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Browse published articles attributed to Cris Baker, with full-archive search.
You have a Right to Protect Yourself Across the world, government bans on their people's right to protect themselves with firearms is increasingly widely ignored. The enormous outcry against the gun bans proposed by President Obama, Senator Dianne Feinstein and their Democratic allies demonstrates how such bad laws are widely seen as unjust.
Thoughts can be seen as one of two types. Thoughts that just appear, random ones you haven't chosen to think. And thoughts that you choose to think. The first are generally far more numerous. Normal thinking - random thoughts - bring the regular consequences which people experience much of the time. These consequences are often unforeseen with emotions, negative feelings, and you don't feel great! Think consciously rather than unconsciously
The value of goals, of knowing where you're going, was discussed in article #5 in this Change my Life series. And most people start by wondering what they should do, what should they change. Change is vital because unless you make a change in your life, nothing will change in your life. You do need to change something, although a focus on changing what you're doing often misses a crucial point. The Vital Issue
President Obama's commitment to Peace President Obama evidently wants to bomb Syria. But why? He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for his commitment to world peace. His response this week to those who believe he wants to attack Syria in order to defend his own credibility? "I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line." So Obama’s desire for war is not for his own credibility.
Politicians benefit by pretending life is unfair Life is not fair! complain envious citizens when they see someone with more than they have.
Australian jou alist Julian Assange believes he's the subject of a witch-hunt by the USA. Assange fears that submitting to the controversial Arrest Warrant issued by the fourth and latest Swedish prosecutor will lead to him being illegally extradited to America. He has been granted asylum by Ecuador in their embassy in Britain. Are the allegations of rape and sexual assault against Assange real? Is he being hunted by the American oligarchy, with the active cooperation of Britain and Sweden? What's the truth of the matter?
Does Banning guns solve the problem? Does banning guns work to eliminate people's violence. The UK experience is instructive. Now Britain enforces a near-total ban on guns, the Telegraph reports that: "The United Kingdom is the violent crime capital of Europe and has one of the highest rates of violence in the world, worse even tha America, according to the European Commission.*"
Along with most everyone, you want to be more successful. Yet success means different things to different people. The old adage suggests success is fame and fortune, and fame can indeed be seen as success. It's even been speculated that the man who vandalised Michelangelo's Pietà statue in 1972 saw notoriety as fame. He's spent some time in a mental hospital! Some see success in athletic or academic prowess, others in political or economic power. Success in carnal pursuits can be very tempting while beauty is also alluring.
Is President Obama Conce ed for your Safety? Is President Obama really conce ed about your children's safety, or do his actions contradict his rhetoric? Is he aiming to deny you your right to defend yourself and your children? Years ago, he did say he recognizes that "gun owners in America are highly responsible," relaxed regulations which prevented citizens from carrying loaded weapons in national parks and reversed a ban on transporting unloaded firearms in checked baggage by train. Obama confirms He Supports Gun Bans
Do you disagree with other people much of the time? This is not to ask if you're generally disagreeable, that's a separate question for some other point in time. The Negativity of Disagreements Whenever you find yourself disagreeing with what someone else is saying, or with one of their beliefs, you have several choices.
Do you want to improve the results you achieve? Better understanding of your subconscious motivation is crucial to reduce self-sabotage and change your life. The ability to make effective decisions makes a big difference! How to make effective decisions How do you make decisions with the wisdom to improve your life? The first step is usually to know your goal. As they say, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will do!"
Where do thoughts come from? Do you have control over what you think? Sometimes, yes, but not always. Thoughts can just spin round and round, ignoring your screams of enough! Some seem to arrive from nowhere, and some thoughts come from your beliefs. Change your Perspective What are beliefs? If you know something is true then you say "I know this is true" rather than just "I believe this is true." Which suggests a belief is something you hold to be true without evidence, an unsubstantiated perspective. Yet your beliefs influence your thoughts.
You are right does not necessarily mean the person arguing is wrong! It just means they see things from another perspective! Each person's context is different, because their parents, education, religious upbringing, and experiences are different. Along with their acceptance of social attitudes, political indoctrination, falsifications, etc. as well as both their and others' mistakes...
Do Guns Kill - or Protect? If guns are responsible for killing people, then spoons are responsible for making people fat, and beds are responsible for women becoming pregnant. Such fallacious thinking may be behind fundamentalist Muslims insisting their women are covered from head to foot, so men are neither attracted nor tempted by their beauty. Although those in the western world like to think they know better, gun control fanatics nevertheless apply the same thinking to guns.
Americans are understandably determined that massacres such as the one at Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut, never happen again. But how? Some demand ever stricter control of firearms. Many others advocate more effective treatment of mentally ill people and understand that so-called gun-free zones simply disarm law-abiding victims. The long-term answer needs to take these and many different viewpoints into consideration. What does experience demonstrate to be both effective and ineffective in the USA? What does not work? What does? The Results of Banning Guns in Colorado
You argue when you both decide the other person is wrong. Two people are needed to argue, yet stopping an argument actually only requires one. You both insist you are right, which causes the argument. And from the viewpoint you each have on the issue, both of you are right. But are you effective? Remember, you may be very sincere, but your opinion can also be sincerely wrong! Explore Their Perspective
See a far more comprehensive introduction to the motivations behind this subject in part 1 and part 2 of this series. Does President Obama really want Peace? There are plenty of issues that President Obama could spend his time on which would improve America and give you a better quality of life. But he instead wants to go to war with Syria. Fortunately his plans are being upstaged by Russia and events in Britain and other countries. Would he like any Awkward Issues Buried and Forgotten?
So far we've covered several crucial secrets in this article series on the secret of success, now let's look at another. Your Three Aspects You have three aspects to your being. Intellectuality, emotionality, and your sensuality. Reason is your intellectual capacity, thinking, your head. Feeling is your emotional capacity, it comes from your heart. And lastly what can be called your sensuality includes artistic expression, intuition, fun, play, sex, and laughter.
You saw that there are four important questions which you can ask yourself as you make a decision. Those questions, from the first in this Most Important Question series, are: - Do I feel like doing it? - Do I want to do it? - Is it me? - Do I want the results that doing it will bring? Which one do you Generally Choose?
You're successful, you've worked long and hard to achieve your dreams. Money is no object, there's now more than enough to purchase more or less anything you want. You and your partner are enjoying a romantic dinner one evening and she suggests you should now build your dream house. She probably means to build her dream house, but no problem, you also will have some input - mostly financial! The secret of success is to be realistic, it will perhaps but not necessarily turn out to be more her creation than yours.
The only thing that stops a spree shooter is a bullet. The sooner he gets that bullet, the less innocents and vulnerable children he gets to slaughter. How long does Emergency Response Take? The police do a difficult job, often in very difficult circumstances. David Thweatt, Superintendent of the Harrold school district in Texas where teachers are armed, says:
Do you ever find yourself wondering: why did I do that? Something which produced such an unfavorable outcome that you feel a bit stupid? Why do we do such things? Are your thought processes so confused that you can't tell good consequences from bad ones? Or don't you know how to think things through in the first place? No, it's neither of these, it's self-sabotage! Your selfsabotage mechanism
Sandy Hook was a Gun Free Zone Despite Connecticut's gun carry laws at the time, there was nobody armed at Sandy Hook to protect the slaughtered children and teachers. In practice, Sandy Hook was a gun free zone. So was the 2012 Batman movie mass slaughter which killed 12 and injured 58 in Aurora, Colorado. The cinema company enforced their strict gun-free policy. The 2009 Fort Hood military base where 13 unarmed soldiers died was also a gun-free zone. It seems that politicians don't think soldiers can be trusted with guns.
You always have a choice, they say. And they are right, you do have a choice, always! But not the one you think you have. Some people look at their possible responses, asking themselves how to react in the situation; should they do this, or that, or the other? Do you ever wonder how it will change your life? Yet some call this a life of Illusion. And in some ways it is, since the decisions you seem to make are part of the Illusion. This is rather a bold statement, so I'll type real slow to explain. You Do what You Think is Right
Conventional Knowledge The previous articles in this Personal Power series discussed some differences between the logic of the outer world and the intuition of the inner world. You've seen how something can be both right as well as wrong, rather than either right or wrong. This resembles the difference between conventional and unconventional knowledge. Conventional knowledge you put into words with your educated consciousness, one thought at a time. It's acquired from outside, learned in universities, no experience required!
In the article, Guns, Mental Illness and Newtown, the Wall Street journal* reports there were 18 random mass shootings in the 1980s, 54 in the 1990s, and 87 random mass shootings in the 2000s. In 2012, just one year not a whole decade, the Washington Post lists 14 cases of mass shootings. Are restrictive gun laws producing the desired effect? Or are the increasingly stringent gun bans worsening the number of massacres? What does the Increasing Slaughter Mean?
The present moment is here. It's what is. You may like it or you may hate it, but it is reality right now. There's nothing you can do this moment to change it, things are exactly the way they are. Which is not to say your response can't change things in the next second, or day, or next year. How do you Respond? Right now, you have two choices. No matter which you choose, it won't change the situation, although it can change your life. You can judge it as negative, which also stops you enjoying it. How can you enjoy anything when you're being negative?
Do Only What Works To achieve the results you want, you need to do what works and not to do what doesn't work. And it's your job to ascertain which is which! Once you know the difference you'll be more effective in achieving your goals.
There's joy in having what you want in life. But there are three essential steps to achieving what you want. Do you know and follow them all? Don't let Know Where become Nowhere One of the most important is to know where you're going. If you don't know where you're going, then any road will do. Ensure the "know where" does not turn into "nowhere." These three strategies are the secret of success in achieving any goal. Yet, although missing out any of them will sabotage your results, they're surprisingly not always followed. -
Your Approach to Life What's your approach to life? Do you first ensure that something is plausible? Are you generally gullible, cynical or skeptical? You can be gullible, say yes and accept something without question. You can be cynical, say no and reject it without checking it out. Or you can be skeptical: you'll change your life by withholding judgement until you've investigated the matter and have the necessary information and experience to make up your own mind. The Drawbacks
Despite the abundant evidence, democrats, socialists, and liberals continue to believe that even more stringent gun bans will stop the slaughter. How do the more intelligent and thoughtful ones maintain a straight face given the massive incontrovertible evidence to the contrary? In America, defensive gun uses - to deter criminal violence - occur around a hundred times more often than to commit crimes. Yet gun control advocates just ignore all the evidence proving that, in mass shootings, guns save lives. American Experiences
The USA incarcerates more people - imprisons more per head of population - than any other country in the world. So many in jail demonstrate the enormous numbers of laws which make criminals out of its citizens. These laws hamper police from carrying out their core responsibility of protecting citizens and their property. No matter what big government enthusiasts pretend, the evidence is clear: Governments have passed so many laws that in trying to do so much they've increased the difficulty of doing anything well. Then who suffers? You. Core Responsibilities
The effort you put into overcoming your self sabotage increases your personal power. If you allow the self sabotage mechanism to win, you feed it - which improves its inner strength and decreases yours. So whenever you just know you should do something, that's a great opportunity to increase your personal power. Take it!
Are you cautious about what other people want you to believe, do you take what they say with a large pinch of salt? The secret of success is to check out its viability, explore their motivation, and wonder if they're trying to mislead you before making up your mind. If it sounds too good to be true, then it usually is! Does what they say make any sense?
Gun control advocates like to use the emotive sloga “gun violence.” Why? This misleading phrase is purpose designed to blur the distinction between self-defense and murder. Since "gun violence" takes no account of the difference between self-defense and a murderous attack, it increases confusion between the two. Hence it advances the gun ban agenda. Question: If the Sandy Hook principal had been armed and, instead of being murdered, had managed to shoot the deranged killer, would anyone say that the mentally disturbed killer was a victim of gun violence?
You can See Sense Once you realize how something fits together and makes sense, you say you see sense. And you actually do, you get the picture. You know it stands to reason since it has the ring of truth. When you get the picture, your context suddenly expands and that enlarged knowing brings an aha sense of satisfaction. Its authenticity gives you an experience of relief by reducing falsehood. Knowing when it's real will change your life, since reality brings the joy of knowing the truth.
Commitment can be seen as a muscle, a mental muscle. And just like physical muscles, the secret of success is to keep your mental muscles fit and toned. Keep fit Physically Physically, exercise keeps your muscles strong. Yes, I know that physical workout can be a pain. I've stopped asking my body if it wants to go to the gym, it always says no! But it gets easier once I tell myself that since I'm here I might as well work out properly. The shower afterwards is generally the most enjoyable part!
The Cherokee Indians say that everybody is internally motivated, as you saw in part one of this Inner Motivation series. They know that, along with everybody else, you have both a white wolf and a negative black wolf to provide internal guidance! Do you Just Know?
Yet more strategies to improve your state and overcome a bad mood. Inspire a Good Mood in Another It only takes one person to initiate a bad mood which can then affect everyone around them. A single determined person may also inspire a good mood in others. You can change your life by inspiring another, which in turn helps inspire you - a virtuous circle.
Do you have complete control over your mood? You like to think you're a positive person, yet some days do you find that you're just in a bad mood? My mother used to call this getting out of bed on the wrong side. Now I don't know that the side of the bed has anything to do with it, but bad moods do happen. If this can apply to you, then this series of articles will overcome your self sabotage.
What do you actually know? is the age-old question of philosophers and statesmen. A good answer, but not the only answer, is that you know what you have learned and experienced in the past. How can you know if you haven't learnt it, or remembered that experience? Which implies your mind only knows your previous events. Your regular, random, unrequested thoughts and emotions are based on the past. They're memories.
How do you Make Up your Mind? How do you make up your mind? Do you think things though for yourself? Or do you look at the person suggesting an idea, and ask yourself how well-known or how famous they are? Do you assume that their success in acting, or singing, or whatever makes them an instant expert in everything? Do you assume that becoming famous - or speaking convincingly - also makes them an expert in economics? Or do you check to see if they have both expertise and experience in the ideas they are promoting?
What are the different steps to mastery? How do you become a Master? Each step is different, yet they all require your time and energy, which is good news. Your efforts are not wasted - nature wastes nothing - they all increase your inner power. The Five Steps to Mastery The five steps to mastery and the secrets of success in moving to each next level are: - Ignorance. You start out knowing nothing about the subject. To move from ignorance to the next step - informed about it - you need to be willing to listen or read.
Stop Digging! Not doing what doesn't work is a fundamental secret of success. This focus on effectiveness is behind the simple aphorism: If you're in a hole, then the first thing to do is to stop digging. This is the natural law that many politicians in many countries just ignore, they run budget deficits year in and year out, and then wonder why their economies are in difficulty. It's simple to stay out of trouble, just stop digging - which means spend less than your income!
This Personal Power series has explored some crucial distinctions. You've seen how personal power grows rather than being increased from outside. That gaining experience is a big secret of success. Just knowing about something won't change your life. The lasting benefit you gain by investing your time and energy into a new perspective is an increase in your personal power. Your Unleashed Inner Wisdom
Illegal Drugs Increase Violence Illegal drugs have caused a significant increase in violence. In the years since Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala hardened their stance on illegal drugs, their violent death body counts have risen dramatically.
Do you understand the information you've been given, or are you just informed about it? There's a crucial difference between being informed about something - just knowing about it - and understanding it. Do you Just Have the Information?
If the cynical stance is not the best approach to life, then does being gullible give better results? Being gullible is the complete opposite of cynicism. Here you're very positive about what might happen in the future. You may not know much if anything about it, but you subscribe to the view that people are generally good, they won't do anything to harm you. Being gullible will certainly get you into some exciting situations, but can have adverse rather than beneficial consequences. Do Politicians Take Advantage of the Gullible?
Should government stop citizens protecting themselves from criminals? What would be the consequences? Yet this question misses the crucial point: If government carried out their fundamental job of protecting citizens properly, then citizens wouldn't need to protect themselves. The need for you to protect yourself demonstrates the real problem: Government failure - the failure of politicians and bureaucrats to carry out their fundamental duty. Governments have arrogated so many tasks that they seem incapable of doing many if any of them effectively.
You've seen that the first step to mastery is to be willing to listen to the information. Without taking advantage of other people's expertise, you would have to rediscover their insights for yourself. Education is one of the secrets of success, it can be seen as the process of listening and learning from others. How much Energy have You Given It?