Davis

Kristina wrote:

I don’t have an opinion on what the Queen (her heirs and successors) contributes to the world in terms of value.

Maybe not the world, but from a UK perspective, she makes us look good on the world stage, and I imagine contributes a lot to the UK economy with her soft diplomacy.  She also has a function of holding the country to…[Read more]

I was on the phone (a phone box) to my mum in Catford High Street in South London, and the Queen Mother drove past.  She was sitting in the back of the car.

Even with the vice regal positions, I’d be surprised if any of them were selected by the reigning monarchs themselves. The next governor general of Canada will be, in effect, selected by Trudeau, not QEII.

I’ve lived in four countries with monarchies (well three and a half because Canada’s monarch is never in residence). In all of those countries the monarch is popular. They serve a political function (they act as the only executive/legislative check and balance). In those countries there is only one effective legislature (there is no president and…[Read more]

Around the time that video  was released (1988), I was working for the Dept. of Health in Whitehall, London (a short-term project). One wet evening I was running to catch a bus and misjudged the space between the traffic because one of the cars was a stretch limo and I almost ran into the side of it. I was greeted by a slightly bemused looking…[Read more]

Probably not since well before that video was made. I don’t know if the term could technically be applied to Canada still, or if there are still some codified references to dominion status, but it’s not used anymore. Canada’s independence was asserted in steps. Leading up to WWII was a major turning point. The Constitution Act in 82 was pretty…[Read more]

@Kristina – is the term “Dominion” ever used in Canada (as in Dominion Status)?

Gee….that question reminds me of a hairy nun!! 🙂

I don’t have an opinion on what the Queen (her heirs and successors) contributes to the world in terms of value. I suspect anything she adds in terms of philanthropy or advocacy could probably be better achieved by other means. In terms of historic relationships, I have no attachment.

When I was twelve I was required to swear an oath to the Queen…[Read more]

Kristina, Strega, Davis, Reg, and The World At Large,

I don’t wish the Royals a trip to Madame Guillotine or any other harm, but I just have to ask:

What exact purpose does Great Britain’s or any other nation’s Monarchy serve in the modern day, except to provide grocery store tabloids with story content and serve as the world’s richest welfare…[Read more]

Strega,

Why the ice bucket for your fingers?  Is it to fight the temptation of dissent?  No need for that, I say.  Feel the Force of Dissent flowing through, you should!

It’s one thing to defend the right to believe and disbelieve, but how can Charles claim to be Defender of All Faiths simultaneously?

Does he defend all pork-eating faiths an…[Read more]

Davis,

It is a very strange toss-up between the U.S. and Europe.

On one hand, the. U.S. has no officially- established religions, yet a majority of Citizens identify with one religion or another.

In many nations of Europe, however, there are officially-established religions supported by taxdollars, yet far fewer citizens identify with either…[Read more]

Strega wrote:

As an aside, Charles wants to change that title to Defender of all Faiths, in order to include all the other religions – if he ever makes it to the throne. He’d still be Supreme Commander of the C of E though, as that’s the way the religious hierarchy got structured in the 16th century. ( I shall now go plunge my fingers into an ic…

[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Here is an article about Jordan Peterson from a Vancouver interview about JP on religion.

Some of that makes sense to me straight away, but some of it I don’t understand at first sight.

I’ll be honest, I find it hard to understand what he’s talking about.  But there must be something about the general “stand up straight, shine your shoes” tenor that can benefit lost young men.

I don’t even have a problem with that really. The meandering delivery, I mean. I wouldn’t pay to watch it. A two-four, and the right friend and I could reproduce the same thing on the cheap in my own living room. Sometimes I even enjoy it, every sentence walking the line between abstract poetry, puzzle, and dadaism. It’s just when it’s wielded…[Read more]

Here is an article about Jordan Peterson from a Vancouver interview about JP on religion.

 And yes (don’t hate me, woke people) I was on the Jordan Peterson Facebook frontline savaging his opponents.

Germane to the thread, for a time he represented the brokenness of the internet and contemporary media. Peterson has things to account for. For a man who was ‘silenced’ (the claim of some of his fans) his voice became the single loudest vo…[Read more]

I was 16 when I first had real access to the internet (a regular connection and not just the text based internet). I used AOL which was a truly fantastic place to discover the online world. There was a large selection of chat rooms and back then chatting was really fun. There were very few trolls (they were quickly kicked out of the rooms).…[Read more]

The internet has been mainly fun for me, except for one face-reddening incident where I didn’t understand how Facebook worked.  I’ve had fun making a website (now gone) and posting my mixtapes and mp3s, and seeing the results.  I’ve fallen in love at least once.  I’m pretty sure that the locals keep a Whatsapp group about me and monitor my Fa…[Read more]

We evolved to have face-to-face relationships, limited to only dozens or scores of other humans. What seems natural now, really isn’t “natural”.

For me the heyday of the internet was in the early 2000s. Back then, the internet afforded you a way to find communities you may have other wise been cut off from allowing the non-normals to find their…[Read more]