Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903)
English Philosopher, Biologist, Sociologist, and prominent
Classical Liberal Political Theorist of the Victorian era
There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance – that principle is contempt prior to investigation.
By Madison S. Hughes (09.21.2011)
For Troy Anthony Davis, tonight is the night that the lights went out in Georgia. No doubt, “Tea Baggers” across the nation are cheering for yet another execution of which they so shamelessly demonstrated broad support for during a recent Republican clown show under the guise of a primary presidential candidate debate. Ironically, these same knuckle-draggers lost one of their own earlier today as a white supremacist met his Maker at the hands of the State of Texas. The mental midget, and Texas Governor Rick Perry must be so proud as he added yet another notch to his lipstick case of the growing record number of executions under his reign. No doubt, he will sleep almost as well as Troy Davis this evening.
The recantation of seven of the nine eyewitnesses that testified under oath in the trial against Troy Davis was apparently insufficient to sway the Supreme Court of the United States to stay the execution of a black man in Georgia. The State of Georgia killed Troy Davis by lethal injection at 11:08 p.m. Eastern Time, two days shy of the 2011 CE autumnal equinox. With the exception of the United States, the civilized world has long since banned the death penalty.
One may simply add this execution to the litany of unconscionable wrongs committed by this country, both foreign and domestically. If, in contemporary times, one is proud to be an American, then they are either uninformed, ill-informed, or misinformed, and obviously spend little to no time in serious reflection. But then again, the patriotic knuckle-draggers of today are mostly of the reactionary persuasion to begin with.
As for me, I cannot expatriate to Europe fast enough. Autumn in Paris, who could ask for anything more?
One would think that after living in the heart of the Bible Belt (for three years at that point) that I would have learned by then that anything portraying a non-Christian attitude would become a problem eventually . . . It continues to befuddle me how many Christians are taken aback when non-Christians know the Bible and the history of the Bible and Christianity better than they do. Read more . . .
The very fact that life is finite is the very thing that makes life meaningful. If we had eternal life, then what would be the point of it? We strive and work hard in life because life is short and so we feel an urgency to live our lives with passion . . . By taking death out of the equation, religious believers also take the passion out of our existence.
Read more . . .
By Madison S. Hughes (09.20.2011)
Anytime the responsible idea of increasing taxes, or decreasing subsidies on corporations making record profits during times of economic recession caused by the economic policies implemented by the corporate masters, the specter of the “job creators” raises its ugly head in its usual punctual manner. The spurious “job creators,” especially corporations, have never, ever created a job. That is worth repeating, the spurious “job creators” especially corporations, have never, ever created a job. DEMAND creates jobs, not supply.
The idea that “job creators” create jobs, and must be kowtowed to so that they will give us the privilege of laboring for minimal sustenance is not only absurd on the surface, but it is utterly inconsistent with empirical evidence, particularly since the inception of the neoliberal experiment of the first 9/11 disaster of 1973. Supply-side economics has proven over, and over, to be an utter failure. Repeating supply-side economic mantras does not make them viable.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900)
German Philosopher, Classical Philologist, Poet, and Composer, Atheist
It is impossible, as is commonly said, for us to ‘feel’ for others; we feel only for ourselves. The proposition sounds hard, but is not if it is correctly understood. One loves neither father, nor mother, nor wife, nor child, one loves the pleasant sensations they produce in us.
Today gay men and women are serving openly in the U.S. military, marking another milestone in the march toward equal rights for all Americans. And needless to say, Religious Right leaders aren’t happy . . . Goldwater famously said of this issue, “You don’t have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.” Equality and fairness. Those are concepts that are foreign to the forces of the Religious Right. They prefer intolerance and theocracy. But in a nation built on the separation of church and state, they cannot and must not prevail. Read more . . .
. . . Boehner’s so-called “job creators” become “job destroyers” as they lay off people and close businesses. That is if we adopt the “employer” definition of “job creators” as opposed to the “consumer” definition . . . Representative Boehner is giving us meaningless political rhetoric rather than meaningful political solutions. Read more . . .
His epiphanies follow on the heels of long sessions of reading and thought, and a bit of procrastination. He is an elegant stylist with a taste for metaphor. And he has a knack, a predisposition even, for assailing orthodoxy . . . His impatience with religion is palpable, almost wriggling alive inside him. Belief in the supernatural strikes him as incurious, which is perhaps the worst insult he can imagine. “Religion teaches you to be satisfied with nonanswers,” he says. “It’s a sort of crime against childhood.” Read more . . .
Always Question Authority 