I might deduce one final consequence of a skepticism in regards to temporality and causality. If our only experience of the world is of an existent reality, such that something uncreated or destroyed is literally unimaginable, the superfluity of religion becomes very evident. Since it is on the basis of a parallel between finite objects, which are presumed to be necessarily created, and the universe in its totality, which in turn therefore needs its Creator, that modern religions ultimately justify themselves, if creation, rather than lack of creation, is taken to be the phenomenon unjustified by experience then the concept of God is unwarranted.

It’s almost comforting that such invidious fluffy-minded sludge as this is floating around, as it seems, like religion, to keep the middle-brows hypnotized by “beautiful sentiments” which are so vague as to keep them from actually getting together and doing anything. It’s sort of weird to hear this weakly Marxist social-democratic pap which used to be shouted from the rooftops now being whispered in a low monotonous whine. The author avows his fealty to Jeremy Bentham, not Marx, and calls it utilitarianism not Marxism, but there are many illegitimate fathers along this line of thought.

The root of the idea is that, now that neuroscience has supposedly made it possible to actually identify what makes us happy, the idea of happiness has become quantifiable, and hence a program of providing the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people has become objectively possible. However, the author does not make the slightest effort to apply these wonders of modern science to actually determining what the alleged sources of human happiness are. The neuroscience tack is really just a defensive ploy to ward off the eternal charges that utilitarinism is simply a euphemism for an authoritarian imposition of values. As for espousing his positive program for what constitutes human happiness, it is simply the usual liberal middle-class canards, with not surprisingly a socialist edge: more time to spend with family, a decent wage for everyone, blah blah blah. But he seems to make two pretty criminally unsubstantiated assumptions: one is these sources are essentially the same for everyone, or at least could be under certain conditions, and the other is that they do not inherently conflict with anyone else’s.

I say under certain conditions could be, because in evaluating our current society he seems to privilege envy of other’s material well-being as the principal determinant of happiness. His theory is that above a certain level of material subsistence people are motivated primarily by status-seeking and the desire for a high rank within their social group. Therefore, the increasing wealth of the society will not increase happiness because people measure their well-being relative to the group, not by their absolute prosperity. This is always been a flaw in the concept of the “war against poverty”; I’m not sure it’s much of an argument for socialist economic redistribution. But actually if you read his section on the value of income taxes carefully, he doesn’t even seem to be arguing that they are useful insofar as they can be redirected to the less prosperous, although he does evidently believe that a certain amount of money contributes more to the happiness of a poor person than to a rich one’s. Rather, he seems to think that taking money away from the properous is valuable in and of itself, because it will supposedly make them less focused on the “rat race,” more family-oriented, etc., etc. In short he seems to be advocating a net impoverishment of society.

All of which may be consistent with the program of a good little socialist, but does not necessarily accord marvelously with his own evidence about the supposedly quantified happiness of humanity. The research that he cites non-specifically supposedly indicates that people’s feeling of happiness has not risen in the last half-century, but he does not cite anything which indicates that it has necessarily declined. He cites rising rates of depression and crime as presumably implicit indicators of greater unhappiness, but he does not seem to acknowledge the possibility that in our hyper-medicated and surveillance-based society perhaps people simply report depression and crime more. In any event, if roughly similar numbers of people today as in the ‘50’s report themselves happy (and we believe them), despite the increase in prosperity, that might perhaps indicate that happiness is not fixed to material well-being. Which may be consistent with his general point, but not with his idea of increasing happiness by manipulating income levels.

And even if it did, it seems rather difficult to countenance any social program predicated upon appealing to one of humanity’s most depraved instincts, namely envy. The author acknowledges that his ideal of taxation is mainly motivated by the desire to pander to people’s envy, but he seems to think that their envy will be sated by the loss of prosperity of those around them and that after that point there will be no more. So the envy of the less prosperous will be satisfied by the losses accrued by the more prosperous, which will somehow not be counter-balanced by the chagrin of the more prosperous at the prospect of seeing their status diminished. Very logical.

One of the more egregious presumptions of utilitarians is that non-utilitarian social systems somehow aren’t concerned with seeking the greatest good for the greatest number of people. On the contrary, that’s the defining problem of practically every social and political theory I can think of, and they all either seek or claim to have found the answer—whether such a solution exists, I have my doubts, but that’s why I’m a skeptic about politics. This is a handy trick by utilitarians: they say “I believe in the greatest good for the greatest number of people.” Which is practically begging the question: “As opposed to whom?” It’s useful because it tends to conceal the fact that their real agenda is generally somewhat more specific, and tends to consist in the autocratic notion that one or two measures of social living can be authoritatively determined to be the sources of happiness, and then divided up in a centralized fashion. Those that are the most insistent on the idea of liberty are generally those that are the most skeptical about the possibility of the notion of happiness being either quantitatively defined or generalizable. In other words, only indviduals can determine their own sources of happiness.

For the author, on the other hand, the fact that certain stimuli trigger certain areas of the brain at the times when test subjects profess pleasure has solved the problem of determining happiness. Of course, as mentioned, he never really bothers with the results that those studies have yielded. Somehow the fact that he considers envy to be a principal element of human happiness does not place very severe limits on the harmoniousness of individual happiness. Nor does it constitute a tyranny of the majority, because he claims that in an ideal utilitarian society the happiness of the most unhappy would be considered of pre-eminent importance. Of course, at the beginning of the article he cited the equal importance of each individual’s happiness as the fouding tenet of his theory, but I’m sure it all sorts out in the end.

Among social factors responsible for unhappiness, he cites divorce and unemployment as of pre-eminent importance. Of course, rates of both divorce and unemployment in the crassly materialistic and religious United States are much lower than in the much more overtly utilitarian-embracing Europe, but it would be a bit embarassing for him to admit this after avowing that all traditional value-systems outside of utilitarianism and “individualism” are dead.

Personally the question of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people doesn’t exactly compel me constantly, although the issue of personal happiness tends to impose itself intransigently. I would have thought that evolutionary biology would have provided an adequate explanation of this, as well as the recurrence of what we call altruism. But such an idea of course suggests that happiness, whatever that is, is not really the point of our little existences, and that the more imperious competitiveness of life will ultimately subvert all of these little trifles of pleasure and pain. But in the meantime, we have these debased statistical notions of happiness to amuse us in an idle hour.

It seems to me that if one’s “objective” measure of happiness is electrical stimulation in the cerebral cortex, the most efficient utilitarian solution to the problem of human happiness would be strap everyone onto hospital gurneys and stimulate the “happiness” part of their brain all day long. If one does not wish to be this deterministic about it, perhaps one should allow more latitute to individuals to discover their own conception of happiness. Personally, I have found happiness generally to be an idea for the unhappy and something rarely spoken of by the happiness; mention of practically guarantees that it is not present in the environment where it is uttered. I don’t deny that what you might call love is the real bridge between personal happiness and moral obligations, and the only true means by which the desires of oneself and of others are united, but such a sentiment can never be mandated; it is entirely resistant to intellectual compulsion. Utilitarianism, which sometimes does a decent job of faking morality, is nevertheless ultimately predicated on the pleasure principle, and hence is wholly inadequate to uniting the moral and the pleasurable except when love truly pertains. In that case, of course, political theory is entirely superfluous, which is why this is all a waste of time.

p.s. I don’t claim that people’s behavior necessarily reflects what really would make them happy, but presumably it does at least reflect what they consciously value. Hence, if I were the author I would have been a bit skeptical of using the results of “surveys” of what people claim to value when the results don’t correlate with their behavior, i.e. they claim that spending time with family is most important, but they spend a disproportiante amount of time working (at least according to him). So either people are not really being forthright (consciously or unconsciously) in responding to surveys, or there is not actually a problem of priorities. In either case, he’s way over-valuing surveys as a guide to what will make people happy.

Wo Vorschriften als ebenso belastend wie sinnlos empfunden werden, neigen manche Normadressaten zu wenig kooperativem Verhalten, wie heute im

Lochen, Heften und Ablegen sind selbst für einen kleinen Beamten keine ernsthafte Herausforderung. Einen wahren Extremsport scheint hingegen das korrekte Inkraftsetzen eines Bebauungsplans darzustellen, zumindest in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Jedenfalls finde ich in der

Gestern habe ich mich bei der

Win10 BrightnessSlider adds a Monitor Brightness icon to on Taskbar Tray that lets you adjust the brightness of your monitor(s) with a simple slider. If you use multiple monito....

Glary Utilities Free is an all-in-one package that includes a variety of system tools to help you clean your PC from junk files, remove Internet traces, find invalid registry entries, manage startup ....

Trellix Stinger (formerly McAfee Stinger) is a standalone anti-virus scanner to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full featured anti-virus protection, but rather a tool t....

ToDoList is an easy to use, yet complex to-do list manager that enables you to organize and track general or project related tasks. It supports multiple levels of sub-tasks along with notes (plain or....

In a follow up to his story on the 2004 election, "Was the 2004 Election Stolen," Robert Kennedy brings us, in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, specific details on how Diebold has rigged voting in Georgia, with the confessions of a Diebold employee, Chris Hood. "Will The Next Election Be Hacked," is a frightening article that shows exactly how far some corrupt politicians are willing to go to insure that they keep control of our government out of the hands of the people. Folks, our democracy is in danger.

And I mean YOU Mr. Candidate! I am SO TIRED of having my phone ring with a recorded message from one candidate or another. DON PERATA YOU JUST LOST MY VOTE. And I am keeping track. Anyone who dares to use an automated message dialing machine to harass me LOSES MY VOTE. Join with me in this campaign. Let's send a message to these idiots that spamming us with phone calls doesn't pay!

The list of short english words written in Devanagari.

egrep -x '.{1,2}' eng_words.txt

ऑनऑफऑलटीटूडेडॉदफीलॉसन

1. Open a new file and set your font; Verdana; 18pt
2. File > Templates > Save as Template
3. Select > My Templates then tick the "Set as default template" box
4. Enter a name at the top then save and close the file.

The next time you open Writer, the settings should be in place.

Turn Off Grid LinesIf you want to turn off grid lines in LO Calc:Tools > Options > LibreOffice Calc > View > Visual Aids > Grid Lines > Hide

Get the distinct values in calc

1. Select the column (or the list of data) that you want to process
2. Data > More Filters > Standard Filter
3. From Options choose "No duplications".

If you are using Libre office then template changer extension is very important.

extensions.libreoffice.org

You can link the current document to a template or cut that link. Once the document is linked to a new template, all styles saved in that template will be available to be used. You can find the current template name by going to File - Properties.

1. Select "Internet Link" from Character styles.
2. Right click Internet Link and select Edit style
3. In the tab Font Effects, click the button Reset to Parent.

It's true. Barak Obama is a terrorist and a muslim. That's what the faith healer told us. He also told us George Bush was ordained by God. With his credentials...read more...

You wouldn't be blamed for assuming Coralie Clément is a contemporary of Françoise Hardy or Jane Birkin's; her coquettish and sultry, whispered vocals, suave touches of bossa and samba, and splashy dabblings in yé-yé make her sound like Brigitte Fontaine buffing out her scratches and sanding down her bristly edges.

Her debut LP, Salle des pas perdus, is a collaboration with her brother Benjamin Biolay, who wrote and arranged it, only further reinforcing her throwback nature. For a time during the 90s, Momus did a lot of his own Serge Gainsbourg-styled team-ups with elegant yet wryly sassy chanteuses—the Kahimi Karie songs, the Poison Girl Friend songs, the Laila France songs—and this record plucks at the same heartstrings.

The subsequent albums are interesting and possessed with the same sort of low-key charisma, with Toystore perhaps being the most aggressively different: in place of gentle strings and unhurried horns are skippy ukuleles, tinny tambourines, frothy farfisas.

Always a sucker for late-80s pogo-stick guitar pop from Scotland, I cannot resist the Groovy Little Numbers, yet another late-80s pogo-stick guitar-pop outfit from Scotland.

They're noteworthy—or at least more of a curiosity than others—and differentiated from contemporaries in a few ways, however. Lead vocals were often shared by Catherine Steven and Joe McAlinden, who started the band and seem to be considered the only core members, and this boy-girl tag-team adds a twist the Pooh Sticks, Close Lobsters, the Soup Dragons, the Hepburns, and most the rest in the scene didn't have.

Additionally, while trumpets were certainly a feature of the post-Postcard Scotish sound, the way these guys laid it in was gentler, sweeter. Generally, they were gentler, sweeter, more reserved Burt Bacharach than twitchy Violent Femmes.

As you might expect, this two-singles group was a sort of power-pop incubator for at least a couple of those involved: McAlinden started Superstar and was in BMX Bandits; Gerard Love got in with Teenage Fanclub at the onset.

A bit of an oddity for their label, Mo Wax, Parsley Sound was, at their most effective, a bit of dreamy indie-pop coming from a downtempo production approach. Sweet and gentle, a little twee, heavily filtered and electrified, despite pursuing a color palette that's au naturel, creaky, sun-bleached.

Perhaps this is what would've happened if Lemon Jelly had gotten Elliott Smith in the studio.

Robert Wratten was a heartbroken guy.

For a few years, in the late 80s, early 90s, he was in the Field Mice, the beloved jangle-pop outfit signed to Sarah Records. When they fell apart, Wratten and his girlfriend and bandmate, Annemari Davies, formed Northern Picture Library, and continued to write rather melancholic songs, but with a certain duskiness and lonely chill rather than the peppy twitchiness and innocent twinkle from before. (Their first LP, Alaska, is very good.)

Northern Picture Library ended when Wratten and Davies split, and thus Trembling Blue Stars was born. (I see your breakup album and raise you a breakup band!)

Recommended

The Alice Howell Collection:

From where we are now, it's weird to think of these silent comedies as being filmed and released 25 to 35 years after the advent of motion pictures. I mean, with the first true examples of 'film' coming from the mid-1880s, you'd think that by 1914 a picture like Shot in the Excitement, featuring early film comedienne Alice Howell, would look more sophisticated. Aah, but those were the olden days, when horse-drawn carriages still regularly shared the road with motor cars.

This 2-disc collection of silent motion picture comedies, curated by Steve Massa and Ben Model, features Alice Howell, one of the earliest and well-renowned stars of slapstick comedies, who was active from 1914 to 1926 or so. The titles included here on disc one are the aforementioned Shot in the Excitement (1914, 14 minutes), Father was a Loafer (1915, 13 minutes), Unde...Read the entire review

DVD Talk Collector Series

The Specials:

The title of this DVD goldmine for fans of Robin Williams' stand-up and improv work can be described with a word that Williams used frequently in his acts over the decades: Redundant. After his singular success in stand-up, film, and TV, everyone should know at this point that the Comic Genius description comes prepackaged with the name. It was for me when I first came to San Francisco for grad school in late 2002, but I mostly knew of Williams' genius through his film roles, a cornucopia of comedic and dramatic work that showcased his immensely versatile talent.

But I didn't know much about his stand-up work, coming from a country where his HBO specials weren't available. A San Francisco native who became a beloved figure of the city as his fame rose; he represented the perfect welcome for me as I bought his 2002 Live on Broadway special on DVD on my first day in th...Read the entire review

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For Lucille Ball completists, the release of Life with Lucy (1986), her ill-fated final sitcom, is most welcome. I Love Lucy/The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1951-60), The Lucy Show (1962-68), and Here's Lucy (1968-74) kept her on the network airwaves nearly constantly for a quarter of a century, but her return to theatrical features with Mame (1974) flopped badly, with Ball singled out for atypically harsh reviews. After that she did annual television specials for a few years, and was a frequent presenter at award shows.

In November 1985 she starred in The Stone Pillow, a TV-movie in which she played an elderly homeless woman, and while that program received mixed reviews it did well enough in the ratings to prompt Ball and her (second) husband, comedian-producer Gary Morton, to dip into the sitcom well that had served her so reliably well and for so long....Read the entire review

Recommended

The Movie:

Rod Serling's efforts on the original The Twilight Zone is, in a word, legendary and it remains, decades since it debuted, an incredibly influential body of work. The series was revived in the second half of the eighties and then again in the early two thousands an in April of 2019, Jordon Peele, Simon Kinberg and Marco Ramirez brough the popular anthology series back, albeit this time to CBS's streaming platform, CBS All Access. Peele not only serves as one of the show's executive producers, but also as the host and narrator, just as Serling did in the original run.

Paramount has now compiled the ten episodes that make up the first season and brought them to DVD. Here's a quick rundown of the episodes, which we'll keep reasonably vague in order to avoid spoilers.

The Comedian: Samir Wassan (Kumail Nanjiani) is struggling to get his standup comedy ca...Read the entire review

In 'Confident In The Chaos' Part 3, we learn to 'Stop, Look And Listen'. Habakkuk learned to get to grips with his questions and confusion by bringing them to God. He had to get quiet and listen for God’s voice. We need this discipline especially at this present moment in history. Only faith in what God speaks to our hearts will bring us through as overcomers! This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format and in HD video on our YouTube Channel (https://youtube.com/PreachTheWord)...

In this introduction to a sub-series in our wider study on 'The Holy Spirit', we consider: what exactly is the Fruit of the Spirit? Whose life is it anyway? Here in 'The Fruit Of The Spirit - God's Personality' we find the answer to why the Christian life is impossible to live in the flesh. This sermon is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format and in HD video on our YouTube Channel (https://youtube.com/PreachTheWord)...

In Part 28 of 'The Holy Spirit' series, it's 'The Gifts of Healings' - what are these gifts and how can we expect them to operate today? Is it God's will to heal? Should we pray for healing? Does that prayer always get answered? These are some of the questions we seek to answer from what the Bible has to say about healing. This is the first of two studies on this gift. This study is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format and in HD video on our YouTube Channel (https://youtube.com/PreachTheWord)...

For Part 29 of 'The Holy Spirit' we have the second episode of our look at 'The Gifts of Healings'. David further explores this gift in the Bible and how it operates today. He considers whether, as some claim, using medicine is somehow showing a lack of faith in the healing gift. He also seeks to answer a common objection to this gift - if you 'have' it why don't you go and heal everyone in the hospitals and hospices? In these two studies we are seeking to biblically, honestly and sensitively explore a subject that dominated the ministry of Jesus and the Apostles and that we are promised to experience in some capacity today. This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format and in HD video on our YouTube Channel (https://youtube.com/PreachTheWord)...

In Part 3 of 'Revival Now', we ask: what is the holiness that we are called to as Christians? It has been misrepresented and misunderstood by many in the church. In this message, David first establishes what holiness is not and then goes on to consider what is this holiness and most importantly how do we get it? In a day when sin and compromise is rampant in the church, we need 'A New Holiness Movement'. In 2021 we need a revival in true holiness. This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format...

Can we have a move of God that doesn't resemble Christ? Obviously not, but is Christ-likeness our emphasis in the church and as individuals? Do we look like Jesus? Do we sound like Jesus? In Part 7 of 'Revival Now', David Legge, using two fruit of the Spirit - Gentleness and Kindness - shows that what the church and the world most needs are Christians that look like Christ and exhibit His attributes to all, even our enemies. We will see real change in the church and society when people see Jesus in us through 'A New Christlike Movement'. This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format...

In the fifth session of our 'Helping Others To Freedom' series, we explore 'Wounds And The Healing Of The Heart'. How do our hearts get hurt? How do these wounds set us up for both habitual sin and demonic bondage? We discuss the various sources of our woundedness and, most importantly, how we can get healing for these wounds. It is vital to distinguish wounds that need healed, from sins that need repented of, and demons that must be expelled. This session is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format and in HD video on our YouTube Channel (https://youtube.com/PreachTheWord)...

In Session 9 of 'Helping Others To Freedom', David addresses many practical questions that often arise around healing and deliverance, also considering some of the mysterious matters that can confuse people. This episode on 'Practicalities And Mysteries Of Healing And Deliverance' should be extremely useful for anyone engaging in prayer ministry. This session is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format and in HD video on our YouTube Channel (https://youtube.com/PreachTheWord)...

In the concluding session of 'Helping Others To Freedom', we look at how the principles of personal healing and deliverance apply to whole regions, and are essentially the same principles that can prepare a region for revival awakening. This is 'Revival And Deliverance - The Bigger Picture' - God sets individuals free in order to heal and deliver the world. This session is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format and in HD video on our YouTube Channel (https://youtube.com/PreachTheWord)...

All of us are learners when it comes to prayer and praying better. So whilst we must beware of gimmicks and quick-fix formulae, we also must recognise some helpful disciplines of prayer - ingredients that can help us 'arrange' our prayers better. Here in 'Practicalities Of Prayer', David shares some valuable and practical pointers to refresh our prayer lives. This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format and in HD video on our YouTube Channel (https://youtube.com/PreachTheWord)...

Elijah, the greatest of prophets, came to a personal and spiritual crisis. It may be that though he was hearing the voice of God for the nation, he hadn't been hearing it for himself. God had to take him on a journey of rehabilitation, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, before he could even receive God's voice. Here is a practical message from 1 Kings 19:1-18 relevant to those experiencing burnout or a wilderness in their Christian life and service. God often has to condition us to eliminate distractions and blocks to clearly hear His still, small voice. This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format...

In this message on Matthew 17:14-21, David addresses some critical questions about healing and what the Bible says. Some may object to any emphasis on healing as a distraction from the gospel's central message. However, the record of the Gospels and the Acts is that healing was intrinsic to Jesus' revelation of the Father to humanity. In this teaching, learn how faith affects healing and how our unbelief can affect our faith. This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format...

The power to save, heal and set free is God's power. In this healing story from Luke 5:17, we see God's power was present with Jesus to heal. We need to practice God's healing presence rather than the presence of sickness, darkness, Satan or sin. So often, when we face such obstacles, we focus on the problem, but the answer to our problems is never in the problem. The healing presence is where we must abide. This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format...

In this story of two overlapping healings - the woman with the issue of blood and the raising of Jairus' daughter - we learn some principles of how God heals. Sometimes, we can be confused about how God does His healing work. In this account, Jesus emphasises the importance of saying 'No' to fear and only believing what God has said. Don't fear, only believe! This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format...

What a predicament to be both deaf and mute - cut off from communication and the community. Here was a man who exemplified not only those with similar physical impediments but also the spiritual condition of humanity. Yet a physical healing took place for this man in a rather unconventional manner. Here, we learn how God's methods are not always reasonable to us. There is a beautiful revelation in this 'Healing Of A Deaf And Mute Man' of the unique ways God moves with each of us and how compassionate and considerate He is to us as individuals. This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format...

Whose message are we listening to? Whose report are we believing? The press, social media, medicine, or Gods Word? What voices are we allowing to influence us, and are those voices faith-inducing or faith-reducing? Isaiah 53 is such a well-known scripture about the death of Jesus and the salvation He has purchased for us. But many have neglected that this core prophetic scripture is explicit that healing has been purchased for us at the cross of Jesus. Learn what Isaiah 53 truly teaches and then ask, 'Do you believe this report?' or, whose report are you believing? This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format...

Mark's record of this miracle in Mark 9:14-29 is different in some ways to Matthew's account. One very significant difference is how the father of the afflicted boy confessed his faith in Jesus' ability to heal; but he also admitted that he had unbelief in his heart too. There are many lessons to learn in this story concerning what demonic affliction can do to someone, even from childhood, and how Jesus ultimately set the boy free. However, we see one very encouraging truth in particular: though the boy's father's faith was imperfect, Jesus still honoured it and healed the boy. God answers even imperfect faith. This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format...

La vicepresidente segunda del Gobierno de España y ministra de Trabajo, Yolanda Díaz, ha arremetido contra el Partido Popular por su postura en torno al nombramiento de Teresa Ribera como comisaria europea. Durante una rueda de prensa que tuvo lugar en Toledo, Díaz instó al PP a «por una vez defender a su país», haciendo […]

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