A Surprising Opinion from Milbank on Atheism?

Therefore there have to be limits to the toleration of atheism and the admission of atheists to public influence in any genuinely civilised society. It is truly a threat to public order and especially to children.

— john milbank (@johnmilbank3) August 29, 2021

Pollan Pushing

Psychedelic Drugs Will Follow Pot's Path to Legalization - Bloomberg https://t.co/Ieq0qCVsFH

— Michael Pollan (@michaelpollan) May 16, 2021

Lord Have Mercy

Tony Hsieh was two weeks from his forty-seventh birthday, and eighteen centuries removed from the martyrdom of Lawrence, when he met his own end in a fire in Connecticut. https://t.co/mMU11vDmzy

— Crisis Magazine (@CrisisMag) December 23, 2020

In the Footsteps of Christopher Hitchens?

Kolkata will take a century to recover from Mother Teresa by Aroup Chatterjee

John Haldane and Christopher Hitchens

Another Uhmerican Being Provocative and Trying to Sell Books Before Pascha

We've seen this sort of poorly-argued garbage from Time and other magazines before. NPR: If Jesus Never Called Himself God, How Did He Become One?

Peter Hitchens - The God Debate

Just a short video

The Godless Party

Patrick Buchanan
Thomas Fleming, God and the Democrats

Allen West: Three Times

DNC Lies to Delegates, Rams God and Jerusalem Back into Platform

Items of Interest, 5 January 2012

Thomas Fleming, Newt Gingrich, RIP and For the Last Time and Gaffes

Daniel Larison, Why Haven't Republicans Repudiated Bush on Iraq?

Clark Stooksbury, Pink Buckets of Chicken

Refuted Congressional Lies about NDAA Kidnapping

Peter Hitchens, Don't forget, it takes a cynical knave to create a dodgy knight and Einstein Versus the Atheists

Intellectual Conservative, No Evidence for God?

Prophet of Conservatism, Russell Kirk

Mike Church: Interview with Kevin Gutzman on the state of conservatism

Mike Church & Winston Elliott discuss Conservatism, Russell Kirk and the Humane Economy

Paul Gottfried, Enough with Family Values and When Democracy Murders Liberty

America: Christian or Jacobin? by John Zmirak

End the Violence, End the War on Drugs

Srdja Trifkovic, Obama's Strategic Doctrine: W Lite
Daniel Larison, Syria and Interventionism Run Amok

Peter Hitchens, The Tory Party, Who Needs It?

Rebellion: Abbeville Institute Conference

Ron Paul:
Scott McConnell, Ron Paul and His Enemies
Patrick Buchanan: Ron Paul: Reactionary or Visionary ?

Iran:
Philip Giraldi, Another War on the Cheap
Chairman of Joint Chiefs to Israelis: U.S. Won’t Join Your War on Iran by Gareth Porter
US Frets Israeli Attack on Iran
Daniel Larison, Israel Is Not Going to Attack Iran

On Recent Economic Figures:
Auomatic Earth has a new url. Who Killed the Money Printer?
Paul Craig Roberts: Economics 101 and The Real Economic Picture
Fabius Maximus: About the January jobs report – mildly good news, but bought at great cost

Economics:
John Médaille, There is No Such Thing as a Bank Loan
Ralph Nader, The Health Care Racket

Peak Oil and Energy:
Janet Napolitano Personifies US Myopia
Peak Oil Crisis Election 2012

History:
Romance of the Middle Ages
Kathryn Boughton, A Book on James Madison by Dr. Kevin Gutzman

Christianity:
Thomas Fleming, Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites
Ethiopian Iconography
Christian Jihad
The Christianity of Modernism by Cleanth Brooks

Feminism:
The Feminist Mystique

Diet and Health
What happens when you eat Ramen.
Regrowing Your Own Teeth

Misc:
Man Builds Fairy Tale Home for His Family for only 3000 Pounds

Lost little sheep.

Living simply: Finding real happiness

Cecile Andrews, Energy Bulletin

We’re caught in a vicious circle: The more we’re concerned with money, the less time we have for others (making and managing money takes time). When we’re mainly concerned with money, others are our adversaries — we’re all competing for limited resources.

From the essay:

But wealth is not the central ingredient of happiness, and happiness has been on the decline. What does bring real happiness? What truly benefits people and the planet?

‘Hierarchy of needs’

Even though there’s much new research on happiness, it’s interesting to look at the work of Abraham Maslow, who, in 1943, explored what he called our “hierarchy of needs.”

First is the need for survival: We need air, water, food and shelter.

Next comes safety needs: We need to feel safe and protected.

Next are the social needs. We need family, friends, community and the public good.

Then come esteem needs: We need others’ respect, as well as our own self-respect. We need to use our own unique abilities for goals and a sense of challenge.

Finally, self-actualization — becoming the self you truly are. This involves a commitment to a higher purpose, finding a way of making the world a better place.

Maslow called these needs because if they are not fulfilled, there are negative consequences. Obviously, if a baby doesn’t get food, it will die; but if it doesn’t get love, it will grow into a violent, cruel person. If we don’t have respect, we will lack faith in ourselves and treat others with disdain. If we don’t find a purpose, our lives are diminished, and we become selfish and greedy, not caring about the common good.

But Maslow’s pyramid is a little deceptive. Each of those levels have something in common: social ties. Without other people we can’t survive, feel safe, feel respected or even feel actualized. It all involves people. But as I’ve said many times in this column, social cohesion has been severely undermined. Trust has declined dramatically; incivility haunts us.

There are many reasons — in particular, we work too many hours, and we don’t have time to come together. But probably the most important reason we’re so isolated is that we don’t understand the great need for social connections. We have always been a culture that admired self-reliance and individuality.

And because we do not realize that true security lies in other people, we have turned to wealth and possessions for a false security.

No religion, no God. The goods are external goods; there is no sense of happiness as an activity as in Aristotle's eudaimonism, except in the last good, "self-actualization," which is rather vague. Are inauthentic forms of self-actualization? Yes. Do we need rules to aid us attain true self-actualization? Yes. And is God more than a higher purpose? Yes.

Would liberals ever go back to the ancients (or the medievals) to see if they could learn from them? Probably not.

The author's website.

Gross National Happiness

"You're not as good as you think you are."

That was Chef Gordon Ramsay's remarks to one of the contestants (who thought he was ready to be the leader of the blue team because he already had the requisite cooking skills) last week on Hell's Kitchen. It's also appropriate for those who think they do not need religion or God for moral rectitude.