Tom Flanagan: Watching Child Porn Does “Not Harm Another Person”

Posted on by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Reply

This guy is one sick critter.

Former aide to Canadian PM fired after child porn comment

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office quickly distanced themselves from former Harper aide Tom Flanagan on Wednesday after the political commentator said viewing child pornography did not harm others.

Flanagan was a campaign manager and chief of staff for Harper or the Conservative Party at various times before the Conservatives took power in 2006, and has long been a commentator for CBC. …

“…you know a lot of people on my side of the spectrum, a certain side of the spectrum, are bent on kind of a jihad against pornography and child pornography in particular, and I certainly have no sympathy for child molesters, but I do have some grave doubts about putting people in jail because of their taste in pictures,” Flanagan, a political scientist at the University of Calgary, told the seminar on Wednesday night.

He said there was a real issue as “to what extent we put people in jail for doing something in which they do not harm another person.”

Currently Reading: Steven Lukes’s “Power: A Radical View”

Posted on by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Reply

Steven Lukes’ Power: A Radical View is a seminal work still widely used some 30 years after publication. The second edition includes the complete original text alongside two major new essays. One assesses the main debates about how to conceptualize and study power, including the influential contributions of Michel Foucault. The other reconsiders Steven Lukes’ own views in light of these debates and of criticisms of his original argument. With a new introduction and bibliographical essay, this book will consolidate its reputation as a classic work and a major reference point within social and political theory.

This is a scary book when you realize what kinds of minds are out there thinking up schizoidal justifications for a New World Order of total control.

Lukes’s best-known, still controversial academic theory is his so-called ‘radical’ view of power. It can be simply stated. It claims there are three dimensions of power. The first is overt power, typically exhibited in the presence of conflict in decision-making situations, where power consists in winning, that is prevailing over another or others. The second is covert power, consisting in control over what gets decided, by ignoring or deflecting existing grievances. And the third is the power to shape desires and beliefs, thereby averting both conflict and grievances. The first is the most public of the three and is how the powerful usually want to be seen: for instance, the power of political leaders to make policy decisions after widespread consultation with opposition parties and the wider public. The second is the power to control agendas. It has been called the ‘mobilization of bias,’ reinforcing the powerful by excluding threatening issues from discussion in public forums. The third kind of power can be the most insidious. It is the most hidden from view—the least accessible to observation by social actors and observers alike. It can be at work, despite apparent consensus between the powerful and the powerless. It is the power to influence people’s wishes and thoughts, inducing them to want things opposed to what would benefit them and to fail to want what they would, but for such power, recognize to be in their real interests.

Elites push for internet sales tax

Posted on by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Reply

The Wealthy Elite want to screw us for more money so they can spend it on more wars and kill more people and impose more austerity measures on us. That’s what it is in a nutshell. Yet another way they see to get that blood out of the rock.

U.S. lawmakers push for internet sales tax

Did you pay sales tax on the last item you bought on the Internet? Unless it was from Amazon, you probably did not. You may soon though if a gaggle of U.S. lawmakers working hand-in-hand with big business get their way.

And if you’re an online retailer, you may have to collect and remit sales taxes for all fifty states no matter where your online business resides. But don’t worry, lawmakers want to force all states to adopt the same standard for sales taxes, thus making it easier for you to comply.

More Fireballs!

Posted on by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
1

More and more… it’s NOT letting up!

Two separate fireballs blaze over East and West coasts of Canada, 25 February 2013

25 February 2013 – Kristine Waverley, Nova Scotia 21:45 AST

5 seconds duration. It went from right to left, I was facing North. Blue colour, as bright as the Sun. It was very low in the sky.

25 February 2013 – Nadia, Porters Lake, Nova Scotia 10:00 pm Atlantic Std. Time

~ 3 seconds duration. Moved from South to North. No sound. Bright yellow colour with a green flaming tail. As bright as the Sun/moon. It burned up before my eyes, and moved fast and low.

25 February 2013 – Christine Kristen, VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA 18:25 PST

3 seconds or so duration. Big bright streak, straight down. I was facing west. It was white colour. It was very bright and seemed very big considering how far away it appeared (perhaps over the Pacific coast?). Sky was still light.

25 February 2013 – Darragh Courtenay, BC, Canada 18:30 PST

I saw it for 2 seconds as I was driving through town. I was facing it and it was heading north at a sharp enough angle downwards. Bright white colour with a white tail and trail of smoke into the hills. It was bright, cause it was still a clear sky and still daylight there was a long trail of smoke. I tried to track it down, cause it looks like it went to the ground, there was a vertical smoke stream.

And another!

Comet fragment breaks apart over southern U.S.? Enormous fireball reported over Gulf of Mexico, 27 February 2013

27 February 2013 – Max Watts, Dickinson 03:25 CST

I’d say it lasted for about 1 minute and 30 seconds from the time I first noticed it. It was real bright with red tails. I thought it was a comet at first glance. Brighter than the full moon, this thing was very large. In fact, it was one large piece with a number of fragments behind it. It seemed to be heading Northeast. I fully expected to hear several impacts but heard none. My first thought was ‘Russia!’ and that now it’s happening here!

Bangladeshi girl charged with adultery was lashed to death

Posted on by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Reply

They need to arrest the Imam, and all the villagers who supported this action and give them the lash too… until they drop.

Only 14, Bangladeshi girl charged with adultery was lashed to death

Hena Akhter’s last words to her mother proclaimed her innocence. But it was too late to save the 14-year-old girl.

Her fellow villagers in Bangladesh’s Shariatpur district had already passed harsh judgment on her. Guilty, they said, of having an affair with a married man. The imam from the local mosque ordered the fatwa, or religious ruling, and the punishment: 101 lashes delivered swiftly, deliberately in public.

Hena dropped after 70.

Bloodied and bruised, she was taken to hospital, where she died a week later.

Comets and the Horns of Moses

Posted on by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Reply

Could a comet hit Mars in 2014?

A recently discovered comet will make an uncomfortably-close planetary flyby next year – but this time it’s not Earth that’s in the cosmic crosshairs.

According to preliminary orbital prediction models, comet C/2013 A1 will buzz Mars on Oct. 19, 2014. The icy interloper is thought to originate from the Oort Cloud – a hypothetical region surrounding the solar system containing countless billions of cometary nuclei that were outcast from the primordial solar system billions of years ago.

Things are definitely getting interesting! I wouldn’t miss this cosmic show for anything!

And speaking of comets, have you read the new book? Interesting that the Russian meteorite explosion occurred 3 days following its release. The Universe may be speaking! Now ranked at #13 in Books > History > Historical Study & Educational Resources > Historiography, and  #10 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Metaphysics:

Comets and the Horns of Moses

Comets and the Horns of Moses

Noctilucent clouds caused by meteors/comets?

Posted on by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
1

Noctilucent clouds appear out of season and far to the south – cometary dust from the Russian meteor blast?

From 19-21 February 2013, noctilucent clouds were observed in the UK, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands. Since these clouds are usually only seen in summer, it is suspected that they may be the result of comet dust deposited in the upper atmosphere by the Chelyabinsk/Chebarkul meteor or comet fragment explosion over Southern Russia on 15 February.

So, if these are caused by the recent Russian meteor/comet explosion, what’s been causing all the others… it’s been noted that such clouds are being seen more often and further south than ever before for the past several years.

Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls

Posted on by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Reply

Be sure to check out my list of meteorite, asteroid, and comet events on SOTT.net. We’ve got it updated to this year, including yearly summaries, statistics, and descriptions of significant celestial events going back 13,000 years!

2012 (Summary) – Worldwide: In 2012, SOTT.net archived 136 fireball reports, 24 unexplained sonic booms (at least 3 of which were accompanied by ground tremors or earthquakes), and 16 recovered meteorites. The biggest meteorite fragment was found in China in February and weighed 12.5 kg. The fireball reports contained a remarkable number of multi-state sightings – at least 21 – twice the yearly totals for both 2010 and 2011, including one in Australia which was called ‘unprecedented’ by experts. Eighteen exploded mid-air and/or were accompanied by sonic booms, including one in India that produced a 2.1 magnitude earthquake on May 22, and one daytime sighting in Nevada and California that was estimated to be the size of a minivan before breaking up, both of which fireballs left several meteorite fragments. 2012 also saw 7 daytime events in these six months, more than doubling the yearly totals for 2009, 2010 and 2011. Mark Gilmer reported 11 meteorites fitting his own criteria (he notes that “since the year 2000, we have averaged about 5 recovered meteorite falls per year that are either officially accepted by the Meteoritical Society or verified by reliable sources”–the next highest year was 2008, with 10 falls). 2012 also saw several seeming cover-ups of celestial events, notably in Israel and Turkey, Louisiana, and the Southwestern U.S.