Category Archives: Religion and Philosophy

Robert Stark talks to Joshua Zeidner about The Tech Industry, H-1B’s, Surveillance & The Google Memo Reply

by • Economics/Class Relations, Immigration, Religion and Philosophy • Tags:

The Stark Truth. Listen here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Sam Kevorkian talk to Joshua Zeidner about the Tech Industry. Joshua  has worked in Tech as a software developer and private consultant for Publishing and Finance Companies.

Topics:

The Tech Industry since the Dot Com boom
Joshua’s work in the Tech Industry in Germany and Israel, and his observation that Germany’s has the best work environment and the United States the worst
Prof. Norm Matloff’s H-1B Statistics and the current cap at about 65k per year which are eligible for permanent residency
How H-1B’s provide pliant(“handcuffed”) workers
H-1B Frauds such as fake job adds and diplomas, and Indian firms Like Infosys and Tata Abusing the program
The need for Unionization/Trade Organizations for Tech workers
Nationalizing Search Engines and Social Media
The International Safe Harbor Privacy Act which was developed for social networks to be built
Surveillance Valley by Yasha Levine
How Venture Capital money goes into “tech ventures” that embezzle crypto coins, operated like a ponzi scheme and become a liquid un-taxable and untraceable asset
Making Sense of the Google Memo
Why I Was Fired by Google – WSJ
Is Silicon Valley pulling it’s weight for California?
Tim Draper’s Six Californias Proposal

Christians Are Not Victims of Discrimination, Liberals Say After Discriminating Against Christians Reply

by • Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism, Religion and Philosophy, Uncategorized

By Napp Nazworth

Christian Post

Almost daily I encounter messages saying that conservative Christians should stop “pretending” to be victims of discrimination. I encounter these messages about as often as messages arguing in favor of discriminating against Christians. Why the cognitive dissonance?

“Christians haven’t been discriminated against like blacks, gays and Muslims, and they aren’t being persecuted like Christians in China or the Middle East,” I often hear in response, which is both true and beside the point. Discrimination doesn’t have to be the worst ever for it to still be a cause of concern.

Here are a few examples of Christian discrimination.

Christians who post biblical yet unpopular views on social media can be subject to business losses or unemployment. Steve Tennes posted a message consistent with his Christian views to his Facebook page and because of that his business was excluded from the East Lansing farmer’s market.

It’s acceptable to exclude Christians from governmental positions. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chris Van Hollen voted against a Trump appointee due to his orthodox Christian beliefs. When the Department of Education recently hosted a panel discussion on fatherhood, LGBT groups protested its inclusion of conservative viewpoints.

There are attempts to force Christian hospitals to provide abortions and gender reassignment surgeries. Christian crisis pregnancy centers are being forced to promote abortion.

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Religious Agitation and the Limits of Principled Libertarianism 1

by • Anarchism/Anti-State, Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism, Religion and Philosophy, Uncategorized

An interesting discussion of the church/state separation issue. I generally agree with the arguments made by this author.

By Millennial Transmissions

Libertarianism Without Adjectives

I’m not a very “principled” person. I am in the sense that my actions are guided by a number of principles defined loosely and amorphously, but I’m not dogmatic, I don’t subscribe to Kant’s categorical imperative, I’m not a utopian or an idealist. I’m a realist and a pragmatist before I’m even a libertarian.

I was recently considering a conversation between Penn Jillette and Glenn Beck on the subject of libertarianism. If you haven’t watched it, I urge you to, it’s very good viewing. Penn Jillette was one of the guiding lights that lead me out of my socialist slumber, and Glenn Beck himself makes some great contributions too. They don’t just discuss libertarianism; a friendly conversation about atheism also takes place. Glenn Beck raises an example:

“In Pennsylvania, a mostly Catholic Italian town had to relocate their nativity scene…it was outside of city hall…because of an outside atheist group, the ‘Freedom from Religion Foundation’, they came in and threatened legal action. Thomas Jefferson, in his writings, was proud that city hall was being used for meetings, church meetings on Sundays, four different ones. He thought that was not a problem…it’s not freedom from religion it’s freedom of…if I can put a menorah and everything else on the town square, why do atheists get so pissy about this…as long as it’s not the endorsement of one religion?” (lightly paraphrased)

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A Little Less Piousness, Please 4

A review of “The Unique and Its Property” by Max Stirner. Translated with a new introduction by Wolfi Landstreicher. Underworld Amusements.

By Keith Preston

An apparently controversial publisher has issued a new translation of a controversial book. The original work in question is Max Stirner’s egoist classic, originally published in Germany in 1844 under the title Der Einzige und sein Eigentum. This book was later translated into English by the American individualist-anarchist writer Steven T. Byington, and published in 1907 by Benjamin R. Tucker, the most prominent of the American individualist-anarchists of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century, under the title The Ego and His Own. All subsequent English editions of Stirner’s work have essentially been reprints of the 1907 translation.  However, Underworld Amusements has released a new translation by Wolfi Landstreicher under the title The Unique and Its Property.  Landstreicher has also provided an interesting introduction of his own to this new translation that touches on many of the most salient aspects of Stirner’s thought.

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Some Reflections on Anti-Zionism Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Left and Right, Race and Ethnicity, Religion and Philosophy, Uncategorized • Tags:

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By Keith Preston

It is fashionable in many of the political circles that I travel in to attribute a range of problems involving international relations, along with other concerns, to “Zionism.” Used in these contexts, Zionism has two meanings, i.e. the state-nationalism of the Israeli regime itself, and the network of Jewish ethno-nationalist supporters of Israel throughout the Jewish diaspora. At times, the critiques of Zionist power represented by these perspectives overlap with traditional anti-Semitic views concerning a supposed “Jewish conspiracy” to undermine civilization by doing all kinds of bad things (The Daily Stormer, Stormfront, and, more articulately, Counter-Currents perspective).

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National-Anarchist Movement Conference 2017: A Summary Reply

Image result for national anarchist movement

By Keith Preston

Special thanks to Peter Topfer, Adam Ormes, Thom Forester, and Sean Jobst for their assistance in the writing of this summary.

On June 17 and 18, the first ever conference of the National-Anarchist Movement (N-AM) took place in Madrid. The process of arranging this conference was certainly not without its difficulties, and the organizers deserve much praise for their diligence in this regard. Originally, the conference was supposed to be hosted by the Madrid section of N-AM, who dropped out of the project shortly (and out of N-AM altogether) before the conference took place. This led to the irony of a conference being held in Spain where no actual Spanish people were among the attendees. Because National-Anarchists are widely despised by leftists who mistakenly regard N-A as a “fascist” tendency, security was a paramount concern.

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Iran and the Left: Why They Supported Islamic Reaction 2

by • Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Left and Right, Men and Women, Religion and Philosophy, Uncategorized

An old Trotskyist article from the 1970s on the relationship between Left and Islamic fundamentalism during the Iranian Revolution.

Workers Vanguard

Spartacist League

When mullah rule was established in Iran in early 1979, the vast bulk of the Western left actively supported Ayatollah Khomeini’s seizure of power. Virtually  the only group that refused to bow to the Islamic reactionaries was the  Spartacist League, to which the League for the Fourth International traces its origin and from which founding cadres of the LFI came. At that time, when the SL stood on the program of revolutionary Trotskyism, its newspaper, Workers Vanguard, published the following important article.

In one sense it is now very easy to polemicize against those leftists, especially ostensible Trotskyists, who supported the Islamic opposition to the shah. We said Khomeini in power would seek to reimpose the veil, restore barbaric punishments (flogging, amputation), suppress the national minorities and crush the left and workers movement as ruthlessly as did the shah. Imperialist propaganda, they shouted, Khomeini is leading a great progressive struggle! Thus one self-proclaimed Trotskyist group in Britain charged:

    •  “The Spartacists make a series of charges against the Mullah-led opposition as a result of which they characterize the movement as one of ‘clerical reaction.’ A number of these charges amount to uncritical retailing of the chauvinist rubbish which filled the American press throughout the Autumn. The Mullahs they claim wish to restore Iran to the 7th century AD…. They wish to introduce savage Islamic law punishments; stoning, public hanging and whipping etc. They wish to enforce the wearing of the veil and the removal of the rights given to women by the Shah.”

–Workers Power

    , February 1979

Well?

Now every piece of news out of Iran proves the international Spartacist tendency (iSt) was obviously, indisputably 100 percent right. The streets of Teheran are filled with the anguished cries of those, from middle-class liberal women to Guevarist guerrillas, who claim they were taken in by Khomeini’s revolution. Tragically, the voice of the revolutionists who warned of the reactionary clericalist aims of the mullahs was drowned in the clamor of opportunists singing the praises of the “anti-imperialist” ayatollah. It is the Iranian masses who will pay the price.

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Brigitte Gabriel and Dave Rubin: Terrorism, The Muslim Brotherhood, and Linda Sarsour Reply

by • Left and Right, Police State/Civil Liberties, Religion and Philosophy

Youtube demonetized this video due to the nature of the topics discussed. Support The Rubin Report on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rubinreport

Brigitte Gabriel (National Security Expert) joins Dave Rubin to discuss her childhood under brutal terrorism in Lebanon, why national security is an American issue, the Muslim Brotherhood, her views of Linda Sarsour, the “gullible” women’s movement in America, and much more.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Dave Rubin on Political Islam, Sharia Law, and “Islamophobia” Reply

by • Left and Right, Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism, Religion and Philosophy

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Human Rights Activist) joins Dave Rubin to discuss the preaching of Islam, the left’s alliance with Islamists, the dangers of political Islam, Sharia law, “Islamophobia”, her serious fight against the practice of female genital mutilation as well as, her political and idealogical awakening, her foundation and activism, and much more. *This episode was filmed on location, not in The Rubin Report studio.

The Prophetical Significance of the Major Tarot Cards Reply

by • Religion and Philosophy

An interesting theological article from Christian anarchist Wayne John Sturgeon. See my previous review of Wayne’s book on Christian anarchist here.

By Wayne John Sturgeon

INTRODUCTION

HISTORY AS SPIRITUAL BATTLEGROUND BETWEEN THE BODY OF CHRIST AND THE GNOSTIC IMPULSE AS MANIFESTED IN ISLAM, THE PAPACY, PROTESTANTISM AND MODERNITY

‘The West is different from all other civilizations because its religious ideal has not been the worship of timeless and changeless perfection but a spirit that strives to incorporate itself in humanity and change the world.’

‘The other great cultures realized their synthesis between religion and life and then maintained their Sacred Order. But in the west the changing of the world became an integral part of its cultural ideal.’

Christopher Dawson,

Religion and the Rise of Western Culture

God had not only revealed himself in the historic nation of Israel and the Christian church but also within creation itself, most notably in the Zodiac. The Gospel is itself depicted in the astronomical constellations of the planets and stars, otherwise known in the Bible as ‘The Mazzaroth’ (Job. 38.32) and also in the Great Pyramid of Giza, otherwise known in certain Christian esoteric circles as ‘The Bible in Stone’ (Isaiah 19.19), ‘The stone that the builders rejected’.

Today, God reveals himself in the Christian scriptures and in the ever-new activity of the Holy Spirit. We have a more ‘sure word of prophecy’, so do not need the satanic counterfeit and deception of divination, fortune telling and other such methods. Nevertheless, despite the perversions of Babylonian astrology and other occultist systems, we can still discern a symbolic narrative that has obvious Biblical allusions and associations that, upon research and meditation, appear disturbingly prophetic.

The Tarot is the prototype of prophetic history, dating from approximately 100 BC to around the early part of the 21st Century, more or less encapsulating the so-called Piscean Age. Each card roughly corresponds to a period of one hundred years, or a century, in the history of Christendom until the consummation of prophetic history in the unveiling of St. John otherwise known as The Book of Revelation.

I shall now list each card in the Major Tarot, and explain its origins and symbolism.

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Funding the Enemy: War and Welfare Reply

by • Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Economics/Class Relations, Immigration, Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism, Religion and Philosophy, Strategy

martel-2

From March last year: Ann Sterzinger’s libertarian solution to the Islamist problem.

The welfare state is a gravy train for ISIS.

If the welfare state doesn’t end in Europe, the welfare state will end Europe. And future historians will look back on the way the West ended and think we were all out of our goddamn minds.

As the dust is still clearing in Brussels and Pakistan (killing kids on Easter… stay classy, ISIS) and wherever else the nut jobs hit before this goes to press—as the Left signals their concern that all these dead bodies and raped orificia might feed an irrational fear of suicide bombers and rapists—the press is busy lecturing European security agencies about their incompetence. They could have stopped all these attacks somehow, if only they knew how to do their jobs!

You know what? I feel sorry for the security agencies, bumbling though they may allegedly be. From where I’m sitting, their job looks freakin’ impossible. According to Pew, over a third of French Muslims think suicide bombing is at least on occasion acceptable (and among the 18-30 crowd, it’s an eye-watering 42 percent).

How would you like it to be your job to root out terrorists when a third of the base population—of whose diversity and feelings you must always be respectful—would be happy to house and hide the assholes you’re looking for?

Meanwhile the media have kept stumping for not just bringing more of the terrorist-supporting population in, but feeding and housing them at the expense of the very government budget that must also fund security operations.

I know, only a bad person would ever suggest that you end welfare, and no educated European wants to be a bad person. But what you are accomplishing by being too nice is very bad indeed, Europe. Because if you do not end the welfare state, you’re going to have a violent genocide, one way or another.

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Max Stirner: The Dissolute Life of an Egoist 2

by • Anarchism/Anti-State, Religion and Philosophy • Tags:

By Keith Preston

stirner2

German intellectual culture of the early nineteenth century produced an amazing variety of thinkers whose influence would continue to be felt two centuries later. Among the most interesting of these were those influenced in various ways by G.W.F. Hegel, but who utilized Hegel merely as a starting point for the widely diverse direction their individual thought would assume. Karl Marx was one of these thinkers, and perhaps the one with the most far reaching and durable influence. However, another fascinating thinker from this time period was an individual that in many ways could be considered the ultimate counterpart to Marxian communism, and to such a degree that a significant part of Marx’s The German Ideology is devoted to attacking his ideas. The individual in question was a dissolute figure who wrote under the curious pseudonym of Max Stirner.

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My Take on the “Muslim Travel Ban” Reply

by • Administration, American Decline, Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Immigration, Law/Justice, Left and Right, Military, Race and Ethnicity, Religion and Philosophy

A number of people have for my views on the so-called “Muslim travel ban” imposed by the Trump administration. Here goes:

Statistically, the evidence shows that right-wing terrorists have been slightly more violent in the years since 9-11 than Islamists, at least in the US obviously. But the meaning I take from this data is that the neocons and other hawks are blowing the Islamic terrorism threat way out of proportion, while liberals and the Left blow the right-wing terrorism threat out of proportion. Both groups need these false narratives to be true for ideological reasons.

The neocons and other hawks want a permanent war against Islam and the Left wants a permanent war against whitey, so there always has to be some looming threat on the horizon. The real violence is the US comes mostly from inner city gangs that murder each other over drug dealing disputes, from fights and domestic violence that spirals out of control, and from the mentally ill or lone nuts like Adam Lanza, Dylan Roof, or Omar Mateen.

September 11, 2001 was a singular but spectacular incident that has predictably kept plenty of people up in arms ever since. The OKC bombing in ’95, which killed about 150, had the same impact on the Left. I remember how after OKC the Left was saying many more such acts were just around the corner. But over 20 years later there’s been no such thing. The same thing happened with 9-11. I remember people talking about how there was going to be nuclear destruction of US cities and terrorism with bioweapons and all kinds of stuff. But 15 years later there’s only been a handful of incidents like Orlando, San Bernardino, and Ft. Hood that were perpetrated by lone nuts or small groups of friends acting as freelancers.

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Political Correctness is All about Slave Morality 1

by • Left and Right, Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism, Religion and Philosophy • Tags: ,

I can’t believe this article actually appeared on the Psychology Today website.

By Gregg Henriques

Psychology Today

This past academic year we have seen a number of examples of political correctness “gone mad” on college campuses. We have seen many conservative speakers having to cancel their talks, we have seen Ivy League students becoming hysterical about some benign comments about Halloween costumes, and we have seen Emory students freaking out and protesting to the university president because someone scrawled Trump 2016 in chalk on the campus grounds.

As a psychologist who has a long standing record of concern about patriarchy, racism and social justice issues, I certainly am not someone who dismisses “political correctness” in its entirety. We should indeed be attentive to issues of power and privilege approach these issues with reflection. However, over the past decade, I have found myself increasingly concerned with political correctness evolving into an oppressive righteousness that are in many ways deeply misguided and incomplete and there is definitely a need to push back against it when it spills over into absurdity.

WikiCommons

Frederick Nietzsche

Source: WikiCommons

I recently (re)discovered a wonderful frame that allowed me to crisply state what is wrong with modern academic leftist “political correctness” from none other than the eminent philosopher Fredrick Nietzsche. I was reintroduced to these ideas in the context of a course I was taking on Existentialism. After detailed study of many cultures, historical contexts, and various philosophies, Nietzsche articulated the view that there are two broad moral views or moral frames of mind, that of master morality and of slave morality. Slave morality is concerned with issues of justice, fairness and protection of the weak. It is called slave morality because its emphasis and focus is on those who are powerless, controlled or in positions of minority. From my unified perspective, especially that of the Influence Matrix (see below), slave morality can really be thought of as “horizontal”, red line, or affiliative-love morality. The emphasis is on placed on equality, sensitivity and connection.

Gregg Henriques

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Media Blackout As Millions Of Muslims March Against ISIS In Iraq Reply

by • Religion and Philosophy, Uncategorized • Tags:

American Herald Tribune

Mint Press News

arbaeen_isis_6a930

Given the mainstream media’s constant sensationalized reporting on terror and Muslims in the Western world, the utter lack of coverage of Arbaeen’s march on Sunday and Monday revealed the double standard that exists in reporting on peaceful Muslims.

Monday marked the final day of the mourning for Imam Hussein who was martyred in a battle with the massive army of Yazid after refusing allegiance to the tyrant caliph. Yazid the caliph of Umayyad dynasty was promoting the same type of Islam as ISIS and Wahhabist preach today.

Millions of marchers participated in the annual Arbaeen Procession in Karbala. The marchers are said to come from over 60 countries, and most of them have marched all the way to Karbala from other Iraqi cities like Najaf and Baghdad in a show of devotion. Each year, Sunni Muslims and followers of other religious groups such as Christians join the journey to mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hussein.

Arbaeen, or mourning, is a Shia Muslim tradition to mark the anniversary of seventh-century social justice leader Imam Husain. Arbaeen is commemorated 40 days after Ashura, the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS) and his companions in 680 AD. However, in light of ISIS terror attacks globally, several people took the controversial step of turning their march political in order to denounce terror in all forms.

Tens of thousands of Muslims have been killed and displaced by ISIS’s declared caliphate, an exponentially larger number than those killed in attacks in the West.

The occasion has found additional significance in recent years as it has become a rallying cry for the campaign against ISIS terrorists who have frequently targeted the pilgrims.

Iraqi troops have been deployed to ensure security for the pilgrims. The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since ISIS terrorists began a campaign of terror in the country in June 2014.

The terrorist campaign, however, has not dissuaded pilgrims from around the world from making the journey.

It is noteworthy to mention the mainstream media blackout of the millions people marched gathering in war torn Iraq, battling the ISIS, as a clear sign of biased reporting.

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NO CONFIDENCE: Vote for Yourself Reply

by • American Decline, Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Electoralism/Democratism, Immigration, Law/Justice, Left and Right, Police State/Civil Liberties, Religion and Philosophy

unfit-to-rule-clinton-trump

In the face of a particularly pitiful election selection, Ann Sterzinger makes the case for giving oneself the first and final vote.

Personally, were I American, I’d either just stay home or turn up only to draw a cock on the ballot paper, in line with my anti-democratic precedent (#Brexit exempted). Still, I suppose voting for oneself, or “no confidence”, works as another way to inoculate oneself from the pozz of the team-sport/herd-animal mentality undergirding electoral politics.

Also: Hurhur…she said “minge”….

~MRDA~

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