Isaac Dust

I consider myself to be intelligent and wise, well-travelled and experienced. I enjoy answering psychology questions on Yahoo and am on a course to train to be a psychotherapist. I've even written a book on life-philosophy! But I am on anti-depressants and currently unemployed, massively in debt and haven't been in a committed long-term sexual relationship ever! Do I have any right to give out advice to people on how to make a success of their lives when I can't do it for myself? IE/ would you want to be taught English by someone who didn't speak English?!

There's a massive obesity problem amongst badly educated people in the UK right now. Despite millions spent on health awareness adverts and interventions, the peasants are still killing themselves with processed food, alcohol and drugs. The government spends billions bankrolling these numpties who refuse to help themselves and their children through benefits and financial incentives to stay lazy. This is good because we are humans and can't see people dying on the street. But according to natural law these people would just die. Who are we to go against nature? and are we not just allowing bad genes to infect the greater homo sapien gene pool?

I'm talking purely hyperthetically here of course, as I don't advocate leaving idiots to die at the roadside, but how are we helping the world by funding the reproduction of feckless?

There's a massive obesity problem amongst badly educated people in the UK right now. Despite millions spent on health awareness adverts and interventions, the peasants are still killing themselves with processed food, alcohol and drugs. The government spends billions bankrolling these numpties who refuse to help themselves and their children through benefits and financial incentives to stay lazy. This is good because we are humans and can't see people dying on the street. But according to natural law these people would just die. Who are we to go against nature? and are we not just allowing bad genes to infect the greater homo sapien gene pool?

I'm talking purely hyperthetically here of course, as I don't advocate leaving idiots to die at the roadside, but how are we helping the world by funding the reproduction of feckless?

Stephen Hawkin has just said that Aliens exist but we shouldn't try to contact them because they will just rape the earth for its natural resources like Columbus did to the native americans. But my belief is that the more advanced and clever a race is, then the more loving and forgiving. So if aliens are clever enough to reach us the they must definitely be peaceful as the higher the intelligence the greater the love. (I mean just look at Africa as an example! ;)

In Islamic philosophy what are the roles played by Iblis and Shaytan and how are they different?

It's a dream I keep having at monthly intervals. I want to talk to someone - not for any important reason, but my mouth is full of chewing gum or peanut butter type substance and I have to use my thumb and finger like a crab pincer to scoop it out so I can communicate, it's still difficult and the substance keeps returning. I'm not embarrassed or angry in the dream, just mildly irritated.

Any ideas as to the waking meaning?

Thanks.

In the UK, a double-barreled surname used to mean aristocracy - something telling like "bonneville-barden" but in the last 15 years it now means that the parents are unmarried. So what happens in a few years time when these chav kids have kids themselves (probably again unmarried and under the age of 18) will we then have quadruple-barreled surnames?

I guess most people deal with this burning issue by creating children to avoid having to think about it too much. But leaving kids aside, what do you hope you'll be remembered for (if anything) in a century's time. Or are you happy to just be blown away like straw in the wind?

I love drinking red wine and beer, I love gambling, I love making love to random women, I love red meat. I love sitting in the sun without sun bloc and avoiding phone calls from employers. Why should it be that the things we love are so bad for us? Who designed it thus, or how did it come to be so?

I've just come back from Spain and wanted to buy a wine at Malaga airport that I could keep for 40 years - but the wine I chose needs to be drunk within 3 years (even though it was quite expensive and local). I read about wines from 1780 being sold for $$$$$ but what determines how long they'll last? I'm confused, but am getting the chance to go back to Malaga next month and would like to buy a Rioja I can store till the Apocalypse - or at least till the US invades Iran, whichever happens first.

I love people. Some of them are female. Sometimes I meet females that make me sexually aroused. What arouses me about them is their face, their personality, their achievements, their sexy feet, their rounded breasts, the small of their backs... in fact nearly anything except their (what's a polite way to label it?) but hopefully you know what I'm talking about. I'm petrified by it! I see it as Giger Alien, as a little shop of horrors fat-lipped plant, a Sarlac pit with teeth, blah blah blah... I don't mean to be offensive, but what I'm trying to say is I'm frightened and turned off by it. How can I come to terms with loving the person but being scared by something that is part of them?

In medieval England most people died at 40. Now, I have two grandparents who are in their late 90's. They tell me that life has been great but they are ready to go. Medical advancements may help our bodies live to 150+ in a few decades, but can our consciousness deal with it? Were our minds designed (by nature or god) to only deal with about 90 years of life max, and this is why there is so much dementia and Alzheimers going on? Plus the fact that people just run out of steam, ambition, hope, desire, joy after a while and even if physically we could live to be 300, emotionally we are spent at 90?

What do you think?

I think far too much, but even so, with each year I seem to discover new aspects to myself, new motivations, new levels of understanding. I have a fairly good understanding of my likes and dislikes, but I think we are continually growing and evolving. So, is it ever possible to really "know yourself" like so many therapists or self-help books promise? I sometimes feel like a captain of a mind ship trying to work out the capabilities of the vessel and what it can do, but I don't feel I'll ever truly have ownership of it!

I keep having a repetitive dream about my Nan's old maisonette and surrounding gardens, even though she moved out in 1999. Last night I dreamt that Jesus was living there. He was black and looked like Jesse Jackson and insisted on me calling him “Hay-Zues”. In the dream I wanted to borrow some olive oil off him, but he looked through the cupboards and couldn’t find a suitable container. He offered to pour some into a big glass jar, but I told him I had too far to travel on my bike so wouldn’t be able to carry it. He said he used to have some small plastic beakers with Tupperware lid, but he rummaged through the cupboards and couldn’t find them.

I said goodbye to him on the step and cycled home without my olive oil.

I know there is clearly a difference between a weak, milky latte and a double strength neat espresso, but in general how old would your child have to be before you allowed them to have a coffee as part of their morning routine if they asked?

For me, and for every person I've ever met - except for those in denial, insane, or on anti-depressants, our natural resting state seems to focus towards the negative, worst-case-scenario thinking rather than the positive, everything will be amazing, thinking. Why should this be? For me personally, my life-experience should lead me to feel grateful for what I have rather than always expect the worse and feel jealous of anyone who has more than me without working for it.

Are humans born with catastrophic brains, as a survival mechanism based on preparing for the worst in our caves?

I'm 35. I'm male. I live in London. I'm reasonably good looking and no obvious issues beyond the usual battle-damage of being on the planet since 1974!

I've had a lot of sexual partners but none has ever made me fall "in love". I'm a genuine romantic and still hope that our eyes will meet across a crowded room and I'll lead her on a white horse through a forest to a small church to get married in secret and feel the magic in the space between our entwined bodies like electricity of the soul.

But...

It ain't happened yet!

And at 35 I'm starting to feel like the last ropey chicken in the butcher's window! Even my folks have stopped saying "don't worry, you'll meet someone some day!"

So, in a roundabout way my question is, should I hold out for the dream that may never happen (and the older I get the less likely, let's be real), or should I accept the gracious offer of one of the girls who seem to fancy me but I don't - even though they are nice, kind people?

I don't want to end up sad and lonely, but neither do I want to end up in a dry, loveless relationship.

Your opinions please...

Just that really. I've burned four films to DVD disc using Roxio drag-to-disc. But will they open and play on a Mac as I've burned them on my PC?

I know how to delete forms, passwords, browsing history and inprivate filtering, etc by going into Control Panel and Internet Options, but when I delete all I STILL have a few previously visited addresses displaying when I click on the dropdown icon next to the refresh button in IE itself (on Windows Vista). I scroll down and click the red X and they disappear, but when I reopen IE and click on the address bar it still drops down to reveal these 20 sites. It's really p*ssing me off! Why is this happening and how do I DELETE my history!

Thanks.

Life is not fair, and running a business is not "a bit of fun" or a hobby, it is a sink or swim daily struggle. If two people turn up to interview, one a 28 year old man and the other a 28 year old woman, both without children and both with exactly the same resumés, why can I not ask the woman if she plans to have kids soon? A small business can go under with maternity leave, job sharers and the expense it takes to train someone only for them to leave a few months later. Obviously for a big organisation this is not a problem, but for a small company it is critical to every employees survival. Why shouldn't I be allowed to ask the question. Unfortunately we live in a world where it is the WOMAN who solely have the children and usually need time off to look after them, disappear at short notice when they are ill, etc. So why should I ever risk it and employ her if both male and female CV's are equal?