Reader Tips

Reader Tips 86 Comments

Did Mark Holland mislead the House? And why did the LPC edit their website?
The Iranian Canadian Community Centre ;

a group categorized as an animal protection agency, according to documents — received a $200,000 grant on March 27, 2006, only three weeks after incorporating as a charity.
The group’s address is listed as the law office of David Farmani, a director of the charity who is also president of the Richmond Hill Liberal riding association with longstanding connections to the party. Another director is Gholam Reza Moridi, the riding’s Liberal candidate in the upcoming election.

“He was probably wetting his pants,” said Ramey, who balanced on her walking stick as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun.
Crazy campuses in Victor Davis Hanson’s day.
Canada joins anti-Kyoto bloc.
Add yours to the comments.

86 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  2. Here she comes…Miss america…My Venus in Blue Jeans…woo hoo! …and she didn’t need directions from a femmy to stand up for herself! what a woman!!

  3. “Tough isn’t a word necessarily associated with Miss America, but three thieves arrested after their truck tires were shot out by 82-year-old Venus Ramey might beg to differ.”
    “tough”? or just from a generation which was NOT indoctrinated with suicidal passivity to crime?
    Ramey is obviously from a more stoic generation who have not had the self respect to engage in defensive and justified violence, bred out of them by degenerate utopian engineers who say no violence is justified…not even self defense.
    We can’t have stoic individuals with self worth populating the new anthill society. One must give one’s existance to the betterment of the anthill state and it’s ideals…One cannot selfishly live for one’s own benefit…one must become part of the collective…even laying down one’s life in sacrifice to errant utopian orthodoxies..such as offering no defensive violence to aggression.
    This is the “new” freedom..the “new” civil order.

  4. An atheist professor from Virginia Tech and Dinesh D’Souza have a bit of back and forth worth reading. Dinesh opens with:
    “To no one’s surprise, Dawkins has not been invited to speak to the grieving Virginia Tech community. What this tells me is that if it’s difficult to know where God is when bad things happen, it is even more difficult for atheism to deal with the problem of evil. The reason is that in a purely materialist universe, immaterial things like good and evil and souls simply do not exist. For scientific atheists like Dawkins, Cho’s shooting of all those people can be understood in this way–molecules acting upon molecules.
    If this is the best that modern science has to offer us, I think we need something more than modern science.”
    http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/18/where-is-atheism-when-bad-things-happen/
    Atheis prof comes back with:
    “We atheists do not believe in gods, or angels, or demons, or souls that endure, or a meeting place after all is said and done where more can be said and done and the point of it all revealed. We don’t believe in the possibility of redemption after our lives, but the necessity of compassion in our lives. We believe in people, in their joys and pains, in their good ideas and their wit and wisdom. We believe in human rights and dignity, and we know what it is for those to be trampled on by brutes and vandals. We may believe that the universe is pitilessly indifferent but we know that friends and strangers alike most certainly are not. We despise atrocity, not because a god tells us that it is wrong, but because if not massacre then nothing could be wrong.”
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/19/18451/0971

  5. Socialism, aka communism: the same everywhere, at all times: gulags, death camps: Death.
    …-
    Pictures of a vietnamese Re-Education Camp (Vietnam Human Rights Bill)
    Keep in prayer for the Vietnam Human Rights Bill. It is presently in the Senate after passing by a wide margin in the House.
    If you have any doubt about whether the Bill should pass, take a look at the picture below of an actual re-education camp in Vietnam provided by the Montagnard Foundation. Re-education camps are where believers are typically sent.
    Stay tuned as we will post a picture per day over the next 4 days….-
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts

  6. So much for Toronto being the economic engine of Canada. I’m sure the Ontarian taxpayers in Peterborough, Timmins, Windsor, and Ottawa appreciate paying higher taxes so the unsustainable money pit known as T.O. can celebrate diversity or whatever it is they do with the city budget:

    “Toronto is on the verge of bankruptcy and only quick and drastic intervention from Queen’s Park can avert massive service cuts, say the city’s top bureaucrats.”
    http://www.thestar.com/News/article/205351

  7. This athiest punk is lying through his teeth if he says that Athiests “detest” “bad” event…without the moral compas of Judeo-Christian influence on the culture and laws of western society, we would be an AMORAL lot who would view a mass shooting as something that was bound to happen given all the prevailing circumstances…neither good nor bad unless one was directly involved.
    Christian thought brought forward the element of human empathy as a core guide in life.
    The good prof can seek his guidence by interacting molecules and amoral assessments of “fate” or odds but he’ll never get my full trust as being anyone impervious to resisting evil…because he does not know what it is, cannot recognize it when he sees it and dismisses its aftermath as coincidence.

  9. New poll out showing a 10% lead for PMSH over the red/green group. Was this poll taken after the red/green pact and after the new liberal ad showing dion doing a judge judy imitation. Both liberals and green are down.

  10. David Suzuki’s report to parliament on his “if YOU were Prime MInister” tour excludes “inconvenient” input
    Saturday, April 21, 2007
    Ottawa, Canada, April 20, 2007 –The Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP) calls on the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF) to explain the criteria used to decide which input from Canadians were passed on to the Federal government and media today (see).
    A review of the videos and comments that are highlighted on today’s DSF Web page report on the issue reveals not a single seriously dissenting view, or even ones asking for input from both sides of the climate change issue, such as that submitted by NRSP.
    more at:
    http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/global-warming042107.htm

  11. “In a somewhat surprising development, Canada, a long-time supporter of the Kyoto Protocol, announced that it may want to join the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (AP6), a six-nation coalition focusing on voluntary emission-reduction steps and technology transfers.”
    Yahoo, hooray! This is the best news I’ve heard in along time. I did not look forward to rising heat and fuel bills, nor to 60 degree temps, in winter, in my already cold house.
    Perhaps sensible leaders are beginning to find ways to fight back against this psuedo religion, that would have us all, except the carbon credit traders, suffering economically.

  12. Blame the killer
    By Michael Coren
    Toronto Sun
    Saturday, April 21, 2007
    One question that should be asked following the massacre of the innocents in Virginia is where on earth did the media find so many social workers, child psychologists and pop philosophers and how were they able to utter such complete rubbish for so long?
    For the most part they are mere puppets of fashion, tossing around cliches and soppy explanations when the answers are really very simple. It’s not about bullying and certainly not about gun control.
    This terrible case is about an insane, evil person committing an insane, evil act. Yet evil in particular is something in which we do not believe in the great relativist days of the 21 century when blame and responsibility are treated as swear words. So instead we obsess not about dealing with bad people who murder but with the guns they manage to obtain. …-
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1821174/posts

  13. The new math;
    AP6 = PM Harper + Minister Baird + Patrick Moore + reason – fanatics
    IPCC = Dion + Suzuki + Kyoto Kult + fanatics + Mo – science

  14. Re;the Holland fiasco…I have been wondering why he has been so strangely quiet.Maybe a lawyer somewhere told him to shut up,as he was on shaky ground.The Libs,having gotten nowhere with this little ploy,so them and the atm-obsessed ndp,have switched their bayonets on another national emergency!The PM’s ‘stylist!I could not believe,listening to Craig Oliver on Adler yesterday,that this topic will be front/center on QP Sunday..with Craig making some pretty far-out,unsubstantiated claims about PMSH and ‘psychic’. Adler kinda pushed Oliver on this,but conclusion I came away with,was that Oliver swallowing this b.s.and it will be discussed in length on QP.
    Cons.must be doing a pretty good job,when the’dresser’story,takes front row,over Baird’s report,Afghanistan,etc.

  16. I see a pattern emerging, … in the tactics of religious groups.
    About three weeks ago, in Kelowna, they came to my door and used the Pete’s National fear mongering on climate to coerce me into being “saved” by their church.
    Just now, in Winnipeg, they were at it again. Only their church could save me from all the bad “news” (fear mongering) on TV.
    So there we have it. Our beloved mainstream media is complicent in scaring us into being saved from, … from,.. well ya know, from things like the end-of-the-world. From going to hell (in a hand basket). From running out of oats for our horses. From running out of oil. From another ice age. From AGW.
    JEE-SUZZ some people are naive.

  17. How does the media explain their refusal to carry the dutch cartoons, because they might/would offend but felt showing all the video/writings etc of the killer would not offend. And why is the media so intent on trying to get koreans to take responsibility or feel guilty. Do they ever ask muslims their reaction to all the killings and bombings etc by muslims killing muslims in afgan and Iraq. Shouldn’t every muslim in canada or the US feel guilty about this. Shouldn’t family members of suicide bombers, living in canada/US, be asked to apologize.
    The cbc took pride in not showing the videos, will they show or report on libby’s treasonous act.

  18. I read that dion and layton will be at Vimy this wkend, why are they going. Will dion vote as a french citizen. Hope he is watched like a hawk to see if he does.

  19. Saw latest poll. Great. I have to wonder that they may indeed be in majority territory, contrary to article. After all, Chretien ran this country with as low as 38%. As well, Liberal vote concentrated in cities, so they win ridings there by big margin. Sure that’s a lot of seats, but you can only send one MP per riding, not matter how big the margin of victory. OK I’m no expert on this stuff, but doesn’t this make sense?
    In any event, the public hasn’t engaged like they would in campaign. Picture Dionsky announcing his 8th environmental/Kyoto plan, his 4th position on Afghanistan and his bleating about being bullied.
    Libs terrified and relieved about election at same time. They are terrified because their dear leader will be savaged by Tories when he is forced to actually debate them, instead of making meaningless slogans to fellow Liberals in half full rooms. Picture the debate itself. How could he possibly gain support? Of course, some Libs would be relieved because they could finally get rid of the Dionsky millstone around their necks, now dragging them down to greater depths of despair and desperation.
    C’mon Mr Harper call election as soon as practicably possible (squeezed between Manitoba and Ontario elections).

  21. The tragic shootings in our classrooms is a sample of what would happen with a govmit guns-are-illegal policy.
    Only the ‘illegals’ would have guns, as the gunman in Virginia did.
    The population, as the students were, would be vulnerable to the very thugs that the bleeding hearts let run loose.

  23. A sad setting for Earth Day
    http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1177130122986&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1112188062581
    […]
    The icon, man-size, of Gaia, the Earth goddess, painted by Pickasso in his Red-Green Period, on the east exterior wall of Mao Stlong’s dacha in Beijing, China, has blood-red tears in her eyes. Reported by CBC-Pravda.
    DionMay are making a pilgrimage, via Cuba, a la Trudeauesque, to worship the image.
    The left-liberal-socialist religion; man in his own image.

  24. Venus Ramey:
    Hey thats my kind of gal, and a straight shooter!
    One of the many reasons, I keep my muzzle loader (ie bear or puma stopper) around!
    It would be rare to need more than one shot to ‘get the message across’.

  25. In respect to Bob’s post on atheism vs. religion…
    Others have pointed out that in philosophy and theology the religious consideration of evil is called theodicy.
    It essentially says that if God all-knowing, then God can know that horrible events are about to transpire.
    And if God is all-powerful, then God has the ability to stop those horrible events. (Some might argue a responsibility to stop them.)
    So if God has the knowledge of events, and God has the power to stop them, and yet does not stop them, where does that leave us?
    Some say it means that a) God is not “all-good”; b) God is not all-powerful; or c) God is not all-knowing. So what is it to be?
    Usually the arguments have to do with free will and the idea that God knows the future and the rest of us do not. And therefore if evil were not a possibility we would simply be like the trees, with no capacity to make choices with the growth and development that this entails. Likewise, since we do not know the future, God may have plans that ultimately would justify the “evil”.
    I think that it is obvious that atheists can be very moral.
    Our good friend ET posts here all the time. At this juncture I have never had the good fortune to meet her, but I am convinced that she is an extremely moral person who operates out of a strong sense of integrity. In fact, my view is that her arguments for atheism (which are tempered considerably when you consider her views of an organizing principle) essentially are insisted upon by the necessity that her personal sense of integrity demands. She is a scientist, and one could say that she is “consecrated” to the rigors of the scientific method.
    It seems to me that the problem for atheists is that they can argue for morality (as Sartre has done when he says that on the level of ethics, possibility is necessity), but there is no reason to insist that morality be observed other than the strength of the argument.
    Whereas the religious position insists on morality because there is a basis of an ultimate Cause that dispenses divine laws of creativity that demand a morality to be in conformity with the absolute nature of the universe.

  28. http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=65a5335a-993d-42e7-99e3-ce076f092239
    “[i]SaskTel faces a lawsuit seeking nearly $90 million in damages over allegations that its “predatory practices” — including lying to the federal government and entering business agreements under false pretenses — drove a Yorkton-based company out of business.
    In doing so, the suit alleges, the provincial Crown corporation made a commitment to deliver high-speed wireless Internet access to most of Saskatchewan it didn’t keep and never intended to in the first place.[/i]”
    This lawsuit is a damning indictment of how SaskTel’s behaviour actually was/is mendacious towards rural customers.
    When is the next election?

  29. “As Cherney was researching the causes and effects of global warming, incredibly stormy and bizarre weather battered Victoria. She was enmeshed in the topic and an idea germinated. The design would show the earth getting warmer and the devastation on the earth’s surface. Not a pretty design for a not-so-pretty topic.”
    “Outside, freezing rain coated the CN Tower with sheets of ice. Inside the Metro Convention Centre, it was not much warmer as trucks continually came in and out to set up for the opening night gala. Decked out in boots, parka, hat and gloves, Cherney easily completed her design within the allowed time.”
    http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/homes/story.html?id=ba077b69-be9b-4369-9237-856183056367
    “And they love bad weather.” University of Victoria climatologist Andrew Weaver said conclusions cannot be drawn from the unusual weather.
    “Everyone wants to pin every weather event on global warming or El Nino and you can’t do that,” he said.
    http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=fb38e8bd-d1e9-4c03-a40f-264fd07e52ba&k=306

  30. Mohawk blockade Toronto – Montreal CN rail route.
    Toronto Star:
    “Indian protesters vowed to keep the main CN rail line between Toronto and Montreal closed for another day despite a court injunction and a personal plea from OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino to end the blockade.
    The tense situation also prompted Premier Dalton McGuinty to urge the federal government to intervene at the earliest possible opportunity, to help resolve issues underlying the blockade.”
    “help resolve issues underlying the blockade.”
    How about resolving the issue that they are breaking the law and throwing them in jail, just like any other citizens breaking the law. And if they’d prefer to be considered citizens of their own nation, then I imagine this is an act of war and should be treated as such.
    A country where the rule of law doesn’t apply equally to all citizens is surely on its last legs.

  31. Has anyone been over to ctv.ca and read their 10 tips for reducing emmissions, waste or whatever. How do these experts come up with the figure that every cdn used 36,000 gallons of water to flush every year. We could save x number of trees if we quit using this or that. Don’t print hard copies. Sorry, when my computer crashed I was very happy I had hard copy of many of my files. Still lost a lot, but saved some accounting records. Not everyone has a computer, to order things instead of going to the store. Stop ordering out for food. Many more suggestions. However, the fail to mention how many jobs and businesses would be lost if we all did everything they say. And how credible are the experts deciding what and how much we should eat. Where are the women going to find the time to do all these things, with working, etc. One woman on cnn even suggested we start homecanning again. Don’t eat pineapple, creats lots of emissions getting it to the store. And, sorry, there is no farmers market around here to shop for produce locally. The expect me to drive at least 60 miles/return to go buy fresh spuds. I can see it now, what we used to see weekly and daily in the cities. The breadman, milk man, spice salesman, iceman, fuller brush and the pots & pan guy. Oh, don’t forget the encyclopedia guy and vaccuum guy. Wonder if they would find anyone home.

  33. When wishful thinking meets ideology and stupidity:
    “Harper’s leadership of Tory party could hinge on majority – No shortage of possible successors if he can’t improve on minority status”
    http://www.thestar.com/News/article/205614
    Funny, no mention of “no shortage of possible successors if” Dion loses next election.
    What a fantasy of an article. Can we have a fed election now, please?

  34. Iberia:
    That was a fun little clip!
    Apparently the Prime Minister is sexy enough for Laureen.
    Recall the softwood minister Emerson reported that Stephen is a ‘hard ass’.
    In the next election the as yet unannounced ‘hardwood minister’ will report that Laureen has a ‘soft ass’.
    Would that be sexy enough for you?
    Gee what Prime Minister wouldn’t be angling for a majority; Conservative, Liberal or otherwise?
    I believe that goes with the job description.
    Cheers

  35. Native only regiments. Some pointy heads want to form native only regiments in the Canadian armed forces.
    Best quote from the article from a Royal Military College historian:
    “we know damn well what happens when you try to go to a war and you don’t give expression to cultural makeup of the nation … It didn’t allow you to identify your culture with the effort that you were making and the sacrifices you were enduring.”
    – http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/cdnmilitary/racial-regiments.html

  36. “Recall the softwood minister Emerson reported that Stephen is a ‘hard ass’.”
    That sounds soooo wrong. :>D

  37. Native only regiments would be about as dumb-headed as anything ever done. If we think we have trouble with the Native thugs and no-good layabouts who block highways and railway lines now, staking claims, what would it be like if they had their own regiments?
    Talk about armed and dangerous! They should be carted off to the nearest jail house at this point.
    What the hell have they contributed to the Country?
    They work if they please and pay no taxes if they do.

  38. I would encourage folks to visit Heidi Cullen’s Weather Channel blog.
    She bemoans how the “politics” gets in the way of the “science”
    She’s promoting and has a link to PBS where Frontline has global warming program on Tuesday.
    Based on the promo I saw, it looks to be the ultimate in one-sided “journalism”.
    (and I’ll take a moment to plug “The Chilling Stars”, a great read and great science to boot)

  39. TIME one of of americas most far left ultra liberal rags has put out suggestions on how to stop this so called global warming and one includes giving up beef what a load of bull kaka from this manure spreader i mean how many tree have the cur down to write this offensive liberal sewer sheet? The best idea is to CANCIL YOU SUBCRIPTION TO TIME AND SPEND THE MONEY ON A SUV AND TELL AL GORE AND HIS ECO-WACKS TO TAKE A HIKE

  40. So P.M. has a stylist. I say good for him. Why would the media be on about this? And what would be the difference between a stylist and a coach who trains you to speak English correctly? In an age of video, I think that it would be foolish not recognize the importance of visual presentation. Perhaps the P.M. got the idea after the media pilloried him for looking too casual at the Mexico meeting with Bush and Fox. So what are they fussing about now? The media begin to look like hypocrites.

  41. Re The Iranian Community Centre…
    Richmond Hill….isnt that Cherniak’s riding? Isnt he an executive on the Liberal RIding association?
    Just curious, maybe he has some perspective on this?

  42. Robert:
    The idea of a native regiment might have some traction if you drew the elements from a large enough population base. ie Crees number about 200 K in population. Of course you would need some interest on the native side of the equation to make it work.
    Gee the Mohawks are no slouches lately. You just need to channel the aggressiveness in a positive way.
    Also films such as “Windtalker” explored the participation of natives in WWII on the American side.
    The trick would be to draw upon bands that traditionally had alliances to generate regimental cohesiveness and provide a sufficient population to draw upon to ‘fill the ranks’. ie the Scottish regiment etc.
    There is enough native warrior history around eg Metis etc to pull something like that off.
    Here is an idea for a name that draws on the whole Louie Riel saga:
    HER MAJESTY’S BIG BEAR CROWFOOT POUNDMAKER REGIMENT
    It would draw on the ferocity of the history and bring full circle the ancient antipathy of broken promises.
    http://www.alittlehistory.com/NativeRb.htm
    Hey Kate where would you like the BIG BEAR (Mistahimaskwa) CROWFOOT POUNDMAKER REGIMENT domiciled? Does Battleford sound good?
    Cheers

  44. Will we see Miss America of ’44, Venus Ramey, featured on Oprah, or the View, as an amazing independent lady..?
    Oh wait…she carried a gun…

  45. Thanks, greg in dallas, for your kind comments. Yes, I’m an atheist – and I find that most people don’t understand atheism.
    The first mistake many people make is that they confuse atheism with reductionist positivism and materialism. Whew – what does that mean? It means that reality is just composed of ‘bits’, and these bits are definable, observable and material.
    So, above comments about ‘molecules’ tells me that the commentor is actually talking about positivism or materialism. That has nothing to do with atheism.
    Atheism means the view that there are no gods. Of course, this begs the question – what is a god? Well, this agent(s) is usually defined as a metaphysical agent, having ‘omnipotence, omniscience and omnibenevolence (power, knowledge and moral goodness to the maximum). And, eternity and simplicity (independent of causality).
    So- I reject any agential force having those qualities. Does this mean that I, as an atheist, am also a logical positivist, a materialist? No- and that’s the error so many people make, in not understanding that these are two very different points of view.
    As an atheist, I do not accept the idea of a powerful agential metaphysical force. BUT – I do accept the idea of a powerful agental networked communal physical force.
    Now- calm down – this force is not reductionist materialism.
    It can be called ‘Mind’. Natural Mind or reason or logic or order or organization or whatever. But any consideration of the symmetry of organization within out natural world, must lead one to conclude that this organization is not random, is not accidental, but is a process of reason, of informational interactions.
    The error that many people are making is that they separate Mind and Matter, an old Platonic and Cartesian distinction. They consider that the material lacks ‘mind’ or reason, and the mind, well, the mind lacks matter. I disagree; I’m an Aristotelian – and that view says that the one cannot exist without the other.
    Consider an atom – how is it that all atoms are organized in the same manner – with their internal protons/neutrons and their ‘wings’ of electrons? How do they form, in an ordered and repetitive and predictive manner – all the molecules of our universe. Isn’t that evidence of some overall reason, thought, mind processes?
    Consider the petals of a flower – how many of them have five, only five perfect petals – over generations and generations and in all shapes and sizes. Isn’t that evidence of order, of shared information, of mind working within matter?
    And so on. Now- what is this unifying principle that organizes our natural world with such symmetry, such elegance, such complex networking? I maintain it is reason; it is mind. But – not the mind of any metaphysical God, and certainly not the mind of man. I call this organizing principle – the principle that establishes normative organization in all of our natural world – I call this Mind. Some call it God. I don’t.
    And – I don’t separate it from matter.
    Now – this brings us to the notion of ethics and morality. Some people insist that anyone who does not believe in God, is an individual incapable of ethical and moral behaviour. I strongly disagree.
    Why?
    Because ethical and moral behaviour is not something taught to us within a creed, such as a religion. That would mean that we would, innately, lack any capacity for reason and love. We would have to be taught the RESULTS of rason and love – morality. Innately, we would lack it. I disagree.
    Ethical and moral behaviour is an act of reason and of emotion. And – all humans have those attributes. Innately. Therefore, to behave to another person as you would want them to behave to you at that same time and in that same instance – is an act of reason and emotion. Nothing to do with having to be Told By God.
    So-I’m an atheist. That does not mean I lack ethics and morality.

  46. ET said:
    “The error that many people are making is that they separate Mind and Matter.”
    So if you don’t Mind it doesn’t Matter? 🙂
    I’ll take the theist position, thus there is balance at Small Dead Animals.
    Cheers ET

  47. I’m also an atheist.
    I don’t promote or advocate it.
    Typically, I only mention it when directly asked.
    (the last person to ask was religious and was quite surprised by my answer)
    I value the advantages that Judeo-Christian values and traditions have given us.
    I would not want a society where atheists are the majority. I’m not a big fan of secular humanism.
    It seems to me it essentially trades a ‘pray to God’ to an ‘I am God’ approach.

  48. I am also an atheist. I agree with Robert above. I used to be more concerned about the fanatics of Christendom than I am now, having been introduced more recently to *real* dangerous fanatics – much of Islam. I came to realize that the Christian fanatics are small in number and unlikely to get their way, so I don’t worry about them any more 🙂
    As for morality, I believe I can state that I am as generally moral as any normal Christian or other theist. I don’t think that believing in a god creates morality. I work, pay taxes, and don’t commit crimes. I don’t *want* to commit crimes or cause pain to others, even if I thought I could get away with it. That’s because I have what almost every human has: empathy. It’s as simple as that.
    When the theist demands why I don’t go around raping and killing because I am not afraid of hell, the answer is so simple I don’t get why it is such a conundrum to some. I don’t want to, never did, never will. Frankly I am worried that anyone who even has to ask such a question is quite possibly a psychopath himself. In their case, I truly think they need god-belief to keep them in line, and I honestly hope they keep believing.

  49. Also, I am gradually coming to think of myself as a “Christian atheist” which is how Oriana Fallaci described herself. I acknowledge that our Judeo-Christian heritage has resulted in the best human society ever, and is the best hope for the future, and that our competitors are savage barbarians by comparison.

  50. Speaking as an amystical phenomenological non-deterministic mechanist, I should like to note that I sometimes wonder whether or not it wouldn’t be better to distinguish between theism and deism. Yes I realize that in common usage they are almost synonymous, but in practice I find myself being more of an adeist than an atheist, as one might perhaps expect from the first clause of this paragraph, in which I express an arguably adeist theism.
    Moving on from metaphysics and epistemology, we arrive at the domain of axiology, which is commonly considered to be the conjunction of aesthetics and ethics, that is: what is value? To me, the classic notions of ethical behaviour, which are largely inviolate over many millennia and cultures, provide a moral foundation that transcends any particular aesthetic proclivities.
    Therefore, I think that the matter of one’s deism is less important than the matter of one’s theism, when it comes to axiological judgments. Pragmatically speaking, it matters more whether or not we agree on issues of moral judgment than it does why we do or don’t agree thereto.

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