Category Archives: Philosophical and speculative

A house divided against itself cannot stand

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It’s from The Washington Post and it is posted purely because they think it’s funny, someone from a different age trying to bring Christian morality into the governance of the United States. Roy Moore turns refusal to concede into religious crusade: ‘Immorality sweeps over the land’. This no longer has resonance with the largest part of the population of the United States.

“We are indeed in a struggle to preserve our republic, our civilization and our religion and to set free a suffering humanity,” Moore said. “Today, we no longer recognize the universal truth that God is the author of our life and liberty. Abortion, sodomy and materialism have taken the place of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” . . .

“We have stopped prayer in our schools,” Moore said in his statement. “We have killed over 60 million of our unborn children. We have redefined marriage and destroyed the basis of family, which is the building block of our country. Our borders are not secure. Our economy is faltering under an enormous national debt. We have a huge drug problem. We have even begun to recognize the right of a man to claim to be a woman, and vice versa. We have allowed Judges and justices to rule over our Constitution, and we have become slaves to their tyranny. Immorality sweeps over our land.” . . .

“Even our political process has been affected with baseless and false allegations, which have become more relevant than the issues which affect our country,” Moore said. “This election was tainted by over $50 million dollars from outside groups who want to retain power and their corrupt ideology.”

This statement is dead to most Americans, particularly among those who manage the American Republic, the supposedly educated elites who represent no moral virtue of any recognisable kind. Their system of beliefs is a marriage of Marxist ideology with a pretend Christian charity that is nothing other than a means to power without principle or justice.

And if you would like to see the contrast, the world we now inhabit, read the comments thread on this article, with the “viewing option” set to Most Liked First. I have listed a number from the most liked down and placed one of the comments in bold since it is particularly sickening.

No one cares what you think. You are the immorality sweeping over our land and the fact that you do it under the cover of being a god fearing man makes it even more reprehensible.

That’s the way these scum operate. Go read the story in this paper about the Kentucky rep who shot himself today after it was discovered he molested a 17-year-old friend of his daughters who was sleeping over. His suicide note is full of bible-thumping, holy-rolling garbage. It’s pretty clear now that the louder they proclaim how pious they are, the bigger the perv they are.

he was also an outright racist.

These folks were never religious/pious to begin with. They just use religion to browbeat, force, and indoctrinate others into following whatever they say. Religion to them is simply tool to take advantage of others. “Do this, because God says so. Give me more money, because God will reward you. Vote for me, because it is God’s will.” There are some really good religious folks out there. But they don’t go around “wearing their religion on their sleeves”. Even their own bible says not to trust folks who do so (Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18). Yet Republicans always, almost without exception, wear their religion on their sleeve. TL;DR: Wearing your religion in your sleeves is as trustworthy as when Trump constantly says “trust me” whenever he’s obviously lying to you.

Yes. I consider myself a devout Christian and try to live my faith as best I can (though imperfectly). Moore makes me think of this warning from Jesus: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Fellow travelers, let us not be deceived. Extremists like Moore tarnish an entire faith, but I am grateful for those who see through this and avoid sweeping generalizations when it comes to Christianity or any faith tradition.

Be damned if I am going to be lectured on morality and godliness by a child molester …

We need to give Roy Moore credit when he’s right. “Immorality sweeps over our land.” That statement is true. Forty-eight percent of Alabamians voted to send a child molester to the Senate. That’s immoral. Felons in prisons have better ethics, they hate child molesters. Obviously more than white evangelical Christians in Alabama. Our Republican Senate thinks it is far more important to give billions of dollars in tax breaks to their wealthiest donors than provide healthcare for poor children. That’s immoral. We have a self-proclaimed serial sexual predator and ogler of naked teenagers elected to the Presidency. That’s immoral. We have committed $700 billion to spend on the military, but can’t find the money to provide healthcare for all of our citizens. That’s immoral. I could go on. But, Roy Moore doesn’t see those things are being immoral. Instead he thinks that it is immoral NOT to discriminate against people for their religion, or their sexual identity, or their sexual orientation, or their gender. Bottom line, Roy Moore and people like him are the immorality sweeping this country.

And so on.

Accusations are not proof

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A very dark, tragic story from today: Kentucky State Rep. Dan Johnson dies of ‘probable suicide’ in Mt. Washington. The question you are to ask yourself as you read the story is how exactly was Johnson supposed to clear himself of the accusation if it was actually untrue?

Kentucky State Rep. Dan Johnson, who was under investigation for alleged sexual molestation, died of a “probable suicide,” the Bullitt County coroner said.

Bullitt County Sheriff Donnie Tinnell said Johnson drove onto the bridge over the Salt River on Greenwell Ford Road in Mt. Washington, parked on the north side of it and shot himself in front of his car. His body was found on the bank of the river, just past the bridge.

Just before 5 p.m. Wednesday, Johnson posted the following message on his Facebook page:

The accusations from NPR are false GOD and only GOD knows the truth, nothing is the way they make it out to be. AMERICA will not survive this type of judge and jury fake news . Conservatives take a stand. I LOVE GOD and I LOVE MY WIFE, who is the best WIFE in the world,My Love Forever ! My Mom and Dad my FAMILY and all five of my kids and Nine grandchildren two in tummies and many more to come each of you or a total gift from GOD stay strong, REBECCA needs YOU . 9-11-2001 NYC/WTC, PTSD 24/7 16 years is a sickness that will take my life, I cannot handle it any longer. IT Has Won This Life . BUT HEAVEN IS MY HOME. “PLEASE LISTEN CLOSELY, Only Three things I ask of you to do,if you love me is (1)blame no person,Satan is the accuser, so blame the Devil himself. (2) Forgive and Love everyone especially yourself .(3)most importantly LOVE GOD. P.S. I LOVE MY FRIENDS YOU ARE FAMILY ! GOD LOVES ALL PEOPLE NO MATTER WHAT !

On Tuesday, Johnson held a press conference at his church on Bardstown Road, where he denied the molestation allegations. According to court documents obtained by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, the alleged molestation took place on New Year’s Eve in 2012. The alleged victim, who was 17 at the time, told authorities that she was staying in a living area of the Heart of Fire City Church where Johnson was pastor, when Johnson, who had been drinking a lot, approached her, kissed her and fondled her under her clothes. . . .

Johnson was never criminally charged.

People will laugh at his suicide note because the atheist left thinks everyone is expendable in the pursuit of power and it’s pretty cornpone. You might, on the other hand, think that given his religious beliefs he was more likely to be telling the truth and is less likely to have molested some 17 year old at a church where he had been pastor.

None of this is about paedophilia. Paedophiles should be hunted down and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. What this is about is ruining people’s lives with malicious lies. I don’t know what the right word is to use about people who are not suspicious when such matters are raised for the very first time about a public figure who has been in public life for thirty years and just before an election, but sensible and shrewd do not come to mind. Innocent and naive, if not just straight out stupid, seem a much better fit.

It’s come to this

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A truly sickening story, that comes with this just the other day: Porn star August Ames commits suicide after bullying for refusing to have sex with man who did gay porn.

Kentucky State Rep. Dan Johnson dies of ‘probable suicide’ in Mt. Washington

Posted: Dec 14, 2017 12:02 PMUpdated: Dec 14, 2017 2:28 PM

Kentucky State Rep. Dan Johnson died of ‘probable suicide’ on bridge in Mt. Washington

Rep. Dan Johnson (R-Mt. Washington)Rep. Dan Johnson (R-Mt. Washington)

Johnson was found on a bridge over the Salt River on Greenwell Ford Drive.Johnson was found on a bridge over the Salt River on Greenwell Ford Drive.

Investigators have focused on this SUV parked to the side of the bridge.Investigators have focused on this SUV parked to the side of the bridge.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Kentucky State Rep. Dan Johnson, who was under investigation for alleged sexual molestation, died of a “probable suicide,” the Bullitt County coroner said.

Bullitt County Sheriff Donnie Tinnell said Johnson drove onto the bridge over the Salt River on Greenwell Ford Road in Mt. Washington, parked on the north side of it and shot himself in front of his car. His body was found on the bank of the river, just past the bridge.

Just before 5 p.m. Wednesday, Johnson posted the following message on his Facebook page:

The accusations from NPR are false GOD and only GOD knows the truth, nothing is the way they make it out to be. AMERICA will not survive this type of judge and jury fake news . Conservatives take a stand. I LOVE GOD and I LOVE MY WIFE, who is the best WIFE in the world,My Love Forever ! My Mom and Dad my FAMILY and all five of my kids and Nine grandchildren two in tummies and many more to come each of you or a total gift from GOD stay strong, REBECCA needs YOU . 9-11-2001 NYC/WTC, PTSD 24/7 16 years is a sickness that will take my life, I cannot handle it any longer. IT Has Won This Life . BUT HEAVEN IS MY HOME. “PLEASE LISTEN CLOSELY, Only Three things I ask of you to do,if you love me is (1)blame no person,Satan is the accuser, so blame the Devil himself. (2) Forgive and Love everyone especially yourself .(3)most importantly LOVE GOD. P.S. I LOVE MY FRIENDS YOU ARE FAMILY ! GOD LOVES ALL PEOPLE NO MATTER WHAT !

The coroner said police were alerted after someone saw that Facebook post by Johnson. Officers then pinged Johnson’s phone and found his body.

On Tuesday, Johnson held a press conference at his church on Bardstown Road, where he denied the molestation allegations. According to court documents obtained by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, the alleged molestation took place on New Year’s Eve in 2012. The alleged victim, who was 17 at the time, told authorities that she was staying in a living area of the Heart of Fire City Church where Johnson was pastor, when Johnson, who had been drinking a lot, approached her, kissed her and fondled her under her clothes.

Michael Skoler, the president of Louisville Public Media, which owns the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, released a statement after Johnson’s death:

“All of us at Louisville Public Media are deeply sad to hear that State Representative Dan Johnson has died, apparently of suicide. We grieve for his family, friends, church community and constituents.

Our Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting released a report on Johnson this week. Our aim, as always, is to provide the public with fact-based, unbiased reporting and hold public officials accountable for their actions.

As part of our process, we reached out to Representative Johnson numerous times over the course of a seven-month investigation. He declined requests to talk about our findings.”

Johnson was never criminally charged.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Live Not By Lies

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This is the intro:

Solzhenitsyn penned this essay in 1974 and it circulated among Moscow’s intellectuals at the time. It is dated Feb. 12, the same day that secret police broke into his apartment and arrested him. The next day he was exiled to West Germany. The essay is a call to moral courage and serves as light to all who value truth.

I don’t think we are there yet but it is demoralizing and this is the direction in which we are now moving.

We have been so hopelessly dehumanized that for today’s modest ration of food we are willing to abandon all our principles, our souls, and all the efforts of our predecessors and all opportunities for our descendants—but just don’t disturb our fragile existence. We lack staunchness, pride and enthusiasm. We don’t even fear universal nuclear death, and we don’t fear a third world war. We have already taken refuge in the crevices. We just fear acts of civil courage.

These are the commitments he asked of others while living in a totalitarian state. No one would do it then, other than a handful.

  • Will not henceforth write, sign, or print in any way a single phrase which in his opinion distorts the truth.
  • Will utter such a phrase neither in private conversation not in the presence of many people, neither on his own behalf not at the prompting of someone else, either in the role of agitator, teacher, educator, not in a theatrical role.
  • Will not depict, foster or broadcast a single idea which he can only see is false or a distortion of the truth whether it be in painting, sculpture, photography, technical science, or music.
  • Will not cite out of context, either orally or written, a single quotation so as to please someone, to feather his own nest, to achieve success in his work, if he does not share completely the idea which is quoted, or if it does not accurately reflect the matter at issue.
  • Will not allow himself to be compelled to attend demonstrations or meetings if they are contrary to his desire or will, will neither take into hand not raise into the air a poster or slogan which he does not completely accept.
  • Will not raise his hand to vote for a proposal with which he does not sincerely sympathize, will vote neither openly nor secretly for a person whom he considers unworthy or of doubtful abilities.
  • Will not allow himself to be dragged to a meeting where there can be expected a forced or distorted discussion of a question. Will immediately talk out of a meeting, session, lecture, performance or film showing if he hears a speaker tell lies, or purvey ideological nonsense or shameless propaganda.
  • Will not subscribe to or buy a newspaper or magazine in which information is distorted and primary facts are concealed. Of course we have not listed all of the possible and necessary deviations from falsehood. But a person who purifies himself will easily distinguish other instances with his purified outlook.

No one will do it now because they do not believe that is where we are heading. The point is not that this is what people should do but is a list in which each of us can tell how resistant we would be to conforming to what would be demanded of us in a genuine totalitarian state. We are none of us Solzhenitsyns so the real point is to recognise what we must do while we still can because if you end up there, there is no going back.

I can see the costs easy enough but what are the benefits?

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Here’s something you don’t see mentioned very often: The Costs of Ethnic Diversity. A surprisingly long and detailed article and even comes with a podcast.

Williams and O’Reilly (1996) review dozens of studies showing that ethnic diversity has a negative impact on group performance. In the two decades since, more research has reinforced that result. Alesina and La Ferrara (2005) find that increasing ethnic diversity from 0 (only one ethnic group) to 1 (each individual is a different ethnicity) would reduce a country’s annual growth by 2 percent. Multiple studies (La Porta et al., 1999; Alesina et al., 2003; Habyarimana et al., 2007) have shown that ethnic diversity negatively affects public good provision. Stazyk et al. (2012) find that ethnic diversity reduces job satisfaction among government workers. Parrotta et al. (2014a) find that ethnic diversity is significantly and negatively correlated with firm productivity.

Lots of evidence that another among the common core views of the left is wrong which is possibly the least surprising result of all.

Sunshine conservatives revisited

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LIQ has raised the ridiculous and entirely spurious condition that my failure ever to criticise Donald Trump is somehow proof that my defence of PDT is beyond reason. What really can one make of this?

Trump is a false messiah who is leading many so-called conservatives down a dead end. If you can’t accept the flaws in Trump and argue rationally rather than dogmatically you really have no place in conservative thought. Because such behaviour is the antitheses of western critical thinking and logic.

Cultural warriors for Trump are no better than those idiots chanting and disrupting speakers at universities.

Some people are just too stupid to see what’s right before their eyes and going further, are too stupid to change their minds in the face of more evidence than anyone could have imagined to have been presented in even less than a year since the inauguration. The following is the article I wrote that was posted at Quadrant Online on October 16 last year, which I titled Sunshine Conservatives. I might better have titled it Idiots and Morons. And if you would like 390 additional pages of the same kind of material on Donald Trump, warts and all, you can go here.

This is the article I wrote then.

“These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer blogger and the sunshine conservative will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

This has been a fearfully clarifying US election. There are people who declare themselves on the right side of politics, who are in truth sham defenders of freedom and our way of life, and who will be forever shunned by those of us who stood for saving the American Republic and the Western world at this moment of great peril.

The American election will determine the fate of the West. An America with open borders, unprepared, unwilling and unable to defend our freedoms from predators of every kind, from Islamic terrorists, from economic vandals, from those who masquerade their profound ignorance as concern for the environment — it is from these we must defend ourselves against or our way of life will be lost. The American Republic as it has been since 1776 will disappear. We will live to see our own fall of Rome.

Sunshine conservatives: those who pretend to represent freedom, individual rights and personal responsibility, but who refuse to stand with the only person who could make a difference. They are people whom history will recognise as the enemies of freedom, who refused to stand for the right when the moment arrived. It is Trump alone, the most improbable candidate in American political history, who provides even this sliver of hope. He is elected or Hillary is elected. There is no other possible outcome.

The mounting hostility among those supposedly on his own side is a disgrace. The array of enemies who have been uncovered from within what is nominally his own side of politics has demonstrated, better than anything else might have, that the Republican Party as it has become is a rotting curse on everything it is supposed to represent.

Those who stand with Hillary in this dark hour will have revealed they cannot be trusted and their counsel is without value. They are enemies of freedom. If you support Hillary Clinton in this election, nothing you write and say will from this time forward be worth the slightest attention. Your judgements will have been revealed as eternally worthless.

So, You Thought He Was a Choir Boy?

Donald Trump has not yet lost this election. If anything, this latest attempt to distract voters from the genuine issues which confront us may finally have focused the election on what actually matters. No one defends Trump’s words, or his attitude to women, least of all Donald Trump. This was his own assessment.

Let’s be honest, we’re living in the real world. This is nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we’re facing today.

We are losing our jobs, we are less safe than we were eight years ago and Washington is totally broken. Hillary Clinton and her kind have run our country into the ground. I’ve said some foolish things, but there’s a big difference between the words and actions of other people. Bill Clinton has actually abused women, and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims. We will discuss this more in the coming days.

The American election is not about who has lived the most blameless life. It is about who can best protect our collective interests. Trump has been from the very beginning the only person running in this election who has understood the nature of the times in which we live and the actions that must be taken. You are either a sunshine conservative, or are instead prepared to fight this to the very end which means supporting Donald Trump for president.

Mark Steyn on and Jordan Peterson with Lindsay Shepherd

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Satire is no longer possible against the humourless and the stupid. When all is said and done, you are no longer entitled to your own opinion.

“Why were you thinking this might be sufficiently dangerous that you would need taped evidence?”

At the end, my impression is that Lindsay Shepherd fundamentally disagrees with Peterson. She is learning but is more millennial than not. But she is getting there and can only hope she brings many others along.

Jordan Peterson on what makes marriage work

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And why you should NEVER divorce. And then how to make your relationship work. Hard to do, he says, but can be done.

And then there is this on the indispensability of becoming anchored in a family of one’s own. Forget the heading, that is what this video is about.

Message: if you are not yet 40 or even near 40 then if you live long enough, you will eventually be 40, or 60 and even 80+. This is what you won’t know until then but the pathway has been set either biologically or by some higher power, but one way or another it has been set. You are not the exception and you would be mad to think you are.

And now one more.

The handcuff theory of marriage.

Kafka comes to Canada

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From Canada. Discussion of discipline handed down to Wilfrid Laurier University graduate student and Teaching Assistant Lindsay Shepherd for playing a 3 minute clip of University of Toronto Professor, Jordan Peterson, debating Canada’s bill C-16 which has criminalised the use of certain gendered pronouns. The problem was that because it is against Canadian Human Rights laws to use personal pronouns that are not the specific pronouns an individual has stated they wish to have used in referring to themselves, Shepherd was hauled up before a University complaints tribunal because she had presented both sides of the argument on this issue in a classroom using a video of Peterson to show one side of the argument. What has made it a worldwide sensation is that she taped the discussion of her meeting with the complaints tribunal which must be listened to in full to understand where things have now reached.

Here is a video from the United States that explains the background, but before I go on, I do have to say how outraged I am about the way he discusses Canadians. Nevertheless, in spite of his clear racist anti-Canadian attitudes, in the interest of understanding the story, here is the video discussing the entire episode which has an excerpt from her tape of the interview by the complaints tribunal which really gets to the heart of the issue.

Finally, here is the full recording of her discussing the issue with the University. Runs more than 40 minutes but worth your time. The disturbing notion presented by one of the academics was the philosophically-empty equation that “Opinion minus Evidence is Prejudice” (O-E=P) with the only form of evidence apparently permissible being publication in a peer reviewed journal. Once control over what is published in peer reviewed journals is sealed up (see the debate on climate change which is even brought in by one of the professors) certain ideas can never be presented within an academic environment. So they have to provide students with a “critical tool kit” before they are permitted to hear different opinions. Try this on for size (33:35):

“Everyone is entitled to their opinions but we have a duty as educators, as scholars, as academics, even as public intellectuals to make sure we are not furthering the kind of what I call charlatanism”.

Such self-delusion! Makes you sick. And there is little doubt that the same idea would be found at the highest reaches of the academic world.

Terrifying. She is astonishing and brave. Dissidents come in all forms and it is fortunate we are still able to bring these things to the attention of others. And like she says herself, her enemies are “insane”. But let me just add that while she has become very famous for her personal bravery, the person you should pay attention to is Jordan Peterson himself. Let me present you with a bit of Peterson as well, where he is discussing, among other things, a statement by some other professor somewhere that “there are no biological differences between men and women”. Peterson begins at 2:17.