tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post8396462771205374310..comments2024-03-28T22:51:37.034+11:00Comments on loon pond: In which the pond indulges in more of a Sunday rant than a meditation ...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-14187403453952611972015-03-02T08:02:52.271+11:002015-03-02T08:02:52.271+11:00That Walrus story is a shocker, and yet the Wahhab...That Walrus story is a shocker, and yet the Wahhabists keep on getting a clean bill of health. Only when you live down the rabbit hole ...dorothy parkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00816807935021738560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-76054363726932916922015-03-01T17:54:25.982+11:002015-03-01T17:54:25.982+11:00Did the papist Sir GG tour the sites on his recent...Did the papist Sir GG tour the sites on his recent trip to arse-lick the wahhabi ally?<br /><br />http://www.executedtoday.com/category/where/saudi-arabia/<br /><br />http://thewalrus.ca/chop-chop-square/?ref=2009.05-field-notes-chop-chop-square&page=<br /><br />Chop-chop square. Shaded seating - though it's bring your own ice-creams, or an esky of warriors' VB... https://www.flickr.com/photos/imp1/305201913/in/set-72157603190658163Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-77508917138349891522015-03-01T16:33:29.676+11:002015-03-01T16:33:29.676+11:00:) love the Diderot:) love the Diderotdorothy parkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00816807935021738560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-89592659013307528212015-03-01T12:14:57.793+11:002015-03-01T12:14:57.793+11:00Hi Dorothy,
"Enlightenment is man's emer...Hi Dorothy,<br /><br />"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use ones's own understanding without direction from another. This immaturity is self-incurred if its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolve and courage to use it without another's guidance. Sapere aude! Dare to know! That is the motto of Enlightenment."<br /><br />Immanuel Kant<br /><br />It's bitterly disappointing to see that for all the rewards the Enlightenment has brought, scientific progress, liberal democracy, secularism, so many are reverting to the comforts of religious dogma and superstition. <br /><br />Faced with rapidly changing technology, urbanisation and the break down of traditional societies, many people are now fearful of the future and are retreating to superstition and simplistic models of how the world operates. ISIS, anti-vaxxers, climate change deniers, free market fundamentalists, creationists, religious nutters of every persuasion, all are fleeing complexity and retreating to a simpler explanation for their existence. <br /><br />Worse of all, has been the failure of our political classes to even attempt to explain this complexity and outline the variety of paths that can be taken. Good guys and Bad guys, three word slogans show how politics is being dumbed down to the lowest common denominator.<br /><br />http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/feb/12/state-of-the-union-reading-level<br /><br />The historian Henry May noted that in 1800 the US presidential contest was between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson who respectively, were at the time, the president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the president of the American Philosophical Society. May described this "a coincidence very unlikely ever to be repeated in American politics."<br /><br />That our politicians are increasingly becoming ignorant demagogues is symptomatic of our unwillingness to be challenged by complex and difficult truths. <br /><br />It's a hard time to remain a believer in rational thought and scientific principles but we can but try. I'll leave the last word to Denis Diderot;<br /><br />"Wandering in a vast forest at night, I have only a faint light to guide me. A stranger appears and says to me 'My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.' This stranger is a theologian.<br /><br />DiddyWrote<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-59739788292011919822015-03-01T10:10:30.959+11:002015-03-01T10:10:30.959+11:00" these street ratbags are the outposts of fu..." these street ratbags are the outposts of fundamentalism"<br /><br />Oh for the good old days when the street ratbags were Hare Krishna's and young Jesus freaks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-18747698162590103062015-03-01T09:59:36.555+11:002015-03-01T09:59:36.555+11:00Y'reckon it could be time for Satan to do a bi...Y'reckon it could be time for Satan to do a bit of PR. selling on his "Club Sheol" ?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-11994348257278916342015-03-01T08:51:12.551+11:002015-03-01T08:51:12.551+11:00Edward Gibbon ..wtte : "A nation of slaves wi...Edward Gibbon ..wtte : "A nation of slaves will view as magnanimous the tyrant who, while with-holding his hand from supreme cruelty, dispenses pain in small measured doses."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-32005618282785258732015-03-01T08:46:42.561+11:002015-03-01T08:46:42.561+11:00Joe Stalin was too soft !Joe Stalin was too soft !Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-5765834364360205382015-03-01T08:13:01.330+11:002015-03-01T08:13:01.330+11:00Sometimes you want to pull the covers up over your...Sometimes you want to pull the covers up over your eyes.<br /> Today is such a morning.<br />What awaits us in heaven if all the people doing God's work are up there?<br />All the false idol crushers, infidel book burners, graven image smashers, teetotallers, missionary ranters, happy clappers, men in long frocks with scarlet trains, Kevin Andrews,....<br />Please God. I will be good. Just let me stay here with the loons.<br />Miss ppAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com