Say Anything Blog

This is a highly commendable film, which, despite tackling a tricky subject, refuses to succumb to sentimentality. In giving global warming such publicity, the film has hopefully helped to lessen the stigma brought on by ignorance of this irrational hypothesis.

Rainforest Man’s great success is that it shows the way forward for issue driven movies in Hollywood. Its hoped for success at the box office should demonstrate that taking a risk can pay off in spades, provided that the film is good enough.

PAUL COLLINS

“The Night Before Christmas” is a glorious imposter among poems.

To begin with, its proper title is “A Visit From St. Nicholas.” We think of it as a product of the Victorian era, but that’s simply when it became popular thanks to uncredited newspaper and gift-book reprints.

Written in 1822 by the New York scholar and poet Clement Clarke Moore, the poem seems to epitomize the traditions of Christmas, yet it’s more accurate to say it created them.

The jolly old man on the roof, the sleigh filled with toys, the eight reindeer — these were all Moore’s improvements on what had been a rather scraggly fellow with a wagon.

But it wasn’t Moore’s first significant work. That honor goes to a little noticed polemic published in Manhattan in 1804, back when mad King George III still ruled Britain and Moore could pass Tom Paine in the streets of Greenwich Village.

Thomas Jefferson’s “Notes on the State of Virginia” — a collection of local observations and global musings issued quietly in Paris in 1785, when Jefferson was serving as a diplomat — had been reprinted in New York three years earlier.

His wide-ranging thoughts on everything from immigration and constitutional law to agriculture and Indians had already drawn violent criticism during the 1800 election — “O! That mine enemy would write a book!” Jefferson lamented in a letter — and his re-election campaign brought a resumption of hostilities.

And so it was that Moore wrote an anonymous pamphlet called “Observations Upon Certain Passages in Mr. Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia, Which Appear to Have a Tendency to Subvert Religion, and Establish a False Philosophy.”

Interesting..... (more...)

The Four Agreements & Commentary

Don Miguel Ruiz’s book, The Four Agreements was published in 1997. For many, The Four Agreements is a life-changing book, whose ideas come from the wisdom of the ancient Toltec warriors.

His work is the result of years of study and self-inquiry, which altered his life.
Ruiz describes it as a way of life that is spiritual, yet not necessarily a religion.
This pathway is distinguished by the commitment to reach an accessible happiness and love.

It moves the person beyond the world that is leaned to a deeper sense of what is self.
Ruiz defines this move with the commitment of the person to four agreements. In order to attain this path to freedom defined by true happiness and love, the person practices these four agreements:

“Be impeccable with your word”, “Don’t take anything personally”, “Don’t make assumptions”, and “Always do your best”.

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by Scotty at Fire on The Mountain
December 10, 2006

Reporting by Scurrilous Dog-

“The honorable Iraq Study Group has shown the path of victory for Allah in the land of Mesopotamia. The brave mujahadeen will have driven the Infidel army from the land of Allah by 2008 paving the way for Islam to rule its land and resources once again.

Bush will be removed from office by 2008 and a new godless American leader will complete the removal of the infidel’s army from the land of Islam with.

Bush has been defeated internally by the godless weak forces of the Media and Democrats; they have once again convinced America it is weak and should run in fear of the brave mujahadeen, like in Somalia as Osama referenced and earlier in Iraq when Saddam’s forces drove them from Baghdad.

Bush is the last obstacle to Islam’s return to a caliphate in the land of Allah, we need to continue our media strategy of showing the weak Americans death and destruction through there media, support the honorable president of Iran as the Islamic bomb is built to be used to run the Jews into the sea and reclaim Palestine.

The Israeli’s have also become weak as they were routed by the forces of Hezbollah and continue to be cast as the evil Zionists they are in the media, UN and Europe. Today my fellow Jihadi’s we take the land of Mesopotamia, Palestine, Mecca and drive the infidels from it, tomorrow Islam conquers the world with the resources of Arabia. Praise to Allah, death to America.”

Patriot Post
We’re in a war. Something always goes wrong in a war, and our military leaders have made mistakes in Iraq.

But quitting and leaving would amount to defeat for the U.S. in the global war on terrorism and create chaos.

Quitters never win. Here’s the problem: America needs two strong, sound political parties.

As far as domestic policy is concerned, it really doesn’t make much difference if Democrats or Republicans are in power.

Ours is a free, entrepreneurial society where anyone can do anything he or she wants if they have a positive attitude and the desire to work, learn and achieve.

Ambitious people come from all over the world to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity.

This is one reason our economy is so resilient, continually bouncing back from periodic setbacks, driven by new inventions and achievements.

However, when it comes to which party has proved more capable in acting to defend and protect Americans from foreign enemies, there is only one choice.

From Johnson to Carter to Clinton, virtually all the defense policies and decisions made by Democratic administrations have been unsuccessful.

And in many cases, they have unintentionally but materially increased the danger to our national security and the safety of all Americans.

Has anyone been following the case of the six praying imams removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-ST. Paul International Airport?

Of course, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)is screaming and calling for a boycott.

As long as Muslims (here) are trying to explode commercial aircraft using toiletry items as bombs on flights into New York and to fly airliners into skyscrapers you’d think we’d see more instances like this one.



But we’ll probably see much less.

Now we have a Democratic Congress ready to criminalize airport investigations of any Muslims at any time for any security reasons.

With such staunch Democrat defenders like these, beholden to CAIR and political correctness, who needs enemies? (more...)

End Race Preferences

By Jennifer Gratz

The debate over race and gender preferences is always an intense one.

Proponents of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) believe that all people should be treated as equal individuals.

We believe that any time a preference is given to an individual of one “race” over an individual of another “race,” or to one gender over the other, treatment cannot be equal.

We believe that all people should be judged based on character, merit, and accomplishments — not skin color or gender.

I, for one, do not want to be given a preference over my brother solely because I am female — yet this is exactly what those who oppose the MCRI believe is necessary.

Groups opposing the MCRI believe that preferences should be given to ensure “diversity” or to “level the playing field.”
The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action by Any Means Necessary(here) is leading the way and has disrupted meetings and confronted people with whom they disagree. This, of course, is shades of the Columbia University minutemen action last week. Now the question is why is this stuff happening in a democracy?

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Written by JB Williams

When opinion is accepted as fact, perception soon becomes reality, at least for those who share these opinions and cling to the resulting perceptions. Herein lies the reason for the division in America today and unless we make a concerted effort to separate perception from reality, opinion from fact, fiction from truth, that division will continue.

How is it that an individual can read the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and see the word “of” as relates freedom of press, speech, or redress, yet the word “from” as relates only to religion?

How does one reason that we can have freedom “of” anything we are to be free “from”? Only a lawyer could make this case, but then, it is their function in life to defend the indefensible, make an argument where no case exists. In other words, replace reality with perception… (See O.J. trial)

How does one read the Fourth Amendment strictly addressing Illegal Search and Seizure, and gleam from it a Constitutional Right to abortion?

How is it possible that people, even Christians, can look at American history, and not know the foundational principles our nation was built upon?

Only by replacing realty with a preferred perception, are these things possible.

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From the LA Times

Liberal Groups Expect Postelection Results

By Peter Wallsten and Janet Hook
Sunday, November 12th, 2006

Activists who helped Democrats secure Congress make clear they intend to get their reward.

After toppling the long-dominant Republicans in a hard-fought election, the Democratic Party’s incoming congressional leaders have immediately found themselves in another difficult struggle — with their own supporters.

Some of the very activists who helped propel the Democrats to a majority in the House and Senate last week are claiming credit for the victories and demanding what they consider their due: a set of ambitious — and politically provocative — actions on gun control, abortion, national security and other issues that party leaders fear could alienate moderate voters and leave Democrats vulnerable to GOP attacks as big spenders or soft on terrorism.

The conflict underscores the challenge facing the Democrats in line to lead Congress — Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco in the House and Harry Reid of Nevada in the Senate. Each has pledged in recent days to “govern from the center,” after a campaign in which anger over the Iraq war and GOP scandals helped their party attract some unusually conservative candidates and a large share of independent voters.

Turning off those new voters could undermine Democrats’ hopes of solidifying their new majorities and taking the White House in 2008. But to the leaders of interest groups who are core supporters of the Democratic Party, and who had been barred under Republican rule from the inner sanctums of power, the new Congress means a time for action, not compromise.

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Thomas Aquinas

Objection 1. It seems that God does not exist; because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed.

But the word “God” means that He is infinite goodness.

If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist.

Objection 2. Further, it is superfluous to suppose that what can be accounted for by a few principles has been produced by many.

But it seems that everything we see in the world can be accounted for by other principles, supposing God did not exist.

For all natural things can be reduced to one principle which is nature; and all voluntary things can be reduced to one principle which is human reason, or will. Therefore there is no need to suppose God’s existence.

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Consider where our discordant religious certainties are leading us on a global scale.

The earth is now home to about 1.4 billion Muslims, most of who believe that one day you and I will either convert to Islam, live in subjugation to a Muslim caliphate, or be put to death for our unbelief.

Islam is now the fastest-growing religion in Europe. The birth rate among European Muslims is three times that of their non-Muslim neighbors.

If current trends continue, France will be a majority Muslim country in twenty-five years-and that is if immigration stops tomorrow.

Throughout Europe, Muslim communities often show little inclination to acquire the secular and civil values of their host countries, and yet they exploit these values to the utmost, demanding tolerance for their misogyny, their anti-Semitism, and religious hatred that is regularly preached in their mosques.

Forced marriages, honor killings, punitive gang rapes, and a homicidal loathing of homosexuals are now features of an otherwise secular Europe, courtesy of Islam.

Political correctness and the fear of racism have made Europeans reluctant to oppose the terrifying religious commitments of the extremists in their midst.

No one has the courage to speak honestly about the threat that Islam now poses to European society. This does not bode well for the future of civilization.

The idea that Islam is a “peaceful religion hijacked by extremists” is a fantasy, and it is now a particularly dangerous fantasy for non-Muslims and Muslims to indulge.

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In a couple of recents posts, I provided excerpts from Sam Harris’ book, Letter to a Christian Nation in which Mr. Harris’ intention is to completely debunk Christian religious values by charcterizing them as childish fantasies at best and the root cause of much human misery and bloodshed at worst.
One of the ways he does this is by contrasting those values with what he believes is the
irrefutable worldview derived from the objective, observable facts of hard science; namely Darwin’s evolutionary biology.
He says that his purpose in writing the book is to “demolish the intellectual and moral pretensions of Christianity in its most comitted forms.”

Here’s some material from the other side. Don’t shoot the messenger.

Godless, by Anne Coulter: From Darwinism To Hitler, by Richard Weikart: Marx & Science, by J.D. Bernal

“Upon first reading the Origin of The Species, Darwin’s mentor from Cambridge, Adam Sedgwick, wrote a letter warning Darwin that he was “deep in the mire of folly” if he was trying to remove the idea of morality from nature.

If such a separation between the physical and the moral were ever to occur, Sedgwick said, it would “sink the human race into a lower grade of degradation than any into which it has fallen since its written records tell us of its history.”(11-7)

As Darwinism gained currency, humanity did sink into greater degradation and brutalization than any since written records of human history began.

A generation later, the world would witness the rise of the eugenics movement; racial hygiene societies; the first genocide in recorded history; Nazi Germany; Stalinist gulags; and the slaughter of 70 million Chinese at the hands of their exalted chairman.

To be sure, other books were published on the eve of the bloody twentieth century.

But Hitler and Marx were not citing Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women for support. They were citing Darwin.”

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Sacha Baron Cohen

They say he’s the next Peter Sellers.

He was voted Personality of the year at the TV Quick awards in London, England, UK.

He studied History at Christ’s College, Cambridge
and is engaged to Australian actress Isla Fisher.

In contrast to his characters, he is a soft-spoken, gentlemanly Cambridge man who considered pursuing a PhD before going into comedy.

He plays three principal characters on “Da Ali G Show” (2003). The title character is Ali G, a lower-class white male who acts like a Jamaican Londoner and enrages his politically active and powerful guests with stupid questions.

Another one is the Khazakstani TV reporter Borat, who naïvely searches for porn and outlets for his scatological, accidental humor and anti-Semitism.

The last one is the superficial Austrian fashion-expert Brüno, who often talks up heartless fashionistas and makes macho men uncomfortable with his blatant homosexuality.

He gave the 2004 Harvard class day address in character as Ali G.

Cohen appears on talk shows in character; he has rarely appeared as his real self.

However, with the release of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006), he will only appear in character.

During an “All Things Considered” interview in 2004, Baron Cohen told NPR’s Robert Siegel that he wrote his Cambridge thesis on Jewish involvement in the American Civil Rights movement, focusing especially on the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in Philadelphia, Mississippi.

.... update

Theory- Proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural, in contrast to well-established propositions that are reporting matters of actual fact.

Fact-Something that actually exists; reality; truth:

Does Sam have a valid point about how the word “theory” is used in scientific disourse or is his hatred of Christians somehow blinding him?

It’s interesting to note how he immediately discredits any scientist that “happens” to be a Christian as if “their” research could not possibly produce anything of valid empirical value.

Even to us non-Christians, this seems hatefully exagerated and over-the-top.

Letter to a Christian Nation

By Sam Harris

“Evolution is a fact.

Christians who doubt the truths of evolution are apt to say things like “evolution is just a theory, not a fact.” Such statements betray a serious misunderstanding of the way the term “theory” is used in scientific discourse.

In science, facts must be explained with reference to other facts. These larger explanatory models are “theories.” Theories make predictions and can, in principle, be tested.

The phrase ‘the theory of evolution” does not in the least suggest that evolution is not a fact.

One can speak about “the germ theory of disease” or “the theory of gravitation” without casting doubt upon disease or gravity as facts of nature.

It is also worth noting that one can obtain a PH.D. in any branch of science for no other purpose than to make cynical use of scientific language in an effort to rationalize the glaring inadequacies of the Bible.

A handful of Christians appear to have done this; some have even obtained their degrees from reputable universities.

No doubt, others will follow in their foot-steps.

While such people are technically “scientists,” they are not behaving like scientists.”