Thy Plague Doctor

Two horrid problems you are the victim of. Many Christians and even barely-religious people think that it is they who are being opessed. They simply don’t believe that non-christian bullying exists. That if it does it is very isolated and exceptional. But it does and clearly you are suffering greatly for it. You need to be vocal about this. The…[Read more]

@unseen, thanks for capturing my point so succinctly.

Years ago, I used to be quite a popular beta-tester on various computer programs. The idea was that you’d try to crash or otherwise break the new program. I beta-tested for the early google site.  Programmers love good beta testers as it enables them to fine tune their work.

The same applies to new scientific theories. The proponents of the th…[Read more]

@Daniel

There is nothing about the United States that makes the current direction of US politics a permanent one. The overwhelming majority of the facets of American life is identical to other western countries. It’s the irrational and sometimes cold/cruel peculiarities that always stick out. Perhaps the future will see a kinder approach to s…[Read more]

@Daniel

The point of that comment had little to do with trashing the USA but instead to lampoon “cultural relativism”. Relativists claim that other worldly practices are beyond the sphere of our moral judgement as they live in their own subjective context and we have no right to apply our own moral compass onto them.

In cases like this, hard…[Read more]

@Pope

I suppose an American can make that assessment. But the rest of us…we cannot judge American culture. It has emerged from a different and beautiful culture where the people and how they express themselves is to be heard and seen…not judged. It is arrogant to think that people from social-assistance countries should have the right to look…[Read more]

English speaking countries politics have fundamentally changed from a battle of ideas to a battle of watery-ideologies/personalities. In England newspapers used to dedicate long sections of newspapers to analyse new legislation and to cover at length important cabinet decisions.

Canadian newspapers used to print entire speeches made by the Prime…[Read more]

The minute emotional choices entered the political arena, logical discourse flew out of the window.  People are not debating issues, they’re debating people. The emotional attachment to ‘characters’ in politics is pretty new, and the result is logic-free opinions. I’m hoping it’s a kind of tidal movement, where eventually sense will prevai…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
Damm-It, I was so brain-washed.  I loved the films, especially the Severus Snape character.

The Harry Potter films are utterly epic. Every two years or so we watch all 8 films over one weekend. There are so many humanist themes running through the work (despite the supernatural afterlife of wizards and a world where the laws of…[Read more]