Otakukin

I would like to go on the record as thinking that otakukin -- people who believe their set of past lives include fictional characters -- are not, in fact, crazier than your more mainstream religious or spiritual types. The invocation of parallel universes, time-travelling souls, or Dreaming-type planes needed to have the idea make some sort of sense is not crazier than the Christian Trinity who is outside of time and loves us infinitely but will send many of us to Hell for using a condom, and who decided to wait for 95% of the history of the human race before letting anyone know about this. Or who made the world 6000 years ago so as to look 4.5 billion years old. Then there's the body and blood of Christ of the Catholics, or the Protestant necessity to believe that the miracles of the Gospels are real, but not the miracles of the Catholic saints. Nor crazier than the Hindu who thinks vast mathematical and scientific truths are encoded in the Vedas. And I've never gotten neo-Paganism to make sense to me (actually, I've never quite learned what they do believe) while I figured out one otakukin justification in a flash on my own.

And as ideas ago it's a lot less morally ugly than Orthodox Jews going on about how the Torah condemns buttsex and gives them eternal title to the land of Israel or the Rapture Ready Christians hoping the world ends real soon now.

One of the communities has posts which don't seem any dumber than Christians I've seen recently going on about their faiths, and let's not go into the vicious defensiveness of some otherkin ("Hi! I'm an elf!")

Keep in mind I'm speaking as a hardcore empiricist/materialist, so "not crazier" is a rather low bar for me. But at least these people claim some sort of direct experience, rather than a "Bible is true because it's the word of God because it says so" faith-based closed loop. And hey, most fiction is better edited.

Kettle Call China Black

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061117/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_china_7


"There are concerns about China's military buildup," Rice told a television interviewer. "It's sometimes seemed outsized for China's regional role."

A congressional advisory panel on Thursday questioned China's willingness to be a more responsible international player, saying world prosperity depends on China's abandoning a single-minded pursuit of its "own narrow national interests."

"While China is a global actor, its sense of responsibility has not kept up with its expanding power," said Larry Wortzel, chairman of the commission, which Congress created in 2000 to investigate U.S.-China issues.


I am alarmed by the prospect of the Chinese Communist Party controlling what may soon be the world's most powerful nation, but such criticisms from the US, especially the current administration, just seem hypocritical.

Omega-3s and violence

Whee, it's been a banner day for LJ comments. Back to news: an article on Omega-3 fatty acid deficiencies perhaps causing violent behavior and anger.

The British prison trial at Aylesbury jail showed that when young men there were fed multivitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids, the number of violent offences committed in the prison fell by 37 per cent.

An earlier pilot study on 30 patients with violent records found that those given omega-3 supplements had their anger reduced by one-third

He improved dramatically on the acids and later told doctors that for the first time since the age of five he had gone three months without punching anyone in the head.