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How can we tell who to believe?
Al Gore, David Suzuki, and Glen Pearson: What are they up to?
David Suzuki and eco-fascism
Light-headed legislation
Light bulb economics – A personal illumination
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Left, Right & Center – A re-definition
Left, Right & Center – Bans
Left, Right & Center – Environmentalism
Left, Right & Center – Political correctness and discrimination
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The Forest City Institute:
Civic Governance In The City Of London, Ontario
PLEASE NOTE: Due to a technical difficulty with the broadcast server approximately 2 minutes of the program was not archived.
Human Rights Commissions vs Freedom of speech
Just Wrong! Dedicated to peace? – Army recruiting in schools and the London Free Press coverage of opposition to it.
Guest: Karen Selick on Marc Emery’s pending extradition to US
Atheism: Suicide atheist bombers?
Religion and virtue: Mutually exclusive?
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Christmas arrives with its familiar calls for peace on Earth, selfless giving, and denunciations of commercial excess. Yet these very ideals warrant closer scrutiny.
Commercialism lies at the heart of the season’s joy. Trading goods and celebrating material abundance reflect human productivity, not greed. Pagan roots of winter festivals honor harvest and survival through reason and effort—values worth embracing openly.
Ebenezer Scrooge suffers misrepresentation as a miser. His wealth arises from honest effort, voluntary exchange, and refusal to live at others’ expense. Condemnation of him reveals envy of achievement, not moral failing. True generosity emerges from personal gain, not forced sacrifice.
Altruism promises virtue but delivers hidden costs. Mandating service to others treats individuals as means to ends, undermining genuine relationships built on mutual benefit. Even well-intended giving can humiliate recipients or mask power plays.
Peace on Earth remains elusive because rising prosperity sometimes fuels conflict, and aid can breed resentment rather than harmony. Reason, not sentiment, offers the clearest path forward.
Challenging these holiday myths while affirming life and achievement feels just right.
Reality anchors thinking far more securely than chasing abstract truth ever could. Philosophers from Plato onward demonstrate how easily fixed doctrines detach from evidence, producing rigid positions that ignore contradictory facts. John Macmurray’s insight captures this perfectly: real thought welcomes revision as experience demands it.
Government overreach reveals similar unreality in public debates. Taser controversies fixate on the device’s “safety” rather than proper use and policy. Car regulations escalate the pattern—bans on smoking with children, mandatory seatbelts, even airbag mandates that carry hidden lethal risks in certain crashes. Statistics show airbags save lives yet also claim others, particularly when deployed improperly. Mandating such devices overrides personal choice under the guise of protection.
Pope Benedict’s encyclical challenges modern Christianity’s emphasis on individual salvation, contrasting it with earlier communal approaches. This critique echoes collectivist themes that downplay independent reason. Hope, too, comes under scrutiny—when it substitutes for action, it paralyzes rather than empowers.
Japan’s robotics surge offers a forward-looking contrast, with Toyota and Honda developing humanoid machines for everyday assistance. These innovations highlight economic and technological shifts worth watching closely.
Exploring these intersections of philosophy, policy, and progress proves consistently illuminating and just right.