tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post8301699766640812518..comments2024-03-27T11:16:36.951-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: Thank God Almighty, I'm Unfree at Last!Gagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-9508535675176548592012-02-10T11:23:46.655-08:002012-02-10T11:23:46.655-08:00Welcome to "The Van and Bob Skirt the Issue b...Welcome to "The Van and Bob Skirt the Issue by Ad Hominem Attack Association."Williamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05861596158055480390noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-43438259607807889872012-02-09T19:00:42.410-08:002012-02-09T19:00:42.410-08:00willian whined "Perhaps I should I quote vers...willian whined "Perhaps I should I quote verses? Would that be a high enough authority?"<br /><br />For the person who relies upon others for their 'own' words, authority is all they can resort to.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-85991197894691303442012-02-09T18:10:54.323-08:002012-02-09T18:10:54.323-08:00... but then I repeat himsoph.... but then I repeat himsoph.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-9412451312078830942012-02-09T18:10:53.194-08:002012-02-09T18:10:53.194-08:00It is wrong to steal ideas without attribution, ev...It is wrong to steal ideas without attribution, even vapid ideas.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-8222338865613151152012-02-09T18:09:54.541-08:002012-02-09T18:09:54.541-08:00When you consider that most people plagiarize from...When you consider that most people plagiarize from those whose quality they can only aspire to… and then note the (to put it politely) mediocre quality of those he steals from… it almost causes feelings of pity to well up for poor willian.<br /><br />Almost.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-77544134753992806862012-02-09T17:28:15.518-08:002012-02-09T17:28:15.518-08:00Actually those are the words of John Spong, provin...Actually those are the words of <a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/29/my-take-the-3-biggest-biblical-misconceptions/" rel="nofollow">John Spong</a>, proving once again that William isn't even capable of original ignorance, only second hand.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-59293104535525855042012-02-09T17:21:04.992-08:002012-02-09T17:21:04.992-08:00"Is it possible that the Creator meant for us..."Is it possible that the Creator meant for us to have the intrinsic right to kill our unborn children? "<br /><br />Mabe so... the same God who hates the Egyptians, stopping the sun in the sky to allow more daylight to enable Joshua to kill more Amorites and ordering King Saul to commit genocide against the Amalekites. Psalms promises happiness to the defeated and exiled Jews only when they can dash the heads of Babylonian children against the rocks. This IS the word of God.Williamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05861596158055480390noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-7723595237408047982012-02-02T19:28:25.442-08:002012-02-02T19:28:25.442-08:00Charles Murray was actually just featured in Impri...Charles Murray was actually just featured in Imprimus. That's worth a read as well.Kv0nThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06944383062900738261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-27347929914347298702012-02-02T18:12:48.791-08:002012-02-02T18:12:48.791-08:00Oh, yeah - I think it was New Criterion that had a...Oh, yeah - I think it was New Criterion that had a big excerpt from that up a couple of weeks ago. Looks really interesting, though also very troubling...juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-15440381758844179002012-02-02T17:19:11.861-08:002012-02-02T17:19:11.861-08:00General alert: Charles Murray's new Coming Ap...General alert: Charles Murray's new <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307453421/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=onecos-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0307453421&adid=1EGJ9XBS3EJ4MTA0BWPN&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fonecosmos.blogspot.com%2F" rel="nofollow">Coming Apart</a> is great. It chronicles unprecedented cultural changes over the past 50 years -- changes of world-historical significance, since it is not at all clear that a culture that has acquiesced to these changes can survive. I hope to discuss it in detail in the near future, although I will be out of town most of next week for the annual in-law pilgrimage.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-7939487425982500302012-02-02T15:42:26.750-08:002012-02-02T15:42:26.750-08:00All we have to do is say if a person gets a govern...All we have to do is say if a person gets a government check, they are ineligible to vote. <br /><br />Another nice feature would be to require positive photo ID for voting. Everybody has a photo ID for driving or collecting welfare benefits. Oddly enough when our state legislature passed a photo ID bill, even allowing provisional ballots to be cast by those who could not show an ID, our Democrat governor vetoed it. He said it would unfair to disenfranchise the zombie voters in St. Louis City.mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-16753875837673004582012-02-02T13:19:56.329-08:002012-02-02T13:19:56.329-08:00Would stopping idiot liberals from voting be consi...Would stopping idiot liberals from voting be considered a sensible restrain on liberty?Kv0nThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06944383062900738261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-69608597672483100682012-02-02T13:18:31.797-08:002012-02-02T13:18:31.797-08:00Yes - thanks, Van, you beat me to it. As I underst...Yes - thanks, Van, you beat me to it. As I understand it, it's already disturbingly common for organ donors with the "right" sorts of injuries to be declared dead by very different - and far less stringent - means than are used for non-donors. I can't remember where I first heard that, but it was a few years ago, and when I did I realized that even if I needed, say, a heart transplant to survive, I don't think I could in good conscience go through with it, anymore than I would choose a life-saving procedure that requires embryonic stem cells. Quite simply, my desire not to suffer does not trump anyone else's right to live.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-53698862791153061522012-02-02T13:09:34.222-08:002012-02-02T13:09:34.222-08:00Julie said "...it so easily goes from being s...Julie said "...it so easily goes from being simply an option to a duty, because after all one life can, near its end or its beginning, be awfully inconvenient to other people, and it might make life a little easier the others if the one was just dead."<br /><br />Yep. Which is what went through my head as <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/shock-article-bioethicists-suggest-killing-someone-with-no-autonomy-left-is-not-morally-wrong/" rel="nofollow">I read</a>:<br /><br />"<i>Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, a professor of practical ethics from Duke, and Franklin Miller, a senior faculty member in the NIH Department of Bioethics, state in their abstract ”What makes an act of killing morally wrong is not that the act causes loss of life or consciousness but rather that the act causes loss of all remaining abilities.“ They argue that if no abilities remain then the ”dead donor rule,” which is the ethical practice that a person must be declared dead before removing vital organs, should apply to patients whose hearts have stopped and are being removed from a respirator.</i>"<br /><br />Only '♫ ♪ ♬ a step to the left♫ ♪ ♬', from "if no abilities remain" to " if no <b>useful</b> abilities remain", in order to justify 'harvesting' a pers... er... subjects organs.<br /><br />And only such thought can result from making the infinitely long leap down from Principles to Particulars, from Quality, to Quantity.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-82583005166992259502012-02-02T12:58:37.311-08:002012-02-02T12:58:37.311-08:00But freedom in the absence of limits reduces to ni...<i>But freedom in the absence of limits reduces to nihilism, just as, say, absolute musical freedom -- in which there are no scales, no melody, and no rhythm -- can produce nothing more interesting or involving than sonic chaos. </i><br /><br />Heh - if I didn't know better, I'd think you'd been listening in on my son's "music" class.<br /><br /><i>For example, does Roe v. Wade, in granting a new constitutional right to women, result in an undue burden being placed on the condemned children who will be deprived of their lives? </i><br /><br />Along those lines (and perhaps I'm getting ahead of the post), I was reading last night where Spitzer uses the example of "assisted suicide," and how it so easily goes from being simply an option to a duty, because after all one life can, near its end or its beginning, be awfully <i>inconvenient</i> to other people, and it might make life a little easier the others if the one was just dead. Just as a terminally or chronically ill person may be encouraged by family or doctors or any number of others to off himself, how often are pregnant women encouraged to get abortions by those around them? How often is the "choice" something more like coercion?juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-68389172469623448942012-02-02T09:42:13.659-08:002012-02-02T09:42:13.659-08:00It's further out than anything [my musicians] ...<i>It's further out than anything [my musicians] would be doing if they were just improvising</i><br /><br />When I used to teach in church a lot, I never said anything really outrageous (no matter how true it was) when I had to speak extemporaneously. But when I had time to write everything down, I could get a lot further from the dock because I had a map to get back. <br /><br />I still love Neil Young, but he is the Picture of Dorian Gray.mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-21781778432184090552012-02-02T09:34:05.009-08:002012-02-02T09:34:05.009-08:00Not to jump ahead too much, I noticed in one of th...Not to jump ahead too much, I noticed in one of the parts of Roe v. Wade that Spitzer includes in his book, the language of it actually refers to the pregnant person as "the mother". This seems like a strange word to use to describe her when arguing whether the unborn is or is not a person. (Roe v. Wade, 3A-3C)<br />Freudian slip?Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13720790978632771716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-89303460018802159432012-02-02T08:54:14.373-08:002012-02-02T08:54:14.373-08:00"We've already established that human bei..."We've already established that human beings have an intrinsic right to freedom. But freedom in the absence of limits reduces to nihilism, just as, say, absolute musical freedom -- in which there are no scales, no melody, and no rhythm -- can produce nothing more interesting or involving than sonic chaos"<br /><br />Yep. Without those limits, you don't have Liberty, only freedom. But in an OT ref on sonic chaos, I just saw this & couldn't help posting for the vinyl audiophiles:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46209025/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/" rel="nofollow">Neil Young: Steve Jobs listened to vinyl</a><br /><br />One word of caution, Neil Young looks even more like his inner self today than ever before. Ugh.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.com