Saturday, April 27, 2019
The Big Bang Theory - Series.
As we labour ponderously towards the end of the twelfth and final season - I am almost looking forward to not having to watch it any more.
The spark, the brilliance and the humour itself are now all but fond and distant memories but should we be surprised?
Okay, Frasier somehow managed to buck the trend - but even that gentle piece of genius had its lamentable moments when the esteemed Anthony Lapaglia disgraced himself with a cockney accent all the way from Manchester. ??? Quoi?
If that weren't enough - scripting for him was shocking and the acting worse still.
Frasier , however, recovered and at least 240/264 episodes were simply superb and a dozen or more brought us some of the greatest comedy in all of history.
Generally, all dramas and all comedies which go beyond their sell-by date simply turn into soaps. When main characters start having babies that is often a good clue that the writers have run out of material and ideas.
BBT - I offer you thanks for the dozens of programmes which were simply comedic perfection but - bye bye.
Friday, April 26, 2019
Three Reasons Why Socialism Is Inherently Wrong.
Wallenrock / (Shutterstock.com)Sterling Terrell, September 20th 2014
I am tired of telling people why redistributive or “socialist” economic policies are wrong. But let me start from the beginning once more and come at it from a different angle—or, really, three different angles.
Socialism is bad because it is condescending, inefficient, and immoral.
Webster defines “socialism ” as:
…any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.
The idea under socialism is that everyone pays taxes and the government, in an equitable way, provides its citizens with the things that they need. While it appeals to many people, socialism is wrong.
As famed French economist Frederic Bastiat put it:
The [socialist] state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.
1. Socialism is bad because it is condescending.
When people work and produce they have the means to buy what they wish—monetary payments for work are merely a means of exchange for people to trade goods and services. If you provide a good or service that few people value, you are paid less. Conversely, people who provide goods and services that are highly valued are paid more. The more that one produces the more they are naturally entitled to the production of others.
In this process, as people spend their earnings, they automatically buy what they want the most first. How does socialism fit in? Let’s look at it.
Pretend someone wishes to spend their earnings on food, clothing, shelter, music, and alcohol—from highest order to lowest. Under a socialist regime, this may be impossible. After taxes, the individual may only be able to afford food, clothing, and shelter—while being provided with government transportation, health-care, and a public park—all of which they may or may not care about.
Simply put, socialism takes away the liberty to decide how you wish to spend your money; it presupposes you are not smart enough to decide what you need. Your income was yours to spend as you wish. Now it is the government’s, and it will provide for you what it thinks you need.
2. Socialism is inefficient because it makes economic calculation impossible.
This fact is really common sense (thanks to economist Ludwig von Mises). With a central government owning all (or any) means of production and distribution there can be no competition, profits, losses, market prices—or market, for that matter.
However, profits, losses, and prices serve to guide scarce resources to their most highly valued means. The fact that socialism is inefficient compared to free-market capitalism can be seen as the answer to an empirical question. Clearly, history has answered this question. Nations such as the former USSR, Vietnam, Cuba, and North Korea are great examples (these nations were not communist—communism, by its own definition, has never completely existed).
3. Socialism is bad because it is immoral.
Others can make this point better than I can. Frederic Bastiat said it best (cited from here and here):
It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder. … But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.
Here, Bastiat points out how the law becomes inconsistent. If done in a group an act can be lawful; if done by an individual, it is suddenly a crime. In the end, this amounts to nothing more than “tyranny of the majority” and compulsory servitude.
Economist Walter Williams takes it a step further:
Can a moral case be made for taking the rightful property of one American and giving it to another to whom it does not belong? I think not. That’s why socialism is evil. It uses evil means (coercion) to achieve what are seen as good ends (helping people). We might also note that an act that is inherently evil does not become moral simply because there’s a majority consensus.
I wish I had said that. Blogger.
CSW Says.
2 powerful ways to speak for young people of faith
Firstly, please join us in a prayer vigil on Tuesday 14 May to mark the 16th birthday of Leah Sharibu. You can join us at the Nigerian High Commission in London, or pray wherever you are.
Let’s show those in power in Nigeria that we haven’t forgotten Leah, Alice Ngaddah, and all those still being held by Boko Haram.
Secondly, in two weeks’ time we have an important meeting in Mexico City. We’re bringing together government officials and young people who are unable to go to school because of their faith.
Help make a noise that the Mexican authorities can’t ignore.
Together let’s ensure every child can have Faith and a Future.
Labour Anti-Semitism Is Not New - But Attacks On Blair Are Interesting.
The American magazine Vanity Fair reported Tam Dalyell MP indirectly as having said that Prime Minister Tony Blair was unduly influenced by a "cabal of Jewish advisers". He specifically named Lord Levy, who was Blair's official representative in the Middle East, and Labour politicians Peter Mandelson (whose father was Jewish) and Jack Straw (whose great-grandfather was Jewish). Mandelson said that "apart from the fact that I am not actually Jewish, I wear my father's parentage with pride". Dalyell denied accusations that the remarks were anti-Semitic.
In March 2003, regarding the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Dalyell accused Blair of being a war criminal. He stated that "since Mr Blair is going ahead with his support for a US attack without unambiguous UN authorisation, he should be branded as a war criminal and sent to The Hague". Wiki.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
No, NO and Thrice, NO!!
Bethany Christian Services will place children in LGBT families as part of Michigan settlement.
Bethany Christian Services announced that it will start placing children with LGBT families as part of a settlement with the state.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/bethany-christian-services-will-place-children-in-lgbt-families-as-part-of-michigan-settlement.html
Let's Spell It Out - Staying In The Customs Union Effectively Means Staying In The EU!
'That’s what LEAVE means' - Labour peer dismantles Corbyn plan to keep UK in customs union
LABOUR Brexiteer Lord Glasman called on his party leader Jeremy Corbyn to abandon his plan to keep the UK shackled to a customs union arrangement with the EU post-Brexit in favour of a clean no deal break from the Brussels bloc. Speaking to Express.co.uk, the Labour peer, founder of Blue Labour and staunch supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, argued the democratic decision to leave the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum meant freeing the UK from all its core institutions - including the single market and the customs union. Asked whether he believed Jeremy Corbyn's plan to agree to a customs union arrangement with the EU and a close relationship with the single market would be the optimal solution to the Brexit impasse, Lord Glasman argued that there is a much more "straight forward" alternative to his leader's plan. He said: “It’s really quite straight forward. To leave, when we voted to leave, we voted to leave the sovereignty of the European Court of Justice.
“So ultimately, in our politics, we can’t do anything because the European court says that we can’t.
“And that’s basically in the Lisbon Treaty, which is based on the four freedoms, movement of people, money, goods and services.
“So you can’t interfere with the market. It’s effectively illegal to oppose capitalism. So I support leaving the EU sovereignty of the ECJ, leaving the customs union, and leaving the single market.
Ooh. Looks Who Languishing Fifth In The Polls, Chuck.
The Brexit Party's rise has been remarkable, vaulting soon after Nigel Farage took over in March from third place in the polls for the elections to the European Parliament to a comfortable second, if not first.
By contrast, Chuka Umunna's breakaway group - despite the week of sympathetic coverage it earned when it emerged in February as pundits breathlessly debated whether it would herald a radical political realignment - is floundering in fifth place. Some polls suggest it is even further behind in the share of the vote it can expect to pick up. Telegraph. 
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Please Can We Go Back To 'Integration' and Abandon So-Called Multiculturalism?
Have you noticed how cultural relativists have started to attack the conquistadores who drove human sacrifice out of the Aztec Empire?
Just what is the matter with these people?
The SPLC - If You Want A REAL Hate Group ...
https://www.melaniephillips.com/anti-hate-groups-real-voices-hate/
Even George ...
Galloway reveals KEY reason support for Farage's Brexit Party is SOARING - 'crush Ukip!'
FORMER Labour MP George Galloway has insisted support for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party is soaring across the UK due to British people across the nation wanting to support the new Eurosceptic group in protest against the Remainer elite’s push to stop Brexit. The newly-formed Brexit Party could be in for a shock win in May’s European elections, with a polling expert revealing the eurosceptic group being already just one percentage point behind the Conservative Party. Speaking to RT, George Galloway outlined why support for the Brexit Party has soared and said: “I will predict to you now that Nigel Farage's Brexit Party is going to win the European elections hands down, sweep the boards, crush Ukip, rout out the Remainer parties. The working class are going to vote for Nigel Farage. You can mark your card on that.
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Tempus Fugit.
Sometimes, I take stock of an occurrence from a few years ago and find myself horrified to discover that it had actually happened twenty+ years ago.
It is now some nineteen years since I last preached; fifteen since the death of my father; forty four since I got my first teaching post. And so it goes.
For myself, I am not too bothered - life is short and our two prayer groups have deepened our knowledge and walk with the Saviour; understanding has increased and we have had so many remarkable answers to prayer.
At this point, I look at the many people I know who have no grasp of the fact that they are plunging into a lost eternity. This is one of the many reasons why I produce this Blog. I must do something.
When I look at so many friends, erstwhile colleagues, neighbours et al who have no concept of where their life is ultimately headed - I grieve.
I try to take every God-offered opportunity to witness to the lost but I am not a natural in this. As a consequence, I have tried 'other means' and my three books in print all have this as a goal - the one currently in the pipeline, rather less so.
This morning at 6-30am, you will find me in the village of Aston where Early Birds (that's us, BTW) meet to pray for; the persecuted, the lost, the ailing, the misdirected, the backsliders, the dying and so very many more.
Amongst this group, there are three people who all possess a mighty gifting in being able to strike up conversations with anybody and everybody and to smoothly engage them in talk about Jesus. Phenomenal.
The older I get, comfortable in my own salvation - I am desperate to see others find their welcoming, open-armed Saviour.
Age and Easter certainly help to put things in a true perspective.
It is now some nineteen years since I last preached; fifteen since the death of my father; forty four since I got my first teaching post. And so it goes.
For myself, I am not too bothered - life is short and our two prayer groups have deepened our knowledge and walk with the Saviour; understanding has increased and we have had so many remarkable answers to prayer.
At this point, I look at the many people I know who have no grasp of the fact that they are plunging into a lost eternity. This is one of the many reasons why I produce this Blog. I must do something.
When I look at so many friends, erstwhile colleagues, neighbours et al who have no concept of where their life is ultimately headed - I grieve.
I try to take every God-offered opportunity to witness to the lost but I am not a natural in this. As a consequence, I have tried 'other means' and my three books in print all have this as a goal - the one currently in the pipeline, rather less so.
This morning at 6-30am, you will find me in the village of Aston where Early Birds (that's us, BTW) meet to pray for; the persecuted, the lost, the ailing, the misdirected, the backsliders, the dying and so very many more.
Amongst this group, there are three people who all possess a mighty gifting in being able to strike up conversations with anybody and everybody and to smoothly engage them in talk about Jesus. Phenomenal.
The older I get, comfortable in my own salvation - I am desperate to see others find their welcoming, open-armed Saviour.
Age and Easter certainly help to put things in a true perspective.
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