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Post by Tamrin on Jan 6, 2014 11:14:22 GMT 10
You're about as useful as a one-legged man at an arse kicking contest
The clear problem of the outlawing of insult is that too many things can be interpreted as such. Criticism, ridicule, sarcasm, merely stating an alternative point of view to the orthodoxy, can be interpreted as insult
But, actually, so many of the clerics that I've met, particularly the Church of England clerics, are people of such extraordinary smugness and arrogance and conceitedness who are extraordinarily presumptuous about the significance of their position in society
To criticize a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous, but to criticize their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom. The freedom to criticize ideas, any ideas — even if they are sincerely held beliefs — is one of the fundamental freedoms of society
A law which attempts to say you can criticize and ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed
What is wrong with inciting intense dislike of a religion if the activities or teachings of that religion are so outrageous, irrational or abusive of human rights that they deserve to be intensely disliked?
The older you get, the more you realise how happenstance ... has helped to determine your path through lifeRowan Atkinson, CBEEnglish actor, comedian, and screenwriter (Born this day 1955) The path of my life is strewn with cow pats from the devil's own satanic herd!
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 7, 2014 7:31:56 GMT 10
Tuesday’s Quotes:It is not strange ... to mistake change for progress
The man who can look upon a crisis without being willing to offer himself upon the altar of his country is not fit for public trust
Nothing brings out the lower traits of human nature like office-seeking. Men of good character and impulses are betrayed by it into all sorts of meanness
The whole country is full of enterprise. Our common schools are diffusing intelligence among the people and our industry is fast accumulating the comforts and luxuries of life
It is not strange, however much it may be regretted, that such an exuberance of enterprise should cause some individuals to mistake change for progress and the invasion of the rights of others for national prowess and glory
May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not
An honorable defeat is better than a dishonorable victoryMillard Fillmore13 th President of the United States (formerly with Anti-Masonic Party) (Born this day 1800) Let us remember that revolutions do not always establish freedom. Our own free institutions were not the offspring of our Revolution. They existed before
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 7, 2014 7:33:42 GMT 10
The faith that I love the best, says God, is hope
Love is rarer than genius itself. And friendship is rarer than love
We must always tell what we see. Above all, and this is more difficult, we must always see what we see
He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers
Tyranny is always better organised than freedom
Short of genius a rich man cannot even imagine poverty
Everything begins in mystery and ends in politicsCharles PéguyFrench poet, socialist, activist and essayist (Born this day 1873) Freedom is a system based on courage
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 7, 2014 7:34:35 GMT 10
Gods always behave like the people who make them
There are years that ask questions and years that answer
Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to "jump at de sun." We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground
Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board
Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. It is a seeking that he who wishes may know the cosmic secrets of the world and they that dwell therein
Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely aston- ishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It is beyond me
I accept this idea of democracy. I am all for trying it out. It must be a good thing if everybody praises it like that. If our government has been willing to go to war and sacrifice billions of dollars and millions of men for the idea I think that I ought to give the thing a trial. The only thing that keeps me from pitching head long into this thing is the presence of numerous Jim Crow laws on the statute books of the nation. I am crazy about the idea of Democracy. I want to see how it feelsZora Neale HurstonAmerican folklorist ( Their Eyes Were Watching God) (Born this day 1891) Ah done been in sorrow's kitchen and Ah done licked out all de pots. Ah done died in grief and been buried in de bitter waters, and Ah done rose agin from de dead lak Lazarus
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 7, 2014 7:38:02 GMT 10
Gomez Addams: "Husband to Morticia, if indeed they are married at all ... a crafty schemer, but also a jolly man in his own way... though sometimes misguided ... senti- mental and often puckish — optimistic, he is in full enthusiasm for his dreadful plots"
Morticia Addams: "The real head of the family ... low-voiced, incisive and subtle, smiles are rare ... ruined beauty ... contemptuous and original and with fierce family loyalty ... even in disposition, muted, witty, sometimes deadly"
Fester Addams: "Uncle Fester is incorrigible and except for the good nature of the family and the ignorance of the police, would ordinarily be under lock and key ... the eyes are pig-like and deeply embedded ... he likes to fish, but usually employs dynamite"
Look at her — I would die for her. I would kill for her. Either way — what bliss
If you've wrecked one train, you've wrecked them all
Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly
Sometimes people have had terrible childhoods. And sometimes they just haven't found their special place in life. And sometimes they're dogs from hell and must be destroyedCharles "Chas" Samuel AddamsAmerican cartoonist ( The Addams Family) (Born this day 1912) Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nuncAddams' Family Motto (pseudo-Latin: "We gladly feast on those who would subdue us")
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 7, 2014 7:40:01 GMT 10
For the first time in history, we have a nation for a continent and a continent for a nation
It is the duty of the State to educate, and the right of the people to demand education
A State which has universal suffrage and a wide extension of the jury franchise, must qualify the people by education to rightly exercise the great powers with which they are invested
If it is the duty of the State to educate, it is the duty of the State also to bear the burden of education, namely, the taxation out of which education is provided
I say further that our system of education should be unsectarian
The difference between the denominational system and the public school system is all the difference between bolstering them up on the one hand and letting them alone of the other
I was for two years a pupil at the Model School in Fort street which was then conducted upon the Irish national system, and if any special religious instruction was given in connection with that system, I do not recollect itBro. Sir Edmund Barton, GCMG, QCFirst Australian Prime Minister (Died this day 1920) Creating a nation requires the will of the people!
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 7, 2014 7:43:26 GMT 10
My childhood in Corfu shaped my life. If I had the craft of Merlin, I would give every child the gift of my childhood
We have inherited an incredibly beautiful and complex garden, but the trouble is that we have been appallingly bad gardeners. We have not bothered to acquaint ourselves with the simplest principles of gardening. By neglecting our garden, we are storing up for ourselves, in the not very distant future, a world catastrophe as bad as any atomic war, and we are doing it with all the bland complacency of an idiot child chopping up a Rembrandt with a pair of scissors
The attitude of the average person to the world they live in is completely selfish. When I take people round to see my animals, one of the first questions they ask (unless the animal is cute and appealing) is, "what use is it?" by which they mean, "what use is it to them?" To this one can reply "What use is the Acropolis?" Does a creature have to be of direct material use to mankind in order to exist? By and large, by asking the question "what use is it?" you are asking the animal to justify its existence without having justified your own
So, until we consider animal life to be worthy of the consideration and reverence we bestow upon old books and pictures and historic monuments, there will always be the animal refugee living a precarious life on the edge of extermination, dependent for existence on the charity of a few human beings
The purpose of keeping any collection of wild animals in confinement should be threefold; first, to conduct as complete as possible a biological study of every species, especially those aspects which are too difficult or too costly to study in the wild and which may help in the preservation of that species in its natural habitat; second, to aid severely endangered species by setting up, under ideal conditions, protected breeding groups and, eventually, a reintroduction programme, so helping to ensure their future survival; thirdly, by the display and explanation of this work to the public, to persuade people of the vital necessity and urgency for the overall conservation of nature
You are not necessarily depriving him of his liberty, for territory is a form of natural cage and the word "liberty" does not have the same connotation for an animal as it does for a chest-beating liberal homo sapiens, who can afford the luxury of abstract ideas. What you are, in fact, doing is much more important, you are taking away his territory, so you must take great care to provide him with an adequate substitute, or you will get a bored, sick or dead animal on your hands
There is no first world and third world. There is only one world, for all of us to live and delight inGerald Durrell, OBEBritish zoologist and writer ( My Family and Other Animals) (Born this day 1925) Nothing except possibly love and death are of importance, and even the importance of death is somewhat ephemeral, as no one has yet faxed back a reliable report
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 7, 2014 7:44:39 GMT 10
Your thoughts are too dull to entertain
I have never read horror, nor do I consider The Exorcist to be such, but rather as a suspenseful supernatural detective story, or paranormal police procedural
'We use concepts like "consciousness" — "mind" — "personality," but we don't really know yet what these things are.' He was shaking his head. 'Not really. Not at all’
As far as God goes, I am a nonbeliever. Still am. But when it comes to a devil — well, that's something else
Yet I think the demon's target is not the possessed; it is us — the observers — every person in this house. And I think — I think the point is to make us despair; to reject our own humanity, Damien: to see ourselves as ultimately bestial; as ultimately vile and putrescent; without dignity; ugly; unworthy
Perhaps evil is the crucible of goodness — and perhaps even Satan — atan, in spite of himself — somehow serves to work out the will of God
God never talks. But the devil keeps advertising, Father. The devil does a lot of commercialsWilliam Peter BlattyAmerican screenwriter and novelist ( The Exorcist) (Born this day 1928) But a myth, to speak plainly, to me is like a menu in a fancy French restaurant: glamorous, complicated camouflage for a fact you wouldn't otherwise swallow, like maybe lima beans
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 7, 2014 8:00:37 GMT 10
Pure metaphysical knowledge relates consequently to "greater mysteries", and the know- ledge of traditional sciences to the "lesser mysteries". From an historical perspective, the "lesser mysteries" being merely a preparation to the "greater mysteries" ... ultimately one has to go back beyond the very origin of humanity, and this is why a question such as an "historical" origin of initiation appears to be devoid of the least signification
In the case of mysticism the individual simply limits himself to what is presented to him and to the manner in which it is presented, having himself no say in the matter ... In the case of initiation, on the contrary, the individual is the source of init- iative towards 'realization', pursued methodically under rigorous and unremitting control, and normally reaching beyond the very possibilities of the individual as such
Initiation is essentially the transmission of a spiritual influence, a transmission that can only take place through a regular, traditional organization, so that one cannot speak of initiation outside of an affiliation with an organization of this kind
We have explained that 'regularity' must be understood to exclude all pseudo-initiatic organizations, which, regardless of pretention and outward appearance, in no way possess any spiritual influence and thus are incapable of transmitting anything
Syncretism can be recognized wherever one finds elements borrowed from different traditional forms and assembled together without any awareness that there is only one single doctrine of which these forms are so many different expressions or so many adapt- ations related to particular conditions related to given circumstances of time and place
The 'Self', as such, is never individualized and cannot become so, for since it must always be considered under the aspect of the eternity and immutability which are the necessary attributes of pure Being, it is obviously not sus- ceptible of any particularization, which would cause it to be 'other that itself'
The truth is that there is really no "profane realm" that could in any way be opposed to a "sacred realm"; there is only a "profane point of view", which is really none other than the point of view of ignoranceRené GuénonFrench occultist and anti-Masonic author( Studies in Freemasonry and the Compagnonnage) (Died this day 1951) The date of 1717 does not mark the origin of Masonry, but the beginning of its degeneration Old Charges only show evidence of a rudimentary, trade-oriented system/s with little esoteric content)
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 8, 2014 6:50:28 GMT 10
Wednesday’s Quotes:Readiness is the mother of luck
Politeness and a sense of honor have this advantage: we bestow them on others without losing a thing
Some marry the first information they receive, and turn what comes later into their concubine. Since deceit is always first to arrive, there is no room left for truth
Don't live by generalities, unless it be to act virtuously, and don't ask desire to follow precise laws, for you will have to drink tomorrow from the water you scorn today
Because the ignorant do not know themselves, they never know for what they are lacking. Some would be sages if they did not believe they were so already
When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see
Virtue alone is for real; all else is sham. Talent and greatness depend on virtue, not on fortune. Only virtue is sufficient unto herself. She makes us love the living and remember the deadBaltasar GraciánSpanish Jesuit prose stylist (Baroque era) (Born this day 1601) If you cannot make knowledge your servant, make it your friend
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