Prisoners tortured by Libyan militia
Ian Black, London
January 28, 2012
Prisoners held by Libyan militiamen told Amnesty International they had been beaten for hours and given electric shocks. Photo: AP |
Friday, 3 February 2012
Letter From Libya
Descent into Darkness
Letter From America
Social Darwinism at Work
It is only a few short years ago that eugenics was practised in the United States. It was a direct result of Social Darwinism--of elites trying to "help along" the Darwinist idea of the emergence of an uber-race. This article, reprinted in the Sydney Morning Herald underscores how eugenics is part of our recent history. It wasn't just the Nazis.
The killer quotation (literally): "The board's goal was to purify the state's population by weeding out the mentally ill, diseased, feebleminded and others deemed undesirable."
It is only a few short years ago that eugenics was practised in the United States. It was a direct result of Social Darwinism--of elites trying to "help along" the Darwinist idea of the emergence of an uber-race. This article, reprinted in the Sydney Morning Herald underscores how eugenics is part of our recent history. It wasn't just the Nazis.
The killer quotation (literally): "The board's goal was to purify the state's population by weeding out the mentally ill, diseased, feebleminded and others deemed undesirable."
It's Broken Down
Now Even the Mundane Requires a Miracle
How about this? NZ government primary schools are having to report back on how their charges performed under National Standards. One school has fessed up and exposed to all the world how its students and the school have failed.
How about this? NZ government primary schools are having to report back on how their charges performed under National Standards. One school has fessed up and exposed to all the world how its students and the school have failed.
A Wairarapa school will come under special attention from the Ministry of Education after most of its students failed the National Standards benchmark last year. But Dalefield School principal Kevin Jephson, who voluntarily went public about his school's results, said the standards were invalid and inappropriate for his school.It turns out that the principal, Mr Jephson has been an implacable opponent of National Standards. By going public, no doubt, he is endeavouring to make a political point. "Our students failed, and we are proud of it" would be the sub-text.
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Douglas Wilson's Letter From America
Honest As White Paint
Mere Christendom
Written by Douglas Wilson
Friday, January 27, 2012
I have said kind things about Ron Paul in the past, and I will continue say them in the future. He continues to be one of the people I could vote for when Ringling Bros. finally brings the gaudy parade to my state. But he whiffed it last night in the debate when asked how his faith would affect his behavior in office. He said that it wouldn't. Not only did he whiff it, but Santorum jacked it out of the park.
Santorum said, quite rightly, that the Constitution is the how of America, and the Declaration is the why. He said that government doesn't give us our rights -- God does that -- and he said that the government's role is to protect God-given rights. This was a dead-on bull's eye.
Mere Christendom
Written by Douglas Wilson
Friday, January 27, 2012
I have said kind things about Ron Paul in the past, and I will continue say them in the future. He continues to be one of the people I could vote for when Ringling Bros. finally brings the gaudy parade to my state. But he whiffed it last night in the debate when asked how his faith would affect his behavior in office. He said that it wouldn't. Not only did he whiff it, but Santorum jacked it out of the park.
Santorum said, quite rightly, that the Constitution is the how of America, and the Declaration is the why. He said that government doesn't give us our rights -- God does that -- and he said that the government's role is to protect God-given rights. This was a dead-on bull's eye.
Rethinking Crime and Punishment
Why Did New York City's Crime Rate Drop by 80%?
A worthy article by Adam Gopnik on crime and punishment has been published in The New Yorker. We will attempt a precis of the salient points.
Firstly, the size of the problem: the penal system in the US is vast and racially biased.
A worthy article by Adam Gopnik on crime and punishment has been published in The New Yorker. We will attempt a precis of the salient points.
Firstly, the size of the problem: the penal system in the US is vast and racially biased.
For a great many poor people in America, particularly poor black men, prison is a destination that braids through an ordinary life, much as high school and college do for rich white ones. More than half of all black men without a high-school diploma go to prison at some time in their lives. Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today—perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850. In truth, there are more black men in the grip of the criminal-justice system—in prison, on probation, or on parole—than were in slavery then. Over all, there are now more people under “correctional supervision” in America—more than six million—than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height. That city of the confined and the controlled, Lockuptown, is now the second largest in the United States.Secondly, US prisons are brutal places.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Letter From America
The Sinking of the West
It’ll look more like the Costa Concordia than the Titanic.
By Mark Steyn
The miserable Captain Schettino, by contrast, is presently under house arrest, charged with manslaughter and abandoning ship.
It’ll look more like the Costa Concordia than the Titanic.
By Mark Steyn
Abe Greenwald of Commentary magazine tweets:
Is there any chance that Mark Steyn won’t use the Italian captain fleeing the sinking ship as the lead metaphor in a column on EU collapse?Oh, dear. You’ve got to get up early in the morning to beat me to civilizational-collapse metaphors. Been there, done that. See page 185 of my most recent book, where I contrast the orderly, dignified, and moving behavior of those on the Titanic (the ship, not the mendacious Hollywood blockbuster) with that manifested in more recent disasters. There was no orderly evacuation from the Costa Concordia, just chaos punctuated by individual acts of courage from, for example, an Hungarian violinist in the orchestra and a ship’s entertainer in a Spiderman costume, both of whom helped children to safety, the former paying with his life.
The miserable Captain Schettino, by contrast, is presently under house arrest, charged with manslaughter and abandoning ship.
Bad Weather Coming
Idiotic Utopians and Mountains of Vainglorious Pride
The Soviet Union believed in Five Year Plans--central, government plans--to develop the economy of the Soviet Union to reach a prosperous nirvana whilst creating a new order in the world. Government planners would focus the resources of the economy on what was vital and important; resources would be delivered; production targets would be set; and the entire army of Soviet New Socialist Citizens would go to work to transform the USSR from poverty to a socialist paradise.
None can gainsay that every attempt was made, every resource was committed. Yet for nearly one hundred years the Soviet Union was so poor and backward that it did not have enough food for its own people. Millions upon millions died through starvation and its attendant diseases. Ah, but the propaganda machine had a ready series of excuses and explanations.
The Soviet Union believed in Five Year Plans--central, government plans--to develop the economy of the Soviet Union to reach a prosperous nirvana whilst creating a new order in the world. Government planners would focus the resources of the economy on what was vital and important; resources would be delivered; production targets would be set; and the entire army of Soviet New Socialist Citizens would go to work to transform the USSR from poverty to a socialist paradise.
None can gainsay that every attempt was made, every resource was committed. Yet for nearly one hundred years the Soviet Union was so poor and backward that it did not have enough food for its own people. Millions upon millions died through starvation and its attendant diseases. Ah, but the propaganda machine had a ready series of excuses and explanations.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Douglas Wilson's Letter From America
The Ultimacy of Right Reason
Goo-Mongers - Postmodernism
Written by Douglas Wilson
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
I want to expand a bit on what I said about logic and the character and nature of God.
First, the problem. If logic is external to God, and is something that He obeys or conforms to, then we are saying that there is another God, senior to Him, whose dictates He must somehow obey. That is obviously out for the orthodox, on the basis of being ridiculous.
But if we say that logic is a created thing, fashioned as a could-have-been-otherwise sort of thing by God for this world, then absolutely anything goes, and God Himself becomes absolutely unknowable. I will explain this further in a moment.
This leaves the option that the font of all logic is somehow an attribute of God, like His love, like His holiness, and so on. More on this in a moment also.
Goo-Mongers - Postmodernism
Written by Douglas Wilson
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
I want to expand a bit on what I said about logic and the character and nature of God.
First, the problem. If logic is external to God, and is something that He obeys or conforms to, then we are saying that there is another God, senior to Him, whose dictates He must somehow obey. That is obviously out for the orthodox, on the basis of being ridiculous.
But if we say that logic is a created thing, fashioned as a could-have-been-otherwise sort of thing by God for this world, then absolutely anything goes, and God Himself becomes absolutely unknowable. I will explain this further in a moment.
This leaves the option that the font of all logic is somehow an attribute of God, like His love, like His holiness, and so on. More on this in a moment also.
Selling Our Souls Down the River
State Control of Stools and Urine
The electronic communication zone is running hot over some inane comments by some "researchers in public health". These illuminati were interviewed on national radio and had the temerity to utter the following inanity:
The electronic communication zone is running hot over some inane comments by some "researchers in public health". These illuminati were interviewed on national radio and had the temerity to utter the following inanity:
Obesity, she said, was "not a problem with individual choice and self-discipline, which we've proved successfully doesn't work". Instead it's the fault of "big institutions and the market".Most of the criticism rightly points out that for 99 percent of the obese population their condition is caused by three things--what they ingest, how much, and what is not done to burn the calories off. It is a completely self-inflicted condition. Quite right.
Monday, 30 January 2012
File Cabinets in the Rat Tunnels
5 Thoughts on the South Carolinian Newtslide
Culture and Politics - Politics
Written by Douglas Wilson
Monday, January 23, 2012
1. The voters are apparently in the mood for belligerence toward liberals and the media. This is not the same thing as insisting on belligerence that is coherent and consistent over time (for that would have excluded Newt), but they clearly want a scrap. The other candidates should take note.
2. The South Carolina results punctured for good and all the inevitability myth that Romney had been cultivating for himself. Santorum took Iowa, Romney took New Hampshire, and Gingrich took South Carolina. As one web site put it, that looks a lot more like evitability than inevitability. But we should not waste a lot of energy wringing our hands over the blood-letting of the primary season. It is a good system -- call it blood-vetting. We ought not to be pining for a "more rational" primary system. We have an honest tournament system now. Reforms by uplifters will just get us a political version of the BCS system.
3. When someone like Ron Paul freaks out the Republican establishment, there is not much they can do about their panic. Whatever you say about Paul, reticence to express the constancy of his views is not usually on the list, and the GOP establishment doesn't have any handles on him. There is good reason to believe that Newt freaks out the GOP establishment in a different way. Newt is a long-time insider, knowing the twists and turns of every rat tunnel under the Capitol. In return, the establishment knows him, knows where the bodies are buried, and knows where the file cabinets are. I refer to particular file cabinets, the contents of which would be enormously damaging to the Gingrich campaign. Look for the leaks to start very soon.
4. Newt cheated on his first wife with his second wife, and cheated on his second wife with his third. This means, incidentally, that in her recent interview his second wife was complaining about what Newt had done to her, when that was she and Newt had together done to his first wife. She complained that Newt had wanted an open marriage, but why was she surprised? She had participated in a practice run with him a bit earlier on. So this point is not taking up her account as gospel.
But, at the very least, does not this particular set of tangles call the caliber of Newt's judgment into question? Suppose the charge is not adulterous philandering of the predatory variety, but rather a short attention span with regard to everything? As Santorum put it, Newt has "an idea a minute," and there he is, impulsively charging off after the most recent shiny thing. Sometimes it is another woman, and other times it is global warming or the individual mandate. Oh, great. That's what America needs -- another Nixon, only without the discipline.
5. One of the historic reasons why homosexuals were denied security clearances is because of the possibility of blackmail. They were denied security access, not because of "bigotry," but rather because they were a security risk. The same kind of thing would apply to adulterers. Now run a thought experiment. If Newt gets the nomination, does anybody seriously think there won't be more about Newt's sexual proclivities surfacing in the general campaign?
These bimbo eruptions will surface in one of two categories -- the charges will either be true or false. If true, then, well, there we will be, wondering how many more trillions Obama can get over the next four years from his secret bank account on the moon. If false, then it will be slander, but it will be sticky slander. The public and acknowledged facts of Newt's life will make him particularly vulnerable to that slander. In other words, Newt is a nomination risk, and this aspect of his life is a no-lose proposition for the Democrats.
Culture and Politics - Politics
Written by Douglas Wilson
Monday, January 23, 2012
1. The voters are apparently in the mood for belligerence toward liberals and the media. This is not the same thing as insisting on belligerence that is coherent and consistent over time (for that would have excluded Newt), but they clearly want a scrap. The other candidates should take note.
2. The South Carolina results punctured for good and all the inevitability myth that Romney had been cultivating for himself. Santorum took Iowa, Romney took New Hampshire, and Gingrich took South Carolina. As one web site put it, that looks a lot more like evitability than inevitability. But we should not waste a lot of energy wringing our hands over the blood-letting of the primary season. It is a good system -- call it blood-vetting. We ought not to be pining for a "more rational" primary system. We have an honest tournament system now. Reforms by uplifters will just get us a political version of the BCS system.
3. When someone like Ron Paul freaks out the Republican establishment, there is not much they can do about their panic. Whatever you say about Paul, reticence to express the constancy of his views is not usually on the list, and the GOP establishment doesn't have any handles on him. There is good reason to believe that Newt freaks out the GOP establishment in a different way. Newt is a long-time insider, knowing the twists and turns of every rat tunnel under the Capitol. In return, the establishment knows him, knows where the bodies are buried, and knows where the file cabinets are. I refer to particular file cabinets, the contents of which would be enormously damaging to the Gingrich campaign. Look for the leaks to start very soon.
4. Newt cheated on his first wife with his second wife, and cheated on his second wife with his third. This means, incidentally, that in her recent interview his second wife was complaining about what Newt had done to her, when that was she and Newt had together done to his first wife. She complained that Newt had wanted an open marriage, but why was she surprised? She had participated in a practice run with him a bit earlier on. So this point is not taking up her account as gospel.
But, at the very least, does not this particular set of tangles call the caliber of Newt's judgment into question? Suppose the charge is not adulterous philandering of the predatory variety, but rather a short attention span with regard to everything? As Santorum put it, Newt has "an idea a minute," and there he is, impulsively charging off after the most recent shiny thing. Sometimes it is another woman, and other times it is global warming or the individual mandate. Oh, great. That's what America needs -- another Nixon, only without the discipline.
5. One of the historic reasons why homosexuals were denied security clearances is because of the possibility of blackmail. They were denied security access, not because of "bigotry," but rather because they were a security risk. The same kind of thing would apply to adulterers. Now run a thought experiment. If Newt gets the nomination, does anybody seriously think there won't be more about Newt's sexual proclivities surfacing in the general campaign?
These bimbo eruptions will surface in one of two categories -- the charges will either be true or false. If true, then, well, there we will be, wondering how many more trillions Obama can get over the next four years from his secret bank account on the moon. If false, then it will be slander, but it will be sticky slander. The public and acknowledged facts of Newt's life will make him particularly vulnerable to that slander. In other words, Newt is a nomination risk, and this aspect of his life is a no-lose proposition for the Democrats.
Subterranean Paganism
How Did It Come to This?
Just how Christianised was Western Europe in the first place? Rodney Stark (One True God: Historical Consequences of Monotheism [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001]) provokes readers with this question. His answer: not very.
In the past two centuries we have seen a move away from the Christian faith--and a rapid collapse of the First Christendom--in the West. What took centuries to build was gone by lunch time, so to speak. Why? Naturally, in all such "big" questions, the causes are always complex and multifarious. However, some factors will inevitably be more influential and affective than others.
Here is a summary of Stark's argument: he draws a fundamental distinction between the quality and timbre of missionary effort of the Church before and after Constantine.
Just how Christianised was Western Europe in the first place? Rodney Stark (One True God: Historical Consequences of Monotheism [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001]) provokes readers with this question. His answer: not very.
In the past two centuries we have seen a move away from the Christian faith--and a rapid collapse of the First Christendom--in the West. What took centuries to build was gone by lunch time, so to speak. Why? Naturally, in all such "big" questions, the causes are always complex and multifarious. However, some factors will inevitably be more influential and affective than others.
Here is a summary of Stark's argument: he draws a fundamental distinction between the quality and timbre of missionary effort of the Church before and after Constantine.
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Roe Vs Wade
Radical, Legally Untenable and Immoral
The following article is taken from Justin Taylor's blog:
Law professor Michael Stokes Paulsen has a remarkably helpful and concise explanation of what Roe v. Wade (especially combined with Doe v. Bolton) actually means: “The Unbearable Wrongness of Roe.”
Here are excerpts from his three critiques:
(1)The Radicalism of Roe
“I suspect that if more people understood Roe‘s and Doe‘s actual holding fewer would support that constitutional regime. Roe was a truly extreme decision, creating an effectively unrestricted constitutional right to abort a living human being for any reason the mother might have, throughout pregnancy right up to the point of birth.”
The following article is taken from Justin Taylor's blog:
Law professor Michael Stokes Paulsen has a remarkably helpful and concise explanation of what Roe v. Wade (especially combined with Doe v. Bolton) actually means: “The Unbearable Wrongness of Roe.”
Here are excerpts from his three critiques:
(1)The Radicalism of Roe
“I suspect that if more people understood Roe‘s and Doe‘s actual holding fewer would support that constitutional regime. Roe was a truly extreme decision, creating an effectively unrestricted constitutional right to abort a living human being for any reason the mother might have, throughout pregnancy right up to the point of birth.”
Corruption in China and New Zealand
Theft by Any Other Name is . . . . Theft
The Left has little or no respect for property rights. What you own is yours only if the collective (society, the state) says you can retain ownership. At any time, for the "common good" your property can be devalued, stripped, or confiscated. In principle we are, therefore, slaves in our own country; any freedoms we may enjoy are at the pleasure of the collective.
This plight is put front and centre in the Australian classic, The Castle. Sadly, whilst this is a superb comedy, its dramatic tension actually relies upon a very serious matter that is all too real. In The Castle, remedy comes to Darryl Kerrigan through the courts. The High Court decided that the Constitution of Australia required that Darryl's "castle" could only be purchased on just terms. We have no such checks and balances in New Zealand. Parliament is supreme.
The Government in New Zealand is about to decide whether a Chinese consortium can purchase around sixteen NZ dairy farms.
The Left has little or no respect for property rights. What you own is yours only if the collective (society, the state) says you can retain ownership. At any time, for the "common good" your property can be devalued, stripped, or confiscated. In principle we are, therefore, slaves in our own country; any freedoms we may enjoy are at the pleasure of the collective.
This plight is put front and centre in the Australian classic, The Castle. Sadly, whilst this is a superb comedy, its dramatic tension actually relies upon a very serious matter that is all too real. In The Castle, remedy comes to Darryl Kerrigan through the courts. The High Court decided that the Constitution of Australia required that Darryl's "castle" could only be purchased on just terms. We have no such checks and balances in New Zealand. Parliament is supreme.
The Government in New Zealand is about to decide whether a Chinese consortium can purchase around sixteen NZ dairy farms.
Friday, 27 January 2012
Studies in I Samuel
A Study in Failure
Expository - Book of Samuel
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, January 21, 2012
INTRODUCTION:
As 1 Samuel comes to a close, the life of Saul comes to a miserable end. As we will see, the manner of his death was a fitting picture of the way he had lived his life throughout the course of his reign. His reign was a long pattern of self-destruction, and in the end, Saul took his own life—the final act of self-destruction. He died the way he had lived, destroying himself.
THE TEXT:
“Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa. . .” (1 Sam. 31:1-13).
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:
The chapter begins with the Philistines attacking, and they routed the men of Israel. As they fled from the Philistines, the carnage took place on the mountain Gilboa (v. 1). The Philistines were in hard pursuit of Saul and his three sons, and they successfully killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua (v. 2).
Expository - Book of Samuel
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, January 21, 2012
INTRODUCTION:
As 1 Samuel comes to a close, the life of Saul comes to a miserable end. As we will see, the manner of his death was a fitting picture of the way he had lived his life throughout the course of his reign. His reign was a long pattern of self-destruction, and in the end, Saul took his own life—the final act of self-destruction. He died the way he had lived, destroying himself.
THE TEXT:
“Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa. . .” (1 Sam. 31:1-13).
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:
The chapter begins with the Philistines attacking, and they routed the men of Israel. As they fled from the Philistines, the carnage took place on the mountain Gilboa (v. 1). The Philistines were in hard pursuit of Saul and his three sons, and they successfully killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua (v. 2).
A Curio at Te Papa
A Complaint and Its Aftermath
The following piece has appeared in Quadrant Online. It concerns a visitor to New Zealand, a sojourn at Te Papa, a complaint, and what happened as a result. The complaint? It was about the museum's display on "Climate Change".
In November I was a passenger on the cruise liner Volendam, ex-Sydney and hopping from port to port in New Zealand. Note: this is NOT a piece about cruise liners’ safety or otherwise. About November 18 we tied up at Wellington and I scampered ashore to enjoy a visit to Te Papa, the wonderful science and nature museum alongside the wharf.
The best bit was ogling the 4.2m metre colossal squid, alas looking a bit puce in its tank of formaldehyde but nonetheless with eyes as big as basketballs, outstripping the dog in Hans Andersen’s Tinderbox story that had eyes only as big as saucers.
From there I wandered over to the “Awesome Forces” display of nature’s power, where among other activities you can stand in a mock living room and feel what happens when a house is shaken by a NZ-style earthquake.
Nearby was the climate change exhibit, showing how ice ages come and go. I moved along it to the end, and there I got a shock.
The following piece has appeared in Quadrant Online. It concerns a visitor to New Zealand, a sojourn at Te Papa, a complaint, and what happened as a result. The complaint? It was about the museum's display on "Climate Change".
Climate correction in NZ
January 19, 2012
In November I was a passenger on the cruise liner Volendam, ex-Sydney and hopping from port to port in New Zealand. Note: this is NOT a piece about cruise liners’ safety or otherwise. About November 18 we tied up at Wellington and I scampered ashore to enjoy a visit to Te Papa, the wonderful science and nature museum alongside the wharf.The best bit was ogling the 4.2m metre colossal squid, alas looking a bit puce in its tank of formaldehyde but nonetheless with eyes as big as basketballs, outstripping the dog in Hans Andersen’s Tinderbox story that had eyes only as big as saucers.
From there I wandered over to the “Awesome Forces” display of nature’s power, where among other activities you can stand in a mock living room and feel what happens when a house is shaken by a NZ-style earthquake.
Nearby was the climate change exhibit, showing how ice ages come and go. I moved along it to the end, and there I got a shock.
Thursday, 26 January 2012
It's a Girl, Part II
Gendercide
Ram Mashru
Gendercide in South Asia takes many forms: baby girls are killed or abandoned if not aborted as foetuses. Girls that are not killed often suffer malnutrition and medical neglect as sons are favoured when shelter, medicine and food are scarce. Trafficking, dowry deaths, honour killings and deaths resulting from domestic violence are all further evils perpetrated against women. This femicide has led the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces to report in ‘Women in an Insecure World’ that a secret genocide is being carried out against women at a time when deaths resulting from armed conflicts have decreased.
The brutal irony of femicide is that it is an evil perpetrated against girls by women.
Ram Mashru
Gendercide in South Asia takes many forms: baby girls are killed or abandoned if not aborted as foetuses. Girls that are not killed often suffer malnutrition and medical neglect as sons are favoured when shelter, medicine and food are scarce. Trafficking, dowry deaths, honour killings and deaths resulting from domestic violence are all further evils perpetrated against women. This femicide has led the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces to report in ‘Women in an Insecure World’ that a secret genocide is being carried out against women at a time when deaths resulting from armed conflicts have decreased.
The brutal irony of femicide is that it is an evil perpetrated against girls by women.
Mis-Applied Civil Rights
Panty Waist Liberals and Criminal Gangs
The case of the Turangi child rapist has sickened the nation. There has been a plethora of reports in the media about how the 16 year old, who has plead guilty, is an ordinary fellow. His friends expressed puzzlement, disbelief, and confusion over his actions. His community network spoke of his family being fine, upstanding people. We were all left wondering, What on earth has gone on here?
Now, more sinister matters are coming to light. This from Stuff:
The case of the Turangi child rapist has sickened the nation. There has been a plethora of reports in the media about how the 16 year old, who has plead guilty, is an ordinary fellow. His friends expressed puzzlement, disbelief, and confusion over his actions. His community network spoke of his family being fine, upstanding people. We were all left wondering, What on earth has gone on here?
Now, more sinister matters are coming to light. This from Stuff:
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
It's a Girl!
The Three Most Deadly Words in the Language
You can watch it here:
We are thankful for the expose, the disgust, and the opposition. May it grow to an unstoppable crescendo. But don't expect much support from feminists and liberals. How can they oppose in India and China and South Asia what they promote in their own back yards as a human right?
Justin Taylor has posted the following:
A new documentary, It’s a Girl! The Three Deadliest Words in the World, explores the systematic gendercide taking place in India, China, and other areas of South Asia.
Ram Mushru, reviewing the film the Independent, writes: “The trailer’s most chilling scene is one with an Indian woman who, unable to contain her laughter, confesses to having killed eight infant daughters.” That line makes me think of Romans 1:32: “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things [like heartless, ruthless murder---see vv. 29-31] deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”
You can watch it here:
We are thankful for the expose, the disgust, and the opposition. May it grow to an unstoppable crescendo. But don't expect much support from feminists and liberals. How can they oppose in India and China and South Asia what they promote in their own back yards as a human right?
Sluggards, Politicians and the Poor
Nothing a Special Grant from WINZ Won't Fix
We are about to have another talk-fest on child poverty and income inequality in New Zealand. This will be a politically inspired confabulation.
We are about to have another talk-fest on child poverty and income inequality in New Zealand. This will be a politically inspired confabulation.
Deputy Prime Minister Bill English and Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia are setting up a ministerial committee on poverty under the Maori Party's post-election agreement with the National Party. (NZ Herald)Some social researchers have discovered that children born to parents living in "poverty" are likely to be significantly poorer than others in their demographic cohort for the rest of their lives. In other words, if they are born into poverty, it, more often than not becomes a trap, a deep slippery pit from which they never climb out.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Douglas Wilson's Letter From America
Unscrewing the Inscrutable
Culture and Politics - Politics
Written by Douglas Wilson
Friday, January 20, 2012
So then. Let us have a little chat, you and I, about the exuberant Newtlove that is popping up in some quarters. Whence cometh it? I would like to identify the point of origin first, and then give perhaps something of an indication of what I think of it.
The meme that is circulating, mostly in Newt's head, is that he is a great debater, and we need someone on that stage who could smoke Obama in a presidential debate. And I do grant that smoke would be involved, along with other acrid smells, but I don't really think a debate with Newt would result in Obama's second term aspirations departing from him with a whoosh.
Why do some think that Newt is a great debater? To pose the question is to ask me, to use Mencken's phrase, to unscrew the inscrutable. They think it for the same reason that others think Obama is a great rhetorician, and still others think the musical soundtrack from The Little Mermaid is great art.
Culture and Politics - Politics
Written by Douglas Wilson
Friday, January 20, 2012
So then. Let us have a little chat, you and I, about the exuberant Newtlove that is popping up in some quarters. Whence cometh it? I would like to identify the point of origin first, and then give perhaps something of an indication of what I think of it.
The meme that is circulating, mostly in Newt's head, is that he is a great debater, and we need someone on that stage who could smoke Obama in a presidential debate. And I do grant that smoke would be involved, along with other acrid smells, but I don't really think a debate with Newt would result in Obama's second term aspirations departing from him with a whoosh.
Why do some think that Newt is a great debater? To pose the question is to ask me, to use Mencken's phrase, to unscrew the inscrutable. They think it for the same reason that others think Obama is a great rhetorician, and still others think the musical soundtrack from The Little Mermaid is great art.
Letter From America
Voter Dissatisfaction
Here is Washington Times columnist, Charles Hurt's take on the Gingrich win in South Carolina. It's an interesting perspective.
Here is Washington Times columnist, Charles Hurt's take on the Gingrich win in South Carolina. It's an interesting perspective.
COLUMBIA , S.C. — It is always here in the birthplace of the Civil War that things go bump in the night for presidential campaigns. . . . But all the shady twists and turns of the past were nothing compared with the Spanish moss-draped soap opera that has unfolded here in the past week. . . .
Two candidates — former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Texas Gov. Rick Perry — crashed and burned, each begrudgingly endorsing their former enemies as they withdrew. . . . It has been a week of more heartache and drama than "Gone with the Wind." More intrigue than a John Grisham novel. And the story has been so Southern Gothic as to make William Faulker wake from the dead to enjoy the show.
Monday, 23 January 2012
Global Warming and Evolutionism
Both are Junk Science
A post at The Resilient Earth discloses that Global Warming confabulators are calling for a new spring offensive. Stuck in the trenches of the Somme they are not yet sufficiently war-weary to give up. Just one more dash over the top, into the mud holes, bayonets fixed and we will have those global warming sceptics on the run.
Hoffman argues that it will not succeed because in the end global warming is just bad science--all conjecture with no experimental foundation. Unfortunately, his exertions against global warming have addled his brain. He is foolish enough to argue that global warming has no more scientific foundation than creationism. In his mind, global warming is akin to creationism; anti-global warming is equivalent to evolutionism. The latter pairing is scientifically founded; the former, not so.
But then he points out that evolutionists and global warmists are starting to team up as co-belligerents. He cannot understand why. It's because one of his premises is dead wrong.
A post at The Resilient Earth discloses that Global Warming confabulators are calling for a new spring offensive. Stuck in the trenches of the Somme they are not yet sufficiently war-weary to give up. Just one more dash over the top, into the mud holes, bayonets fixed and we will have those global warming sceptics on the run.
Hoffman argues that it will not succeed because in the end global warming is just bad science--all conjecture with no experimental foundation. Unfortunately, his exertions against global warming have addled his brain. He is foolish enough to argue that global warming has no more scientific foundation than creationism. In his mind, global warming is akin to creationism; anti-global warming is equivalent to evolutionism. The latter pairing is scientifically founded; the former, not so.
But then he points out that evolutionists and global warmists are starting to team up as co-belligerents. He cannot understand why. It's because one of his premises is dead wrong.
Great Work We'd Rather Not Have
Unpaid Government Agents
Zen Tiger has written an important piece on the increasing trend to make businesses an administrative and enforcement arm of government.
The current stoush is over controlling the Internet. In the latest piece of legislative coruscation, the US Congress has been considering bills which would appear to make all internet businesses legally responsible if they do not take positive action to shut an offender down and out.
A wartime moral equivalent would be that if a village did not rush to dob in a resistance fighter, the entire town would be wiped out. Au contraire. Any government which contemplates such moral and legal monstrosities should be shown the door. Immediately. By democratic means, of course.
Unfortunately, as Zen points out, the principle is now accepted, and is expanding. It's an inevitable result of Big Government. All the citizenry, in the end, becomes unpaid workers for the Big Guy, Sharkey. Or else.
Zen Tiger has written an important piece on the increasing trend to make businesses an administrative and enforcement arm of government.
The current stoush is over controlling the Internet. In the latest piece of legislative coruscation, the US Congress has been considering bills which would appear to make all internet businesses legally responsible if they do not take positive action to shut an offender down and out.
A wartime moral equivalent would be that if a village did not rush to dob in a resistance fighter, the entire town would be wiped out. Au contraire. Any government which contemplates such moral and legal monstrosities should be shown the door. Immediately. By democratic means, of course.
Unfortunately, as Zen points out, the principle is now accepted, and is expanding. It's an inevitable result of Big Government. All the citizenry, in the end, becomes unpaid workers for the Big Guy, Sharkey. Or else.
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Douglas Wilson's Letter From America
Basic Math as Dark Horse
Culture and Politics - Politics
Written by Douglas Wilson
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
I have made this economic point before, but it appears to me that I need to keep making it. This is because we live in a time when we will all need to be reminded, regularly and at periodic intervals, that red ink does not really exist. Related catastrophes do, but I should explain myself.
We are in the same position as two drunk guys who were out on the town, and on a friendly bender.
Culture and Politics - Politics
Written by Douglas Wilson
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
I have made this economic point before, but it appears to me that I need to keep making it. This is because we live in a time when we will all need to be reminded, regularly and at periodic intervals, that red ink does not really exist. Related catastrophes do, but I should explain myself.
We are in the same position as two drunk guys who were out on the town, and on a friendly bender.
S-Files: First Award in 2012
Good One, Guys
ContraCelsum is pleased to announce the first S-Award of 2012. The Award Committee has voted unanimously to recognise the heroic efforts of three water main contractors in saving the life of a three-year old, taking charge in an extraordinarily stressful situation.
Here is what went down:
ContraCelsum is pleased to announce the first S-Award of 2012. The Award Committee has voted unanimously to recognise the heroic efforts of three water main contractors in saving the life of a three-year old, taking charge in an extraordinarily stressful situation.
Here is what went down:
Friday, 20 January 2012
Douglas Wilson's Letter From America
A Heap the Size of Mt. Sinai
Politics
Written by Douglas Wilson
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Well, nobody can say that the Republican primaries have been deficient as entertainment. People blowing up left and right like there were no tomorrow. At this rate, we'll get to Jeb in no time.
Cain was glib but fun, and while solid on some stuff, he encountered a situation he couldn't quip his way out of, maybe because it was one he quipped his way into. Huntsman was the boutique candidate who couldn't get any WalMart shoppers to switch over. Perry is likely to be dropping out, and the report is that he will be endorsing Newt, at just the very moment when Newt's candidacy has an event that we used to call in the Navy a "reactor scram." One of Newt's exes is poised to dish the dirt on him, and no one is exactly shocked to find that she has the wherewithal.
Politics
Written by Douglas Wilson
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Well, nobody can say that the Republican primaries have been deficient as entertainment. People blowing up left and right like there were no tomorrow. At this rate, we'll get to Jeb in no time.
Cain was glib but fun, and while solid on some stuff, he encountered a situation he couldn't quip his way out of, maybe because it was one he quipped his way into. Huntsman was the boutique candidate who couldn't get any WalMart shoppers to switch over. Perry is likely to be dropping out, and the report is that he will be endorsing Newt, at just the very moment when Newt's candidacy has an event that we used to call in the Navy a "reactor scram." One of Newt's exes is poised to dish the dirt on him, and no one is exactly shocked to find that she has the wherewithal.
Self-Serving Rubbish
Ram Secularism Down Our Throats
Kiwiblog doyen and chief purveyor, David Farrar has entered the lists to explain why he does not like Bishop Brian Tamaki. Fair enough. Everybody is entitled to his express his view. Regrettably, in this instance, Farrar's comments are little more than pious, self-serving twaddle with a generous dose of confusion thrown in.
Farrar adopts the mien of humility to explain that he is really not qualified to pass judgement on the doctrines of Destiny Church. Nevertheless there are some things which, to his mind, definitely put Destiny so far out of the corral it is way over the mountain range. Wait for it. Here it is . . .
Kiwiblog doyen and chief purveyor, David Farrar has entered the lists to explain why he does not like Bishop Brian Tamaki. Fair enough. Everybody is entitled to his express his view. Regrettably, in this instance, Farrar's comments are little more than pious, self-serving twaddle with a generous dose of confusion thrown in.
Farrar adopts the mien of humility to explain that he is really not qualified to pass judgement on the doctrines of Destiny Church. Nevertheless there are some things which, to his mind, definitely put Destiny so far out of the corral it is way over the mountain range. Wait for it. Here it is . . .
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Douglas Wilson's Letter From America
Sexual Obedience Outside Scripture
Culture and Politics - Sex and Culture
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, January 14, 2012
And so here is my final response to the issues surrounding the publication of Real Marriage. The fundamental issue here is hermeneutics -- how do we read God's Word, and more important contextually, how do we read God's Word in the context of God's world? This is actually an issue having to do with the intersection of natural revelation and special revelation.
My beginning assumption is that they are not two books in the library, which can somehow be checked out and read independently of one another. They are interlocking realities.
Calvin famously began the Institutes by saying that we cannot know God unless we know ourselves, and we cannot know ourselves apart from knowing God.
Culture and Politics - Sex and Culture
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, January 14, 2012
And so here is my final response to the issues surrounding the publication of Real Marriage. The fundamental issue here is hermeneutics -- how do we read God's Word, and more important contextually, how do we read God's Word in the context of God's world? This is actually an issue having to do with the intersection of natural revelation and special revelation.
My beginning assumption is that they are not two books in the library, which can somehow be checked out and read independently of one another. They are interlocking realities.
Calvin famously began the Institutes by saying that we cannot know God unless we know ourselves, and we cannot know ourselves apart from knowing God.
Working Amidst the "Decline and Fall"
Diaspora and Mission
Much debate over procedural issues concerning the global Christian mission to convert the world remains superficial and trite. By "procedural issues" we mean, how do we (the Church visible) actually get the task of discipling all of the nations done?
Whenever this question comes up, sooner rather than later the discussion shifts to the book of Acts. This is not unreasonable. Yet, the outcome is not that helpful, more often than not. One reason for this is that reading the book of Acts as if it were an operational missions manual--a "how to" book for dummies--necessarily strips that wonderful book of Scripture out of its redemptive and historical context. Whenever you do that with the Bible little good will come.
Let's throw down a particular precept as an example.
Much debate over procedural issues concerning the global Christian mission to convert the world remains superficial and trite. By "procedural issues" we mean, how do we (the Church visible) actually get the task of discipling all of the nations done?
Whenever this question comes up, sooner rather than later the discussion shifts to the book of Acts. This is not unreasonable. Yet, the outcome is not that helpful, more often than not. One reason for this is that reading the book of Acts as if it were an operational missions manual--a "how to" book for dummies--necessarily strips that wonderful book of Scripture out of its redemptive and historical context. Whenever you do that with the Bible little good will come.
Let's throw down a particular precept as an example.
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