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Lecture by atheist/scientist Richard Dawkins canceled in Berkeley because he criticized Islam

Fascist Berkeley: A lecture at a Berkeley church for a local leftwing radio station by atheist and scientist Richard Dawkins was canceled when the station learned he had posted some tweets criticizing Islam.

Essentially, the left can’t tolerate any dissent of any kind, and will destroy itself and everyone else if we continue to allow it to grow and gain power.

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On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
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21 comments

  • Cotour

    Islam is badly in need of criticism.

    The true nature of Islam hides behind the label “Religion” and our First Amendment. It in fact should be called Mohammadism. Primarily a document designed to control tribes that are uncontrollable, written by a war lord / “prophet”. The Koran is as much a military document as it is a “religion”.

    These distinctions must be fully understood by the American public and dealt with in an appropriate way considering what the Koran in fact actually is.

  • Cotour

    When the question is Islam, its always good to hear from the Hitch:

    https://youtu.be/Dbx-MYjy6PI

  • Lee S

    Bob, I actually agree with most of what you say, but I find your constant use of the turm “the left” offensive…. I’m left wing in my politics, I believe in higher taxes to provide a social safety net, and that the protection of workers rights should be enshrined in law… I know we may disagree on these points, and that is fine…..
    But being left of center politically has never and hopefully will never be related in any way to the actions of these idiots…. I’m not sure what word describes them correctly, but to imply they have anything to do with politically left leaning working class folks like myself, my family and a large chunk of my peer group is to do us all a deep injustice….
    I, along with the vast majority of politically left leaning people agree with the principle of freedom of speech…. please do not tar us with the same brush as the idiots you are quite rightly calling out…. They deserve it, and the threat they pose should also be raised….
    But typical left wingers they are not.
    Best wishes….

  • Cotour

    Lee S, if I may.

    You sound like a reasonable American who wants the best for your family, friends and your country. What is unfortunate here is that your party, the Democrat party / Liberal Democrat party has been for too long been associated with Leftist type doctrine, like it or not.

    On top of that your political party that has been lead by some what reasonable Democrats / Liberals for the past 50 or so years has now gone full rouge to where your leadership is now full blood Leftist.

    Head of the DNC, Tom Perez. His deputy, Ellison, both full blood Leftists. Obama, a philosophical Marxist, remember his “You did not build it” speech? Remember Obama going to Cuba and his specifically staged symbolic Che Guvara picture? What did that picture say to you? There are too many more examples, these are the people that are leading your political party, so what does that make you? You are by default a supporter of Leftist agendas in your own country. Like it or not.

    Its too bad that you are offended by how your party is now rightly characterized, but it is based on evidence established by actions taken.

    My question for you is: What are YOU going to do about it?

  • Lee S: I’m sorry, but you might not approve of the behavior of these violent thugs, but any close look at their politics finds them allied with the left and with the Democratic Party. Furthermore, it isn’t liberals they attack (with weapons by the way), it is conservatives and Republicans. As Cotour rightly asked, what are you going to do about it? The political movement you tout has been taken over by fascists, and you complain to me because I call it like it is? Bah.

    Meanwhile, it is apparent you never did read my essays on Israel. I have been wondering if I would ever hear from you with some comments. Nothing, which confirms my prediction that you would never read them. Typical of the left. I provide some information that might challenge your beliefs, and rather than diving in and being challenged, you ran to a safe space and avoided learning anything.

  • Lee S

    Bob, I have refrained from commenting more on the Israel/ Palestinian situation until I have read your papers, which are on my read list. I will not argue from a position of ignorance… this is a million miles away from “running to a safe space”…
    Bob and Cotour…..
    The reason I have not yet read them is that I am a single Dad of 2 small children with a full time job. I barely have time to browse this blog, and to be honest if I do get a quiet hour I like to catch up on the news, or attend to my ancient coin collection. This will change as the kids get bigger, so until then I’ll keep my mouth shut on matters that I don’t have all the information.
    Now this may come as a suprise, but my party of choice is Vänsterpartiet, or ” the left party” literally translated, I do not live in the USA….
    I understand you guys still have a frankly ludicrous 2 party system, which does not leave any room for diversity, but much of the rest of the world is in a better position.
    I am only able to live a comfortable life and take care of my kids because I live in a left leaning country, and I am very much “the left” here in Sweden.
    You have an international audience Bob, once again, by tarring everyone with the same brush, and constantly using “the left” as a reference to thugs, idiots and fascists you do the genuine left leaning voters around the world an injustice..,,
    It’s your blog and your absolutely free to write what you like…. I’m just pointing out that a small number of vocal idiots should not be allowed to sully an entire branch of the political spectrum.
    Best wishes
    Lee S

  • Cotour

    Lee S:

    Please define the “Genuine Left”. ( As opposed to the faux Left? Left is Left. Left light? ) And please be specific explaining what it is that you believe in, and if the definition is comprised of terms like : We are for the good for everyone, or we are for whats best, or we are for social justice and happiness, don’t bother, I understand exactly your position.

    Q: Do you adhere to the thinking / philosophy of Marx / Engels?

    Q: Do you believe in open borders and the ethnic dilution of your country’s population?

    Q: Do you believe in private property?

    Q: Do you believe in the permanent welfare state?

    Q: Do you believe in your right to defend yourself and / or change the form of government that you and your children live under if it becomes oppressive and tyrannical? (Good for “them”, bad for you)

    So many questions.

  • Lee S

    Cotour..,.
    I’d love to sit down and discuss these matters over a pint…. which to me is the best way to informally discuss such important issues.
    This is not an ideal forum for long involved debate….
    I believe in a form of state which provides for the poorest and the weakest, I believe in protection for workers rights and a minimum wage which guarantees a decent living wage, I believe in a good education for all, without leaving poorer students with crippling debt for the rest of their lives, I believe in universal access to a good standard of health care… I believe in gun control, I believe in democracy.
    These are just a few of my “left” ideals… I actually have most of them in the country I choose to live in ….
    Many of your questions there are loaded… I have no idea if that is intended or not, but I refuse to be drawn into Discussion when you have already made up your mind….

    The point I want to make are that being left wing makes you no more of an idiot than being right wing does….. As a left winger ideologically, I object to being lumped in with the closed minded bigotry currently doing the rounds over there in the land of the free…

    ( Just FYI…, The Hitch is one of my heros… I’m an atheist, and a skeptic…. the man is deeply missed..)

  • Cotour

    Lee S:

    I on the other hand love having the conversation on the web. If it is done correctly each can calmly lay out their thinking in an organized and competent way. Re read what you write and correct what you intend to say. Its the perfect forum to hash out what people believe and what they think they believe. When someone is willing to write down for all to see (including the writer) what it is that they believe or think they believe and are willing to test it in the public square (or web site) and are able to be confronted and successfully defend what they propose then that IMO is some level of progress.

    “I’d love to sit down and discuss these matters over a pint…. which to me is the best way to informally discuss such important issues.”

    The above sentence is a bit paradoxical to me. While a casual social encounter has its place I find that when the subject is politics it has more potential to be filled with confusing disjointed minutia and non sequitur’s and it can tend to get loud. If we were to sit face to face our conversation would turn more into a seminar (For you) on abuse of power and the nature of the human animal related to power and governance.

    “I believe in a form of state which provides for the poorest and the weakest, I believe in protection for workers rights and a minimum wage which guarantees a decent living wage, I believe in a good education for all, without leaving poorer students with crippling debt for the rest of their lives, I believe in universal access to a good standard of health care… I believe in gun control, I believe in democracy.”

    Your list is typical of an open ended subjective wish list of how you would like to live. In reality, if these issues are not contained within reasonable (Who’s to say what is reasonable?) parameters the only thing that can result is full blown Communism. And on the way to it the state can justify the confiscation of more and more of your’s and mine private wealth until they own and control EVERYTHING. If you take only one thing away from this conversation please absorb and take that one solid fact away.

    I am very interested in your real world experience and opinion on the importation of Islam into your country by the EU.

  • Lee S

    Ok Cotour, I will bite…. this is giving me a welcome respite from yard cleaning!! :-)

    Firstly, I am damn sure that any face to face discussion between us would not turn into any form of seminar, from either direction.. to suggest otherwise is slightly insulting… I am quite capable of discussing any topic in a friendly yet honest manner without belittling, and as you seem reasonable I would hope you can do the same.
    I live in a country, indeed in a whole area of the world ( Scandinavia) which is considered socialist, especially by USA standards, I enjoy virtually free childcare and education, a universal healthcare system which ensures healthcare for all and “free” medicine for chronic conditions ( I do not pay for the insulin which keeps me alive..) , the streets are generally clean, as are the open spaces here in the city of Stockholm, and my job pays a decent living wage….
    I understand all this comes at a cost, but I, and my fellow citizens are willing to pay a rate of taxation which would make your eyes water to ensure the safe clean and supportive environment we live in….
    This situation has stood for many many decades, which kinda disproves your “decent into full blown communism” comment…
    By having a government which is a mix of many parties, the needs and wants of a diverse population are represented and considered and the result is a working coalition in which I feel represented.
    This system works… it’s not perfect, but neither is it communist.. I suggest without malice you take a visit to Northern Europe… it may open your eyes a little…
    I shall continue with a new post….

  • Lee S

    The question of the import of Islam is honestly one I wish I had an answer to…. unfortunately I do not, however the question itself is horribly complex…
    As an English citizen originally, I believe that along with the USA and the other members of the “coalition of the willing” who participated in the fall of Sadam and started this whole clusterduck rolling, we have a debt of duty to the displaced citizens… neighther you nor I can imagine the horror of watching helplessly as the place you grew up in descends into a war zone….and I would greatfully give up some space in my small apartment for someone who has had it so bad at home they find it better to pack a small bag and make the dangerous journey here to avoid getting blown up at home…. because of western “intervention”.
    But at the same time it has left us open to Jihadist fanatics… even though Sweden has taken in more refugees per capita than any other western country we had a terror attack in Stockholm a few months ago….
    I have no answer other than to try and educate… this is the hardest question in the (my) world right now… it is a problem of our own making, so we have to try our hardest to fix it…. We owe it to the decent respectful majority of Muslims to take the fanatics on the chin and try our hardest to repair the damage we have created in the Middle East….

  • Garry

    Lee, I’m greatly oversimplifying, but I’ve always seen (the concept of) the American system vs. (the concept of) Scandinavian socialism as an emphasis on freedom vs. an emphasis on (economic) security. In terms of individual economics, the socialist system has a higher floor, yet a lower ceiling; you’re extremely unlikely to strike it rich, but you’re also extremely unlikely to be dirt poor. I can see how that would appeal to some people, especially if you grew up under that kind of system.

    From my perspective, when I feel conflict between the chance of freedom vs. the chance of security, I always choose freedom, knowing that it could end poorly for me. This applies not only to economic freedom, but to other aspects of freedom as well.

    I think culture has a role here; I lived several years in Japan, and I picture the Scandinavian system as being similar to the Japanese system. More than 99% of Japanese people self-identify as the middle class, and under some circumstances (such as during a natural disaster) there is a sense of order and calm cooperation that doesn’t exist in the US, except perhaps among people who know each other very well.

    I’ve edited lots of accounts of what happened in shelters after natural disasters; for example, the food comes and people line up in a very orderly fashion and calmly and quietly get their food, obeying instructions and not questioning. Here I imagine, at a minimum, there would be a lot of questions and attempts to get more than one’s share, as determined by some local official.

    I’m always entertained when I’m on a Japanese airline flying to or from the US and there’s a delay. There will be a long announcement in English, explaining in great detail that a certain part has to be replaced, there’s a spare in hand, the mechanics are working on it, they anticipate it will be 2 hours, etc., followed by a very terse message in Japanese, “we’re sorry for the delay, it will be about 2 hours.” We seem to have a need to feel in control, whereas the Japanese seem to think that they are in the good hands of others whose job it is to get the airplane fixed, and they don’t need to know anything.

    There seems to be a certain sense of trust in authority in Japan (or perhaps the people feel beaten down and powerless), whereas we’re very untrusting of authority here in the US. As result, they have cooperation, whereas we have more more dynamic, yet messy process of making decisions and getting things done. Their way gets things done efficiently, whereas our way leads to messes in some cases, and real breakthroughs in others.

    Here, our saying is “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” The corresponding saying in Japanese is “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”

    I have no doubt that some are happy under Scandinavian style socialism, but the US was specifically founded under different principles, and I think we have to be very careful to preserve them here.

    Do you agree with my perceptions? I’m not sure how closely the Japanese system corresponds to yours, and I’m curious to check the accuracy of my perceptions with someone actually living under Scandinavian socialism.

  • Cotour

    ” ( I do not pay for the insulin which keeps me alive..) ” Who pays for it?

    The statement above indicates a departure in reason, there are costs both seen and unseen. At what real price does your freedom and your insulin come? (A friend of mine recently married a Swedish woman and has become a Swedish citizen, he loves it over there. It gets more interesting when you talk at length though.)

    “I understand all this comes at a cost, but I, and my fellow citizens are willing to pay a rate of taxation which would make your eyes water to ensure the safe clean and supportive environment we live in….
    This situation has stood for many many decades, which kinda disproves your “decent into full blown communism” comment…”

    Who and what ensures that you are able to live in this manner? What military force creates the disincentive for the Russians, or the Chinese for that matter, to not just come and take what ever they want over those past decades? (I suspect this condition of freedom has existed exactly 72 years, more or less) That is if you indeed agree that it is military force in some manner that ensures yours and my peace and freedom. Big picture, like it or not, America and its model, Capitalism and the American Constitution, as perverted and corrupt as it is and can be ensures and insures your life style. So from that point of view one must be superior to the other. No? (If you indeed agree with what I propose. As obnoxious as it sounds.)

    Me personally, I would rather have the choice to negotiate and select who gives me my healthcare. Why? If we can agree that the nature of human beings related to power and governance is that they will tend to abuse that power in time then we can agree that the more power the people are willing to seed to them the more potential for abuse exists. No? (Abuse of power is guaranteed, doubt me not) So if we can in general agree on these points then we can also agree that you would never want the government to have the absolute say over who, when and how an individual receives healthcare.

    So what I propose to you is this: We all who live in the west live in a kind of fantasy. Where does that fantasy emanate from, what is its foundation? When you dig down to the foundation of the modern world, good, bad or otherwise it all boils down to the concepts of the American Constitution and Western thought process. Your particular brand of the fantasy is a left handed perversion of the center right more Conservative foundation of all of our modern fantasy lives.

    I hope that I have given you something to ponder. And yes I am reasonable, but I am also confrontational when I think it appropriate. PS: I have never met an Englishman or a Swede that I did not like.

  • Edward

    Lee S,
    You wrote: “I understand all this comes at a cost, but I, and my fellow citizens are willing to pay a rate of taxation which would make your eyes water to ensure the safe clean and supportive environment we live in…

    Which really just means that you work for the government, not for yourselves. In the US, we have found less expensive and less tyrannical ways of covering all those services — although we have screwed up the free enterprise health care system, driving costs up toward Scandinavian levels. The rub is that free enterprise is not monetarily free. Thus, the poor cannot afford the luxuries, so socialist governments steps in, call the productive people “rich” and rob from them to give to the poor (after skimming off the top), then pat themselves on the back for doing such a “good job.”

    Lee S, you are one of the back-patters, thinking that all the “free stuff” is free. By the way, don’t gloat too much, because America is very clean, too, but we do not need socialism and very high taxes in order to make it that way. We the People made sure that it happened in a free market capitalist society. In fact, it is the increasingly overbearing government that takes less and less care and causes the biggest pollution events in this country.

    Government is the problem, not the solution, as you should have learned when your safe, clean, and supportive environment became so much more costly than ours.

    Among the many problems is that the safety net turns into a hammock. The poor must remain poor in order to continue their lifestyle of free stuff (free to them, expensive to the productive taxpayer).

    Worker’s rights invariably turn out to be intrusions upon the contracts between employees and employers, costing the employers more for each employee and making it harder to hire, which makes it harder for the unskilled to get their first job, and a spiral of poverty gets out of control. France is a good example of how the intrusion of government good intentions drove up unemployment. What was it that Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said is paved with good intentions?

    By the way, even the socialists in Scandinavia practice the art of shut-uppery.
    http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/what-ever-you-do-dont-shut-up

    As William Bradford and his Pilgrims learned the hard way in colonial America, socialism does not work, because the more productive people get upset that the less productive are unjustly getting what the productive have earned. The upset productive people become less productive at the expense of everyone. And it can have fatal results.

    If you, Lee S, are one of the productive, thank you for letting the unproductive people suck off your financial teat. If you are one of the unproductive getting free stuff (such as the insulin which keeps you alive), well …

    I have gone Galt. I used to work 70-hour weeks, only to realize that a lot of my hard earned money was being taxed away so that other people could spend it. I grew tired of a lifestyle where I was either working, sleeping, or driving to or from work. Why were the poor living better lives than me — and at my expense? I decided to stop letting others spend my money and retire early to spend my own money.

    The cost to you, Lee S, is not just the high taxation, it is your liberty, as the government slowly takes more and more control over your life. You just haven’t noticed, and you have justified it away by imagining that your world was safer, cleaner, and more supportive than before. You were wrong, but you didn’t want to believe the reality of the situation.

    You still don’t, when you are willing to feel sorry for and accept into your country those who are bound and determined to destroy your country one terrorist event at a time.

    Americans generally like the feeling of being adult enough to take control of our own lives (Garry touched on this as a need to feel in control). We like that we not only have the right to succeed, but the right to fail, allowing us to learn important life lessons from those failures. That is still a supportive environment, and is more supportive than coddling the unproductive. Supporting a lack of productivity is not as supportive as you may imagine.

    If others around the world do not like the feeling of adulthood, then that would explain why so many people come to the US and rather than become productive, as my ancestors did when they came to America, immediately sign up for various welfare subsidies.

    I do not understand why you, Lee S, think your country is not descending into communism. It is certainly descending into tyranny. Oops. It is already there.

    When I think of American Exceptionalism, I will now be able to think of the difference between Scandinavians, who accept that they need government help and government control over their lives, and Americans, who insist upon self sufficiency and control over our own lives. Our freedom and liberty allows our individual independence, and our independence allows us to try to do great things without interference by the government. Sometimes we succeed, like Elon Musk, and sometimes we fail, like Walter Kistler, but we all learned from both men’s experiences.

    Meanwhile, Scandinavians and socialists seem to desire these interferences so that workers can have more rights than their employers. Or do you also believe in the protection of employer’s rights, too? You didn’t mention that part.

  • wayne

    Amity Shlaes
    “The Forgotten Man: A new history of the great depression”
    (may 2007)
    https://youtu.be/_se_BkVba0s
    (59:15)

  • Lee S

    I just spent 20 min writing a balanced reply, and due to a capture glitch it vanished.. :-(
    I am pushed for time , but will try to try again later….

    Lee S

  • Cotour

    Another example of a variation on the subject of political correctness and social justice that will eventually kill us all.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cass-clemmer-trans-periods_us_597101bce4b0aa14ea78a251?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

    These kinds of story’s are being presented in the media related to the situation that a particular single individual finds themselves, do to not any fault of their own, but due to a function of the randomness of the combining of DNA as being normal, Capitol “N” when they are in fact anomalies and are normal lower case “n” specific to a particular single individual and anomalous biological classification. But they are still fully human beings with rights and dreams.

    Now I have much compassion for anyone who finds themselves in such a permanent life altering situation, what ever it may be, and my default position in dealing with anyone is one of a foundation philosophy of respect. (Keeping in mind that respect can only be earned and can never be demanded, mine is a foundation philosophy of respect) But IMO this is another example of the political correctness and social justice that will kill us all. Instead of teaching a philosophical foundation of respect the media and the politically correct powers that be are teaching that the one is actually what “normal” Capitol “N” is and that the reader, who is statistically unlikely to be “the same as” must question their normality and must in essence bend to an unreasonable degree to accommodate this new definition of normal to all kinds of new levels. Yes, you are different, we move on.

    Again, I have great compassion for being different, I myself am “different” in my own way, as we all are but we find our way through life and adapt as best as we can and attempt to survive and prosper. Now these kinds of biological challenges certainly do add to the challenge for an individual to fit in and find their way and prosper, but that is the way that it is. Their is a dark, fatalistic / suicidal flavor to this on going narrative that is being cast in the media in their politically correct attempt to redefine “Normal”.

    I never hear the media promoting / teaching the developing of a foundation philosophy of respect for all people and living things by individuals, but I do hear and see a lot of politically correct driven subjects and agendas that promote purposefully confusing and injurious thinking IMO.

  • Cotour

    Another problem with the Left / Leftist model. Like it or not, anyone who supports Left leaning policies also supports these extreme Left agendas and so can be considered “Leftists” (Lee S, this means you) :

    Hungary chooses to reject the George Soros forced Muslim invasion of Europe, at least their part of Europe that is.

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_HUNGARY_POLITICS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-07-22-09-32-59

    George Soros’s and the EU’s answer to the population of Europe? We are going to force a foreign culture / religion on you that in time will devour all of Europe (But we get to control them). This kind of forced cultural suicide by elites who “Know Better” is troubling in more than one way.

  • Edward

    Lee S,
    You wrote: “I just spent 20 min writing a balanced reply, and due to a capture glitch it vanished.. :-( I am pushed for time , but will try to try again later….

    I am looking forward to it. I am disappointed that you lost your first version. Since you are so often pressed for time, I recommend that you save drafts, frequently, as notebook files or email drafts in order to avoid such losses in the future. This technique will also allow you to write replies over longer time periods and allow more time to ponder your thoughts. I use this technique often.

    I am concerned, Lee S, that you are not aware or do not care that your government’s socialized medicine has reduced your freedom to choose the kind of insurance and the kind of care that you desire. This recently happened to us, here in America. For example, we Americans are now all treated as hermaphrodites. We are all covered for such conditions as pregnancy, whether or not we are able to become pregnant. Were I to purchase health insurance in America, today, I would be paying to have a Pap test, yet I am physically unable to have that test performed on me.

    In the olden days, just four years ago, I could — and did — purchase an insurance policy that was right for me. The price was very high, but still affordable at 1/2 the current price, and the deductible on that catastrophic coverage was 1/4 the deductible on the Obamacare plan. Not only can I not afford the modern policy, I cannot afford the deductible, either. Not only have I saved myself $25,000 over the past 3-1/2 years, but the break-even point is in the mid $30,000 range — I would have to have a medical bill that high before I would regret not buying the Obamacare policy. Being of sound mind an sound body, being a scofflaw by not buying Obamacare is the wisest action for me.

    So much for being a law abiding citizen.

    The cost to you, Lee S, is more than the heavy taxes that you and your fellow citizens pay, but you may also be paying higher prices for your goods and services.

    Finally, your country almost certainly gets the insulin which keeps you alive from an American company, or an American company probably developed it. It turns out that international agreements require that American pharmaceutical companies sell their drugs to other countries for significantly less than they charge Americans. Thus, we Americans pay to develop many or most of the world’s pharmaceuticals. This almost certainly includes your insulin. I had to work harder and enjoy life less in order to help bring that to you.

    You’re welcome.

    However, wouldn’t it be nice if you were to pay less in taxes, for your country to have a free market healthcare industry, allowing incentive for your country to develop its fair share of pharmaceuticals? I think so, too.

    In fact, I think that it would be nice if I were to be able to purchase my own pharmaceuticals at a more reasonable cost, rather than be burdened with subsidizing the other 95% of the world’s population for the development of their pharmaceutical supply.

    In addition, if the rest of the world were at greater liberty to develop pharmaceuticals and other goods and services, they could develop into first world economies, too. win-win-win-win-win all around.

    But no. Some people would rather give up their freedoms and liberties in order to feel as though they live in a “safe, clean, and supportive environment.” Never mind the terrorists who the government allows free entry into that environment; they only mean harm, destruction, and mayhem.

    Higher taxes, perhaps higher prices, less freedom, equality of lifestyle for all (except for the leaders, who are more equal than the rest), less than its fair share of contribution to the world’s economy, and a false sense of security. What a (raw) deal that socialism brings to Scandinavia. What a raw deal that it brings to the rest of us who have to work harder to make up for Scandinavia.

  • wayne

    Edward-
    good stuff.
    [btw, cost to develop a new drug in the United States, is now $1 billion, with time from discovery-to-approval by FDA, at 10 years. Pharmaceutical pricing is far more complex than it need be in the US. (partially by intention/obfuscation, plus the inevitable market-distortions and perverse incentives.) Needless to say, if the pharmaceutical industry was exposed to more honest to god competition, drugs would be less expensive and a larger variety available. But as you note, its not about “insurance,” it’s about transferring your money, to someone else, via force of law.]

    Lee– ditto on the ‘compose off-line’ thought from Edward. Inadvertently lost some utterly brilliant commentary and now I generally use notepad, except when I’m just babbling on the fly.

  • Edward

    To get back to the original post about cancelling a lecture by someone they find disagreeable:

    An atheist who criticizes religion? That has to be a first. [Do I need a sarcasm alert?]

    Robert wrote: “Essentially, the left can’t tolerate any dissent of any kind

    Which is why the left insists upon safe zones and silencing anyone who dissents from their positions. And their positions change on a whim.

    When I was going to school in Berkeley, someone joked that there should be a PC magazine to inform every Democrat what the politically correct positions were that month, because Democrats would only find out about the new positions when they spouted off the old position only to be insulted and rudely corrected by their peers as to the new position. The main problem was that if they did not make an instant correction, then they would lose friends right then and there. (The joke was that there was already a “PC” magazine, but it was for personal computers.)

    We can watch this position-pivot occur in “real time” with an audience of Stephen Colbert’s. When he announced to them that Comey had been fired, the audience cheered, unaware the the new leftist PC position was back to being Comey as a hero of the left (yet again). According to Colbert, the news should have been booed, not cheered, so Colbert set them straight.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNoP8cmuFU0 (first 2-minutes)

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