was obvious people can not fly. Now we not only fly, but we can send land rovers to reach other planets. I am not saying everything is possible, because I do believe there are limits to what we can do. I just don't believe it will always be impossible to control weather. We know deforesting large areas causes a problem, and that we can reverse the problem. There seems to be a belief that the pollution we create is associated with global warming, which means we can stop doing what causes a problem. Because people responded, I was motivated to google the subject and found a very informative site. http://www.usatoday....her/wbarocx.htm By the way, we are having another cold, rainy day.

Einstein said something like, "don't bother to remember what you can look up". There are zillions of things for us to know, and it is a wise person who is aware of how much s/he does not know. This forum is pretty limited to science, and I don't think anyone here is an expert on all the different fields of science? There are other forums for history and politics. We have to be selective in fields of interest, and will learn one or two fields very well. For the rest, depending on google is an excellent way to deal with our desire to know everything and the limits of our brains. Einstein was highly respected for his specialty, and he did not attempt to hold all information about everything in his head. Let us not worry needlessly over google and our brain function.

Unfortunately, I personally knew a pedophile and he had absolutely no intention of harming anyone. Human beings do not have hard wiring for sex. Actually, neither do other primates who do not have sex, if when as babies they were isolated, and did not play with their peers. Anyway, what turns us on depends on things like playing together as children and our social confidence and position, and also, what we are exposed to when our hormones start doing their thing. So a person can have a fetish such as a rubber or leather or a foot or shoe fetish. It is a tragedy when a child is molested, because the child can then grow up with an overwhelming desire to be sexual with children. The sexuality of the pedophile I knew was unclear. That is, it was not known if he preferred males or females. Then when I was in a swimming pool with him, it became obvious what turned him on! Children! His face flushed, and he could not keep his eyes off the children, although he did his best to control his behavior, and to appear "normal". There was no malice in this man, what-so-ever, but he had no control over his physical/sexual response to children. He had been molested as child. I did research on this, and learned that pedophiles tend to have an unhealthy relationships with their mothers. So it is not just that the child is sexualized by an adult, but also the child's relationship with the mother matters. I knew a man who had a fox fur fetish and this most certainly was tied to his relationship with his mother, who would sit on her bed with him and play with him using her fox fur. I think we might want to extend this discussion to what parents have to do with their children's sexuality and in general the child's social responses. Problems in the sex area, are also social problems, and these seem to go together. For sure as the pedophile's had a social problem even before his sexual preference was known. He was just creepy, and had no social confidence. So too the guy with the fox fur fetish. Actually the fox fur guy seemed normal enough, until he started to be aroused, bringing out his weirdness. To get this back on the subject of rape- sexual slurs made in a military cadence are socially acceptable, and some of us believe, lead to rape, because of the underlying notion that "a real man" is a dominating sexual creatures. I have seen this be a big problem for males who come to hate their own sex, when they experience what such male abusiveness does to their mothers and sisters. I assumed you knew of world wide differences, but just had to open the discussion to discussing them, and thank you for following through. I remember when we didn't protect young males and just assumed encouraging them sexually was a good thing. However, we did draw a firm line between children and adults. I was shocked when I learned some people thought of the youngest children as sexual! I wondered how could anyone think of a child in a sexual way, before the child actually became sexual. However, at what age is a child no longer a child? We have a history of marrying girls at age 14. Boys did the work of men by age 14. This is when the body of a young person has adult functions, and they usually become interested in sex. We married our young girls off because survival was a struggle, and getting rid of the girl meant one less mouth to feed, and also, you wanted to get rid of the girl before Dad got too interested in her, or she got pregnant. Incest is a universal taboo, with exception a place in Africa where the father can have sex with his daughter, just before the rhino hunt, because the sex is suppose to make him stronger, and hunting rhinos is very dangerous. Age 18 is not the magic age of adulthood, as the brain is not fully developed until age 25, and in at least one country, anyone under age 25 enjoys protections, that are lost after age 25. I am fully in favor of this. But when it comes to sex? I have some questions about how seriously anyone should be punished for having sex with a willing 14 year old. I think we have gone way too far with attitudes about when consensual sex is statutory rape. Especially when the "rapist" isn't that much older and is not him or her self that mature. I would draw a firmer line at age 25 than at age 18. Banishing a 6 year old from school for kissing a play mate is totally ridiculous! It is my observation/experience that males and females have had very different attitudes about rape! I remember when "good girls didn't" and it was assumed the male "should not give up too easily". "Come on you know you really want it". I remember when what call rape today, was considered the wife's duty. Things are changing and I am very in favor in discussions like this one. Sometimes I wonder if we should simplify things by making any sex outside of marriage taboo, but then you get the problem of men thinking, "if she loved me, she would have sex with me" and women thinking demonstrations of love needed to come before sex. I know plenty of females who crave affection and would love to sit on a couch with a man and be affectionate, without this leading to sex! There is a disparity between men and women, with women wanting affection without it leading to sex, and men wanting sex without all that stuff that women want, and if sex is the wife's duty, it can make marriage pretty bad. Perfection is hard to achieve.

I think the mention of German adherence to the rules is a very important one, considering how much the US relationship with authority has changed.

The rain is absolutely pouring in Eugene, Oregon. Yesterday I was glad for the rain because I didn't have time to water my garden, but today I am wondering if my garden will be destroyed? This is very heavy rain that is really pouring and it could rip all the tender flowers off the plants before they fruit. That is besides the seriously lack of sun shine. I wish we could send some of this rain to Texas. How well do we understand weather, and do we really have to remain so helpless to control it? Might it possible to move these clouds to a place that needs rain?

The thesis is more sexual satisfaction less rape? It is my understanding Latin Americans expect a lot of sex, and much effort is made to restrict female freedom in order to protect them from their own weak ability to resist sex, as well as protect them from male aggression. I don't think more sex would decrease rapes, but believe rape and pronography is about ego and dominance, as well as hormone levels. Rape is connected to everything about how we should act and treat others. I think the reason men rape is the same reason military cadence have a male dominant sexist quality. When a female made a slight change in the words, so the male was the subject instead of the female, her commanding officer called her into the office and told her, her words were not appropriate. There is a fine line between sex and fighting. Arousing sexual impulses also increases the potential for fighting. There is a surge of energy, good for marching another mile, or attacking the enemy, or building a bridge, so there is a sexual connotation to the cadence. It gets the juices flowing and a lot can be done with the energy. I remember going to meeting places expecting others to show for a fight, when I was young. This would be my teens years, when wearing black leather and smoking were important to the whole mating thing. I was tough and any attractive male had to be tough. I am now past 60 and being tough has a very different meaning. I think high school sex education is funny, because it is so limited. Sex is about so much more than what we do in bed. It is about how we feel about ourselves and others, how we dress, what we do and do not do. It is also tied to cultural taboos and cultural acceptance. Some cultures being more male dominant and threatening to females, and homosexuals, than others. Green Xenon, it distresses me that anywhere in the world children can be seen as sexual conquest, however, this is not limited to India. I like your reference to animal behavior, and would add, male dogs do a dominant humping of other dogs without regard to if the other dog is male or female. I think plenty of human sexual behavior is the same thing. It is about dominance. The weaker the male feels, the weaker the subject of his/her sexual aggression must be, so we have adults sexually stimulated by children, and unfortunately some act upon this. I think it is less likely for females to be sexual with children, because they are in general more accepting of being submissive. Many years ago I got into role playing games, and lost interest in the gaming when I male player arbitrarily decided the role of the dice meant his character had successfully raped mine, and that I lost the land I held as a queen. As you said, mooeypoo, this subject is about so much more than a sexual behavior. I remember when if a girl became pregnant she was forced our of school. She may have been forced to leave town, and there was no welfare for these girls. She might find a shelter for unwed mothers, and then she would be expected to give up her child, because a mother with a child can not work to support herself and child and take care of a child at the same time. Whatever, rape is about loosing and shame and maybe it help if this were better understood.

Interesting, the US has imitated Germany in every significant way, and you say "The identification of contemporary Germany with its Nazi past in foreign countries is both absurd and persistent. " Imitation is the highest compliment! The Bush family proudly boosted about leading the New World Order, and is there any doubt about the US using its national wealth for military purpose, and defending its economic interesting around the world? The Germans are now strongly opposed to war for economic reasons. And the citizens of the US are as blind to the Military Industrial Complex that effects every aspect of their lives, as the Germans were blind to what was happening in their country when the Prussians took charge.

The US has imitated Germany in every significant way. It adopted the German model of bureaucracy, which is Prussian military bureaucracy applied to citizens, and is what makes national programs like Social Security and Worker's Compensation possible. Germany being the first to have a national pension program and worker's compensation. The US stopped short of having a national medical plan and I do not think this speaks well of the US. Moving along... Perhaps most importantly, the US adopted the German model of education for technology for military and industrial purpose. We should have paid more attention to Eisenhower when he explained the Military/Industrial Complex and mentioned how this would effect our lives. When we implemented the 1958 National Defense Education Act, we stopped transmitting our culture and seem to have experienced the same culture changes that occurred in Germany when the Prussians took control of Germany. Of course we have the Germans to thank for our CIA and the missiles that became our space program, after the USSR put a satilite around the earth. Eisenhower took lessons from the Germans when he created the new government links with research and the media, and Reagan and Bush used these for political purpose, involving using military force to protect our "economic interest", something Germans regret doing and say they will not do again. What should we think of the Germans considering our imitation of them and the Bush family's pride in leading the New World Order? We demilitarized after every war, except the Korean war, when Eisenhower made the Military Industrial Complex a permanent factor in our lives. Oh, by the way, the eugenics that were the horror of NAZI German, began in the US and was picked up by Hitler. Germany was a Christian Republic and the US is a Christian Republic. Our schools no longer transmit the culture that made us different, so what do we think makes us different from Germany now? Marat, you can no longer ride the Grey Hound without state approved ID. To get my driver's license I had to have a state approved birth certificate and certified marriage license or divorce papers. The US is not the democracy we defended in two world wars.

There is an African saying about never base decisions on feelings, because feelings change and change. To base decisions on reason requires information, so I googled "music tech jobs prospect" and there are many links. I think you should look for yourself. There are many possible jobs. I am sure getting one of them will depend on where you are willing to live, so you might look at where you are most likely to get a job as a music tech, and if you want to live there. What does it cost to live there and what might the job pay? Do an information interview with someone who has a job you might like. How did this person get the job, what is required, what is good and bad about the job? http://www.google.co...G=Google+Search

Hum, thank you. I will have to follow through with some research on that, using a barometer and my body. I live close to mountains, and the ocean. What a fun vacation I can have going from place to place, noting the barometric pressure and how I feel. It would be fun. Marat, what is intraocular pressure and a tonometry? I think I will have to google for information, because I don't want to wait. What you said is very interesting. One of my neighbors was in tears today, because she is doing so poorly, physically. I was shocked, because I thought I was the only one who got so down, because of physical discomfort. It seems like medicine is failing us, because our discomfort is still a mystery and we are not pleased with pain medications at all! I think I said before, steroids made me feel great! If it were as easy to buy the steroids I was given after an operation, as it is to buy cigarettes, I would probable be in trouble. It would be great to feel that good, without bad consequences. The researcher who makes the right product, will be a multi millionaire. Marat, got my answer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intraocular_pressure At this link it say the Intraocular pressure normally decreases at night. It is possible, a full moon, on a clear night, could make a difference?

I was a terrible student at the university level, and final realized some students could do so much better, because they had better study skills and better study habits. Might taking a class in study skills help? I hate the pressure of university but love education, so I rely on the The Teaching Company. You could buy DVD's of college lectures, and study on your time. Perhaps take an incomplete in the class work, and return after watching DVD's to complete the class? I think the classes, being able to speak with the professor and other students is really important, but some of us need all the extra help we can get. http://www.thegreatc...l.aspx?cid=1500 Wouldn't it be hard to look for a job, without confidence in what you know?

Take a walk on the Oregon coast, on a cold windy day, and see it it makes your ears hurt. I know for sure, it can make my ears hurt, and covering them stops the pain. Some people react to eating something very cold and others don't. I think we should be more open to individual differences. I stopped walking with an elderly neighbor in cold, damp and windy weather, because she is apt to get to sick if she walks in bad weather. I didn't believe her when she said it would happen, and when I did, I googled it, and sure enough, some people are more apt to get sick. I think it could have something to do with having thin tissue, easier for the virus penetrate. In the cold weather, the virus gets sticky. If you are young and have strong tissue you are better protected by your skin, than an older person with thin tissue and a poor immune system.