Borepatch:

"Via Reason, we find that the BBC World Service radio is running a series on 'Useful Idiots, intellectuals who fell hook, line, and sinker for Utopian visions peddled by left-wing tyrants:

Useful idiots, in a broader sense, refers to Western journalists, travellers and intellectuals who gave their blessing – often with evangelistic fervour – to tyrannies and tyrants, thereby convincing politicians and public that utopias rather than Belsens thrived.

"Reason asks, 'why are smart people so consistently fooled by evil regimes?' There's quite a simple answer:

Intellectuals see in the mirror the very image of a Philosopher King..

"Their entire intellectual training has led them to believe that it is the Intellectual Class that is fit to rule, by virtue of their very Smart thinking. After all, did not Plato himself say that only the philosophers were virtuous, and therefore fit to rule? And have not our Intellectual Elite been told their entire school lives that they are the 'Best And Brightest?'

"And so all a tyrant needs to do is to flatter this sense of entitlement, and the Intellectual will convince himself that this is indeed the New Jerusalem. No brainwashing is required; a light rinse will do.

"But at every stage, the tyrant must appeal to the Intellectual's sense of superiority. This is why rightist tyrants (say, Peronists) struggle with the Intellectual class. By allowing a more or less unfettered market to run as it will, he offends the vanity of the Intellectual. The Market is a very bad thing indeed, says the Intellectual, because it does not need me a Very Smart Person to run it. The tyrant offers the illusion of access to the Control Room of society - indeed the very goal that the Intellectual has trained for all his life. How could he not be bewitched?..."

Highly recommended - do read the whole thing.

What a delightfully quaint obsolete connotation of "intellectual".

A modern, third-millennium intellectual, on the other hand, standing on the shoulders of folks like Heisenberg, Gödel, Turing, Lorentz, Mandelbrot, Chaitin, Wolfram, &c, is a student of what we can prove we can't do: of things like undecidability and irreducibility and the unpredictability of Rule 30. Such a thinker would never suggest that a system of every-expanding ever-more- detailed rules would get us ultimately closer to truth, since we now understand that truth is in itself undecideable (we can only model it). The real Market is; our understanding of it is only our model of it, much in the same sense that our consciousness is only our model of our autonomic self, albeit with some interesting feed- forward mechanisms.

"All things will be well, all manner of things will be well."
-- Julian of Norwich

Hi Vίtruvius! Julian of Norwich was no slouch.

Here's an amazing i-tune: "Bed Intruder." It made me smile and, like the Anchoress, who's got the video up, it gives me hope, too:

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/

The Religion of Peace dot com is hosting Ramadan Bombathon 2010:

Holy Qurap! It’s that time of year again... Ramadan, the holiest and most violent month of Islam. Get ready for 30 days of prayer, fasting... and a butt-load of death and dismemberment in the name of Allah!

If you're wondering how this year's Ramadan killing spree compares to 2009, or whether other religions can keep pace with the Islamic body count, then TROP's got you covered! Starting on
Saturday, we will begin posting a running total of deadly violence in the name of Islam compared to that of all other religions combined.

I put together a short informational video on the holiest month of the year.

I am surprised that the BBC World Service would run a serious on this topic. I thought that the BBC was left-wing all the way.

Hello Vίtruvius. Nice of you to drop in. Hopefully you are having a great summer.

Great video Matt. It brought back great memories of barbecuing some really tasty pork spare ribs with our kids this last Saturday.

The TV commercial that 'freaked-out' the left?

http://www.wnd.com/Commentary

Thanks for the BBC link EBD.

Anyone else immediately think of Monty Python when the anouncer started speaking?

Late now here on the right coast, will finish listening to it tommorow.

And a quick link before I knock off for tonight, or this morning as the case may be.

Another fine example of the oh so tolerant and sensitive left,

http://www.conservatives4palin.com/2010/08/democrats-use-stevens-tragedy-to-wish.html

Ah well, Karel is easier to understand than Mick - and I don't do German!

Michelle Obama is a real piece of work. She has been described as a new Marie Antoinette as in 'let them eat cake' while she romps in Spain at $75,000 per day with an entourage of 40.

Anyway here is the link to a long but comprehensive article describing this embarrassing representative of the USA.

http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/08/10/michelle-obama-spoiled-brat-extraordinaire/

Lars Walker, "The Wreck of the Narcissist":

"The generation of Americans that survived the Depression and won the Second World War faced the post-war years with two firm goals—to have families, and to give their children everything they never had. The children they bore were (by and large) the most cherished, the most cossetted, and the most privileged in human history. Many (not all, but enough) were taught that they were the center of the universe, the most important people in the world. As they grew older, they were confidently informed that they were the smartest, best-educated, wisest generation the world had ever seen. They would, they were assured, change the world forever.

"And change it they did....

The rest here.

Chicks don't dig a Rotten Schwarz.

For those of you with clear skies in your neighborhood, tomorrow night is the start of the Perseid meteor shower. All you need to watch the meteors is a dark place, a blanket and a clear sky. The meteors are visible all over the sky but appear to originate from the constellation Perseus. A good time to contemplate non-terrestial topics like how do we get off this mudball to explore space before the watermelons destroy industrial civilization.

Good musical choice EBD and nice to hear from you again Vίtruvius.

The French and the Italians have a word that I love. "Buffonerie." Or, behaving like a clown. Perhaps unintentionally, depending on what region you are from.

That's the word that best describes the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloq when they put on the "long census form act."

Get a load of this. Gilles Decept of the Bloq made a statement that in lieu of jail sentences for people who fail to fill out their long census forms, they could (for example) seize the citizen's passport.

That is funny!! Really funny!!! Here is a party that wants to seperate from Canada, split the nation in half, but just make sure you fill out your long census form on the way out!!

What next Mr. Decept? High Mass at the St. Jean Baptiste!

Greetings from Butte, Montana folks. Drove through Glacier National Park today - stunning!

Anyhow, take a gander at this editorial by someone who purports to be a Student of Higher Learning. Beyond dreadful. But be sure to read the comments as they're hilarious, especially the one from the Lithuanian Jew who wants to go swimming nude in the pool in the Muslim Center!!!

" The Market is a very bad thing indeed, says the Intellectual, because it does not need me a Very Smart Person to run it."

BINGO !!

Andrew Sullivan plays 'name that Muslim gay bar'. Choice entries include:

Ji-Hard
Halal Sailor
Who's your Bagh-daddy?
and the Sixth Pillar

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/08/name-that-bar.html

friendly oil for an increasingly unfriendly place. best thing is , the market will always prevail and the obamanomics will fail

http://biggovernment.com/dkeene/2010/08/10/the-benefits-of-friendly-oil/

Munir Shaikh in the Globe and Mail, Tuesday, August 10:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/we-still-have-time-to-reverse-the-census-decision/article1667194/

Shaikh: "The creation of jobs and the unemployment rate calculated from a mandatory sample must be reflective of the entire labour market to allow the federal government to develop its economic and social policies. The determination of the rate of inflation from a sample of prices must accurately reflect the inflation rate in the country to allow the Bank of Canada to properly set interest rates. The magnitude of the recent financial crisis that was captured in trustworthy Statistics Canada data allowed governments to develop appropriate policies."

The federal government shouldn't be developing social and economic policies in the first place, it should be leaving the economy to the free market, i.e., the well-considered judgments of individual Canadians, rather than the hare-brained vote-buying schemes of politicians squandering tax dollars taken by force. The same holds for the ineffectual, phony "stimulus" programs after the 2008 economic meltdown. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not a principle upon which to build a country, it is divisive in the extreme.

Also Marc Garneau in the National Post, Tuesday, August 10:

http://www.nationalpost.com/least/3379924/story.html

Garneau: "If a stranger stopped me in the street and asked me how many bedrooms I had in my house, I would tell him to get lost. However, when the government of Canada asks me the same question in an official census long-form questionnaire, I react in a completely different manner."

And: "Canada is recognized as having one of the top statistics agencies in the world, and I know from my background as an engineer that there are good reasons for asking each question."

So exactly what is the reason for asking how many bedrooms in your house? Is it so that if you have four and someone else only has two, it's a sign of "inequality" that government should create a new social program to address?

Garneau: "... because I do rely on government for a multitude of services, I feel that answering a few questions is not the end of the world, In fact, I insist on it, because I expect my government to make wise decisions based on sound information."

Hare-brained vote-buying schemes are not "wise decisions". Some of the multitude of services should be privatized, some unceremoniously abolished, others phased out with varying degrees of despatch. And let's face it: the only thing an opposition party ever does is to try to prove that the government of the day didn't make wise decisions, sound information or not.

There is no doubt about it: the people most loudly defending the long-form census are the social engineers whose parasitical bureaucratic jobs depend on government largesse.

Global Warming Gabfest to take place this December.

More private jets. More protesters. More 5-star canapes being eaten by delegates.

Question: What will finally put an end to this nonsense?!?

and during the meanwhile in europe and north america we pump our rivers full of estrogen

http://bigpeace.com/stevemosher/2010/08/10/chinas-army-of-single-men-an-increasingly-aggressive-country/

estrogen effects? - you heard it here first

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20100809/young-girls-hitting-puberty-100809/

Robert W.. a conference in december's Mexico City regarding the climate fiasco? if someone tells the drug barons in Mexico that these people want to tax the world to death for non drug consuming citizens they'll finish the lot of them off... do you maintain your contacts in Mexico City? can you arrange this??? ;) no wait, don't get in the way when your enemy is making an ass of themselves...

*que bolos, have the conference in Yellowknife in december....

http://cc2010.mx/swb/

"Tories accused of ignoring flood-ravaged Pakistan"
[Liberal] "MP Jim Karygiannis".
(NP)

"Pakistani Taliban urge rejection of foreign aid"
(AFP)

...-

"1,250,194 chickens died in the cyclone, the junta declared."

"Jonathan Mirsky

AFTER THE FLOOD

Everything is Broken: The Untold Story of Disaster Under Burma's Military Regime
By Emma Larkin (Granta Books 265pp £12.99)"

On 2 May 2008 tropical cyclone Nargis struck Burma with such force that even today nobody knows how many people were killed, although the ruling military junta reported exactly how many chickens died. Here is the special quality of this regime, as Emma Larkin writes in her latest evocative book: 'Events happen in Burma, and then they are systematically unhappened.' Unhappened is a good word, and very Orwellian, an echo perhaps of Larkin's wonderful previous book on Orwell's early years in Burma.

Official Burmese lying is stupendous. 1,250,194 chickens died in the cyclone, the junta declared. They also said that 76.28 per cent of Rangoon's telephone lines were soon restored, together with 98.5 per cent of the water supply.

Those were obvious lies. But some of Larkin's details are unforgettably revealing. Once international aid was permitted, under cumbersome regulations, buffalos were obtained from the north-west to take the place of the thousands drowned in the delta. But 'Arakanese buffalo', Larkin writes, 'didn't understand the commands uttered by delta farmers who speak a different dialect from their counterparts in Arakan State.' Other animal stories told among the people are equally illuminating: 'a boy ... had been rescued by a crocodile, a girl ... survived by holding on to a goose, and a woman ... managed to catch hold of a python as it navigated the storm surge'. Larkin heard how people 'spoke with awe of how poisonous snakes had become entwined around their necks in the rising water but had not bitten them'.

Larkin has been to Burma many times, even a week after the cyclone when most foreigners were banned. She herself is somewhat mysterious: an American born and raised somewhere in Asia, she studied Burmese at London's School of Oriental and African Studies; 'Emma Larkin' is a pseudonym. Her Secret Histories: Finding Orwell in a Burmese Teashop, published in 2004 (reviewed LR December 04/January 05), is minutely observed: a Rangoon bookseller digs out a worm-eaten copy of Orwell's banned Nineteen Eighty-Four, and says that Burmese don't need to read it. 'They are already living inside Nineteen Eighty-Four in their daily lives.' During some of her post-cyclone weeks she gathered information for international aid agencies but was careful not to break any of the myriad regulations with which the junta hobbles foreigners.

Larkin is scrupulously fair. She pulls no punches about the junta, whose history she ably sketches, especially its paramount figure, the secretive, wooden and greedy General Than Shwe, who appears to think he is both a god and a previous king. The junta is so brutal that it even kills and imprisons monks, a savagery hitherto unheard of and profoundly shocking to Burmese. It enriches itself from foreign aid. But Larkin observes, too, that the generals' paranoia about foreigners was deepened by threats from outside. For years Western powers debated interfering in Burma; the American warships floating off the Burmese coast, ready to land supplies after the cyclone, looked menacing. Time magazine ran an article asking 'Is it Time to Invade Burma?'

The junta is corrupt and vicious but not stupid."

http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/mirsky_08_10.html

Whither Al Gore (WAG)? (formerly AGW)

It's O's fault:

"“The U.S. Senate has failed us” and “The federal government has failed us.” Gore even seemed to blame President Obama by emphasizing that “the government as a whole has failed us… although the House did its job."

Incredibly, Gore did not mention Bush.

...-

"Gore concedes, National Wildlife Federation calls skeptics “bastards”"

H/T WUWT?

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/10/gore-concedes-national-wildlife-federation-calls-skeptics-bastards/#more-23270

...-

"Gore concedes on climate this year
August 10, 2010

By Steve Milloy
GreenHellBlog, August 10, 2010

Speaking about the likelihood of climate bill being passed by Congress in 2010, Al Gore told a conference call of supporters tonight that, “this battle has not been successful and is pretty much over for this year.” Gore bitterly denounced the Senate and federal government stating several times, “The U.S. Senate has failed us” and “The federal government has failed us.” Gore even seemed to blame President Obama by emphasizing that “the government as a whole has failed us… although the House did its job. [emphasis added]”

Gored urged his listeners to take the “realistic view that they had failed badly.” Gore said that “Comprehensive legislation is not likely to be debated” and that a “lame duck debate” is a “very slim possibility indeed.” (N.B. We thought, because Gore told us, that “the debate” was over.)

Gore said “the government was not working “as our founders intended it to” and laid more blame at the feet of fossil fuel interests who conducted a “cynical coordinated campaign” with “unprecedented funding” and “who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars just on lobbying.” He criticized “polluters” for “dumping global warming pollution into the atmosphere like it was an open sewer.”

Gore blamed the skeptics for “attacking science and scientists.” “They [the skeptics] did damage and cast doubt,” Gore said.

Asked why the alarmists were ineffective in addressing Climategate, Gore bitterly blamed a “biased right-wing media… bolstered by professional deniers.” Gore claimed the Wall Street Journal published 30 editorial and news articles about Climategate and “not a single one presented [his] side of the science.”"

http://greenhellblog.com/2010/08/10/gore-concedes-on-climate-this-year/

So Liberal MP Jimmy Karygiannis is accusing the Conservative government of ignoring "flood ravaged Pakistan". Maybe he should speak to the Taliban running rampant in that place.

Better still he could get his fat arse and big mouth over there and start heaving sandbags or anything else to help ease his deep concern.

Swine flu dead; but, "new flu" alive.

The left-liberal fraudsters morph like snakes in the grass.

...-

"Pandemic over, but H1N1 means new flu strategy needed"
(NP)

Statistics show, survey says, experts deny, "sobering data" found, economists ponder, ....

"The report comes at a time when new data from Statistics Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. have bolstered existing forecasts that the real-estate market is slowing."

The numbers racket of the sociologists.

...-

"Resale housing prices sizzle in Canada

Double those of new homes. But study comes on heels of sobering data that indicate real-estate sector cooling off"

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Resale+housing+prices+sizzle+Canada/3383841/story.html

Why doesn't the planet behave like the Warmist's models say it should behave? Why is the planet wrong? Why can't Mother Nature understand the AGW theory and just accept the results of the $billions spent building AGW computer models?

Why ??

http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2010/08/imagine-if.html

Gaia used to just weep, now she tells lies.

Not a tip but an observation, I received a phone call asking me to sign up for the G&M. I get these from time to time. Say no thanks and that is it. They have a special rate and all, how can I resist?. The pitch 'It is a NATIONAL newspaper.' The standard reply, you have no reporters in this province so it isn't 'National'. It is a National Toronto Liberal newspaper and I don't want it.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/10/democrats-advocacy-groups-blast-cuts-food-stamps-fund-m-jobs/

The bill also requires that $12 billion be stripped from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, to help fund the new bill, prompting some Democrats to cringe at the notion of cutting back on one necessity to pay for another.
Arguably one of the most outspoken opponents on the Democratic side is Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who has blasted the move as “a bitter pill to swallow” but still voted yes.

She still voted Yes?

41 million poor people getting food stamps and Congress cuts 12 billion to save 160,000 starving union teachers?

They should have said-

"We are winning our battle against Childhood Obesity!"

Hey, Speedy, whenever the G&M calls I say "no thanks" and remind them that they have Jeffrey Simpson, Jane Taber, Leah McLaren, and a few other choice specimens writing for them.

I also remind them that when the Probe and Fail had the opportunity to expose ADSCAM, they didn't and that it was Conrad Black and his National Post that had to do it.

I'm always polite, but I sock it to them: too Toronto, too liberal, too left, too Liberal.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/09/AR2010080906252.html

"The FBI between 2003 and 2006 issued more than 192,500 letters -- an average of almost 50,000 a year. The Justice Department inspector general in 2007 faulted the bureau for failing to adequately justify the issuance of such letters,"

the dubya legacy lives on.

welcome to ground zero of the newest police state.

Suggestion for you Kate:

Barack Obama: Not socialist enough!

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100810/national/us_gibbs_attacks_left

"He has not met the challenges boldly. He has not given most Americans tangible improvements in their lives. And he’s failed to do so because he’s been afraid to act _ and to be perceived as _ a real progressive ... Robert Gibbs should be grateful that progressives aren’t even more critical of Obama."

"Clement's census comments 'false': Rae"
(cbc)

Liberal Bob (Hi! I'm Red-Green Mao Stlong's nephew.) Rae prefers the Grecian formula: statistics.

"The term stands for tricks, political manipulation and creative accounting. It stands for the entire Greek tragedy, for the numbers-juggling that drove the country to the brink of bankruptcy, and for the statistical pipe dreams of Logothetis' predecessors -- one of whom has already fled abroad."

"... Greece, which currently has the reputation of being the home of fudged and forged statistics."

"Greek Government Hauls in Billions in Back Taxes"

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,709703,00.html

loki

I always thought that for some reason God celebrated my birthday with fireworks. This time it is 65.

Just bloody kidding about God's work.

In reference to EBD’s link to Lars Walker’s, "The Wreck of the Narcissist", August 11 @ 11:51 p.m.: I wrote a response at Reader Tips (August 9), which fits this topic. (I also introduce the idea that the diminishment of Christianity has something to do with the epidemic of narcissism we’re now seeing.)

From the Walker article: "The generation of Americans that survived the Depression and won the Second World War faced the post-war years with two firm goals—to have families, and to give their children everything they never had. The children they bore were (by and large) the most cherished, the most cossetted, and the most privileged in human history. Many (not all, but enough) were taught that they were the center of the universe, the most important people in the world. As they grew older, they were confidently informed that they were the smartest, best-educated, wisest generation the world had ever seen. They would, they were assured, change the world forever.

"And change it they did....”

Below is my response to nv53, who seems to believe i) a boomer fallacy, that Christianity and rationalism are mutually exclusive (“Religious belief has nothing to do with reason and truth”), and ii) that altruism is “beneath contempt”. (I was quite astonished by this frank admission.) I wrote:

“The Bible tells the story of One God, who has created the earth in an orderly way for the benefit and good of mankind. This was a quite revolutionary concept—versus the capriciousness of many malevolent nature gods: human life and sacrifice repeated in a cyclical manner in order to appease them. On the other hand, the idea of a benign deity and an established order laid the foundation for reason and scientific discovery: once mankind understood that there was order in the world, both progress forward—rather than around and around, according to the seasons—and inquiry to discover the rules and their limits (science) became possible.

“On another topic, I’m quite astonished at your apparent disdain for the altruism that batb mentioned (and the woeful lack of it Theodore Dalrymple references): this concern and care for the welfare of others IS pretty well laid out in the Ten Commandments. Actually, C.S. Lewis studied the moral codes of many of the ancient civilizations and discovered that most of them were remarkably similar to the Ten Commandments. He called this moral code, The TAO, and it is perfectly rational: without the virtues enumerated there, communal life would disintegrate into anarchy—a state to which we’re headed rather more quickly than when Western society honoured the Ten Commandments.

“nv53, you write, ‘Then it's [batb: learning to sacrifice our immediate pleasures for the good of others] beneath contempt. Others are perfectly capable of looking after themselves, as we all are [sic]. We produce and trade with others for mutual benefit; we don't sacrifice [sic]. There is nothing wrong with occasionally giving a helping hand to someone who has fallen on hard times, but it's not a moral primary [sic].’ (You might consider checking out the story of the Good Samaritan.)

“On what grounds do you ridicule altruism? (I'm sad that you've arrived at such a conclusion.) Have you considered the outcome of what you’ve said here? The multitude of generous riches of Western civilization would never have happened if our forebears had had such a moral pygmy attitude. Now that the West is headed away from altruism at an astonishing speed—‘Me-Myself-and-I, first and foremost, 24/7/365’—things aren’t looking so good for our prosperity and safety.

“nv[envy?]53, as a person who appears to primarily value personal comfort and well-being above other considerations, beware what you wish for: I believe you’ll get the opposite of prosperity: widespread selfishness—which we see everywhere these days—breeds anarchy, not peace.

“I don’t mind criticisms of Christianity—for millennia, the Church has been very good at it! As a result, Christianity has developed and adapted. What I do mind are the countless, unreasonable pot shots made against Christianity and Christians at all levels of society—even by some people who should know better—out of sheer ignorance. It seems that anti-Christian bigotry is quite acceptable in the West—at the same time that Islam (where, with official approval, altruism is often distinctly lacking) is being accorded protected status. How reasonable is that?"

Boomers: "We're the change we've been waiting for." Good grief and Kyrie eleison!

Lambs to the Slaughter: Will Christians dialogue themselves into dhimmitude?

Opening paragraphs:

"I used to scoff at writers such as Sam Harris, Kevin Phillips, and Chris Hedges when they warned that Christians were a major threat to American freedoms. Now, I’m not so sure. Of course, all their talk about Christians imposing a theocracy on America has about as much credibility as the “truther” theory that 9/11 was a U.S. government/Mossad conspiracy. But I wonder now if Christians, in their naivite and in their desire to be thought tolerant, aren’t inadvertently paving the way for an eventual Islamic theocracy.

"It seems that quite a number of Christian churches are now involved in “outreach” programs with local mosques. The typical outreach is for a church to invite an Islamic leader to come in and explain Islam to the congregation. Naturally, the imams present Islam as a religion of peace and love. And naturally in their desire to appear loving and accepting, the Christians lap it up."

Believe me or your lying eyes.

MSM buttresses its plea with a "Photograph by: Statistics Canada".

Frenchy loves the left-liberals' Grecian Formula: statistics.

MSM says: "A federation representing Francophone and Acadian Canadians".

...-

"Federal Court to fast-track census challenge"

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Federal+Court+fast+track+census+challenge/3385944/story.html

Oh look, more global warming shenannigans! I guess those eggheads at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just find numbers tricky.

http://minx.cc/?post=304526

These stats are frightening, yet a substantial number of Canadians want to legalize (standardize) euthanasia.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/dutch-euthanasia-cases-up-13-per-cent-last-year/article1669211/?cmpid=tgc

Me No Dhimmi, I’ll check out the article you cite. It seems that it/you make a valid point.

However, I’d imagine that the Christian churches referenced are the “Christianity lite” version, e.g., most of the mainline, establishment Protestant churches, which haven’t yet encountered an idea of the Zeitgeist they’re not willing to embrace. In fact, the majority of these churches, including the Anglican Church, of which I used to be a member, have embraced the Zeitgeist virtually right out of Christianity!

Note that it is the left-wing, socialist, soft-headed version of “Christianity” that is hard on Israel and altogether soft on Islam and sharia law. E.g., The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams—who, BTW, has no jurisdiction over the decisions of any of the churches in the worldwide Anglican communion—has conceded that the adoption of forms of sharia law seem “unavoidable” in the UK. Why didn’t he challenge sharia instead?

Then there’s Catholicism: it’s got its problems, that’s for sure. But it’s no Christianity lite and it doesn’t appease either Christianity lite OR Islam. I believe it attempts to be respectful of Islam. However, I also believe it knows what’s what. (The more liberal the jurisdiction, the more likely to appease: I believe there are some RC jurisdictions, e.g., in Brussels, that are iffy on this score.) The fact that the Roman Catholic Church takes Christianity seriously—something that Christianity lite doesn’t—and the fact that it has a Magisterium are some protection, I believe in the appeasement department.

We shall see . . .

From the end of the article Me No Dhimmi linked:

“For too many Christians, the essence of Christianity boils down to tolerance and non-judgmentalism. Moreover, Christianity in America has become so mixed up with therapy and pop psychology that, nowadays, the surest sign of election is feeling good about oneself. It is, of course, much easier to feel good about yourself if you can congratulate yourself on being tolerant, sensitive, and respectful of differences. It’s likely that many of the Christians who attend outreach presentations like the one at Lamb of God Church aren’t really interested in being educated about Islam. What they are really seeking is confirmation of their existing multicultural assumptions. So their sympathies will lie with those who tell them that it’s reasonable to keep dreaming dreams of interfaith harmony, and they will resist those who want to wake them from the dream.”

This certainly sounds like Christianity lite to me. The ploy described in the article, to get Christians to “come over” to the side of Islam, is the same one that was used about two decades ago, in order to get Protestants to acquiesce to homosexual “marriage”. The appeasement strategy is presented as an exercise in tolerance and inclusiveness. There’s a hitch, though. Tolerance and inclusiveness are only to be accorded to the “outcasts”: the Muslims and homosexuals. The one-way Tolerance and Diversity Streets most certainly do NOT apply to any holdouts, who may have suspicions about the motives and long range objectives of the “victim” groups. Another part of this ploy is to cover up any unattractive aspects of the Muslim/homosexual culture/lifestyle. Those cultures/lifestyles are whitewashed: they’re presented as altogether benign and not too different from the way the rest of us live our lives: “There. Nothing to be afraid of!” And anyone who questions this fairytale is ostracized and treated as a narrow minded bigot. (I know all about that!)

What a scam—the kind of scam that soft-headed left-wingers always fall for, to the detriment of all of us.

"Swine Flu No Longer A Pandemic - But Get Vaccinated
NPR (blog)"

Left-liberal Swine Flu Fraud: The Swine.

...-

"WHO list reveals flu advisors with industry ties

GENEVA — Five of the 15 experts that advised the World Health Organisation about swine flu pandemic alerts had received support from the drugs industry, including for flu vaccine research, the WHO revealed on Wednesday.

The agency released for the first time a list of the 15 members of the Emergency Committee headed by Australian tropical diseases professor John Mackenzie, who was the only member publicly named during the outbreak.

They came from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin and North America, the list posted on the WHO's website showed.

Most were scientific researchers and epidemiologists, along with a Senegalese diplomat, public health officials from Thailand and Chile as well as two specialists on international air travel and health. The list can be seen at..."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ifwZFBD8rvvsxIpb_Q0q8AAKjOKQ

The President dropped by DFW Airport today to great 150 troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

A real President I mean. You know, W?

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6894887&id=361997510504&comments#!/album.php?aid=253292&id=361997510504

errr greet.

Just watching an episode of Doctor Who.

The recently elected British PM is wildly popular, but no one can seem to come up with a single policy he stands for, or anything concrete he has done.

He is, of course, actually an alien.......hmmmmmmmmmm

Oh, the episode originally aired in 2006.........

People I know always wonder just why it is that so many immigrants, mostly Asians, don't seem able to blend in with the Canadian milieu. They have terrible manners, tend to cheat, and are not nearly as giving as cradle Canadians. I try to explain to them that they are not Christians, and whatever they worship, it is not Christ based, not of the Christian/Judeo tradition. In their beliefs, the clan comes first and lying and stealing is allowed and they tend to look down on Canadians because they see us as stupid, easy marks. They have no respect for people like us, though they will make use of that. Needless to say, there are exceptions, but only because they are Christian Asians. i.e. Filipinos.

Get ready to accept some more of your Asian neighbors. The Toronto Star has its usual unbiased coverage, but the commentators seem to disagree, which is encouraging.

But there seems to be a reluctance to expand Toronto's population. Hmmmmm

http://tinyurl.com/2fnwlzb

Yes, lookout @ 12:31 p.m., altruism is beneath contempt because it is the belief that man has no right to live for his own sake. The entire left-wing system is founded upon it. Capitalism allows individuals to live their own lives free of state interference. That's why it is ethical and socialism is evil.

Don't ever confuse benevolence, which is a genuine desire to help others who have fallen on hard times, with altruism, which is the foundation of slavery.

On a very similar topic as nv53's comment above, here's my answer to nv53, which I posted at another thread:

I posit that nv53 is somewhat mixed up: his/her thesis, such as it is, is full of misconceptions, contradictions, and a serious misuse of the English language. Where to start?

nv53 writes, “You two [lookout and batb] don't seem to understand that the entire leftist-socialist-collectivist viewpoint is founded on altruism, which is the notion that man does not have the right to live for his own sake.”

Good grief, nv53: what you describe is slavery, not altruism. It’s clear that you have no conception of the term. Canadian Oxford Dictionary: “altruism: 1. regard for others as a principle of action. 2. unselfishness; concern for other people.”

If one believes that socialist dictators are altruists, one would believe that spiders catch flies in order to give them a comfortable, temporary, resting place in their busy day.

nv53 then writes, “Every socialist dictator uses the language of sacrifice, and too many of our own politicians and commentators do too.”

This entirely contradicts his/her statement about dictators as altruists by admitting that socialists use a non-Muslim form of taqiyya, called euphemism—or outright lies—to fool the people. (Obama does it all the time.) nv53, you need to make up your mind.

nv53 also writes, “There is nothing wrong with being a Good Samaritan if one can afford the resources (time and money), but that's an example of benevolence, not altruism.” Wrong again. Yes, a Good Samaritan is benevolent, but the key element is that a Good Samaritan is a person who helps another with no thought of payment in return. The materially poorest person in the world can be a Good Samaritan—and many are. In fact, it seems that the more materialistic a society becomes, the less likely one is to find Good Samaritans: it seems that nv53 might be a good illustration of this phenomenon.

nv53 seems confused about what selfishness means too: “Selfishness means concern with one's own interests.” Not really: everyone is, quite rightly, concerned with one’s own interests. I suggest that nv53 acquire a good dictionary to rectify his/her many misconceptions. From the Canadian Oxford Dictionary: “selfish: 1. deficient in consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure.” Judaism and Christianity teach the opposite of this.

And what’s with nv53’s “By the way, mindless self-indulgence of whims is not selfishness if one defines it as rational self-interest.”
How can an action that’s “mindless” and “[a] whim” also be “rational”? (Such an action may be “intuitive” self-interest; it’s certainly not “rational”.)

nv53’s ramblings appear to be the product of a thoroughly mangled thought process. To start with, this person obviously thinks of words as plastic: they can have any meaning one wants them to have. Sorry to burst your bubble, nv53, but that’s not how the real world works.

I hope that nv53 has a good “quality of life” day today as he/she “[tries] to be productive and to trade with others, voluntarily for mutual benefit”. Heaven help—as nv53 won’t be available—the person who, for whatever reason, isn’t able to meet nv53’s (by admission) self-serving standards.

End Quote

larben, I agree with what you said above.