Democrat and Independent Thinker..."The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." -Nietzsche

Commenting on many things, including..."A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from." - Keith Olbermann

Friday, March 30, 2007

Doing better


After two vet visits, continuing doses of Metacam, amoxicillin, and an analgesic, Risky is back about 85%. Oh, and about $200. This pic is a few months old, but I liked how it shows how we've all been revolving around him the last 10 days or so. Bless his heart. He drives me crazy. But, I'm so glad he's doing better.

He's walking, except not so great on the hardwoods or the kitchen flooring... once he's down on them, it's hard for him to get up. He's doing great on the carpet and out in the yard on the grass. His balance is much better.

His "accidents" are getting fewer and more far in between. He's making it to the paper or barking to go out when its time, so my carpet is grateful, and I won't have to take out a loan for the purchase of more paper towels, but it's definitely carpet cleaning time. Oh, how wise and optimistic was I to put in $2,000 of berber carpeting with 16 and 14 year old dogs.

Friday, March 23, 2007

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

--Machiavelli

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Courage and Patriotism Defined

How does Jay Carney manage to keep his job at Time? Is he the Editor of an independent magazine or a partisan political hack?

In his editorial today, "Can Edwards' Campaign Just Go On?", he states:

"The campaign goes on. The campaign goes on strongly." The words from John Edwards were a shock, coming as they did after he and his wife Elizabeth had spent the opening minutes of their press conference in Chapel Hill, N.C., describing how her breast cancer had returned, and spread to her bones. Just moments before, John Edwards had explained that because his wife's cancer had spread "from breast to bone, it is no longer curable." With that grim statement, I—and, presumably, many other listeners—assumed that the former North Carolina Senator and top-tier contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination was ending his campaign, or at least suspending it. "
Guess what, Mr. Carney? I neither presumed, nor assumed anything. Then, I am not a so-called "newsman". Nor did I make any presuppositions as to whether or not the campaign was to be ended or suspending. I simply waited to hear what they had to say.

As an Edwards supporter, I was, and am, terribly concerned about Mrs. Edwards and the effect that her illness will have on her family, and, secondarily, I was concerned about whether it would affect the campaign. But, I, unlike you, the experienced "newsman", did not speculate. I waited to hear the facts.

Mr. Carney continued:

Instead, Edwards said nothing would change; his campaign would continue and Elizabeth would be by his side on the road. Elizabeth spoke about the importance of her husband's campaign, how the country needs him to be president. Both said there was never a debate yesterday, as they were receiving the news about her condition, about whether he should drop out of the race. John said that when the two of them were alone, Elizabeth was concerned about everyone but herself—her children, her husband and her country, in that order, but not herself.

He clearly meant it to be inspiring, but there is also something
discomfiting about that statement. Even more discomfiting was Edwards' claim that by soldiering on while his wife has incurable cancer, he would be proving that he could deal with the pressures of being president. I wonder how voters will react to that sentiment.
Actually, Mr. Carney, Mrs. Edwards said that her husband "cornered" the doctor and interrogated her about whether or not the campaign would have a negative effect on his wife's health and was assured that it would not. That being the case, then it is reasonable to understand that there would not be a great deal of discussion about whether the campaign should continue, although Senator Edwards stressed that they had discussed it extensively. Mrs. Edwards clearly believes in her husband and believes that her country needs him to be President, so, again, I can see how there would be little debate necessary.

Mr. Carney finds it discomfiting that when the two of them were alone, Mrs. Edwards was concerned about her children, her husband, and her country, rather than about herself.

Discomfiting? DISCOMFITING? I found that statement comforting, inspiring, courageous and the most admirable displays of motherhood, devoted spouse and above all, patriotism and love of country that I have ever heard in my life. Bravo! Elizabeth Edwards, Bravo!

That alone assures me that this country needs you as our First Lady of our Land. Needs you desperately.

Mr. Carney miscast Senator Edwards by phrasing his statement that it "was Edwards claim that by soldiering on while his wife has incurable cancer, he would be proving that he could deal with the pressure of being president."

Excuse me, Mr. Carney. That is not an accurate portrayal of what Senator Edwards said.

At all.

I understand that in an editorial, you, who must have risen to that high post by miraculous intervention, have the right to express your opinion. You do not have the right to rephrase actual statements.

Mr. Edwards simply stated that Presidents must be able to deal with sometimes unfortunate occurrences in ones personal life and not be distracted enough to impact the performance of his duties. Which is the case. And that if he was to run for the office, he had to be prepared to do just that.

I found that his realization of this and willingness to face this incredibly reassuring. He understands this as did Lincoln, Roosevelt, and a number of other courageous Presidents.

That, Mr. Carney, is how voters will react to this sentiment. A courageous man and woman who are so devoted to their country and to commit to their dreams for the betterment of their country that they are willing to continue on, despite all odds, despite all obstacles, to lead this country onto a better pathway. A better pathway to health care for all, a better pathway to the elimination of poverty not only for the people of this country, but the elimination of poverty for all the impoverished in the world because they know that that is the crux of the problem of the resentment and violence and hate that is displayed towards this country. Just to mention a couple of the inspiring themes of Senator Edwards candidacy.

Mr. Carney goes on to posit that this will impact the commitment of donors, political activists, and regular voters as to whether Edwards will stay in the race.

I say it will impact it, and will impact it tremendously positively. If they are this committed, then it will inspire great commitment and devotion to them.

Mr. Carney then goes on with this utterly ridiculous and ignorant statement:

It is certainly true that with effective treatment, Elizabeth Edwards could live many years. But it is also true that even the best treatment isn't always effective, and that bone cancer is particularly lethal.

Mr. Carney, I realize you are not a medical professional, but as the Editor of a major publication, I would think that you might manage to make an inquiry from a medical professional before stating something not only misleading, but an outright falsity. Elizabeth Edwards has breast cancer, not bone cancer. Because it has metastasized and spread to the bones of her ribs does not make it bone cancer. It is still breast cancer, and, as such, is still highly treatable and not a death sentence.

I know. My sister died of bone cancer only a year ago. Bone cancer is a death sentence. A very quick death sentence. My sister died only about six months after diagnosis.

Breast cancer which has spread is not necessarily a death sentence and can be successfully treated if not cured.

How dare you, Mr. Carney, to imply otherwise by the simple display of your utter ignorance?

Edwards' supporters, and surely many average Americans, have to be wondering at what point the candidate will decide that his duties as husband and father to three children, including a 6 and 8 year old, trump his duty to his country and the cause of winning the White House.
Tell me, Mr. Carney, at what point does the soldier being sent to Iraq decide that his duties as husband and father to his ailing wife and children, even small children, trump his duty to his country? Huh?

At what point, asshole?

That soldier has no option, other than desertion and court-martial, to do his duty to his country.

Senator Edwards has nothing compelling him to endure his presidential campaign. He has worked hard to become a very wealthy man after starting life as a poor boy living in a mill village in a small South Carolina town. He never has to work another day in his life.

As Elizabeth Edwards said, if his campaign was all about John Edwards, it would be easy to give up his campaign faced with the daunting fate that awaits him and his wife and their family. It would be very easy.

They have not chosen that easy route. They have chosen the hard route. Similar to that hard route that each and every soldier that is being sent into the meat-grinder that is Iraq is being faced with every single day that and they will continue to be faced with should a Republican president be elected. The hard route that too many may possibly be faced with, albeit hopefully for a shorter period, should one of the other Democratic candidates be elected. John Edwards will end this war and he has said he will end it and start withdrawing troops significantly and immediately.

Yes, Mr. Carney. Senator Edwards and Elizabeth Edwards have decided to "soldier" on, and by doing so, are displaying the most courageous, inspiring, and patriotic actions of anyone I have ever seen in my lifetime.

I, for one, do not think they have it in them to do any less, no matter what the future holds.

If that does not earn them the admiration, respect, stalwart support and the votes of their fellow Americans, then this country no longer deserves people of this stature as leaders.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

The hubris of man

My mother used to have a large pond on her property which became overpopulated by ducks. She attempted to get some of the ducks moved to a nearby pond not so overpopulated, simply out of concern for the ducks as they were fighting over territory. I can't remember what method she had used, possibly by placing an ad or something, but I do remember that she was immediately contacted by government officials and told that it was illegal to mess with migratory birds whatsoever. It was against federal law. Specifically, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Which reads: "...it shall be unlawful at any time, by any means or in any manner, to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill, possess, offer for sale, sell, offer to barter, barter, offer to purchase, purchase, deliver for shipment, ship, export, import, cause to be shipped, exported, or imported, deliver for transportation, transport or cause to be transported, carry or cause to be carried, or receive for shipment, transportation, carriage, or export, any migratory bird, any part, nest, or eggs of any such bird, or any product, whether or not manufactured, which consists, or is composed in whole or part, of any such bird or any part, nest, or egg thereof,..."

Now, I know there are addendum's and modifications and the Secretary of the Interior has some discretion, etc., BUT... would the destruction of the migratory geese, named in the treaty JUST BECAUSE they are understandably aggressive in the protection of their nests and because they supposedly "foul" parks apparently reserved only for the enjoyment of humans, who have driven these birds to the use of parks by DESTROYING their natural habitats by over development of land and the destruction of the few wetlands left in this country, be just a wee bit in violation of the spirit, if not the letter of this treaty and federal law?

Honestly, this makes me sick. The hubris of man. This is the type of action that will cause nature to eventually kick our ass off of this planet and we will unquestionably deserve it.

Updated:2007-03-21 11:49:04
Chicago Goes on Goose Egg Patrol
AP
CHICAGO (March 21) - The city needs a flock of volunteers - for goose egg patrol.

Park District officials are enlisting people to help locate nests of goose eggs as part of an expanded program aimed at downsizing the population of the aggressive park-fouling birds. *

The patrols will search 11 city parks for goose eggs during the birds' nesting season, which begins at the end of the month and lasts through April.

The volunteers will be taught about geese habitats and life cycles, but they won't be allowed to handle the eggs. That
task will be reserved for employees of La Grange-based Wild Goose Chase, who will shake the eggs to destroy the embryo or coat them with corn oil to suffocate the developing chick. *

"I can't stress enough, this is not an Easter egg hunt," said Susan Hagberg, president of Wild Goose Chase. "This is very regulated. If people think they can do this on their own, they can't."

Park officials have tried to control the flocks by planting grasses less attractive to the birds along lagoons, spraying digestive irritants on grass in Grant Park, and using border collies to drive migrating geese away in the fall.

The Humane Society of the United States supports the egg hunting method, said spokeswoman Diane Webber.

"It's much more humane than rounding up the geese and gassing them,"* she said.


*my emphasis

Weird blogger

Don't know why "Risky" posted twice. Weird blogger. I won't delete it in case blogger sorts itself out.

Meantime, check out another adorable critter:

Knut, the baby polar bear. Let's try really hard not to let these beautiful creatures become extinct and damn the Bush administration and whether they'll allow mention of them or not.


or

http://www.gofish.com:80/player.gfp?gfid=30-1084094

via Dependable Renegade

Risky

I don't have much time for blogging right now because I'm tending to my little 16 year old shih-tzu, Risky. He has had bad arthritis in his back legs for a few years now, in addition to the after effects of canine vestibular syndrome for three years now, displays some symptoms of cognitive dysfunction syndrome and has gone blind in one eye with cataract in the other.

In other words, he's very old.

He has to be sedated to be groomed. Only 1/4 of a tranquilizer, barely a speck. But, he has always been a snapper and now he'll snap if bothered at all, even though he's on more medication than I allow myself to spend on myself. Not that he has any teeth, unless he catches you with the stumps of his jaw teeth, and then its just the pressure of his jaws that hurt. Still, since he is a shih-tzu, he must be groomed or his face becomes like a sheepdog, which can't happen as it irritates his eyes. So, to be groomed, even by my sweet and gentle groomer, he has to be tranked a bit.

Afterwards, he sleeps, and sleeps. Usually for 24 hours. Last time, he had trouble getting back to walking for about 3 days. This time, its Wednesday, he was groomed on Thursday, and he still will not use one of his back legs. I took him to the vet on Tuesday for an injection and a new medicene. I'm having to work with him to get him to use his leg, helping him walk, taking him to his paper when he has to go or everytime I think he might and holding him up, massaging it, putting heat packs on it, etc.

He goes nuts barking and whining if I'm away from him more than a few feet for more than a few minutes and if I turn my attention away to anything other than him. Like if I pick up my laptop. The only reason I'm able to write now is because he's sound asleep at my feet after taking his new medicene.

So... blogging vs. devoted companion of 16 years who needs me. Hmm. That's the definition of a no brainer. I'll be back as I can when I can.

I mean, look at that face!

Risky

I don't have much time for blogging right now because I'm tending to my little 16 year old shih-tzu, Risky. He has had bad arthritis in his back legs for a few years now, in addition to the after effects of canine vestibular syndrome for three years now, displays some symptoms of cognitive dysfunction syndrome and has gone blind in one eye with cataract in the other.

In other words, he's very old.

He has to be sedated to be groomed. Only 1/4 of a tranquilizer, barely a speck. But, he has always been a snapper and now he'll snap if bothered at all, even though he's on more medication than I allow myself to spend on myself. Not that he has any teeth, unless he catches you with the stumps of his jaw teeth, and then its just the pressure of his jaws that hurt. Still, since he is a shih-tzu, he must be groomed or his face becomes like a sheepdog, which can't happen as it irritates his eyes. So, to be groomed, even by my sweet and gentle groomer, he has to be tranked a bit.

Afterwards, he sleeps, and sleeps. Usually for 24 hours. Last time, he had trouble getting back to walking for about 3 days. This time, its Wednesday, he was groomed on Thursday, and he still will not use one of his back legs. I took him to the vet on Tuesday for an injection and a new medicene. I'm having to work with him to get him to use his leg, helping him walk, taking him to his paper when he has to go or everytime I think he might and holding him up, massaging it, putting heat packs on it, etc.

He goes nuts barking and whining if I'm away from him more than a few feet for more than a few minutes and if I turn my attention away to anything other than him. Like if I pick up my laptop. The only reason I'm able to write now is because he's sound asleep at my feet after taking his new medicene.

So... blogging vs. devoted companion of 16 years who needs me. Hmm. That's the definition of a no brainer. I'll be back as I can when I can.

I mean, look at that face!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Happy weekend

Spend some time in pointless entertainment and try to forget that this is the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War.

Play catch, make a dragon chase you, sing the pirate song because you are a pirate and you can do whatever you want, draw random lines, and much more.

Edwards in SC Monday

Sen. John Edwards in Columbia Monday, March 19

Former Senator John Edwards will be at Benedict College, 1600 Harden Street, on Monday, March 19, at 1:45 PM.For more information call 803-338-6225 or email Marilyn Hemingway at mhemingway@johnedwards.com.www.JohnEdwards.com/events

First Debate in SC

S.C. Democratic Debate Back In Lead

South Carolina is back on track to hold the first Democratic presidential debate after organizers of a debate next month in New Hampshire have had to move their event back to June.The candidates have made firm commitments to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn to appear at the April 26 debate at his alma mater, South Carolina State University in Orangeburg.The 90-minute debate at the historically black college will be televised live nationally by MSNBC and local NBC affiliates. Click HERE to read more.

Killing us softly

Look, I know this is a commercial site, but you've really got to ask yourself if commercial growers, as well as most industry, is just not trying to freakin' kill us all.

I, who have a disease where my system has basically gone into constant attack mode against everything, always producing an allergic response whether I'm in contact with anything I'm allergic to or not, then hyperdrive once I do encounter one of probably thousands of things I am allergic to now, especially have to ask the question.

I'm no expert, of course, but having grown up in the south I know that cotton crops had no real enemy other than the boll weevil, is all this really necessary? Or is it just a way to maximize profits? Isn't that what everything is about these days? Maximizing profits?

I dunno. I just saw it referenced in an email group, and thought I'd pass it along. It really makes you wonder.

100% cotton. 73% true
The average 100% cotton T-shirt contains only 73% cotton. The rest is made up of chemicals and resins that were used to grow and make it. Yet, we all think cotton is one of the most natural things around. The truth is, it's not as nice as we'd all like to think.

Indeed, cotton is the world's most sprayed crop. It uses over a quarter of all insecticides used today (see list below). The way they grow it isn't good for the farmer's health, the water table's health, the factory worker's health, the river's health and eventually the sea's health.

That's why we use organic cotton. It costs us 30% more than normal cotton. It means our products cost a little more, but we think it's worth it. After all, you wear your T-shirt next to your skin for 10 hours a day. (Just think how Nicorettes work).

The average cotton crop is sprayed 8-10 times a season. Indeed, it takes 17 teaspoons of chemical fertilizers to raise the 9 ounces of cotton needed to make a T-shirt.

The most common pesticides used are: Chlorphynfos (causes brain and foetal damage, impotence and sterility), Cyanazine (causes birth defects and cancer), Dicofol (causes cancer, reproductive damage and tumours), Ethephon (causes mutations) Fluometuron (causes blood and spleen disorders), Metam Sodium (causes birth defects, foetal damage, mutation), Methyl Parathion (causes birth defects, foetal damage, reproductive damage and destroys immune system), MSMA (causes tumours)

Nailed (causes cancer, reproductive damage and tumours), Profenofos (causes eye damage and skin irritation), Prometryn (causes bone morrow, kidney, liver and testicular damage), Propargite (causes cancer, foetal and eye damage, mutation and tumours), Sodium Chlorate (causes kidney damage), Tribufos (causes cancer and tumours), and Trifluralin (causes cancer, foetal damage and mutation).

In America last year, farmers applied 53 million pounds of toxic pesticides to cotton fields. Out of the world's total insecticide usage, 25% is used just to farm cotton.

And, if that isn't enough, once the cotton has been grown it is dyed using toxic dyes. Then, to prevent it from creasing, it is finished with formaldehyde.

Common sense says that can't be right. Go organic.
©2006 howies® All rights
reserved

Friday, March 16, 2007

Why Romney Cannot Win the South

I've been wanting to post on this subject for awhile, but my mental capacity in relation to my illness has never coincided with the desire to really lay it out there on this subject. Since my brains foggy now, after a short period of total lucidity, I thought I'd spend a little time highlighting some other blogs I love that are off the beaten path.

Steve Reuland of Sunbeams and Cucumbers takes on the subject and hits the bullseye.

Mitt Romney -- Still a MORMON!!!!


Way back in the heady days of September 2006, I mentioned that nascent presidential candidate Mitt Romney's status as a Mormon isn't going to go over well with the religious right, especially in South Carolina where they've kind of doubled-down on the whole wacky religion thing. Lots of conservatives have tried to downplay the religious bigotry inherent in "the base" and pretend as if Romney's religion is no big deal to the tolerant, open-minded Republican primary voters. Except of course for that little incident where a party leader accosted him about his religion.

Now there's another example in Monday's Greenville News. For balance, of course, the News feels the need to lead off with an example of that famed Republican tolerance:

Bob Leach, a Republican legislator from Greenville, got right to the point with Mitt Romney on one of the presidential candidate's early stops in South Carolina late last year.

"Who was Jesus Christ?" he asked Romney, a devout Mormon.

"My personal Lord and Savior," Leach recalled Romney saying.

Leach, a Baptist and House Republican Caucus chaplain, was so taken with the response that he soon endorsed Romney.

Leach is so tolerant, he didn't really need to know anything about Romney other than the fact that he accepts Jesus as his lord and savior. Just so long as he isn't, you know, like a Jew or something.

But not everyone is as ecumenical as Bob Leach:

But Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, didn't sway fellow Republican Rep. Gloria Haskins of Greenville, who attended Bob Jones University.

"Mormonism is a cult, and you can't paint it any other way," she said recently. Haskins is supporting the candidacy of Arizona Sen. John McCain.

So says the graduate from BJU. Here's another:

The Rev. David Kay, associate pastor, said it [the how-to-convert-a-Mormon seminar] wasn't triggered by Romney's visits, but by his own increasing
awareness of growing Mormon missionary work. Mormonism, he believes, is a cult rather than a Christian religion.

Kay describes Mormonism's martyred founder, Joseph Smith, as "just a nut case" and said "anybody who would believe the teachings of Joseph Smith is
misled."

Yeah, Smith's teachings are pretty nutty. They're almost as nutty as believing that Adam and Eve frolicked with dinosaurs, that the Pope is the Anti-Christ, that a one-world government run by the UN will trigger the end times, that all kangaroos are descended from a pair that hopped to Australian from the Middle East after getting off of a boat they had been on for a year, and other things that no rational person could ever, ever believe.

But Romney's religion isn't the religious right's only hang-up.

That terrible evil known as divorce also has them up in arms:

They're not reluctant to weigh in, as frontrunner Rudolph Giuliani learned last week when a top Southern Baptist Convention official said the
thrice-married former New York City mayor's tangled personal life may be too much for evangelicals to accept, The Associated Press reported from
Nashville.

I really think that a guy who's been married three times isn't that big of a deal considering some recent revelations about the lifestyles of prominent evangelicals. Sometimes I wonder if they shouldn't just get it over with and choose leaders who are openly gay pedophile gambling drug addicts. It would would probably be less embarrassing that way.

Anyway, the whole point here is that of course Romney's Mormonism is a huge issue among the religious right, and anyone who thinks that it'll go away by focusing on Romeny's conservative credentials, or the fact that he's never been divorced (very important when formulating foreign policy you know), is deluding themselves. Romney will lose the primary, and part of it will be due to the fact that we do not live in a religiously tolerant society.



One side note - Gloria Haskins is one of those leading the efforts in the SC Legislature to make it mandatory for all women seeking abortions to be forced by the state to undergo the medical procedure of an ultra-sound and then be forced to view it before being allowed an abortion.

We have so many crazies in this state, and I lay the primary blame on Bob Jones University. I, and most everyone I know and am related to, rue the day that paragon of prejudice was ever allowed to build in our once fair town. As a little girl, they were the objects of ridicule, standing on the street corners waving their arms and their Bibles at us, preaching eternal damnation at the top of their lungs. Once the Reagan revolution embraced these types of idiots, they suddenly became mainstream and started infiltrating, and then dominating our churches, our schools and our government. I don't know about now, since so many have stayed here after graduation, but these people came here from states like Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, etc. It's been like watching the brown-shirts take over Germany. Unreal.

International Aid on a personal level

If you would like to do more for those in dire need, but sometimes wonder how you can without simply tossing money into coffers that sometimes seem like they do more to pay their executives than actually help, here are a couple of ideas:

From Hard-Boiled Dreams of the World, via Big Fat Liberal

Youse established the International Breast Milk Project, and in May 2006 she sent a second shipment of over 23 gallons of breast milk. Another 35 gallons were sent in late 2006, and more shipments are scheduled for 2007.

If you’re interested in donating, click here: don’t waste a drop of breast milk.

Africa Aids Facts
Many babies in South Africa are in dire need of breast milk because their mothers have HIV, which can be transmitted through breast milk. Many other babies need breast milk because their moms don’t have access to water clean enough to mix with powdered baby formula.

An estimated 12 million African children under the age of 18 have been orphaned by AIDS.

Each day in Sub-Saharan Africa, over 6,000 people die from AIDS. Another 8,500 contract HIV. Every day, over a thousand newborn babies are infected during childbirth or through their mothers’ milk. Africa is home to 25 million people with HIV, which is about 64% of global infections.


And, then there is:

Kiva.org Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.

Also, via Big Fat Liberal. Thanks, Lynne.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

All about the Benjamin

Some wisdom for the current age:

A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.

All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.

Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.

The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.

The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.

When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

God help me

CNN just had a piece about how ignorant people are about religion.

Benjamin Franklin said, "God helps those who help themselves." He said a bunch of stuff like that in Poor Richard's Almanac. I knew this. CNN did not, however, that did not keep them from "funnin'" with a bunch of poor folks who thought it was in the Bible.

Uh, I'm ignorant of something and you are too, so you're just stupid and funny.

Then, they asked a bunch of folks who wrote the Gospels. A lot of folks said they didn't know. So, CNN, thinks that is just so funny, haha. Of course, they say, it's Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Only it's not!

No one knows who really wrote the Gospels! No one! Those are just the names attributed to them.

Now, it's possible that some people may have even learned that in church and so that was why they were unsure of how to answer the question. It might be a small percentage, but it is possible.

The Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament was written by at least three authors, most likely four, but I guess if CNN were to ask "Who wrote the book of Isaiah?" and people answered "Isaiah", then CNN would laud them for being correct.

Somebody please help CNN to learn to just report the facts, ma'am, and nothing but the facts and please stop reporting lies and delving into subjects of which they know nothing whatsoever about.

CNN, another propaganda machine

TPM Cafe Election Central reported at 2:35pm YESTERDAY that John Edwards had been the first candidate to call for the resignation of Alberto Gonzales.

TODAY, Hillary Clinton called for the resignation of Alberto Gonzales on the Today Show.

CNN is presently reporting on its news ticker that Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nomination front-runner (despite that not one primary has been held) called for the resignation and was ECHOED by John Edwards, "another" Democratice Presidential candidate.

WTF?

Could it be more obvious that the corporate (meaning Republican) controlled media is doing everything it possibly can to promote Clinton? Clinton is the candidate the Republicans are drooling to run against.

Which is exactly why she is the absolutely last candidate the Democrats should nominate.

Lovin' him more everyday...

Edwards Becomes First Prez Candidate To Call On Gonzales To Resign
By Greg Sargent bio
Yep -- John Edwards is first out of the box. Again. A statement just out from his campaign makes him the first of the Dems to demand that Alberto Gonzales step down:

"Today's news is only the latest and most disturbing sign of the politicization of justice under President Bush. From the abuse of investigative authority under the Patriot Act to the unconstitutional imprisonment of the Guantanamo Bay
detainees and illegal torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Bagram Air Force Base, this president has consistently shown contempt for the rule of law.


"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales betrayed his public trust by playing politics when his job is to enforce and uphold the law. By violating that trust, he's done a great disservice to his office. If White House officials ordered this purge, he should have refused them. If they insisted, he should have resigned in protest. Attorney General Gonzales should certainly resign now."

Edwards, recall, was the first to pull out of the Fox-hosted debate. Let's face it -- the guy is making what's shaping up as a very credible bid for the "had enough, let's fight back on all fronts" wing of the Dem primary electorate.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Just a small matter of life and death

One of the main reasons I support John Edwards:

"We have a dysfunctional health-care system," Edwards said during a campaign stop at the Council Bluffs Senior Center.

Health care is central to Edwards' campaign, and he told the assembled group that 42 million Americans have no health care coverage. He said premiums have risen 90 percent over the past six years and that the government has an obligation to make sure everyone has affordable health care.

"It's based on the concept of all of us taking some responsibility so that we can make universal health care available," Edwards said.

Edwards' plan includes:

Businesses would be required to cover their employees.

Businesses that don't would have to pay into a fund.

Health-care markets would allow people choose either public or private insurance.

Chronic and long-term care would be covered 100 percent.

Preventative care would be covered.

Premiums would be subsidized.

"We're going to bring down the cost of health care in America dramatically," Edwards said.

Edwards said his plan would cost $90 billion to $120 billion a year. He said he would be willing to raise taxes to pay for it but thinks much of the money can come from somewhere else first.

"I pay for it by rolling back George Bush's tax cuts for the richest people in America. That's how I pay for it," Edwards said.

Edwards went from Council Bluffs to Sioux City and planned more town hall meetings across Iowa on Sunday.

Earlier this week, Edwards picked up the backing of more than 100 Democratic activists in Iowa who had been supporting the presidential bid of former Gov. Tom Vilsack. The list includes state Rep. Kurt Swaim of Bloomfield and United Steelworkers Union leader John Campbell.

Why? Because my life depends on it. Is that enough?

Existentialist

Oh, well. Back to me. Hee.

This is a great quiz. So accurate!

What is Your World View? (updated)

My results:

Existentialism emphasizes human capability. There is no greater power interfering with life and thus it is up to us to make things happen. Sometimes considered a negative and depressing world view, your optimism towards human accomplishment is immense. Mankind is condemned to be free and must accept the responsibility.

Existentialist 100%
Modernist 75%
Postmodernist 75%
Materialist 75%
Idealist 75%
Cultural Creative 50%
Romanticist 25%
Fundamentalist 0%

I got yer Google right here, Atrios

Ok, maybe I'll just post a little about the blogroll amnesty bullshit. Just because of certain comments like this made by Duncan Black about this post over at My Left Wing. Which, by the way, he didn't link to directly since My Left Wing is probably all but anathma to him and his little coterie of no-life-but-Atriot-comment-thread lifers, but via the cross post at ePluribus Media and then whined about when called on it, by saying he just doesn't have enough hours in the day to follow blogger ettiquette... or would that be ethics?

He seems to have enough hours in the day to make short, pithy comments about just about every tiny little news item that serves his agenda, just not enough time to make nice to his fellow bloggers. Granted, it would have required a little effort to find it, he would have had to go through the Independent Bloggers Alliance, where he might have caught a rash or something, and he might have had to leave out a "Wanker", being so busy and all.

I am a microscopic speck in blogtopia. Some days it bothers me that I only have a teeny weeny group of readers, most days (as in 99 out of 100) I couldn't care less. Some days, I love it because I can put up all kinds of crap about myself and know no one will see it or care but me. I link to Jon Swift and I've finally gotten around to adding Skippy but they don't even know, so they don't link back to me and I guess I could join the Alliance and might one do all of those things one of these days when I feel like getting around to it. So, needless to say, I don't have a dog in this fight, other than my feeling of what the hell is right and what the hell is wrong. And I don't mean "right" as opposed to "left". Plus, while I consider myself very much a left of center liberal, I have very carefully weighed and carefully considered views that don't fit in that mold and would probably give Maryscott O'Connor apoplectic anaphylaxis.

However, I can guaran-damn-tee you that if I did have the kind of following that Atrios does, I would be sure that my blogroll was populated by more than WHITE MEN, with more than a few token women bloggers, ALL of whom already have a huge (and well deserved) following, and two, count 'em, two (as far as I can tell having gone through his entire blogroll) token African American's. Both men, by the way. Not that I hold that against Oliver Willis and Steve Gilliard (hang in there, Steve, I haven't always agreed with you but I want you healthy and back!)

ESPECIALLY if I held myself up to be a leading liberal voice!

But, geezuslouisas!! There's a big, big world out there, populated by voices that aren't the voices of the BIG WHITE MAN, the popular feminists, and ain't gonna stir the pot too far from the mainstream black guys. No offense intended, especially since I haven't read that much of Willis, just a quick first impression.

I'm a freakin' middle aged southern white woman and I've found some scintillating minority voices, who don't try to echo the big white man blogger world, and I'm not scared, put-off, freaked out, or threatened by it. I LOVE IT!! And my viewpoints, while I think I try to be open, liberal, embracing and all that I am and can be, are surely not always those with which these bloggers might agree. But, I link to them because I love what they have to say and how they say it. Hell, sometimes after reading them, I don't even agree with myself! Or I change my mind, whether I post about it or not. Because they broaden my mind and my viewpoints and help me see all sides and learn new things and gain new perspectives. And, quite a few I've found only because they have cared enough about me to link to me!

Now, Eschaton is Duncan Black's blog and he has every right to do whatever he wishes with it. Still, do I sympathize with Skippy and My Left Wing and Jon Swiftand all of the other bloggers who got wiped on the Atrios "Blogroll Amnesty Day"? Hellza, yeah, I do!

In his comment linked to above, (yes, I graciously linked as I graciously left him and Kos-but-no-link-here on my blogroll, um, while still "having my say", I can't help it, I'm southern) Black claims that he wiped his blogroll so he could link to more blogs.

Uh. You gotta limit there, Atrios? You get charged by the pound or sumthin'? Maybe try Blogger Beta or something if your blog has set up it's own rules of limitations? Ummmm.... open the pod door, Hal.

I mean. Come on! That is sheer and simple bullshit. I thought Atrios was the all great and powerful cut to the quick bullshit pointer-outter of the Intertubes Universe! Maybe he might want to turn his keen eye to himself before he writes such unself examined, unself knowing Bushspeak.

That's got to be teh Eschaton WMD if I've ever heard shit. And I've heard a lot of shit.

So, I just gotta ask. What are you afraid of, Duncan Black? Afraid you're going to link to someone who's not going to echo you and your white male dominated echo chamber? Afraid you're going to link to someone who might get you called out by the MSM you so outwardly loathe and so inwardly seek to emulate? Opting for MSM cred instead of (blog) street cred? (Had to add that "blog" in there because I was just hollaring thinking about a former Bryn-Mawr economist Philadelphia Yankee white boy having street cred! Oh lordylordylawsy! That would make my granny hoot.)

Oh, well. Out of the kindness of my heart for you, poor Yankee white boy, I'll give you a few links that I've discovered. It's just a few, granted, since I don't hunt them out but get blessed with finding them, but it's a hell of lot better than you've got, so I recommend you check them out and see if you can find some room on your gilded lily blogroll.

The Primary Contradiction
IntelligentalIndigena (angry indian)
African American Opinion
African American Political Pundit
Skeptical Brotha
Jack and Jill Politics
Francis Holland
Angry Black Bitch
Spirit21

There now. That should get you started. Or it would, if you ever saw this. But, hey, maybe you'll Google yourself again. Hee. That cracks me up. I would never think about Googling myself. But, then, I am not the Great Atrios.

Sorry. Seriously, you do good work - so much so I'll probably keep checking Eschaton first so I can find links that might interest me without a bunch of opinionated blather about them. It's so sparse it's like a surprise-a-link page. I mean, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO? More power to you if you can earn $5000 a month on that shit.

You just could do a little better. You might not have set out to get where you are today on purpose, but you got there by one other blog linking to you. Then another. Then another. And, back in the day, way back before I and 99% of your other readers turned our bloodshot eyes your way, you were all just little bitty blogs by some guy on the internet.

Turn your back on all those who actually give a damn, and who actually try to earn a little money for their efforts, and who are hurt by your abandonment if you like. But, despite your self-proclaimed indifference to religion, you might try reading The Divine Comedy for it's allegorical content alone. For in it, the ninth level of hell is reserved for traitors.

(Kos is probably split between the fourth and ninth levels. Split, as in literally. If there is, was, or will be a hell, literally.)

UPDATE: I was trying to get some sleep in my weird, post-apocalyptic (wacky illness) world, but I couldn't knowing that I might have left off The Unapologetic Mexican who has been on my blogroll for quite some time and is not only unapologetic, but unforgettable, so I had to get up just to add him.

I'm sorry I don't have any Japanese or Micronesian or even Polynesian, but I probably wouldn't understand the language anyway. And, speaking of language, I speak southern and "white boy" is not racist when spoken by a white southerner, just to clarify because of some half-wit commenter. It is, in this particular case, condescending and patronizing, thank you, and intentionally so though perhaps not terribly nice of me. And, more often than not, it's a term that can be tinged with not a little exasperated affection, even if the white boy is a Yankee and a full-grown man. Hell, I have 80 year old freakin' uncles who are white boys. Down here, if you have a problem with being called a white boy, or a good ole boy, or just a boy when you happen to be white, then you're just plain thought to have a problem with doubting your own masculinity, as long as it's not preceded with damned and stupid. That's when only utter disgust and shame takes over. As in, those damned, stupid white boys at Duke didn't have a lick of sense and oughta be horsewhipped whether actually guilty or not because they oughta known better and they disgraced themselves, their families, their university and the south with that ignorant, uncalled for behavior. (Forgive my colloquism, but sometimes I just feel like it.)

None of the above applies to male blacks. Then it's fighting words, or worse, and rightly so just the same here as anywhere else.

All. About. Me.

Sorry for all the "me" shit lately. Believe me, there's ton's of stuff I'd like to be ranting about instead, but since my rare and incurable disease is borderline under control at the moment, (except for short spasms), I'm trying to keep copacetic.

Ranting, or even concise, devastating analysis, oftentimes are anti-copacetic.

So I'm just tagging and saving up crap to post when no one gives a flip anymore. Plus, I'm just sooo freakin' bored with blogging about the same old crap that everyone else blogs about, especially the "big dawgs". Damn, how many takes on the same subjects do all y'all "alternative media" folks need anyway? The high traffic sites are all beginning to look a whole lot the MSM these days if you ask me. D'ya think that maybe if 100 million people have already seen the same Newsflash! on 50 million blogs, not counting every fucking news outlet in the english speaking world, ya just might not have to have it on yours?

I may be spending some time altering my blogroll to reflect this somewhat... I still haven't given my take on the whole blogroll amnesty bullshit yet, but I may let my blogroll do some of the talking for me.

For right now, I'm just glad to be only a semi-blathering idiot from mild to moderate illness activation, compared to the drooling, wobbling, completely illiterate blabbering blathering idiot I am when my symptoms are in overdrive and my poor brain is so awash in chemicals that it probably tastes like kosher dill pickle.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

My yummies

This. Is. Me.

Update: Of course, why wouldn't I say it was? Being in the same 1% of humanity as Einstein, Socrates, and Blaise Pascal is a real head rush. The really hilarious thing is that I checked once and found that my so-called IQ is supposedly like way above Einstein's was estimated to be. Either my test grader was drunk or Einstein's "estimater" was stoned. I did retest on the 'puter once about three years ago. It was lower, on par with The Great Genius, and I was put in the top 1% quintile of humanity or whatever that shit is... I don't put much weight in that IQ doodie... it's probably skewed seven ways from heaven, but this Jung dude seems to have had it going on. At least now I know why I have no concept of money, have to get mommy's help to figure out how to pay my bills, and can't find a thing if it's not out in plain sight. As a matter of fact, I'm quite sure that nothing exists if I can't see it, even if I know for a fact that it's in a box somewhere in that big room of boxes I haven't unpacked since I moved almost a year ago. It will reassemble itself from it's scattered molecules when it falls once again into my line of vision. Heh.

Of all the descriptions of my personality type, this is my favorite. It is the most concise. This. Is. Me.

The mind of an INTP is both a finely-honed analytical tool and a playground of ideas. Its strongest function is introverted Thinking, which is supported by extroverted iNtuition. In other words, INTPs interact with the outer world intuitively, observing the big picture and its implications. They use their introverted T to process this information logically and abstractly, analyzing new ideas until they understand every aspect. Starting with only a vague intuition, an INTP can construct a whole new world of ideas.

As an analytical tool, the INTP mind excels at solving problems and designing systems. It uses logic like a sword, slashing out irrelevant information and cutting straight to the heart of a problem. INTPs have an innate dislike of redundancy and imprecision. Their primary weakness is likely to be a tendency to overlook or become impatient with details. Details are annoying consequences of the imperfect "real" world; INTPs prefer to focus on the ideal world of intellectual constructs. INTPs enjoy playing with ideas and may enjoy arguing for fun. They are happiest when they are involved in discovering the intricacies and elegance of a complex system. They seek out natural laws and underlying principles from which they can build inventive theoretical models. When involved in these analytical and intuitive activities, they can produce ideas of startling creative brilliance.

Work:
INTPs can be successful in many fields, and may find themselves hopping from job to job as interest in different areas of knowledge wanes and waxes. The ideal jobs for INTPs are ones that
* require analysis of global concepts rather than a focus on details
* involve interaction with few people rather than many
* provide the opportunity to work on a series of new and interesting problems rather than to see one project through from beginning to end
* allow them to use their minds creatively without worrying about the practical application of the ideas they develop.

INTPs also tend to work best if they are not over-burdened with rules and regulations and are free to express the more creative aspects of their thinking. They have an intense need for competence in whatever job they are doing, but they do not usually feel the need to demonstrate this competence to others. As a result, the extent of their abilities is not always recognized. Indeed, they don't need to receive a great deal of praise from others and may even be embarrassed by it.

While INTPs are unlikely to have difficulty with the intellectual aspects of a job, they may find that the same qualities that help them excel in understanding ideas sometimes lead to friction with coworkers. Others may interpret INTPs' deep concentration and need for solitude as unfriendliness or even snobbishness. INTPs excel in critical thinking and will often point out flaws in others' logic. Others may see this as arrogance and may react with anger and defensiveness. If INTPs are able to express approval and appreciation of others' work, they will find that office interactions go more smoothly. INTPs are generally fair, objective, and adaptable coworkers. They challenge others so that all may become more competent. They enjoy working with people who are intelligent and intuitive.

Personal:
Relationships generally do not come easily to INTPs, although they can be faithful and devoted friends and mates who can be adaptable and easy to live with. Their introversion may prevent them from having an active social life, which they are not likely to regret most of the time. They may also forget or ignore social conventions, not feeling bound by the "illogical" rules of society. To an observer, INTPs can seem emotionally cold and overly critical. From the INTPs' perspective, they are simply applying logical principles to their own behavior and to the behavior of others. If they criticize, it is only to correct what they see as an inconsistency or flaw in logic. They intend to be objective, not hurtful. Because INTPs focus on what is logical, they have a tendency to be unaware of or to dismiss their own feelings and the feelings of others. They are likely to be genuinely surprised when their loved ones complain of feeling "taken for granted" or neglected. They can be insensitive to what other people want or expect from a relationship. However, people who do get to know INTPs more closely will probably find the experience to be very rewarding. While many INTPs have a very cynical side, they can also display a childlike sense of wonder and interest in new ideas. They usually have a good sense of humor that ranges from dry subtlety to impish playfulness.

By developing a stronger awareness of feelings and increasing their comfort with them, INTPs can add a new layer of richness to their lives. Their feelings are usually hidden but can run very deep. This depth, combined with the illogical nature of feelings, can make it very difficult for INTPs to express their feelings verbally. However, they will find it rewarding to discover and pursue what is emotionally important to them rather than only what is logical. For the INTP, the Feeling function is closely linked with the unconscious and is a source of creativity.

In Psychological Types, Jung describes the most difficult challenge introverted thinkers face: preserving the integrity of their mental lives while not becoming too isolated from the outside world. It is easy for INTPs to become bitter and angry when others misunderstand their ideas and personality traits. They may see this misunderstanding as "proof of the abysmal stupidity of man." The INTPs' response may be to become critical, unapproachable, and even overly emotional and touchy, which leads to further isolation from other people and from the world. Jung cautions that while this isolation may seem protective, it has its own dangers. It leaves INTPs vulnerable to attacks from their own unconscious minds. This inner conflict can lead to depression and to a tendency to expend too much energy fighting unimportant battles. However, this outcome is certainly not inevitable. By developing their weaker Sensing and Feeling functions over time and by holding on to the more light-hearted aspects of their personalities, INTPs can more fully experience and express the considerable potentials of their minds.

7/27/98 -- Amy Elmore, MA Clinical
Psychology


So. Is. This. BUT, as I've grown older, I've come to appreciate other people, mostly and especially other people who I love, and I have worked hard to be more sensitive and understanding and empathetic to them. They love me back so I must be doing okay.

Portrait of an INTP:

Copyrighted © 1984 Gnoslogy Books Ltd.

INTPs exhibit the greatest precision in thought and language of all the types; they tend to see distinctions and inconsistencies in thought and language instantaneously. The one word which captures the unique style of INTPs is architect--the architect of ideas and systems as well as the architect of edifices. This type is found in only 1 percent of the population and therefore is not encountered as frequently as some of the other types.

INTPs detect contradictions in statements no matter how distant in space or time the contradictory statements were produced. The intellectual scanning of INTPs has a principled quality; that is, INTPs search for whatever is relevant and pertinent to the issue at hand. Consequently, INTPs can concentrate better than any other type.

Authority derived from office, position, or wide acceptance does not impress INTPs. Only statements that are logical and coherent carry weight. External authority per se is irrelevant. INTPs abhor redundancy and incoherence. Possessing a desire to understand the universe, an INTP is constantly looking for natural law. Curiosity concerning these keys to the universe is a driving force in this type.

INTPs prize intelligence in themselves and in others, but can become intellectual dilletantes as a result of their need to amass ideas, principles, or understanding of behavior. And once they know something, it is remembered. INTPs can become obsessed with analysis. Once caught up in a thought process, that thought process seems to have a will of its own for INTPs, and they persevere until the issue is comprehended in all its complexity. They can be intellectual snobs and may show impatience at times with others less endowed intellectually. This quality, INTPs find, generates hostility and defensive behaviors on the part of others, who may describe an INTP as arrogant.

For INTPs, the world exits primarily to be understood. Reality is trivial, a mere arena for proving ideas. It is essential that the universe is understood and that whatever is stated about the universe is stated correctly, with coherence and without redundancy. This is the INTP's final purpose. It matters not whether others understand or accept his or her truths.

The INTP is the logician, the mathematician, the philosopher, the scientist; any pursuit requiring architecture of ideas intrigues this type. INTPs should not, however, be asked to work out the implementation or application of their models to the real world. The INTP is the architect of a system and leaves it to others to be the builder and the applicator. Very often, therefore, the INTP's work is not credited to him or her. The builder and the applier gains fame and fortune, while the INTP's name remains obscure. Appreciation of an INTP's theoretical work frequently comes posthumously--or the work may never be removed from library shelves at all and thus lost.

INTPs tend not to be writers or to go into sales work. They are, however, often excellent teachers, particularly for advanced students, although INTPs do not always enjoy much popularity, for they can be hard taskmasters. They are not good at clerical tasks and are impatient with routine details. They prefer to work quietly, without interruption, and often alone. If an organization is to use the talents of an INTP appropriately, the INTP must be given an efficient support staff who can capture ideas as they emerge and before the INTP loses interest and turns to another idea.

INTPs take their mating relationship seriously and usually are faithful and devoted--albeit preoccupied at times. They are not likely to welcome constant social activity or disorganization in the home. In all probability, the mate of an INTP will initiate and manage the social life. If left to his or her own devices, the INTP mate will retreat into the world of books and emerge only when physical needs become imperative. INTPs are, however, willing, compliant, and easy to live with, although somewhat forgetful of appointments, anniversaries, and the rituals of daily living--unless reminded. They may have difficulty expressing their emotions verbally, and the mate of an INTP may believe that he/she is somewhat taken for granted. As a parent, the INTP is devoted; they enjoy children, and are serious about their upbringing. The home of an INTP parent is usually calm, low-key in discipline, but well run and ordered.

INTPs deal with the environment primarily through intuition, and their strongest quality, the thinking function, remains relatively hidden except in close associations. Therefore, INTPs are often misunderstood, seen as difficult to know, and seldom perceived at their true level of competency. They are inclined to be shy except when with close friends, and their reserve is difficult to penetrate. They are very adaptable until one of their principles is violated. Then INTPs are not adaptable at all! They may have difficulty in being understood by others because they tend to think in a complicated fashion and want to be precise, never redundant in their communications. Because their feeling qualities may be underdeveloped, they may be insensitive to the wants and wishes of others, often quite unaware of the existence of these wants and wishes.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

When Fox attacks

Normally, I would never post a campaign fund solicitation letter, even from John Edwards, whom I believe to be the best candidate at this point. However, this one tickles me in the way that it attacks back, against Fox News, Roger Ailes, etc.



Dear Friend,
You may have heard by now that John Edwards was the first candidate to officially say no to the Fox News debate in Nevada—and because of the hard work of so many grassroots and netroots Democrats, news is breaking tonight that Fox is out.

Fox has already started striking back at John for saying no. (There's a surprise—Fox attacking a Democrat.) Last night, Roger Ailes—the life-long Republican operative who is now Chairman of Fox News Channel—said that any candidate "who believes he can blacklist any news organization is making a terrible mistake" and "runs a real risk of losing the voters."

And John's not their only target. Tonight Fox News Vice President David Rhodes is telling news organizations not to get involved in the Nevada Democratic Caucus because of "radical fringe" groups—meaning grassroots Democrats (that would be you)—who objected to Fox's long history of spreading Republican propaganda at the expense of Democratic leaders.

The whole right wing is getting in on the attack; the Drudge Report is blaring the headline: "War! Dems Pull Out of Fox News Debate."

Enough is enough. It's time to send a clear message to Fox News and their allies that their right-wing talking points and temper tantrums won't go unchallenged anymore—when it comes to what Democrats should do in the Democratic primary, we'll decide—no matter what they report:

http://johnedwards.com/r/7156/861975/

Fox News has already proven they have no intention of providing "fair and balanced" coverage of any Democrat in this election.

In recent weeks they have run blatant lies about Senator Obama's background. And Fox was only too happy to give Ann Coulter a platform to spew more hate a few days after her bigoted attack on Senator Edwards and the gay community.

Now it's time for Democrats to stand together and send a clear message to Roger Ailes, Fox News and all the rest of them: bias isn't balance, but turning tables is fair:

http://johnedwards.com/r/7158/861975/

The truth is, Fox News can "report" whatever they want. And when it works for us, we'll deal with them on our terms. But this campaign is about responsibility and accountability, and we need to send the message to Fox that if they want to be the corporate mouthpiece of the Republican Party more than they want to be an impartial news outlet, they shouldn't expect Democrats to play along.

You can send that message by contributing today, and remind Fox News that in this election, Democrats won't take their spin lying down:

http://johnedwards.com/r/7160/861975/

Thank you for standing up for what we believe in.

Jonathan Prince
Deputy Campaign Manager
John Edwards for President

P.S. -- If the folks at Fox wonder why nobody thinks they play it straight, they should take a look at what Roger Ailes said about debates in 1988 when he was a top Republican spinmaster for then Vice President Bush: He told the Washington Post, "I don't know that we need to do more than one [debate]. There's no reason to think we'd need more than one." And he told the New York Times, "I don't think you learn anything about the issues" from debates. So please send Roger Ailes a message: Hypocrisy isn't fair and it isn't balanced; it's just hypocrisy—and we've had enough of it from you.

How You Can Take Action

Make sure you receive email updates from Senator Edwards. Find out how to add john@johnedwards.com to your Address Book. Click here to unsubscribe from email sent by John Edwards for President. Paid for by John Edwards for President 410 Market Street, Suite 400, Chapel Hill, NC 27516 (919) 636-3131. johnedwards.com. Contributions to John Edwards for President are not deductible for federal income tax purposes.

Heard about Darfur lately?


Then, there's always something to help put things back into perspective.

Retry


Sometimes there is just so much shit going down that thinking about it, let alone blogging about it, just wears me out. The FBI violating our rights. The bullshit from the Right. That the SC Legislature is about to vote to force women to endure and view ultrasounds of the fetus before being allowed abortion. The debates about religion. And just so much more.


Earthlings to Whatever God there might (or might not) be: Hey, God, just what the fuck is going on?


God to Earthlings: Oh, just the usual. Having a hell of a good time. Nothing better than watching all this shit going down while holding out on the "Because". It's a riot. No, really, it's a riot.

Testing, testing

I've been taking a lot of tests lately, mainly to see if I've changed much in the almost two years I've been disabled. Not so much, apparently, which is surprising. Here's the latest, the Jung Typology test.

Jung Typology Test

Strength of the preferences %
Introverted 44 Intuitive 62 Thinking 12 Perceiving 22

Qualitative analysis of your type formula

You are:

moderately expressed introvert

distinctively expressed intuitive personality

slightly expressed thinking personality

slightly expressed perceiving personality

Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
by Joe Butt

Profile: INTP

Revision: 3.0Date of Revision: 27 Feb 2005

INTPs are pensive, analytical folks. They may venture so deeply into thought as to seem detached, and often actually are oblivious to the world around them.

Precise about their descriptions, INTPs will often correct others (or be sorely tempted to) if the shade of meaning is a bit off. While annoying to the less concise, this fine discrimination ability gives INTPs so inclined a natural advantage as, for example, grammarians and linguists.

INTPs are relatively easy-going and amenable to most anything until their principles are violated, about which they may become outspoken and inflexible. They prefer to return, however, to a reserved albeit benign ambiance, not wishing to make spectacles of themselves.

A major concern for INTPs is the haunting sense of impending failure. They spend considerable time second-guessing themselves. The open-endedness (from Perceiving) conjoined with the need for competence (NT) is expressed in a sense that one's conclusion may well be met by an equally plausible alternative solution, and that, after all, one may very well have overlooked some critical bit of data. An INTP arguing a point may very well be trying to convince himself as much as his opposition. In this way INTPs are markedly different from INTJs, who are much more confident in their competence and willing to act on their convictions.

Mathematics is a system where many INTPs love to play, similarly languages, computer systems--potentially any complex system. INTPs thrive on systems. Understanding, exploring, mastering, and manipulating systems can overtake the INTP's conscious thought. This fascination for logical wholes and their inner workings is often expressed in a detachment from the environment, a concentration where time is forgotten and extraneous stimuli are held at bay. Accomplishing a task or goal with this knowledge is secondary.

INTPs and Logic -- One of the tipoffs that a person is an INTP is her obsession with logical correctness. Errors are not often due to poor logic -- apparent faux pas in reasoning are usually a result of overlooking details or of incorrect context.

Games NTs seem to especially enjoy include Risk, Bridge, Stratego, Chess, Go, and word games of all sorts. (I have an ENTP friend that loves Boggle and its variations. We've been known to sit in public places and pick a word off a menu or mayonnaise jar to see who can make the most words from its letters on a napkin in two minutes.) The INTP mailing list has enjoyed a round of Metaphore, virtual volleyball, and a few 'finish the series' brain teasers.

INTPs in the main are not clannish. The INTP mailing list, with a readership now in triple figures, was in its incipience fraught with all the difficulties of the Panama canal: we had trouble deciding on:
1) whether or not there should be such a group,
2) exactly what such a group should be called, and
3) which of us would have to take the responsibility for organization and maintenance of the aforesaid group/club/whatever.

A Functional Analysis -- by Joe Butt
Introverted Thinking
Introverted Thinking strives to extract the essence of the Idea from various externals that express it. In the extreme, this conceptual essence wants no form or substance to verify its reality. Knowing the Truth is enough for INTPs; the knowledge that this truth can (or could) be demonstrated is sufficient to satisfy the knower. "Cogito, ergo sum" expresses this prime directive quite succinctly.

In seasons of low energy level, or moments of single-minded concentration, the INTP is aloof and detached in a way that might even offend more relational or extraverted individuals.

Extraverted iNtuition
Intuition softens and socializes Thinking, fleshing out the brittle bones of truths formed in the dominant inner world. That which is is not negotiable; yet actual application diffuses knowledge to the extent that knowledge needs qualification and context to be of any consequence in this foreign world of substance.

If Thinking can desist, the INTP is free to brainstorm, calling up the perceptions of the unconscious (i.e., intuition) which are mirrored in patterns in the realm of matter, time and space. These perceptions, in the form of theories or hunches, must ultimately defer to the inner principles, or at least they must not negate them.

Intuition unchained gives birth to play. INTPs enjoy games, formal or impromptu, which coax analogies, patterns and theories from the unseen into spontaneous expression in a way that defies their own comprehension.

Introverted Sensing
Sensing is of a subjective, inner nature similar to that of the SJs. It supplies awareness of the forms of senses rather than the raw, analogic stimuli. Facts and figures seek to be cleaned up for comparison with an ever growing range of previously experienced input. Sensing assists intuition in sorting out and arranging information into the building blocks for Thinking's elaborate systems.

The internalizing nature of the INTP's Sensing function leaves a relative absence of environmental awareness (i.e., Extraverted Sensing), except when the environment is the current focus. Consciousness of such conditions is at best a sometime thing.

Extraverted Feeling
Feeling tends to be all or none. When present, the INTP's concern for others is intense, albeit naive. In a crisis, this feeling judgement is often silenced by the emergence of Thinking, who rushes in to avert chaos and destruction. In the absence of a clear principle, however, INTPs have been known to defer judgement and to allow decisions about interpersonal matters to be left hanging lest someone be offended or somehow injured. INTPs are at risk of being swept away by the shadow in the form of their own strong emotional impulses.

Famous INTPs:
Socrates
Rene Descartes
Blaise Pascal
Sir Isaac Newton

U.S. Presidents:
James Madison
John Quincy Adams
John Tyler
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Gerald Ford

William Harvey (pioneer in human physiology)
C. G. Jung, (Freudian defector, author of Psychological Types, etc.)
William James
Albert Einstein
Tom Foley (Speaker of the House--U.S. House of Representatives)
Henri Mancini
Bob Newhart
Jeff Bingaman, U.S. Senator (D.--NM)
Rick Moranis (Honey, I Shrunk The Kids)
Midori Ito (ice skater, Olympic silver medalist)
Tiger Woods

Fictional INTPs
Tom and Fiona (Four Weddings and a Funeral)
Dr. Susan Lewis (ER)
Filburt (Rocko's Modern Life)
Copyright © 1996-2007 Joe Butt

Anyone who thinks (s)he is an INTP is invited to join one of these INTP fora: http://www.cheshirecat.net/mailman/listinfo/intp http://intp-list.org/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/intpopen/ http://www.intpcentral.com/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/intp-type/
Type Relationships for INTPs:
Identity
Pal
Complement
Contrast
Supplement
Anima
Suitemate
Cohort
Companion
Tribesman
Advisor
Pedagogue
Enigma
Novelty
Neighbor
Counterpart
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The only bit that bothered me was the playing with mathmatics part. I hate and despise math. Primarily, I think that advanced mathematics are just made up shit people try to use to illustrate what, to me, are obvious truths, able to reach through reason alone. I believe I actually read that Einstein would have an idea and then have to work out the math to support his thesis. My question is, why bother. Use reason.

Although, in a sense, I suppose I still play with it as I imagine numbers with distinctive personalities and appearances. Not like a 4 is a flower, but like a 4 is blue and kind of kicked back on his heel, looking down his nose. 10 is red, squat and fat. 9 is a pink party girl. That kind of thing.

Ok, call the guys in the white coats now.

But, first, let's see what Keirsey says:
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The Portrait of the Architect Rational (iNTp)
RATIONAL
ARTISAN
IDEALIST
GUARDIAN
Copyrighted © 1996-2007 Prometheus Nemesis Book Company

Of the four aspects of strategic analysis and definition, it is the structural engineering role -- architechtonics -- that reaches the highest development in these Rationals, and it is for this reason they are aptly called the "Architects." Their major interest is in figuring out structure, build, configuration -- the spatiality of things.

As the engineering capabilities the Architects increase so does their desire to let others know about whatever has come of their engineering efforts. So they tend to take up an accomodating role in their social exchanges. On the other hand they have less and less desire, if they ever had any, to direct the activities of others. Only when forced to by circumstance do they allow themselves to take charge of activities, and they exit the role as soon as they can without injuring the enterprise.

The Architects' distant goal is always to rearrange the environment somehow, to shape, to construct, to devise, whether it be buildings, institutions, enterprises, or theories. They look upon the world -- natural and civil -- as little more than raw material to be reshaped according to their design, as a formless stone for their hammer and chisel. Ayn Rand, master of the Rational character, describes this characteristic in the architect Howard Roark, her protagonist in The Fountainhead:

"He was looking at the granite. He did not laugh as his eyes stopped in awareness of the earth around him. His face was like a law of nature-a thing one could not question, alter or implore. It had high cheekbones over gaunt, hollow cheeks; gray eyes, cold and steady; a contemptuous mouth, shut tight, the mouth of an executioner or a saint. He looked at the granite. To be cut, he thought, and made into walls. He looked at a tree. To be split and made into rafters. He looked at a streak of rust on the stone and thought of iron ore under the ground. To be melted and to emerge as girders against the sky. These rocks, he thought, are here for me; waiting for the drill, the dynamite and my voice; waiting to be split, ripped, pounded, reborn, waiting for the shape my hands will give to them." [The Fountainhead, pp 15-16]

Many regard this attitude as arrogant, and Architects are likely, especially in their later years, after finding out that most others are faking an understanding of the laws of nature, to think of themselves as the prime movers who must pit themselves against nature and society in an endless struggle to define ends clearly and adopt whatever means that promise success. If this is arrogance, then at least it is not vanity, and without question it has driven the design engineers to take the lead in molding the structure of civilization.

Albert Einstein as the iconic Rational is an Architect

Thomas Jefferson and Robert Rosen are examples of the Architect Rationals

A full description of the Architect and Rational is in People Patterns or Please Understand Me II
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Wow. I pretty much agreed with most of the analysis above and then I found the following. Wow!!

There is nothing in the following that is not true of me, except perhaps for the computer geek/trekkie allusions. I long ago became as proficient as I cared to with computers, not that I'm adverse to learning new programs or whatever, I've just satisfied my curiousity to the point of knowing that I could learn whatever I wanted to about them sufficienctly to become competent and they lost their mystery long ago. Likewise, I love science fiction, but fully realize that it is, after all, fiction, and not worth my time or intellect to delve into it further than entertainment. In place of these things, my primary interests lay in history and sociology and religions and philosophy. All the things where my curiousity can never be satisfied.

I both surprised and not surprised that my personality type is only 1% of the population. I wasn't expecting it, hadn't thought about it, and when I saw it, my reaction was of course.

I would be interested to know what the average IQ of INTP personality types are. Once, I became quite certain that there was something really, really wrong with me because I was so different than most people I've ever known. I went to a psychiatrist. He asked me what I was reading. I answered The Divine Comedy at night and Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy over breakfast. What had I read most recently? Virgil's The Aenid and Homer's Odyssey and Illiad. He laughed. He said to promise that I would find out what my IQ was because it was very high, he was sure and that I would never be happy until I had a more challenging job. I did. It was 168. Maybe 167. I'm not good with remembering numbers except by their personalities and so I know it was one of those. That's when I finally decided to actually try to move into a better situation and eventually became an analyst. I really liked it but hated the people I had to work with and the politics. Not that it matters now since my brain function turns into mush when my symptoms start acting up, and are generally on life support at all other times, depending on what medication I'm taking.

Anyway. Otherwise. About the following: Wow!
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A description of the INTP Personality Type

by Paul James

Original version: April 5, 1999
revised and published on the web: March 12, 2000

INTP is one of the 16 personality types defined in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). I will assume that visitors to this page already have a basic knowledge of the MBTI system for I wish to concentrate on describing the INTP type as best I can. The descriptions below are based on personal experience combined with knowledge derived from other MBTI sources and I hope that other INTPs and non-INTPs alike may find some of this material illuminating. This page may be updated and expanded when appropriate.

For a general introduction and overview of MBTI temperament analysis, visit Robert Winer's excellent resource at Gesher.

INTPs are about 1% of the general population, making this one of the rarest of types. The basic dynamic of the INTP is illustrated in the following table:

RANK of FUNCTION FUNCTION ORIENTATION
Dominant Thinking Introverted ( Ti )
Secondary iNtuition Extraverted ( Ne )
Tertiary Sensing Introverted ( Si )
Inferior Feeling Extraverted ( Fe )

The consequences of the orientation and rank of each of the four functions for the INTP type is described in turn below.

Primary Axis: Introverted Thinking - Extraverted Intuition

The INTP is above all a thinker and his inner (private) world is a place governed by a strong sense of logical structure. Every experience is to be rigorously analysed, the task of the INTP's mind is to fit each encountered idea or experience into a larger structure defined by logic. For here is the central goal of the INTP: to understand and seek truth. The experience of anything takes a back seat. The INTP is not interested in experiences themselves but is far more fascinated by concepts. The drive to understand things that are not yet understood is a very powerful force in the life of an INTP. Where the Ti preference is strong, this drive can override the experiential element so strongly that the INTP will become quickly bored with anything that he has successfully analysed to the point of understanding it. Once understood, it has nothing left to offer, once the satisfaction which comes with achieving the goal of understanding diminishes. Indeed, most primary interests of an INTP are things which he cannot fully understand, usually because they are highly complex or have some exotic, mystical element that does not yield to analysis. This is the real reason why INTPs are drawn to complexity: anything simple is too quickly understood and cannot hold the fascination for long. Similarly, proficiency in any area (which requires continual practice after understanding) is not such a driving force as it might be for NTJs, for example. While a judging NT will often seek to become master of his field, an INTP is satisfied by analysing it alone. The latter is often more of dabbler with ideas which leads me on to his second crucial aspect: detachment.

The Ti-Ne axis leads to a curious overriding desire to observe from a detached position, indicating the preference for intuitive perception with respect to external things. Since accurate analysis needs to avoid becoming hampered with details or being influenced by the actions of others, the INTP invariably seeks to withdraw, at least in spirit, from the situation being considered. This detachment can sometimes be so marked that he will readily see himself as a neutral observer having no personal association with that going on around him (unless forced to become directly involved through an attack on his principles). The INTP enjoys speculating about how a news item (for example) might be received by other people or how a point of view might offend certain types of people and be supported by yet other types; but to have a point of view of his own rarely seems relevant! This also indicates that Feeling is his least developed function. The argument may even be made that "points of view" and "opinions" are irrelevant since only objective truth counts. In reality, INTPs can often become far less objective than they think they ought to be: precisely at those times when the under-developed Feeling gnaws at his being.

Dominant Function: Introverted Thinking

Now looking specifically at first the Ti, the principle of detachment even encompasses how an INTP views himself. He may analyse his own thought processes as if his mind and body were separate from his conscious self. In wanting to understand his reactions to things, he may treat himself, even his own thoughts, as subjects for experiment. At the extreme end of the scale, where Ti is very dominant, the ultimate goal of understanding the world with total clarity must be achieved through total detachment from everything. Fortunately, Ti never dominates over the other 3 preferences to such an extent that such an unhealthy state is reached.

Where detachment ceases is when someone makes an illogical statement or violates one of the INTPs principles. At such a point, the INTP feels the instant drive to provide for clarity. This is his Mission; to be the provider of clarity, and is often suspicious that he is the only person capable of this task. Here, the INTP risks being seen as over-critical, aloof and arrogant. On the whole, however, real arrogance is rare for INTPs for their desire is not to dominate others but simply to observe, analyse and clarify. Once the point has been clarified, the INTP withdraws quickly, for he prefers not to be in the limelight unless absolutely necessary. Hence, for most of the time, INTPs are easy-going and will fit in to others' needs, taking up the role of observer again.

While proficiency may not be a central goal, competence always is. The difference here may be subtle, but it is important. If an INTP decides to learn a skill, then it is very important for him that he reaches a sufficient level so that basic errors can be avoided. Errors made by others are to be expected and can be criticised. But errors made by oneself attack the very root of the person, which is ultimately about rationality, logic and truth. INTPs hate to think of themselves being in any way inadequate, at least in areas that are important to them. So, as soon as he puts himself behind some task, then he must achieve competency. But that is as far as it goes. Refined competency requires too much effort and has little attraction. It would require practice and that usually bores an INTP. Hence, it is common to see INTPs dabbling at many things, achieving competency, just enough to prove to themselves that they could become more proficient if they wished, but rarely actually bothering to refine their skills further. This is a point at which we begin to get a feel for the workings of iNtuition backing up Thinking. The INTP has a whole set of skills which he knows that he would be proficient at, yet other people may know little of this. He is satisfied with the knowledge that he has these skills but often sees no requirement to demonstrate this to others, an indication of the strong Ti nature.

Related to this is the central aspect of independence. INTP's put great weight on being individuals and essentially different from other people, who they often view as being too alike and too interdependent. Independence touches on many aspects. One is the competency aspect above. When he is interested in something, then the INTP must be competent in it. But there are many things which don't interest him, and some of these will be things that others may be very competent in and where it may be assumed that everyone should be competent in them. The INTP usually applies the word "irrelevant" to such things: that is his excuse for any lack of competency in any field. And if he originally wished to achieve something, but failed, then it must be because was in fact irrelevant! The opinions of others are rarely given much weight in themselves. All opinions must get filtered through an analysis procedure to test for viability. No title or claim of being an "expert" carries any weight with an INTP. All people, big or small, are subject to an identical scrutiny. The INTP sees himself as the independent arbiter, whether a fair claim or not. However, when someone has proved his credentials through having sensible opinions, he will be afforded great respect by the INTP. Most respected of all are those who are not only sensible but also innovative. Intelligence is above all highly prized.

Independence, derived primarily from strongly introverted Thinking, leads to perhaps the most difficult aspect (for others) of the INTP, namely stubbornness. If an INTP is pushed into doing something he will automatically resist. The reason for the resistance is simply that any action must first be filtered by the Ti, guided by the Ne. He must be given the chance to reach an independent decision, approving or rejecting the action. Hence, he must withdraw to allow the analysis process to work. If withdrawal is not allowed then stubborn resistance is the inevitable result. However, others may not always find the INTP excessively stubborn, since the decision-making process can sometimes be rapidly accelerated when intuition takes the upper hand. The best way to get an INTP to do something is to suggest the idea as an option and let him sleep on it. Ultimately, the INTP must always believe that it is his decision. Once he is satisfied that the decision was independently reached, then he is content.

A further result of the Ti function is the concept, lived out by many an INTP, that knowledge is everything. They tend to believe that information is the key to life. All mistakes can be avoided by having the right information at the right time. This has at least a certain logic about it. Where they differ from other temperaments (especially from SP types) is that a large gap may exist between knowing and doing. To know is everything, to do is a lower order necessity, if it is necessary at all. This breeds the potential for lazy aloofness. The INTP is often satisfied simply by knowing that he could do something if he wished. This also leads to the danger of overestimating one's capabilities and losing a grip on reality. Here is an aspect where INTP and ENTP types differ strongly. The latter, with dominant iNtuition, are much more driven by shaping the world according to their ideas, ie. thinking supports and subordinates doing. For the INTP, doing supports and subordinates thinking.

Finally, the dominant Ti function means that the INTP takes his interests and beliefs very seriously. Honesty and directness when explaining these interests are usually displayed. INTPs detest facades and particulary dislike people who exhibit them. Equally, those kind of people also dislike INTPs and avoid them at all cost, for they know that the INTP will see right through them. The INTP's serious nature also makes them almost immune to mockery and being made fun of, at least when face to face with their mocker. If someone attempts to make a sarcastic, mocking comment about an interest of an INTP, the latter will defend himself with a pure, almost naive seriousness, explaining his position with a severe exactness, wielding his words like swords. This almost always disarms the mocker who does not expect such a penetrating defence. The INTPs defence usually also contains a subtle but biting attack thrown back in the mocker's face, chiefly because the INTP cannot entirely hide the fact that he believes his opponent to be stupid. Such confrontations might develop rapidly into physical ones, a danger that the INTP should be aware of. This ability to wield words with cutting precision is one of the INTP's greatest assests, but equally one of his most deadly traits. He is capable of using words creatively to penetrate deep into the understanding of a subject, but if not checked and wielded carelessly, his words can become highly destructive, especially where the Feeling function is heavily suppressed.

Secondary Function: Extraverted Intuition

Intuition is a mode of perception which focusses on the larger picture, the connections between objects, on the possibilities rather than the facts. When this is extraverted (Ne), the act of intuitive perception grapples with the world itself in order to understand it and its chief goal is to derive meaning. The INTP is sometimes referred to as the architect. The world is an object of study and possibilities for changing and shaping it according to the schemes assessed by the Ti core are derived from intuition. If his introversion is strong, however, then his schemes tend to remain private and speculative: the world remains an intellectual object of study but his architectural plans may not actually be put into practice. The constructor/inventor ENTP, on the other hand, with whom the Ne is dominant, aggressively grapples with and shapes the world, showing little reticence. The INTP is of the same spirit, but his constructive nature is likely to take shape within more private hobbies and less likely to directly involve others.

Where the extraversion of the iNtuition function becomes obvious is during discussions, especially heated ones. In contrast to INTJs, an INTP will often make controversial, speculative points of argument, often annoying the discussion-partner, and make them in such a way as to leave the impression that he is very serious about what he says. In reality, the INTP is not actually even certain himself whether he really stands by what he is saying, but his Ne strongly suggests that there must be a core of truth there. The purpose then of his outspoken style of argument is to sharpen his own intuitive understanding by testing the reaction of the listener, and indeed to examine the logic of his own arguments in real time while speaking them out. On occasion, INTPs may seem brash and tactless, but for themselves it is part of their way of getting closer to the truth. This is another aspect of the Ne grappling with the external world (in this case discussion with another) to understand it. The Ne provides the raw material for the Ti core to analyse. The INTJ, on the other hand, with Ni dominant and Te as secondary, tends to avoid letting uncertain speculative ideas out in the open: he presents a more considered structured viewpoint to the world while holding his private thoughts free for intuitive reasoning. The INTJ resembles a chess player, ruminating on the possibilites and then making decisive accurate moves. If the INTP played life as chess, he would keep wishing to modify the allowed-move-properties of his various pieces to optimise his strategy, find that that isn't allowed, and ask to start the game afresh! The ENTP chess player would indeed modify the rules to his advantage and complain that the standard rules were inadequate! The ENTJ would play by the standard rules but insist on making the moves for his opponent as well !

Extraverted iNtuition has a strong influence on how the INTP views his own interaction with others. It is the Ne above all that the INTP most loves to show others. He is therefore happy to be seen as somewhat eccentric, innovative and perceptive. In dreaming about what he would like to become or achieve, his goals are invariably highly individualistic. He must become the composer, the solo performer, the genius scientist who makes the unique discovery. If he is to be noticed at all, then he must be centre stage. If he can't be centre stage in an area of interest, then he must withdraw and resort to vitriolic criticism. But in all areas which interest him less he happily leaves to others and observes. With an INTP it is either all or nothing. Half-efforts he dislikes just as much as he dislikes the restrictions of teamwork and co-operation.

Humour is another aspect which marks out the INTP. He can readily dream up jokes about almost any situation. Taking things out of context is the chief source of humour and many an INTP is a Monty Pythonite. The Ne is the engine and source of this joke-generator. Needless to say, the humour of an INTP can be pretty zany and warped and may not be understood easily by others. The problem is that the Ne concepts for jokes are put into a structure only by the Ti. Hence, the humour can become black and tactless, having felt little Feeling input. Funnily enough, INTPs are dreadful tellers of jokes (which seems to be more the domain of those with Se), perhaps because they pay too little attention to detail when speaking spontaneously. If you see someone smirking and laughing at some private thought, without any obvious reason, he's probably an INTP. INTPs may however make good comedy writers, with the humour of Woody Allen being particularly liked.

The preference for intuitive perception means that INTPs dislike having their lives planned. They feel a distinct unease before most fixed appointments and cannot fully relax until the scheduled event is over, or at least in progress. However, the dreaded event is usually far less of a problem than had been imagined and usually brings with it a sense of satisfaction. Action is therefore the saving grace of an INTP, for a sense of achievement usually outweighs the earlier apprehension. Social appointments can also be greatly enjoyed, once they are underway. But joyful anticipation is rarely experienced beforehand, unless the event is central to the INTP's fields of interest. The source of the unease is simply the feeling that a planned schedule inhibits and robs the INTP of freedom. It is also a subordination to the plans of others which the independent INTP resists. Faithfully helping others is not a problem, however, but he must feel in control of his decision to subordinate or not.

INTPs tend to be rather mistrusting of people and are rather sceptical. However, a lot of their trust is based on what the Ne function tells them about somebody. This can lead to a naivity and sometimes to prejudices based on intuitive perceptions of appearence and style. People can be a problem for INTPs: on the one hand they are fascinated by some types of people, especially more extraverted individuals, but a fear of irrational behaviour in others usually leads to caution. Friendship with INTPs develops at a pace which depends considerably on the temperament of the other person. INTPs dislike making the first move and tend to mirror the emotional content of the other person. A jolly person will quickly bring the INTP out of his shell, as much as that is possible, while a serious person will find a serious INTP looking back at him. In this sense, INTPs preference for intuitive perception (rather than action) with respect to people results in them resembling a chameleon. The INTP can fit into many different modes of behaviour, even contradictory ones, in order to get into the mindset of the other person. The goal is to gain enough intuitive data to analyse and assess the person. In doing this, the INTP remains somewhat reserved, never wholly identifying himself with his surroundings. As chameleons, INTPs are therefore approachable and open, unless the Ne tells the INTP that the other person is a type he doesn't like, in which case the reserved attitude may become too obvious. The chameleon behaviour can be particularly strong when discussing something. The INTP may even argue something that he doesn't really believe himself. Sometimes it is for the intellectual stimulation that comes with the challenge of arguing from a variety of standpoints. Otherwise, it may be to avoid early conflict before the situation has been fully assessed. Chameleons hide their true selves. INTPs do not do this cynically, or indeed all the time, but it is a result of the strong desire to remain detached and observe.

However, where friendship develops rapidly, almost instantly, is when an INTP meets another INTP or similar temperament. Communication between such people can become extremely intense, leaving outsiders baffled. When two INTPs get togther, watch out! All forms of social graces and host-guest protocols become irrelevant. Both want only to share concepts and interests and absorb the intellectual stimulation of the other. Interruption of this process by any social necessity is undesired and annoying. Often the pair will become oblivious to everything around them and this may seem almost comical to an outsider. Introductory greetings such as "how are you?" may just be given and received with nonchalant disinterest. Conversations are more likely to open with something like: "Hi, I think I've worked out how changes in the Borg's command protocols can be routed through sub-space without compromising their universal teleconnectivity!", knowing that the other person knows exactly what he's on about. Later, the host may offer the guest a drink after an hour of discussing the latest developments in computer technology, and the guest may then notice that he is thirsty. In most cases however, INTPs have been groomed by other types into accomodating themselves into the social world, so that even amongst themselves a minimal level of social niceties will be given. Favourite topics of discussion are science and science-fiction, music, computers and any abstract concept with which one is currently fascinated by.

One-to-one conversation is preferred in almost every situation. In a group situation, INTPs are sensitive to whether they believe they will be listened to or not. If a dominant (strongly extraverted and loud) person is present, the INTP will withdraw and sulk, believing the dominant person to be a brute. If an INTP speaks, he must be listened to, for he believes his spoken opinions to be important. If not, he withdraws (at least in spirit) and assumes that the people who do not listen lack intelligence. Hence, INTPs make very poor leaders, for they depend too much on the attitudes of others. This is one of the negative sides of the Ne function. INTPs tend to jump to intuitive conclusions, can be fatalistic and have little perseverence. On the other hand, they can make very good assistants to leaders, provided they and the leader are of one mind, for their perceptive analysis can give the leadership useful insights which they may overlook, being too busy with leading. Indeed, INTPs are often glad when someone else takes over the lead, again providing the leader is of the same mind. An INTPs ideal is to provide all the ideas for a project and have a charismatic leader, who agrees with him, carry them out. The only area in which an INTP will carry out his own ideas to completion is in his personal interest world, where other people are not involved. For this reason, INTPs are fascinated by computer technology as well as the Internet which gives him a voice that he would not otherwise have. Many of the most dedicated Computer Freaks are INTPs. Ultimately, INTPs tend to trust machines more than they trust people and may feel particularly at home in the realm of cybernetics.

The Ne-Ti axis is a particularly useful configuration for an interest in Science Fiction. The Ne provides a fascination for abstract ideas while the Ti loves analysing the scientific concepts presented. Many an INTP is a Trekkie, particularly because Star Trek pays a great deal of attention to logical detail. Unlike much of the general population, however, INTPs take such science fiction series extremely seriously, showing the great relative importance attached to the world of ideas. Examples of fictional characters who INTPs have a natural affinity for are Avon (Blake's Seven), Data (Star Trek: TNG) and Seven of Nine (Voyager).

General role models for INTPs are individualistic, creative and perhaps enigmatic people. Innovative free-thinkers who follow their own new paths are usually greatly respected. Famous historical figures who attract the INTP's greatest respect are scientists, composers, inventors and, in society, revolutionary leaders and noble visionaries who bring about major change. Above all, individualism is the key factor, while vision is the most highly prized asset.

The Ne-Ti axis also leads to a curious duality in the thinking of the INTP. The dominant Ti core tends to assume the role of a controller and organiser of his life, while the Ne behaves like a free spirit, almost childlike in its enthusiasm. The INTP tends to experience these two forces as an almost continuous tug-of-war, with neither ever quite gaining the upper hand. He is not disturbed by this duality and can view it with wistful humour. If he has been free-spiriting for any length of time, he soon feels duty bound to analyse his behaviour and systematise it. While if he has been in an analytical mode for a while, he will soon decide that he can do what he wants freely after all. It is a yo-yo situation. Generally, INTPs have a very strong requirement to keep their external, social world as simple and as uncluttered as they can so that they can focus as much energy as possible on their internal world of system analysis and theoretizing. Hence, they tend to be amongst the least demanding and least complicated of all types when interacting with others. They prefer to let the world flow by: to observe the waves being made by others, but to make none themselves. When socializing, the Ne mode dominates, unless a discussion starts up involving the INTP in which case the Ti largely takes over. In their private world it is of course the Ti that dominates.

Tertiary Function: Introverted Sensing

The Sensing function is the mode of perceiving which gathers information from facts, details and objects. When this function is strongly introverted, Si, the focus moves away from external details and is primarly concerned with personal, introspective detail. The experience of the present is not central in itself, as with Se. Rather the focus is on how the present evokes remembered earlier experiences. The key outworking of the Si function is then a concern with memories of the past. INTPs typically have an acute awareness of the passage of past times. Sequences of past events can assume a remarkable solidity in their thinking, while most INTPs have very good memories. Indeed, the sensing function is usually very well developed in its strongly Si mode and forms a strong partnership with the Ti core. Hence, the internal world of the INTP is a world of complex, detailed structure, well organized and methodically kept in order. When an INTP focusses on specific details then he has a very sharp eye for them and will not lose sight of them.

On the other hand, one of the more serious weaknesses of an INTP is that the sensing function makes little inroads out into the external world. INTPs are usually oblivious to external details unless something forces them to take notice. When an INTP goes into a new room, or walks through a city street, he is blind to much of the detail that people with an Se function would see immediately. The INTP always tries to get a feel for the big picture, using his Ne, and habitually ignores all detail. Of course, objects of interest will be seen as a matter of course and he can choose to concentrate and focus on them, but it is remarkable how much he still overlooks. And those objects he does happen to notice will belong to a small set of things that he is interested in anyway. Many other objects would only be noticed if another person points them out to him.

When an INTP lives alone, his home is usually spartan and utility-oriented. There will be little or no decorative objects, electronic equipement will be in abundance and the importance of any object will depend only on its usefulness. The general style of the home is largely irrelevant. When an object is put aside, not to be returned to for a while, it will lie fully ignored until used again. Objects which lie unmoved for more than about 48 hours usually become invisible to the INTP, until such time as he has a use for them again. For other temperaments whose need for tidiness and order in a house is strong, this lack of concern in this area may seem despairing. For the INTP, however, no problem exists. Corners of rooms, table tops and cupboards may become cluttered with objects, but while they don't move they remain effectively invisible and are unimportant. Indeed, less mature INTPs have a reluctance to move objects at all, for the desire to remain detached and not physically interact with the world can be strong. The one thing that will force an INTP to tidy his home radically, even when alone, is when the clutter eventually gets in his way and hinders some activity. Often, however, the offending objects will merely be moved into another corner where they can spend some more weeks being invisible. When an INTP lives with a partner and perhaps has a family, he learns the necessity of focussing on the details of tidiness. This is not usually difficult, since tidying a house is an activity which can be clearly defined and, hence, the INTP can focus on it by treating it as systematic work.

Introverted Sensing often plays an important role in the private world of the INTP. When he visits a place, whether new or already known, his Si function gives an overriding concern for the atmosphere or mood of the place. In his subconscious, he connects the present experiences of his surroundings with memories of his past, sometimes deep past. A sense of history, of universality, is almost always invoked. When on holiday, the INTP wants to experience above all the ambience of each location. Specific details in the present are relatively unimportant and will not be well remembered. However, the atmosphere or mood will be remembered long after, as though it were a solid object. Since people encountered on a holiday usually count as details, unless more personal contact develops, the INTP tends to be drawn more to lonely, isolated places where atmosphere is less disturbed. Nevertheless, the presence of people does add its own ambience which can also be appreciated considerably. The net result of this concern for past experiences and of mood/atmosphere is that INTPs belong centrally to those types referred to as melancolic. The INTP melancolic is typically drawn to wild polar expanses, to mountain ranges and all places on the edges of civilisation. Whatever his particular yearning might actually be, it has a common root. The homeland of the INTP's psyche is a small and cosy community, isolated in the middle of a vast expanse of wilderness.

Because the present is inextricably linked to a sense of the past, INTPs tend to hoard items which help solidify the connection to the past. They find it very difficult to let go of anything they have collected (or indeed created) and which may have a nostalgic meaning. They assume that any object which is of interest now is bound to remain of interest for the rest of their lives. This emphasizes a strong sense of universality in the progression of time, just as it emphasizes the seriousness with which INTPs approach their interests. Frivolity is not in their vocabulary. INTPs often love keeping lists and databases in areas of interest, especially when the lists are associated with things of the past. Collecting periodical magazines or other media of interest is also a very common INTP trait. Such a collection is usually taken very seriously. Yet the collective whole, considered as a temporal rather than spatial object, always assumes more importance in the mind of the INTP than the objects forming the collection themselves. Hence, INTPs are collectors, but they are collecters for whom the objects themselves are only important in so far as they evoke a connection to past events, in so far as they yield a nostalgic mood. The curious problem with any collection of an INTP is that he typically fails to enjoy it in the here and now. Items are stored away so that they can evoke this time at some point in the future, but such a point often never occurs. It may never occur because INTPs are always so mentally active that they continually delve into new interests, and continue to hoard items relating to these, so that they rarely allow themselves enough time to reflect on the ever expanding library of their past. The interests of an INTP would be enough to occupy him for several lifetimes if that were possible.

Photography is a classic interest of the INTP, which depends strongly on the Si - Ne combination, as well as on Ti for attention to technical detail. Landscape photography, for example, is the art of conveying a sense of mood/atmosphere to the viewer (Si). The correct employment of lenses, filters etc. brings out the Ti core, while the enjoyment of seeing the world as an fascinating varied object to be observed and captured in the best possible way brings out the Ne-Ti architect. Photos are also a way of capturing the present to evoke a sense of past in the future (Si). When involved in portrait or people photography, the INTP will also be primarily concerned with the mood conveyed by the person in the eye of the lens. Quality photographic skill, as well as an intrinsic feel for imagery, is usually second nature to the INTP and can make a good career choice. When viewing photographic images, say in magazines, the overriding concern is for how the photo is conveyed; its mood, its colour, contrast and shading usages, its perspectives and image quality. However, the actual subject of the image, which other types are likely to concentrate on first, takes a back seat unless it is unavoidably dramatic. Hence, INTPs may convey a very critical and impersonal approach in discussing images, which could lead to offence in some situations.

Another area of interest common to INTPs, where Si has a strong influence, is Music. INTPs are usually fascinated by music and may have deep and wide-ranging tastes. Indeed, each of their three main functions (Ti, Ne, Si) plays a role in the enjoyment of music, and indeed music is a key interest for bringing out the feeling shadow of the INTP. Si itself brings a fascination for mood and atmosphere in music as well as for a strong sense of personal nostalgia. INTPs are therefore often keen on melancolic minor-key music in which an introspective and/or esoteric mood is conveyed. Equally, INTPs enjoy hearing music that they heard and enjoyed when younger (provided they can still appreciate it now) and yearn for the sense of nostalgia that it yields. INTPs are also drawn to complexly structured music, thanks to their Ti core. An appreciation of modern classical music, as well as perhaps contemporary jazz, is therefore common with them. Such music types are usually too complex to be understood after a single hearing, which hence provides excellent material for analysis, exciting the INTP no end. Once the basic developmental structure of the music has been assessed, Ne provides the impetus to derive a general meaning of the piece. What does the composer wish to convey, for example? Why was that particular development chosen? Indeed, the Ne is usually hard at work during listening sessions, trying to grasp the meanings behind the often fascinating combinations of sound-world evocations, structural developments and nostalgic impressions.

When the Ti core dominates the choice of music to listen to, the need for intellectual stimulation derived from complex structures and sounds will override concerns for cultured harmony. Hence, INTPs are often drawn to dissonance. Indeed, they may even thoroughly strive for dissonant sound worlds. When in such moods, consonant harmonies, especially of the three-chord-melody variety, are dismissed as boring and uninspired. If an INTP is forced to listen to simple harmonic music for a while, he usually can't wait to feel the relief provided by a few minutes of pure dissonance. The ideal music for the Ti core might be typically a modern symphony, with a complex, but analysable structure, with a rich and varied sound world, predominantly dissonant but with sections of melodic motifs to provide solidity. Examples of modern classical composers who particularly speak to the Ti core might be Simpson, Arnold, Holmboe, Maxwell-Davies and Shostakovich.

However, feeding the Ti core alone with music will rarely satisfy an INTP for long. Where music really inspires in when the Si function is brought into the picture. Generally, INTPs are fascinated by atmospheres evoked by music. Examples of modern classical composers whose music speaks more to the Si-melancoly through sound-world evocation might be Bax, Tavener, Pärt, Szymanowski and Rautavaara. Some elements of world-music also speak strongly to the Si-melancoly. INTPs may be interested in the Folk musics of eastern Europe and India, for example. The role played by the Si function is shared by SJ types, so that INTPs may find a common musical bond with some SJs in this area. Indeed, INTPs often feel at ease with SJs, especially their near-shadow xSFJ types. The SJ's guardian instincts usually help the INTP to feel at ease, while the tradition-based predictability of the SJ approach to life helps the INTP to know where he stands, giving him the space he needs to relax. Although the most intense communicative friendships may develop with fellow NTs, some extraverted intuitive types may overstress the INTP by being too dominant and unpredictable, extracting too much energy from the Ti core.

Ultimately, however, music forms a vital, central role in awaking the underdeveloped Fe shadow in the life of an INTP. It is undoutedly Fe that gives the INTP the life-spark to introduce a genuine sense of joy that music is experienced with. To the INTP, the role of Fe in music appreciation remains mysterious. Music forms which may be useful for awakening the shadow are expressive forms of jazz, where extraverted Feeling is central to the music-making process, as well as some expressive Folk styles (Irish for example). Examples of modern classical composers whose music may appeal to the Fe shadow of INTPs are Messiaen, Copland, Schnittke, Bartok, Vaughan-Williams and, again, Shostakovich (Noting that Fe can be expressing a range of positive or negative feelings).The music of Shostakovich is a particular favourite because, alongside its developmental structure, it also yields an immense sense of passionate tragedy which awakes the Fe-shadow together with the Si-melancoly.

Inferior Function: Extraverted Feeling

Extraverted Feeling judgement, Fe, is the shadow function of the INTP, being by far the least developed of his faculties. Indeed, mature use of Fe typically doesn't begin to take shape until well into middle age. Feelings and emotions are regarded with suspicion and perhaps fear by the INTP and he may be keen to avoid considering or showing them. At the same time, he may experience a certain fascination for the emotional world, but he is desperate to de-personalize any thoughts on that area. He is compelled to subject his emotions to continual analysis, the Ti core literally suppressing the Fe shadow, attacking Fe with accusations of irrationality. He resists letting his feelings go, fearing that to do so would be to relinquish control to an unknown force. He believes emotions to be of a lesser substance than logic and his natural goal would be to conquer his emotions with pure rationality.

Much of the above demonstrates the immature and underdeveloped approach with which the INTP meets his emotional side. In reality, the extraverted nature of the INTP's feeling judgement means that his emotions, when visible, are pretty direct and easy to assess. Since the INTP normally wishes to hide his emotions; when they do come out, they do so in outbursts with an almost childlike innocence. There is a sense of all-or-nothing and, when visible, there is nothing enigmatic about the feelings of an INTP: indeed, shadow functions always seem pretty raw and basic.

When making on the spot decisions while extraverting with another person, the shadow Fe is often temporally exposed on the front line. Its immature nature may then result in an inadequate decision being made. The INTP may regret this later when the Ti core has analysed the events. Hence, INTPs tend to resist being forced to make quick decisions, for they know that their Fe judgement is their achilles heel. However, the resistance is sometimes weakened when Ne jumps in to back up the Fe. The accuracy of the intuitive insight then becomes crucial if the INTP is to avoid fatal errors. It is interesting to observe that the external world of the INTP involves a very free-spirited Ne-Fe partnership, while the internal world is a very clinical detail-structure-analysis Ti-Si combination. Hence, the outward behaviour of an INTP can contrast strongly with his introspective world.

For the INTP, emotions are seen as something mysterious and as uncontrollable as they are unalterable. Hence, the root of the fear of emotions is the fear that they cannot be controlled. Hence, when an INTP does finally respond emotionally to something, his emotions are indeed left uncontrolled, raw and open. However, when witnessing the emotional response of another person, the INTP intensely resists any similar emotion of his own. An example of this is when watching a 'weepy' cinema film in which some heart-wrenching scene is being shown. The INTP despises the attempt by the filmmaker to influence his emotions and is more likely to sneer than cry. This response has nothing to do with arrogance, however. Rather it is the INTP defensively avoiding exposing what he knows to be his weak point. Where an INTP may experience his own emotional response during a film is when he has had the chance to consider consequences of a element of the film. Hence, emotional response to media input usually occurs with a certain independence of will, which could appear enigmatic to others.

The mystery of emotion is also evidence in the INTP's use of music. He always chooses to listen to music which suits his current emotional state, be it aggression, warmth, excitement, relaxation or whatever. Hence, the emotional state is assumed to be an unchangeable, mysterious property of himself. It is easier to choose appropriate music than to attempt to influence this. People with introverted Feeling, Fi, however, will deliberately choose to listen to music which helps them change and improve their mood. INTPs could never do that. They feel an unpleasant sense of disharmony whenever a music style clashes with their emotional state. Indeed, it is remarkable how much attention they pay to their emotions when music is involved.

Sexuality is another important area which brings out the Fe shadow of the INTP. Sexuality fascinates INTPs in a similar way to music. Both have an emotional core which does not entirely yield to analysis. Sexual feelings often clash with the INTPs desire to control and understand his universe. They also clash with the desire for detachment and keeping a distance. But sexuality is the one thing who's natural power can break through any type dynamics. Hence, sexuality can play a big role in balancing the INTP's functionality. However, the INTP's natural approach to sexuality will still have true-to-type elements. He will be keen to understand and categorise his sexual responses. He will be keen to see first the generalities of male- and femaleness before any personal references are made. Nevertheless, in an intimate relationship, the extraverted nature of the feeling judgement leads to a beneficial openness and empathic directness in responding to the partner's needs, providing the healthy development of the Fe function is encouraged. Indeed, for many INTPs, an intimate relationship is the only place where the Fe shadow can really develop fruitfully.

The inferior nature of the Fe shadow shows itself, otherwise, in the lack of ability to show active empathy with people undergoing strong emotions. If he wishes to encourage the emotional person, the INTP tends to resort to giving T-based solutions to the problems involved. Often, the INTP does not really know how to empathize and may feel discomfort and helplessness, especially when he understands the rational basis for the emotions. He may become frustrated that the person remains unhappy in spite of hearing his T-based solutions. Much worse is when the emotional person appears to be being irrational. INTPs detest irrational emotion above all things. INTPs must take a very wide berth around people who appear to be irrationally, outwardly emotional. INTPs are very sensitive to such a trait and fear the potential excesses of the emotional attacks which do not yield to a defence based on logic.

In a similar way, INTPs dislike being in an atmosphere of emotional disharmony. If they need to say something unpleasant to someone close to them, they would prefer to avoid this task for fear of the disharmony that may result. This results from the INTP's fear that he does not have the emotional competence to deal with disharmony. INTPs never like doing something until they know they can do it. The best cure for this reticence is experience: to express his feelings, to live through disharmony and come out the other side with greater experience of his emotional side.

The feeling shadow is the fear centre of the INTP. He rarely fears any factual thing in the outside world, at least not things that will be encountered in normal day-to-day living. Logic stipulates that external objects or people which threaten can always potentially be dealt with by instigating an active defence strategy. Of course, the possibility of being left truly helpless leaves the INTP cold, for once the Ti core is defeated, the inferior Fe can offer little comfort. Resigned acceptance of the unacceptable is an anathema for INTPs. His typical response to helplessness is to hate the world which has produced it. However, the greatest fears of an INTP are usually ideas generated within his own mind. The problem is that the Ti-Ne axis is capable of conceiving very unpleasant ideas, which may be far from reality and even irrational. Ideas and possibilities assume so much importance in the mind of an INTP that they can override a common sense factual grasp on reality. Since the emotional response to an unpleasant idea is based on an underdeveloped function, it may also fail to bring a return to common sense. The net result is the fear that ideas alone may lead to self-destruction. This fear is irrational and is a cry of help from the feeling shadow when being overdominated by the Ti-Ne axis. This problem can be overcome when more balanced type dynamics result from increasing maturity.

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Concluding Words

With this essay I have attempted to describe the INTP personality type in as comprehensive a way as I can. For fellow INTPs, I hope that the ideas presented here may add some new perspectives on aspects of our behaviour, both the well-known and the less-often-considered. For other types, I hope that this may have provided new insights into a relatively rare and enigmatic temperament.