Glen D

“(though I suspect the response will be rather predictable in both cases).”

Even 100% predictable. Seeing as Victor Hugo died in 1885 and Joseph Conrad died in 1923.

“Nowadays, Kristina, people are so ready to be offended or triggered that it’s hard to go through a day without doing or saying something that might, even if only potentially, o…[Read more]

@Egognitati

” You are no “ignorant foreigner.”

Kind of you to say so. It’s all relative

In 35 years of international , once I left Australis it was as if my country did not exist. Why should it be otherwise? On the pacific rim with a tiny population (25 million) we are considered irrelevant to the northern hemisphere.

Australia has been und…[Read more]

@Unseen

“Isn’t it ironic that statistics of people killed by socialism (which comes in a wide variety of flavors) is often proffered by people who are ignorant of or are eager to forget how many people historical capitalism has killed. ”

I’m not convinced that Socialism, Capitalism or Socialism have killed anybody. Nor indeed has atheism. None o…[Read more]

“The First Amendment recognizes the right to free speech (plus the rights to freedom of religion”

OOPS! I knew that, don’t know why I typed the second. What can I say? I’m only an ignorant  foreigner.

@Davis

“Glen that’s all easy to say when you don’t have to deal with the prejudice, discrimination, aggression, violence and criminal acts of (directly from or encouraged by) racism, homophobia, trans-phobia and other forms of bigotry.”

No offence  mate, but you have been  idea of what I might have faced.

I was explaining my views on free speec…[Read more]

@Davis

Great. I offer one disclaimer:  I read that book ca 1974. All I can remember is an exercise called “Dance naked with the music”. I remember doing it, alone, in my flat and that it was great fun.

Dangerous to whom?

I grew up in a single income family with rigidly defined gender roles.

Then came Germaine Greer, Betty Friedan , Shire Hite and others . Their ideas were dangerous to the status quo of  a patriarchal society.EG equal pay for women, women controlling their own fertility, economic independence of  women.

In the nineteenth c…[Read more]

Sorry, the questions need work  I think.

It is because of our sun that there is life on this planet.

Human beings have little if any impact on the planet long term. Our behaviour is making our planet uninhabitable for our species and probably quite a few more.  We may be the agents of our own extinction. Wasn’t aware ther is still a debated a…[Read more]

@Davis

“What I am against is overly broad claims (just like your friend said).”

Me too. I’ve run across the odd gem  over the years. Eg “You Are Not The Target” by Vera Huxley. The book is simply a collection of gestalt techniques and they work.

The kind of books I’m agin are the facile crap  often featured by and recommended by Oprah W…[Read more]

@Davis

My best friend died last year.

He was always reading the latest self help book. One of his cute little aphorisms was:

“If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t you’re right again”

BUT—-when  I met him. He was 17 ,working on the line at Chrysler’s and was homeless.

He then went to a teaching hospital and did his general…[Read more]

@Encogitati

My favourite is  Spike Millikan’s head stone :”‘ I TOLD YOU I WAS SICK”–It’s in Gaelic because the English was considered too irreverent.

Right now it is 10.42 AM Wed Nov 4 here in  South Australia. Nothing concrete yet about the US elections.

Will check again this afternoon. I’m going out to buy some peanuts. I think watching Trump’s reaction will be pretty entertaining. I will sit here eating my peanuts and  again give thanks to Joe Pesci that I do not live in America

I can’t h…[Read more]

@Davis

“especially the: the world wants you to succeed and you can do anything if you just believe in it” .

Yeah, that idea has been around for a very long time.  I first came across it in 1969, in “Bring Out The Magic In Your Mind” by a stagemagician called Al Koran.  He called ‘the magic’ ‘The Law Of Attraction” .It surfaces every now and t…[Read more]

@Th Ecogitati

“I am interested in getting into The Rig Vedas.  So I am led to understand, Hindus claim that the book is unauthored.”

I have no idea, don’t quite understand  what you’re asking.  As far as I can tell, the Rig Veda forms part of the mythology of Hinduism.

I dismiss any  claims that any book is written by god or divinely ins…[Read more]

Seriously?

I WAS NOT

I WAS

I AM NOT

I DON’T CARE

Taken from an ancient Roman Tomb on the Via Appia just outside of Rome

@Robert

” I gave up trying to be liked or even respected and was fine with just trying to be fair and high performing. ”

Me too, once I had been diagnosed with what used to be called Asperger’s Syndrome. (2012)

I don’t so much offend people as bore them rigid.  It’s accurate to say I have the social skills of a turnip. This includes having no…[Read more]

@krisytina

“but the system is still vulnerable to the same type of populism and demagoguery from a leader, even if many in their own caucus absolutely hate the—-”

Yup. That was demonstrated  spectacularly in Australia some years ago by a racist and  anti immigration popularist called   Pauline Hanson . Not only did she win a seat, she…[Read more]

” I don’t think it is brain science that a justice should be as apolitical as possible and not serve on the bench forever.”

I yeah, I agree in principle.  However I think the more important point is the separation of powers.IE that the judiciary needs to be independent of the political process. Imo making judges at any level political ap…[Read more]

“You seem to have totally missed his point.”

In terms of him telling atheists what they  must do, seems I did. Mea culpa.

Still don’t like him as a serious thinker. Far too fond of facile and gratuitous  ad hominems imo and too short on evidence.

What I MUST believe?

I didn’t allow my parents or teachers tell me that, so I’m hardly likely  to allow Chris Hitchens to tell me either

Reading ” God Is Not Great” simply reinforced my opinion of Mr Hitchens; an ignorant and bigoted polemicist and a weak  philosopher.

I realise my opinion may not be the consensus  here.  It’s only an opi…[Read more]