Category Archives: Politics and sociology

Take me to your leader, if you know who he is

Posted on 11/02/2024 by Jon Garvey

When George III went mad, his son was appointed as Prince Regent. The thing was complicated by party politics, and by the fact that George became sane again, for a while, before the relevant formalities were done. Two centuries earlier, when Edward VI was too young to rule, he too had an appointed substitute, so that whether they like or hate policies during Edward’s early reign, historians know they must look to the Duke of Somerset’s position rather than Edward’s own.

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The one who states his case first seems right…

Posted on 07/02/2024 by Jon Garvey

…until the other asks the right questions (Proverbs 18:17) There is a furore over journalist Tucker Carlson’s as yet unaired interview with Vladimir Putin, though you may be unaware of it given its low profile on MSM. Yet social media is full of it, and the Telegraph online had a video of him filmed with a hidden camera by an obvious stooge in Moscow, Project Veritas fashion, as if there were anything secret about the trip. But Carlson expressed a wish to interview Putin back in his Fox News days, and the fact that it was blocked then is sufficient explanation for his determination to do so now he is … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and sociology | 7 Comments

How academic groupthink always impedes progress

Posted on 27/01/2024 by Jon Garvey

Gary Habermas has just published the first 1100 page volume of his magnum opus on the Resurrection of Jesus, with four more volumes to come. That may seem overkill, but in the scheme of things it is not, because without the bodily Resurrection, Christianity is just another successful world religion – but with it, Christianity is the historical foundation on which the universe is built.

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An object lesson in testing the spirits

Posted on 22/01/2024 by Jon Garvey

There’s a discussion on YouTube (no great benefit in linking to it) between a conservative Evangelical and a gay pastor also claiming the “Evangelical” label. As you might already have anticipated, the discussion is on the biblical basis for their opposite positions; on the one side that homosexual relationships are universally discountenanced by Scripture, and on the other that loving, monogamous homosexuality has the Bible’s blessing. Those familiar with me will know that I judge the first to be the case (and I start the pastoral aspect from there, which is a topic for another day, perhaps). I will add that what I’m about to describe has more general application … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Theology | 2 Comments

Wars, rumours of wars, and proxy wars

Posted on 13/01/2024 by Jon Garvey

Well, the British public now knows that its latest war is against the Houthi rebels of Yemen, whom we are assisting the Neocons of the American Empire to bomb to smithereens. This confirms the principle that when our political target is weak, we bravely bomb it (Yemen, Serbia, Syria, Iraq, Somalia etc), but where it is strong we get some other suckers to bomb it and take the bloody consequences for us (eg Ukraine – quietly sidelined now we’re losing).

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Subliminal BBC indoctrination

Posted on 07/01/2024 by Jon Garvey

Here’s an example of why it’s getting harder to sit through mainstream media programmes without either being indoctrinated into woke ideology, or if one has the slightest insight into the ideology, being exasperated to the point of switching off.

Posted in History, Politics and sociology | 7 Comments

Factors in foresight

Posted on 28/12/2023 by Jon Garvey

Clare Craig’s book, Expired, contains the interesting statistic that only 2% of people in the UK opposed lockdown at the time it started. Having been one of that tiny minority, I am greatly surprised that I was quite such an outlier to the norm, and thought it might be worth trying to understand, in retrospect, why it was. I was not, after all, a leading expert in anything apart, perhaps, from the irrelevant content of my published books. Perhaps such an analysis might help others – and even me – to be better prepared when the next catastrophic mistake is advocated by government.

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Don’t all panic at once

Posted on 20/12/2023 by Jon Garvey

There is a scene in Band of Brothers where, after a long period of arduous training under a sadistic strongly disciplinarian instructor, the guys are finally plunged into an intense action in Europe. To their horror the former instructor, now commanding officer, completely falls apart and starts issuing contradictory orders. Fortunately our hero takes over and saves both the situation and the back of the instructor.

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The subtle art of distinguishing conspiracy theories from truth

Posted on 17/12/2023 by Jon Garvey

Another week, and another young sportsman has had an on-field cardiac arrest. In this case it was the 29 year old captain of Luton Town F.C., who apparently has a previous collapse on the pitch with atrial fibrillation, had it surgically ablated, and was passed fit for all activities again.

Posted in Medicine, Politics and sociology, Science | 7 Comments

More on “Civilisational Christianity.”

Posted on 12/12/2023 by Jon Garvey

The two pieces I recently did, inspired by Bret Weinstein, were not intended to do him down, since the piece I quoted from him was essentially apologising to Christians that the New Atheism movement, by denigrating them, had sidelined important allies against the same enemies of truth and morality. My main point was that he has failed to recognise that faith in God is the foundation of that morality and truth, not an unfortunate superstitious add-on.

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