Thursday 28 July 2011

Madman - real issues

I wrote this little blurb on one of Canada's big daily's and thought it might interest the folks at the Signal.
First allow me to state I have skimmed, and am now reading this 'maifesto' for professional reasons; otherwise I would not defile my senses with such madness. 

While I will agree there is a connection (w/Hitler's book) with sexual obsession and this kind of madness, there is no doubting that some of these issues are real (STD, Promiscuity, childless parents, crime, cultural issues, immigration backlash, sex slavery etc) and they are very important issues. We cannot simply, as a society, ignore these problems.
One reason we cannot pretend there is no problems is that maniacs like this are a DIRECT result! These circumstances enabled this murderer; gave him an excuse, and obsession. 
We seem to have no problem grasping that opportunism when it comes to international and Muslim terror groups, but when it comes to a white man who is a self described Christian, we seem to miss the point ENTIRELY. Could it be there is a little post colonial guilt or even RACISM in these bleached progressive bones we call a culture?
This man did NOT do these things because he was white, Christian, read Darwin, Mill, or Orwell; or because had issues with social morality. 
His motives are clear as day: He did mass-murder for attention/fame/infamy. He killed 85+ kids for a gruesome publicity stunt. For his publicity statements post arrest, he used the common politics, religion, and racial rational. POPULAR stuff, really.
We may act shocked by the ideas in this book, but that is not being honest. We have ALL heard these ideas about before. In the bar, at the water cooler etc etc. Who has not heard someone say 'well he was crazy to go that far, but...' But WHAT? But, the issues are real enough and controversial enough. 
But reason is not what Breivick is about: This guy is a perfectly modern sociopath, a product of nu Europa. Child of the liberal elite, JUST like his victims.
His murder costume was as a Christian Conservative. Want a picture of madness? Do the Freud or Jung on THAT one folks!

He KNEW that millions of people would read his book. He knew people would react.
This man is literally a maniac who preaches sexual abstinence and meets with call girls, who calls for Social Darwinism and then  describes himself as a Christian Knight, who wants to liberate Europe form a cultural invasion by 'Muslims' by killing EUROPEAN children as 'punishment', and who dresses up like an imaginary Knight to make himself look important.  

In closing I will say this: There is an element here (in these posts / media in general) that wants to lay blame. They want to point fingers, ban books, enforce ideas. Just like this murderer, they see an opportunity - an opportunity to use the deaths of these children to defame people of faith and of legitimate conservative political values. Most of them are just conformist tools, parroting off what they think is edgy or subversive, but some of them harbour very deep seated hatreds and spew them openly. I urge all my fellow Christians and ALL Canadians to be VERY aware and subtle in the coming days and weeks, as I honestly fear there could be a backlash, copycat,  or reprisal due to the statements of this horrible crime. Keep your eyes open and report anyone saying or acting crazy in that respect. Remember the hate crime laws of this country are there to protect ALL the faithful, not just minorities.

Wednesday 27 July 2011

A vacation? ME? NO!?

Yes folks. Your favourite Crusader will be taking a vacation.
Not for a good time yet, but it is on the distant horizon.
It has been a LONG time since I have travelled simply for pleasure, and I am literally starting to look into destinations already. One week with the Mrs our new little guy, and In-laws, and another 'on the loose'. Looks like I will have some company in the way of my grown son and maybe even an old friend or my brother in law and his lads.
But WHERE will I go?
Still working that out. But it will be in the winter...so SOUTH.
I am going to post some pics of where it COULD be and see if any of you computer savvied or well heeled travel types may just recognize it!







What or WHO is this 'Science'?

Science! SCIENCE!
What a profound word that is. A LOADED word like 'nature', 'world', 'child', 'love', or even to some degree like 'God'. It is a word we here used all the time. 'The science behind this...' or 'according to modern science', or even 'thanks to science', spoke like a prayer of Grace or thanks*. I have even heard, recently, the most ridiculous yet, in a kids game called 'Portal 2'. 'You saved science', says one of the most irritating fictional robots in the history of scifi. 'Saved' it, eh? Must be alive too!
'Science' is everywhere.
It seems often times people are calling his name, not talking about the method I am thinking of .Who or what is this much invoked person or principle?
Science, as I think of it, is the attempt to make useful categories of knowledge about the universe we experience and sense (feel, see, smell, touch, and otherwise perceive). It is information gained by inductive experimentation and research and is embodied by Bacon's Method. When I think of science, I think of men like Newton. What is it's purpose/function? Science's only purpose is to better the life of the people who pay for /support it. There is no such thing as 'for the sake of science' or 'saving science' to me, as science is not a living thing. But real PROXIMATE science, my science -  is useful.
For example, there is medical science. Medical science is funded by governments and taxpayers to research cures, preventatives, palliatives, surgeries, etc etc for the good of the public. The Doctors of Medicine make an oath like  Judge, Soldier, Lord, or Police officer. They declared their scientific ideology for all to see. Any doctor who violates this oath is no Doctor at all.
So what about other types of scientists? Well, they may swear allegiance for a club or board. They may make arbitrary oaths to various groups of peers, but nothing like the physicians do, and even the Hippocratic oath has been watered down in recent years; which is in itself a very nasty indicator of things to come.
Do Astronomers need a binding oath and laws to back it? Chemists? Geologists? Fossil hunters? Diggers of Ruins? Collectors of bugs?
Maybe - Maybe not. Maybe these studies are apolitical and remote enough that they don't. I don't see why an oath would hurt, but I cannot see the immediateness in the need.
But what about (nuclear/particle) physicists? What about microbiologists? What about ballistics engineers? Robotics engineers? Genetic engineers? Social Engineers? 
These new 'disciplines' all hold the potential to be both extremely dangerous and beneficial. What happens if they are USED by power hungry minds to fuel movements and broader ideologies?
The answer has been, and no doubt will be, catastrophic.
This leads me to another thought: Academic Hybridization.
There are many pseudo sciences (fake, semi-scientific metaphysical pursuits) masquerading as 'hybrid' studies in today's academe.  They are actually philosophies/ideals with an academic stake or axe to grind. They are usually materialistic/naturalistic ideals, but there has been more than a few theological based ones over the centuries. They are always about power.
A popular 19th and 20th century one was called 'social Darwinism', and was advocated by the Nazis in Germany and Eugenicists world wide. Social Darwinism was the ideal behind the the horrific holocaust of the handicapped in the Third Reich. Designed to save the Aryan race (The idealized European in Nazi eyes) from a some imaginary decline into idiocy and foreign dominance, this disgusting embrace of cold barbarism was justified by declaring the sky was falling. A socially engineered problem (declining birth rates etc) was shown to be an indicator of an impending cultural apocalypse, and the social engineers stepped in to fix it. They broke the system and it was reformed in a new and horrific one.  They did not do this all at once, but drip fed the ideas to the public for years through the media and education systems. They used the academe to deliver their ideas to the masses.
People today blame these horrors on Hitler, a mere facilitator and figure head, but the men/women and ideas who committed the atrocities were already in place, for decades. The efficient systems for killing they created, in turn, facilitated the Nazi's racial genocides.But  before the Jews and gypsies and long after: People rounded up and 'put down' because of 'idiocy' or 'defects', like a lost limb or blindness (or homosexuality). Others, more useful to the state, were simply sterilized against their will and/or locked in 'asylums'. 
You think we would learn to at least avoid this garbage, wouldn't you? I mean, after WWII and all that hell.
At least how they sell it?
No such luck.
In 2011 AD we see the creep of the very same pseudo science. Not only alive, but thriving.
Now under the new, PC, consumer friendly repackaging. Now it is 'Evolutionary Psychology'. Well just about any outfit that tries to sell as 'Evolutionary- anything'...
You know the lobby?
The one with the guys who say you are nothing more than a brain? The ones who say 'morality, even consciousness is all an illusion' (you're imagining your imagination). Love, beauty, art, even altruism is all instincts to these folks; evolved from behaviour patterns that help us survive.
Survive for what?To replicate.
For what/why? Because shit happens! (how PROFOUND)
The supernatural you say? Just illusions and delusions.
Purpose? None.
I find this hard to reconcile with reality! That's because you're stupid and probably have some disorder.

Okay...so other than being arrogant, depressing and banal / boring as all hell, and being built on assumption rather than science; what do these Evolutionary Psychologists have in common with Social Darwinism?
Lots!
First off they base their ideas on Darwinian natural selection models: The fittest survive.
Also,both groups are CONVINCED they have it all figured out; and I mean ALL. Origins.The soul. Life/death. ALL of it.
These folks make the Pope look like a dithering agnostic.
All you have to do is read their 'stuff' to get it.  You'll quickly find the sky is falling again.
Oh yes! There is something going on and we need to let them fix it for us. The tale goes like something like
 'It seems that some unknown group of minds  (usually portrayed as Christian & Conservative) has allowed progress to run rampant and pollute the planet. Millions of tonnes of junk have been produced for landfill. Our oceans are getting billions of gallons of shit dumped in them, there is too much fuel burning, and the atmosphere is hot and toxic in many places it wasn't. So what do we do? We must summon the wise scientists and they will help us breed new seeds that can take the pollution and waste."So we are told to go to the men who got us INTO this mess to get us OUT. Having been shot, to seek the gunman for a cure. Okay, I don't buy it, but let's follow that rabbit down the hole.
So? What is this 'way out'? For most of us, the obvious answer would seem to be a reversal of course. To turn some aspects about. To temper our personal ambitions. To rush a little less, to live a little more.
Eat a little less, use less fuel, recycle, grow our own food, and maybe spend a little more time in the real world with people we love. We didn't ask for a lot of this 'stuff', and we are more than happy to do without. I mean I like big Mac's, but you don't have to burn Brazil so I can have one. I'll cook my own burger. I like the internet nice and fast, but you don't have to fill the air with microwaves to do it.
It is only 'stuff', after all.
Other people, love and immaterial things are what most people find important in life.
Not these guys.
Progress must continue in the straight line form for them. We must advance for the sake of 'science'!
There can by no cycles, nor altering of course. We MUST progress!
We must alter nature's design's to our course, in this thinking. Biologically, we must change the genes of plants and animals (even ourselves) to suite our increasingly degraded environments. It may kill off the natural creatures and even change the environment completely , but we will deal with that the 'science becomes available'. New worlds will appear for us to devour and use for 'progress'.
Progress towards WHAT?
This mad logic is extended to man, in Evolutionary Psychology.
Man is simply a product of his environment and can be made to fit into an efficient one, it is argued. There are many natural behaviours that can lead to fulfilment, we are told by the EP crowd. Not all of them are current. Some of the current ones are now deemed 'outmoded'. Like Marriage or parenthood for example. Other behaviours could be perhaps re-awakened for the enjoyment of the masses. Some of these behaviours may make living in a purposeless, overcrowded, culture-less,  polluted hell-hole better; well, that is the argument.
Now, eat your GM lunch and LIKE it, Citizen!
What could these new future freedoms look like? Well drugged out, of course! Promiscuous, definitely!
But there's more; much more.
Dr Singer, perhaps the most famous evolutionary psychologist and advocate of this pseudo science, has made arguments in favour of 'post natal abortion' (up to 3 years of age) and 'animal human' sexual relations as natural, but suppressed behaviours. There is no application of morality to infanticide or bestiality, rather a genetic advantage to keeping that behaviour in a 'back up' capacity...currently.
Obviously NOTHING is off the table in securing the happiness of a futurist Utopia.
Problems? Never mind, 'science' will solve the ALL.
Could it be that these folks really believe that much in this mystical person of science they feel an answer MUST be forthcoming to all their problems?
Whatever there reasoning it does not sound like the science I know and enjoy. It sounds like a faith in matter, in solids and liquids and gasses to resolve themselves in favour of the the 'scientist' invoking 'science'.
The correct term for these folks is not Atheist, Darwinist, Naturalist, or Evolutionary this or that, it is Materialists; Promissory Materialists to be precise. All the former terms are descriptives of types, not nature. They are sub categories of the same faith.
The word for what they do is not 'science' it is tautology. They tell stories about OTHER people's science and research. Stories about a past they cannot begin to fathom, and a future they cannot possibly know.
Their motive? Tools don't have motives, they are simply used by those with motives.
Like the Social Darwinists of the 20th century the Evolutionary Psychologists (and even many Biologists) of the 21st are being used to forward an agenda loaded with scientific pretensions. In order to set up this faith in technology and the future, the word and idea 'science' has been transformed into a semi-religious, ideologically pregnant concept. Science must now be saved, and can now save us. If Science is used correctly it can save people, feed the hungry, and cure illness.
"Science save us all from the wrath of the South Men!"?
So Where is He? This Science? Maybe we are just imagining him in our imaginary imaginations.
Make sense?
Not for I. I will continue to rely on HUMANS and living beings for my welfare, and pray to a Creator known to my ancestors since time immemorial. I will have faith that if life should stumble, or fall - it will rise again; That there is a purpose and meaning to life, no matter how mysterious. And, of course, that 'science' is a method and means (if limited) to understand our world, not it's meaning.

*Much less rarely do we hear the honest 'scientists think/speculate', or 'scientists think that one day...'. 
Even then, many times the 'scientists' that are quoted they are nothing of the sort. They are researchers with a theory.

Sunday 24 July 2011

The horror in Oslo

It has only been a few hours since the horrific and murderous rampage of a certain Anders Behring Breivik. 
This maniac planted explosives in government and press buildings in his nations capital, Oslo. 
His intent, it seems, was to 'punish indigenous' Europeans for allowing (truly) massive amounts of Muslims to migrate there in the last few decades. He decided to 'punish' them by killing Norwegian children at a summer camp, 85+ of them.  The bombs killed another 8-10. All innocent lives lost to madness of a lone nutter.
The reaction from the Norwegian people was simply shock and horror, as encapsulated in the quote from CTV news here:


"Norway's King Harald V and his wife Queen Sonja and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg joined mourners on Sunday at Oslo Cathedral, where the pews were packed, and the crowd spilled into the plaza outside the building. The area was strewn with flowers and candles, and people who could not fit in the grand church huddled under umbrellas in the rain."

The loss of so many children at once will forever scar the people of Oslo. They are a tough bunch, but this is 
children of whom I write, and NOTHING can prepare a parent for that. A Hundred parents? Like this? At least there is strength in community, numbers, and faith.
truly heartbreaking.



The murderer himself?
I have, unfortunately, skimmed his 'manifesto' pdf now and cannot see a common thread all the way through, it is ALL over the place. No Marx. No Hitler. More like Manson.
Due perhaps to this insanity, 
Breivik (thankfully!) seems to be unconnected to any larger group or movement. So far his 'Knights' and 'associates' have all denied knowledge of him, or proved non-existent.
There is no green banner, no symbol, no leader.  So, for this we should be thankful. In short: Breivik's writings (his 1500 page 'manifesto') are utter madness: First he is a racist fascist, then a liberal anti-racist,  then a 'Templar Knight' on a 'Crusade', and then a Mason who is in favour of charity, and LOTS of anti Muslim stuff; literally ALL over the place and replete will all sorts of photoshopped images. A maniac who seems to have been reinventing himself over and over.
All this madness and pent up rage eventually resulted in him acting out in an act of murder and Evil.  Now he has been caught, and they are actually listening to him; giving him an audience. 'Why?' they ask.
His responses have led the grossly incompetent Oslo police officials (who DROVE for 30 minutes to the scene while helicopters buzzed about officials and investigated an overturned boat) to say he is a 'Christian 
fundamentalist' (my emphasis).
Yeah that's right. Not an extremist, fanatic, or terrorist - but a 
fundamentalist, you know like those people at the church (the victims families), ministers, friars, saints, nuns, and Mother Teresa? WTF? This guy does not even get DOMESTIC terror, how the HELL is he supposed to protect the Norwegian people from foreign ideological groups? I am not trying to say this guy could not have held Christian beliefs or attend Church(?), he writes he is and does.
But, he was no practising Christianity as he massacred children; and to assert Christian beliefs drove him to this Evil demonstrates CLEARLY just how THICK these cops are and how irresponsible the media are about their language use.  Nor did the fact his hair was blonde have much to do with the news, but it was reported by EVERY media outlet I scanned today. What was news is he was Norwegian. Why was that such a shock? WHO did we expect to see in Norway, if NOT a blonde haired, blue eyed, Christian man?
These are important questions that tie in with the madman's motives.... but they will not get the 'limelight'. Modern Europe is all about burying it's collective(ist) head in the sand. Those with pretentious social agendas will have no problem turning this into a great straw man debate on religious rights and a back patting session for progressives. Like vultures, they will not even wait till the dead are cold. In fact they have already begun, hence the 'fundamentalist' comments and the PRESS surrounding them. 
So, for those who wish to politicize this event and blame it on 'Christian Fundamentalist' thinking, I suggest you consider the differencs and consult your powers of reason (if available).

Consider: There was no organization jumping up to claim the responsibility (well there WAS actually a Jihadist group that later detracted the note), no national holidays in Iran or Iraq, no dancing in the street, no religious leaders calling for blood and the death of entire races and/or peoples, no Presidents firing assault rifles off the palace balconies, no candy being handed out in celebration. There was collective shock and horror from the Christian nations and Churches of the West (the fundamentalists). This was no 9/11, 7/7, Bali, or Madrid. This was no act of fundamentalist religious sect (certainly not REMOTELY Christian in foundations) , but of a lone murderer who want's us to buy his garbage book on politics. A Maniac so narcissistic he would kill children to write his name into history..... 
The horror in Oslo can not be blamed on any one but the killer, and that seems to fall short.
So in our human need for justice, we seek to broaden the scope. 'Who enabled this? Who emboldened or inspired him?' are the questions law enforcement and security in Oslo want us to ask, but perhaps the most important question is really 'how did this nut get through, and how do / can we stop this from happening again?' This line obviously leads to 'how did HOURS of youtube, blogs, forums, and facebook danger signals go unnoticed? How did he get the hollow point rounds? How did get the police kit/uniform?' Much less embarrassing for police to discuss religious fundamentalism (ie freedoms) vs. individual rights.
The blame game will go right around. Who knows who will end up being slurred with associations?
But in the end, the dead are still dead and evil has been done to the innocent.
All we can do is hope and pray that the policy makers learn from this in some way that may save lives in the future, and that the cowardly killer of children who committed this act pays in both this world and the next. 

Thursday 14 July 2011

The Angel of Death

History is full of enigmatic, information-bearing events.
To the uninitiated, these may seem like events that replay themselves over and over in some insane regression. In fact, I think this is one of the reasons so many people find the study of history 'tedious' and boring; or even 'horrible'.
But as a farmer or hunter loves his bloody work, so do I love mine.
For me as a young man, history was a passion. The older and more remote: The better.
Prehistory fascinated me.
I loved the tales of the most ancient order.
I can remember being a boy of eight, and listening to my dad read The Odyssey – chapter by chapter, night after night one summer.
He had suggested I read it one day, as I seemed to love all things Roman and Greek. Legions in Africa and Gaul, the Spartans at Thermopylae were standard fare in 'boys books' and comics when I was a lad, and I loved those sword and sandals style stories, the stories of the medieval period, and those of the great periods of exploration.
Our passion for the Classical period was an overlap of mine and my father's tastes. I found Homer's book on his shelves and tried. It was too much for my eight year old mind to grasp. I read the words but they confronted me with strange realities. How to even pronounce the names?
What is a boy to do? I asked him if he would see fit to read it to me.
I can remember him saying he would try, but would stop the very moment he saw me lose interest. It was not to happen. Once I had the characters fairly clear in my minds eye, the story had me hooked. Not only me, but Grandad – who we were living with at the time – also kept popping his head in our den, ostensibly to bring tea and such, but eventually to sit and listen with me.
I was hooked. Two degrees and years of post grad later, I am still an avid student more than instructor of history. I am still learning, although I try to share what I have learned.
Some of these lessons are enlightening and happy. Others are dark, mysterious, and even evil.
One of the most commonly understood lessons that posterity teaches is the simple: History that is forgotten or wilfully ignored will repeat itself. There are many colourful versions of this thought throughout the history of Christian (IE Western) culture.
The lesson here is of The Angel of Death.
Not the Biblical Angel called forth by Moses the final plagues on the house of Egypt, but a man who lived within the memory of those alive today.
The Angel of Death that is referred to herein, is a certain 'Doctor' Josef Mengele.
I have use the inverted commas on the term Doctor, as he was such in Degree/Title only.
The Oath of Hippocrates was not his creed. The Schultz Staffel was.
But our little journey through the darkness does not begin with Hauptsturmführer Mengele, and his stain on infamy. It began centuries before. In the dawn of the modern age.
During the High Medieval and Renaissance period human cruelty reached long lost technical heights. Methods imported from around the world and studied with sadistic efficiency combined with new and potent psychological concepts came into play.
The method of delivery for these first sick experiments in pain threshold, living biology, and mental endurance/tolerance was improved and pushed into new levels; but the ideas were ancient. People had been doing horrible things to animals in the name of religion, diet, and sheer curiosity for as long as can be remembered. Extending this to other men and women? Just a matter of when this sadism shows it's face, and what pretence it will use to justify it's existence.
In the high medieval, it was morality and religion.
Gone were the days of the Reconquest and the justifiable Crusades in defence of the holy land and home.
Now all was about conquest.
That was not ideologically pure, and for that reason there had to be a work around.
Some reason to allow themselves to do what they knew was selfish and barbaric. They used the medium of the time. Religion. Religion and it's close cousin: philosophy. This was a slippery slope and we are still sliding down it.
While I will grant the overall outcome of the conquest of the New World has been beneficial (it certainly has for my people and family) the initial justifications introduced had a lot of very nasty side effects. Ideas that had been considered reprehensible were reasoned into morality by weighing options.
This same relativism can and will be applied to other areas. It will spread, like all ideas do; even if resisted.
I will use analogy to speed up the explanation. I will use the 'Conquest' as an example.
Moral Problem:The desperate needs of the many subjects of Imperial Spain (example) outweigh the needs of the fewer Caribbean Natives. Their resources must be annexed, but to kill people and steal their belongings is against all the moral teachings of the European Nations.
Justification: The Caribbean Natives are of a 'lower order of men' due to their lack of knowledge, morality, and religion. They must be converted and/or enslaved (for private venture, but taxed), or killed. Rules to be determined later. The native lands and property shall be annexed by the the regional or military powers.
Repercussions:Aside from the horrible suffering, a vast increase in the use of slavery and indentured labour created a market for more slaves than the island populations could supply, thereby increasing trade with the Arab West African (mortal enemy at the time) slavers, but also creating and entirely new market for the capture and sale of 'Indian' slaves in South and Central America. The evil grew and metastasized.
So what the F does this have to do with a Nazi guy or cutting people up in experiments?
Good question.
Here's the parallel, you see: Just as the slavery infected and corrupted the ventures of the Crowns and Churches of Europe, so did this other form of evil.
Just as the Natives of the 'New World' and West Africa had been dehumanized for sale and exploitation, so had an old favourite: The Heretic.
In reality these people usually had enemies in high places, or were the mob picked hapless victims of the the notorious blood circuses of the auto-da-fé and other such displays of barbarism. Not many were actually heretics of any sort. The real Heretics were usually quite good at hiding, especially in the areas that bordered or where formerly Moorish.
During these horrible periods of disemboweling and decapitations, the scientific minds took note.
I mean that literally. They took notes. An information source for anatomy was discovered. There was benefits to being able to see living things ripped apart, and now there was an excuse to do it to humans! Religion was used as a tool to achieve the justification, reason and sophistry to apply it selectively, and science to observe the results. Well, it was a new excuse, anyway.
Even after the Churches, Academia, and even some of the most powerful Crowns of Europe cast off these evils, and returned to a more morally guided path, the demand for the labour of slaves and the information (often called intelligence in my circles) gleaned from carnage still existed.
A quite vacuum, in constant balance with laws designed to keep those cruel markets closed.
Reasons, economic and social, were found to force people to work in far off lands and march boys into coal mines. Slavery's demand was met with criminals and 'Negroes', who were now scientifically being argued as 'racially'sub-human.
Brutal torture and vivisection was no longer religiously justified.
Those damn priests always go back to their book, and it says 'NO” to such bloody sport.
There needed to be a more EARTHLY and less far less limited justification!
No now Evil was politically endorsed. The Church had been taught it's place by the Crowns and State Houses of Europe, and now they would control that avenue. There was a new upsurging class; The Bourgeois. A new demand for medicine and doctors, and more demand for cadavers and the gory rites of vivisection. The new scapegoat, in human terms, was the 'traitor', or any capitol offence deemed nasty enough. But newly popular was the scientific justification for the animal cruelty that goes under this name. There had been no acceptable reasoning for the live butchery of animals since Constantine banned it.
All excuses had seemed savage by comparison to the sage and humane laws of the First Holy Emperors of Rome. But Rome was a long way back in the 18th and 19th century, and Science was a damn good excuse. A new word began to make the rounds: progress!
New heights were reached during this period. Not just of means to deliver pain, and prolong suffering; but also of anatomy performed on the still warm and even living bodies of the 'prisoners'. These observations did not result in great leaps in proximate medicines and in understanding of the function of our organs, as one might suspect. While the use of cadavers became popular for anatomists centuries ago, the gains have all been far more recent.
While vivisection of beasts has been used since at least Bronze age Greece, it also has only seen very recent and limited uses. An ultrasound or MRI of the interior of a man or pig is not only of more use that a dying organism, but also recordable and replayable – unlike the man or pig.
The most recent upsurge in this horrible trend has been during the 20th Century and into the Early 21st.
In this age of Racialism, Multiculturalism, Objectivism, and Communism; of polar ideological 'styles' and never ending political excuses we have seen a forceful return of these evils.
We have seen the rise of The Third Reich within living memory, for example.
That brings us back to Herr 'Doktor' Mengele.
The man held the rank of Captain in Himmler's SS, and was in charge of medical experiments at Auschwitz concentration camp. He had proved his ability as a surgeon serving with an SS Pnzer (tank) division on the 'Eastern Front' against the Soviets. He had apparently saved the lives of several colleagues and been wounded in the process.
As a 'reward' for his service he was given the horrible task of camp doctor at one of history's most notorious concentration / death camps. He experimented on men, women, and children. He injected dies and even isotopes into the eyes of his victims ('subjects' to him).
Mengele's real obsession was with twins. He felt the secret to breeding super human, disease and pain resistant Aryan soldiers was to be found in the relationship between twins. The depravities this man committed against children in the guise of research is nightmarish. He was an instrument of unspeakable, directed evil.
Mengele's justification was one of science and was based on the premises of 'Social Darwinism', as preached in the works of Ernst Haeckel. He like his Nazi colleagues, was an utterly modern man.
He was no black robed Inquisitor, no painted Pagan priestess, no Imam demanding conversion at the curve of his sword – he was a perfectly modern, civilized, normal looking man with a degrees in Medicine.
Mengele could vanish in a crowd.
In fact, that is what exactly what the 'angel of death' did.
For years the Israelis hunted him, but he evaded and was protected. Mengele died an old man of a heart failure, while swimming in his favourite lake near his family's ranch in South America in 1979.
The Escape of the 'Angel of Death' was made much of in film and media. Books, movies, and mystery shows are dedicated to the subject. It fascinates.
I feel there is a lesson here, or perhaps even a warning.
Mengele's trial would have exposed this particular evil in a light that it has never been in living memory. Such evils could have been set much further back, but justice failed. Corruption won.
The tumour that was Mengele's ideas continues to fester and grow.
The Eugenics in the West, Russia, and China of the past and present are mentioned only in hushed tones, or are even touted as 'progressive'.
Examples? Organ harvesting from near dead (vivisection) / executed criminals  , 'euthanasia' of depressed and the physically /mentally disabled (also a 'resource' for organ harvesting/Vivisection), abortion-on-demand (IE non medical / for profit / Mills), stem cell harvesting from the before mentioned aborted young, and the needless vivisection and repetitive experiments performed on 'lab' animals. All these evils self perpetuate. They will give rise to their own market and forces of demand and grow.  They fester.
I am not suggesting Religion, Politics, Science, or philosophy is at fault. I am saying they have been the paths by which we reached this crossroads, and they are same paths used by this evil - time and again.
I am suggesting that when we see men of standing suggesting that we should just kill off old people because they are depressed (no wonder!) and they cost too much, or when we hear people suggest criminals should be killed in order to sell kidneys to rich bankers, or when 'doctors' have full time for profit practices designed to END life and the potential for life and to make further profit from the very carrion they create; we should think about where this Evil ended last time. It ended in TOTAL WAR. The womb of Evil.
Perhaps it seeks to release, or be born anew?
But these are metaphysical questions (a bell tolls outside as I write o.0) and may be considered endlessly.
We should confront this legion of amorality for what they are, and we must do so intuitively.
We should not allow reason or dogma to cloud our perceptions, and be USED against us. We must hold fast to our faith, morality, reason, and understanding. The philosophies, including science, are OUR tools.
This tendril of Evil must be felt , it must be understood as a cyclical eventuality and be expected.
We must recognize it when it attempts to wrestle away one of our foundations.
That presents a further problem. While most politicians, soldiers, labourers, salesmen, priests, philosophers, poets, workmen, and artists all believe in Evil - the academe (researchers, journals etc - regent priests) , in our current age, does not.
It is distinctly materialist. The non existence of evil is a corner stone (moral subjectivity etc) of materialist ideas. Evolutionary psychology is probably the most extreme example of this (mind=brain). No Evil means there is no Good, and no culpability (guilt or punishment) beyond this life.
All morality becomes a luxury and survival becomes central. The EXTENSION of life (primarily one's own and those of immediate importance) becomes all that matters.
No evil means no limits. .
This is how Mengele's are made.This is why this type of evil thrives in the Academe.
Like Faust, the Academe gladly sells it's soul, which it has forgotten or does not believe in to a Devil it does not believe exists; ALL in the name of the PROMISE of  progress, which is termed broadly as 'science'.
It is an abuse of the word.
Mengele, left  Some of his 'subjects', right
I suggest this:
Not only did Josef Mengele escape the gallows at Nuremberg, but so did the ideals he represented.
In the early days of the 21st century A.D.,
the Angel of Death flies free.

Monday 4 July 2011

Proud of WHAT?

Okay... so PRIDE week has come and gone again. We are all still here. 
No lighting bolts from above have vanquished these 'sinners' (who isn't?) for their outlandish public displays. No Armies of NAZIs have stormed the streets to oppress them. No lynchings. No beating. No pillars of salt.
Nothing has happened BUT the hype.
So, what is the big deal?
Well there isn't one really.
For those of you not familiar with PRIDE events, they are supposed to be some sort of demonstration in favour of 'Gay rights'. A parade to prove Gay and Lesbian citizens are just a fun loving bunch that mean no harm and just want to live the 'lifestyle' they have chosen without being the target of hate and bigotry. In principle, I am behind it 100%. That is not to say 'I approve' of this lifestyle: I do not. But, I would not dream of denying it to those who feel compelled to live that way. Nor would I ever condone the persecution of gays and lesbians. But that is in PRINCIPLE. In practice, I really don't see what the PRIDE events have to be proud of.
These are not marches of serious minded homosexuals protesting oppression. There are placards, sure. Many carried by completely naked adults..or worse: People dressed up in sexual / S&M style costumes and who expose themselves to other revellers.
Having witness two such events recently, I would say they seem like pro-promiscuity events and more of a carnival than any sort of serious political statement. Naked people dancing, drinking, smoking pot, 'making out', and waving their naughty bits at the police. Like Carnival in Brazil or Mardi Gras in New Orleans, these are ADULT events designed for the sensual pleasures of the party goers.
Okay. Big deal you say. Sure. Don't like – don't look. Find it offensive or outrageous don't attend.
Fair enough. That has long been my strategy. Let them have their fun, but don't include me!
So what's my beef? (pun intended)
Well, I just want to know what the HELL this has to do with 'rights'?
If anything the anti-gay attitude such displays engender FAR outweigh the penis waving hijinks. Sure they may be having fun poking fun, but do they expect the traditional and conservative minds they are laughing AT to chuckle too? A sober expression of gay rights and a reminder of the persecution these people have faced in the past (in the name of race, religion, politics etc) have endured ; A march for tolerance seems to make more sense to me.
Martin Luther King Jr. Did not march naked through Birmingham. The suffragists did not go on 'slut walks'. Can you imagine the backlash had they done so?
Then there is the whole aspect of 'pride'.
Proud of what?
There is two schools of thought on the reality of homosexuality. One says it is a choice, a preference that is exercised as a lifestyle of exclusive homosexuality or of ambiguity (bisexual). The other, the favourite of evolutionary biologists, is that homosexual behaviour is inborn: ie a defect of the sexual impulse.
A choice can change. People who choose one thing, may one day choose another. But people can be proud of a choice. They choose to love a person, despite the moral and social consequences. This love justifies this choice – a tough one – and they are proud of that decision. Those lofty ideals are of the 'gay day' events of decades past. Proud enough for a parade? Sure why not!?
But how does the nudity, sexual excess, and promiscuity fit in to this scenario? It doesn't.
Today's PRIDE events are a different type of beast altogether.
My point here is that to be proud of a choice (to love) is one thing, to be proud of your sexual impulses is just plain screwed up. Should I be 'proud' I am 'white'? or Tall? Should I be proud I am male? Should I be proud I can become aroused by looking at women? WHY? I just AM/DO these things. I had no choice - I was born that way.
If I should be proud, does that mean blacks, women, and impotent people should be ashamed they are not? Of course not. Should we ALL be proud? WHY? Again we just ARE these things. We live with them and perhaps even embrace them...but pride?
I DID have a choice to fall in love and be devoted to my wife and partner in life, but that does not mean we should dance naked in the streets waving our genitalia at police and passers by, or demonstrate our intimate acts. Such a display would be rightly seen as 'gross' and 'nasty'.
What is there to be proud about in that of 'nasty'? Nothing I can see.
Pride – the healthy SANE type – should be the result of achievements and well made choices. It should be tempered with humility.
The choice to portray everyone of the homosexual inclination  like insatiable exhibitionist perverts, and anyone who does not approve/agree a (straight) homophobes or (gay/lesbian)  'uncle Toms', is certainly NOT one I would be proud of. It is a position of Nero-like intolerance and hypocrisy.
Suggestions? Yes I do.
PRIDE should be a family friendly parade/march that culminates in some act of generosity and gratitude for the continued tolerance of the larger community and exposure of any continuing prejudice.
'Thanks Toronto, here is a new playground, clinic, or park DONATED by the gay / lesbian community' or 'Free food for the homeless from the lesbian and gay community' sure beats the SHIT out of 'look at my dick, I am gay!' or 'see! this is how we F**K!' displays replete with penis shaped water guns.
The positive display results in a positive reaction. The political display results in a political reaction. The VULGAR and crass display results in disdain and avoidance; and very possibly backlash.
It plays into the imagery that bigots use to portray homosexuals.
So what happened?
Where are today's Harvey Milk style marches?
Where are the real issues in the modern PRIDE parade?
Today's argument from the homosexual lobby is that people are BORN gay – the defect argument. Homosexuals cannot help but act like they do, and that extends to the wild and vulgar behaviour at these Carnival like events, it is posited.
Homosexuals, they assert, have the 'right' to be promiscuous, outrageous, and 'in your face'. Any attempt to AVOID this outburst – as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford found out – results in a media frenzy and labels of 'homophobia'.
 Ford is the first mayor of Toronto since 1994 who has dared NOT attend the event. His excuse is that he spends Canada Day weekend at the cottage (same weekend) and has done so for 30 years. He also commented that he will only attend parades his wife, children, and grandchildren would accompany him to – thus NOT the X-rated PRIDE revelry. For this he is labelled a homophobe?
I am not gay, and could never imagine being so..for many reasons.  I also could not imagine the whispers, lies, exclusion, prejudice, and sheer bigotry they are treated to. I would and have defended their rights to choice and freedom. That extends to how they wish to live their lives. I have openly gay friends and in laws that I happily break bread with. Some of them have a LOT to be proud of in their lives.
But I see/saw very little to be proud of at recent PRIDE events in Toronto.
I see a lobby being USED to promote a diagnosis / pathology style explanation for their choices, I see adults behaving like spoiled children, I see people acting out in acts sexual exhibitionism and promiscuity, I see a source for great social concern.
Above all I see a wasted opportunity for real change and progress in gay / lesbian rights, and that is a real SHAME.

CrusadeRex
July 2011

Friday 1 July 2011

Canadian by choice...

Today is Canada Day.
On this day, loyal citizens and subjects of this Dominion celebrate it's birth, or more precisely confederation.
Canada is compound nation, in many ways like Australia or the USA. It is actually a grouping and alliance of smaller countries or  Provinces, once part of the biggest Empire to have ever graced this earth.



Unlike the United States, Canada was loyal to the Empire and was granted a transcontinental Dominion via Royal Decree under the B.N.A (British North America Act) of 1867, by her Royal Majesty Queen Victoria, DGR et IMP Ind. In fact, we fought AGAINST the insurrectionists of 1776.
It has often been said of Canada, in military circles, that we are 'Red Coats, or Red Skins - but never RED (leftist/revolutionary)'.
Unlike Australia, Canada was populated by willing immigrants - not indentured servants or prisoners. Later by and refugees from the American Wars and slavery to the south. Some historians would suggest that as much as a third of the populations of our Eastern Provinces (Man-NFLD) are descended from folks who fled the war and chaos of the American War of Insurrection (Revolutionary War), as it was known here; and also many more from the Northern States during the oppressive rule of President Madison, whose brutal taxation to fund campaigns against the Royal Navy and the Spanish Colonies drove them to seek settlement in the unsettled regions of South Western Ontario, and Western Quebec. One of our famous and loved heroines, Laura Secord, was just so. Born in Massachusetts and settled in Ontario, she is Canadian heroine of the war of 1812.
There is also a great deal of the Francophone population of Quebec that can trace their lines to the sacking of New Orleans and the military annexation of Louisiana, and the expulsions of their kin from Vermont. The Natives have an even greater debt to this land. Over 60% of natives in Ontario are descended from dispossessed tribes in lands now known as the states of Michigan and Illinois, and remnants of the Eastern bands which had been pushed west by settlers from the '13 colonies'. These bands formed a massive confederation that allied themselves famously with Gen Sir Isaac Brock, and defeated the Yankee forces and Kentuckian Mercenaries at Queenston Heights, and later at Stoney Creek - to win the war of 1812 in North America, and allow our nation to continue to exist as independent provinces, and eventually become Canada. And of course there was the slaves. Tens of thousands of them would flee slavery in the southern US states and make their way to Canada. Although slavery was illegal in the Northern United States by the time of the US civil war, they were not welcomed there and were often hunted down. In Canada they could get a land grant and settle, or they could work for passage to the British Caribbean Islands; there was safety and something as close to freedom as a black person could get in those years.
In fact, when it comes to slavery Canadians have a record we should be proud of.
The sheer LACK of slavery in this nation's colonial period is astounding, and almost unique. The handful of African slaves that were owned in the Provinces that deemed it legal, were owned by the wealthiest people. Settlers did not abide the practice, and in Upper and Lower Canada (now Ontario and Quebec) the practice and it's owners were shunned and punished (fines and taxes) as early as the 1760's, so that by the time Upper Canada achieved it's own courts and constitution (The Quebec Act 1774) the practice had virtually vanished and was deemed a 'criminal blasphemy'. In 1830 the British Empire banned the practice all together forcing the last slave traders in ALL of what we call modern Canada (West Coast Natives) to abandon their practice, or face the legal consequences, which could include hanging.  By the 1840's even native slaving was stamped out.
Canada has also been a traditional pioneer in women's rights, medicine, and technology.
Canadians distinguished themselves in both World Wars as some of the most rugged and determined soldiers, sailors and airmen in those conflicts. Today we still hold our own. Despite being screwed out of our Security Council seat by the EU (on order to weaken NATO), we hold a very special position in the ONLY alliance that matters anymore: The North Atlantic Treaty Org.
Canadians are a tough, intelligent, and loyal bunch. Anyone who has met them, worked with them, and lived among them can attest to this.
I came to Canada as a lad, from England. An immigrant like so many of us. It took years for the pronunciations to change, for my feeling of 'home' to relocate; but, it happened. I am now a TOM - EH - TO guy, rather than a TOM-AH-TO bloke. Although, I will eat either :P
I may have been born in the cradle of the Empire and modern civilization, and I may have lived for many years in the 'Land of the Brave', and BOTH those lands remain dear to me - especially England -but, I made my home and put down roots in the true North Strong and FREE. I have a beautiful Canadian wife I love more each day, and a Canadian son who instills more pride than all the History above. Here is my home.
I will always be British even if of the North American variety, and ENGLISH by birth, BUT I am Canadian BY CHOICE.
Happy Canada Day to all the Canucks and their friends around the world!
And a GREAT summer to all!