Lots of work these days, sorry for the slow blogging. Your tips in the comments, as usual.
75 Replies to “Reader Tips”
charles macdonald – I disagree. The authoritarian regime in China, for example, has not collapsed. It is being replaced from the ground up by capitalism and private businesses. Not by religion.
The authoritarian regime in Iraq has collapsed but has not been replaced by religion but by a civic model.
The authoritarian regime of Tsarist Russia was replaced by the Leninist-Stalinist regime. Its collapse didn’t enable a religious revival (although that is occurring) but has left the country empty and desirous of singular ‘heroic political leadership (that’s how they see Putin).
As for Afghanistan – it’s been a set of many adversarial tribes rather than a cohesive nation. It’s trying to become a nation, but moving out of tribalism is very difficult.
Irwin M. Stelzer, Peak Oil Panic
Here in America, Congress alternates between calls for “energy independence” and refusals to allow drilling in what it considers environmentally sensitive areas in Alaska and offshore California and Florida. There’s more, but you get the idea. There is a lot of oil out there to be found and produced, not even including the vast reserves in Canada’s tar sands. We might have reached the age of peak panic about oil supplies, but not of peak oil.
If I were to be any other animal on earth, I’d want to be a peregrine falcon. Ya get to eat pigeons. Cool web cam indeed!
Actually, ET, the Chinese are enormously interested in Christianity in particular, to the extent that booksellers have trouble meeting the demand for Bibles (despite large print runs). The Sunday Times had a feature story on it some months ago, if you’re interested.
The collapse of Communist China is a real possibility. There is a maxim of political science (dating back at least to Ted Robert Gurr, Why Men Rebel, 1970) that the most dangerous time for a bad regime is when it begins to change for the better. The lot of the Chinese people is improving rapidly in a material sense but not in terms of civil and political rights. We’ll see if the revolution of rising expectations doesn’t blow the Bamboo Curtain apart. The student “pro-democracy” protests of a few years back are unlikely to be a one-off event.
And of course, there is the centrifugal force of separatism. The Muslim Uighur minority may prefer to reconstitute their breakaway state of Kashgaria (under Indian rather than British tutelage this time?) instead of remaining under Chinese suzerainty. Other restive minorities – notably the Tibetans – may similarly prefer to go their own way.
charles macdonald – I agree, that the communist monopoly rule of China is imploding, from the inside, as its people move more into capitalism and private enterprise.
But that doesn’t mean a movement to a religious authority. That is, it isn’t the case that a population is either under a civic authoritarianism or a religious authoritarianism.
The separation of church and state is the real alternative. In China, I think that the state authoritarianism will be reduced. Religious beliefs will indeed become stronger, replacing the control-over-the-future that the state ideology previously maintained. But, these new religious beliefs need not become state-authorities but can be separate. The state will be civic.
I also disagree with you that ‘the most dangerous time for a bad regime is when it changes for the better’. Nothing to do with ‘good’ or ‘bad’. The interface between one mode and another mode is always dangerous (ie. landing or taking off in a plane).
China’s political rights are improving; indeed, the mass of people ignore the communist party.
As for separatism, that’s to be expected in our new networked world, which is made up not of independent nation-states (and their colonies) but is instead made up of complex interlocked global networks of economic and informational connections. So, it won’t be the independent old style separatism, but the regional, semi-autonomous sectors that are still economically and informationally networked together.
ET you’re correct that public service jobs = high paying jobs and huge benefits for life with no accountablity.
I laugh out loud whenever I hear these union bosses argue that higher public service wages are required or valuable employees will be “lost to the private sector”. No one is going to give up the gravy train in the public service for a private sector job. Why would they leave such cozy jobs for a world of accountability, performance measurement and job insecurity?
BTW, why do federal public servants get 90% of their pay while on maternity leave? The rest of us unwashed have to make do with 55%. What makes them so special? So deserving?
Anyone watch the CBC news “Today” at 12:00 PM CST?? More Conservative bashing. The program featured Question period, with Michael Ignatieff talking Elections Canada and the search warrant. If that’s “the intellectual” of the Liberal Party, I think we’re safe to call an election.!!
ET:
Render onto Ceasar that which is Ceasar’s; render onto God which is God’s.
Separation of church and state in about 35 AD.
CBCpravda outdoes itself. read the readers comments on how Pravda photoshops the picture to look like PMSH. then read the article on how Ray actually lied while on the run. – CBCpravda actually acts astounded that someone lies about his name while being hunted. http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/04/28/f-james-earl-ray.html
“Dozens of Tibetans imprisoned
State-run media describes the sentences as “the first batch””
(TORedStar) …-
“Awaiting China’s implosion” http://tinyurl.com/5tthbl (Salim Mansur)
“the United States, Canada and Israel have announced their intention to boycott the conference”
…-
The Planners of Durban II
Planning for the “Durban II” conference against racism, scheduled for 2009, is proceeding right along. Following a number of procedural meetings, the first “substantive” session of the Durban Review Preparatory Committee commenced in Geneva on April 21, 2008. The world’s leading human rights abusing countries are running rough-shod over the agenda. They are planning to set up Israel in particular for non-stop blood libel. They also intend to hold the Western democracies publicly accountable for what the planners brand as the twin ‘crimes’ of Islamophobic racism and religious defamation.” http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008772/posts
How very New Age of you, ET. The regions that are most likely to separate are among the ultimate backwaters of this planet — those least affected by our “complex interlocked global networks of economic and informational connections.” Fervently wishing that the game has changed does not make it so.
“I also disagree with you that ‘the most dangerous time for a bad regime is when it changes for the better’. Nothing to do with ‘good’ or ‘bad'”
Change per se is only threatening to a completely ossified system. People have little or no reason to oppose positive change in a regime that is already beneficial. An evil, totalitarian regime can only improve by loosening the bonds of oppression, which provides the oppressed the opportunity for effective resistance.
The Soviet Union did not collapse simply because Gorbachev is a bumbling, inept fool. He loosened restrictions the minimum necessary to encourage economic reform while maintaining the CPSU’s monopoly on political power. Then events overtook him, requiring further reforms to expand the private sector while state industries atrophied. Repeat as necessary until the repressive Soviet state is completely undercut.
{Sshhhh, Charles. You are not allowed to say that around here. The Cold War ended because of Reagan. Only Reagan’s torquing up the war spending and anti-communist rhetoric is responsible for the end of the Soviet Union. It was not an unsupportable economic system and empire that collapsed in upon itself. Glory be to Reagan for single-handedly bringing down the Soviet Empire!}
Cal2 takes The Vast Leftwing Media Conspiracy to how new levels! Wow.
I mean, I know you folk think “The Media” is this all-powerful, anti-conservative monolith of a single entity bent on destroying conservativism, Harper and Bush and putting the leftard, statist LIEberanos back in power so they can funnel tax money to Chairman Strong, but I had no idea you think the CBC is so omnipotent as to be able to go back in time and alter all of these historical photos to look like Harper: http://images.google.ca/images?q=James+Earl+Ray&gbv=2&ndsp=20&hl=en&start=0&sa=N.
Maybe it’s bigger than that. Maybe they are SOOO evil and CBCpravda that they actually hired James Earl Ray KNOWING Harper would eventually come along. What evil genius!
“Dion’s priorities unclear
To the Editor:
Stephane Dion has unclear priorities in an uncertain world.
The Liberal leader of the Official Opposition visited Northumberland County recently, but don’t be fooled into thinking he represents change or a real alternative to the Conservative government lead by Stephen Harper. Mr. Dion is a weak leader without clear priorities in an uncertain world. He and the Liberals do not represent change as they held power for over a decade during which promises were broken and scandals like the gun registry and sponsorship program took place.
Mr. Dion has unclear priorities on many major issues and has made billions worth of promises that no one knows how he could pay for without raising taxes. The Liberals have said at times they disapproved of the cut to the GST, so does that mean they want to raise it if they were to get back in? The Liberals have said they disapprove of the childcare benefit the Conservatives brought in, but does this mean they want to end that benefit? Mr. Dion has been unclear as to whether he supports a tax on carbon and what would such a tax do to gas prices or what would be taxed under such a plan?
In my view Stephane Dion is not a leader and not worth the risk since he has unclear priorities in an uncertain world.
Ryan Rantz
Port Sydney, ON” http://tinyurl.com/66s2eo
See Spots disappear. Here Spots.
…-
“Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The scariest photo you will see all day
“Writing in The Australian, Phil Chapman — geophysicist and former NASA astronaut — sounds the alarm claxons for climate change. Problem is that it relates to catastrophic cooling — not global warming.”
“The first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days. A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within 24 hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon.” http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/04/scariest-photo-you-will-see-all-day.html
charles macdonald – I disagree with your conclusions. And no, I’m not into ‘new age’ junk, but if you want to insult me, go ahead.
I disagree that separation is only operative in the backwaters. Separation operates within asymmetry, and when two domains are functionally deeply asymmetric with each other – that’s when you can get separation. Basic physics and biology.
Nothing to do with ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or ‘backwaters’. Everything to do with symmetry and asymmetry in economy, technology, political infrastructure.
But, our globe is networked and that necessarily operates within a certain level of asymmetry to enable the network..
‘Dangerous time’ and ‘threatening’ are not the same meaning. When a regime is changing, for the better or worse, that means that its infrastructure becomes loose, becomes flexible. That’s an extremely fragile and dangerous time, for the system could ‘flip’ and go either way. Nothing to do with ‘threatening’.
And people don’t necessarily recognize the changes as ‘positive’; that can sometimes take decades and even a generation before the change is recognized as productive and accepted. Before that, there will be resistance, merely because people become used to the normative patterns.
Who said that the Soviet Union collapsed because of Gorbachev? He was articulating the need for changes that were already happening! The population base had become too large for a centralist, rigid, top down governance and was changing internally, by itself. Articulating this, was Gorbachev’s legacy. But he didn’t create those changes. I’m not into history occurring because of single individuals (that’s the Hero Thesis).
No, ET, Gorbachev was trying to minimise changes to preserve his beloved CPSU’s monopoly on power. Once the genie was out of the bottle, he found he couldn’t control it. His incompetence hastened the end of the Soviet Union.
The population of the Soviet Union was too large for a planned economy (apart from short periods of national emergency) from the outset. This is not something that developed under Bolshevism.
The fact remains that backwaters, the areas which are poorly integrated into the nation, are the areas where separation is a realistic possibility. The separation of an area that is integral to a nation results in civil war, and civil wars tend to be much bloodier than conflicts between states.
charles macdonald – we’ll have to agree to disagree.
You keep changing your definitions. You began your discussion of separatism by defining it only as a ‘centrifugal force’ and one based around minorities.
You then changed that to ‘backwaters’ – those least affected by ‘our complex interlocked global networks’. This definition introduces an economic and social disparity. Nothing to do with minorities.
Now, it’s those areas ‘poorly integrated into the nation’. This introduces economic, social and political isolation.
So- which is it? I maintain that the era of the nation-state is over, and indeed, was over with the two World Wars. We have now, economically and informationally, moved into a global economic network. Therefore, the huge nation-state with its centralist governance is no longer viable, and we have instead, economic activities within regional areas defined largely by ecology and population.
I also disagree with your assessment of the Soviet Union and Gorbachev. He wasn’t the idiot you see him as. No population is too large for a planned economy but it can certainly be too large for a centrally planned economy.
Having gone through the last two weeks of SDA I can find only oblique references to the EC/RCMP raid of CPC HQ. I was expecting the loyal folks here to entirely repudiate the charges, but it appears silence is the only response.
Impossible to defend the indefensible, or have I just missed the dozen or so threads that I expected to be here?
CBCpravda , All Khadr , All the Time. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/04/29/khadr-kuebler.html
apparently he turned into a 15 year old again. the terrorist tyke must have cost us 5 million so far in just costs for covering him on Pravda.
charles macdonald – I disagree. The authoritarian regime in China, for example, has not collapsed. It is being replaced from the ground up by capitalism and private businesses. Not by religion.
The authoritarian regime in Iraq has collapsed but has not been replaced by religion but by a civic model.
The authoritarian regime of Tsarist Russia was replaced by the Leninist-Stalinist regime. Its collapse didn’t enable a religious revival (although that is occurring) but has left the country empty and desirous of singular ‘heroic political leadership (that’s how they see Putin).
As for Afghanistan – it’s been a set of many adversarial tribes rather than a cohesive nation. It’s trying to become a nation, but moving out of tribalism is very difficult.
Irwin M. Stelzer, Peak Oil Panic
Here in America, Congress alternates between calls for “energy independence” and refusals to allow drilling in what it considers environmentally sensitive areas in Alaska and offshore California and Florida. There’s more, but you get the idea. There is a lot of oil out there to be found and produced, not even including the vast reserves in Canada’s tar sands. We might have reached the age of peak panic about oil supplies, but not of peak oil.
If I were to be any other animal on earth, I’d want to be a peregrine falcon. Ya get to eat pigeons. Cool web cam indeed!
Actually, ET, the Chinese are enormously interested in Christianity in particular, to the extent that booksellers have trouble meeting the demand for Bibles (despite large print runs). The Sunday Times had a feature story on it some months ago, if you’re interested.
The collapse of Communist China is a real possibility. There is a maxim of political science (dating back at least to Ted Robert Gurr, Why Men Rebel, 1970) that the most dangerous time for a bad regime is when it begins to change for the better. The lot of the Chinese people is improving rapidly in a material sense but not in terms of civil and political rights. We’ll see if the revolution of rising expectations doesn’t blow the Bamboo Curtain apart. The student “pro-democracy” protests of a few years back are unlikely to be a one-off event.
And of course, there is the centrifugal force of separatism. The Muslim Uighur minority may prefer to reconstitute their breakaway state of Kashgaria (under Indian rather than British tutelage this time?) instead of remaining under Chinese suzerainty. Other restive minorities – notably the Tibetans – may similarly prefer to go their own way.
Supplemental:
The book they used to burn now fires new revolution of faith in China
The gospel truth about China’s Christian millions
A poll by a university in Shanghai this year found that 31 per cent of its respondents would describe themselves as religious, of whom 12 per cent are Christian. That suggests that there could be as many as 40 million Christians in China. Some estimates put the figure as high as 150 million…
charles macdonald – I agree, that the communist monopoly rule of China is imploding, from the inside, as its people move more into capitalism and private enterprise.
But that doesn’t mean a movement to a religious authority. That is, it isn’t the case that a population is either under a civic authoritarianism or a religious authoritarianism.
The separation of church and state is the real alternative. In China, I think that the state authoritarianism will be reduced. Religious beliefs will indeed become stronger, replacing the control-over-the-future that the state ideology previously maintained. But, these new religious beliefs need not become state-authorities but can be separate. The state will be civic.
I also disagree with you that ‘the most dangerous time for a bad regime is when it changes for the better’. Nothing to do with ‘good’ or ‘bad’. The interface between one mode and another mode is always dangerous (ie. landing or taking off in a plane).
China’s political rights are improving; indeed, the mass of people ignore the communist party.
As for separatism, that’s to be expected in our new networked world, which is made up not of independent nation-states (and their colonies) but is instead made up of complex interlocked global networks of economic and informational connections. So, it won’t be the independent old style separatism, but the regional, semi-autonomous sectors that are still economically and informationally networked together.
ET you’re correct that public service jobs = high paying jobs and huge benefits for life with no accountablity.
I laugh out loud whenever I hear these union bosses argue that higher public service wages are required or valuable employees will be “lost to the private sector”. No one is going to give up the gravy train in the public service for a private sector job. Why would they leave such cozy jobs for a world of accountability, performance measurement and job insecurity?
BTW, why do federal public servants get 90% of their pay while on maternity leave? The rest of us unwashed have to make do with 55%. What makes them so special? So deserving?
Anyone watch the CBC news “Today” at 12:00 PM CST?? More Conservative bashing. The program featured Question period, with Michael Ignatieff talking Elections Canada and the search warrant. If that’s “the intellectual” of the Liberal Party, I think we’re safe to call an election.!!
ET:
Render onto Ceasar that which is Ceasar’s; render onto God which is God’s.
Separation of church and state in about 35 AD.
A poll confirming that a large majority of Bourque’s readership has no firm grip or understanding of reality:
http://bourque.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/095
Toronto passes handgun ban proposition. Un-fricken-believably stupid.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080429.COUNCIL29/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/
CBCpravda outdoes itself. read the readers comments on how Pravda photoshops the picture to look like PMSH. then read the article on how Ray actually lied while on the run. – CBCpravda actually acts astounded that someone lies about his name while being hunted.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/04/28/f-james-earl-ray.html
“Dozens of Tibetans imprisoned
State-run media describes the sentences as “the first batch””
(TORedStar) …-
“Awaiting China’s implosion”
http://tinyurl.com/5tthbl (Salim Mansur)
“the United States, Canada and Israel have announced their intention to boycott the conference”
…-
The Planners of Durban II
Planning for the “Durban II” conference against racism, scheduled for 2009, is proceeding right along. Following a number of procedural meetings, the first “substantive” session of the Durban Review Preparatory Committee commenced in Geneva on April 21, 2008. The world’s leading human rights abusing countries are running rough-shod over the agenda. They are planning to set up Israel in particular for non-stop blood libel. They also intend to hold the Western democracies publicly accountable for what the planners brand as the twin ‘crimes’ of Islamophobic racism and religious defamation.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008772/posts
How very New Age of you, ET. The regions that are most likely to separate are among the ultimate backwaters of this planet — those least affected by our “complex interlocked global networks of economic and informational connections.” Fervently wishing that the game has changed does not make it so.
“I also disagree with you that ‘the most dangerous time for a bad regime is when it changes for the better’. Nothing to do with ‘good’ or ‘bad'”
Change per se is only threatening to a completely ossified system. People have little or no reason to oppose positive change in a regime that is already beneficial. An evil, totalitarian regime can only improve by loosening the bonds of oppression, which provides the oppressed the opportunity for effective resistance.
The Soviet Union did not collapse simply because Gorbachev is a bumbling, inept fool. He loosened restrictions the minimum necessary to encourage economic reform while maintaining the CPSU’s monopoly on political power. Then events overtook him, requiring further reforms to expand the private sector while state industries atrophied. Repeat as necessary until the repressive Soviet state is completely undercut.
Its late in the day, but …. ANTICRAFT is celebrating BACON this issue. Is this a statement?
http://theanticraft.com/this.htm#article1
{Sshhhh, Charles. You are not allowed to say that around here. The Cold War ended because of Reagan. Only Reagan’s torquing up the war spending and anti-communist rhetoric is responsible for the end of the Soviet Union. It was not an unsupportable economic system and empire that collapsed in upon itself. Glory be to Reagan for single-handedly bringing down the Soviet Empire!}
Cal2 takes The Vast Leftwing Media Conspiracy to how new levels! Wow.
I mean, I know you folk think “The Media” is this all-powerful, anti-conservative monolith of a single entity bent on destroying conservativism, Harper and Bush and putting the leftard, statist LIEberanos back in power so they can funnel tax money to Chairman Strong, but I had no idea you think the CBC is so omnipotent as to be able to go back in time and alter all of these historical photos to look like Harper: http://images.google.ca/images?q=James+Earl+Ray&gbv=2&ndsp=20&hl=en&start=0&sa=N.
Maybe it’s bigger than that. Maybe they are SOOO evil and CBCpravda that they actually hired James Earl Ray KNOWING Harper would eventually come along. What evil genius!
“Dion’s priorities unclear
To the Editor:
Stephane Dion has unclear priorities in an uncertain world.
The Liberal leader of the Official Opposition visited Northumberland County recently, but don’t be fooled into thinking he represents change or a real alternative to the Conservative government lead by Stephen Harper. Mr. Dion is a weak leader without clear priorities in an uncertain world. He and the Liberals do not represent change as they held power for over a decade during which promises were broken and scandals like the gun registry and sponsorship program took place.
Mr. Dion has unclear priorities on many major issues and has made billions worth of promises that no one knows how he could pay for without raising taxes. The Liberals have said at times they disapproved of the cut to the GST, so does that mean they want to raise it if they were to get back in? The Liberals have said they disapprove of the childcare benefit the Conservatives brought in, but does this mean they want to end that benefit? Mr. Dion has been unclear as to whether he supports a tax on carbon and what would such a tax do to gas prices or what would be taxed under such a plan?
In my view Stephane Dion is not a leader and not worth the risk since he has unclear priorities in an uncertain world.
Ryan Rantz
Port Sydney, ON”
http://tinyurl.com/66s2eo
See Spots disappear. Here Spots.
…-
“Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The scariest photo you will see all day
“Writing in The Australian, Phil Chapman — geophysicist and former NASA astronaut — sounds the alarm claxons for climate change. Problem is that it relates to catastrophic cooling — not global warming.”
“The first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days. A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within 24 hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon.”
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/04/scariest-photo-you-will-see-all-day.html
charles macdonald – I disagree with your conclusions. And no, I’m not into ‘new age’ junk, but if you want to insult me, go ahead.
I disagree that separation is only operative in the backwaters. Separation operates within asymmetry, and when two domains are functionally deeply asymmetric with each other – that’s when you can get separation. Basic physics and biology.
Nothing to do with ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or ‘backwaters’. Everything to do with symmetry and asymmetry in economy, technology, political infrastructure.
But, our globe is networked and that necessarily operates within a certain level of asymmetry to enable the network..
‘Dangerous time’ and ‘threatening’ are not the same meaning. When a regime is changing, for the better or worse, that means that its infrastructure becomes loose, becomes flexible. That’s an extremely fragile and dangerous time, for the system could ‘flip’ and go either way. Nothing to do with ‘threatening’.
And people don’t necessarily recognize the changes as ‘positive’; that can sometimes take decades and even a generation before the change is recognized as productive and accepted. Before that, there will be resistance, merely because people become used to the normative patterns.
Who said that the Soviet Union collapsed because of Gorbachev? He was articulating the need for changes that were already happening! The population base had become too large for a centralist, rigid, top down governance and was changing internally, by itself. Articulating this, was Gorbachev’s legacy. But he didn’t create those changes. I’m not into history occurring because of single individuals (that’s the Hero Thesis).
No, ET, Gorbachev was trying to minimise changes to preserve his beloved CPSU’s monopoly on power. Once the genie was out of the bottle, he found he couldn’t control it. His incompetence hastened the end of the Soviet Union.
The population of the Soviet Union was too large for a planned economy (apart from short periods of national emergency) from the outset. This is not something that developed under Bolshevism.
The fact remains that backwaters, the areas which are poorly integrated into the nation, are the areas where separation is a realistic possibility. The separation of an area that is integral to a nation results in civil war, and civil wars tend to be much bloodier than conflicts between states.
charles macdonald – we’ll have to agree to disagree.
You keep changing your definitions. You began your discussion of separatism by defining it only as a ‘centrifugal force’ and one based around minorities.
You then changed that to ‘backwaters’ – those least affected by ‘our complex interlocked global networks’. This definition introduces an economic and social disparity. Nothing to do with minorities.
Now, it’s those areas ‘poorly integrated into the nation’. This introduces economic, social and political isolation.
So- which is it? I maintain that the era of the nation-state is over, and indeed, was over with the two World Wars. We have now, economically and informationally, moved into a global economic network. Therefore, the huge nation-state with its centralist governance is no longer viable, and we have instead, economic activities within regional areas defined largely by ecology and population.
I also disagree with your assessment of the Soviet Union and Gorbachev. He wasn’t the idiot you see him as. No population is too large for a planned economy but it can certainly be too large for a centrally planned economy.
Having gone through the last two weeks of SDA I can find only oblique references to the EC/RCMP raid of CPC HQ. I was expecting the loyal folks here to entirely repudiate the charges, but it appears silence is the only response.
Impossible to defend the indefensible, or have I just missed the dozen or so threads that I expected to be here?
CBCpravda , All Khadr , All the Time.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/04/29/khadr-kuebler.html
apparently he turned into a 15 year old again. the terrorist tyke must have cost us 5 million so far in just costs for covering him on Pravda.