Just Right… with Bob Metz and Robert Vaughan

398 – Amen to secularism / The only thing you have to fear…

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Apr 302015

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Topics:
00:07 Amen to secularism: Supreme court decision on prayer, Alain Simoneau, Jean Tremblay, tradition and religion, separation of church and state, Canada as a secular nation, no official religion in Canada, religious history of Canada, Christian heritage, Thomas Jefferson, neutrality of government on religious matters, John Adams, James Madison, religious persecution, atheist government
17:15 State your religion: spirituality and organized religion, tradition, Lord’s Prayer recital, details of Supreme Court decision, state’s duty of religious neutrality, abstaining from prayer, symbolism and prayer
30:50 Fear Factor: fear as a motivator, emotion over reason, future present past, irrational fear vs rational fear, ignorance and superstition, lack of fear, consequences of fear in politics, fear and religion, after life, living with fear
47:50 The only thing we have to fear is…: fear of climate change, fear of majority rule, fear of the future, fear of the self, fear of death, fear of living, fear of freedom 1:01:05 END

397 – Monologue & Monopoly / Universities: Charlemagne to Amit Chakma / 4/20 protests

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Apr 232015

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Topics:
00:07 Monologue: Hydro One, Privatization of Beer Sales in Ontario, talk show callers, cannabis protests, monologue, monopoly, history repeats itself, history does not repeat itself, capitalism has no history to repeat, technological advances, words and concepts
17:10 Monopoly: Ontario beer sales monopoly, expansion of monopoly, private interests, Hydro One, conversation in a vacuum, essential service myth, monopolies at root of increasing income gap, state capitalism, privatization, public, private, ownership, public ownership
33:45 Culture of Learning – from Charlemagne to Amit Chakma: Western University, Amit Chakma, non-confidence vote, education priorities, attracting international students, Government of Canada’s Global Markets Action Plan, salary contract, fundraising and building international presence, idea of university, Charlemagne
54:29 Going up in smoke: 420 cannabis events, London Victoria Park protesters, frivolous news coverage of cannabis, Marc Emery, not legalizing but ending prohibition 59:19 END

396 – Safety first – freedom last / Cap & trade or trade cap? / Beauty is in the I of the beholder / The art of art

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Apr 162015

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Topics:
00:07 Safety First: being safety conscious, safety should be no concern of government, the rarity of carbon monoxide poisoning, Ontario government imposing costs on homeowners, fire department authority over homeowners, safety and liability, smoke detectors, government creating a risk-free environment, increasing state restrictions, safety first freedom last
14:34 Trade Cap: Kathleen Wynne’s cap-and-trade plan, CO2 emissions, Return of the Primitive, purpose of government, earth currently in an ice-age, climate always changes, immoral motivations behind anti-industrial ideologies, being anti-industrial is being anti-human, nature is harsh and cruel, nature’s harmony with industrialism, Wynne’s cartel creation, a moral issue – not just an economic issue, philosophy of destruction, Freedom Party
30:41 Beauty is in the I of the beholder: beauty is objective, standards of beauty, beauty as society’s highest value, religion’s role in art and architecture, symbolism, beauty as harmony, acquiring artistic tastes
49:30 The art of art: art reflects truth, the purpose and function of art, literal vs interpretation, emotion as a sum of values, emotional reason, art and pleasure, art and religion, art an objectification of metaphysics 1:00:24 END

395 – Right to refuse service / Top 10 “intellectuals” / Camille Paglia on education reform

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Apr 092015

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Topics:
00:07 No service please: right to refuse service, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, right to discriminate, public vs private realm, public notice of discrimination
09:05 Ending philosophy: intellectualism, reality is objective, Prospect’s vote for top ten world intellectuals, Thomas Piketty, Yanis Varoufakis, Naomi Klein, Russell Brand, Paul Krugman, Arundhati Roy, Jurgen Habermas, Daniel Kahneman, John Gray, Atul Gawande, Russell Brand’s ending philosophy
30:40 The fact of Camille Paglia: Harvey Mansfield, Camille Paglia, political correctness, academics challenging the status quo, they saw it coming, creating angst division and confusion, properly informed people are less vulnerable to manipulation, cult of personality vs ideas, Paglia’s calls for education reform, the certainty that some ideas are better than others
44:50 Just great: world religions as great symbol systems that sustain, Camille Paglia, state of education, youth as anti-establishment, abandonment of greatness, knowledge of history, there are facts, critique’s that lack solutions, focus on core curriculum, knowledge is hierarchical, postmodernism’s relative contradictions 58:41 END

394 – University scam plans / Green people are red people

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Apr 022015

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Topics:
00:07 Things going right vs things being right: feedback from Todd – Joe – Simon, right and wrong are not events but judgements, trade-offs, Hydro One, price discovery mechanism, Objectivism vs subjectivism, friendly ignorance, spirit of eternal vigilance
16:45 University scam plans: state of mis-education, high minded platitudes, turning luxuries into rights, the entitlement society, irresponsible promises, higher education and regressive thinking, teachers as co-parents, progressives are in charge of the schools, the cause mongers, anti-intellectualism, undermining faith in Western culture
30:35 Beyond backwards: On Camille Paglia, feminism, academia, anti-intellectual anti-reason trend, isms on campus, diversity bureaucracy, no viewpoint diversity, a costly bureaucracy for inferior education, Amit Chakma, committed to equity
43:30 Green people are red people: Earth hour, Ontario electricity prices as green incentive, green as fraud and deception, carbon taxes, real reason behind global warming scare, the UN’s intentional transformation of capitalism, precautionary principle 55:25 END

393 – The militant atheist? / The choice: Objectivism vs the status quo

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Mar 262015

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Topics:
00:07 The militant atheist? Conrad Black vs the militant atheist, using logic to justify faith, God as creator, God as standard of good, H.L. Mencken vs the militant theist, time and infinity, atheism is not a philosophy
14:15 Capital’s real Isms: capital is not an ism, claiming victims of capitalism, conservatism’s impotent defense of capitalism or freedom, misrepresenting capitalism as slavery
31:55 The choice: Paul McKeever, Ayn Rand or status quo, ad hominim attacks against Ayn Rand, Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, rationality as the highest virtue
40:55 Just plain silly: right or wrong vs good or evil, silly assertion, arbitrary claims, insanity label is a judgement, Progressive Conservative moral and political record, Freedom Party moral standard, immoral Christian influences on the law, philosophy requires effort, faith is effortless, Objectivism unjustly vilified 57:17 END

392 – Political correctness / Capitalism? / Hydro monopoly

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Mar 192015

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Topics:
00:07 Ignorance is strength: redefining terms of the debate, political debate, redefining words, Orwellian tactics, progressive goal is ignorance, freedom, general welfare, niggardly slur, from rape to sexual assault, progressive language agenda, prostitute, whore, gypsy, exclusion of man, fisherman to fisher, actress to actor, womyn, changing public mind set and attitudes, gay, homosexual
12:55 Watch your language! changing language standards, retarded to slow to challenged to gifted, crippled to handicapped to special needs, beyond Orwellian, hidden insults in political correctness, fear of offending, Oriental to Asian, Merry Christmas to Seasons Greetings, spelling of words, center and centre, Webster’s political spelling, language sovereignty, plow vs plough, alternative spelling system, ignorance is strength
30:20 Crook-ed thinking about capitalism: keeping capitalism unknown, Glen Pearson, Mark Carney, World Economic Summit, inequality in world’s wealth, economic capital vs social capital, economic inequity – good and bad, collective ownership is communism, market fundamental
45:00 Hydro just One: Ontario’s electricity monopoly, from Ontario Hydro to Hydro One, private monopoly vs public monopoly, profit motive, power at cost, profit is production, peak electricity rates to rise, saving money through price increases, illusion of monopolized choice
59:31 END