Off Topic

From Denyse O’Leary at MercatorNet: Mick Hume’s analysis converges closely with traditionalist/conservative streams of thought, especially in criticising claims that fake news determined election outcomes such as Brexit and Trump. The underlying assumption of many pundits is that the public cannot be trusted to make reasonable judgments in the face of fake news, and that a government/corporate crackdown is therefore in order. The problem is, from time immemorial, we have been inundated by fake news in the form of hype, rumour mills, tabloids, cost-free predictions, trendspotting claims, and many other artifacts of the human imagination. If democracy works at all, it works despite the constant and inevitable presence of all these factors all the time. Many predate the printing press Read More ›

UPDATE:  Dear readers, the movie version of The Shack will be out soon, so I thought it might be a good time to dust off my December 2009 review of the book. The Shack by William P. Young is an unlikely publishing phenomenon.  The book was first conceived as a private gift to the author’s children and a few friends.  Young’s friends were so thrilled with the manuscript they encouraged him to find a publisher, but after several publishers rejected the book, Young and his friends self-published.  Propelled almost exclusively by word-of-mouth in the evangelical Christian community, sales skyrocketed, and the book has been firmly ensconced in the best seller lists for many months now, with sales topping one million Read More ›

Some people have an aura.  I’m not talking about spooky New Age weirdness here.  Some people just radiate a vibe, and you don’t have to be a swami to pick up on it.  Joe was like that.  If you could take a picture of quite joy mixed with contented serenity, it would look like Joe. I am pretty sure Joe was not always joyful and serene, especially during his chemo treatments.  But you would never know it from looking at him or listening to him, because I never heard him complain. I was shocked yesterday morning when I opened the email that announced Joe’s death.  I shouldn’t have been.  Joe was past 80 and had been ill for a long Read More ›

. . . including, regarding major trends of our civilisation vis a vis the IslamISTS, also as a civilisation, we face “seven mountains of influence” issues. Drudge headline: The initial fall of the Pound off the cliff on the announcement from Sunderland that was the first clear indicator of which way the referendum would go: Sky News live: [youtube y60wDzZt8yg] Key initial impacts: UK Prime Minister, David Cameron has resigned, staying on as a three-month caretaker Former Mayor of London Boris Johnson (leader of the Brexit campaign) is tipped a likely successor A 2 – 4 year estimated Lisbon Article 50 leave process is likely to begin under Cameron’s successor. The Governor of the Bank of England has promised liquidity Read More ›

Initial thoughts, here. (It looks like WP servers are giving traffic troubles, so a try to get through.) END

From Yahoo: WASHINGTON, June 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — “Allowing the FCC to rule the Internet like a public utility under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act will do nothing but produce a broadband shortage,” said George Gilder, bestselling technology author and Discovery Institute senior fellow. “This just creates new incentives for broadband providers to divert investment into advertising and content platforms or other countries,” Gilder added. By a 2-1 vote the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has upheld the net neutrality rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in 2015. More. This much I know is true: Bureaucrats can administer a shortage of goods and services just as easily as a surplus but businesses in free Read More ›

Drudge headline: A bit of background: The club may have attracted terrorist attention. Info re believed shooter. Allegiance to Islamic State Worst mass shooting in US? Islamic State claims responsibility US Prez: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of the victims.“ Sky News: [youtube y60wDzZt8yg] I add, current Wki article intro, as Wiki tends to do a fair job of tracking developing events: >>On June 12, 2016, a gunman killed at least 50 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The gunman was identified as 29-year-old Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, an American citizen of Afghan descent.[3] The Orlando Police Department are treating the case as Read More ›

The developing pattern of terrorist attacks in the West continues. Looks like a bombing at an airport and a metro station in Brussels after a terrorist mastermind was captured Friday last. It seems so far, 26 dead, dozens wounded. The airport bombing may be a suicide bombing. Sky News, live: [youtube y60wDzZt8yg] Heads up. END

Here (video unlikely to embed at UD). Live TV: http://livestream.com/accounts/9262780/events/3189705 Live radio: http://player.radio.com/listen/station/knx-1070-newsradio U/D Dec 4, looks like we have pics of recovered weapons, looks like Semi-auto AR15s with stabilising front hand grips, low mag optical sights and two 9mm parabellum semiauto pistols: Confirmation of explosive devices on live TV just now, that is not normal. END PS: Links (Drudge?): 14 DEAD; 17 INJURED… Dressed in ski masks and military gear… KNBC-TV LIVE… KCAL-TV LIVE… KFI-AM LIVE… KNX-AM LIVE… AP LATEST… Active-shooter drills every month at Inland Regional Center… ISIS Extremists Celebrate Shootings With America Burning Hashtag… PPS: The following was first observed on Sept 11 2001 on an Islamic Dawah site (subsequently vanished save in the web archives): Notice Read More ›

Sky News: [youtube y60wDzZt8yg] 3 fatalities reported, a passerby, a female suicide bomber and one terrorist shot by a police sniper. (I noticed the sniper rifle Friday evening, along with the Beretta M12 sub machine guns favoured by French Police. Also notice, police use of modified Ruger Mini 14s which seem to have burst and full automatic capability. French military — present in the outer cordon — use the FAMAS assault rifle which uses the usual NATO 5.56 x 45 mm round.. FYI an Assault Rifle, following Hitler’s name for the MP44, is a select fire, reduced power round rifle that is more controllable on full auto, fires a more powerful round than the typical 9 mm parabellum used by Read More ›

A terrorist attack in progress, Sky News live feed: [youtube y60wDzZt8yg] Heads up. END

In the thread to a prior post  I wrote: The documents constituting the New Testament are vouchsafed with the blood of the martyrs. Nothing else comes remotely close. Orloog scoffs and mocks: The willingness of an Islamic terrorist to become a martyr of his course isn’t a testament for the existence of 72 virgins waiting for him in the afterlife, it is just shows how severe his belief in their existence is! Many religions have their martyrs. Doesn’t make them all true. And again, tell me about the dozens of eye-witnesses of the resurrection who were put to death! And in a response that deserves its own OP — if not a full page ad in the New York Times, KF Read More ›

Let us watch: [youtube VfQI1ohBS8A] Let us remember, especially those who died and their families. END  

At MercatorNet Connecting: Banned words? How about better speech! Needed discussions can get shut down by claims that one is victimized by “hate speech” The Internet makes sins public In a way no previous medium easily could. Twitter is losing influence? It’s not who is saying it; it’s who listens. Will robots really take over? That depends. It depends on what people can do that machines can’t do. Math profs devastate social media “popularity” Various studies have shown that teenagers consistently overestimate the amount of alcohol and drugs their friends consume. Netflix and Amazon want our kids. Real bad. We may need to want them more. Follow UD News at Twitter!