Michael Totten brings another excellent report from northern Iraq, this time with a fascinating interview of Kurdish-Iranian communists.
And the Daily Ablution interviews Michael Crichton:
What is the most serious threat facing our civilisation?
Loss of classical liberal values in those western societies that embraced them.
I fully agree with Crichton – the loss of liberal values. These values rest on an understanding that the basic attribute of a human being is the capacity to reason. This reasoning is an individual activity and subject to debate, dissent, questioning.
It is the basic philosophy of the Greeks (Plato and Aristotle); it is the foundation of the scientific method.
It is denied in postmodern theory – and in Islam. Postmodernism rejects the individual capacity for reasoning and rejects the scientific method. Postmodernism rejects the existence of objective reality and rejects the notion that there is such a thing as a truth of this objective reality. Interestingly – Islam is similar.
Postmodernism is the philosophy of the left – and that’s why they are so attuned to Islamism; both reject reason, truth, objective reality and science.
Actually, postmodernism is beginning to die out – after all, it has nothing to contribute, all it does is ‘deconstruct’ and reduce knowledge, and people, to ephemeral meaningless emptiness.
Islam has, in its refusal to reform, transformed in part into Islamic fascism, a utopian idealism based around apocalyptic violence. Also, unable to contribute to knowledge or to benefit anyone.
Tried to link this last night .
http://minx.cc/?post=220315
Little Green Footballs is running it now . It’s Evan Sayet talking to the Heritage Foundation . Watch the first five minutes , then try turning it off . A talk about how modern ” Liberals ” think .
Should be talking AT , not to , the Heritage Foundation .
Thanks for the link Jaeger, I wouldn’t have found Michael Crichton’s site otherwise. I agree with Crichton on most things, but I didn’t realize how prescient he had been until I read his piece: Mediasaurus: The decline of conventional media. This was written in 1993 and I read it around the same time and promptly forgot about it since this was approximately the time that I had switched to online news sources almost exclusively. The mediasaurus isn’t dead yet, but definately on it’s way out. This piece is available at: http://www.michaelcrichton.com/speeches/index.html
SDA is one of the sources of high quality information that Crichton talks about.
It is not a classical liberal value to attack and kill those with whom you disagree. There’s another name for that.
I bought and read Michael Crichton’s State of Fear on the recommendation of a commentator on SDA. I found the story itself extremely weak … but I really don’t like this kind of stuff. The part that made the purchase more than worthwhile (I got it for $6 on a clear out rack) was the bibliography.
The bibliography (which contains articles both pro and con AGW) clearly shows humans have no idea what they are doing … especially when they are trying to do “good” … Yellowstone anyone?
Like loki, I have taken a look at the talks MC has given. It amazes me how “ahead of the curve” he is.
MichaelTotten.com tales are more fun to read than most stuff and the photos are really good too. Once started, it*s hard to stop before the end.
That Turkish style blue and sand mosque is a thing of beauty.
I mailed Totten a small cheque to his PO box. I never key in any credit stuff on the computer any more. = TG
The fish rots from the heads down: The fish was the Librano$-Liberals. The heads were: AdScam Chretien-Martin, et al.
The et al includes the current Liberal leader, Citoyen Stephane Dion.
…-
RCMP officers accuse top ranks of coverup
A parliamentary committee has heard stunning allegations of fraud, abuse and a coverup at senior levels in the RCMP from those who wear the uniform.
Appearing before MPs on the public accounts committee Wednesday, several serving and retired RCMP officers delivered a scathing indictment of their leadership over the handling of fraud and abuse allegations involving the Mounties’ pension and insurance plans in 2002. …-
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/03/28/rcmp-allegations.html
Harper’s Strategy
[A Must Read from Jack’s Newswatch]
Commenter posted this:
This is from Preston Manning’s book, The New Canada, 1992. His statement in conclusion:
quote:
“Canada needs leadership which can transcend this narrowness and pettiness of vision. Genuine Reformers, especially constitutional Reformers, must be drawn from the ranks of Big Westerners, Big Ontarions, les grands Quebecois, Big Newfoundlanders, and Big Martimers — the Big Canadians capable of envisioning, creating, and sustaining the New Canada.
Finally, there are the obstacles put up by those who will say, “You can’t get to New Canada from Old Canada; it cannot be done.” A dozen countries in eastern Europe may be writing new constitutions and reorganizing their economies, but these people say it can’t be done in Canada. The Berlin wall can be torn down, but these people say we’ll never be able to tear down the walls that separate Quebec from the rest of Canada or that separate region from region. Other countries can reform their constitutions through constitutional conventions, democratize autocratic institutions, and replace tired old political parties with new ones, but that’s not the Canadian way and it can’t be done here. To get to New Canada, the first barrier we need to overcome is this type of negative thinking.
The carriers of this psychological virus are not new to the Canadian scene. These are the same type of people who said to Cartier and Champlain, “You’ll never get to the New World, you’ll fall off the edge.” They said to the first French and English settlers, “You’ll never survive, you won’t last the first winter.” They said to Alexander Mackenzie, “You’ll never get to the Pacific or the Arctic, you’ll drown or freeze to death or turn back.” They said to Sir John A. Macdonald, “You can’t build a railway across the continent, you can’t get across the Canadian Shield, and you’ll never get through the Rockies.” They said, “You can’t grow grain on the Canadian prairies, the season’s too short,” or, “You can’t get oil out of the tar sand, it simply can’t be done.”
Old Canada was built in defiance of those who said it couldn’t be done, and New Canada will be built in defiance of the same voices, not matter how loud they are or what positions they hold.
I close, therefore, by asking you the questions that I intend to ask every Canadian who will listen over the next two years:
* Can we define a New Canada to replace the Old Canada that is dying? Are you personally willing to participate in this process?
* Can we leap the psychological barriers of childish fears, narrow vision, and negativism, and for once in our lives conduct ourselves like Big Canadians worthy of this vast land we call our home?
* Can we get on the road to New Canada by the next federal election, by electing Big Canadians to the next Parliament? Are you willing to support the Reform option and a Reform Candidate?
If enough Canadians show the resolve and enthusiasm that has energized the Reform Party of Canada to date — if enough of our fellow Canadians will not only say, “Yes we can!” but “Yes we will!” — Then New Canada is much closer than we imagine.
End quote.
The above reviews Canada’s landmark successes despite all the physical and psychological barriers that she surmounted. PM Harper stands on the shoulders of Preston Manning’s great vision and leadership. I think it’s correct, the student has happily surpassed the instructor. We can maybe with real enthusiasm now, and renewed energy watch as Canada’s star begins to rise for the benefit of all. All as we commit to participate, work for it.
Comment by Anna Keightley | March 28, 2007
http://jacksnewswatch.com/2007/03/28/harpers-strategy/#comments
“I don’t think it’s possible to predict the future. It’s hard enough to predict the past. ”
Forgive me if I don’t consider Mr. Crichton to be among the mist lucid of philosophical oracles.
But he does make a point that when western culture, whose collective triumph was realized by the creation of the liberal democracy, started to shed classic liberalism (that of JS Mill, Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises) for socialist secular “progressiveism” ( That of Nietzsche
, Engles and Keynes) the non institutional strengths, economic freedom and individual civil justice of the culture as well as the security of the sovereign nation-state was compromised.
ET: “Postmodernism is the philosophy of the left – and that’s why they are so attuned to Islamism; both reject reason, truth, objective reality and science.”
Post-modernists may (by and large) be leftists but that doesn’t mean that all or even most leftists are post-modernists.
Postmodernism is the philosophy of one part of the left, just as Christian fundamentalism is the philosophy of one part of the right. In fact, what some call “the hard left” is very critical of post-modernism.
Another Gomery Inquiry? No.
A criminal inquiry with powers of subpoena; with sworn testimony, subject to perjury, etc.
Sworn witnesses to include AdScam Chretien-Martin-Dion, et al. …-
OTTAWA — A Liberal MP is calling for a public inquiry into what he calls a “culture of corruption” in senior RCMP ranks amid allegations of obstruction and coverup.
Borys Wrzesnewskyj, …”
…-
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2007/03/29/3862567.html
PURTID PUTAN is still a dirty lying scoundrel and KGB scumbag