Paths to Christian Belief
. . . . Very rarely, no never, does it happen that someone comes to us with the wish to become a Christian who has not be struck by some fear of God.
Augustine, On Catechizing the Uninstructed, 5.9 (400 AD)
Saturday, 30 June 2012
In Memory of Edmund Burke
The Soaring Falcon
An excellent essay on Edmund Burke has appeared in The American Scholar. Written by Brian Doyle (editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland. He is the author most recently of the novel Mink River.)
One of the frustrations surrounding Burke is that so little of his output was on the printed page. Most consisted of powerful rhetoric in the House of Commons. So he is hard for modern readers to access. However, Reflections on the Revolution in France remains a tour de force in Western political philosophy. It is a work written out of a thoroughly Christian world view. It can teach the Church a great deal. Burke was one of the last great political philosophers and politicians of the First Christendom.
Some choice excerpts from Doyle's essay are reproduced below:
An excellent essay on Edmund Burke has appeared in The American Scholar. Written by Brian Doyle (editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland. He is the author most recently of the novel Mink River.)
One of the frustrations surrounding Burke is that so little of his output was on the printed page. Most consisted of powerful rhetoric in the House of Commons. So he is hard for modern readers to access. However, Reflections on the Revolution in France remains a tour de force in Western political philosophy. It is a work written out of a thoroughly Christian world view. It can teach the Church a great deal. Burke was one of the last great political philosophers and politicians of the First Christendom.
Some choice excerpts from Doyle's essay are reproduced below:
Friday, 29 June 2012
Future Prospects
Inheriting the World
In this remarkable revelation, Paul declares that we, the redeemed in Christ, will inherit all creation. All things belong to us in principle now; all things will be granted to us in reality as the Kingdom of God comes.
Calvin comments upon the text as follows:
So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.
I Corinthians 3: 21--22
In this remarkable revelation, Paul declares that we, the redeemed in Christ, will inherit all creation. All things belong to us in principle now; all things will be granted to us in reality as the Kingdom of God comes.
Calvin comments upon the text as follows:
The Religion of Secularism
Circumcision Cut Off
Jurgen Habermas has famously argued for a secular public square, where all religions and irreligions can participate inclusively. The idea is that each religion will check its religious convictions, beliefs, and practices in at the door, and will enter into discussion and debate using reason and argument that is equally valid to all people--that is, they will deploy secular reasoning. Only secular reasoning has validity in the public square. Religious convictions are private matters--and must be kept private. They have no currency or place in public issues.
Habermas at this point is naive.
Jurgen Habermas has famously argued for a secular public square, where all religions and irreligions can participate inclusively. The idea is that each religion will check its religious convictions, beliefs, and practices in at the door, and will enter into discussion and debate using reason and argument that is equally valid to all people--that is, they will deploy secular reasoning. Only secular reasoning has validity in the public square. Religious convictions are private matters--and must be kept private. They have no currency or place in public issues.
Habermas at this point is naive.
Thursday, 28 June 2012
Waiting for the Inevitable
Another Grandiose Utopian Project To Follow the Dodo
Ho hum. Another day. Another crisis meeting in Europe. We predict after this weekend's meeting communiques will be issued and declarations made to the effect that "important steps" have been taken. The crisis can now abate. It will last twenty-four hours, then the crisis will return, with a vengeance.
Euro-politicians are living in denial. They cannot bring themselves to face the inevitable and brutal truth. The euro project is finished. It is over. It has to be broken apart. You can do this in a relatively orderly fashion, once the pollies bow to reality, or it can break apart by itself. Either way it is going. Jeff Randall, writing in the Financial Times and the Sydney Morning Herald explains why the euro has to fail:
Ho hum. Another day. Another crisis meeting in Europe. We predict after this weekend's meeting communiques will be issued and declarations made to the effect that "important steps" have been taken. The crisis can now abate. It will last twenty-four hours, then the crisis will return, with a vengeance.
Euro-politicians are living in denial. They cannot bring themselves to face the inevitable and brutal truth. The euro project is finished. It is over. It has to be broken apart. You can do this in a relatively orderly fashion, once the pollies bow to reality, or it can break apart by itself. Either way it is going. Jeff Randall, writing in the Financial Times and the Sydney Morning Herald explains why the euro has to fail:
Misdiagnosis of Media Diseases
A Cautionary Tale
We regularly ridicule the media. Most media functionaries operate within a world-view of secular humanism, unconsciously. They are dishonest brokers and self-duped. But occasionally you hear of a cadre of self-conscious storm-troopers who know what they believe, what they stand for, and enforce it within a newspaper or other media outlet with ruthless proficiency.
Amanda Divine, reviewing the shakeup at Fairfax Media, describes one such ideological cadre in The Telegraph:
We regularly ridicule the media. Most media functionaries operate within a world-view of secular humanism, unconsciously. They are dishonest brokers and self-duped. But occasionally you hear of a cadre of self-conscious storm-troopers who know what they believe, what they stand for, and enforce it within a newspaper or other media outlet with ruthless proficiency.
Amanda Divine, reviewing the shakeup at Fairfax Media, describes one such ideological cadre in The Telegraph:
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Compulsion
Not a 'Well Turned Phrase'
. . . . I do not care whether you expect some well-turned phrases today. It is my duty to give you due warning by citing the Scriptures. "Do not be slow to turn to the Lord, nor delay from one day to the next, for His anger shall come when you know not." . . . I cannot be silent: I am forced to preach upon it. Filled with fear myself, I fill you with fear.
Augustine, Sermon in Miscellanea Agostiniana, 1 (1930) 199.
. . . . I do not care whether you expect some well-turned phrases today. It is my duty to give you due warning by citing the Scriptures. "Do not be slow to turn to the Lord, nor delay from one day to the next, for His anger shall come when you know not." . . . I cannot be silent: I am forced to preach upon it. Filled with fear myself, I fill you with fear.
Augustine, Sermon in Miscellanea Agostiniana, 1 (1930) 199.
The Worker Has Rights
Rotting From the Inside
All of life is religious and religions have consequences. Secular humanism--whilst formally a non-religion--is no exception. The Christian testimony to all other religions--including secular humanism--is that they are untrue. All are deceptive and misleading. All are vanities.
Because each in their own way rebels against the Living God Who made the heavens and the earth out of nothing by the Word of His power they have bad consequences. The world is "wired" to exist and function as God made and commanded it to be. Rebellion against God means rebellion against the created order. The consequences are never good.
There are a thousand illustrations of the point, but we will focus upon just one here.
All of life is religious and religions have consequences. Secular humanism--whilst formally a non-religion--is no exception. The Christian testimony to all other religions--including secular humanism--is that they are untrue. All are deceptive and misleading. All are vanities.
Because each in their own way rebels against the Living God Who made the heavens and the earth out of nothing by the Word of His power they have bad consequences. The world is "wired" to exist and function as God made and commanded it to be. Rebellion against God means rebellion against the created order. The consequences are never good.
There are a thousand illustrations of the point, but we will focus upon just one here.
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
Letter From the UK (About the US)
Realpolitik Chicago-Style
After being deliberately ignored for over two years by the media (apart from Fox and ABC), the Fast and Furious uber-scandal has now been put into the spotlight. Two events have provoked the new public media attention: the Attorney-General Eric Holder being cited in contempt of Congress by the Congressional Oversight Committee, and the President now trying to cloak the imbroglio with Executive privilege.
The Obama administration is ideologically anti-gun. Fast and Furious was designed to allow guns to pass over the Mexican border without restriction to "prove" that US gun laws are far too lax and that private ownership of guns and the gun industry result in people being killed. Mexican civilians were to be expendable collateral damage. Fast and Furious was to manufacture fodder for the Obama propaganda machine.
Writing in the Telegraph, Dr Tim Stanley explains the folly and cynical amorality of Fast and Furious, together with its consequences.
After being deliberately ignored for over two years by the media (apart from Fox and ABC), the Fast and Furious uber-scandal has now been put into the spotlight. Two events have provoked the new public media attention: the Attorney-General Eric Holder being cited in contempt of Congress by the Congressional Oversight Committee, and the President now trying to cloak the imbroglio with Executive privilege.
The Obama administration is ideologically anti-gun. Fast and Furious was designed to allow guns to pass over the Mexican border without restriction to "prove" that US gun laws are far too lax and that private ownership of guns and the gun industry result in people being killed. Mexican civilians were to be expendable collateral damage. Fast and Furious was to manufacture fodder for the Obama propaganda machine.
Writing in the Telegraph, Dr Tim Stanley explains the folly and cynical amorality of Fast and Furious, together with its consequences.
Another Education Anathema
Educrats Show Their Slips
A fresh brouhaha has broken out over government schools in New Zealand. The Prime Minister, John Key in his inimitable political style informed the nation in an off the cuff remark that he thought school league tables was not a bad idea. Government schools would be ranked from best to worst according to how their pupils scored on national standards testing in reading, writing, and maths.
That casual, informally delivered comment generated a predictable carpet bombing fire-storm from every educational union. This in itself is a very strange situation.
A fresh brouhaha has broken out over government schools in New Zealand. The Prime Minister, John Key in his inimitable political style informed the nation in an off the cuff remark that he thought school league tables was not a bad idea. Government schools would be ranked from best to worst according to how their pupils scored on national standards testing in reading, writing, and maths.
That casual, informally delivered comment generated a predictable carpet bombing fire-storm from every educational union. This in itself is a very strange situation.
Monday, 25 June 2012
Walking the Talk
Sitting in the Materialist Chair
Francis Schaeffer:
The Day Francis Schaeffer’s Plane Almost Crashed in the Middle of the Atlantic Ocean
Francis Schaeffer:Once I was flying at night over the North Atlantic. It was in 1947, and I was coming back from my first visit to Europe. Our plane, one of those old DC4′s with two engines on each wing, was within two or three minutes of the middle of the Atlantic.
Suddenly two engines on one wing stopped. I had already flown a lot, and so I could feel the engines going wrong. I remember thinking, if I’m going to go down into the ocean, I’d better get my coat. When I did, I said to the hostess, “There’s something wrong with the engines.” She was a bit snappy and said, “You people always think there’s something wrong with the engines.” So I shrugged my shoulders, but I took my coat.
I had no sooner sat down, than the lights came on and a very agitated co-pilot came out. “We’re in trouble,” he said. “Hurry and put on your life jackets.”
A One Way Door
Ceding Power to Leviathan
George Monbiot has been writing advocacy pieces for greenism in the Guardian for a long time now. He is an educated chap. He knows how to turn a phrase. He is passionately committed to the Great Cause of saving the world. To write such a phrase immediately conjures up comic book heroes of childhood days. George, regrettably, is apparently still reading comics with all the fascination and credulity of a seven year old. Worse, he is attempting to live them, earnestly believing the Caped Crusader actually exist, and Gotham City is as perverse as ever.
In his most recent piece, George mourns the ebbing of global greenism.
George Monbiot has been writing advocacy pieces for greenism in the Guardian for a long time now. He is an educated chap. He knows how to turn a phrase. He is passionately committed to the Great Cause of saving the world. To write such a phrase immediately conjures up comic book heroes of childhood days. George, regrettably, is apparently still reading comics with all the fascination and credulity of a seven year old. Worse, he is attempting to live them, earnestly believing the Caped Crusader actually exist, and Gotham City is as perverse as ever.
In his most recent piece, George mourns the ebbing of global greenism.
Saturday, 23 June 2012
Power of God Unto Salvation
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Raphael,_St_Paul_Preaching_in_Athens_(1515) |
Do Preachers Expect a Response to the Preaching of the Gospel?
St Paul expected his hearers to be moved. He so believed in his preaching that he knew that it was “the power of God unto salvation” [Rom. 1:16]. This expectation is a very real part of the presentation of the Gospel. It is a form of faith. A mere preaching which is not accompanied by the expectation of faith, is not a true preaching of the Gospel, because faith is a part of the Gospel. Simply to scatter the seed, with a sort of vague hope that some of it may come up somewhere, is not preaching the gospel. It is indeed a misrepresentation of the gospel. To preach the Gospel requires that the preacher should believe that he is sent to those whom he is addressing at the moment, because God has among them those whom He is at the moment calling: it requires that the speaker should expect a response. —Roland Allen, Missionary Methods—St. Paul’s or Ours? (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1962), p. 74.Hat Tip: Justin Taylor
Letter From America
Arming Up--Violent Crime Down
It appears that violent crime is down in the US--not what the Commentariat would have us expect. Its rationale for rising crime has always been bad social or civil conditions, such as poverty, discrimination, and unemployment. Therefore, if the standard blah is correct, given the numbers of people unemployed and the rising poverty in the United States, we would expect soaring crime rates.
It's not happening. Why? Crime rates have complex causes. There is no one single factor. Emily Miller, in the article below, makes the case that one reason crime may have been restrained and reduced is rising gun ownership. That may or may not be the case--since mere co-incidence of two conditions does not prove causality.
But, it does call into question a causality long championed by the Commentariat: it has been argued repeatedly that high levels of gun ownership cause more violent crimes to occur.
It appears that violent crime is down in the US--not what the Commentariat would have us expect. Its rationale for rising crime has always been bad social or civil conditions, such as poverty, discrimination, and unemployment. Therefore, if the standard blah is correct, given the numbers of people unemployed and the rising poverty in the United States, we would expect soaring crime rates.
It's not happening. Why? Crime rates have complex causes. There is no one single factor. Emily Miller, in the article below, makes the case that one reason crime may have been restrained and reduced is rising gun ownership. That may or may not be the case--since mere co-incidence of two conditions does not prove causality.
But, it does call into question a causality long championed by the Commentariat: it has been argued repeatedly that high levels of gun ownership cause more violent crimes to occur.
Homosexual Parenting as "Normal"
As "Normal" As Sexual Abuse of Children
The homosexual propaganda machine, along with its cheerleaders in the Commentariat, portray homosexual parenting as normal. The impact upon children raised in such a home--by either homosexual men or women--is negligible we are repeatedly told. The framing presents children raised in such homes as being no different in any significant respect from children raised in orthodox families. Ergo, homosexual parenting is normal.
One slight problem with this argument is new empirical data.
The homosexual propaganda machine, along with its cheerleaders in the Commentariat, portray homosexual parenting as normal. The impact upon children raised in such a home--by either homosexual men or women--is negligible we are repeatedly told. The framing presents children raised in such homes as being no different in any significant respect from children raised in orthodox families. Ergo, homosexual parenting is normal.
One slight problem with this argument is new empirical data.
Friday, 22 June 2012
Letter From the UK (About Greece)
Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP
No one wanted this outcome. Greece has repeated itself, only more
emphatically, declining to give any party a majority. If no coalition is
possible, what then? A third election? A fourth? Or will ND struggle on with
a minority administration, unable to make any of the promised budgetary
reductions?
Greece is in denial. It rejects austerity, but insists on keeping the euro. All the main parties duly parroted what the voters wanted to hear, making for a fantasy election, a make-believe election, a fingers-in-my-ears-I-can't-hear-you election.
The only list which was honest about the necessary cuts – a coalition of three liberal parties – failed to gain a single seat.
From the Telegraph.
No one wanted this outcome. Greece has repeated itself, only more
emphatically, declining to give any party a majority. If no coalition is
possible, what then? A third election? A fourth? Or will ND struggle on with
a minority administration, unable to make any of the promised budgetary
reductions?Greece is in denial. It rejects austerity, but insists on keeping the euro. All the main parties duly parroted what the voters wanted to hear, making for a fantasy election, a make-believe election, a fingers-in-my-ears-I-can't-hear-you election.
The only list which was honest about the necessary cuts – a coalition of three liberal parties – failed to gain a single seat.
From the Telegraph.
Let Righteous Anger Build
New Zealand Tyranny
It is now official. The Child Youth and Family service ("CYF") has publicly revealed that any parent who smacks a child will probably have that child removed from the family. It is government policy not to allow such a parent to have their children.
The particular case that has brought the awful situation to light has been highlighted in the NZ Herald. It concerns two exemplary parents who have been refused by the state to be allowed to care for their grandchild. Why? Because responsible and lawful smacking is part of their excellent parenting care.
It is now official. The Child Youth and Family service ("CYF") has publicly revealed that any parent who smacks a child will probably have that child removed from the family. It is government policy not to allow such a parent to have their children.
The particular case that has brought the awful situation to light has been highlighted in the NZ Herald. It concerns two exemplary parents who have been refused by the state to be allowed to care for their grandchild. Why? Because responsible and lawful smacking is part of their excellent parenting care.
Thursday, 21 June 2012
Letter From America
Pseudo-Science, Junk-Science, and Lies
One of the most egregious deceits a "scientist" can perpetrate is falsification of data. It has been going on in climate "science" for a long time now. But, because the global warming cause appeals to those who want to see ever expanding governmental controls, both nationally and internationally, there is a significant slice of academia, government agencies, and politicians which would support the cause regardless. This segment of the Commentariat are willingly credulous. Falsified data continues to serve as a propaganda tool: therefore, it's acceptable.
To this cluster one can add the ideological bent of greenists, many of whom genuinely appear to live in fear of anthropomorphic world-wide calamity. But these folk have moved over the decades from one form of man-caused global catastrophe to another: it is the prospective calamity which charges up their isotopes, not its particular form. But climate change is the apocalypse du jour and it serves its purpose well. Full steam ahead and damn the false data.
Mormonism in Focus
Romney Presidency?
With Mitt Romney likely to become the next President of the United States more and more attention will be paid to his religion: Mormonism. To secularists, it will be just another evidence of his sub-par intellect that he has a religious system of belief. To fellow Mormons, it will seem to present a striking opportunity to advance Momonism into the mainstream of Christian belief--a long pursued goal.
With Mitt Romney likely to become the next President of the United States more and more attention will be paid to his religion: Mormonism. To secularists, it will be just another evidence of his sub-par intellect that he has a religious system of belief. To fellow Mormons, it will seem to present a striking opportunity to advance Momonism into the mainstream of Christian belief--a long pursued goal.
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
The Sacredness of the Ordinary
Hidden Away
In the novel Gilead, the aging minister, John Ames professes how as the years have passed he has more and more come to see the creation as a wonder--an awe inducing realm of which he is a part. As he has grown older, he has come to love his own body more and more, confessing it to be fearfully and wonderfully made by God.
Such earthiness has always been a hallmark of Christian orthodoxy. To believe in "God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth" necessarily requires we hold the creation in reverence and respect, delight and awe.
In the novel Gilead, the aging minister, John Ames professes how as the years have passed he has more and more come to see the creation as a wonder--an awe inducing realm of which he is a part. As he has grown older, he has come to love his own body more and more, confessing it to be fearfully and wonderfully made by God.
Such earthiness has always been a hallmark of Christian orthodoxy. To believe in "God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth" necessarily requires we hold the creation in reverence and respect, delight and awe.
In Denial
Distorted Visions
New Zealand's accident insurance system is a disaster in the way all socialised (state run, state legislated, state funded, monopolistic) systems inevitably turn out. They inevitably become weighed down with entitlement fiefdoms, self-serving ambition on the part of politicians, board and management, and blighted with gross inefficiencies. None of these cancers is easily recognised nor "excisioned" when the prevailing zeitgeist is "the state does it better".
But when New Zealand adopted a fully state funded accident insurance scheme we were promised that it would be the best in the world, and would be regarded with envy by all enlightened and developed countries. It was all part of building the socialist nirvana down under, fast following Sweden and Denmark. How quaint.
New Zealand's accident insurance system is a disaster in the way all socialised (state run, state legislated, state funded, monopolistic) systems inevitably turn out. They inevitably become weighed down with entitlement fiefdoms, self-serving ambition on the part of politicians, board and management, and blighted with gross inefficiencies. None of these cancers is easily recognised nor "excisioned" when the prevailing zeitgeist is "the state does it better".
But when New Zealand adopted a fully state funded accident insurance scheme we were promised that it would be the best in the world, and would be regarded with envy by all enlightened and developed countries. It was all part of building the socialist nirvana down under, fast following Sweden and Denmark. How quaint.
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Douglas Wilson's Letter From America
An Indonesian Book Burning
Culture and Politics - A Second Battle of Tours
Written by Douglas Wilson
Thursday, 14 June 2012
There is currently a ruckus over in Indonesia over a book I wrote, 5 Cities That Ruled the World. The publisher there (Gramedia) has formally apologized for their role in it, and has burned their copies of the book.
The first thing about this that I should note is that people on the other side of the world are in significant trouble because of something I wrote, and I don't want to in any way make their situation any more difficult than it has to be. But this is how hostage taking works, isn't it? Unreasonable and belligerent people are always willing to commandeer a situation, and then blame others for the devastation that follows.
Culture and Politics - A Second Battle of Tours
Written by Douglas Wilson
Thursday, 14 June 2012
There is currently a ruckus over in Indonesia over a book I wrote, 5 Cities That Ruled the World. The publisher there (Gramedia) has formally apologized for their role in it, and has burned their copies of the book.
The first thing about this that I should note is that people on the other side of the world are in significant trouble because of something I wrote, and I don't want to in any way make their situation any more difficult than it has to be. But this is how hostage taking works, isn't it? Unreasonable and belligerent people are always willing to commandeer a situation, and then blame others for the devastation that follows.
Which City, What Hill?
Liberalism That is Evil and Perverse
A near universal misconception swirls around Western criminal law. We believe we are enlightened and liberal. We believe there has been no society upon the earth more liberal, benign and just than our own first-world, Western civilization. We believe that we are a city set upon a hill: we routinely aver that the world would be a whole lot better place if other nations copied or imitated our example.
Our view of the past is that societies and civilizations which preceded our own were brutishly cruel and had criminal legal systems which were bloody and harsh. One of the most ridiculed legal systems in our day is the civil and criminal law of Moses. We are, however, more tolerant toward the post-Cromwellian English legal system--influenced as it was by Enlightenment principles and the concept of limited government under the gentle aegis of folk like John Locke.
The truth is somewhat different.
A near universal misconception swirls around Western criminal law. We believe we are enlightened and liberal. We believe there has been no society upon the earth more liberal, benign and just than our own first-world, Western civilization. We believe that we are a city set upon a hill: we routinely aver that the world would be a whole lot better place if other nations copied or imitated our example.
Our view of the past is that societies and civilizations which preceded our own were brutishly cruel and had criminal legal systems which were bloody and harsh. One of the most ridiculed legal systems in our day is the civil and criminal law of Moses. We are, however, more tolerant toward the post-Cromwellian English legal system--influenced as it was by Enlightenment principles and the concept of limited government under the gentle aegis of folk like John Locke.
The truth is somewhat different.
Monday, 18 June 2012
Letter From America
Idiots Aplenty
Science Demands Big Government
A Harvard biologist makes a silly, dangerous comment.
The quotation of the week goes to Harvard professor Daniel E. Lieberman, for a statement he made in an opinion piece for the New York Times. Mr. Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology, was among those who publicly defended New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to ban the sale of sugared soft drinks in cups larger than 16 ounces. And he did so using, of all things, evolution.
God's Masks and God's Speech
Living Holy Lives
Martin Luther had a profoundly biblical understanding of the creation. He also had a profound understanding of the immanence of God in all He has made. God is working in and through all things. All things. So declares the Bible (Romans 11:33-36). So believed Martin Luther.
One implication was that Luther had a deep respect for one's circumstances in life. They were a living Bible of natural revelation. Our circumstances, he said, were comprehensively ordained and ordered by God. They were God's "masks". Behind each and every circumstance was the Person of God Himself.
Martin Luther had a profoundly biblical understanding of the creation. He also had a profound understanding of the immanence of God in all He has made. God is working in and through all things. All things. So declares the Bible (Romans 11:33-36). So believed Martin Luther.
One implication was that Luther had a deep respect for one's circumstances in life. They were a living Bible of natural revelation. Our circumstances, he said, were comprehensively ordained and ordered by God. They were God's "masks". Behind each and every circumstance was the Person of God Himself.
Saturday, 16 June 2012
Singing a New Song
King of All Kings
It's great to see modern hymn-writers celebrating the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. This from Sovereign Grace Music:
It's great to see modern hymn-writers celebrating the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. This from Sovereign Grace Music:
Public Sector Prejudice
Prisons and Glass Houses
People who live in glass houses should not throw stones--at least that's what we were gravely told whilst learning social manners. When we grew up we also learned that conflicts of interest are usually nefarious unless they are disclosed. Both adages are relevant in the following case.
New Zealand has finally introduced private management contracts for some selected prisons. The knee jerk reaction from hide bound statists (whose numbers are legion in this country) has been swift, predictable, simplistic and naive.
People who live in glass houses should not throw stones--at least that's what we were gravely told whilst learning social manners. When we grew up we also learned that conflicts of interest are usually nefarious unless they are disclosed. Both adages are relevant in the following case.
New Zealand has finally introduced private management contracts for some selected prisons. The knee jerk reaction from hide bound statists (whose numbers are legion in this country) has been swift, predictable, simplistic and naive.
Friday, 15 June 2012
Christian Charity
Unlike Any Other
This from John Calvin:
This from John Calvin:
The Lord commands us to do "good unto all men," universally, a great part of whom, estimated according to their own merits, are very undeserving; but here the Scripture assists us with an excellent rule, when it inculcates, that we must not regard the intrinsic merit of men, but must consider the image of God in them, to which we owe all possible honour and love; but that this image is most carefully to be observed in them "who are of the household of faith," inasmuch as it is renewed and restored by the spirit of Christ. Whoever, therefore, is presented to you that needs your kind offices, you have no reason to refuse him your assistance.
Unwelcome Attention
When the Idols Break
The Commentariat is paying more attention to Greece at present than that country has experienced in many years. The focus, of course, is upon Election II, since Election I failed to produce a government.
Our view is that Greece needs to get out of the Euro so that it can have the depression it really needs to have. At the moment it is being sustained on life-support by Euro loans, but the death is long, slow, and painful. Better to get it over quickly: Greece could then at least have an opportunity to begin to rebuild its dysfunctional economy.
The problem, however, is that Greeks have drunk socialist cool-aid for far too long.
The Commentariat is paying more attention to Greece at present than that country has experienced in many years. The focus, of course, is upon Election II, since Election I failed to produce a government.
Our view is that Greece needs to get out of the Euro so that it can have the depression it really needs to have. At the moment it is being sustained on life-support by Euro loans, but the death is long, slow, and painful. Better to get it over quickly: Greece could then at least have an opportunity to begin to rebuild its dysfunctional economy.
The problem, however, is that Greeks have drunk socialist cool-aid for far too long.
Thursday, 14 June 2012
Europe in Denial
Not a Pretty Sight
Leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage explains why he believes the Euro is finished.
Leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage explains why he believes the Euro is finished.
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