Mike wrote: And crony capitalists profit by them, while parents and siblings of the dead young soldiers are told their sons and brothers died fighting for freedom.
In truth, it's usually somebody else's freedom (at best, but rarely).
I didn't dare think this way back when opponents of American wars were usually Communists. If there was any loyal opposition back in the '60s, I never heard of any.
Mike wrote: I wonder why the damage is thought of as collateral?
The term is a military euphemism for "Oops, we whacked some civilians." That's an example of how civilian Progressives, who love to make their fashionable grievances a "moral equivalent of war," have popularized military jargon in their propaganda vocabulary.
Compared to the Victorian era, it's startling how profoundly 20th century wars have militarized American culture. Progressives plan our wars, and conservatives fight them.
Confucius Institute?? Mao would've been disappointed, for his Cultural Revolution opposed Confucianism. Unless this is a phony cover title, which is likely, given the habit of Communists calling their regimes democratic.
Anyhow, Confucious's Analects struck me at first glance as a bunch of bare assertions absent any attempt at proof. Socrates would've had a field day with him. So I have trouble understanding its persistence among E. Asians.
It's easy for researchers to say, for they're not politicians who have to make hard choices and face Yellow Journalists and an emotion-driven public likely to blame them for the death of loved ones more than they would for unemployment, which is encouraged by the Welfare State anyway. Progressive Democrats in particular are masters of fomenting Victimhood, and political decisions always have victims.
Counterintuitive statistical rationalizations are easy when it's not your head on the block.
Think of it as the "National Lampoon" Bible, a parody. Or "Wicked Bible" 2.0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_Bible which looks like sabotage; the printer was fined and lost his license to publish it; not just anyone could print Bibles back then, esp. if not the KJV. This is why the Geneva disappeared; it was outlawed by the monarchy so nobody could replace it when theirs wore out.
So a "Christian" journal lends credence to the modern, materialistic pseudoscience of "mental health." The legal "insanity" plea is an early example of this.
Sure, folks will encounter stress in hardship, as they always have, but their response depends on their belief system (AKA presuppositions), not their brain chemistry.
The article says the Mexican gov't doesn't involve itself in religious matters, delegating that to regional authorities. Interesting.
American conservatives who long for more "States' Rights" should be careful what they wish for, even though I generally support decentralized authority. Remember, some states once had established churches (e.g. Virginia, Massachusetts).
Mike wrote: Personally, methinks it a combination, having moved from #1 to #2 in order that a crisis, though much of it manufactured, not be wasted.
I wonder about that too. Ironically, we're getting a preview of what would happen to the economy if the Democrats' (particularly Sanders's) business-killing legislative agenda were enacted. The stimulus package is "free" money, as if it's guaranteed income.
I have concluded that my fellow Americans are dissolute, self-absorbed spendthrifts who have been conditioned by generations of Bernays-style advertising to be addicted either to debt, drugs, or both. Legislation merely reflects this. Anyone who tells voters to save for a rainy day and that handouts are theft will be crucified.
Churches today are little more than small businesses, usually with sole-proprietor pastors (some with toadying nominal elder boards) calling all the shots, who like salesmen, hawk Christianity as if it were an Edwardian elixir, and drive out those who object to their ways. Rick Warren is only the most extreme example of this, for I've seen it repeatedly with local churches too.
We are told to read the Bible, but when I do, I find the Pastoral Epistles calling for church practices very different from today's.
It probably turns on whether the terms of enrollment, as a legal contract, *require* on-campus instruction, or *allow* alternatives.
Offer, Acceptance, and Consideration are essential for a binding contract in Anglo-American Common Law. These are the basics which everyone should learn and not just lawyers. It might save you in court someday.
Adriel wrote: The point is "lock down" Clearly it has not been a perfect solution. Ergo was it necessary?
Maybe so, maybe not. As I said, statistics, even those published by bureaucracies not having a self-serving agenda, can "prove" any opinion. Or maybe Sweden tells different official lies than Britain.
Adriel wrote: UK went into lock down. Sweden did NOT go into lock down.
A reason to dismiss such comparisons is relative population density: Sweden: 60/mi² UK: 170/mi² and there are likely other plausible differences. Regardless, statistics can be marshaled to say whatever one wants even if the raw data is reliable and comparable, which I also doubt because govt's lie.
Phillip Mezzapelle wrote: Why were there no drastic measures taken last year when more than 25,000 people passed away due to heart disease?
Probably because those aren't infectious diseases. My employer quarantined us for almost 2 weeks after some fool coworker showed up sick and tested positive. I'm glad I kept my distance.
There must be a perverse sort of Stoicism that motivates people like this to work while sick, but it violates "Love Thy Neighbor."
Starting point for RCC economics (I thank Trinity Foundation for pointing this out): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_destination_of_goods
"You are not making a gift of what is yours to the poor man, but you are giving him back what is his. You have been appropriating things that are meant to be for the common use of everyone. The earth belongs to everyone, not to the rich."
Which except for air, is manifest nonsense. They may claim they endorse private property, but one cannot truly possess something that "belongs" to everyone as a first principle. The RCC Antichrist is finally showing her true colors after centuries of double talk, such as in Rerum Novarum.
Perhaps a nice idea, except one needs lots of capital to build new or update existing construction, which given the economy so far, will not be abundant.
Quarantining China, which evidently is fertile ground for the latest and nastiest viruses, may work better. This however will not be tolerated by the many industrialists described perfectly by the following term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_dog
Jim Lincoln wrote: Neil, you may be missing out on some big money!
I do not expect advice like that from a Christian. And as I said below, if throughput is the problem with processing all those unemployment claims, then newer, faster hardware, not modified software, is the solution.
5/1/2020 3:44 PM
