Retrograde, Reactionary and Ignorant

The State of Labour

The Labour Party in New Zealand is in disarray--ideologically.  It has repeatedly shown that it is bereft of ideas, policies, and principles that engage with the real world.  This is what happens when a political party gets captured by minority interest groups: in this case, homosexuals, unions, and 60's-style feminists. 

Any policies or ideas, when announced, end up being strange or extreme.  Under such conditions politics becomes a very hard slog indeed.

The latest debacle is Labour's "wage policy".  It has been written by unions, reflecting a wishlist that harks back to the days of a controlled socialist economy.

The Millennium

Long Time Passin'

"The thousand years (of Revelation 20:3) is to be understood as a symbolic number, denoting a long period. It is a round number, but stands for an indefinite period, an eon whose duration it would be a folly to attempt to compute. Its beginning dates from the great catastrophe of this book (Revelation), the fall of the mystic Babylon. It is the eon which opens with the going forth of the great Conqueror of Revelation 19:11-16, and continues until he shall have put all his enemies under his feet (I Corinthians 15:25). It is the same period as that required for the stone of Daniel's prophecy (Daniel 2:35) to fill the earth, and the mustard seed of Jesus' prophecy to consummate its world-wide growth (Matthew 13:31-32). How long the King of kinds will continue His battle against evil and defer the last decisive blow, when Satan shall be 'loosed for a little time' no man can even approximately judge. It may require a million years."

Milton Terry, Biblical Apocalyptics, cited by David Chilton, The Days of Vengeance, p. 507

Anti-Psalm 23

I'm On My Own

If Psalm 23, written toward the end of David's life, is not true, then its opposite is.  That is the biblical world view.  All human beings, including those conceived but yet unborn, live either under the wrath of God--with all its implications--or under the love of God  (John 3: 18,19,36).  There is no middle ground or half-way house.  
The total lot of the Unbeliever is both terrible and tragic. Anything and everything positive and good in the experience of the Unbeliever cannot last or endure, but amounts to nothing more than a fleeting interlude or respite.  Here is David Powlinson's rendition of life without knowing the Lord as one's shepherd.

Global Perspectives

Extremism is in the Eye of the Beholder

Today we propose to have some light relief.  Firstly, in the US NBC12 is reporting that President Obama's podium and teleprompter have been stolen.  We kid you not.  We know that the lingering recession has resulted in all kinds of normally "safe" bits and pieces of equipment disappearing due to larcenous activity.  But this takes the cake.

Cheering for the Seventh Billion

Beware Malthusians posing as progressives
 
Don’t be fooled by the fashionable new crowd of Malthus-bashing greens: they’re as misanthropic as old-style population scaremongers.
Brendan O’Neill
Wednesday 12 October 2011

As we approach the Day of Seven Billion, when the seven billionth human being will be born, a debate is raging. On one side, population scaremongers are fretting about the arrival of Child No.7,000,000,000, claiming that he or she will add to a growing human swarm that is heaping pressure on the environment. On the other side, liberal observers slam these Malthusians, claiming that their lament about overpopulation is ‘a mask for misanthropy’. As one headline put it: ‘Welcome baby seven billion – we’ve room for you on Earth.’

Well, that is what it looks like through a casual glance – that a fiery debate is taking place between followers of the Reverend Thomas Malthus on one side and hip questioners of the Malthusian thesis on the other. But this is deceptive.

An Outsider's Chance

The Curious Case of Herman Cain

The process of choosing the Republican candidate to stand against Obama is still in its early stages.  But from down here in the South Pacific it seems that there are a few curve balls being thrown.  One is Herman Cain.  He has vaulted out of threatening extinction to become the leading Republican in recent days.  He is the ultimate Republican outsider. 

This is his greatest strength and also his Achilles heel.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Speaking of Cows . . .

Political Dualism - Americanitas
Written by Douglas Wilson
Wednesday, October 12, 2011 6:25 am

To worship is to make historical claims. Further, to acquiesce in false historical paradigmatic claims is to submit to a hidden idolatrous narrative. The two go together -- the two being worship and historical identification. Worship of the true God entails a right understanding of history (Jesus is risen is a historical claim), and worship of false gods is an attempt to establish lies about history (evolution is a risible historical lie about what happened to the whale on his way to becoming a cow).

Speaking of cows . . .

Congratulations

 Barely a Foot Wrong

Congratulations to the All Blacks.  Best game we have seen them play in a long, long time.

Scenes of monstering the Aussie scrum late second half were a sight to behold!

Robbie Deans was honest, as ever, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald. 

Artificial Rage

The Winter Will Chill the Discontented

The collective globe is holding its breath.  OWS has arrived and is spreading around the world like a virus.  What, we hear you ask?  Yes, you know, "Occupy Wall Street".  Around the world in several countries, including New Zealand, "spontaneous" protests have erupted against--well, let's see now--corporate greed, capitalists, bankers, plutocratic government and whole bunch of other stuff--like, the "gummint needs to pay for my college education".  It has even reached the Dunedin Octagon.  Amazing really. 

Colour us sceptical, but it has a deja-vu patina.

Long My Imprisoned Spirit Lay

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: “Bless You, Prison!”

"Solzhenitsyn in the 1950s at the Kazakh prison camp that inspired 'A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.'"

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:
It was granted to me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential experience: how a human being becomes evil and how good.

In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel.

In the surfeit of power I was a murderer and an oppressor.

In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments.

It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good.

Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts. . . .

That is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me:

“Bless you, prison!”

I . . . have served enough time there.

I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: “Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!”

—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956, Volume 2, pp. 615-617.
Posted on Justin Taylor's blog.

[We have published other references to Solzhenitsyn in ContraCelsum: here,  here]

Disastered Out

A Bit of a Dag

Disclaimer: We are kiwis--and as such we have been socialised into reflexive cultural cringe.  Consequently we can expect a visceral reaction when we are daily confronted with warnings of Armageddon happening off the coast of Tauranga.  One gets the strong impression that media organs are trying to cover the "big one" in such a way that they emulate more illustrious main stream media in the world.  "We can do it too", is the impression.  We can foot it with the big guys.

A container ship heeling over, we are told, is New Zealand's worst maritime disaster.  Puleeze.

Studies in I Samuel

The Divided Robe

Expository - Book of Samuel
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, October 08, 2011

INTRODUCTION:
God has made it plain in many diverse ways that Saul has lost it, and what Saul has lost, David has been given. But all Saul does is double down in his disobedience. The irony is that, even after the Spirit had departed from him, and come upon David, the Spirit was still there at Saul's court—until Saul drove him away with a spear.

THE TEXT:
“And it came to pass, when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi . . .” (1 Sam. 24:1-22).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:
When Saul returned from chasing (not fighting) the Philistines, he was told that David was in the wilderness of Engedi (v. 1)

Luddite Claptrap

The "Natural"  Does Not Exist Any Longer

Several days ago we watched a doco on genetic engineering.  It was not the normal fodder of Luddite claptrap.  Genetic crop and animal scientists were expressing their frustration at the irrational phobias that hamstring the development and deployment of genetically modified crops and farm animals. 

At one point the interviewer asked a scientist whether they were willing to risk destroying the natural habitat (visible in the background) with the release of genetically modified crops, such as vitamin rich rice--calculated to save over two million lives a year in the developing world.  The scientist pointed out that there was nothing "natural" at all about the landscape before them.  It had all been genetically modified by selective breeding over centuries.

Freedom of the Will

Doing it My Way

Human freedom both exists and is acted upon when a person chooses or wills to act in a certain way. When an individual's actions are self-determined, then he is truly free.That is why we believe and teach that mankind descending from Adam by ordinary generation are dead in their sins and cannot believe and follow God because they cannot see, apprehend, embrace and love the truth about Him.  But they disbelieve freely; their disbelief is genuinely their own and they will to act in open rebellion against, or careless neglect of Him.

Here is Charles Hodge's account of the matter:

When the Culture sees God As Dead

Impending Judgment

A prevailing narrative in our society runs thus: the Christian religion has been consigned to the dustbin of history; therefore the God of Christianity must be fictitious.

But there is another narrative, far more sinister for Unbelief and our age.  That narrative introduces the concept of divine judgment.

Studies in I Samuel

Encouragement in God

Expository - Book of Samuel
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, October 01, 2011

INTRODUCTION:
Harry Truman once said that if you want to find loyalty in Washington, then you should get a dog. In this chapter we see the reasons for thinking this way—the thin loyalty of Keilah and Ziph. But there is also an exception to this way of the world, and it is the staggering loyalty, the against-all-odds loyalty, of Jonathan.

THE TEXT:
“Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshing floors . . .” (1 Sam. 23:1-29).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:
David heard that the Israelite city of Keilah was afflicted by the Philistines (v. 1). David inquired of the Lord, and was told to save Keilah (v. 2). David's men said, “are you serious?” (v. 3).

Fundamentals of a Financial Crisis

Drink Bonds

Debt and default thereon are pretty easy concepts to understand.  You borrow money; you fail to make the interest payments on time; the lender calls back the loan requiring you to repay.  You cannot.  You default.  The lender loses his money. 

When it comes to national debts and the global economy, would that it were so simple. Ah, but it is.

Double Standards

A Peace Prize Doesn't Make You an Expert


Lorne Gunter: National Post

When I read Wednesday that the Nobel Women's Initiative had managed to round up eight winners of the Peace Prize to condemn attempts by a Canadian company to build a pipeline from Alberta's oil sands to refineries on the Gulf coast in Texas, my first thought was, "I hope for their sake they haven't resurrected Rigoberta Menchu."

But they had.

Another Ban, Another Dollar

Tip-Toe Through the Tulips

Press Release: The Green Party Calls for Ban on All Shipping
11th October, 8.08am

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Green Party Co-Leader, Metiria Turei has called for a ban on all commercial maritime activity within New Zealand's two hundred mile environmental zone.  "This represents a bold new policy position by the Green Party", said Ms Turei.  "We are the only political party prepared to make the tough calls and hard decisions to protect New Zealand's true economic future." 

For decades New Zealand under maritime law has claimed an "exclusive economic zone"  up to 200km out from our shoreline.  But it is becoming more obvious by the day that economics-as-usual involves environmental degradation.  Therefore, the Green Party would change the designation in law from an "Exclusive Economic Zone" to an "Exclusive Environmental Zone".  Ms Turei, a lawyer,  is sure that the United Nations will recognize the new designation.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Al-Awlaki and the Smell of Boiling Cabbage

Culture and Politics - A Second Battle of Tours
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, October 01, 2011

A few days ago, a predator drone took out Anwar Al-Awlaki, an all-round bad guy, and American citizen. The ACLU (and Ron Paul and Gary Johnson) complained about it, saying that this was a violation of due process. Those who maintain we are in a state of war against terrorists are exasperated by the claim, saying, as Charles Krauthammer did, that the rebel soldiers at Pickett's charge were not being served papers, even though (according to the Union account) the rebels were still all American citizens. The two sides were not divided by a cluster of attorneys swinging briefcases at each other.

A third position, neither fish nor fowl, is that of the Obama administration.

No Wiggle Room

Creation vs Evolutionism

The difficulty begins when we start to dig into the common textbook definitions of the term "evolution".  Here, evolution is often defined by its opposition to creation.  Consider just two academic sources among legion: "That organisms have evolved rather than having been created is the single most important and unifying principle of modern biology."  (Daniel R. Brooks and E. O. Wiley, Evolution as Entropy [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986], p. xi.)  And here's the Harvard paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson: "Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind." (G. G. Simpson, The Meaning of Evolution: A Study of the History of Life and of Its Significance for Man, revised edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), p. 345.)

Darwin himself understood his theory this way.  As he said, "There seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beings, and in the action of natural selection, than in the course which the wind blows."  (Francis Darwin, Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, (New York: Appleton, 1887).  Vol I: pp.280, 283--284, 278-279).

These descriptions of (Darwinian) evolution don't leave a lot of wiggle room. 

Jay W. Richards, God and Evolution: Protestants, Catholics and Jews Explore Darwin's Challenge to Faith (Seattle: Discovery Institute Press, 2010), p. 12f.

So, when humanists and evolutionists re-introduce the concepts and language of structure, order, telos, purpose, plan, or design they are not just trying to get wiggle room, they are engaging in, and complicit with, the greatest intellectual legerdemain ever seen.  As our mothers tartly observed, they want their cake and they want to eat it too--which is a polite way of saying that they want it both ways.  This self-deceit and intellectual dishonesty are the hallmarks of our age. 

A Christian Classic

What Makes A Christian Classic

Here is an interesting piece from Justin Taylor, presenting an assessment by Leland Ryken on The Scarlet Letter.

Is The Scarlet Letter a Christian Classic?

In his excellent essay “Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter: What Is a Christian Classic?” (in Realms of Gold: The Classics in Christian Perspective [Wipf & Stock, 2003], pp. 133-154) Leland Ryken rightly says that The Scarlet Letter “is probably the most widely misinterpreted of all the classics. It is commonly mistaught in literature course. The misrepresentation comes from naive equation of the Puritans portrayed in the story with Christianity, accompanied by a suppression of the Christian elements late in the story. It is a particular pity that most people’s ideas of what the Puritans were like come from Hawthorne’s story.” (For a helpful corrective see Ryken’s own Worldly Saints: The Purtians as They Really Were.)

Ryken uses Hawthorne’s masterpiece as test case for the question of “What makes a Christian classic?”

Five Fallacies

He begins by identifying five fallacies at play in answering this question:

Global Warming Helps The Poor

All In A Good Cause

We have heard of huge rorts associated with "carbon credits".  But now we are hearing something far worse.  Now pillage and forced de-population involving murder is being carried out so that conglomerates can get hold of "carbon credits".  How long will the world tolerate such evil?  But, of course, its not really evil is it, if it is done in the name of "saving the world".  After all, you cannot make an omelette without breaking a few eggs--and, in this case, the "eggs" are a few ignorant black Kenyan peasants, and they don't count.  Not when millions of dollars are up for grabs. 

This, according to the New York Times:

Letter From America

We Want "Obamaism", Without Obama

President Obama think the United States has gone soft, and he is just the guy to get it to harden up.

Here is Mark Steyn's take on the President's chutzpah.

Tall Poppy Envy Hits Labour

Bright Dead Alien Eyes

Further to our piece yesterday on the warped and envy-ridden socialism of Tapu Misa, we reproduce excerpts from a piece by Chris Trotter, posted on his blog Bowalley Road.

Trotter is a Norm-Kirk style Fabian socialist.  We suspect this piece was provoked by the slander of the Mad Butcher, Sir Peter Leitch by Labour MP, Darien Fenton.  Leitch is an iconic working class hero--a Kiwi battler who made a fortune the hard way and has endeared himself to the public through his works of charity and kindness.  Fenton did not like the way Leitch was "public mates" with the Tory Prime Minister, John Key.  She apparently saw it as a sell-out by Leitch to the propertied, monied classes.  She slammed Leitch on her Twitter account.

Well, a veritable hissy fit erupted

De-Throning The Christ

Pulpits Banned From the Public Square

We published recently on freedom's ossification in the West (here, and here.)  The same issues are present in the United States.  One such skirmish point is the Federal Government trying to control and restrain what churches declare from the pulpit.  Here is Douglas Wilson's take on that intolerable situtation.

Egregious Offensive Nonsense

Something Has to Break

Herald columnist, Tapu Misa has nailed her colours to the mast long ago.  She is a socialist.  For her, justice in this world is a socio-economic system which takes from each according to his ability, and gives to each according to his need.  There is nothing new here.  What is offensive is that Misa claims a biblical warrant for this pagan view.

Misa is welcome to her socialism.  In New Zealand she will have many like minded colleagues and friends.  But what she is not entitled to is the specious claim that the Scriptures--the holy law of the Living God--gives warrant to her socialism.  For that egregious error and gross distortion we call her out.

Peter Berger on Jurgen Habermas

What Happens when a Leftist Philosopher Discovers God?

Peter Berger

This article first appeared in The American Interest.

Society is the social science journal superbly edited by Jonathan Imber. In its fall issue it carries an article by Philippe Portier (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris), entitled “Religion and Democracy in the Thought of Juergen Habermas”. . . . Habermas has been a public intellectual (a more polite term for celebrity) for a very long time. I have never been terribly interested in Habermas, but the coincidence made me think about him. Portier’s article does tell an intriguing story. It might be called a man-bites-dog story.

The Law of Diminishing Returns

Why the Recession Lingers

There is no doubt that economic historians will puzzle over the 2008 global financial crisis for decades to come.  There has been no quick fix.  The long, lingering recession some had predicted has come to pass.  Because of its unexpected nature, there is little consensus or clarity about what to do. The old nostrums are not working any more.

Not that this is surprising.  There is in economics a law of diminishing marginal returns.

New Anti-Abortion Film

Like the Curate's Egg . . . 

Justin Taylor reviews a new anti-abortion film, designed to get its audience move from pro-abortion to opposing the deadly practice.