(George Orwell)
I have been asked the question several times: “You don’t believe in global warming???” Usually accompanied with an incredulous look or a huff and a smirk with the unspoken comment (“I thought you are smarter than that”)
Then I have to start explaining why the very question is a problem for me. I AM NOT A BELIEVER!
Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “The White Man’s Burden” was controversial from the moment it was printed in 1899. Read it. It is regularly misquoted, misinterpreted and misrepresented for over a hundred years.
As recently as 2005 a book was published with the title ‘the white man’s burden’ debating the implications of Kipling’s original point.
This is part one of a series on the subject looking at the relationship between ideology and pragmatism through issues related to three ideological systems: Environmentalism, Libertarianism and Socialism.
I read Leo Taxil when I was fourteen years old. “The Amusing Bible” is the classic and definitive ‘attack’ on the bible (I read it in Hungarian; I cannot find a link to an English translation, it may not exist).
Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Michael Shermer are old news for me. Continue reading →
As I was sitting in the sky on my way to Thailand, I had to watch several times the same commercial for Air Canada. It was boasting about their achievement in improving ‘sustainability’. They shed some weight from their airplanes to improve fuel efficiency by 30%. They did it for the planet.
The battle is raging in Toronto’s City Hall over the fate of the 2009 plastic bag bylaw
The major wants to scrap it – meaning to take away the compulsory aspect and the penalty of non-compliance. Retailers would still be free to charge for them just as they were before the bylaw took effect in July 1st 2009 but without the threat of penalties if they decide not to. Continue reading →