Do animals have “rights?”

Before we start, it is important, first to distinguish what a “right” is. Without a concept of what rights are, it is easy to attach them with things like; health care, education, housing etc. Those are not rights, as a right is not something that requires the implementation from others. Can we not see what position it puts those in who are the ones to provide those services? They become serfs.

A right is a moral principle, that comes about not because our emotions tell us that they should, but arises during a rational inquiry into mans nature. Such questions as; “What is mans means of survival?” “How is he to pursue the values required to sustain life his life?”

The answer: his rational faculty – the fundamental difference between man and all other living organisms.

In order to sustain life, we as humans, must use our minds. We have no claws, no fangs, no great strength relative to the majority of living creatures in the world. To obtain food we must hunt or grow it. Both require tools and a process of thought to make those tools. Even these basic necessities cannot be achieved by mere instinct. It is the reasoning mind that allowed man to build the first stone tools and the ipod. Man, not men. There is a distinct difference here – there is no such thing as a collective brain.

This leads us back to mans nature – and the nature of rights. Man must be free to use his own mind to dispose of his resources the way he and only he sees fit. No other man has the right to initiate force against others – depriving them of their means of survival. Rights are inalienable, which means nobody can violate the rights of others or possess rights that supersede someone else’s rights, which is why rights are granted to and only to the individual, not a group (men, women, gays, whites, blacks, asians).

Rights are only necessary in a social context, since that is what man is –  a social animal. A man who values rights and wishes to respect the rights of others, uses reason to trade with other men, to increase the value of his life.  Animals, on the other hand, only use force to sustain life. This is an important point to note – that the men who wished to live by the non-agression principle and respect rights, where the first men to start a rational society.

Applying rights to animals would be a contradiction and here is why; If a man kills another man, he has violated his rights and will be reprimanded accordingly. If a lion kills a zebra, that lion will not face the jungle judge and jury, since force is his means of survival, not reason. When men or groups of men (read: government) use force to make others act incongruent with their own judgment, it is the equivalent of declawing the lion and  expecting him and all other animals to deal with one another by mutual agreement. We can see the logically fallacy plainly here, as force is an animals nature, therefore they have no concept of rights.

Rights are natural, not gifts from your political overlords, to be dispersed at whatever whim one wishes. They are unconditional, except for one instance – they are conditional only to man. Just as man needs a clear nervous system, proper food, movement and a reasoning mind to live a life by design – so to he needs rights, to pursue those ends by his choice only.

I’ve Been Nominated For a Liebster Award!

So, I was nominated for an award from my fellow blogger, Dr. Karen Osborn. I’m required to share five facts about myself, as well as answer the five question relating to myself. After that, I have to nominated five bloggers myself.

Here we go…

Five facts about me:

1) I’m obsessed with economics.

The market fascinates me. Trade, free from the use of force, has allowed man to increase his standard of living beyond anything any central power could imagine. If i’ve got a book in my hand, it is very likely it relates to economics - philosophically or fundamentally.

2) Cherry cheesecake is my favourite dessert.

3) My beard is real. I know, its so perfect, how could it be?

4) I’ve put on 50+ pounds of muscle since I graduated high school – so I hate it when someone complains about having a hard time putting on weight. Do you eat 10 eggs for breakfast? No? Then go to the kitchen and start eating, kid!

5) Heights scare the shit out of me. No idea why. Would I go sky diving? Of course. It would never stop me from doing something I wanted to do.

Now the questions from Dr. Karen….

1. What one famous person (author, celebrity, athlete, politician, etc.) would you like to spend dinner with and pick their brain?  Why? 

 I’m going to go with someone living – Former Texas Congressman, Dr. Ron Paul. Ron Paul has stood up for the principles of Liberty for his entire career, never wavering. He has started a massive grassroots movement in the United States, exposing so many young people to the ideas that the Constitution was founded on; Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He is a true hero and someone who has made a unmeasurable impact on my life.

2. How do you plan to leave your mark on the world?  What will your legacy be?

I’ve never thought about this. Frankly, I don’t think about how other people view me. As long as I live with integrity, I will be happy, and that is all that matters.

3. When was the last time you cried and why?

It is hard to pin-point an exact time. I’d have to say when I last saw my mom, in August. I don’t see my parents often- maybe once a year at most – so that is something I do very much enjoy.

4. What musical genre do you resonate with most?

It is hard to say a particular genre. My favourite musician is John Mayer. He oozes self-esteem with a guitar in his hand.

5. How would people best describe you?

I’d imagine people would describe me as someone who is uncompromising on his principles, and a person of strong conviction.

Now, to my five nominees. I know very few bloggers, so I’m going to have to go with these two as all the other small bloggers I know, have been nominated!

1) Rachel Siemens

http://theredplate.weebly.com/

2) Steve Howell

http://questforthegames.blogspot.ca/

My Questions for them are;

1) What is your favourite book of all time?

2) What was the career you first decided on? Have you stuck with it?

3) What is your favourite dessert?

4) Do you have any phobias?

5) Who do you admire most in your life?

Start With The Basics- Meat & Vegetables

It seems as if I am getting more and more questions lately, both from blog readers and in person, about this or that magic compound, anti-oxidant, vitamin, mineral, chemical etc.

Whenever I get a question like this my response is always, “what are you eating right now?” If the answer does not start with “meat & vegetables,” then I tell them not to bother with anything else.

We’ve got to stop with this idea that the be all end all of nutrition is going to be eating more lycopene, removing caffeine or popping a multi-vitamin. Whether any of these work or not isn’t the point- the point is if you’re still eating crap food like; grains,  table sugar & loads of vegetable oils, you’ve got bigger fish to fry.

Always start by introducing more meat & vegetables to your diet. Beef, chicken, fish, pork, squash, carrots, onions, yams, broccoli, green beans etc. These foods are nutrient dense, making them extremely satiating, resulting in a displacement of other hyper-palatable options like twinkies & potato chips.

Stand on Principle.

You’ve heard it said that our views on how to move, eat, sleep etc. are unlikely to change very drastically, because they are based on principles. What is a principle?

“A principle is “a fundamental, primary, or general truth, on which other truths depend.” Thus a principle is an abstraction which subsumes a great number of concretes. It is only by means of principles that one can set one’s long-range goals and evaluate the concrete alternatives of any given moment. It is only principles that enable a man to plan his future and to achieve it.”- Ayn Rand

So, here is a blog post I wrote back in January 2009. Minus the multi-vitamin, I’m still comfortable with these recommendations, and science has been doing nothing but backing up my views for the last 4+ years.

“When looking to maximize performance and most importantly health, you need to make sure what your eating is something that can be classified as food. If it needs to be fortified with vitamins to be “healthy” it is not food. People are so obsessed with fat, calories, and vitamins that they are totally missing the point. If you are eating properly those things should take care of themselves. Do you look at nutrition labels? Well then what your holding in your hand is not food! If you cannot kill or harvest it and have it on your plate in under an hour then you should not be, and were never meant to be eating it.

Human evolution has not kept up with the advances in agriculture and it has left us being the most overweight and unhealthy we have been in existence. We were never meant to eat wheat, nor were we meant to eat refined sugar or any other ingredients you see on the boxed foods that are unpronounceable.

What were we meant to eat?

Whole foods! Meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts & seeds, and leaves. Forget the low-fat, high carb diet unless you want; diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, cancer or any of the western diseases associated with a diet high in refined carbohydrates.

Escaping the western diet

It can certainly be a difficult change for some people, and for others just a bit of tweaking and your there. Here are some easy ways to escape the western diet and all the fun diseases that follow;

• Eat a diet of; meats and vegetables, nuts & seeds, some fruit, little starch and NO SUGAR
• Shop the peripherals of the grocery store.
• Get out of the supermarket whenever possible, you won’t find high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer’s market.
• Buy grass fed meat/eggs; you are what you eat eats!(Note: just because its free range does not mean it is grass fed, make sure it says grass fed).
• Buy meat in bulk; cook extra for snacks and freeze what you don’t cook. Buying in bulk is also much cheaper.
• Be the kind of person that takes supplements; a fish oil capsule and a multivitamin can go along way.

What to stay away from;

• All flour/grain products
• All dairy; pasteurization destroys the milks genetic make-up, what your left with barely represents what it would look like if it came straight from the cow. Unless your getting your milk from a grass fed cow before it goes through processing, then it is fine. If not, you need to eliminate your milk consumption
• No sugar or artificial sweeteners
• No beans, lentils or legumes (we will leave the reasoning for another post)

These changes to your diet will drastically improve the way you look, feel and perform in all aspects of life. Proper nutrition is the foundation of human performance, health and longevity. What you doing isn’t working, never has worked and never will. Acknowledge, accept and move on.”

These guys knew about principle.

You should feel guilty- why?- blank out

Today I want to talk a bit about Black Friday. This is going to be lengthy- so let’s get right to it.

A week or so ago, I went to plug in my laptop to the outlet in my room, and immediately I thought:

1) Wow- I can just walk over to the wall and plug in some cord, that sends power to some device that connects me to literally every single person in the world.

2) I have no idea how to make any of this. I hope the people who do are making kids.

3) The only way any of this was created was because someone, somewhere, used their mind to shape this material and create unbelievable value.

4) I feel proud that I create value myself, as a coach, and that I can exchange that value in order to obtain these amazing things.

The message that we generally hear regarding these amazing inventions is “Everyone in the whole world should have these things, because they need it.” Brake that down even more and what you have is- the men/women who create these extraordinary values, should be at the mercy of those who need what their minds have created through their own thinking effort.

From Atlas Shrugged;

“Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions–and you’ll learn that man’s mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.”

My facebook news feed was covered in memes like this, and other posts about why buying products that are more affordable is wrong because you don’t “need” that. Surely somewhere in the world someone is hungry, and therefor you should be made to feel guilty because you bought an iPhone 5 instead of sending your money- which you earned through your labour- across the world to someone you’ve never met in your entire life. “Need,” -mine or anyone else’s- is not a claim on someone else’s life. I have no right to mortgage someone to provide value for me.

“They proclaim that every man born is entitled to exist without labor and, the laws of reality to the contrary notwithstanding, is entitled to receive his ‘minimum sustenance’-his food, his clothes, his shelter-with no effort on his part, as his due and his birthright. To receive it-from whom? Blank-out. Every man, they announce, owns an equal share of the technological benefits created in the world. Created-by whom? Blank-out. Frantic cowards who posture as defenders of industrialists now define the purpose of economics as ‘an adjustment between the unlimited desires of men and the goods supplied in limited quantity.’ Supplied-by whom? Blank-out. Intellectual hoodlums who pose as professors, shrug away the thinkers of the past by declaring that their social theories were based on the impractical assumption that man was a rational being-but since men are not rational, they declare, there ought to be established a system that will make it possible for them to exist while being irrational, which means: while defying reality. Who will make it possible? Blank-out. Any stray mediocrity rushes into print with plans to control the production of mankind-and whoever agrees or disagrees with his statistics, no one questions his right to enforce his plans by means of a gun. Enforce-on whom? Blank-out. Random females with causeless incomes titter on trips around the globe and return to deliver the message that the backward peoples of the world demand a higher standard of living. Demand-of whom? Blank-out.”

Look, if you want to send your money somewhere, you have that choice, but do not fool yourself into thinking it is some noble virtue. Holding this as a virtue, would hold the life of someone like Mother Teresa as the pinnacle. The most noble of them all. By this standard, you must give everything up, renounce all value, live the most miserable life possible, with the purpose of serving others first and foremost, and placing your needs behind everyone- including that guy half way around the world, whom you’ve never met, because he might need something that you have.

Imagine a world where everyone sought to live the noble Mother Teresa life- that is downright frightening. Thank goodness for men like; Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, Steve Jobs, Donald Davies, the Wright Brother etc.

My message is simple- you should not feel any guilt because you wanted to buy something, which you earned, to improve your enjoyment of life. That guilt is unearned.

From Atlas Shrugged;

“Are you thinking, in some foggy stupor, that it’s only material values that your morality requires you to sacrifice? And what do you think are material values? Matter has no value except as a means for the satisfaction of human desires. Matter is only a tool of human values. To what service are you asked to give the material tools your virtue has produced? To the service of that which you regard as evil: to a principle you do not share, to a person you do not respect, to the achievement of a purpose opposed to your own-else your gift is not a sacrifice.

“Your morality tells you to renounce the material world and to divorce your values from matter. A man whose values are given no expression in material form, whose existence is unrelated to his ideals, whose actions contradict his convictions, is a cheap little hypocrite-yet that is the man who obeys your morality and divorces his values from matter. The man who loves one woman, but sleeps with another-the man who admires the talent of a worker, but hires another-the man who considers one cause to be just, but donates his money to the support of another-the man who holds high standards of craftsmanship, but devotes his effort to the production of trash-these are the men who have renounced matter, the men who believe that the values of their spirit cannot be brought into material reality.

“Do you say it is the spirit that such men have renounced? Yes, of course. You cannot have one without the other. You are an indivisible entity of matter and consciousness. Renounce your consciousness and you become a brute. Renounce your body and you become a fake. Renounce the material world and you surrender it to evil.

“What is the nature of that superior world to which they sacrifice the world that exists? The mystics of spirit curse matter, the mystics of muscle curse profit the first wish men to profit by renouncing the earth, the second wish men to inherit the earth by renouncing all profit. Their non-material, non-profit worlds are realms where rivers run with milk and coffee, where wine spurts from rocks at their command, where pastry drops on them from clouds at the price of opening their mouth. On this material, profit-chasing earth, an enormous investment of virtue-of intelligence, integrity, energy, skill-is required to construct a railroad to carry them the distance of one mile; in their non-material, non-profit world, they travel from planet to planet at the cost of a wish. If an honest person asks them: ‘How?’-they answer with righteous scorn that a ‘how’ is the concept of vulgar realists; the concept of superior spirits is ‘Somehow.’ On this earth restricted by matter and profit, rewards are achieved by thought; in a world set free of such restrictions, rewards are achieved by wishing.”

The Onus Is On You

Life requires taking action, as well as a process of thought to determine the goal in which the action wishes to achieve. What is my goal? Is it worth achieving? What actions will I take to achieve it? Is this rational? All of these questions must be asked, and most importantly, you must assume responsibility for the actions you take, whether the outcome is good or bad.  This is a very important concept in Think By Design- register for the next seminar here.

Dr. Nathaniel Branden has taken the concept of self-responsibility to a whole new level, in his book, The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem.   Every single individual needs to read this book.

Here is what Dr. Branden lists are the key ways self-responsibility affects our lives.

To live self-responsibly, you must be able to influence your behavior freely in three major areas:

• Taking action in ways that will help you reach your goals.
• Being accountable for your decisions, priorities and actions.
• Thinking for yourself by examining and actively choosing the values that will guide yourself, rather than blindly accepting whatever you’re told by family, friends or the culture in which you live.

This stuff is definitely not easy- it takes a lot of work. Here is an exercise Nathaniel Branden has put together for helping with the process. His sentence completion exercises are powerful. Give them a shot.

For the next two weeks, begin each day by writing six to 10 endings to each of the following sentences:

• If I operate 5% more self-responsibly at work, I will…
• If I operate 5% more self-responsibly in my relationships, I will…
• If I accept full responsibility for my own happiness, I will…

Good Luck!

 

Find others who believe what you believe.

It is important to surround yourself with those people who see the world as you see it. This is exactly what is happening at Life By Design. We are building of movement of people who believe that life can be awesome- its not luck- but a choice! Finding others who believe what you believe can be the final aspect to get you over the hump and make some real changes in your life.

It is Day 3 in our quarterly 30-Day Challenge, and the community involvement is bigger than ever. The 30-Day Life By Design Challenge Facebook page is flooded with hundreds of people telling each other how they met their life by design requirements.

If you’re still unfamiliar with Life By Design- let’s give you the run down.

We believe that every human being is designed to be extraordinary, and you’re given that recipe for success at birth. How we achieve this extraordinary life is by living in congruence with the bodies fundamental requirements for life- a Life By Design.

There are four main aspects to Life By Design.

Brain-Body Connection

If I were to ask you how important your brain and spine is to your health, I’m sure we’d all respond with something along the lines of, “pretty darn important.” Insert Chiropractic- the only way to achieve an optimal nervous system- one with no communication interference between the brain & body.

Think By Design

We believe in a clearly defined purpose, the right to pursue happiness, and the confidence to cope with the challenges of life.

Eat By Design

Food either makes you healthy, or it makes you sick. That’s it.

We eat “real” food – fresh, natural food like meat, vegetables and fruit.  By Design foods are nutrient dense, with lots of naturally-occurring vitamins and minerals, while foods that are not by design have more calories but less nutrition.

There are certain foods that we have not had significant time to adapt to, mainly grains & legumes, so we do not consider them by design.

Move By Design

Where ever you are right now, stand up…now sit back down. What did you just do? You did a squat. You do this every single day- as well as picking things up off the ground- dead-lifting- and putting things over head- pressing. Moving by design is about preparing ourselves for the unknown aspects of daily life, and making those things easier.  We achieve this by using CrossFit as our preferred tool.

Giving the “Why” behind the what, to a large group at West London CrossFit. Thanks for the picture, Cheryl.

Q & A with Dr. Jamie Richards & Dr. Kreso Jug

If you don’t know already, you should, Life By Design is growing exponentially. Still in the beta phase, growing faster than anyone imagined, I got a chance to sit down with two of the Life By Design founders, Dr. Jamie Richards & Dr. Kreso Jug, to hear a bit about its short history and where they see it going. Even though I get a chance to work with these guys daily, the opportunity to get them in the same room can often be harder than it seems.

First off, how did Life By Design get started? 

Dr. Jamie: Basically, I knew that the true principles of  Chiropractic were powerful and life changing, but the existing ideology of Chiropractic limited willingness to understand the positive impact that it could have on peoples lives. We needed a new avenue to express this amazing message to people. My brother Dr. Joel and I were already eating a certain way and training a certain way, and seeing it increase our lives so much, that we knew we had to get this out to our practice members. One day when I was on my Mac, using the program pages, I saw the little flower in the corner of the screen, and that is when I thought of the analogy that simply giving the flower what it needs will allow it to live optimally, why not ask the same about human beings? Instead of trying to figure out what is “wrong” with us, first we need to ask what we need and meet those requirements first.

Our movement is growing at a rapid pace, with 19 Life By Design offices worldwide and the best training facility around. Why do you think it is catching on so fast? 

Dr. K: That’s a great question. Number one, I think it is based on true principles. The philosophy is true, that’s what is most important. We have done a great job at defining our values, and getting people involved that see the world as we see it. We’ve also done a good job at communicating our vision, positively, starting by expressing what is right, instead of always focusing on what is wrong.

Dr. Jamie: What we believe, that you’re designed to be extraordinary, a lot of people believe. We have simply provided a model for people to achieve it.

How did the name “Life By Design” come about?

Dr. K: Dr. Jamie thought of it. He sent me a list of about 8-10 names he had narrowed down. We like the name because it 1) it could be expressed as a verb (living by design), and 2) because it allowed us to spread the message that awesome is normal.

I’m often asked what step of Life By Design is the most important? What is your general response to that question?

Dr.K: All of them. whether is is; Power By Design, Think By Design, Eat By Design or Move By Design, you’re going to see positive changes by even incorporating one principle, but you can’t really say one is more important than the other. Each module builds on one another to achieve the extraordinary life we believe each individual has a right to.

What have you guys found out most about yourselves from starting Life By Design?

Dr. K: How much better my life could be.

Dr. Jamie: On a personal level, it really helped me increase my self-esteem. Once I realized just how powerful this message was and that we could impact the lives of so many, it made me realize that I could be far more successful than I first had imagined.

Most people have the view that Chiropractic is meant to treat or diagnose a problem. I was of that view before I met you guys. What really is Chiropractic and who can benefit from it?

Dr.K: Chiropractic is simply a strategy to fulfill the basic requirement for life- namely an optimally functioning spine & central nervous system. Since this meets a life requirement, the way that we practice it, is for everyone, from birth until death.

So whether I have a sore back or headache, that isn’t the point of me coming in to get checked?

Dr. K: No, for lots of reason. Number one, I don’t know what the cause of your headache is, but I do know that having a disconnected nervous system doesn’t help in all cases.. Number two, because our goal is to address fundamental physiology. Headaches could come from many different causes; inhaling a chemical or dehydration. Symptoms always present themselves last.

Where does Life By Design go from here?

Dr.K: We just need to  keep spreading the message, and making it clearer and clearer. As well as continuing to make new avenues for people to get started in every community, worldwide.

Dr. Jamie: Up. But before it goes up, we’re building our infrastructure. Building a team of A+ players so that when we expand we can handle the volume and continue to offer a great service. At the rate we’re going now, we’ll need it!

Life By Design just partnered up with Bonfire Health to provide an omega 3 supplement. Why Bonfire?

Dr.K: Their product is the best, and we want to be the best, so we simply aligned ourselves with someone who expresses that value- excellence. As Dr. Joel would say, “Nobody has ever died from being too awesome.”

Dr. Jamie: First off, a long-chain omega 3 fat satisfies one of our Life By Design essentials. Second, we went looking for people who had the same values, and Dr. Steve & Dr. Paul met those. Lastly, as Dr. Kreso said, we want the best. Their product is third party tested, every batch. The taste is also much more palatable than most other products on the market.

Anything new in the works that the general public can get a hint about? 

Dr. K: We’re building a website that will bring everyone in our community, worldwide,  under the same roof. There will be new avenues for people to get involved even if they don’t have a Life By Design office in their area, or a Certified Life By Design Strength & Conditioning Facility.

Dr. Jamie: Definitely the website. The community and the support that it gives us will be bigger than ever.

Strength = Balance

Show me someone who can stand on their hands for several minutes, and you’re looking at a damn strong person.

The first time I went to kick up into a handstand, I was scared to death- I even had a wall.

If a handstand is your end goal, you have to ask what it takes to get there.

The answer is simple- strength and the proper progression to get there. This isn’t about perfect alignment- although that will help- this isn’t about 105 degree rooms or constantly kicking up into the air, hoping that one day you’ll just magically “get it.” This is about supporting our entire bodyweight on our hands. This requires a lot of strength.

Strength is balance. With the proper progressions, and the attitude of wanting this as bad as a child wants their first steps, a 60 second handstand is easily achievable in 3 months or less for most individuals.

Got a pair of hands? Some wall space? That is all you’ll need. Contact me for online programming so we can define the path to success and stop wasting our time on headstands and other non-transferable non-sense.

Health Care? More like sick care.

It still amazes me what passes as “professional” advice/treatment in the so called “health” care industry.

Bad ankles? Knees? We’ve got a brace for that.

High blood pressure? Cholesterol? We’ve got a drug for that.

Hands hurt from pull-ups? We’ve got gloves for that. 

Hungry all the time? Keep eating sugar- we’ve got appetite suppressants for that.

Can’t lose weight? Definitely genetics and nothing to do with lifestyle. 

This advice is like fighting a fire with gasoline. This is nothing but bandaids that require constant replacing by another bandaid. 

The first thing one must do to actually steer the ship away from the iceberg, is live consciously, and accept that the iceberg is coming . Look for those individuals who are successful in the field in which you are interested in, be it; health, fitness, finance etc. What works, works. You wouldn’t walk outside and take a look at your front lawn turning brown and diagnose it with brownitis- you’d ask what it needs. Start doing the same with yourself. 

“A is A”- Aristotle.