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from BBC News (UK)
Single malt Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs
Single malt Scotch whisky exported to the United States is to face a tariff of 25% from 18 October. The new duty is part of a raft of measures being imposed by the US in retaliation against EU subsidies given to aircraft maker Airbus. Other goods being targeted include cashmere sweaters, dairy products, pork, books and some machinery.
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from The Guardian (UK)
Philip Pullman attacks politicians claiming to know the 'will of the people'
The Dark Materials author Philip Pullman has attacked politicians for claiming “the will of the people” as a basis for power. “Any political power that rules in the name of something that cannot be questioned is extremely dangerous,” he told fans in London on Wednesday, at the launch of volume two of his Book of Dust trilogy, The Secret Commonwealth. Pullman also spoke at the Alexandra Palace event about the dangers of being blinkered. Quoting William Blake – “May God us keep / From Single vision & Newtons sleep” – he said that “single vision” was “the kind of vision that only sees the things that can be measured”.
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"Stop Scaring the Children"
Gloomy stories of the coming apocalypse have become commonplace in schools, textbooks, churches, movies and even children’s bedtime stories. For those under the age of 30, listen up: You will live longer, healthier lives with more material wealth than any previous generation. You will inherit a world with less poverty, less disease, more leisure time, less pollution, and more material wealth, less discrimination, and more opportunity to achieve your dreams and aspirations than any other generation — except for that of your children’s and grandchildren’s. You are not inheriting a severely injured planet but one in which a storehouse of thousand of years of accumulated human knowledge make you capable of combatting almost any conceivable problem or catastrophe.
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Impending Defeat for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Most of you think that the world, in general, is getting worse. You are wrong. Citing uncontroversial data on major global trends, I will prove to you that this dark view of humanity's prospects is, in large part, badly mistaken. In Christian tradition, the four horsemen of Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death usher in the apocalypse. Compared to 100 years ago, deaths from infectious diseases are way down; wars are rarer and kill fewer people; and malnutrition has steeply declined. Death itself is in retreat, and the apocalypse has never looked further away.
from The Heritage Foundation
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.
"Stop Scaring the Children"
Gloomy stories of the coming apocalypse have become commonplace in schools, textbooks, churches, movies and even children’s bedtime stories. For those under the age of 30, listen up: You will live longer, healthier lives with more material wealth than any previous generation. You will inherit a world with less poverty, less disease, more leisure time, less pollution, and more material wealth, less discrimination, and more opportunity to achieve your dreams and aspirations than any other generation — except for that of your children’s and grandchildren’s. You are not inheriting a severely injured planet but one in which a storehouse of thousand of years of accumulated human knowledge make you capable of combatting almost any conceivable problem or catastrophe.
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from HumanProgress.org Education Website
Impending Defeat for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Most of you think that the world, in general, is getting worse. You are wrong. Citing uncontroversial data on major global trends, I will prove to you that this dark view of humanity's prospects is, in large part, badly mistaken. In Christian tradition, the four horsemen of Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death usher in the apocalypse. Compared to 100 years ago, deaths from infectious diseases are way down; wars are rarer and kill fewer people; and malnutrition has steeply declined. Death itself is in retreat, and the apocalypse has never looked further away.
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Magazine of The Living Church Foundation (Anglican)
GOING OUT OF BUSINESS?
Rather like a restaurant facing a marked decline in clientele, the Episcopal Church decided to offer a confused menu crowned by a new prayer book, suffused with a text drawn from that proposed by the Second Vatican Council, tastefully rendered. Progressivism was embraced, to the fury of conservative Episcopalians. Love was featured on the dessert menu, unconditional and uncritical. The only remaining sins were either social, or perceived disloyalty to those who ran the church. This rather confusing combination pitted the wording of liturgical texts (e.g., the collects for mission in the prayer book’s offices) against the religion offered from pulpits and synods (e.g., General Convention resolutions). It is evident that this menu attracted and continues to attract disaffected Roman Catholics and evangelicals, but not enough to offset critical decline, caused by death, marrying out, failure to evangelize the past two generations, and a societal drift away from organized religion.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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Opinion: Record debt and inequality gap? It's almost like 40 years of Republican tax cuts failed.
Since the Reagan administration, Republicans have fervently claimed lower taxes will unleash the "makers" — incentivizing them to work harder and invest more, thereby trickling down to benefit ordinary Americans. Moreover, they have consistently claimed that their tax cuts would create such dramatic economic growth that they’d literally pay for themselves. A rising tide lifts all boats! No hard choices to make — just cut taxes! Instead, the national debt is at a record high, and the gap between the richest and the poorest U.S. households is now the largest it has been in the 52 years the Census Bureau has been tracking it. And that inequality gap started to expand dramatically about the same time the Republican Party started cutting taxes.
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from USA Today
Since the Reagan administration, Republicans have fervently claimed lower taxes will unleash the "makers" — incentivizing them to work harder and invest more, thereby trickling down to benefit ordinary Americans. Moreover, they have consistently claimed that their tax cuts would create such dramatic economic growth that they’d literally pay for themselves. A rising tide lifts all boats! No hard choices to make — just cut taxes! Instead, the national debt is at a record high, and the gap between the richest and the poorest U.S. households is now the largest it has been in the 52 years the Census Bureau has been tracking it. And that inequality gap started to expand dramatically about the same time the Republican Party started cutting taxes.
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