Mattel is stockpiling the vibrating broomsticks in case
of an outbreak of mass hysteria among teenage girls.
I've been doing some things, and one of the things I've been doing is reading a book that was lent to me for a browse. It's called Eve's Bite, by Christian and former journalist Ian Wishart.
It's pretty funny. According to the introduction, the gist is this: the West is at war with (Nazis) Islamofascism, which is (Nazis) going to win, because (Nazis) political correctness and Marxist (Nazis) ideologies have made us weak. This weakness is exemplified by the Labour Party (Nazis).
Eve's Bite is subtitled, "Seductive, Deceptive & Dangerous: the Trojan ideologies poisoning our country and destroying the West." I have a better subtitle: "Why critical thinking should be taught in high schools."
I do the following for two reasons. One, it's entertaining. Two, I'm bored..Chapter One: School Daze
This chapter begins a Goebbels quote about propaganda and education. Wishart is concerned about education in the West. He begins with a few statistics - how many students didn't know much about D-Day or the Holocaust, thought that Private Ryan led the charge at Normandy, etc. A survey of British adults found that one in 20 believe Conan the Barbarian to be a real figure from Nordic history.
In parentheses, he points out that this is roughly how many New Zealanders voted for the Greens in the last election. Now, I'm a big fan of Vonnegut, and at the start of Breakfast of Champions, he prepares the reader for the level of sophistication he will be using throughout the book. "This," he says, "is my drawing of an asshole."
I like to think of this parenthetical comparison of Greens voters with Conan-believing Britons as preparing the reader for the level of sophistication Wishart will be using throughout Eve's Bite. Perhaps he's hoping the reader will think of the Greens when they think about studies about how silly some people are. Perhaps you'll think of Vonnegut's asshole when you think of Ian Wishart. Who knows?
To explain how education has reached the depths of contemporary New Zealand, Wishart explains the three main historical forces at work in shaping the modern Western world: Darwinism, Marxism and eugenics.
The Wishartian Marx was a man on a mission: to destroy Christianity. He quotes Marx.When Engels and I first joined the secret Communist Society we made it a condition that everything tending to encourage superstitious belief in authority was to be removed from the statutes. Law, morality, religion are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests.
Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion and all morality.
Goodness! And from Wikiquote. Let's look at where these quotes actually come from. Yes, that's right, quotes - plural. The first sentence is from a letter Marx wrote to Wilhelm Blos, recommending avoiding personality cults in socialist movements. The second sentence is from the Communist Manifesto, describing the condition of the proletarian under capitalism.
And the third quote. This is my favourite part. "Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion and all morality." Good God! How terrifying! Why would Marx say something like this? Unless... Yes, here is the full quote:“Undoubtedly,” it will be said, “religious, moral, philosophical, and juridical ideas have been modified in the course of historical development. But religion, morality, philosophy, political science, and law, constantly survived this change.”
“There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc., that are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience.”
What does this accusation reduce itself to? The history of all past society has consisted in the development of class antagonisms, antagonisms that assumed different forms at different epochs.
Yes, that's right. Wishart quoted Marx musing on what opponents of Marxism might mistakenly say about Communism. It was not Marx saying that Communism abolishes all morality, but Marx's hypothetical critics and name-callers.
Classic.
But so important! Wishart follows up the misquote with, "Let that message sink in, for a moment." Wow.
Blah, blah, blah. Marx hated Christianity. Blah, blah, blah. Here's another good one. "'Democracy is the road to socialism... The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.' Funnily enough, Islam has a similar definition of peace."
I think I'm just going to throw in that picture whenever these hilarious little associations are made. Marxism... equals... Islamic terrorism...
Then Darwin comes in. Wishart's right in associating the two, though not really in the way he means. Darwin sought a materialist explanation for the diversity and complexity of life on earth. Marx was applying Hegel's teleology to a material economic context, rather than Hegel's spiritual one. So they were both materialists.
Now, keep in mind what Marxists' actual problem with religion was: it made people lazy. It kept them quiet and accepting of social injustice by promising a blissful world after death. (JUST LIKE MUSLIMS OMG.) It didn't really occur to him that religion could be a force for positive social change, because his society had seen so much of it being used to maintain an unjust status quo. This is why Christian Marxists exist - because religion isn't always an opiate. Sometimes it's an amphetamine.
Wishart also talks about Darwin's "survival of the fittest" appealing to Marxists, which is just plain odd. Which part of "from each according to his means, to each according to his needs" sounds like survival of the fittest? If anything, it's under capitalism that the "fittest" are encouraged the flourish at the expense of those who, say, can't afford expensive healthcare.
The general gist of the chapter is this: Marx hated Christianity and saw Darwinism as a weapon against it. Marx also argued that controlling education is a first step to indoctrinating the people with Marxist ideals. Despite failing at everything else in life (including his marriage and personal finances), he succeeded in planting the Trojan Horse of Marxist ideology in Western education. That is why New Zealand children are taught about feminism and not about D-Day.
The assertion that someone who failed so spectacularly (Marx) got his revenge by planting the seeds of a culture's destruction is reminiscent of Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals, referring to Christian "slave morality" being the revenge of the Jews on the Rome that destroyed them.
Did I just associate Wishart with an anti-Semitic interpretation of Nietzsche?
Man.
This game's easy.
In an act of unprecedented brilliance, Trey Parker and Matt Stone of Southpark fame have produced a series of neat little animations set to recordings of Alan Watts (of The Way of Zen fame). Alan Watts had a tremendous impact on my life and thought, and Southpark makes me laugh. So, click here for Alan Watts Theatre.
Here's a neat little Flash presentation about Facebook and information-gathering organisations.
and neither has anyone on my behalf."
I didn't expect to see so many people at Galloway's speech last night. The hall at Auckland Girls' Grammar was packed out with a variety of people, from Muslim New Zealanders of different flavours to activists to politicians to just interested non-Muslim Kiwis. I suppose I don't know what I was expecting - a small cosy discussion panel. Anyway, I was wrong.
Scottish MP George Galloway leapt to international attention a few years ago when he appeared before the US Senate to answer charges related to the so-called UN oil-for-food scandal. He took the opportunity to make a speech about the United States' illegal invasion of Iraq, which spread like porn across the Internet, and he became a bit of a hero.
Then he ended up on Celebrity Big Brother. Huh.
The event was organised by the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand, along with Residents Action Movement, a growing socialist Auckland City Council faction. Ostensibly, RAM/FIANZ was responding to the "Mosques and Miracles" conference tour of New Zealand by Australian evangelical speakers/writers Stuart Robinson and Daniel Shayesteh. The tour, organised by Vision Network of New Zealand, was apparently mostly closed to the public - a point that probably seems a bit more sinister than it is.
Both Shayesteh and Robinson are former Muslims, now converted to evangelical Christianity. Their fervour for demonising their ex-religion and promoting their newfound serotonin is no real surprise. Converts later in life are almost always more fanatical than those who grew up with their religion, partly because their conversion is a significant life-altering event for them, and partly because their old beliefs seem all the more evil to them due to the contrast.
The same is true, for example, of Christians-turned-Wiccans. Any number of times I have heard from such a person, "The Bible tells people to... <insert atrocity here>" Converts always feel especially authoritative in criticising the religion of their past, or lack thereof. The difference is that few have a massive and wealthy support structure through which to voice their zeal, like that of the evangelical Christians.
One could be forgiven for wondering if excerpts from Robinson's book Mosques and Miracles, quoted by RAM organiser Grant Morgan, have been taken out of context. However, it's hard to imagine what kind of context would render intelligible such utterances as, "Muslims always build mosques on mountainsides... [as] places to retreat when they have destroyed the surrounding cities." Giving the benefit of the doubt, one might hope the comment was prefaced with, "I once heard a fucking retard say..."
Galloway is a talented orator, and while points of substance were scattered amongst standard left-wing crowd-pleasing platitudes ("Real Christians believe in the Prophets, these guys believe in the profits!" - cue laughter, applause), I found myself more appreciative of Paul Buchanan's succinct words. With little trace on his face of the unpleasant week he's had (fired from his lecturing position, commence conspiracy theories at your leisure), Buchanan noted simply and clearly that we are far more at risk of a tsunami than a terrorist attack in New Zealand. He did say, and others echoed him, that the long path to sectarian violence in New Zealand begins with suspicion and fear of the Vision Network variety, and all speakers were clear: it's not a first step we should take.
Grant Morgan had the misfortune of appearing alongside skilled and experienced speakers, though his good nature shone through any lack of oratorical proficiency. I found his points a little confused, though. He expressed a concern that evangelical Christian networks were inventing or exaggerating "the Muslim threat" for political gain. We all applauded when he said that only around 30 people turned up at the Wellington evangelical meeting - that most Kiwis don't want a bar of that nonsense. And then he proclaimed the virtues of Residents Action Movement and its commitment to multicultural diversity in the upcoming council elections. Now, I'm no genius, but couldn't organising a popular international speaker in response to an admittedly tiny group of anti-Islamic nutters with RAM flyers everywhere in the lead-up to a council election be considered to be inventing or exaggerating a threat for political gain?
Someone from the audience near the front seemed to think so; though, given his rudeness in yelling out to interrupt Morgan, I'd like to think he hadn't thought about it as much as I just did. "You're fearmongering!" called the man, and Grant Morgan addressed the point quite politely before continuing. The point, though, I think remains.
It would be a bit more a point if RAM didn't have several other strong campaign platforms, not the least of which is public transport and climate change in Auckland. They are hardly a one-item voucher.
Christians versus Muslims isn't a concern for me, theologically speaking. I'm not inclined to pay attention to people arguing over the colour of Santa Claus's socks. But religious freedom - both institutionally and societally - is a value I hold dear.
Basically, fuck off, Aussie evangelical preachers. Here in New Zealand, we don't think it's "cool" to be a "cunt" to people.
Due to a combination of Blogger not hosting animated gifs and Dylan Reeve being too useless to reboot my web server after his box went down, you must click here for coolness: Militant Platypus
Here's a hell of a thing. If you "pose a significant threat of committing" acts of violence in order to hinder the US in Iraq, the US government can "take all your shit".
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as amended (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.)(IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.)(NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,
I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that, due to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by acts of violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq and to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, it is in the interests of the United States to take additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 of May 22, 2003, and expanded in Executive Order 13315 of August 28, 2003, and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, and Executive Order 13364 of November 29, 2004. I hereby order:
Section 1. (a) Except to the extent provided in section 203(b)(1), (3), and (4) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(1), (3), and (4)), or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted prior to the date of this order, all property and interests in property of the following persons, that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in: any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense,
(i) to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of:
(A) threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq; or
(B) undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people;
(ii) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of, such an act or acts of violence or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or
(iii) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.
(b) The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this section include, but are not limited to, (i) the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order, and (ii) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.
Sec. 2. (a) Any transaction by a United States person or within the United States that evades or avoids, has the purpose of evading or avoiding, or attempts to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.
(b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.
Sec. 3. For purposes of this order:
(a) the term "person" means an individual or entity;
(b) the term "entity" means a partnership, association, trust, joint venture, corporation, group, subgroup, or other organization; and
(c) the term "United States person" means any United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including foreign branches), or any person in the United States.
Sec. 4. I hereby determine that the making of donations of the type specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the benefit of, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order would seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided by section 1 of this order.
Sec. 5. For those persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that, because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render these measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to section 1(a) of this order.
Sec. 6. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this order. The Secretary of the Treasury may redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the United States Government, consistent with applicable law. All agencies of the United States Government are hereby directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions of this order and, where appropriate, to advise the Secretary of the Treasury in a timely manner of the measures taken.
Sec. 7. Nothing in this order is intended to affect the continued effectiveness of any rules, regulations, orders, licenses, or other forms of administrative action issued, taken, or continued in effect heretofore or hereafter under 31 C.F.R. chapter V, except as expressly terminated, modified, or suspended by or pursuant to this order.
Sec. 8. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right, benefit, or privilege, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its officers or employees, or any other person.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
July 17, 2007.
attacked their ancient enemies, the mountains.
New Scientist magazine, while not the greatest thing on the planet, has put together a handy collection of questions and answers regarding climate change. They are here - Climate Change: A Guide for the Perplexed.
"A guide for the perplexed" is rather a fucking cool name for something, and has been used for everything from books on Levinas to ecology. However, it was originally come up with by a Rabbi named Maimonides. If you're interested, because of your nascent interest in the mystical philosophy of 12th century Judaic philosophical mystics, it is available online at Wikisource.
Anyway. If you want to skip straight to the 26 Myths of Climate Change, click hard like Rickard:
• Human CO2 emissions are too tiny to matter
• We can't do anything about climate change
• The 'hockey stick' graph has been proven wrong
• Chaotic systems are not predictable
• We can't trust computer models of climate
• They predicted global cooling in the 1970s
• It's been far warmer in the past, what's the big deal?
• It's too cold where I live - warming will be great
• Global warming is down to the Sun, not humans
• It’s all down to cosmic rays
• CO2 isn't the most important greenhouse gas
• The lower atmosphere is cooling, not warming
• Antarctica is getting cooler, not warmer, disproving global warming
• The cooling after 1940 shows CO2 does not cause warming
• It was warmer during the Medieval period, with vineyards in England
• We are simply recovering from the Little Ice Age
• Warming will cause an ice age in Europe
• Ice cores show CO2 increases lag behind temperature rises, disproving the link to global warming
• Ice cores show CO2 rising as temperatures fell
• Mars and Pluto are warming too
• Many leading scientists question climate change
• Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming
• Higher CO2 levels will boost plant growth and food production
coloured a photograph of a testicle.
First it was denial - that it wasn't happening, that the globe was cooling, in fact. Then that it might be happening, but wasn't caused by man. Then that it was happening, but was caused by... the sun. Yes, the sun. A recent documentary, The Great Global Warming Swindle, makes the increasingly popular claim that it's not that we're keeping more heat in, it's just that more heat is arriving from the sun.
Well, that little notion has been cleaned up by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the World Radiation Centre:
They conclude that the rapid rise in global mean temperatures seen since the late 1980s could not be ascribed to solar variability, whatever mechanism is invoked.
The UK's Royal Society says the new research is an important rebuff to climate change sceptics.
"At present there is a small minority which is seeking to deliberately confuse the public on the causes of climate change. They are often misrepresenting the science, when the reality is that the evidence is getting stronger every day," it says.
As Leigh Dayton of The Australian reports, regarding the results of the study (published by the Royal Society soon), University of Melbourne climate scientist David Karoly commented: "These findings completely refute the allegations made by some pseudo-scientists that all recent global warming is due to solar effects."
The phenomenon of climate-change denial is fascinating and complex. It's not as simple as scientists being bankrolled by oil companies, though this certainly does happen. Spokespeople for organisations called things like the Institute for Honest and Truthful Science that Doesn't Lie tend to be publicity experts rather than science experts, though that doesn't stop them having a doctorate. And interestingly, we can thank tobacco companies for some of the larger wholescale misinformers. Organisations that began as official-sounding denial of passive smoking find new funders in ExxonMobil and the like, now denying anthropogenic (that's manmade, kids) climate change.
Concern about climate change has become identified with The Left, thanks partly to Al Gore (who passes for left-wing in American politics) and the left-leaning social and economic policies of environmentally concerned groups (like, say, the Greens). What this means is that the massive self-supporting propaganda structure of Blog Punditry swings into action to counter it.
I'm sure I've said this before, but I'll say it again. It means that those people who normally identify with The Right will consider changing their mind to be some kind of loss in a very important game. And so when a theory is put forward that offers a chance of not losing a point to the Enemy, it's leapt on. When, like this sun thing, it is debunked, either the debunking is ignored or some other theory is found - preferably unfalsifiable.
And so it goes on, playing games while the world burns.
Michael Moore's new film, Sicko, has got private health providers talking, amongst themselves, at least. This leaked memo (PDF) is, if nothing else, an interesting glimpse into the workings of industries that find themselves in the documentarian spotlight. Naturally, the memo was leaked to Moore himself, who no doubt was delighted.
Interestingly, you might want to check out where www.sickomovie.com takes you. You'll never guess.
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