THEY DON’T REALLY BELIEVE IT YOU KNOW

Of course the Liberal Party’s ‘Beliefs’ are changing from their 1949 ‘Beliefs’, but they still insist (according to their website) on their belief in:
 
We Believe:

“In those most basic freedoms of parliamentary democracy - the freedom of thought, worship, speech and association.”
Found here,  https://www.liberal.org.au/our-beliefs

The Coalition’s second most senior figure in the Senate insists the government won’t be supporting a move by one of its backbenchers to change race hate speech laws.
Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has thrown down the gauntlet to his colleagues, vowing to use the first week of the new parliament to introduce a private bill that seeks to remove the words ‘offend’ and ‘insult’ from section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
The government’s position was very clear, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told ABC radio on Thursday 18 August 2016: ‘We will not initiate or support any changes … it’s a debate we had two years ago.’
 
In a communication to one of our politicians, Wallace Klinck of Canada had this to say:
 

Continue reading

So, Who Did Get Here First? by Brian Simpson

The headlines back in June 2016, loudly proclaimed:
New DNA Technology Confirms Aboriginal People as First Australians.” (ABC News, June 7, 2016)

With all the talk about recognition and “first people,” perhaps many were surprised to learn that the “New DNA Technology” reference is to a research paper allegedly refuting an earlier paper of 2001, that had argued that the oldest known Australian human remains, near Lake Mungo, New South Wales (“Mungo Man”), were alleged to not be Aboriginal at all, but from an extinct human linage. This would mean that the Aborigines, in pre-history “displaced” this race of people. This could have been by interbreeding, but more likely involved warfare. Things were tough and different from today.

This would directly challenge the “first person” ideology, but we did not hear much about it.
(continue reading)

Continue reading

The Forbidden History of Unpopular People by Topher Field


Topher takes an irreverent look back at the unpopular people of history and finds that sometimes it's the 'crackpots' who are right... meaning that there's a real benefit to ensuring everyone has a right to free speech, even if they're a crackpot!

Liberty & Democracy in Western Civilisation by Roger Scruton


Conservative philosopher Roger Scruton delivers the keynote address at the Institute of Public Affairs' 2014 Foundations of Western Civilisation Symposium.

Continue reading

The Return of the Pharisee

The zealots will never desist.  Only their opinions matter and their oppressive decrees are not only to be accepted but enforced as absolute.  They have usurped the authority of God. 

How different from the 1960’s when I listened to the most outrageous and diverse tirades and expositions, often delightfully challenging and humorously insulting, in London at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park.  How wonderful it was to be able to listen to and evaluate these messages for myself.  Some of the speakers knew themselves that many or all of the ideas they were uttering were nonsensical and they were just honing their literary and elocutionary skills. 

Continue reading

Politicians and 'People Power'

Last month I placed a blog entry about 'The Responsible Vote'. It is a process of individual engagement with their representatives by regularly communicating about current issues.

...we must write to the successful representative telling them how we voted and why. We must also keep in regular contact with the representative and inform them of our views in regard to matters of concern. The electors responsibility does not end on polling day.

Continue reading

Will Hungary Be Next to Exit the EU?

It is not at all surprising to see the breakup of that monolith called the EU.
Run by unelected bearucrats, answerable to only themselves (soviet style), people have finally had enough.

Similar to Australia, the ferment against the elites is taking shape, as people everywhere begin to take back their countries.

Continue reading

After the Hacking – Now What? by Tom North

With my distrust of computers and all things IT and AI, I of course did not go on-line to fill out my census form. Why, it was invasive enough without Skynet looking over my shoulder. I predicted, the inevitable, that hackers would sneak into the site and drain away all vital information, described by one defense/IT expert as a “honey pot.”

What I have seen on the net, if that can be trusted, is that the hack occurred from “overseas.” I am not sure why a hack would bring a site down, for wouldn’t true professionals go in and out without a trace, not stomp around cybernetically like a proverbial elephant in a china shop?

Continue reading

If Trump is a Threat, then What is Hillary? by Chris Knight

Following on from the publication of Clinton Cash, we have another media “debate” about how dangerous Donald Trump will be. Thus, Kim Beazley, the former Defence Minister said (The Australian, August 10, 2016, p. 1), that Trump would as president cause unnecessary confrontations with China, and thus threaten Australia’s security.

Regardless of what one thinks about Trumps’ promises to restore economic nationalism to America, which is unquestionably a threat to the globalist elite, Trump is much less of a hawk than Clinton. He has indicated that he wants fair trade deals with China, and is friendly to Russia. The media, of course, uses Trump’s fair view of Russia against him as well.

Continue reading

Free Speech and Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act

Some salient points raised by Jennifer Oriel the other day.

21st-century Left waging new war on free speech by Jennifer Oriel

Continue reading

Race Commissioner:” Guilty Until Proven Guilty by Ian Wilson LL.B.

When I say cartoonist Bill Leak’s cartoon about an Aboriginal police officer approaching an Aboriginal father about his delinquent son’s behaviour, and the father giving a delinquent response, I knew that many would find the cartoon offensive.

Although I am a free speech advocate, I do not believe that such comments are particularly helpful, merely getting a chuckle out of a terrible situation where there is genuine human misery. Such comments do not help, although peole should be free to make them. But, then, I am a Christian.

Continue reading

A Wish List for a Royal Commission into the Financial Services Industry by Ken Grundy

The Labor Party, Greens, and independents Nick Xenophon team and Pauline Hanson, are supportive of a Royal Commission into the Financial Services Industry, especially the banks. There has been significant community concern over numerous scandals and consumer rip off such as Comminsure, the Commonwealth Bank’s life insurance arm.

See:  http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/comminsure-scandal-to-hit-cba-brand-again-20160308-gndj4y.html

Continue reading

The Left and the Right and the Truth by Betty Luks

Ref: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=18449

Mr. Aitkin’s OnLine Opinion.com.au article (15 August 2016) which prompted his  “Left and Right in Australian Politics" discussion reminded me of Geoffrey Dobbs’ article titled, “The Left and the Right and the Truth” written many years ago.

Continue reading

To the Editor

Tony Abbott has bemoaned the fact that 'our Parliament prefers to tolerate over-the-top prosecutions than to upset thin-skinned activists' (The Age - 'Reflective Abbott reopens racial hate-speech debate', 13/8). Also regrettable is the lack of concern in ordinary, thoughtful Australians over the fact that honourable and informed dissidents can be wrongfully attacked under the present law. This in turn is perhaps an aspect of a greater problem here: the growing selfishness of individuals, which seems clearly linked to the diminution of religious observance.

Protecting disadvantaged persons from malicious abuse can be achieved without infringement of free speech. However, another roadblock to reform is the fear of both major political parties that they will lose key votes from minority groups if they defend free speech and that this could cause them to lose an election. The remedy to this situation is more outspokenness from citizens generally to defend dissident speech.

NJ, Belgrave Victoria

WA Liberals vote to remove ‘insult’, ‘offend’ from section 18C ...


ABC News, 13/8/2016



http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-13/wa-liberal-party-votes-to-remove-words-from-discrimination-act/7732176

Continue reading

Royal funeral for Romania's uncrowned Queen Anne by Nick Thorpe BBC News Eastern Europe correspondent


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37064327

A royal funeral takes place in central Romania on Saturday for a queen who was never crowned and never served and yet still commands full state honours...

Continue reading

Race Commissioner has blatantly prejudged Bill Leak over cartoon

Interesting links below, posted without comment:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/chris-merritt-prejudice/race-commissioner-has-blatantly-prejudged-bill-leak-over-cartoon/news-story/25ed479bf0a4ae843c326c4f6c3ccfac

Continue reading

On the Same-Sex Marriage Plebiscite by Ian Wilson LL.B.

One important thing seldom discussed in the issue of the same-sex marriage plebiscite is that it is not necessary at all to permit a change to the legal definition of marriage because our High Court has already decided that the term "marriage", "when used in section 51 (xxi),… is a term which includes a marriage of persons of the same sex". This conclusion was reached in the High Court's decision on the legality of the ACT's "Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act 2013" on December 12, 2013: Commonwealth v  Australia Capital Territory (2013) HCA 55.
http://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/judgment-summaries/2013/hca55-2013-12-12.pdf

As is common in constitutional law today, there was no concern about the intent of the original framers of the Australian Constitution and a progressive interpretation was adopted without any concern at all for the connection of the law to the Christian and Western tradition. Seeing the Constitution as a "living force" allows the High Court to adopt "progressive" and leftist positions on social and policy issues.

Continue reading

A Declaration of War on a Unitary Australia by Ian Wilson LL.B.

In regard to Section 18 C: I quote from a letter to the Editor (The Australian, August 2, 2016, p.13), by Geoffrey Luck:

"Australia now risks descending into a state of two nations. The attacks which destroyed Brian Martin's ability to conduct the NT Royal Commission and the Pearson and Shorten demands for a treaty linked to the constitutional referendum represent a declaration of Aboriginal war on the tradition of a unitary Australia".

Continue reading

The scientific money system for the automation age of abundance by Robert E. Klinck, M.A.



From the Scarborough Sun, December 31,1970, Page 3.
THE SOCIAL CREDITER
The scientific money system for the automation age of abundance
by Robert E. Klinck, M.A.

In comparison with most of the major political forces operative in the world today, Social Credit is a phenomenon of recent origin. Indeed, this month (1970-ed) marks only the fifty-third anniversary of the publication of the first article on the subject by its founder and authoritative exponent, the late Clifford Hugh Douglas.

Partly because he was less concerned with personal recognition for his contribution to analyzing the defects of modern social institutions than he was with actually correcting the defects, and partly because he was cognizant—and therefore, wary—of the nonsense which frequently flows from the pens of biographers, no comprehensive biography of Douglas has ever been written. Nevertheless, sufficient information about him is available to permit us at least to sketch his remarkable career.  Douglas, being of Scottish descent, spent his latter years in Fearnan, Perthshire.  He was born, however, in Stockport, Cheshire, England in 1879.

Various comments in his writings and speeches indicate that he regarded obtaining his higher education at Cambridge University as one of the less rewarding experiences of his life.



C.H. Douglas  M.I. Mech.E., M.I.E.E.
prophet of the age of abundance

 
He entered the profession of engineering, in which he acquired a considerable experience as a participant in major construction projects around the globe.

He was on the staff of the Westinghouse Company of America; in India he was Chief Reconstruction Engineer for the British Westinghouse Company; in  South America he was Deputy Chief Engineer of the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway Company. Returning to England, he became Railway Engineer of the London Post Office Tube system  and was engaged in the construction of an underground railway between Paddington and Whitehall. After the First World War, he became a yacht manufacturer.

In the course of overcoming physical obstacles as an engineer, Douglas gained an awareness of the tremendous potential in modern technology for individual human emancipation. It was, in fact, during the First World War that Douglas made a discovery which was shortly to result in his grafting onto his eminent career as an engineer those of economist and philosopher, as well.

At that time, as a Major in the British Royal Flying Corps, he was despatched to the Royal Aircraft Works in Farnborough to unravel a production problem. Its solution necessitated his carrying out an intensive investigation of costing in the factory. Applying this novel approach to broader economic considerations with rigorous use of the method of scientific induction led him to an unexpected conclusion which for decades was to be an issue of heated controversy among economists. In brief, Douglas claimed to have discovered that in a given period of time the amount of purchasing power distributed to potential consumers of goods was insufficient to allow them to purchase the goods produced in the same time. This matter will be discussed more fully in a subsequent article in this series.

One early result of Douglas’s inquiries was the publication in The English Review (December, 1918) of an article by him entitled, “The Delusion of Super- Production,” in which he attempted to demonstrate the falsity of the proposition being advanced from all quarters after the war that the key to achieving peace-time economic stability and prosperity lay in substantially increasing manufactures. Douglas argued to the contrary: he contended that, so long as existing financial provisions were retained, such productive activity would merely aggravate a technical problem which would eventually inflict a severe economic reckoning on the population. Subsequent events proved in dramatic fashion the soundness of his prediction.

After the publication of “The Delusion of Super-Production” Douglas devoted an increasing amount of time to consideration of economic issues. Nearly forty years of age, he wrote Economic Democracy, the first of numerous books. So condensed and unfamiliar were the ideas expressed in this work that it required a whole series of even longer volumes to clarify his analyses and his proposals. Although steeped in a profound philosophy, these early works were primarily concerned with economic propositions. Later—during the 1930’s and 1940’s—Douglas turned his attention towards politics and the problem of how successfully to implement his principles.

However distinguished by consistency and precision of expression Douglas’s writings may be, what is most impressive about them is the amazing way in which their author is able to cut through misconceptions, irrelevancies and emotionalism to the core of problems. In this regard, Douglas was unquestionably gifted with a singular clairvoyance.

Included as highlights in his career as an economist were his testimony at the Canadian Parliamentary inquiry into Banking and Commerce in 1923, his delivery of a paper at the World Engineering Congress in Tokyo in 1929, and his statement of evidence before the Macmillan Committee (of Great Britain) on Finance and Industry in 1930. During an immensely successful world tour, beginning in 1933, Douglas addressed enormous crowds in Australia and New Zealand, where he also testified before a Parliamentary Committee on Banking. In Western Canada he gave evidence before the Agricultural Committee of the Alberta Legislature and, in Ottawa, testified before the Committee on Banking of the Dominion Parliament. Before returning to England in 1934, Douglas proceeded to the United States where he was guest of honour in Washington at a supper for Senators and Congressmen arranged by Senator Bronson Cutting. In 1935, at the invitation of King Haakon of Norway, he addressed the King and the members of a merchants’ club in Oslo.

Some indication of Douglas’s stature as an economist can be obtained from the tribute paid him by the brilliant English editor and economist, A. R. Orage. “His knowledge of economics was extraordinary,” wrote Orage, “and from our very first conversation everything he said concerning finance in its relation to industry—and, indeed, to industrial civilization as a whole—gave me the impression of a master-mind perfectly informed upon its special subject; after years of the closest association with him, my first impression has only been intensified. In the score of interviews we had together with Bankers, Professors of Economics, Politicians and Businessmen, I never saw him so much as at a moment’s loss of complete mastery of his subject. Among no matter what experts he made them look and talk like children.”

Beside the fact of his unusual intellect, do we know anything of Douglas’s character? Better to appreciate that, it is desirable to quote at some length from another writer, L. D. Byrne, who was not only a keen student of Douglas’s thought, but also his personal friend:

“Notwithstanding a mental stature unusual in any society, Douglas’s outstanding characteristic was a profound humility—a humility which was reflected in his writings and in his life. This is the one quality which set him apart from his contemporaries and ensured him a lasting place with the truly great men in the annals of human endeavour. Where others viewed the world in terms of mankind’s struggles and achievements, and society as the creature of man’s brain and behaviour, with the realism of the engineer and the penetrating spirituality of a Mediaeval theologian, Douglas saw the Universe as an integrated unity centred in its Creator and subject to His Law.

“It was the basis of Douglas’s philosophy, of which Social Credit is the policy, that there is running through the warp and woof of the Universe the Law of Righteousness—Divine Law—which he termed ‘The Canon.’ Just as the stars in their courses, the electron in relation to the proton and the behaviour of light are obedient to it, so all Life is governed by the Canon. Because of the higher  intelligence and free-will accorded to him, Man cannot rely on instinct to guide him in his adherence to the Canon. He must seek it actively, and to the extent that he finds it and conforms to it, he will achieve harmony with the Universe and his Creator. Conversely, to the degree that he ignores the operations of the Canon and flouts it, he will bring disaster upon himself. (emphasis-ed)

“It was inherent in Douglas’s writings that he viewed society as something partaking of the nature of an organism which could ‘have life and life more abundant’ to the extent it was God-centred and obedient to His Canon. Such a social organism would be the corporate expression of the lives and relationships of its component individuals. Within it, the sovereignty of ‘God the creator of all things visible and invisible’ being absolute, there must be full recognition of the sanctity of human personality, and, therefore, of the individual person as free to live his life and, within the body social, to enter into or contract out of such associations with others as, with responsibility to his Creator, he may choose.  And no person may deny to another this relationship to God and his fellow men without committing sacrilege.” (emphasis-ed)

Surely, reading this passage, we can sense the character of Douglas and the scope and depth of his philosophy.

The man died in 1952. 

What seems amazing is the extent to which Douglas’s thought has been simply ignored. In spite of his having been one of the most talented writers and brilliant critics of the Twentieth Century, one can scarcely find a mention of him in decades of indices to the London Times. And today, while their shelves are filled with tomes on the obsolete and hate-filled doctrines of Karl Marx, booksellers refuse to display the works of Douglas, whose philosophy, respectful of the individual, held promise of achieving social harmony and whose policy was to make the vast productive potential of modern industrial nations serve rather than dominate man, to give him economic security accompanied by greater freedom to exercise his initiative and develop his personality. Douglas maintained that his proposals would produce these results—and no one ever succeeded in seriously refuting his claim.