Happy 77th birthday to American rock icon Alice Cooper. Born Vincent Furnier in Detroit Michigan on February 4th 1948. Apparently…
Open Thread – Mon 1 April 2004
- Open Thread – Thurs 6 Feb 2025
- Open Thread – Mon 3 Feb 2025
- Trump’s in tune with the Viagra Boys
- Open Thread – Weekend 1 Feb 2025
- Open Thread – Tues 28 Jan 2025
@amuse INCITEMENT: Everyday another Democrat calls on his constituents to take to fight in the streets to stop the President…
If I offered nice Mr Musk a small donation I wonder if he could be prepared to turn his geniuses…
filled with thousands of Islamist Ivan Milats And then some. Beautifully put Cassie.
@JimFergusonUK BREAKING: DOGE UNCOVERS USAID-FUNDED INTERNET CENSORSHIP OPERATION IN LONDON – RUN BY NINA JANKOWICZ! The TRUTH is out—USAID was…
He may also have decided that they are irrelevant to the case.
If you presume he’s going to rule against Bruce.
He was on top of his game, gave everyone a chance to tie their own rope, I wouldn’t second guess this guy for a moment.
PS
A reminder.
Sofronoff:
Drumgold:
Not sure it’s worth responding to a remark that claims not to have arisen from reasoning.
A dog can reason, it doesn’t mean that level of reasoning is complex.
Not sure why you have the reply here, JC.
Oh shit, sorry. I thought you were replying to my earlier comment . ignore.
I can see everything there except a toilet. Am I missing something?
@WallStreetApes
‘Ballot Chaser’ Political Consultant Raquel Rodriguez Caught On Hidden Camera By Veritas Charging $55,000 To Get Joe Biden 5,000 Votes
These are America’s 100% Safe & Secure Elections
With ‘Friends’ Like Mexico’s Obrador, Who Needs Enemies Like Putin, Xi, Kim Jong Un and the Ayatollahs?
@CarloMVigano
STATEMENT of H.E. Msgr. Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America on the scandalous proclamation of March 31 as “Transgender visibility day” by “president” Joe Biden.
Start Walking: Democrat-run NYC Approves $15 Toll on Cars Entering Manhattan
PETER HITCHENS: Thirty long months in the slammer for a kiss? That’s today’s justice
The fact that Lee hasn’t delayed his verdict suggests the claims are at least in part consistent with his findings.
I’d be interested in the opinions of any of the bush lawyers on tha Cat.
Zulu, if you find that some of the pieces you’re cutting and pasting a going into moderation, its because the cut and paste is carrying over the links in the original and they’re above the allowed number of links without heading into moderation.
Try using the paste as plain text option. Also relevant for everyone else.
Thanks, Dover. I will confess to not being very computer literate.
Berka, I’m not sure they can go beyond a certain level of cheating that wouldn’t become obvious are then they’re screwed. Having said that, it does look like Trump is winning most of the swing states handily. That’s just living in hope though.
The mind bender will be if the market starts thinking the US needs to raise rates again.
John Spooner.
Brett Lethbridge.
A.F. Branco.
Al Goodwyn.
Tom Stiglich.
Bob Gorrell.
Ben Garrison.
Thanks Tom. Some very good Cartoons there.
Branco nails it. Thanks Tom.
No rain for six weeks. Started yesterday and has been going ever since with bonus thunder and lightning.
https://twitter.com/VicStormChasers/status/1774772427404579027?t=4QM0QQjiPXs7qBbqA1doJA&s=19
52mm here
I take the view that the belief in morals is both absurd and necessary. People with morals but without religion will have some other absurd basis for those morals. It may be that “superstitious loons” is a bad choice of term to apply to them universally, but definitely some form of absurdity exists.
Just replying to query of Zulu yesterday about my gravitas – yes, our cattle are Belted Galloways.
We have a rotten problem with one of our steers at the moment. He is very lame on one leg, can’t really get around & is being fed and watered in a paddock within eye distance of the herd. Hopefully we will get the vet today. But it doesn’t look good. Is either an infected hoof ( although I can’t see any evidence in the claws themselves) or a bone or muscle injury from putting a leg down a wombat hole. He is a farm favourite – so really sad. He can be handled easily – which is just as well as I can’t get him to the yards & the crush for the vet.
We will see. Hope we don’t have to euthanase.
That should have read “gravitar”. Autocorrect doesn’t recognise!
That should have read “gravitar” – autocorrect again!
Sorry to hear that Vicki. I asked the original question. My favourite cattle breed, with the doe eyed Jerseys a close second (forget the Jersey bulls-they are mongrel things).
Part of the reason why I just can’t have dergs again, parting with them is just so heartbreaking.
And thanks MareeS for the Scone airstrip comment. It sounded like a lie from the Dynamic Duo, and all the locals whom they hoped to impress with their “announcement” will know it. Except that the locals were simply wallpaper for their PR show. They’ll remember that also when the time comes to vote.
2dogs, please don’t insult me with your religious superiority. Morals allow us to live in a community without having to fight all the time. This is not that dissimilar from muzzies and the idea that whoever is the most religious is right. Morals didn’t begin with Christianity. I try to live my life according to the last 5 of the 10 commandments, I have no need of religion. Whether the 10 commandments are in fact the Word of God is pure conjecture. Just because someone claims something doesn’t make it so.
I don’t believe I was suggesting any inherent religious superiority at all – I was asserting the equal absurdity of both the religious and non-religious. As to whether any approach is superior, I judge that on the basis of how each viewpoint performs with regard to what makes morals necessary.
I take the view that the belief in morals is both absurd and necessary.
I disagree that it is absurd. The moral sense is as real as a sense of humour. Like a sense of humour, it developes as you grow older, and some cultures develop it more than others. Mine was developed by living in a Christian culture, but also acquired some insights from outside, largely from Buddhism. Likewise, I am grateful to the goons and Monty Python for my sense of humour. Which leaves me amused by the claim that in space, nobody can hear you fart.
I discovered that my conscience is as real as toothache, and sometimes as painful, and also the limits of hedonism.I am not at all superstitious and do not buy the Christian mythology. But I have come to similar conclusions as the Christian church in regard to the objective reality of right and wrong. This is hardly completely independent thinking, but it does not accept the foundational philosophy of the Christian churches. It appears to me that the moral sense is a biological fact, as is a sense of humour. In both cases, some people have such a sense which is primitive, undeveloped, or missing altogether. That some are blind does not make vision in the sighted any less real.
To believe the moral sense is absurd is similar to the claim that humour is not real. I refute the latter by laughing at it.
Certainly the moral sense is real – hard wiring in the brain makes it so. The absurdity comes in where one accepts that what that brain circuitry mandates should be adhered to – and how one does (or does not) rationalise that.
And that circuitry is there for a reason – accepting it is necessary.
And I note the loathing of Christianity that characterises loony leftism as exemplified by declaring Easter Sunday as transgender visibility day. It’s quite obviously pathological. They loonies aren’t just disagreeing with the underlying assumptions of the religion, they have a pathological hatred of it. I also disagree with the underlying assumptions of Christianity, but I can understand good people buying into them.
And I understand bad people hating them. It’s because it tells them they are morally repulsive, and deep down they know that it’s true.
”dover0beach
April 1, 2024 2:34 pm
johanna, I have no idea why your comments are going into moderation at the moment. You are one of a small hand full of others this is happening to. Are you commenting the old way via the name and email fields or using the log-in?”
I am using the usual username and email address.
I am not logged in to WP, nor do I wish to. Even if I did, experience at another blog tells me that it will not accept my email as valid, probably because it is encrypted.
BTW, larger font is a big improvement – thanks.
In short, I am largely in agreement with the conclusions of Viganó, even if I find his way of expressing himself rather odd.
I’m more of a fan of Viggo or Zuul.
18mm overnight.
The Stawell Gift was a very wet affair. Good on the runners and organisers for carrying on despite the ravages of climate change. Betting could have something to do with it.
And I note the loathing of Christianity that characterises loony leftism as exemplified by declaring Easter Sunday as transgender visibility day. It’s quite obviously pathological.
On that note, here’s a thought for the day.
?
Twenty year old Jessie is beyond furious and has some youth demands.
Sanctimonious little turd…
Lotza pix of the aftermath of the Israeli “cleansing” of Shifa Hospital tho all seem focus-ed on the damage whilst ignoring the fact that Hamas was using it as a military base …..
“Israel bad” now the predominant theme for mid east media stories …..
There must have been some backlash. Now it’s “misinformation”, despite an official White House release. Orwell would be proud.
White House: Transgender Day of Visibility and Easter Sunday Debacle Is ‘Misinformation’
@RepThomasMassie
Unfortunately, this is not April fools. Johnson, Schumer & the deep state are writing the Ukraine bill. Then Johnson will suspend rules to pass it.
“We’re putting that product together & we’ll be moving it right after the district work period,” -Johnson.
Nothing odd about calling a spade, a spade. Vagano nails this evil Biden regime and calls on his flock to aid in his removal. What’s odd is somehow you think it’s odd/
Fair enough. From his point of view, and yours, I’m the one who’s odd.
Yeah, says everything you need about the capture of the MSM by the Left.
Poll: Nearly 4-in-5 Americans Continue to Support Israel in War (28 Mar)
Viganó is fine until he launches into WEF.
The absurdity comes in where one accepts that what that brain circuitry mandates should be adhered to – and how one does (or does not) rationalise that.
It isn’t absurd to stop punching brick walls on the basis that it hurts your hands. Likewise it isn’t absurd to comply with your conscience on the basis that it will not stop nagging unpleasantly if you don’t.
But beyond your mere personal experience, you have rationalised your conscience to the point where you accept the “objective reality of right and wrong”.
Has anyone noticed an uptick in spear phishing and scam callers lately? I remember when they busted those Chinese guys in Sydney (?) last year and it calmed down a bit.
I accidentally answered a call yesterday.
*Harro, Ni hao, dis is Amazon customer service*
“Does your mother know how you earn your money?”
“Does this make you feel good about yourself?”
They ended the call. : |
I should have been a debt collector.
Israel still hunting for their murdered citizens.
Mentioned in this BBC report but only obliquely.
As for patients.
Well they aren’t giving details so what are the odds injured hamas terrorists?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68705765
One of the defining characteristics of our age is that the first defence by the perpetrators of unspeakable evil – genocide, for example – is to accuse the innocent of the same evil.
The defenders of Hamas’s mass slaughter of Jews last October have raised such evil to an art form.
“Twenty-year-old Jessie” isn’t just poorly educated and politically illiterate; she’s defending one of this century’s greatest acts of evil.
It’s a measure of such barbarians and barbarianism that they are all considered well-educated.
“Does your mother know how you earn your money?”
“Does this make you feel good about yourself?”
What are you…some sort of religious nut, dot?
Morality is absurd.
[sarc]
JC: they can’t afford to lose’ so the cheating will be monumental.
In2016 they were so confident Trump couldn’t win they didn’t cheat enough
In2020 they made up for that and still only just scraped home
This time — allowing Trump isn’t shot in the meantime — they’ll cheat like there’s no tomorrow, which for them there won’t be
After ,,,, well put it this way: I’ve been hearing a lot of bar stool talk about the Second Amendment
‘Inside every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out.’
Hello mUnturd.
Can anyone see any possible issues with Germanies new football uniform.
Anyone?
Try again, linky no workie
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/apr/01/adidas-bans-fans-from-adding-44-to-german-team-football-shirt
2019 called and wants its numbers back .. LOL!
Ya gotta wonder how in 2024 someone managed to get this thru quality control .. If it had of been Hugo Boss I could understand it but Adidas .. LOL!
Mmmyes well up yours you revolting peasants. I’ve got a plane to catch. Courier Mail:
Cost of living? What cost of living?
Anyone free this article from the paywall.
Apparently 1/3 of ‘new jobs created” recently have been in the NDIS.
https://twitter.com/22thinkinggirl/status/1774910498125004858/photo/1
Vicki …
If it’s a leg injury you should be able to get it slaughtered and at least save the meat.
It definitely wasn’t ISIS-K though. Big Serge told us so.
So they had intelligence from the US and Iran.
Some have floated conspiracy theories here, but my money would be on incompetence.
Bit further north of Scone:
Can’t see it happening to be honest.
Bendigo has hundreds of Bushmasters just sitting there collecting dust. Not sure why, I think because they may have seen action and are waiting to get a tune up to go again, I don’t know.
The last 2 paragraphs give the game away.
Local prostitutes, single mothers and dive bars need support!
If only we had some UN infrastructure.
We’re building a German Armoured vehicle under licence to a German consortium to get the required Australian content. We have spare capacity to send some overseas to … Germany!
This is NOT an Australian vehicle.
Classic misdirection ploy, and the chooks are fed again and run around squeeling that Australia is a player on the world defence market.
FMD, does anyone do any research in the media?
The problem with this is that it reduces morality to utility (allow us to live in a community). You can have different rules depending on the utility you are seeking.
Sure, but that was never the assertion. The assertion was effectively whether morality was possible outside of traditional metaphysics/ religion/ perennial philosophy? And this doesn’t reduce to whether a irreligious person can perform good acts, but whether the acts themselves are really (in fact) good.
Good point. From a “Chesterton’s Fence” point of view, I am not sure of the full extent of the necessity of morals.
Bendigo has hundreds of Bushmasters just sitting there collecting dust.
Shirley not ..! Ukraine needz these things ..! .. I knoze cos both ‘plenty wrong’ & Luigi tellz me soooo ……!
Ace’s TL:DR of Is society caught up in a Death Spiral? is worth a read.
From the Hun
Last minute twist in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten, Lisa WilkinsonAn urgent hearing late this afternoon will consider whether new evidence will allow the high stakes defamation trial to be reopened.
Sorry to hear that Vicki. I asked the original question. My favourite cattle breed, with the doe eyed Jerseys a close second (forget the Jersey bulls-they are mongrel things).
Agree with you, Calli, on Jersey bull! As kids, friend and I used to get our kicks from running across the yard their Jersey bull was kept in. Mad.
This time — allowing Trump isn’t shot in the meantime — they’ll cheat like there’s no tomorrow, which for them there won’t be
Hard to believe that the US of A once prided itself on being the “home of democracy” and set the standards for corruption free elections ..
Thankfully, my only visit was back in 2013 when USA (especially New York) was still a wonderful place to visit .. and Gettysburg, never to be forgotten my trip to Gettysburg …..
The problem with this is that it reduces morality to utility (allow us to live in a community). You can have different rules depending on the utility you are seeking.
This utility would explain how a moral sense evolved. Basically, the utility is measured by the survival and propensity to reproduce.
Turning it into metaphysics is unnecessary and merely adds confusion. As it so often does.
Last minute twist in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten, Lisa WilkinsonAn urgent hearing late this afternoon will consider whether new evidence will allow the high stakes defamation trial to be reopened.
Hearing scheduled for 05:00pm. Don’t know if there will be a live feed yet.
What was the point of a month long hearing if you can still attempt to submit “new” evidence well after the conclusion ..?
‘Surprise witness after surprise witness! The judge won’t know what him him!”
I think I might follow a few suggestions and not use the “Reply” function until I have learned to navigate this new format on my iPad.
I’m sure for those in the to-ing and fro-ing discussions it’s a boon, but difficult if you’re just following.
Not a criticism, just an admission of my own ineptitude. If others are having difficulty, you are not alone.
It just might be that what we understand as “morality” was a metaphysical thing in the first place and we are simply enjoying the crumbs from the table.
Fair point. We have a mechanism in our eyes to see the colour green, and whether that works correctly or not, we don’t dispute that there is a fact of the matter as to whether or not a given object is in fact green. So why should we not also ascribe such a power to our sense of morality?
Yes, calli; we’d say it’s a reflection of the image of God.
Hypocrisy and the reality of the bad conscience are testimony to the existence of the moral sense even with a diminished function in fallen humans.
“Twenty-year-old Jessie” isn’t just poorly educated and politically illiterate; she’s defending one of this century’s greatest acts of evil.
The stupidity of these pro-Gaza idiots is quite unbelievable simply because by their words & actions they are ensuring that all future terrorist atrocities are legitimized .. you can’t ignore one, because it suits, but condemn the, inevitable, future ones …..!
Ooops, sorry, of course they can .. they is “lefties” .. selective memory reigns .. !
How does this argument account for the innate sense of justice that is present in even the most primitive of cultures?
Update on Danistan hammer attack .. charges laid .. LOL!
LOL. Quite amusing how you guys are triggered by Big Serge even though he’s offered no opinion on the potential suspects.
I’ll also say that these reports are just as likely to be a part of an information operation as they are genuine leaks of information.
???
Iran working with America now against Ukraine?
No, the information campaign is to present ISIS-K as solely involved. These may be genuine leaks from Iranian sources about general warnings obtained from the earlier Karman attack. I think no one is disputing the tip of the spear was ISIS-K.
How does this argument account for the innate sense of justice that is present in even the most primitive of cultures?
The cultures where there was no sense of justice died out because having babies and caring for them was a chancier business.
This also accounts for the rise of Christianity in the west. Christians produced more babies than the hedonist Romans or the brawling barbarians.
While waiting for vet, and watching rain suddenly starting, we watched a couple of taped episodes of “The Seven Periods of Mr. Gormsby”.We had forgotten how hilarious they are.
It must be almost a decade since they were made – but the skits on “political-correctness” still stand the test of time. For the uninitiated – they portray the arrival of a fabulous old teacher who is the custodian of sensible & VERY politically incorrect teaching. He transforms a class of NZ maori boys from a slovenly & seemingly unteachable group into respectful boys who actually learn something.
Meantime, he is of course opposed by the pony-tailed, despicable union rep & a hopelessly compromised headmaster. Great, great satire on all aspects – sexual, political etc of what we now call the “Woke” culture.
Timeless.
It wouldn’t be made today.
Absolutely! Thank goodness we have the tapes! The thing that gets me – is that they are SO humane and incredibly perceptive. Great satire is not necessarily savage – but cognisant of the frailties of all of us.
I think you’re begging the question there.
Even a secular historian wouldn’t account for the rise of Christianity in the West on the basis of that factor alone.
And it doesn’t explain the innate sense of justice, which is also related to the existence of empathy and charity, which some utilitarians would argue are antipathetic to the survival of the race or of particular cultures.
I think you’re begging the question there.
The issue is, do you think that a culture where there is a lot of arbitrary thieving and murder, all unpunished, is likely to produce as many successful offspring as one where some degree of justice prevails? It looks reasonably plausible to me that the latter would do better on the succesful baby count.
I subscribe to Jordan Peterson’s substack & enjoy his homilies. I am thinking of sending some of them to my grandchildren. But I doubt if they will internalise them. Would love to take troubled grandson to see Jordan when he next comes to Oz – but it is almost impossible to get tickets.
Picking up and bearing your suffering is an idea deeply rooted in the West. It is a truth. Hell is often thought to be a bottomless pit because no matter how bad things are, there is always a way to make them worse. So what do you do about that? You accept it. That is what life is like. Life is suffering. But what do you do in the face of that suffering? You start with yourself.
Get yourself together so you can stand up solidly so that people can rely on you. Lift a load — because then you can tolerate yourself. Pick something up and carry it. Make it heavy enough so that you recognize you are capable. When you do, you will develop some self-respect.
Take your later example of having babies being a chancier business absent obligations to care for both mother and child. Rather than your saying that it would be ‘chancier’, I would say that given the creatures we are, in which childbearing and rearing involves a heavy investment from both the mother, father, and extended family, there arises natural obligations directly out of this fact, that would be true of any creature of this sort whether or not they had yet to stumble across this accidentally, ‘via evolution’. Just as light and darkness existed before we developed the visual sense, so too, justice existed before we developed the moral sense.
Moreover, the problem with basing justice/ morality ‘on evolution is that in all other aspects of biological evolution, environment plays an exceedingly important part, which is going to leave you with relative morality, which is no morality at all.
Even a secular historian wouldn’t account for the rise of Christianity in the West on the basis of that factor alone.
Neither would I. But a factor it is.
The issue in this particular discussion is how does your utilitarian view of morality account for the innate sense of justice in human beings.
So far you haven’t provided an explanation. Pointing to high birth rates as an outcome of morality is not compelling as there have been violent cultures which have reproduced quite successfully.
See above on empathy and charity.
Moreover, the problem with basing justice/ morality ‘on evolution is that in all other aspects of biological evolution, environment plays an exceedingly important part, which is going to leave you with relative morality, which is no morality at all.
This is like saying jokes can’t be funny because different people laugh at different things. Mr. Bean doesn’t do much for me, but he sells well worldwide.
But you said that it accounted for the rise of Christianity.
I’ll be charitable and assume you mis-spoke.
😀
If we can’t trust Reuters who can we trust?
Sky News:
Israel says that the hospital was used as a command center by Hamas, but gave no proof.
Closely followed by “English Palestinian doctor” saying that Israel had killed 40,000 children.
No “proof” comment attached to that one.
This time — allowing Trump isn’t shot in the meantime — they’ll cheat like there’s no tomorrow, which for them there won’t be
Tammany Hall dates back to the 1800s. DemonRats have been big into electoral corruption since at least then.
Might not want to look too closely at the justice system either.
There seems to be a disturbance in the media force about Trump showing Biden tied up in the back of a truck. WTF?
Where was the fuss when AI generated nasty video stuff about Rudi Giuliani?
QLD’s $237m Wellcamp covid quarantine facility west of Toowoomba finally gets put to use…
As a film set for a movie starring David Wenham.
Presumably the film is about a dystopic world not too far distant.
QLD tax payers – who stumped up c. $200m for the facility – won’t see a cent, though, as it is owned by the Wagner Corporation.
As John Wagner says, you only get one Anna Palaszczuk in your lifetime.
History will not be kind to the Chook.
Voters will take it out on Miles….but it just won’t be the same.
Because we are living through it, I think most people have not processed exactly how special Trump’s political career has been.
First, how many politicians have succeeded in making their first political campaign one for the highest office available, without running for governor or senate or congress and succeeding at a lower level first? That’s a genuine question, if you can recall any, reply. Eisenhower was one I suppose.
Secondly, how many major party candidates have been able to run for non- consecutive terms? In modern times it just doesn’t happen. You lose the presidency, you’re out of there. How Trump engineered it such that he got another shot is truly amazing.
Then, lastly, there is the institutional and media opposition to the man. Even from the Republican establishment.
Trump is unique. His achievements astonishing.
Yes, he done good in his first run. Then he messed up and lost the election. Now he wants to come back with some added history and other legal baggage. He can win the nomination but will lose the election.
Newscorpse doesn’t think so. The Oz editorial is moaning with TDS today, and Sky News has an oped from Loosely saying Trump never met a dictator he didn’t like. It’s amusing.
How dare rude unwashed voters not vote for our choice of DeSantis, Youngkin & Haley. The nerve!
..
I like the linguistic trick whereby absolutely everything is explained away as being because they “evolved” to be what they are.
Which is the same thing as saying it was designed to be such and such.
The only thing in dispute is the mechanism of design.
That they insist it has to be a random, spontaneous mechanism doing the designing in conjunction with the pressure of selection, rather than an intelligence is completely beside the point they are making, but they have to insert it into every argument.
Would it change anything at all about your argument if you said morals were designed to do such and such, rather than they evolved to do such and such? Not in the slightest.
exclusive
State gun reforms involve range of requirements for WA gun owners, including disclosing if they have diabetesJake DietschThe West Australian
Tue, 2 April 2024 2:00AM
Gun owners could soon be required to declare if they have diabetes in order to obtain or keep their hands on a firearm.
The mandatory health assessment is among a raft of reforms being legislated by the State Government, other include capping the number of guns a person can own at 10 and introducing stricter licencing and storage requirements.
Following a recommendation by police, the State’s 90,000 legal firearm licence holders are set be required to undertake a health check within five years.
This includes a self-assessment form, also required of new applicants, with the draft questionnaire including expected questions such as if the applicant takes illicit drugs or if they have been diagnosed with a mental health, psychiatric or nervous disorder.
But bizarrely, the form — tabled in Parliament a day before the Bill passed the lower house — includes a tick box for if the applicant has diabetes and a section, if the answer is yes, where they are required to “provide details of current treatment”.
The form also asks if the applicant has a heart disease or disorder, such as high blood pressure or chest pain, and if they have been told by a doctor if they have a sleep disorder, sleep apnoea or narcolepsy
Venereal disease? Alcoholism?
In other words, without the evolution jargon, your argument collapses into “morality has utility”.
Well, derrrrr.
That is because, in an important respect, what is funny is different to what is moral. Abandoning babies, for example, is immoral whether or not an individual or a society lacks the moral sense to recognize it. Relative morality is an oxymoron; it involves a reduction of the term wrong to dislike/disapprove.
Like all the other newsagencies (Agence France Presse, America’s Associated Press. etc), Reuters is packed with leftwing activists who despise their audience.
They see their role as advancing their favourite leftwing causes/parties — not being the eyes and ears if the public, who most of them regard as too stupid to be allowed to vote.
The root cause of the problem is that in the 1970s universities seized control of journalism education from the news organisations that until then had trained their own journalists via on-the-job cadetships.
As a result, journalism schools are now infected with radical ratbaggery that has ravaged the rest of the university campus.
Journalists used to interact with their audience from the moment they began their on-the-job cadetships. Now they have 3-4 years filling their heads with the radical ideas they have picked up from uni before they have to think about the practicalities of working for their audience.
Modern Western media is like an extension of the Greens political party and the public, therefore, is their primary opposition on the long march to political power.
The Western media hasn’t been the public’s eyes and ears for half a century, which is why public trust of journalists and journalism is in free fall.
If mUnturd is typical of j’ism graduates, they are lucky their credibility rating is not very much lower.
J’ismists all think of themselves as Bernstein or Woodward. In reality most are Mike Moores.
Now they have 3-4 years filling their heads with the radical ideas they have picked up from uni before they have to think about the practicalities of working
Which is exactly why most PS jobs have a degree of some sort as a entry point.
https://www.apsjobs.gov.au/s/graduate-portal
https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/entry-level-pathways?context=1
This is new to me.
Are you mad – come and work managing other peoples lives!
Aurora Neuroinclusion ProgramThe Aurora Neuroinclusion Program helps people who are neurodivergent start their career in the Australian Public Service (APS).
Aurora recognises the unique skills and talents people who are neurodivergent can bring to work. As part of our program, we offer professional development and work experience opportunities in the APS.
The issue in this particular discussion is how does your utilitarian view of morality account for the innate sense of justice in human beings.
It’s not a utilitarian view at all. You are desperately trying to fit this into the framework of thought you have been used to using. Dover does exactly the same. And now Arky is at it.
If any of you want to think of the universe as doing the designing by killing off species that don’t fit in to how the universe works, I guess that would be reasonably coherent. And it accounts for the squillion examples of bloody stupid design which biological systems exhibit.
You don’t like natural selection, you much prefer a God you can get to suspend the laws of nature by a bit of prayer. And so you believe in a meddling God. Pffft.
Let’s pretend for a moment that there is no Lamarckian selection.
No, let’s not. That would be unscientific.
I call it the David Attenborough fallacy.
Much more…design implies a designer.
The atheist’s creation story.
Ad homs concluding with Pfft is not an argument.
Then, lastly, there is the institutional and media opposition to the man. Even from the Republican establishment.
Trump is unique. His achievements astonishing.
Absolutely. The trouble is that Trump Derangement Syndrome is so epidemic that few can see past the showmanship and the idiosyncrasies.
Plus – critical thinking which looks past the obvious is a rare faculty nowadays. Even so called conservatives seem unable to fairly assess his achievements in respect to the US economy.
Go Elon, go!
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/x-to-take-legal-action-against-esafety-commission-over-who-trans-activist-post-5617697?ea_src=frontpage&ea_med=top-news-australia-top-news-0-large-0
Quite a bit of ignorance in that statement DrBG. Perhaps you should educate yourself in the theology as to why none of what you just said is correct.
If someone comes to you and says Fourier transformation is rubbish, theyn you’d be right to tell the person to go read up on the subject. What you just said isn’t even algebra level, it’s on the level of 2+2=5 on the basis of the subject.
Gun owners could soon be required to declare if they have diabetes in order to obtain or keep their hands on a firearm.
Hmmm. My recent research suggests that pre-diabetes is very widespread in the older cohort. I would imagine that diabetes is also. A canny method to deprive oldie of their guns!
I’d add that Richard Dawkins is in the news today. What he writes about science is good stuff, but it’s always fun when he writes about Christianity. He’s got absolutely no idea, Dunning-Kruger to eleventy.
That is because, in an important respect, what is funny is different to what is moral. Abandoning babies, for example, is immoral whether or not an individual or a society lacks the moral sense to recognize it.
And Life of Brian is funny (mostly) whether it makes the pope or the Society of Jesus laugh or not.
You are desperately trying to remove morality from human judgements and put it into a platonic realm of abstraction. It isn’t working. It will always be a feature of human (or conceivably other sophont) behaviour.
The moral sense is very evidently developed within a culture. If you’ve ever seen adolescents developing one you’d know this. And different cultures are more or less conducive to the development of the moral sense. And adults differ in their assessments of moral issues, which leads to argument.
This leads to you asserting that there is an absolute morality and you know what it is. It leads me to asserting that there is an absolute morality but I don’t know what it is, I just do the best I can with what I’ve got and hope I can get better.
Vicki
April 2, 2024 12:47 pm
You know what population cohort has massive rates of diabetes.
Aboriginals.
Why are the police targeting Aboriginals with this plainly racist law…
/shitstirring intensifies
Quite a bit of ignorance in that statement DrBG. Perhaps you should educate yourself in the theology as to why none of what you just said is correct.
I hate to break it to you, B o N, but the great majority of prayers to God are along the lines of please make sure it’s sunny on saturday so the game is played, or please don’t let Agnes die of cancer. Not many people who pray are informed theologians. No doubt the theologians have quite different prayers.
There was an interesting study on the effectiveness of prayer in medical cases. I’m sure you are familiar with it.
LOL. I don’t teach mathematics to you, yet you are teaching Christianity to me? I’ve been studying the subject for over fifty years.
It is academically deeper than chemistry, and as you know I know a little about that field of learning.
You know this makes sense.
It’s time to transition babiesEven in the womb, many foetuses can sense their own trans identity?
State gun reforms involve range of requirements for WA gun owners, including disclosing if they have diabetes
It looks to me that they have just copied the fitness to drive guidelines without looking for any alternative. You obviously don’t want people with uncontrolled epilepsy, poor vision or frequent hypoglycemia handling firearms just as you don’t want them driving. Most people with diabetes are quite OK to do those things but it is a progressive disease that can worsen over time.
Those prayers are what I’d call “vending machine prayer”.
Put the prayer in the slot, select the nice thing you’d like, and out it pops. If it doesn’t, then you didn’t pray it right or often enough or God didn’t hear you or God doesn’t exist after all.
I agree that people can be moral without God. Some people who acknowledge God can be fiercely immoral.
God doesn’t really need them to be one thing or the other. But He does extend an invitation to know Him as far as we are able. Whether you RSVP or not is entirely up to you.
Nice topic for easter. I guess praying for a footie win or sunny day to go fishing or relief from ailments is better than throwing people into volcanos.
Which reminds me of the Green movement, scaring people almost to death with end-of-days threats then making sacrifices (utes, read meat, …) to appease the angry green gods.
I’ll be charitable and assume you mis-spoke. 🙂
You are a kindly and charitable person, Roger, which is definitely a Good Thing.
You assume that when I give a causal factor in casual speech, I believe it’s the only one. Would that life, the universe and everything be that simple.
On the subject of evolved morality and its benefits to the animal kingdom in the welfare of infants…
It also extends to other, manmade, creatures.
It is, it’s 42
Some people who acknowledge God can be fiercely immoral.
I’ve noticed, and don’t understand it. Maybe their God is very different from yours.
I’ve rejected the God who sends the souls of unbaptised babies to hell or purgatory on the basis that He doesn’t come up to my moral standards. My dear old granny believed in him.
That is heretical garbage and you can blame Jansenism for this.
You disbelieve in a caricature.
I’m not trying to convert you, but you’re rebelling against something that’s not even authentic in terms of faith.
“great majority of prayers to God are along the lines of please make sure it’s sunny on saturday so the game is played, or please don’t let Agnes die of cancer”
How could you possibly know what the ‘great majority of prayers’ are for?
I don’t know any adults who get on their knees to pray for a nice day to play golf.
Prayers for the sick and dying, yes lots of those. For all you know sometimes those requests for the sick are accepted.
I have a few on the possibly impossible list, the conversion of muslims, peace in the middle east, that kind of thing.
Live in hope.
The UK’s Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimates that more than 250 people now die unnecessarily in UK hospital A&E departments every year while waiting for a bed.
They say it’s a conservative estimate based on the number of people who wait 12 hours or more for a bed after being examined & admitted by an A&E doctor and doesn’t include people who die in “ramped” ambulances who don’t even make it into the A&E dept to be triaged and examined. Nor, it seems, does the figure include people who die while waiting hours to be seen by a doctor.
More bad news for Britons…A&E waiting times are not going to get better any time soon due to their insane migration numbers putting pressure on an NHS that remains broken no matter how much public money is thrown at it.
One can understand people wanting to punish the incompetent Tories for this situation, but that means they’ll get a hard left Labour government – which amounts to incompetency with menace.
This raises the question, in my mind at least: Are modern democracies and their entrenched, self-serving bureaucracies essentially ungovernable?
Roger, yes. They have become ungovernable as the democratic aspect of our society has been consumed by the authoritarian bureaucracy.
There’s no other way out except by destroying the entire edifice. Tough, but that’s the price for refusing to cull the parasite when it was small enough to to be painlessly pruned.
There is no free lunch, and we are about to find that out.
“I’ve rejected the God who sends the souls of unbaptised babies to hell or purgatory”
Good for you. That’s not a Catholic teaching either.
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070419_un-baptised-infants_en.html
Those prayers are what I’d call “vending machine prayer”.
I read a book where a kindly bloke thought that it must be hard on God to have to put up with so many of them. Reasoning that God must be pretty smart and that most intelligent beings have a sense of humour, he sent up a joke to give God a laugh to compensate for the others.
Arky
They do not insist it has to be random, spontaneous mechanism. Look up adaptive evolution, read Arrival of the Fittest or The Vital Question, think about Linquist’s concept of hsp90 as an evolutionary capacitor. You are relying on the typical media presentation of evolution.
If there is a designer then it should lay off the drugs. Look at human wrists and feet. So many bones, such a clumsy design. Those structures are examples of evolutionary determined jury rigged structures. The same is true of mammalian brains, very clumsy designs. Shelled in bone yet producing more heat than any other organ, easily damaged by repeated mild blows to the head, and very easily damaged by infection and\or subsequent immune responses.
Animals express a sense of justice. Morals are designed by conscious agents, including many mammals. I don’t care if morals are free floating because throughout human history even religions change their stance on various issues. Societies shift moral structures. Cultural evolution happens. Operant conditioning at both the individual and group level shapes our behavior. We try something, we wait, we test, we try again. Just like evolution moral evolution never stops. For a good example of that try Wright’s The Evolution of God. For a modern account of a big reason European culture became successful try The WEIRDEST People in the World by Heinrich(hint: is about an evolving moral structure that permits greater out group co-operation.)
Maybe when you have designed and created your own universe and populated it you can criticise the one we were given.
As it is, no one has the slightest idea how any of it came about and anyone who says they know categorically that a God and creator either exists or that they don’t exist, or the exact nature of such, is lying.
Thus faith. In either case.
What we do know is that the society we have, came about through Christian morals, that Christians have better outcomes and when society walks away from any foundational beliefs it all turns to shit.
Therefore I will continue to have faith in something I cannot possible know, because it terms of it’s outcomes it is undeniably true.
Marvelous story. I think I like the radio shows the best.
On the other hand you could instead ask “what is best in life?”
(Arnie has just been fitted with a pacemaker. I feel old.)
How could you possibly know what the ‘great majority of prayers’ are for?
I have a depressingly wide experience of human beans and their nature.
xxx
Anyone able to post the piece by Stephen Rice in the paywallian Oz about the Lehrmann case today? Would be appreciated.
Tucker Carlson’s latest chat with Dr. Michael Nehls explains a lot. The spike protein, spread by the virus, but created in the human body by the mRNA vaccines, affects our ability to think, and may even accelerate dementia.
The Tucker Carlson Encounter: The Indoctrinated Brain
Good for you. That’s not a Catholic teaching either.
My dear old granny thought it was, which is why she forced my mum to have me baptised as a catholic when I was three days old. If she’s now in heaven, which she definitely expected to be, I expect God has put her straight.
We hear so many different statements about what the Bible teaches and what churches proclaim that I have come to the conclusion the authors of the Bible were proto post modernists.
DrBeauGan
April 2, 2024 1:00 pm
“Quite a bit of ignorance in that statement DrBG. Perhaps you should educate yourself in the theology as to why none of what you just said is correct.”
I hate to break it to you, B o N, but the great majority of prayers to God are along the lines of please make sure it’s sunny on Saturday so the game is played, or please don’t let Agnes die of cancer.
Is there a prayer that I can use to win a $50 million Powerball Jackpot? My own personal prayer of course. And I promise to give some of the money to a few worthy causes.
yeah, possible. though its a prayer to Mammon rather than the usual deity consulted by the christians et al.
Granny promised me that when she went to heaven, she would look down on me and keep me on the straight and narrow.
There was a period in my twenties when nearly all the girls I met seemed to be catholics, which made me wonder a bit.
Anyway, it’s just possible it worked. Although I didn’t produce any catholic great grandies for her, so it didn’t work perfectly.
I’m not doing any such thing. I’m arguing that morality is real, and because of this it is very much open to human judgement. The relevance of culture here is only to what extent this or that culture can discern/ judge what is right or wrong.
I never asserted that I knew what it is, and I haven’t said how it could properly be applied in all circumstances. I asserted only that morality, if it is genuinely moral, and not be a mere reduction to convention/ convenience/ preferences, is absolute.
In what sense could morality be “absolute”. Eskimos leave old folks out on the ice to perish in order to make chances of herd survival better – surely thats violating an “absolute” moral tenet not to kill?
And yes, arguments over subjective vs objective morality are well done and well rehearsed …
It’s absolute in the sense of being unconditional. The claim isn’t that humans cannot but perform morally good acts, but that there are certain acts that are always evil no matter the circumstances. In the above case, the fact that the act of ‘leaving old folks out on the ice to perish’ requires the justification of ‘or else the herd may in fact perish’ establishes pretty strongly that the caring for old folks is otherwise thought of as important. Another thing strikes me in this example, they are not killed, something is denied them. So its an omission rather than an act. If they survived the winter, none of the group would be disappointed. You could think of the omission as a form of triage.
Re the objective/ subjective distinction, absolute morality is by its nature, objective. The difference, however, between subjective and relative, is that between the individual and society.
If you find yourself living somewhere you need to leave the old folks to freeze maybe you should get off your arse and move somewhere else. Maybe if the Eskimos had the bible they would have.
Talk about “Waiting for Godot” – waiting for a vet is worse. Although all this talk about Christian revivalism today is evocative of Samuel Beckett.
42. ASCII for wildcard. Douglas Adams was a smartarse.
Eyrie – The whole thing was a joke about the times tables.
Kids get confused between six times seven and six times nine…
Hence the ultimate question and how there’s something fundamentally wrong about the universe.
Is there a prayer that I can use to win a $50 million Powerball Jackpot? My own personal prayer of course. And I promise to give some of the money to a few worthy causes.
You might try praying to Baal or one of the others. Or since JHVH is a jealous god, pray to Baal that you don’t win a $50 million Powerball Jackpot.
I haven’t tried this. Don’t blame me if you get struck by lightning.
Has it occurred to you that the fault may lie in the receivers, not the message, John?
The Protestant churches that arose out of the magisterial reformation never claimed they had a perfect understanding of Biblical revelation, but only that their understanding was sufficient for salvation, which is the primary purpose of scripture.
You make the assertion but don’t provide any evidence for that. Do that.
Tucker Carlson’s latest chat with Dr. Michael Nehls explains a lot. The spike protein, spread by the virus, but created in the human body by the mRNA vaccines, affects our ability to think, and may even accelerate dementia.
I have a very dear friend whose early stage dementia appeared to accelerate after she was vaccinated during Covid. The saddest thing was when we were discussing the danger of the vaccines she suddenly said, with great sadness, that was what happened to me.
I recall that her husband took her to one of the huge vax centres in a parking ground somewhere. Husband is very sceptical re the capacity of such venues to have the vaccines at the required temperature. Not that that probably had any great effect anyway.
Live streaming: Lehrmann v Network Ten 5pm ADST today
I am in 2 minds about this:
PETER HITCHENS: Thirty long months in the slammer for a kiss? That’s today’s justice | Daily Mail Online
It’s a full on smack on the lips but she isn’t resisting; in fact she’s got her hands holding him in.
On telling God jokes…
If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans – Woody Allen
It’s a rough translation from a Yiddish saying, “we plan, God laughs”.
God gets to tell his side of the story in the book of Job.
‘Man proposes; God disposes.’
I forget ratiocination alone. People like to mock Freud but denying that unconscious processes can shape our conscious reasoning is wrong headed. Even genes probably play a role in how we generate our moral structures. Our cognition is subject to variables from both within and without. Nietzsche noted that some philosophers were unaware that their personality influenced their philosophy. The same problem is true for all of us. We are not split individuals, our thinking, our personality, our environment, our history, and our biology all come together to form our understanding of the world and that includes moral structures.
I asserted only that morality, if it is genuinely moral, and not be a mere reduction to convention/ convenience/ preferences, is absolute.
If you mean that it is a property of the species, and conceivably other species, and not just a property of individuals, I agree.
As individuals we can aspire to some level of insight into what is morally right, but it’s not ours to master.
Here you go Toad.
STEPHEN RICE
Bruce Lehrmann case: one significant clue to Justice Michael Lee’s thinking
Justice Michael Lee may have trailed a big clue about what’s going to happen when he reconvenes Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial on Tuesday to hear new evidence from disgruntled former Seven producer Taylor Auerbach.
The affidavit Auerbach has given the Ten Network is likely to be explosive. It may well put Lehrmann back in the witness box.
It may lead to possible contempt allegations against the former Liberal staffer – and may damage the reputations of some of Auerbach’s former colleagues at Seven, who he has well and truly thrown under the bus.
But it is unlikely to blow up the defamation case.
The clue: Lee has not changed the date of judgment day. His verdict in the case is still listed for Thursday. He’s already read Auerbach’s affidavit; he insisted on it before agreeing to the interlocutory hearing. That move could suggest that – whatever claims Auerbach has made about Lehrmann – Lee doesn’t think they will significantly alter his pre-written judgment.
In a case of this magnitude, where Lee’s detailed reasons may take up a hundred pages or more, the preparation and proofreading of his judgment – which will be put online immediately after he delivers it in court – will already be well under way or already complete.
If the new evidence was going to completely counter his findings, he would have to substantially revise his judgment – and probably delay his delivery of it. The fact that he hasn’t pushed the date back also suggests he has already made some findings adverse to Lehrmann.
It doesn’t mean he’s found in favour of Channel 10 but it probably means he’s found that Lehrmann is an unreliable witness. If he had found Lehrmann was an entirely reliable witness and that the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins didn’t happen, the Auerbach allegations would be a gigantic spanner in the works. The fact that Lee hasn’t delayed his verdict suggests the claims are at least in part consistent with his findings.
Several lawyers to whom The Australian spoke said the chance of Lehrmann getting a substantial award of damages has shrunk considerably if Lee gives credence to the Auerbach allegations.
However, they caution there is still a good chance that Lee finds Higgins was also an unreliable witness and that he can’t be satisfied that a rape occurred. Technically, Lehrmann could win if the judge also decides that Ten didn’t win its argument of qualified privilege – in other words, couldn’t show that it acted fairly and reasonably in its journalism.
But Lee could award negligible damages if he found Lehrmann had lied about there being no sexual contact at all.
Lehrmann has previously given evidence that he didn’t give the Spotlight program any of the controversial material it used in its program, including recordings of a five-hour pre-interview meeting between Lisa Wilkinson, her producer Angus Llewellyn, Brittany Higgins and her partner David Sharaz.
The recording was highly embarrassing for Ten and Wilkinson, with the TV presenter heard describing former defence minister Linda Reynolds as “a nobody” and an “idiot”, as the group workshopped which “friendly” Labor politicians would push the story and put the Morrison government under pressure.
Evidence obtained by police during an investigation is provided to the defence on the understanding that it is not to be used beyond the scope of the criminal trial, a rule known as the Harman undertaking. Lehrmann has given sworn evidence he didn’t give Seven the recordings or any other material from his criminal trial, including texts between Higgins and Sharaz, and CCTV of Higgins and Lehrmann arriving at Parliament House on the night of the alleged rape.
On November 28 last year, Lehrmann was asked in cross examination by Wilkinson’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, about his contract with Seven, which required him to “give all information, documents, film, video, photographs, items and assistance reasonably requested by Seven”.
“And did you do so?” Chrysanthou asked.
“No, I just gave an interview,” Lehrmann replied.
However, it is believed that Auerbach’s affidavit claims Lehrmann was the source of the material.
Auerbach was the producer assigned to obtain the exclusive interview for the Spotlight program in 2022, with documents in Lehrmann’s defamation case later revealing the Seven Network had agreed to pay his ongoing accommodation costs for a year.
It has since been alleged Auerbach used Seven’s corporate credit card to spend thousands of dollars on Thai massages for himself and Lehrmann – claims Lehrmann denies.
The judge will have to determine whether the Auerbach allegations are material enough to the defamation case to reopen the proceedings.
That means not just whether the claims affect Lehrmann’s credit but to what extent a breach of the Harman undertaking – if Lee finds that is what happened – interferes with the administration of justice.
Ten claims Lehrmann’s action – as alleged in the Auerbach affidavit – were an extreme abuse of process. Lee can’t just accept Auerbach’s affidavit. He would have to allow Lehrmann to be recalled to the stand to give evidence on it. Auerbach would then have to go on the stand and be cross-examined.
Lehrmann is likely to be in court on Tuesday afternoon as he has been for almost every day of the proceedings, sitting alone beside the window.
Having lobbed his grenade into the proceedings, Auerbach may not be there to watch it explode: it is understood he made and signed his affidavit over Easter while in New Zealand.
Lehrmann has the option of declining to answer on the grounds that he might incriminate himself.
Seven was understood to be considering whether to seek leave to appear in Tuesday’s hearing, but lawyers told The Australian the network would have little chance of suppressing the affidavit. Lee has made it an article of faith that he wants every element of the case played out in full view of the public, so that there can be no misunderstanding about the evidence.
If Lee finds the allegations to have any possible merit after hearing Lehrmann’s response he could refer the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider a contempt of court investigation. Contempt of court is generally a criminal matter and can result in jail.
An initial criminal trial into Higgins’ rape allegations against Lehrmann was discontinued after juror misconduct. In December 2022, prosecutors dropped the charges against Lehrmann.
Freud…pfft. 😀
Christian theologians identified the noetic effect of sin at least a millenium and a half before him.
On telling God jokes…
I hope God, if he exists, gets some entertainment from humanity. He may be coming around to the view that we are not one of His better ideas. Or maybe we’re daft enough to amuse Him. One can only hope so.
What Beaugy said. It at least will make our pointless existence worthy of something.
Freud, Jung blah blah. Mostly a waste of time. Jung became much more popular because Analytic Therapy had a woo element. J I think awareness of unconscious processes is very old but I wonder if the Age of Reason and the emphasis on us being rational animals led to a neglect of that aspect of our behavior.
This is a great example of why Thymosin Beta 4 should NOT be banned.
https://www.peptidesciences.com/blog/thymosin-beta-4-kidney
It seems to stop a form of chronic/degenerative kidney failure.
(Yes I know they are gene targeting with an adenovirus rather than using a food supplement).
Stock up before the Disease X outbreak in September.
You seem cynical, why don’t you trust the government?
Not only have I done this before, I’ve also linked to others that have done it. The argument is straightforward. If the argument is not simply that morality has differed in time and place, but that because of this is only relative to time and place, then the argument that ‘exposing children’ was moral then but is not moral now reduces the term moral to OK; as in OK then, not OK now. But no one using the term morality actually means that; they want to say that it was considered moral then, but we have discerned that ‘exposing children’ is wrong, both then and now. But that is impossible if you are arguing that morality is relative; it’s only available to you if morality is in fact real (absolute and objective).
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 2, 2024 9:58 am
From the Hun
All colour and movement for PR purposes.
The fact the Bandana Man thinks he can recover costs for preparing a subpoena illustrates how far removed from legal reality these people are.
Ch 10 clutching at straws at this point. God knows what the US makes of this clusterfuk?
I wonder if the Age of Reason and the emphasis on us being rational animals led to a neglect of that aspect of our behavior.
Well we’re long past the Age of Reason, that’s for sure. I’m not sure what Age we’re in currently. The Age of Feelz perhaps. Or the Age of TikTok. Or the Age of Trans visibility. Yeuk to all of them.
Actually John H
I have a question for you.
Is it worth “stacking” PCC, TB4 (if it can be obtained), NAC (-L), pyridoxal5′ for said kidney disease/maintaining function with age?
Would you get dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE) to keep brain function up as well?
I have entertained the view that they were the first wave but in most of the world that wave displaced by a latter dispersal. Hence Australian and South American indigenous peoples represent a slightly different version of humanity. It is interesting that alleles(slight gene changes) for Australian aborigines are also found in some South American indigenous populations. I read a Brain Research study which pointed to Australian aborigines have a visual cortex twice the size of Caucasians. I should follow that up with studies on other indigenous peoples but AFAIK those studies have not been done. Now I’ll go off to my neo Nazi rally … .
Has anyone mentioned this yet? Pretty extraordinary.
The IRGC guys were in a coordination meeting with senior terrorists including one from Islamic Jihad.
Israel is sending a message to Iran that if you sit down with dogs you just might get fleas.
You’d learn a lot from Feser’s The Last Superstition, incl. the danger of reading back into the perennial philosophy the problems of modern philosophy.
Imagine what would happen if Russia bombed the Ukrainian embassy in say, Romania. It’s impossible.
You’re equivocating the IRGC with the US State Dept.
Haven’t you got some Larry Romanoff or Brian Berletic to read this afternoon?
I doubt the IRCG has been any worse than Victoria Nuland’s mob over the last 10 years.
You’re really no different to Bill Ayres.
Atheists, could you tell me if I have your argument correct?
There is no God, the universe is an accident, morality is simply whatever helps you get along with your fellow mammals in whatever random situation you found yourselves, we are all soulless, sophisticated organic automatrons who blinked into existence and will soon blink out of existence, devoid of meaning and eventually the entire thing will brown out into nothing.
If all this is true, if it’s all completely and utterly meaningless, then you are meaningless, and so are your opinions.
So why are you still giving them?
Isn’t it irrational to put time and effort into something with no meaning?
Suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran’s embassy in Syria, a marked escalation in a war pitting Israel against its regional adversaries, and Tehran said the strike killed seven military advisers including three senior commanders https://reut.rs/3TZfoif
Gotta luv the slant the media putz into all these Israel bad stories .. the.usual, potted history of Gaza good Israel bad including 32 000 dead .. nuttin’ to do with the bombing but alwayz good for propaganda issues which ignore the fact that Hamas is a terrorist organization currently being spanked for behaving as terrorists tend to do …….
https://twitter.com/WallStreetApes/status/1774991726593327523
They’re getting desperate.
Michigan Is Offering Homeowners $500 a Month to House ‘Newcomers’ (24 Mar)
I’m not seeing many takers. New York City will soon be a ghetto inhabited by country shoppers and homeless people as the locals all flee.
It wasn’t the embassy. It was the building next to it.
You host IJ and other stinky people you should be expecting six missiles through the ceiling.
If you wrestle with some one with fleas you’ll also catch them.
Israel has pesticide. It’s quite effective I believe.
Literary and psych majors.
Riddle me this:
Tendency to be dismayed at honesty but crave false nonchalance – what is that called?
Anyone able to post the piece by Stephen Rice in the paywallian Oz about the Lehrmann case today? Would be appreciated.
Anyone?
Awaiting approval. Don’t know what I’ve done wrong
“It wasn’t the embassy. It was the building next to it.”
It was in the diplomatic compound. You know, through the gate with the sign reading Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Also next to the Canadian embassy…
Not hearing to many complaints from the Canadians, despite them being woke as sh*t.
Cassie was right.
She can say what she wants. You can say what you want. I have provided the facts as we know them. If you don’t like facts I cannot assist you. I do not much like the Iranian theocracy since they seem to think I am their enemy, since I am a Christian. I hope the poor Iranian people will finally be free of the monsters presently ruling over them.
You do realize the Americans have managed to bomb two Chinese consulates and have gotten away with it? It’s amusing. Strong horses rule in the Middle East.
Was that a bit like invading the US Embassy in Tehran and holding the staff hostage for a very long oime? On the scale of breaching diplomatic immunity?
Explosive new allegations in Lehrmann case hours before hearing
By stephen rice
In another shock development in the Ten Network’s bid to re-open the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case, the network on Tuesday afternoon filed a new affidavit from disgruntled former Seven Network producer Taylor Auerbach about conversations he allegedly had with Seven executives.
The affidavit comes just hours before Justice Michael Lee is to hear Ten’s application to re-open the case on the basis of allegations by Auerbach about how the Seven Network’s Spotlight program came into possession of material it used in its interview with Lehrmann.
The new affidavit is believed to consist of further recollections by Auerbach of conversations he had with Lehrmann and Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn.
It is also understood to detail allegations that Lehrmann used a photocopier at the Seven Network to copy documents.
It is not clear why Auerbach did not include the claims in two previous affidavits, one filed on Saturday and one on Sunday.
Including exhibits and attachments, the documents now run to some 2000 pages.
Justice Lee will hear Ten’s application at 5pm on Tuesday, less than two full days before he is due to deliver his judgment in the defamation case brought by Lehrmann against the network and presenter Lisa Wilkinson.
Mr Lehrmann is expected to argue that the case should not be reopened at the eleventh hour and that the affidavits should not be admitted as evidence.
It is unclear whether Seven will seek leave to be represented at the hearing.
Lehrmann has long denied he was the source of material run on the program, including recordings of a five-hour pre-interview meeting between Lisa Wilkinson, her producer Angus Llewellyn, Brittany Higgins and her partner, David Sharaz.
The recording was highly embarrassing for Ten and Wilkinson, with the TV presenter heard describing former defence minister Linda Reynolds as “a nobody” and an “idiot”, as the group workshopped which “friendly” Labor politicians would push the story and put the Morrison government under pressure.
The material was obtained under subpoena during the Lehrmann’s criminal trial but used on the program, potentially in breach of the so-called Harman undertaking, which forbids use of information or exhibits obtained during court proceedings for any other purpose.
It is believed that affidavits provided to Ten by Auerbach, who left the Spotlight program last year, make untested claims that the source of the information was Mr Lehrmann.
Auerbach was the producer assigned to obtain the exclusive interview for the Spotlight program in 2022, with documents in Mr Lehrmann’s defamation case later revealing Seven had agreed to pay his accommodation costs for a year.
On November 28 last year, Lehrmann was asked in cross examination by Wilkinson’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, about his contract with Seven, which required him to “give all information, documents, film, video, photographs, items and assistance reasonably requested by Seven”.
“And did you do so?” Chrysanthou asked.
“No, I just gave an interview,” Lehrmann replied.
Excellent article at Breitbart by John Spencer, who is a world renowned on his knowledge of Urban Warfare.
The World is playing into Hamas’ strategy.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/04/01/exclusive-renown-urban-warfare-expert-john-spencer-warns-world-playing-hamass-strategy/
Israel isn’t. Every single Hamas guy is going to be fertilizer if they do not unconditionally surrender. Remember Munich. Same thing.
Bruce,
I wasn’t including Israel in that info.
I would prefer to see Israel turn that whole festering area into a sea of glass.
Vet’s verdict – almost certainly ligament damage/dislocation in fetlock although hairline fracture not impossible. Since we couldn’t get the steer a kilometre to the crush, the vet ( a very competent young lady) had the devil’s own job in injecting cortisone. Thank goodness infection between and under hoof claws was ruled out as getting a larger injection of antibiotics would have been impossible out in the paddock. Thankfully, he was handled as a calf and allows some handling.
Justice Lee hearing 05:00pm.
To be broadcast via Federal Court you tube.
More viewers than either Teh Project or I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here at this point.
If all this is true, if it’s all completely and utterly meaningless, then you are meaningless, and so are your opinions.
Arky, ‘meaning’ is a property of some bits of language. As in ‘Arky is a muddled prat’. It only vaguely makes sense to say a life has meaning. The word purpose might be a better choice.
You seem to think God, or whoever’s in charge, created the universe and you with some specific intent for you. He may or may not have given you hints of what He intends you to do. You seem to think your job is to guess what you are here for, then obediently get on with doing what God wants you to do. This is the meaning of your life.
It’s a theory, I suppose. Off hand I’d say that if you believe anything like this, you’re potty.
My theory is very different. I find myself in an astonishingly beautiful world for a rather short span of time. I have certain biological urges implanted in me that seem to be aimed at reproducing and surviving. That leaves me with a fair bit of time on my hands; I have decided to enjoy my brief life as much as possible and I am writing this in the faint hope of improving your life by passing on my theory as substantially less potty than what seems to be yours. I’m a nice bloke.
Take NAC with glycine, better effect. TB4, perhaps but I wouldn’t. PCC is worth thinking about, also good for liver. Or you could eat more eggs. I’m not sure cholinesterase inhibitors are a good idea. If over 65 perhaps but messing around with neurotransmitters is something of a gamble.
There is no clear answer to any of this. We are too individualistic and at best can experiment. You might want to think about improving CBF rather than neurotransmitters. I take biloba for that purpose. It has demonstrated increased CBF and there are studies supporting benefits in mild cognitive benefit.
Look into your family history to identify possible genetic susceptibilities. Also at think about what conditions and illnesses you have experienced. Then think about health strategies.
Someone put the same argument to Dawkins. He replied, my life certainly isn’t meaningless but if yours is you have my sympathy.
All this guffaw that we need some higher purpose to live well and morally. Yet billions of people live\have lived without those qualities and lived very well. That is the problem with the argument you put forward here and to stress the point again: don’t think rationality is all that drives our behaviors. Or as Kirkegaard wrote: life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced. A statement so Buddhist like I wonder if he was leaning that way.
Destroyers of Democracy Continue to Insist Trump Will Destroy Democracy | Frontpage Mag
The latest hysteric to claim that Trump represents a mortal threat to “our democracy,” by which leftists mean “our hegemony,” is Michael Cohen, Trump’s embittered and vengeful former personal attorney. Cohen appeared Friday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” full of dark warnings about how a Trump victory in November will mean curtains for The Land of the Free and The Home of the Brave. Never mind everything that the left has already done, and is busy continuing to do, to turn this country into The Land of the Serfs and The Home of The Cowardly, and to render the quip “It’s a free country” obsolete. It’s all really Trump’s fault.
I must say cohen looks fuked. He must be missing all the dicking he had in prison. Joy looks like she always looks: like an AI version of a transexual toad.
Slight error there DrBG. He created it for a specific intent for him.
I think it’s fun that so many sciency peoples lately have been saying the universe is a software program. Consider if someone somewhere decided to build a universe, using binary or matter or all those single socks everyone has lost in the washing machine. What would he do to get the attention of the people in his universe? He might, perhaps, leave them a message that they could find.
Speaking of morals here is a cute owl: even by my standards this lovely one is very muscular: enjoy:
Please stop.
PS
I am typing this on a braille computer now.
Don’t be a wimp.
Chelan Simmons
Kate Upton
Sidney Sweeney
Sure, I’d be damned heroic for these women if they were single.
Ah yes, women.
Ok then, you’ll just have to feel her abs rather than look at them. Tactile!
Cronkite, you everyone a favor and just come out of the musty closet. The least you can do now.
And leave you by yourself; no way!
should do
Barking Toad
April 2, 2024 3:55 pm
Anyone able to post the piece by Stephen Rice in the paywallian Oz about the Lehrmann case today? Would be appreciated.
Anyone?
Toad. I tried a couple of hours ago but it was sent to moderation.
Or “BG is an insufferable twat”.…
..
..
As you don’t think there is any objective morality seperate from your own urges, you have no basis for claiming to be “a nice bloke”
..
Here is your problem. Without enforcement, there are no morals. In the past the Christian Churches enforced morality. But you think that the basis for their morality is nonsense.
Therefore you are left with three logical choices. Either the state continues to enforce morality, meaning more identity garbage and made up racialist hysteria; or we take your view that morality is just whatever makes you feel good which means no morality at all as everyone just makes up their own mind to believe whatever best suits themselves; or we move into some sort of technocratic system where morals are just arbiters of political power.
People should look at what Mole posted earlier about the NDIS. It’s actually frightening.
Almost one in three jobs created last year was for the NDIS
From the AFR.
The poisonous expansion of the NDIS sits squarely on the hands of Bill Shorten. It was sold originally as a selfless scheme to help parents of disabled children who haafnt had a holiday in decades. At least this is what he told voce and (perhaps) gullible people at the Sydney Institute all those years ago.
..
And yet the post Christian West continues to spiral into a mass of degeneracy, identity politics, spite, socialism and global warming hysteria,
Thanks MS @04:52
As you don’t think there is any objective morality seperate from your own urges, you have no basis for claiming to be “a nice bloke”
You haven’t been reading the site, have you. This leads to you getting everything wrong.
I have said several times today that I do believe in an objective real morality. Check back and confirm it.
That you can get me completely wrong in this utterly scruffy way disinclines me to take anything you write seriously enough to reply, so from now on I shan’t.
“This is a great example of why Thymosin Beta 4 should NOT be banned”
Peptides are banned because they work and are cheap.
“Australian aid worker killed in Gaza”.
Oh dear.
Australian?
There is a decent story about this at the Mail.
Not much sympathy for the dumb sheila in the comments. Lol.
This bastard gallagher should be nuked:
“Never Forget Our Cowards and Weaklings” – Trump SLAMS RINO Mike Gallagher After He Refuses to Leave Congress Until After Deadline to Fill His Seat Expires | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hoft
Excellent comment Arky.
The Roman Empire was able to maintain a productive civilization. At first they traded on the concept of “virtue”. That was not dissimilar to Christian principles and by that means the population tended to keep on the straight and narrow.
Then later as virtue degraded into vice the operation of the law kept things together, since the Romans had a sophisticated system of law, jurisprudence and enforcement.
So law works, if it is properly enforced.
The trouble is that you have three states of civilization: one where the citizens behave because of their innate beliefs, a second where they behave due to the force of the law and the state, and a third where neither holds sway. The third case isn’t civilization, of course, it’s Haiti.
Not surprising then that the most successful civilizations are those whose citizens are motivated by internal guiding principles, thus saving on law enforcement expenditure.
Mak Siccar
April 2, 2024 2:21 pm
Here you go Toad.
Last living survivor on board of USS Arizona during Pearl Harbor attack dies at age 102 – as only 20 people at the WWII surprise blitz remain alive
Daily Mail
I’m reminded of the story of George Gay – the sole survivor of the attack of Torpedo 8 squadron at Midway. When he died, he wanted to be cremated, in his ashes scattered in the Pacific, where all his shipmates had died.
Thanks JC, that article is awful in its implications.
while the Australian government actuary warns the program is on track to cost $125 billion a year by 2034.
See, we can shut down mining and agriculture and have a combined coffee shop/NDIS/pubic serpent led economy!
Low crime rates, low drug and alcohol usage, no world wars, huge efforts to reduce domestic violence and child abuse, socialism has always been with us, the cold war was the greatest hysteria of the current age. The USA is by far the most religious advanced nation yet has highest rates of legal and illegal drug abuse, highest incarceration and murder rates, and the streets are much less safe than the godless nations in Europe.
The Roman Empire was able to maintain a productive civilization. At first they traded on the concept of “virtue”. That was not dissimilar to Christian principles and by that means the population tended to keep on the straight and narrow.
Not at all BoN. In the lexicon of the Roman political class, virtus referred to those characteristics of leadership that denoted excellence. That did not mean “virtue” as we know it! It referred to many personal characteristics that inspired leadership in (originally) an agrarian society of prominent families.
Ten vs Lehrmann.
Ten’s counsel seems to be running a “damages mitigation” line, rather than a last ditch defence of the central defamation case.
..
Read the whole sentence, not just the bit that triggers you.
I said “objective morality seperate from your own urges”.
Popcorn time!
NSW Swifts star Samantha Wallace-Joseph condemned for causing ‘understandable hurt’ to transgender community in post (Sky News, 2 Apr)
Here is her photo. We’re talking serious mortal combat between two adjacent rungs on the woke grievance ladder!
..
And as an atheist, how do you claim any of those things as being morally wrong? You are just describing the situation as it is, and by your measure human morals will adapt to that circumstance and life will go on. Or not. According to your view none of it matters.
Spot poll
What do people think the outcome of the Lehman case will be.
1: Lehman wins bigly – damages against TV station and cane toad announced.
2: Lehman wins, but TV station only in the frame, Toad skates
3: Lehman wins, but with significant caveats, Toad and TV station
4: Lehman wins, but with significant caveats, TV station only
5: Effectively a “pox on both houses” judgement, all players go home and pay their own costs.
6: Lehman loses, with significant caveats,
7: Lehman loses bigly, found to have possibly offended on the balance of probabilities, ordered to pay costs etc.
Or do other people have other scenarios they think likely?
Im leaning towards 4 myself.
Neither side has covered themselves in glory in the witness box, but its quite plain the TV station was on a witch hunt, and having workshopped it with certain ALP members as well, it became a political hit job.
I’m hoping it’s 1
To succeed, however, the states need to honour their pledge to relieve the burden on the NDIS by taking responsibility for children with mild autism and development issues.
Why is NDIS available for “mild autism & development issues” it was, supposedly created for folk with serious disabilities that required well above the normal level of care already available .. Folk who need 24/7 help ..!
Not for ADHD & associated claims already covered by CentreLink & “our”, apparently, bottomless pit of money .. FFS!
Mind, last Thursday when I was, officially, placed into the NSW Community Health system (due to catheter changing) I was stunned when presented with a list of services” I’m now entitled to .. from someone to do my shopping to housework and transport to & from appointments involving medical issues, as well, as lotza home medical help .. As I pointed out to the nurse I’d expected to have to get myself to the local hospital (it’s at the top of the street, 5 minutes walk) for the catheter so I can, actually, look after myself as I have dun since this all started last November …..
Tesla’s new software upgrade for self-drive is supposed to be amazing.
Short vid here
https://twitter.com/i/status/1774829871413272724
I doubt Samantha Wallace-Joseph regularly plays the grievance card in woke poker.
It’s not her that’s playing the grievance card is it…?
But it is popcorn luvvin’ fun which side is getting the woke support…not the black woman. Rosa Parks will be wincing, won’t she?
Amazing how black women get dumped into the waste receptacle so quickly when they are inconvenient.
In your own words.
Indications Lehrmann’s barrister will object to new evidence
Ellie Dudley
Bruce Lehrmann’s barrister Matthew Richardson SC has indicated he will object to evidence brought by former Seven producer Taylor Auerbach.
That affidavit is believed to be about 2000 pages, and contains details about how Spotlight came into possession of material it used in its interview with Mr Lehrmann, including recordings of a five-hour pre-interview meeting between Lisa Wilkinson, her producer Angus Llewellyn, Brittany Higgins and her partner, David Sharaz.
Mr Lehrmann has long denied he was the source of the recordings, and of vision of Ms Higgins and Mr Lehrmann inside Parliament House that was obtained under subpoena during the criminal trial but used on the program
Cronkite, now this is a real woman, not the fake sheilas you present here.
Melania looks great. Great smile too.
And it begins with the negative publicity…. What ever infected Badaducci must have infected the whole board.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13262053/Woolworths-Anzac-Day-RSL-biscuit-tins.html
Frollicking, lock me in for 2:
Lehmann wins but Toad skates.
Barron appears to have grown into a fine, tall young man.
Yes, Melania looks great. Loved it when some idiot asked the Donald how he slept at night. “With a supermodel” was the reply. (story may not be real).
I saw this ad at one of the links above:
I desperately wanted to answer “What is a past?”