Scripturient

Gone to the Dark Side

2012-05-04 2012-05-04 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Science & TechnologyLeave a comment

Yes, I have been recruited to the Dark Side: I have an Apple iPad now. Well, it’s a loaner, but they’ll have to pry it out of my cold dead fingers if they want it back. Unless they offer me a 64GB model in exchange… And, yes, I have been reduced to the fatuous abuse of capitalization in its name: iPad, rather than a more proper Ipad. You know, you can’t even type Ipad on the device because the auto-correct feature will change it into iPad every time. Sigh. Auto-correct is the reason there are still exorcists in business these ……… click below for more ↓

The End of the World is Nigh… Again

2012-05-03 2015-04-15 Atheism & Spirituality / Faith / Religion5 Comments

Sigh. And you thought election time was silly season. The last year has certainly been silly season for apocalyptic predictions. From the so-called Mayan end of days to the failed “rapture” of Howard Camping, it’s been a great time for conspiracy theory and cult watchers. The latest prediction for the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) is from Jose De Jesus Miranda, a US-based fundamentalist religious preacher (of course). According to Miranda, the world will end on June 30, 58 days from today (as I write this). A story in the HuffPost noted that Miranda predicts a ……… click below for more ↓

A Delightful Farce Called Anonymous

2012-04-29 2012-04-29 Arts / Books & Reviews / History & Biography / Memes; Internet & SocialLeave a comment

Watched a delightful, satirical farce last night, called Anonymous. It’s a spoof about the conspiracy theory that the Earl of Oxford (Edward de Vere) wrote the works of William Shakespeare. This conspiracy notion has a pop following, but lacks significant scholarly and any historical support. Like other conspiracy theories, it has gained ground on the Internet from the simple fact that most people are naturally superstitious and suspicious, and would rather not apply critical thinking or do any serious research to prove or disprove outlandish claims. As theories go, de Vere-as-Shakespeare is up there with the Elvis-is-still-alive, JFK-survived-the-Dallas-shooting or the-American-government-was-behind-the-9/11-attacks. ……… click below for more ↓

Analytic thinking can decrease religious belief

2012-04-27 2012-04-27 Atheism & Spirituality / Faith / Religion / Science & TechnologyOne Comment

I read a story in Science News today about a study that shows, “analytic thinking can decrease religious belief, even in devout believers.” “Our goal was to explore the fundamental question of why people believe in a God to different degrees,” says lead author Will Gervais, a PhD student in UBC’s Dept. of Psychology. “A combination of complex factors influence matters of personal spirituality, and these new findings suggest that the cognitive system related to analytic thoughts is one factor that can influence disbelief.” The findings, Gervais says, are based on a longstanding human psychology model of two distinct, but ……… click below for more ↓

Fifty thousand words…

2012-04-25 2012-04-25 Arts / Books & Reviews / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences / What I'm Reading Now4 Comments

This morning I crossed the 50,000 word mark in my book on Machiavelli’s The Prince for municipal politicians. It’s longer than I had originally intended, but I think it’s a reasonable length for the content. I’m pleased with the current draft and should have my reading and self-editing done by next Monday. Then it’s on to my next book, about e-government. I have an overhead of perhaps 2,000 words I could reduce it by through my own editing. Primarily that would involve deleting the addendum with the maxims from his Art of War and from Sun Tzu’s book of the ……… click below for more ↓

Horwath needs to read her Machiavelli

2012-04-20 2012-04-20 Canadian Politics / History & Biography / Municipal Politics3 Comments

Andrea Horwath needs to do some more reading before she decides to negotiate further with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. Specifically, she needs to read more Machiavelli. The Prince, in particular. This week the Globe & Mail reported that Horwath announced that, “…NDP Leader Andrea Horwath (is) now abandoning another major proposal in return for her party’s support of the governing Liberals’ budget, it will be easier for the two sides to strike a deal.” Her “proposal” – actually a demand in exchange for the NDP’s support of the Liberal budget – was to remove the provincial portion of the harmonized ……… click below for more ↓

Psychiatric help would be better than exorcism

2012-04-14 2012-04-14 Atheism & Spirituality / Faith / Religion / Science & TechnologyLeave a comment

The headline reads, “Exorcist Expertise Sought After Saskatoon ‘Possession’” At least the editors of the CBC News story had the good sense to put the word possession in quotes to indicate it is alleged, not a fact. As did the Toronto Star. However, both news agencies took the story seriously enough to write it up. And then it got picked up by the Huffington Post. Must have been a slow news day (surely there was something about the F35 or robocalls to fill the space…) Like ghosts, spirits, pixies, goblins and other imaginary beings, demons are figments of our own ……… click below for more ↓

Could ‘Advanced’ Dinosaurs Rule Other Planets?

2012-04-11 2012-04-11 Canadian Politics / Politics / Science & Technology2 Comments

That’s the question asked today in an article posted on Science Daily. To which I might add: Why not? Dinosaurs didn’t die out: they have ruled parts of this planet in the guise of fundamentalist theocracies for decades. They thunder and roar in Iran like rutting Stegosaurs. The Taliban raptor rampaged through Afghanistan until they had to slink back to their caves while NATO knocked them about. But it’s not just theocracies. Brontosaurs stomp about in Republican and Conservative parties in so-called “advanced” nations. Ceratopsians rule North Korea and Myanmar. Living fossils in China still brutalize the Tibetan mammals. If ……… click below for more ↓

This time it’s a Machiavellian mis-quote.

2012-04-10 2016-02-26 Books & Reviews / History & Biography / Language & Grammar / Memes; Internet & Social / Quotes & Mis-quotes2 Comments

Whilst perusing the Net for some material for my book on Machiavelli, I came across this maxim: “Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.” It’s attributed on many, many sites to Machiavelli in his most famous work, The Prince. Sounds pretty Machiavellian, doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t. Machiavelli never wrote those words. Sun Tzu wrote that, “All warfare is based on deception.” (Book 1, 18), which is close. Sun Tzu went on to add in the next two lines (19 and 20), “Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, ……… click below for more ↓

Machiavelli in popular art: Don MacDonald’s graphic novel

2012-04-08 2012-04-08 Arts / Books & Reviews / Municipal Politics / PoliticsLeave a comment

A graphic novel about Niccolo Machiavelli… who woulda thought? It’s not like the Florentine was exactly the X Men or Mr. Natural as a comic book hero. Artist Don MacDonald has put together a graphic biography of Machiavelli on his blog, stretching more than 150 pages (so far) ranging through the entire span of Niccolo’s life. He even includes footnotes for some of the historical material he has drawn on, with sources listed. It does help to read his notes, and even more to have some familiarity of Machiavelli’s life. But even without it, it’s captivating. Well, of course I ……… click below for more ↓

It’s not an Apache blessing, it’s just a Hollywood script

2012-04-08 2016-05-29 Arts / Atheism & Spirituality / Language & Grammar / Memes; Internet & Social5 Comments

“May the sun bring you new energy by day,” begins this saccharine saying that has enjoyed a continued life outside Facebook through the fridge magnet and huggable-puppies-and-kittens-on-posters and wedding planner industries. It gets passed off as an “Apache blessing” or “Apache wedding blessing” on Facebook, usually with some hunk-ish Indian brave pictures beside the words or some faux-Indian animal fetish images. The rest of the alleged “blessing” reads: …May the moon softy restore you by night; May the rain wash away your worries; May the breeze blow new strength into your being; May you walk gently through the world and ……… click below for more ↓

Please preserve the CBC: no more cuts!

2012-03-28 2012-03-28 Arts / Canadian Politics / Media Issues2 Comments

Canadians who care about media content, journalistic integrity and fair reporting are anxiously watching for tomorrow’s federal budget announcements. Big cuts to the CBC are expected, according to this Huffington Post story: Cuts to CBC funding expected in the upcoming federal budget could have dramatic implications, touching everything from popular television programming to foreign news bureaus and eliminating hundreds of jobs, observers predict. The CBC’s own story about the predicted cuts doesn’t mention the CBC, but it does say, “…many public servants in Ottawa are bracing for staffing cuts, which may not arrive through relatively painless attrition or early retirement ……… click below for more ↓

Scribble, scribble, eh what?

2012-03-26 2012-03-26 Arts / Books & Reviews / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences / What I'm Reading Now7 Comments

Just passed the 13,000 word mark on my current book about Machiavelli and municipal politics, this weekend. So far, I have gone through explanations of Chapters 1-10 of The Prince. The Prince has 26 chapters, so I’m about 40% of the way through my analysis, more or less on track for a 35,000-40,000 word book. It’s a little tough in places trying to fit Machiavelli’s words and ideas to modern issues and themes, but so far I think I’ve done a fair job of finding relevant metaphors, issues and events. The next chapter, on ecclesiastical states, might be a bit ……… click below for more ↓