What in the Patron’s Saint name of Frick are you Canadians doing to your children up there?!
Just kidding, you guys have to deal with Crusaderism Parents just like us.
Enjoy the decline!
Reader Tips
Italian pop star Mina was a tall, vivacious performer whose brash confidence and forceful delivery earned her the nickname “Tiger of Cremona”. In tonight’s clip, from a 1960 appearance on the long-running Italian variety show Canzonissima, she performs Folle banderuola.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Is College/University Always a Good Investment?
For many generations now high school guidance counselors and the media have been telling students that one absolutely key ingredient for success is to go onto college or university. But is this good advice for everyone? When does it make sense and when does it not?
The NY Times recently published a fairly detailed article on the subject. Michael Graham dedicated a lot of time to it on on his radio program earlier today.
If a niece or a nephew in Grade 12 approached you, seeking your advice, what would you tell them? More specifically, what criteria would you use to decide what advice to give them?
Anything But Success
A Hydraulic Fracture, which has been used since 1949, is formed by forcing enormous quantities of water, sand and chemicals into deep shale rock under high pressure to free trapped Oil & Gas. . The Prolific
The broader questions on the negative consequences of shale exploitation regarding the depletion of water supply, particularly in times of drought, as well as the resulting methane leaks arising from the entire process that, according to a recent Cornell University study, could cause greenhouse gases even dirtier than coal-fired fuel.
Putting Our Own Problems in Perspective
SDA commenter ‘BB’ posted a link to the following video. There’s not much to see but a whole lot can be visualized from the audio. Makes one appreciate how relatively unimportant the every day foibles in our lives really are!
Update: Several commenters speculated on what was happening over at CBC News on this story. Many of the “progressive” commenters have wasted no time ignoring the plight of their American neighbours and instead gone into long rants about how this was caused by Climate Change. It also appears the CBC Comment Moderator has had to shift into high gear to remove the even uglier comments. Lovely đ
Liberal Party Renewal: Do They Have It In Them?
In the aftermath of the political tsunami that was the recent federal election, the Liberal Party is at a crossroads. Steve Pinkus and Désirée McGraw, two Liberal Party insiders, have written a very compelling editorial urging renewal. But will it happen?
h/t ‘batb’
Reader Tips
In tonight’s Tips music Polish-born mezzo-soprano Bogna Bartosz, backed by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under the conductorship of Ton Koopman, performs the aria Et exultavit spiritus meus from J.S. Bach’s Magnificat.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
The Downfall of the Elitist
In a recent posting on SDA, regular commenter ‘ET’ shared some most astute bits of wisdom. This prompted me to engage in an e-mail exchange with her. Out of that came a longer essay of sorts from her, which I am publishing with her permission. The primary editing I did was to put all of it in a more general context:
The two-tiered socialist system is, actually, the most basic sociopolitical system on Earth. It’s essentially tribal, set up to ensure stability. To prevent the disruption of change it moves its authority into an essentially hereditary mode. You have the ‘Anointed’ (upper tier) . . . and the ‘Unanointed’ (the vast majority in the lower tier).
There’s no means of movement between these two groups. One class, the anointed, are deemed by birth, education etc. to be Guardians, Rulers, Wise Men. These ‘Noblesse oblige‘ feel they have a duty and a right to govern the unanointed lesser people.
In days past it would be the tribal elders of one clan that ruled over the other clans. In the feudal period it would be the nobles and the church. The elite prevented the lower class from gaining power; kept them uneducated, dependent on the financial and ‘saviour’ powers of the nobles/church who owned all the means of production (the land), owned all means of hope and salvation from your supposed sins (the church), all knowledge.
Keeping the unanointed peasantry down became difficult only when the population increased beyond the ‘organizing capacity’ of such a two-tiered system. After all, you have to enforce a system where the peasantry can’t become educated, can’t get enough knowledge or fiscal power to control their own lives, can’t own land, aren’t allowed to read, can’t own businesses, etc.
What We Really Need Is Democracy
With a totalitarian party to vote for;
The liberals and secularists who formed the core of the Egyptian revolution are now scrambling to stave off political gains by the Muslim Brotherhood, a once-outlawed organization that is widely expected to become the dominant force when a new parliament is elected.
Shocker.
h/t EBD
The Children Are Our Future
And that’s why I’m stocking up on freeze dried foods.
This Is Not Your Grandma’s Humane Society
Every Sparrow That Falls: Understanding Animal Rights Activism as Functional Religion (pdf)
ABSTRACT
This article reports original research conducted among animal rights activists and elites in Switzerland and the United States, and the finding that activism functioned in activistsâ and elitesâ lives like religious belief. The study used reference sampling to select Swiss and American informants.Various articles and activists have identified both latent and manifest quasi-religious components in the contemporary movement. Hence, the research followed upon these data and anecdotes and tested the role of activism in adherentsâ lives. Using extensive interviews, the research discovered that activists and elites conform to the five necessary components of Yingerâs definition of functional religion: intense and memorable conversion experiences, newfound communities of meaning, normative creeds, elaborate and well-deÂned codes of behavior, and cult formation. The ar ticle elaborates on that schema in the context of animal rights belief, elucidates the deeply meaningful role of activism within a filigree of meaning, and concludes that the movement is facing schismatic forces not dissimilar to redemptive and religious movements.
The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire
Reader Tips
Red Shadow: The Economics Rock & Roll Band were a musical group founded in the 1970s by three western communists with PhDs in Economics (one of whom, Ev Ehrlich, served as Under Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton administration, and later as an economics commentator on NPR) who used hip-and-groovy-sounding music in an attempt to educate young people about the merits of Marxism and Leninism. Here they are performing a tune called Understanding Marx.
What is that funky smell?
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
The Children Are Our Future
And that’s why I’m replacing the windows with bulletproof glass.
Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?
The Harper government is refusing to join the United States in calling for a return to 1967 borders as a starting point for Mideast peace, a position that has drawn sharp criticism from Canadaâs staunch ally Israel.
As usual, the best part of the Globe article is in the comments. Surely, there is some type of opportunity just waiting to be exploited with so many leftist anti-Semites gathering in one place?
h/t Revnant Dream
Another cost of Canada’s immigration policy, or, breaking piggy banks
Further to this from Adrian MacNair on the recent Fraser Institute immigration study,
Family Reunification is Breaking the Canadian Piggy Bank
a lot of individuals’ piggy banks are being broken too:
Housing costs soar in Vancouver
Surging real estate prices in Vancouver are pushing ownership costs into uncharted territory, putting it in the top ranks of the worldâs most expensive cities and triggering fears the market is poised for a fall…
Funny that the Globe and Mail story not once mentions immigrants–but see this:
Vancouver Housing Prices Pass New York and London as Chinese âMoveâ In
Well worth a look:
The Centre for Immigration Policy Reform
Talk about climate change
Not raining on his parade, as it were:
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Europe ‘stealing Iran’s rain’
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused Western countries of plotting to “cause drought” in Iran by using high tech equipment to drain the clouds of raindrops.
Mr Ahmadinejad says that European countries are using special equipment to force clouds to ‘dump’ Iran’s water on their own continent Photo: EPA…
Happy End Of The World Day!
(I probably shouldn’t jest about this until tomorrow.)
Y2Kyoto: Ta-ta, Steel
Government talk of economic recovery was undermined on Friday when the countryâs largest steel maker announced plans to cut 1,500 jobs in Lincolnshire and Teesside. Tata Steel, which bought the Corus business in 2007, blamed a continued slump in demand from the construction sector but also new climate change legislation for its decision. […]
âThe continuing weakness in market conditions is one of the main reasons why we are setting out on this difficult course of action. Another is the regulatory outlook. EU carbon legislation threatens to impose huge additional costs on the steel industry. Besides, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the level of further unilateral carbon cost rises that the UK government is planning,â he added.
Enviro Groups: Follow the Money
courtesy of SDAMatt