"Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage.” C. S. Lewis
Can freedom be maintained where virtue is not flourishing?
When you abandon all moral standards, you create chaos, and since there are no resources left to combat that chaos, no moral standard you can refer to in order to defend against it, then you go to the government, So what do you get?
Moral chaos will lead us to lose our freedoms. The inevitable consequence of the modern project of complete liberation from all restraint is slavery.
"Why? Because the teachers' unions are opposed to charter schools -- and they give big bucks to politicians, who in turn put obstacles and restrictions on the expansion of charter schools.
Same as the opposition to Grammar Schools in the UK - the little darlings might escape theWhat is it about teachers...even those whom I have met in the independent system here in Australia who are militantly unionised, often vote Green, which is Marxism in everything but name...and who always say they are doing it for 'the children' but are in reality often only living out their own subversive beliefs.clutchestender embrace offar-left activiststeachers who are instructing them how to beanti-white, anti-capitalist shock troopsmodel citizens."
"VIEWERS of the ABC were recently shown an emotional, one-sided Four Corners program on juvenile detention in the Northern Territory. It was frightening, but deliberately misleading. It relied on old footage and I believe the program was an abuse of the ABC’s charter and an abuse of taxpayers’ money…
The old Don Dale Juvenile Centre had been in use for many years but in August 2014, the then CLP minister, John Elferink, decided to close it. Its facilities were unacceptable…
The government renovated the unused Berrimah Prison, which became the new Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre. The move took place in early 2015…
Also in 2014, Elferink employed Michael Vita to prepare an independent report into the juvenile detention system… [B]etween $20 million to $30 million has been spent since early 2015 implementing those recommendations.
No mention of those positive steps was in the ABC report, which was based on three pieces of footage, the most alarming of which showed guards rushing an individual and throwing him to the ground — in fact, on to a mattress. That was on December 9, 2010, almost six years ago. Yet the ABC gave the impression the incident was recent and the fault of the current government. As a result of that incident, charges were laid by the DPP against a Youth Justice Officer and heard in the NT’s Court of Summary Jurisdiction in December 2013. The officer was acquitted. The NT DPP appealed to the Northern Territory Supreme Court but on December 1, 2014, Justice Barr upheld the magistrate’s decision. He said in part “the force that was used was within the parameters of the law”.
Justice Barr also noted evidence that claimed officers had been spat on 200 times.
So the ABC used footage that was six years old but did not tell its audience. It did not say the matter had been heard by two courts, which found the officer’s actions were acceptable. Nor did it explain why officers took the action they did. And there was certainly no mention that this occurred under the watch of an ALP government.
The second piece of footage was a spit hood being applied to an individual in a restraint chair. I am told this was because there had been threats of self-harm…
But it’s worth noting there are 15 officers in the NT Juvenile Correction system who are off work and 11 of those will not be able to return to full duty because of injuries received at the hands of incarcerated young people. Ask yourself this: had the ABC reported the situation accurately would we be having a royal commission?"
"When a leftist tells you, “Making ordinary Muslims feel ashamed is no way to wage a war against extremism,” they’re lying and they know it. Leftists, more than anyone else, get the awesome power of shame. They fight against using it in the war on Muslim terror precisely because they understand what an amazing weapon it is. They don’t want Muslims shamed, because they don’t want a reduction in Islamic belligerence. Muslims are vital to the left’s plan to forge a Europe hostile to its indigenous population, culture, and traditions. So damn right you don’t want to create an army of milquetoast Muhammadans. The more proud and belligerent, the better.http://takimag.com/article/to_shame_the_white_man_david_cole/print#ixzz4H5DBFIy3
"Marcus Tullius Cicero, the great Roman orator, was drawn to and gifted for philosophy. However, he regarded the statesman's life as more choice-worthy. In a book dedicated to his son, he explained why. Philosophers, he said, can spin theories about justice until the end of their days, but statesmen are the ones who must actually figure out how to set the conditions that are necessary to a just and well-functioning polity.
Policy is the act of translating ideas with direct consequences on millions. It has to take the concepts developed by the 'thinkers', and figure out what that looks like on the ground. Not only that, but it does this while clashing with dozens of other ideas, often being forced to compromise it's purity of form, as it engages in a fallen and messy world.
It is so easy to sit in our chairs and critique policy makers. We point out where the translations are off, where the effect has been inadequate, our how we would have done it better. However, until one actually stands in the trenches, making the difficult decisions under immense pressure, then we must be careful with our judgments.
That is why we start at a position of respect...unless we are willing to get down in the mud as well." [Nick Jensen - Director - Lachlan Macquarie Institute]
Experts are notoriously bad at seeing technological change coming. When they do, they often expect it in the wrong area. Fifty years ago, after dramatic changes in transport but not much change in communication, futurologists were all babbling about personal gyrocopters, regular supersonic flights and routine space travel – none of which have yet materialized. Very few of them saw mobile phones coming, let alone the internet, search engines or social media.So trust experts, yes, but never about the future. The inventor, James Lovelock, aged 96, put it rather well in an interview with the Bournemouth Echo at the weekend: “I think anyone that tries to predict more than five to ten years ahead is a bit of an idiot, so many things can change unexpectedly.” [Matt Ridley]
May, 2015
Shut up the poisonous opponents of identity politics, says Paul Kelly:
The danger is that Australia faces a debacle in the campaign to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the Constitution.... Bolt has prejudged the issue, saying earlier this month the effect of the referendum is “to divide Australians by our ‘race’… It is hard to judge whether the political poison Bolt injects into this debate will gain traction.... This raises another question: as the referendum advances, how much liberty will be extended to Bolt by his editors to continue his campaign in their newspapers?
Today:
Beware the poisonous attempts to shut up the opponents of identity politics, says Paul Kelly:
The rise of identity politics in Australia — with its poisonous assault on rational, honest debate and the quality of public policy — is now tangible in both indigenous and gender issues and was on display this week over the Northern Territory detention crisis… The politics of identity speaks to deep human need. Yet its application veers towards narcissism, censoring of public debate, vicious campaigns of intimidation and a diminished public square.
