Date: October 20, 2017
01) Jordan Peterson: A history lesson for political radicals
“Professor Peterson discusses ideological possession, communism, concentrations camps, Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago and existentialism.”
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Date: October 20, 2017
“A black hole is a region of the spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing—not even particles and electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from inside it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole.[2][3] The boundary of the region from which no escape is possible is called the event horizon. Although the event horizon has an enormous effect on the fate and circumstances of an object crossing it, no locally detectable features appear to be observed. In many ways, a black hole acts like an ideal black body, as it reflects no light. Moreover, quantum field theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons emit Hawking radiation, with the same spectrum as a black body of a temperature inversely proportional to its mass. This temperature is on the order of billionths of a Kelvin for black holes of stellar mass, making it essentially impossible to observe.” |
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Date: October 20, 2017
“Emily is 24 years old and physically healthy. But she wants her doctors to end her life. 24 & ready to die is the tragic case of Emily, a young Belgian woman granted the right to a doctors help to end her own life because of her persistent, severe depression. Belgium and the Netherlands are the only countries which permit doctor-assisted dying for those experiencing unbearable mental suffering. Several American states allow doctor-assisted dying for the terminally ill, including, from next year, California. Majorities in 13 of the 15 countries polled by The Economist and IPSOS MORI in June support doctor-assisted dying. The Economist has championed doctor-assisted dying in articles and editorials since the 1990s, including most recently a cover story in June this year. The Economist ran a video advert in London in September and Berlin asking: Could you live a life like this? to encourage people to start talking about the right to die. Support for doctor-assisted dying is growing globally. Bills have recently been debated in Britain and Germany, and a ruling in Canada Supreme Court means that country will soon have legal doctor-assisted dying too. California governor signed an assisted-dying bill into law in October. A recent poll by Ipsos-MORI for The Economist found majorities in support of doctor-assisted dying laws in 13 out of 15 countries surveyed including the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and Germany. But only in Belgium and the Netherlands were majorities in favour of allowing doctor-assisted dying in cases of unbearable suffering that is mental, rather than physical. The Economist supports the introduction of legalised doctor-assisted dying around the world. Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist, says: For The Economist, the case for allowing doctor-assisted dying relies on personal choice and individual autonomy. Our liberal values and respect for human dignity mean that for this paper, doctor-assisted dying is a cause worth championing.” I really disagree with this form of assisted suicide…though, I do understand the mental place where this young lady was at…It’s an incredibly dark one… I lived with this problem, for much of my life…I never cut myself…But depression and thoughts of suicide started for me, when I was…thirteen…fourteen… …A large portion of my life was personally harrowing…And the worst part, was never being able to pull out of the bleakness and dead energy funk…This is psychological hell, when it stretches on for years, relentless. …I finally beat this thing, when hitting rock bottom…after everything had been sapped out of me… …I came back, triumphantly, as “Steve Diamond”…The man who would not be hurt, any longer… …My anger and fury, made me live once again. |
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Date: October 20, 2017
“LibriVox recording of The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux. An old theatre under new management; a diva who thinks she can sing; a young ingenue who really can; a masked man who wreaks havoc if he doesn’t get his own way. Secrets, intrigues, falling chandeliers! The Phantom of the Opera is here! (Summary by Karen Savage)” |
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Date: October 19, 2017
01) Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Islam–Mecca vs Medina?
“We discuss Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s recent paper for the Hoover Institute, The Challenge of Dawa (http://hvr.co/2xLuz6e), her conceptualization of Mecca vs Medina Islam (roughly the distinction between peaceful and militarized/expansionist), and the possibility of rapprochement between Islam and the JudeoChristian world.
We turn from that to the role the Saudis play in accommodating their radical Wahhabi clergy– propagandizing and destabilizing Western and Islamic societies alike. Like Qatar, Kuwait and Iran, the Saudis are waging a long-term ideological war against the West, which we are too arrogant and too naïve to take seriously.
We also discuss the failure of Western women to stand up and demand that the denial of women’s rights and restrictions of freedoms that characterize those countries come to a halt—or at least that they demand that our political leaders consider that issue of utmost international importance.
Ali notes that Western feminists, in their obsession with European patriarchy, refuse to discuss the issues of oppression of women by non-European men outside of the West, and accept the doctrines of multi-culturalism and cultural relativism (and that such acceptance is a catastrophic for women internationally). In consequence, regarding them as more committed to their world-view than the rights of genuinely oppressed women in many non-Western countries, she does not consider them feminists at all.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the author of four books, The Caged Virgin (2004) (http://amzn.to/2xLH168), the autobiographical Infidel (2006) (http://amzn.to/2gIQVuH) and Nomad (2011) (http://amzn.to/2xJWWgk), and her latest (2015) Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now (http://amzn.to/2glwkQ2).”
Date: October 19, 2017
01) Did he violate probation? Elkhart parents accuse justice system of vendetta
“The parents of an Elkhart County man are speaking out. They say the justice system has treated their son, Zach Anderson, unfairly.
Anderson is accused of violating his probation. He admitted to having sex with an underage girl when he was 19.
That girl admitted to telling Anderson she was 17 when she was only 14. The girl’s mother and Anderson’s parents asked for leniency but he was sentenced to three months in jail and 25 years on the sex offender registry.
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Church staff say he’s diligent about making sure he doesn’t come into contact with anyone under 17.
But at a polygraph test with his probation officer, Anderson says Zach admitted to congratulating his teammates after service.
“Apparently there were 12 people. So, by saying ‘Good Job, Guys’ to the whole group, they’re claiming he had contact with this girl,” said Anderson.”
Still another grim example, of why every person of conscience must step up…and fight on behalf of the weak and unestablished, who are being inhumanely fed upon by the system in it’s war on sex…
…and, frankly, in it’s war on being human.
I cannot even fathom how it is…that the people behind conceptualizing and imposing these sorts of things, can even look at themselves in the mirror.
…They must surely have the blackest of hearts, oozing venom, bile and noxious vapors.
What gets me so bad, when reading these kinds of stories…is the question of where is the outrage, over the path of failures that had to take place, in order for an outcome like this to happen?
People go on, not critically looking at the deeper issues in play, here…acting like “this is the way things are supposed to be”…
…Where is the common sense outrage, over things which should never be accepted in any “justice” system?
How can it not offend the decency of everyone, that someone was in a fully consensual situation, that he got lied too when he was trying to act in good faith…and he ended up being incarcerated and on a sex offender register for it?
…How is it, that the people who acted to hand down such an inhumane, inexplicably stupid and ruthless sentence, are not being disbarred, removed and banned from ever again working within the “justice” system?!…
…Nobody is talking about the root illness…They’re just talking [pleading?] about managing it “a bit better”…
This will never do!
It needs to be recognized by everyone…that things are not meant to be this way.
…They are this way, because of a long, complex history of events and shifting power…
…Not because “the righteous and good” won out…At best, those in power stumbled into a status which they do not deserve…largely thanks to the time era they have been born into…and the complex mixture of history, which set the stage for their entry…
…Just as a coin has two sides, the same thing could be said for those of us who are amongst the abused, oppressed and exploited minorities…We don’t deserve where we are at, today…nor the extreme obstacles we face…We had the incredibly dumb luck, of being born into “this” era…
The first step is in recognizing…that they may have the guns…they may have the money…they may have the institutions and resources…they may have the majority of people on their knees…we may have even been on our knees, ourselves…
…But I am no longer on my knees!…
…and none of the rest of you have to be on yours.
Date: October 19, 2017
01) Waking Up with Sam Harris #101 – Defending the Republic (with Cass R. Sunstein)
“In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Cass Sunstein about the fragmentation of American society, choice architecture, the importance of face-to-face interactions for problem solving, group polarization and identity politics, virtuous extremism, the wisdom of crowds, direct democracy, the limits of free speech, the process of Presidential impeachment, and other topics.
Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School, where he is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy. He is the most cited law professor in the United States. From 2009 to 2012 he served in the Obama administration as Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He has testified before congressional committees, been involved in constitution-making and law reform activities in a number of nations, and written many articles and books, including Nudge (with Richard Thaler), #Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media, and Impeachment: A Citizens Guide.”
Date: October 19, 2017
01) Jordan Peterson – Antisocial, Cynical Kids
“Psychology Professor Dr. Jordan B. Peterson tells a story about an encounter with a prematurely cynical child, who was most likely abused, being lied to and ignored by adults.”
This could easily be applied to the MAP life experience.
I know that a lot about where I am at today, as a MAP…is in direct response to the abusive, hostile and threatening world I’ve been forced to live in.
…It can become hard, to recognize what trustworthiness and goodness is left in this world.
Date: October 19, 2017
01) Youtube Is Now Explicitly Demoting Independent News, Tech, and Gaming Content
I wonder if YouTube [Google] is having it’s palms greased, by mainstream media corporations.
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Date: October 19, 2017
“Fifty lesser-known horror flicks hailed by critics and genre fans as “absolute must-sees” are given the spotlight with fun, engaging commentary from journalists, directors, actors and critics in a countdown like no other. Stalkers, monsters, slashers, evil dolls, terrorized babysitters, holiday maniacs, mannequins, eerie motels, even giant rats… they’re ALL featured in “The 50 Best Horror Movies You’ve Never Seen!” |
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