Tonight’s music en route to the Tips is a true rarity: a pop song about the importance of family, and of making proper use of your time on earth while you’re still here. From 1989, here are Mike & The Mechanics performing their worldwide number one hit The Living Years.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Dawn Hochsprung.
No word yet on whether she was a “lefttard” or a “teabagger”.
And there’s Victoria Soto. As Shaidle said today: “When we say, “We don’t know what we’d do in these situations,” we hold up cowardice as society’s default position.”
Although I will be horrible enough to add one political observation: the Daily Mail comments section, a fine gauge of bloke-on-the-street conservative U.K. public opinion, is dead against gun rights, going by the article I linked above.
But then of course we all know Britain is a ruined country.
Was just listening to this today. Too bad too few paid attention.
Re: Mike and the Mechanics.
I always loved this song. I had a girlfriend, she was a tad crazy, but before we split, she told me that all of my problems revolved around my anger towards my Dad. She gave me a copy of the words to this song, and told me to read it several times. I did, that was in 1990. Brought back some good–and some sad memories.
Thanks EBD!!
Leftists are mysterious little buggers. Sometimes they hate IQ test results. Sometimes they love them so much they just make up their own.
I was trying to decide which hilarious quote from this article to highlight, but I was spoiled for choice.
One.Just one of those who died protecting the kids.One pistol.Hell. One baseball bat even.The really sad part? The leftards will not admit they are responsible through their anti-gun laws.
May they all rest in peace.Suffer the little children to come unto me.
Programs that actually help, cut, programs that actually hinder, rewarded… It’s the Democrat’s way.
“Government officials told the Washington Guardian on Friday night that two Justice Department programs that had provided more than $200 million to schools for training, security equipment and police resources over the last decade weren’t renewed in 2011 and 2012, and that a separate program that provided $800 million to put police officers inside the schools was ended a few years earlier.”
http://www.washingtonguardian.com/washingtons-school-security-failure
and now… Eric the With-Holder talks about having a gun control discussion. Did he fall and bump his head with Hillary? 2 Assholes.
Related coverage from Eric the With Holder…
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/12/15/Holder-We-Must-Ask-Ourselves-Some-Hard-Questions
“Mr. Holder has not been one to hide his hatred of guns. In March Breitbart News uncovered a video of Mr. Holder talking to the Woman’s National Democratic Club in 1995. He wanted a campaign to “really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way” and to use anti-smoking ads as a way to “change the hearts and minds of people in Washington, DC” about guns.”
Black Mamba @ 1:08am – The methodology of that “study” sounds a whole lot like the nonsense that has corrupted Climate Science for the past many years.
I find it most fascinating that whenever I sit down to have a conversation with someone about current events, almost without fail, the conservative-minded person is fully versed on what’s going on whereas those I find out that will be voting NDP/Liberal/Democrat frequently don’t know anything except they can vaguely regurgitate Leftist talking points spun by the MSM.
But conservatives are the ones with 20% deficit IQs. Uh huh.
Black Mamba and Robert, I read the pjmedia article about the study and agree that “The methodology of that “study” sounds a whole lot like the nonsense that has corrupted Climate Science for the past many years.”
RE: Mark Carney’s dalliance with the Liberals.
Stephen Gordon, a left-leaning economist frequently quoted by Aaron Wherry (but despite that, still pretty reliably non-partisan), is livid at the Liberals, as is Mike Murphy, another high profile economist, as to the damage Carney’s LPC flirtation may have done to the non-partisanship of the Bank of Canada.
Gordon’s piece at Maclean’s here: http://bit.ly/TnyM2l
Murphy’s piece will be posted soon, and he claims his take is “much angrier in tone” that Gordon’s.
I’m sure Coyne will pick up on this, given his family history. Wonder if anyone else will. Something worth watching.
Thank you EDB for the “Living Years” post.
In the same vein/ spirit, is the song “Leader Of the band” by Dan Fogelberg who passed away on December 16, 2007 from the dreaded Prostate cancer disease.
Odes by sons to long gone fathers, very touching, on a Sunday morning!
Almost makes one tear-up, eh?
An open letter to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault – by Gerard Depardieu .
Black Mamba, Robert, Ken, yes, the methodology sounds like climate science or indeed, any rogue or unscientific ‘study’.
First, it’s not random; they pre-selected their sample population. BUT, they didn’t state how they pre-selected it. To assume that IF you are rural, THEN you have a low IQ is nonsense. The opposite of IF you live in the city THEN you have a high IQ is equal nonsense. So how exactly did they find this special population?
Second, an IQ of average only 80 is understood as someone who cannot live without external supervision. You couldn’t survive in a rural environment with that low IQ on your own.
Third, you’d have to show that this same sample population, which was not randomly selected, and did not include a comparison population in the cities, watched only FOX news and never strayed into other media sites.
We know that Democrats and the Obama Gang reject any criticism, and FOX sure criticizes them. So, we’ll have to assume the source is within that gang. But to what purpose?
After all, FOX itself has its own polls and therefore could show in a second the domain, rural and urban, of its viewers. Plus, since it has the highest ratings, does this show that the majority of cable viewers have IQs in the 80s?
Maribor Uprising .
I have another question, an issue that comes up on this site from time to time and that reminds me of the mindset of the AGW advocates.
That is, either you accept AGW as a natural truth or you are…and then the insults start to be flung. You are morally bankrupt, amoral, evil and out to destroy other people. Intellectually you are stupid, ignorant, blind, wilfully ignoring The Truth. And so on.
Now, I meet the same mindset with regard to religion. I’ve never made any secret that I’m an atheist. But the vitriol, the open malice and anger directed at me for that opinion, has always astonished me. I’ve been called every name that the “Deniers’ of AGW are called. I find this puzzling.
Not only does it deny that I might, just might, be equal as a human being and thus, might have the wit and will to make up my own mind on this issue, but it also assigns behaviour to me without any evidence or proof.
What is equally puzzling is the fervour of the attack. Why should it bother anyone if I am an atheist? I must therefore wonder, is it the case that when a belief exists only as a belief and cannot be empirically proven and are logically circular, that the holders of this belief move into a psychological state of self-protection against any who believe otherwise?
“A Hallelujah Christmas”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E-9Z8sFyRs
xiat – maribor revolts were due to the imposition of ‘neoliberal capitalism’? What the heck are they talking about?
The privatization of various civic services wasn’t genuine capitalism. It was corruption pure and simple. If it were capitalism, then the contract would be open to multiple bids and the best and lowest would be chosen, with its services open to evaluation and, ending that contract for poor services. That’s capitalism.
Cronyism, corruption, nepotism isn’t capitalism and is found everywhere, including socialism.
Education Today. H/T left-liberalism.
It’s for the children.
…-
“Ontario teachers in three boards to walk out Wednesday
Globe and Mail”
“‘You couldn’t think of a better child’: Portraits of the 26 victims of Newtown school …
National Post”
“Just watched a bit of “news”, a gathering of Obamite anti 2nd Ammendment types has assembled at the White House protesting for gun control. It’s for the Children!
I think I was looking at evil right there. These types can not understands the logic that the 2nd Ammendment protects us against evil. It proteccts us from armed evil doers and tyranny. That is its purpose as designed by The Founders.”
“88. marzouq”
http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2012/12/15/the-shadow-in-the-hallway/#comments
ET, I’ll take you up on your desire to discuss atheism. First off, so sorry that anyone belittled you in any way for your beliefs. That’s just wrong.
An important thing to do when discussing anything with someone you respect lies in this old adage: Each of us is the sum of our own experiences. So clearly you are the sum of yours.
I fully acknowledge that there are hypocrites amongst religious people. Heck, I even have some in my own family. But there are hypocrites everywhere. The notion that religious people are more hypocritical than non-religious people is simply not supported by facts IMO.
When I think of practicing Christians I often think about two dear ladies I know in Chicago, both over 85 years old. Neither of these women are preachy about their Catholic faith but both are beyond generous and extremely wonderful.
Your views on atheism sound very similar to those of my L.A. based writer friend, Amy Alkon: http://advicegoddess.com Like you, I think Amy is a smart person. However, I disagree with all atheists on exactly the same grounds I disagree with all fundamentalist religious people. In both cases their beliefs are stating that they “know for sure” what’s out there or not out there. Fact is, you don’t. In the same way that a religious person can’t prove that there’s a God, let alone their specific God, neither can an atheist prove that there’s no God.
Throughout much of my 20’s I spent endless amounts of time reading about all things spiritual (to use a more generic term for religiosity). I came to no specific conclusions but two related questions of logic came to the fore:
1. Where did Life come from?
2. How do you get something from nothing?
Some will cite “The Big Bang” as the answer. Sorry, that doesn’t cut it. What came before that? As an engineer I have a very scientific mind and always strive to let logic help with my decisions. I don’t believe that the human brain will ever be able to answer those two questions. Thus I will remain forever humble about the limits of human knowledge.
Let me reassert: I am NOT trying to preach to you in ANY WAY. I simply am outlining for you how I came to my current place wrt religion & God.
In summary, the Existence of God issue will never get resolved because there is no one clear answer that satisfies everyone.
Robert W, thanks for your post.
My point wasn’t to discuss atheism. After all, you either believe in it or not and it can’t be derived from persuasion. My point was the viciousness of the attacks by people, who define themselves as believers in god, against people who reject their belief. That’s what I find so puzzling. The fact that these people claim that if you do not believe in god, then you are blind, stupid, amoral and etc.
As for a belief in atheism, I agree; it’s a belief and can hardly be proven. Same with the belief in god. But, it would be amoral, in my view, for me to personally attack someone who did not share my belief!
I agree, the question of what came before the Big Bang, which transformed pure atemporal and aspatial energy into energy able to only exist as spatiotemporal mass is unanswerable at the moment. But that’s as far as I go. I don’t postulate an agential force either before or after the Big Bang.
What I do postulate is that mass, which exists in various morphologies or forms, does not operate within randomness but within rules of organization and relations. As I’ve said, one has only to consider the petals on a flower (notice how many are odd numbers, usually five?) to reject the notion of randomness as a major principle of organization. But that observation of Order is as far as I go; I don’t posit a metaphysical Agent.
And I do agree that the assumption of human dominance is invalid; we cannot and will never know or control everything.
Again, my point was only to wonder about how angry some people are, when dealing with those who reject THEIR belief systems.
EBD, 12:01a.m.–
Well, my friend, over and above Connecticut, you really landed one with that song and your prefacing comments.
My wife, who made her father, who died of cancer in 2000 at the age of 61, very proud when she won a contested federal PC nomination race in 1997 (the bad old days; several of her local contemporaries serve with Stephen Harper in the House today, including Dave MacKenzie, who represents Joe Molnar’s riding), asked me this morning why I had been crying. I briefly explained why, but declined to show her your material for fear of upsetting her — she was on her way to Toronto this a.m. to deliver Christmas gifts to her little niece.
My own father suffered a near-fatal stroke in 1997 (lucky year, eh?) — he and my mom have recently come to live with us. To be able to help them is a great comfort for me.
No atheists allowed. By Order. Mohammed & “activists”.
…-
“How the Liberal Party lost Mark Carney”
“Warplanes bomb Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus: activists”
“Islamists claim slim lead after first day of voting on Egypt’s constitution”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
I haven’t read it yet, but perhaps others might wish to read it as well. Looks promising.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/12/15/wuwt-spawns-a-free-to-read-climate-sci-fi-novel/#more-75819
I like the term “memeplexes”. I am surprised there isn’t a lot more work around on the subject, given it’s pervasive presence.
ET and Robert, thanks for that discussion.
I think it’s cool that Robert is friends with Amy Alkon. (She’s smart. Also, I love red hair on women.)
@ET&Robert
Also ET I appologize if you feel attacked by religious namely Christians in here or on this site while I vehemently disagree with you I certainly admire and respect your intelligence and think it is a blessed gift from god you are very articulate and extremely knowledgable on politics and fiscal issue of witch I have learned a lot from you .
I as a church going practicing Lutheran Christian man can only say to both you and Robert this weather is no god or is a god that is for you to decide my belief is that he gave us free will to turn to or from him …..but for Christians it comes down to FAITH. No Christian will tell you not even our pastor that there is a god …but we believe in Jesus the bible and all it teaching through the work of the Holy Spirit and that give us faith Christians could care less if the ARK is found or not It is not a matter of evidence (don’t twist my words) it is a matter of FAITH and as a Christian I believe we are all called to come to our faith it is up to us to here or ignore it .
ET it is my belief that ever single person past present and future are all gods children even you and while you can deny it ,argue against it ,simply just ignore it …that is your choice and any real Christian will simply pray for you not out of pity or discust but because they genuinely care about you and your soul ….some Christians go way overboard. .
For example the Christians who bash homosexuals getting married or those who are pro choice…
It does no good to stare people in the eye and tell them they are going to burn in hell or that they are murderers they know already their sin they are completely aware of their behaviour …after a woman has an abortion do you think it does anyone any good to condemn her actions …no !!! But god has already forgiven her it is at that time we need to pray for her and her unborn offer our support ….not acceptance …not acceptance in anyway but support as she problem feels like absolute sh!t …and to be told she is a murderer is not evangelizing it is doing the exact opposite it is in fact pushing her away from god and his forgiveness for our sins on the cross through Jesus sacrifice.
I am against gay marriage because I follow scripture and it is a sin and even though gays get married I am not going to condemn them for it pro insult them or push them away the best thing ican do as a servant of god is lovingly speak to the ills of it ….and if they do not wish to follow that is up to them …and god . We should never glorify sin any sin my sin your sin his sin her sin no sins (that are mentioned in s rupture should be glorified) . But I digress it comes back to GRACE Alone, FAITH alone and ChRIST alone.
Christians have never needed proof to believe in Jesus Christ or god or heaven …by that I mean we don’t need scientific evidence to per sway us in either direction it is through our faith that we believe ..and as the time draws near our hope is in him …the one who came in a manger alleluia we have a saviour..
ET I wish you a blessed and merry Christmas I will put you in my prayers for a happy and healthy 2013. You have shared your abundant knowledge with all of us and to me that is a wonderful gift !! Thank you!
God is Dead , there is no God. I made everything myself. Moses wrote the first 5 books of the Bible. Abraham is the father of both the Jews and the Arabs by different Women. King David and the Jewish Temple.The Burning Bush. Noah’s Ark and the great Deluge. Rained for 40 day’s and 40 night’s.The Torah and the New Testament. Christmas and the Birth of The Savior. The Crucifixon and Ressurection….i will be celebrating CHRISTmas.
Mohammed’s Death Cult.
How Many Millions of Humans Have Been Killed by Mohammedans?
…-
“Syrian jet fires on refugee camp”
“Thousands flee and dozens feared dead as Palestinians in Damascus caught in the middle of civil war”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
I do have a few exceptions wrt mocking & belittling atheists. There was an example of one on Riy Green’s show today talking about going to the Saskatchewan Human Wrongs Commission to ban “Merry Christmas” on Saskatoon city buses. What a lonely, bitter, pathetic little man!
Robert W, agreed.
If he doesn’t believe in Christmas, tough for him; he shouldn’t intrude on those who do. After all, hearing those Xmas songs in public won’t harm him and the season – from pagan times – is one of, in the midst of barren winter, the hope of renewal.
He’s also denying the historical reality of our nation, which began in the Judeo-Christian heritage. It isn’t that ‘if we forget history we are doomed to repeat it’. It’s that, as a nation, we have a history and should consider ourselves built on these experiences. That’s why I’m pleased that Harper is rebuilding our awareness of Canada’s history, eg, the War of 1812 etc.
The multicultural road taken by the Liberals was ignoring and denying our history. It instead set up Canada merely as a hotel for diverse ethnic groups, each owing allegiance to some far-off country and past, and utterly indifferent to Canada. Oh, except as a welfare cheque.
Can you release my comment please admin !! It was for Robert and ET!!
Thank you!!
paul in calgary, thank you so much for your post and your very generous and genuinely Christian emotions and thoughts. Very much appreciated, and a happy Christmas and New Year to you also.