True when Malcolm Muggeridge first said it and still true now.
Also of note: “1200 American psychiatrists said Goldwater was potty, therefore he was my man”.
I met Muggeridge in the late 70s and asked him what he had against organised religion – churches (this was before he became a Roman Catholic); he became quite annoyed when I pressed him on it. Still signed a copy of his autobiography, though.
Some things never change. Challenge the rules in a barbaric totalitarian state and you are deemed ‘mad’, confined in a mental institution and administered ‘therapy’ until you see the error of your ways. This was the case in the Soviet Union and it is also the case in Communist China
Local officials in China appear to be increasingly using forcible psychiatric treatment to silence critics, a leading expert said today amid claims that at least 18 complainants were held in a mental hospital in Shandong province against their will.
Authorities in Xintai district committed people who had pursued grievances ranging from police brutality to property disputes, according to the Beijing News, well known for its investigative journalism. Some were force-fed drugs.
“Until the early 90s, the practice of police forcibly sending people to mental asylums without justification was mainly carried out against political dissidents,” said Robin Munro, author of China’s Psychiatric Inquisition: Dissent, Psychiatry and the Law in Post-1949 China.
“Since then we have seen a very different trend – fewer are of that variety, and more and more, they are petitioners or whistleblowers exposing corruption, or simply persistent complainants.“It’s a covert way to silence people … There is no accountability or oversight. The person disappears, effectively; and with them, whatever evidence they have compiled against officials.”
Once a police or civilian psychiatrist has certified someone as mentally ill, the patient loses all legal rights and can be held indefinitely.
From this, a reasonable case could be made for the proposition that the biggest lunatics at large in some societies are psychiatrists themselves.
A number of years ago, I had the misfortune of finding myself at a party infested with a preponderance of psychiatrists – a hospital party, I think. I had never encountered a larger number of misfits packed into such a confined area. I thought I might have some fun by bringing up the subject of R. D. Laing, a psychiatrist whose theories include such gems as: psychotic behaviour is a valid expression of distress; psychiatry is not a science; schizophrenia should be valued as a cathartic and transformative experience; and psychiatrists themselves are responsible for the madness of many of their patients – hard to argue against that last point. If you know any psychiatrists, mention The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise to see how they react. I ended up having a wonderful time.
Fred Hiltz and the rest of the batty western bishops take note.
From here
The savagery that we see in Africa is not because there’s something funny in the water. It’s not because they’re still hunter-gatherer types at heart and can’t forget some archaic gripe with the neighbours. Africa used to be quite a nice place 40 years ago. But since then, a gigantic volume of aid has wrecked the fabric of civil society. And what has all this aid done to fight African poverty? The UN declared in 1999 that 70 countries – all aid recipients – were poorer than they had been in 1980. The countries that had received the most aid – like Liberia, Zaire and Somalia – had descended in barbarism and anarchy.
Once again, the process by which aid corrupts is blindingly obvious. And yet we keep shovelling the stuff in. As for the trickle that actually buys food for people, every study we have shows how this pushes countries into a terrifying dependency on food imports. I needn’t spell out the devastating effects of this on the domestic economy (which is mainly agrarian) or on their chances of fighting their way to affluence.
The big shame is that we don’t let African farmers sell their food to the US and the EU. Subsidies, tariffs and so on. People who are against free trade in food should be really ashamed of themselves.
The reason Africans don’t have food is civil war. African farmers know how to grow food. Indeed, they know how to grow food so well, that the EU and USA put up trade barriers to stop them from exporting it and undercutting their own farmers. Famine in Africa is rarely caused by natural disasters these days. It’s caused by aid.
Giving poor people food seems to make sense to us in the west. We see a homeless tramp and we direct them to the nearest soup kitchen. But on the scale we’re talking, the economic effect of just giving people food is not good. Suppose your economy relies on producing cars. But it’s in a bad way, not least because rich countries nearby have put up trade barriers to prevent you selling your cars to them. Then they see you’re doing badly. So what do they do? They send you some free cars. The local car manufacturers are none too happy, and the economy is buggered.
Well it’s the same with Africa and food. Forget aid. Africa needs free trade.And while we’re here we must emphasise free trade rather than the hideous slice of colonialism called ‘fair trade’. Fair Trade is nothing more than a rearguard PR exercise from the greens. They were embarrassed at opposing free trade, so had to do little linguistic fancy foot-work. Fair Trade says, OK the poor can sell their food to the rich world, but only if they are organic farmer (ie. they retain backward, not very productive farming techniques), and we will favour small peasant farms (which are famously no good at producing food efficiently). People who advocate ‘Fair Trade’ are just bastards.
No longer, it seems: it has withered under the glare of leftist lunacy. The corrosive influence of the Welfare State, from Here:
Overall, I think in general the bigger evil effects of welfare have been enormously underestimated, even by commentators who regard themselves as more pro-capitalist in their sympathies. Welfare is the basic cause of the deleterious cultural changes we have witnessed in the West over the past 60 years.
The Welfare State, pioneered in Britain of course, has corrupted this country to its core. It has transformed the country caricatured by Noel Coward and others – essentially pretty decent, self-reliant, and plucky – into a country which is thuggish, selfish, mindless, dispirited and lost. Gone is the British stiff upper lip. Modern Britons are moaning, self-pitying inadequates. The welfare state has bred a generation of obnoxious, drug-addled criminals and ne’er-do-wells. It has also, incidentally, burdened what was once the world’s biggest, most dynamic economy with the dead weight of an obstructive and vastly expensive state machine.
I’m sorry to sound cross about this, but I don’t think people fully realise what’s happened. Britain has, I think, the highest crime rate of any industrialised country in the world. It is twice as high as the US. The violent crime rate is higher in London than New York. Britain has the highest rate of drug abuse, the highest teenage pregnancy rate and the highest rate of sexually transmitted disease in the modern industrial world. What the hell happened?
Christopher Hitchens on the old megalomaniac’s latest lunacy. From Slate
Why on earth did Castro build a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Havana?
Fidel Castro has devoted the last 50 years to two causes: first, his own enshrinement as an immortal icon, and second, the unbending allegiance of Cuba to the Moscow line. Now, black-cowled Orthodox “metropolitans” line up to shake his hand, and the Putin-Medvedev regime brandishes its missile threats against the young Obama as Nikita Khrushchev once did against the young Kennedy. The ideology of Moscow doesn’t much matter as long as it is anti-American, and the Russian Orthodox Church has been Putin’s most devoted and reliable ally in his re-creation of an old-style Russian imperialism. If you want to see how far things have gone, take a look at the photograph of President Dmitry Medvedev’s inauguration, as he kisses the holy icon held by the clerical chief. Putin and Medvedev have made it clear that they want to reinstate Cuba’s role in the hemisphere, if only as a bore and nuisance for as long as its military dictatorship can be made to last. Castro’s apparent deathbed conversion to a religion with no Cuban adherents is the seal on this gruesome pact. How very appropriate.
It just goes to show that all the sycophantic antics of the Anglican church towards this vicious, thuggish crambazzle did not pay off: he didn’t build an Anglican cathedral.
From the Anglican Journal
Kenyan church leaders have hailed the election on Nov. 4 of Sen. Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America, saying it is a positive turn for Africa that can help steer good governance on the continent.“I want congratulate Obama. I think his winning will bring hope and healing to the whole world,” said Anglican Bishop Joseph Wasonga. “His election has shown that America is truly democratic.”
I though the bringing of “hope and healing for the whole world” is something that Jesus does; I wonder, is Obama aware of the standard that has been set for him? Sorry – Him. Well, come January, I’m expecting my back-ache to go away.
At least Obama, McCain and the rest of the population of the United States can heave a big collective sigh of relief: Kenyan Bishop Joseph Wasonga has declared the election democratic. It’s tempting to wonder what Joe the bishop would have pronounced had McCain won: the election was rigged, probably. And the good bishop should know; this is how the last Kenyan election went:
From Here
Kenya descended into violence and chaos following December 2007’s presidential election. Preliminary results had opposition candidate Raila Odinga, of the Orange Democratic Movement, defeating incumbent Kibaki, 57% to 39%. In the days after the election, however, Odinga’s lead dwindled and Kenya’s electoral commission declared Kibaki the winner, 46% to 44%. International observers said the vote was rigged. Odinga, a champion of the poor, had promised to eliminate corruption and tribalism. After the announcement of the official results, violence broke out among members of the Luo and Kikuyu tribes. Odinga is Luo, and Kibaki is Kikuyu. The fighting between the tribes intensified in January 2008, with more than 800 people dying in violence across the country. Odinga refused Kibaki’s invitation to discuss the political crisis after Kibaki appointed his cabinet, which did not include any members of Odinga’s Orange Democratic Party. Parliament, however, elected Kenneth Marende, of Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement, speaker over an ally of Kibaki. The deployment of the Kenyan military did little to stem the brutal ethnic fighting. In late January, Melitus Mugabe Were, a member of Parliament who has worked to mend the ethnic strife in Kenya and help the poor, was dragged from his car and shot. Members of the opposition said the killing was a political assassination.
Perhaps what Joe the bishop really meant to say was that he is glad Obama won; and everyone is entitled to be glad about anything they like, however daft.
This is on the website of the Niagara diocese:
The current Canadian Government has called an election for October 14th 2008. The Church does not take any positions on the various parties and candidates that are running. Obviously each ballot that is cast, must be done so according to the conscience of the individual.
However, as a Christian community and as an Anglican Church we can at least pose questions that should be addressed during the upcoming weeks.
The first thing that we would like to do is encourage every citizen in this country to exercise their responsibility to vote. We all must contribute to the future of Canada by exercising our vote.
Secondly, we will place some resources as they come available in the column on the right. These are for discussion and they are guides.
There is only one entry on the ‘Resources’ sidebar: Eight Ways to Make Poverty an Election Issue
Which, when you click on it, takes you to the website of Make Poverty History.
Now, gently reader, take a wildly haphazard guess as to which political party endorses Make Poverty History?
Why, the NDP, of course!
“The NDP will continue to work with progressive parliamentarians from all political parties and civil society efforts such as the Make Poverty History campaign dedicated to ending poverty around the world and here in Canada, to make 0.7 by 2015 a reality,” said McDonough.
I bet that comes as a shock to everyone. And, of course, it makes nonsense of the statement above “The Church does not take any positions on the various parties and candidates that are running”
Which brings me to the point of all this: the Anglican Church of Canada has ceased to be a Christian organisation; instead it is a political one, albeit a particularly ineffective specimen.
c/p Essentials blog
Damian Thompson at the Telegraph gets it right.
At 5 am this morning I woke up from a nightmare, reached blearily for the laptop, clicked on a video link and heard what, for me, were the most important words of the US election campaign so far: “And we were so blessed in April – my husband and I welcomed our littlest one into the family, a perfectly beautiful boy named Trig.” (My italics.)
The outspoken Sarah Palin may, for all I know, mess up the Republican campaign and/or make a bad Vice-President of the United States (though I doubt it). But please, don’t anyone tell me that those words were political rhetoric. And don’t dare suggest that when Todd raised Trig’s arm in a tiny wave it was a stunt.
The adjective “blessed” and the adverb “perfectly” really mean something in this context: they show that love can overpower the natural human reaction to the birth of a baby with a serious mental handicap.
Todd and Sarah Palin aren’t in favour of “choice” – but, when they were told in advance about Trig’s condition, they made the right one. As a result, Sarah may well receive extra support from Christians. Good. Isn’t that how public figures are supposed to attract votes in a democracy – by acting according to their principles?
This is why:
He is an evangelical Christian.
He is anti-abortion. Although single issue politics might be a Bad Thing, this holocaust of innocents needs to take centre stage.
He acts on his convictions even when they are unpopular.
He thinks freedom is better than autocracy.
He fought the war in Iraq for the right reasons; see the previous point.
His English is better than the average left-wing North American television news reader.
Michael Moore hates him.
From the National Post:
The Strongest Tribe by Bing West is a masterpiece of battlefield reporting. West was on the front lines when American troops beat insurgents back block-by-block in Ramadi, Fallujah and Baghdad. He describes the failures of planning and strategy that pushed Iraq to the brink of anarchy in 2004 and again in 2006 – and the strategic changes that brought the nation back to some semblance of normalcy in 2007 and 2008.
Critics of Bush often use hysterical moral language to attack the man: evil, Nazi, warmonger, monster, tyrant. History, I believe, will judge him in more nuanced terms. Bush is, in a phrase, a reckless optimist. His unwavering faith in the goodness within human beings and the redemptive power of freedom led him into a bloody and unwise adventure, one that resulted in the slaughter of untold thousands of innocent Iraqis. Yet that same sense of moral courage also led him to stand by the unfinished project when the lives of millions more hung in the balance. But not for Bush’s bold January, 2007 decision, there is no telling what sort of hell would by now have engulfed Iraq.
When we consign this man to the history books, let’s be sure that both sides of the story get told.
