Matt Handcock Is Trying to Run the UK Like a 50's Prep School
Peter Hitchens
Mail on Sunday
Until I started travelling in the Communist world, my main experience of living under tyranny was my time at a boarding school on the edge of Dartmoor, 60 years ago. The headmaster, an enormous, booming man, had many fine qualities. But he was given to dreadful rages, which tended to strike late on Saturday afternoons.
He would throb with fury because some of the more loutish boys had left their games clothes on the changing room floor. For some reason, he viewed this as a terrible crime closely related to murder. So he would summon us into the assembly hall, and harangue us as darkness fell outside. The more we stood mulishly in front of him, saying nothing and with our eyes downcast, the angrier he became.
Sometimes he would hold up a pair of muddy football shorts as horrific evidence of the latest atrocity. Collective punishments – a ban on eating toast, or the cancellation of a promised film show – would follow, along with more shouting and angry notices in red ink, threatening worse to come. Most of us were guiltless of wrongdoing. But we were small, and he was huge. The staff seemed more scared of him than we were.
We were on a windswept hilltop miles from anywhere. We had no escape. We assumed our letters home were censored, so we put up with these ludicrous exhibitions and waited for the storm to pass.
Oddly enough, the terror did not work. People carried on leaving their clothes on the floor, just the same.
I had thought such childish things were long over in my life. But a week ago I found that I was, once again, living at the mercy of an equally petulant would-be despot.
Showing posts with label Oppression. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oppression. Show all posts
Wednesday, 22 April 2020
Saturday, 4 April 2020
Warning From Top Judge
Coronavirus Rules are 'Hysterical Slide Into a Police State'
The former Supreme Court justice Lord Sumption hit out at the heavy-handed measures taken by Derbyshire Police
Nicola Bartlett
Daily Mirror
A former Supreme Court justice has warned that the public are displaying "collective hysteria" over coronavirus. Lord Sumption, who retired as a justice at the UK's highest court in 2018, hit out at the way that some police forces are interpreting the new rules.
He said: "The pressure on politicians has come from the public; they want action. They don't pause to ask whether the action will work, they don't ask themselves whether the cost will be worth paying - they want action anyway.
Lord Sumption told Radio 4's The World At One:"Anyone who has studied history will recognise here the classic symptoms of collective hysteria, which is infectious. We are working ourselves up into a lather in which we exaggerate the threat and stop asking ourselves whether the cure may be worse than the disease."
He added: "Yes, this is serious, and, yes, it's understandable that people cry out to the Government, but the real question is, is this serious enough to warrant putting most of our population into house imprisonment, wrecking our economy for an indefinite period, destroying businesses that honest and hard-working people have taken years to build up, saddling future generations with debt?
"Depressions, stress, heart attacks, suicides and unbelievable stress inflicted on millions of people who are not especially vulnerable and will suffer only mild symptoms or none at all like the Health Secretary and the Prime Minister."
The police force caused controversy when they used drones to deter people from breaking the lockdown rules by travelling to remote areas for their daily exercise.
The former Supreme Court justice Lord Sumption hit out at the heavy-handed measures taken by Derbyshire Police
Nicola Bartlett
Daily Mirror
A former Supreme Court justice has warned that the public are displaying "collective hysteria" over coronavirus. Lord Sumption, who retired as a justice at the UK's highest court in 2018, hit out at the way that some police forces are interpreting the new rules.
He said: "The pressure on politicians has come from the public; they want action. They don't pause to ask whether the action will work, they don't ask themselves whether the cost will be worth paying - they want action anyway.
Lord Sumption told Radio 4's The World At One:"Anyone who has studied history will recognise here the classic symptoms of collective hysteria, which is infectious. We are working ourselves up into a lather in which we exaggerate the threat and stop asking ourselves whether the cure may be worse than the disease."
He added: "Yes, this is serious, and, yes, it's understandable that people cry out to the Government, but the real question is, is this serious enough to warrant putting most of our population into house imprisonment, wrecking our economy for an indefinite period, destroying businesses that honest and hard-working people have taken years to build up, saddling future generations with debt?
"Depressions, stress, heart attacks, suicides and unbelievable stress inflicted on millions of people who are not especially vulnerable and will suffer only mild symptoms or none at all like the Health Secretary and the Prime Minister."
The police force caused controversy when they used drones to deter people from breaking the lockdown rules by travelling to remote areas for their daily exercise.
Monday, 28 October 2019
New Zealand's Most Illiberal University
Massey U is a Walking Hate Crime
It Hates Free Speech
Massey University cannot help itself. It has now demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that its raison d'etre is to suppress any speech which it rules to be hurtful to--even one student. We received this update from the Free Speech Coalition.
Free Speech Coalition
Dear John,
The past week has been a busy one on the free speech front.
Massey University - A double whammy
Massey, Massey, Massey... this university should have its status as a tertiary education provider revoked. As per our last email, you will know that Massey University banned the Speak Up for Women's event last week.
Yet again the 'health and safety' catchall has been deployed by Massey's spineless administrators to cater to a select few cry-bullies that cannot handle adverse ideas.
Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, Massey 'upped the ante' as New Zealand's most illiberal university by tearing down pro-Hong Kong protest posters on campus. These posters were carefully created so as not to show any violent material – it is unclear what reason Massey had in taking them down.
Many Hong Kong students would raise this matter with the university, if their identity did not make them targets for punishment from their government.
To all those who are, or know someone enrolling at university, we highly discourage applying to Massey. The university leadership clearly do not understand their duties as educators. [Emphasis, ours]
Thursday, 30 May 2019
Oppression Worse Than North Korea Will Destroy China
New ‘Social Credit System’ is a Dystopian Nightmare
By Steven W. Moshe
May 18, 2019
New York Post
Imagine calling a friend. Only instead of hearing a ring tone you hear a police siren, and then a voice intoning, “Be careful in your dealings with this person.” Would that put a damper on your relationship? It’s supposed to. Welcome to life in China’s “Social Credit System,” where a low score can ruin your life in more ways than one.
Say you arrive at the Beijing airport, intending to catch a flight to Canton 1,200 miles south. The clerk at the ticket counter turns you away because — you guessed it — your social credit score is too low. Not only are you publicly humiliated in the ticket line, you are then forced to travel by slow train. What should have been a three-hour flight becomes a 30-hour, stop-and-go nightmare.
All because the government has declared you untrustworthy. Perhaps you defaulted on a loan, made the mistake of criticizing some government policy online or just spent too much time playing video games on the internet. All of these actions, and many more, can cause your score to plummet, forcing citizens onto the most dreaded rung on China’s deadbeat caste system, the laolai.
And the punishments are shocking. The government algorithm will go as far as to install an “embarrassing” ring tone on the phones of laolai, shaming them every time they get a call in public. But an embarrassing ring tone, flight bans and slow trains are just the beginning of the dystopian nightmare that is now daily life in China for tens of millions of people.
A low social credit score will exclude you from well-paid jobs, make it impossible for you to get a house or a car loan or even book a hotel room. The government will slow down your internet connection, ban your children from attending private schools and even post your profile on a public blacklist for all to see.
According to Australia’s ABC News, the government has produced a “Deadbeat Map” via an app on WeChat, which shows a radar-style graphic identifying every laolai in the vicinity of the user. “Tapping on a person marked on the map reveals their personal information, including their full name, court-case number and the reason they have been labeled untrustworthy. Identity-card numbers and home addresses are also partially shown,” ABC reported.
There are reports that those whose social credit score falls too low are preemptively arrested and sent to re-education camps. Not because they have actually committed a crime, but because they are likely to. Elements of the system are in place throughout China, as the government refines its algorithm, and the final rollout is scheduled to be in place nationwide by 2020.
The government claims that its purpose is to enhance trust and social stability by creating a “culture of sincerity” that will “restore social trust.” What it will actually create, of course, is a culture of fear and a nation of informants. This is because one of the ways that people can improve their own social credit score is to report on the supposed misdeeds of others.
Individuals can earn points, for example, for reporting those who violate the new restrictions on religious practice, such as Christians who illegally meet to pray in private homes, or the Muslim Uyghurs and Kazakhs in China’s far west whom they spot praying in public, fasting during Ramadan or just growing a beard.
Of course, as the state progresses ever closer toward its goal of monitoring all of the activities of its citizens 24 hours a day, seven days a week, society itself becomes a virtual prison. Western criticism of the new system has been intense, with Human Rights Watch describing it as “chilling.”
In response, Chinese Communist Party publications scoff that Westerners are simply too unsophisticated to understand the wonders of the new system. In the words of China’s Global Times, “The hypothetical theories of the West are based on their ignorance.” The massive social credit system, it goes on to say, is simply “beyond the understanding of Western countries.”
But I think we understand what is going on all too well. It is China’s ancient totalitarian impulse — the absolute rule of the god-emperor over his subjects — brought into the modern age. It is George Orwell’s prophetic “1984” come alive.
China’s already formidable police state has been upgraded using big data, machine learning, face recognition technology and artificial intelligence into a fearsome cyborg of state control. The Chinese Communist Party has given birth to the world’s first high-tech digital dictatorship.
Not content to incarcerate its own population in a virtual prison, China is busily hawking its creation to like-minded socialist dictatorships. Maduro’s Venezuela was China’s first customer.
Steven W. Mosher is the president of the Population Research Institute and the author of “Bully of Asia: Why China’s Dream is the New Threat to World Order,” out now.
By Steven W. Moshe
May 18, 2019
New York Post
Imagine calling a friend. Only instead of hearing a ring tone you hear a police siren, and then a voice intoning, “Be careful in your dealings with this person.” Would that put a damper on your relationship? It’s supposed to. Welcome to life in China’s “Social Credit System,” where a low score can ruin your life in more ways than one.
Say you arrive at the Beijing airport, intending to catch a flight to Canton 1,200 miles south. The clerk at the ticket counter turns you away because — you guessed it — your social credit score is too low. Not only are you publicly humiliated in the ticket line, you are then forced to travel by slow train. What should have been a three-hour flight becomes a 30-hour, stop-and-go nightmare.
All because the government has declared you untrustworthy. Perhaps you defaulted on a loan, made the mistake of criticizing some government policy online or just spent too much time playing video games on the internet. All of these actions, and many more, can cause your score to plummet, forcing citizens onto the most dreaded rung on China’s deadbeat caste system, the laolai.
And the punishments are shocking. The government algorithm will go as far as to install an “embarrassing” ring tone on the phones of laolai, shaming them every time they get a call in public. But an embarrassing ring tone, flight bans and slow trains are just the beginning of the dystopian nightmare that is now daily life in China for tens of millions of people.
A low social credit score will exclude you from well-paid jobs, make it impossible for you to get a house or a car loan or even book a hotel room. The government will slow down your internet connection, ban your children from attending private schools and even post your profile on a public blacklist for all to see.
According to Australia’s ABC News, the government has produced a “Deadbeat Map” via an app on WeChat, which shows a radar-style graphic identifying every laolai in the vicinity of the user. “Tapping on a person marked on the map reveals their personal information, including their full name, court-case number and the reason they have been labeled untrustworthy. Identity-card numbers and home addresses are also partially shown,” ABC reported.
There are reports that those whose social credit score falls too low are preemptively arrested and sent to re-education camps. Not because they have actually committed a crime, but because they are likely to. Elements of the system are in place throughout China, as the government refines its algorithm, and the final rollout is scheduled to be in place nationwide by 2020.
The government claims that its purpose is to enhance trust and social stability by creating a “culture of sincerity” that will “restore social trust.” What it will actually create, of course, is a culture of fear and a nation of informants. This is because one of the ways that people can improve their own social credit score is to report on the supposed misdeeds of others.
Individuals can earn points, for example, for reporting those who violate the new restrictions on religious practice, such as Christians who illegally meet to pray in private homes, or the Muslim Uyghurs and Kazakhs in China’s far west whom they spot praying in public, fasting during Ramadan or just growing a beard.
Of course, as the state progresses ever closer toward its goal of monitoring all of the activities of its citizens 24 hours a day, seven days a week, society itself becomes a virtual prison. Western criticism of the new system has been intense, with Human Rights Watch describing it as “chilling.”
In response, Chinese Communist Party publications scoff that Westerners are simply too unsophisticated to understand the wonders of the new system. In the words of China’s Global Times, “The hypothetical theories of the West are based on their ignorance.” The massive social credit system, it goes on to say, is simply “beyond the understanding of Western countries.”
But I think we understand what is going on all too well. It is China’s ancient totalitarian impulse — the absolute rule of the god-emperor over his subjects — brought into the modern age. It is George Orwell’s prophetic “1984” come alive.
China’s already formidable police state has been upgraded using big data, machine learning, face recognition technology and artificial intelligence into a fearsome cyborg of state control. The Chinese Communist Party has given birth to the world’s first high-tech digital dictatorship.
Not content to incarcerate its own population in a virtual prison, China is busily hawking its creation to like-minded socialist dictatorships. Maduro’s Venezuela was China’s first customer.
Steven W. Mosher is the president of the Population Research Institute and the author of “Bully of Asia: Why China’s Dream is the New Threat to World Order,” out now.
Wednesday, 30 January 2019
A New Iteration On Civil Oppression
Today’s Left Aims To Make Christians Second-Class Citizens
Centuries ago, the British imposed penal laws on Irish Catholics and dissenting Protestant minorities. Might we be moving in a similar direction here?
Nathanael Blake
The Federalist
The left wants to penalize Christians for their faith. The most recent example is the freakout over the vice president’s wife, Karen Pence, teaching part-time at a Christian school that holds students and staff to traditional Christian standards of doctrine and conduct, including sexual conduct.
These requirements are not exceptional among Christian schools (and those of other religions often have similar restrictions), but they have been treated as the vilest bigotry, deserving censure and punishment. CNN’s John King even suggested that teaching at this school should mean forfeiting Pence’s government-provided security.
As a practical pastoral matter, the school is almost certainly more focused on fornication and adultery than on denouncing sodomy. But the media is obsessed over the aspects of traditional Christian sexual ethics that relate to LGBT identity and actions.
The Washington Post, for example, flatly asserts that Pence has been hired by an “anti-LGBT Christian school” that “seeks to exclude homosexual and transgender students and staff members”—as an aside, note how LGBT ideology sexualizes children and defines them by their still-developing sense of sexuality—but that is not how traditional Christians view these matters.
Christian Perspectives On Sexual Morality
The Christian perspective distinguishes between, on one hand, same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria as psychological states experienced by individuals, and, on the other, behavior, identity, and ideology. Thus, the reality of same-sex attraction is acknowledged, but considered a temptation to be resisted, not an identity to be embraced. Gender dysphoria, like other sorts of dysphoria, is viewed as an affliction that should be treated with compassion in accord with biological reality, rather than a metaphysical truth to which physical bodies must be molded.
Centuries ago, the British imposed penal laws on Irish Catholics and dissenting Protestant minorities. Might we be moving in a similar direction here?
Nathanael Blake
The Federalist
The left wants to penalize Christians for their faith. The most recent example is the freakout over the vice president’s wife, Karen Pence, teaching part-time at a Christian school that holds students and staff to traditional Christian standards of doctrine and conduct, including sexual conduct.
These requirements are not exceptional among Christian schools (and those of other religions often have similar restrictions), but they have been treated as the vilest bigotry, deserving censure and punishment. CNN’s John King even suggested that teaching at this school should mean forfeiting Pence’s government-provided security.
As a practical pastoral matter, the school is almost certainly more focused on fornication and adultery than on denouncing sodomy. But the media is obsessed over the aspects of traditional Christian sexual ethics that relate to LGBT identity and actions.
The Washington Post, for example, flatly asserts that Pence has been hired by an “anti-LGBT Christian school” that “seeks to exclude homosexual and transgender students and staff members”—as an aside, note how LGBT ideology sexualizes children and defines them by their still-developing sense of sexuality—but that is not how traditional Christians view these matters.
Christian Perspectives On Sexual Morality
The Christian perspective distinguishes between, on one hand, same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria as psychological states experienced by individuals, and, on the other, behavior, identity, and ideology. Thus, the reality of same-sex attraction is acknowledged, but considered a temptation to be resisted, not an identity to be embraced. Gender dysphoria, like other sorts of dysphoria, is viewed as an affliction that should be treated with compassion in accord with biological reality, rather than a metaphysical truth to which physical bodies must be molded.
Friday, 24 August 2018
Pushback
Massey University Academics Defend Free Speech Rights
Massey University is attempting to wash off the anti-free speech excrement smeared all over its campuses. At least some of its faculty are valiantly attempting to do so.
The Vice Chancellor of Massey, Professor Jan Thomas recently squelched free speech on the Palmerston North Massey campus. Former leader of the National Party, Don Brash was invited to speak at a campus meeting, only to have Thomas dis-invite him (otherwise known as "de-platforming"). Her reason--an alleged threat to public peace and order made by those opposing his presence.
Professor Thomas was ambiguous on the cancellation and its reasons. She claimed some had threatened harm to someone if Don Brash spoke. She said the police had not been notified despite a (prima facie) breach of the law. She then added insult to injury and went on publicly to criticize Don Brash, his views and opinions, as if that were a justification for shutting down his free speech rights at Massey University.
Several staff at Massey University have spoken out against the "de-platforming" censorship by the Vice Chancellor. We applaud them. Here is one such contribution--written and published on Massey University letterhead, which (we believe) speaks volumes on the depth and extent of the disgust and rejection of the Vice Chancellor's illiberal, oppressive act.
Massey University is attempting to wash off the anti-free speech excrement smeared all over its campuses. At least some of its faculty are valiantly attempting to do so.
The Vice Chancellor of Massey, Professor Jan Thomas recently squelched free speech on the Palmerston North Massey campus. Former leader of the National Party, Don Brash was invited to speak at a campus meeting, only to have Thomas dis-invite him (otherwise known as "de-platforming"). Her reason--an alleged threat to public peace and order made by those opposing his presence.
Professor Thomas was ambiguous on the cancellation and its reasons. She claimed some had threatened harm to someone if Don Brash spoke. She said the police had not been notified despite a (prima facie) breach of the law. She then added insult to injury and went on publicly to criticize Don Brash, his views and opinions, as if that were a justification for shutting down his free speech rights at Massey University.
Several staff at Massey University have spoken out against the "de-platforming" censorship by the Vice Chancellor. We applaud them. Here is one such contribution--written and published on Massey University letterhead, which (we believe) speaks volumes on the depth and extent of the disgust and rejection of the Vice Chancellor's illiberal, oppressive act.
Monday, 23 July 2018
Shut Up, Or We Will Shut You Down
"I'm Triggered By Your Ugly Speech"
The Iron Fist Inside the Velvet Glove
David Farrar at Kiwiblog has directed readers to some material on Free Speech. The topic is timely at the moment, because of (successful) attempts to stifle the free speech of New Zealanders. Naturally, folk attempting to shut people up or shout them down so that no-one can hear what they are saying ooze with self-righteousness. They paternalistically see themselves as protecting others from ideas or opinions which might upset them or damage their self-esteem.
Robert Guest, Foreign Editor for The Economist responded recently to some questions about speech and why free speech must be maintained as a fundamental human right. We scarcely need to remind our readers that Christians have a significant interest in this issue. Unbelief always stands ready to shut down Christian discourse and proclamation, given half a chance. The ultimate champion of such repression is Satan. The last thing the demonic realms want is an open, free proclamation of Christ and His Kingdom.
Here is Robert Guest's take on why the right of free speech is so fundamental to civilisation.
Why are we so passionate about free speech? It is not just because The Economist is a newspaper. It is also because free speech is the best defence against bad government. Everyone should be at liberty to berate politicians. Constructive criticism can alert them to things they are doing wrong, and perhaps persuade them to change course. Mockery, even unfair mockery, is part of the rough and tumble of democracy. No government can be trusted with the power to silence it.
Secondly, in all areas of life, freewheeling debate helps to sort good ideas from bad ones. Science cannot progress unless old certainties are questioned—remember how the Inquisition threatened Galileo with torture for claiming that the Earth orbits the Sun?
Limits on speech are in effect limits on thought. So censorship makes it harder for us to understand the world. When a government orders statisticians to fudge the numbers, as happens in all kinds of places, it ensures that its own policymaking will be poorly informed. When academics declare certain topics “too controversial” to discuss, they hinder the quest for knowledge.
The law should recognise the right to free speech as nearly absolute. There should be very few exceptions to this rule.
Wednesday, 2 May 2018
The Rise of Homofascism
Homofascism at a Small Catholic College
Philip Devine
Mercatornet
Providence College (PC) is a small Dominican college in Rhode Island. Michael Smalanskas, a student at PC, put up a poster defending the Roman Catholic understanding of marriage, which did not express fear, hatred, or even disapproval of anyone. The local LGBTQ+ alliance began a campaign of harassment against him, including a threat of anal rape.
Philosophy professor, and advisor to the student gay group. Dr. Christopher Arroyo announced a march against “every sign of unjust discrimination towards LGBTQ* members of the Friar Family.” (e-mail to the Providence College faculty, March 16, 2018. my emphasis) Michael was even advised to prove that he was not a homophobe by joining the march against himself.
Belatedly, after much protest by faculty, students, and alumni, the President of the College affirmed Catholic teaching about marriage and condemned the threats against Michael. In 2016 Anthony Esolen, a distinguished Dante scholar and dynamic teacher, criticized the cult of diversity and was subjected to a campaign of vilification, by the President of Providence College among others, serious enough to cause him to leave the College. [Esolen's account follows tomorrow. Contra Celsum has carried a number of pieces written by or referring to some of Esolen's published works, most recently Out of the Ashes. JT]
If it can happen at Providence College, it can happen anywhere.
 |
| The Offending Poster |
Mercatornet
Providence College (PC) is a small Dominican college in Rhode Island. Michael Smalanskas, a student at PC, put up a poster defending the Roman Catholic understanding of marriage, which did not express fear, hatred, or even disapproval of anyone. The local LGBTQ+ alliance began a campaign of harassment against him, including a threat of anal rape.
Philosophy professor, and advisor to the student gay group. Dr. Christopher Arroyo announced a march against “every sign of unjust discrimination towards LGBTQ* members of the Friar Family.” (e-mail to the Providence College faculty, March 16, 2018. my emphasis) Michael was even advised to prove that he was not a homophobe by joining the march against himself.
Belatedly, after much protest by faculty, students, and alumni, the President of the College affirmed Catholic teaching about marriage and condemned the threats against Michael. In 2016 Anthony Esolen, a distinguished Dante scholar and dynamic teacher, criticized the cult of diversity and was subjected to a campaign of vilification, by the President of Providence College among others, serious enough to cause him to leave the College. [Esolen's account follows tomorrow. Contra Celsum has carried a number of pieces written by or referring to some of Esolen's published works, most recently Out of the Ashes. JT]
Saturday, 16 September 2017
The Growing Degradation of the West
Pharaoh Has Lost All Memory of Joseph
We live in a mad, mad world--at least in the West. Homosexuality and gender-bending is tearing the social fabric apart. We came across a recent case in the United Kingdom illustrating the madness of our condition.
A ‘transgendered’ convicted double rapist, who is biologically male, has been put in isolation in prison after being moved to an all-female jail, where it is claimed they made advances on female prisoners. [Liam Deacon, Breitbart London]Apparently this rapist is a particularly nasty piece of work.
Sarah Callaghan, 44, who fell pregnant with Winfield’s first child when she was just 15 (below the age of consent) and they were in their 20s, branded the sex attacker “a danger to everyone around him”. She said: “It seems the only person who ever gets any help is Martin – not all the people who have suffered because of him.Yes, you read that right.
Another one of their victims described the fact her attacker was given a free sex change as “diabolical”. She said: “There are not enough words to describe him and the evil he has done. “It is diabolical they have allowed him to have a sex change and diabolical that he could be freed this year. He may have changed physically but his brain is still the same.”
Saturday, 13 May 2017
A Man Who Is Of The Earth
An Imprecatory Psalm For Kim Jong-un
In Tolkien's fictional universe, Ungoliant is a dark, mysterious being in the form of a grotesque spider. Her origins are unclear, but she had descendants who lingered on in Middle Earth. The spiders of Mirkwood are one line of descendants. The dreaded Shelob is another.
In our present world there are few indeed who conjure up the horror of Shelob: black, bloated, delighting in torture, hungering always for victims. Kim Jong-un is one.
Like his father and grandfather before him, he has enslaved an entire nation. He drags is corpulent, self-indulged form over the squashed bodies of his slaves, grinning, always inanely grinning.
Repression and torture is such fun.
In Tolkien's fictional universe, Ungoliant is a dark, mysterious being in the form of a grotesque spider. Her origins are unclear, but she had descendants who lingered on in Middle Earth. The spiders of Mirkwood are one line of descendants. The dreaded Shelob is another.
In our present world there are few indeed who conjure up the horror of Shelob: black, bloated, delighting in torture, hungering always for victims. Kim Jong-un is one.
Like his father and grandfather before him, he has enslaved an entire nation. He drags is corpulent, self-indulged form over the squashed bodies of his slaves, grinning, always inanely grinning.
Repression and torture is such fun.
Tuesday, 21 March 2017
The Rictus Maw of Robespierre's Children
Enslaving Hearts and Minds
France has a long history of bloody repression when it comes to any and all who resist its dogmas. Liberty, equality and fraternity belong only to those who salute the government and say, "Yes, sir!" It is regarded as one of the most illiberal countries in Europe, with only the church standing in its way.
This official intolerance or jihad against its opponents can be seen in recent moves taken with respect to aborting babies. Those who do not comply with the state's pogrom against the innocent and insistence that mothers have a human right to kill their unborn, face a proverbial guillotine.
The Crime of Obstructing Abortion
Gregor Puppinck
European Centre For Law and Justice
The Senate has just adopted a bill of law which extends once more the definition of the crime of obstruction to abortion. Despite the fact that it has been amended, is still deeply liberticidal. Indeed, it extends the crime of obstruction to “any means” of communication and to “moral and psychological pressures (…) against people seeking information on a voluntarily termination of pregnancy”. [Emphasis, ours]
This wording prohibits [any person] making available any information on abortion, even true, as soon as they are likely to exercise a moral and psychological pressure on any person who seeks information on abortion.
Monday, 8 February 2016
Letter From the UK (About Not Baking A Cake)
'Gay cake' couple: 'We don't hate anyone.
Daniel and Amy McArthur say they have no regrets about refusing to bake cake with pro-gay marriage message on it. An evangelical Christian couple at the centre of the “gay cake” court case have insisted they never meant to discriminate against anyone and do not hate gay people. [They] also said the case against them last year had strengthened their marriage.
Ashers Baking Company was found guilty last year by a county court in Northern Ireland of breaking the province’s strict laws on political and sexual discrimination. The case centred on the McArthurs’ refusal to bake a cake with a pro-gay marriage message on it. They were taken to court by the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland and the couple were fined £500.
It's done out of love for God'
The GuardianDaniel and Amy McArthur say they have no regrets about refusing to bake cake with pro-gay marriage message on it. An evangelical Christian couple at the centre of the “gay cake” court case have insisted they never meant to discriminate against anyone and do not hate gay people. [They] also said the case against them last year had strengthened their marriage.
Ashers Baking Company was found guilty last year by a county court in Northern Ireland of breaking the province’s strict laws on political and sexual discrimination. The case centred on the McArthurs’ refusal to bake a cake with a pro-gay marriage message on it. They were taken to court by the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland and the couple were fined £500.
Saturday, 30 January 2016
PC Idealogues Produce Growing State Power
Sunday Schools to be Monitored
Breitbart London
Sunday schools, church groups, choirs and Scout troops will all be swept up by broad surveillance proposals designed to confront Islamic radicalism in teaching institutions. New Ofsted rules designed to monitor any organisation which interacts with a child for more than six hours a week means traditional church gatherings along with community groups are liable for inspection by government authorities.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb has said the new rules would cover all activities taking place, meaning every church that offers several activities for youngsters, including Scouts, choirs or youth clubs, would need to be registered with the government and be prepared for their activities to be monitored by the state.
Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw revealed his inspectors would use powers intended to crack down on Muslim madrassas run by extremists who might be seeking to groom pupils for radical activities to also regulate Christian Sunday schools.
UK Government Scrutiny to Prevent Hate Preaching in Sunday Schools
Simon KentBreitbart London
Sunday schools, church groups, choirs and Scout troops will all be swept up by broad surveillance proposals designed to confront Islamic radicalism in teaching institutions. New Ofsted rules designed to monitor any organisation which interacts with a child for more than six hours a week means traditional church gatherings along with community groups are liable for inspection by government authorities.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb has said the new rules would cover all activities taking place, meaning every church that offers several activities for youngsters, including Scouts, choirs or youth clubs, would need to be registered with the government and be prepared for their activities to be monitored by the state.
Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw revealed his inspectors would use powers intended to crack down on Muslim madrassas run by extremists who might be seeking to groom pupils for radical activities to also regulate Christian Sunday schools.
Wednesday, 30 December 2015
Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow
Slomosexuality
Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog
Andrew Walker here describes the efforts of the new homo-jihadis to outlaw religious liberty on Christian colleges. I use the verb “outlaw,” but Walker makes it plain that this ultimate goal is not the immediate move. The current plan is simply to expose those colleges that have taken a legal exemption from the sexual pandemonium so that they may be subjected to the full weight of public . . . what’s the word I want here? . . . obloquy, that’s it.
And World magazine reports that a Catholic school in Massachusetts will not be permitted to beg off from hiring homosexuals in the future. A judge has handed down some learned argle bargle, and a private religious school now has to have an official from the government tell them what the boundaries of their conscience may be. Now — full disclosure here — I have been reported on enough by World to make me a little tentative, but this story seems legit.
Walker’s report makes plain what has been evident to insightful observers for some time now.
Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog
Andrew Walker here describes the efforts of the new homo-jihadis to outlaw religious liberty on Christian colleges. I use the verb “outlaw,” but Walker makes it plain that this ultimate goal is not the immediate move. The current plan is simply to expose those colleges that have taken a legal exemption from the sexual pandemonium so that they may be subjected to the full weight of public . . . what’s the word I want here? . . . obloquy, that’s it.
And World magazine reports that a Catholic school in Massachusetts will not be permitted to beg off from hiring homosexuals in the future. A judge has handed down some learned argle bargle, and a private religious school now has to have an official from the government tell them what the boundaries of their conscience may be. Now — full disclosure here — I have been reported on enough by World to make me a little tentative, but this story seems legit.
Walker’s report makes plain what has been evident to insightful observers for some time now.
Tuesday, 29 December 2015
Letter From America (About Incremental Oppression)
Christian Colleges Must Repent of Their Christianity
National Review Online
On Friday, the nation’s largest gay-rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), released a chilling report that investigates a “disturbing trend” of religious colleges’ taking legal measures to exercise their religious liberty, using waivers available to them under Title IX. A summary of the report can be found here.
Titled “Hidden Discrimination: Title IX Religious Exemptions Putting LGBT Students at Risk,” the report looks at 56 colleges that have sought such exemptions. According to the report, “Since 2013, 33 have received exemptions from protections that relate to gender identity, and 23 have received exemptions relating to sexual orientation.”
In the eyes of HRC, the constitutional rights of a religious school to remain faithful to its doctrinal views on sexuality and sexual complementarity should be subjugated to the expressive and sexual identity of prospective students. In their view, moral condemnation of homosexuality or transgender identity is tantamount to discrimination, and therefore, Christian schools should not be treated so tolerantly under federal law.
With the wind at its back, however, HRC is capitalizing on legal and cultural shifts in believing it can single out and intimidate those Christian schools, which, SURPRISE . . . believe and act according to the Christian tradition.
Activist group wants to encourage intimidation of schools that follow religious teaching.
By Andrew T. WalkerNational Review Online
On Friday, the nation’s largest gay-rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), released a chilling report that investigates a “disturbing trend” of religious colleges’ taking legal measures to exercise their religious liberty, using waivers available to them under Title IX. A summary of the report can be found here.
Titled “Hidden Discrimination: Title IX Religious Exemptions Putting LGBT Students at Risk,” the report looks at 56 colleges that have sought such exemptions. According to the report, “Since 2013, 33 have received exemptions from protections that relate to gender identity, and 23 have received exemptions relating to sexual orientation.”
In the eyes of HRC, the constitutional rights of a religious school to remain faithful to its doctrinal views on sexuality and sexual complementarity should be subjugated to the expressive and sexual identity of prospective students. In their view, moral condemnation of homosexuality or transgender identity is tantamount to discrimination, and therefore, Christian schools should not be treated so tolerantly under federal law.
With the wind at its back, however, HRC is capitalizing on legal and cultural shifts in believing it can single out and intimidate those Christian schools, which, SURPRISE . . . believe and act according to the Christian tradition.
Wednesday, 4 November 2015
Ve Vill Make You Clap and Cheer
Baker Fights Back After Gov’t Punishes Him for Refusing to Make Gay Wedding Cake
Billy Hallowell
The move comes after the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled in August that Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, cannot cite his faith in his refusal to make a gay wedding cake, as such an act constitutes discrimination.
That ruling backed a decision that was previously made in May 2014 by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, requiring Phillips to make cakes for same-sex celebrations, to engage in “re-educating his staff” and to file reports for two years that show that he is abiding by anti-discrimination laws.
The state Supreme Court appeal is an attempt to secure a religious-freedom exemption for Phillips and others like him, according to his attorneys with the Alliance defending Freedom, a conservative legal firm.
In
this March 10, 2014 photo, Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips
decorates a cake inside his store, in Lakewood, Colo. Phillips is
appealing a ruling against him in a legal complaint filed with the
Colorado Civil Rights Commission by a gay couple he refused to make a
wedding cake for, based on his religious beliefs. (AP Photo/Brennan
Linsley)
Saturday, 23 May 2015
Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow
They Think They’re Jesus
By
Last night I had the privilege of sharing the platform at an event in Coeur D’Alene with Aaron and Melissa Klein. They were the owners of the bakery in Oregon that was shut down by the sexual totalitarians. They were then fined a chunk of cash by some despotic bureaucratic flunky, and when a GoFundMe campaign promised to raise the necessary funds in a matter of hours, the Liberal Forces of Enforced Tolerance did enough screaming to get that shut down. GoFundMe changed the terms of service, and said that Aaron was not a worthy recipient because he was guilty of a heinous crime. That heinous crime was that he told someone that he was very sorry, but that he could not bake a cake for their event.
If you want to help them now — and you should — go to continuetogive.com, and search for Aaron and Melissa Klein. Give now, while there is time, before Christians helping Christians becomes a heinous crime.In my remarks, I basically made four points. First, these controversies are not because evangelical Christians want to avoid doing business with sinners. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:9-10
not to associate with sinners, but he hastens to add that he was
talking about professing Christians who were living this way. If we had
to avoid contact with sinners “of this world” we would have to leave the
planet. There is no requirement that conservative Christians feel
burdened by to avoid commerce with homosexuals. In 1 Corinthians 10,
Paul tells us that meat offered to idols is still acceptable as meat,
which means that there is no ethical contamination in doing business
with people who are not Christians and who live as though they are not
Christians.Thursday, 9 April 2015
Oppression and Tyranny
Forced to Celebrate Evil
The spiral of Unbelief into the void is ineluctable. Getting the "right" to do evil is no longer enough. Now anyone who refuses to join in celebrating that evil must be punished.
Imagine the following moral monstrosity: the SS had been busy raiding a neighbourhood in down-town Warsaw. They went from house to house, arresting Jews, then lining them up before putting them on the cattle trucks. Then they force all the remaining (non-Jewish) householders out on the street, ordering them to dance a jig and chant "death to the Jewish scum". Anyone who refuses is summarily shot.
The depravity has grown so extensive and so perverse that to do evil is not enough. Everyone else must join in celebrating that evil--or else.
Thus, it is not surprising that, overnight it seems, the people being targeted in the campaign of relentless homosexual hatred are those in the celebration industry--bakers, cake makers, photographers, and marriage celebrants.
The spiral of Unbelief into the void is ineluctable. Getting the "right" to do evil is no longer enough. Now anyone who refuses to join in celebrating that evil must be punished.
Imagine the following moral monstrosity: the SS had been busy raiding a neighbourhood in down-town Warsaw. They went from house to house, arresting Jews, then lining them up before putting them on the cattle trucks. Then they force all the remaining (non-Jewish) householders out on the street, ordering them to dance a jig and chant "death to the Jewish scum". Anyone who refuses is summarily shot.
The depravity has grown so extensive and so perverse that to do evil is not enough. Everyone else must join in celebrating that evil--or else.
Thus, it is not surprising that, overnight it seems, the people being targeted in the campaign of relentless homosexual hatred are those in the celebration industry--bakers, cake makers, photographers, and marriage celebrants.
Saturday, 25 October 2014
Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow
Jitney Messiahs
Douglas Wilson
October 14, 2014
As the
same-sex mirage juggernaut continues to roll through our pathetic little
festival, crushing both devotees and opponents alike, a number of
conservative Christians have begun to prepare themselves for life in a
post-Christian America. Not only so, but they have been encouraging
others to do the same. But this is radically unhelpful and unbecoming —
nobody much likes seeing the team manager giving up in the fourth
inning, and especially when the score is just 10 to 8. And particularly when we are the ones who have 10.
But that was the last lie.
Friday, 15 August 2014
Letter From America (About Militarising the Police)
We Must Demilitarize the Police
Senator Rand Paul
14 August, 2014
[One
of the horrible consequences of political rhetoric which brands causes
as a "war", as in "the war against drugs" or the "war against poverty"
or the "war against terrorism" is that government authorities
progressively see themselves as a military force. When it comes to
policing, it is a very small step to militarise the police, so that they
resemble (and act like) an invading army, not a protector of the
public. Rand Paul's piece below is right on the money. Ed.]
The shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown is an awful tragedy that continues to send shockwaves through the community of Ferguson, Missouri and across the nation.
If I had been told to get out of the street as a teenager, there would have been a distinct possibility that I might have smarted off. But, I wouldn’t have expected to be shot.
The outrage in Ferguson is understandable—though there is never an excuse for rioting or looting. There is a legitimate role for the police to keep the peace, but there should be a difference between a police response and a military response. The images and scenes we continue to see in Ferguson resemble war more than traditional police action.
But nowadays, police are looking, and acting, more like soldiers than
cops, with bad consequences. And those who suffer the consequences are
usually innocent civilians.
Glenn Reynolds, in Popular Mechanics, recognized the increasing militarization of the police five years ago. In 2009 he wrote:
Soldiers and police are supposed to be different. … Police look inward. They’re supposed to protect their fellow citizens from criminals, and to maintain order with a minimum of force.The Cato Institute’s Walter Olson observed this week how the rising militarization of law enforcement is currently playing out in Ferguson:
It’s the difference between Audie Murphy and Andy Griffith. But nowadays, police are looking, and acting, more like soldiers than cops, with bad consequences. And those who suffer the consequences are usually innocent civilians.
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