You cannot successfully deny in real time what you robustly affirm in the catechism.
For the Christian, because his basic catechetical truths are noble and upright (about how we are supposed to live), the gap between his profession and experience is uphill. Hypocrisy is naturally an embarrassment because it represents a failure to attain.
But because the catechetical truths affirmed by the sexual revolution are suspended over a great abyss, like Wil E Coyote holding an anvil, their hypocrisy problem is entirely different. Their catechism affirms that obedience to every random sexual impulse will be totally great, self-actualizing, fulfilling, natural, life-affirming, and helpful in the process of self-discovery. You know—as the eager ego goes spelunking down in the caverns of chthonic desire, in order to search out the wonders and complexities of orgasmic genderlusts. But it turns out the Rats of Moria live down there.
And so this explains the reaction to the revelations about Harvey Weinstein. Anybody who knows anything about the septic system of Hollywood knows that he was living in fulfillment of the catechism. They have these great massive pumps so that they can have the septic tanks installed at the very highest levels, up where the top talents and power producers live.
So the problem was not that he failed to live up to a high and lofty standard. The problem was that obedience to the catechism is a lot creepier in real life than was promised by the catechism. As it plays out, their paradise looks less like a seraglio of celestial houris fashioned out of musk, and more like a seedy boarding house run by a dirty old man, and with all the exits nailed shut. And it smells like urine, not ambrosia.
Hollywood, California is a great flat rock that cannot really afford to be turned over. These Weinstein revelations may be the beginning of it, or it may have to wait for another tipping point scandal. But whenever it happens, and the grotesque revelations all come tumbling out, it will make the horrendous Catholic-Church-scandals look like white bread toast, with a small pat of butter. And the revelations will not be about the fact of immorality—they print that part in the catechism—but rather about the seediness and misery of it. That’s not in the catechism.
But God is not mocked, the apostle says, and a man reaps what he sows. Moreover, he reaps what he sows in accordance with the laws of agriculture that are operative in the world God made, the actual world, what used to be called the real world, and not the made-up world his catechism promised to him.
In that day, there is one other thing that will make us all reject this left coast Sodom-by-the-Sea with loathing. It will not just be the licentiousness. It will not just be the fact that the licentiousness was self-consciously demented. No, this will all be coupled with the fact that these are the very same people who would relentlessly lecture us about our moral deficiencies. These are the people who were most concerned about the sexism and misogyny of fly-over country. Actresses and starlets would appear with Harvey Weinstein and Bill Clinton at gala events so that some mechanic in Oklahoma, faithfully married to one woman for thirty years, could be lectured about his inadequate support for women’s rights. This is because the unenlightened mechanic didn’t have any of his offspring killed, didn’t have any of their pieces shopped around for sale, and his wife didn’t fly off to Washington to march in the big Gynecology Pink Hat March. What a cornpone.
Look at the ruling elites of our generation, with all of their supposed virtues, painted on like an attenuated whitewash. This includes the media and entertainment elites. It is all a sham, all of it. They are riddled with leprous lusts, all the way down. It cannot last. This cannot stand. To use one of the words from their catechism, it is not sustainable.
Because it is so transparently obvious that Epic Failure is a cosmic necessity, this is why I would invite more Christians to cheerfully detach themselves from this failed project. This may seem cryptic to some, but there is at the present time one thing needful. Many more Christians need to hoist the Jolly Roger.
“Many more Christians need to hoist the Jolly Roger.”
Pirates! I am all about the pirates. We do, we desperately need more Christians to take up their eye patch, hang the Jolly Roger, and get about the business of standing upright.
And here I thought the quote was “and start slitting throats”
LOL! It must be hard being a pastor, don’t you think? Make one reference to the jolly roger and half the people think you advocating for the slitting of throats, while the other half assume you want them to start boot legging movies and music off the internet.
Actually, “and start slitting throats” is the rest of the H. L. Mencken quote. So, it’s not a stretch, given Wilson’s history of profitable plagiary (stealing), to assume that that’s the point of the battle cry. As per usual, he leaves enough wiggle room for plausible deniability. He’s a sight to behold! The folks in Moscow, ID must pinch themselves every morning.
Nobody cares about footnoting quotes in a blog, but I am sure Pastor Wilson appreciates the assist.
Between swigs of Kool-Aid you need to do a little fact checking. Fat chance.
Don’t care…and I do not find it that important when one is trying to make a salient point ON A BLOG POST (most of which are forgotten a week after they are posted….like the Las Vegas shooting tragedy, which, except for those directly affected, is now “old news” in the media complex, having been replaced by this Hollywood scandal that everyone in the industry knew about but did nothing while it was going on.)
I’m more than a little confused as to why people are displaying so much (real or feigned) shock over the Weinstein unmasking. Wasn’t “casting couch” already a euphemism? The revulsion I get. The shock, not so much.
Despite my proximity to Hollywood, my finger is not exactly on the pulse (having recently failed to identify an image of Chewbacca), and I had to ask my daughter who Weinstein is and why he is famous. But I find this parade of outraged Hollywood players a fairly nauseating spectacle. Did he attend their parties and fund their causes while the gropings and assaults were well substantiated rumors? If so, I don’t want to listen to them now. Do you remember when Phil Spector was imprisoned for murder after he killed a woman who had gone home with him to… Read more »
“How many of these women called the cops?”
You ever tried to call the cops on a powerful and well connected man everyone loves, Jilly?
Your naivete irritates me because you a have a tendency to not believe people when they try to speak the truth and than to later heap condemnation and judgment upon people for allegedly not…..speaking the truth.
Phil Spector took a lot women home. There would have been minimal risk to a woman who filed an anonymous report with the cops. If the Pope pulled a gun on me for no reason, I am morally certain that I would tell the police. I may be naive, but I try very hard not to be cowardly. MeMe, whenever one person makes a serious accusation about another, I always bear in mind the possibility that the accuser may be mistaken or may be untruthful. My skepticism increases whenever an accuser is unwilling to provide proof., especially if he gets… Read more »
” But I am critical of people who knew for a fact what was going on, had solid evidence, and still chose to treat Weinstein as a close friend”
So basically all of Hollywood and the vast majority of the Democratic party elites?
If that is what they did, yes.
My daughter, and therefore I, have come to know a few people in the industry whose private lives are beyond reproach. I am sure there are many others. But I am entirely willing to be critical of wicked Democrats and wicked producers.
Posting as a complete outsider, and clearly completely disqualified on the basis of incipient maleness, but I am wondering about the suddenness of this thing. The venality and abuse, assuming it is such, has gone on for decades, and not one of these ladies has apparently mentioned it before. And they are not shy, retiring, disempowered people – they are highly influential, multi-millionaire celebrities, the kind that divorce husbands at the drop of a hat, who are feted the world over, whose Oscar speeches often take the form of intemperate denunciations of rightwing politicians. These are not reclusive individuals for… Read more »
There are a number of reasons for the timing. Weinstein was incredibly talented at marshaling money, power and psychology to his own ends. His abuse was only partly about his own sexual perversions; it also functioned very effectively as a hazing ritual. The women who submitted, and the men who helped him cover up, were granted access to fame and fortune. Their shared humiliation bound them to Weinstein and to the in-group in the media-entertainment industry. For any of them, going public alone would have been a suicide mission that would have changed nothing except to earn them bankruptcy, ostracism… Read more »
My actress daughter says that while the casting couch remains a reality (although she has never been asked to repose on it as part of an audition), nepotism is even bigger these days.
It’s about time that Hollywood = Holy Wood gets back to the right story. The best story. That is the two millinia old story of the Cross!
What’s not amazing is that all the starlets now denouncing Weinstein only do so after having slept their way up to the top. Truly amazing is their self-righteousness as they recount in repetition something like, “he _____ me inside his hotel room.” They act as though it’s normal to visit the devil at night or in a night-activity and be respected.
Or safe.
Brings to mind the old adage “If you don’t like the heat, stay out of the kitchen.” We always have a choice to engage, or not, regardless the desired outcome. And the Billy Graham rule works both ways. This quote said by King Baldwin IV in the movie Kingdom of Heaven brings it into unwavering focus when it comes to decisions made that affect our souls, especially when standing before God to give our account: “A king may move a man, a father may claim a son, but that man can also move himself, and only then does that man… Read more »
Hollywood is a cesspool and always will be. You can’t put that much money, power, and uh…opportunity in one place and expect virtuous behavior. Weinstein stands accused of various assaults, but even the consensual behavior that goes on there is enough to make a decent person avoid the place.
It’s an interesting question, why there are no domestic alternatives to Hollywood. Probably because Hollywood is the only place that can marshal the big budgets necessary for the blockbusters people want to see. Of course any competitor that seriously posed a challenge would just turn into the next Hollywood.
Pssst. Matt.
There is no such thing as a pirate “rocket scientist”! ????????
Someone is going to have to ‘splain to me about titanium slide rules. When I was using my circular slide rule, there wern’t nobody using titanium nowhere but in the chemistry lab!
Delta ain’t goina pay no stinkin tariffs on C Series airplanes. Are they rocket scientists?
Nah, just fly boys. ????
Doug: Your GIF game is strong.
Maybe it’s his spiritual GIFt?
????
Arrrr mates! I spy an actual “basket of deplorables”!
Clinton! Edwards! Weinstein! Weiner!
Ports open! Guns out!
Make ready a broadside!
????
When life deals you scurvy dogs,
One might as well go pirate!☠️
Excuse my density but I don’t know what hoisting the jolly roger means in this context. It could mean we loot the state of California but that seems like a sin. It could mean we fire our ships guns on Hollywood but that would mean we have guns with which to fire. We long ago abandoned those for weapons of mass acquiescence.
So, color me puzzled.
It seems to be a reference to a call for people to perform acts of “piracy” as the term is used to describe unapproved means of accessing entertainment. “Don’t give money to Hollywood anymore. Pirate the content instead.” Perhaps Doug is being cryptic in order to avoid social and legal repercussions of outright calls for people to break the law.
Doug seems to be of the idea that certain laws ought to be broken because they’re bad. I suppose piracy would be allowable in this case, according to his thinking.
Easy there mike, the topic of the last paragraph is the “Epic failure” of liberal amorality to deliver any personal or societal good. Which indeed, it has not delivered. “Raising the Jolly Roger “ in this context means calling out the various and sundry little princes and emperors for having no clothes, especially when they are casting babes for movie roles! The issue of course is kooky Libs breaking criminal and civil rights law. The issue is not Wilson breaking any law. Mike, do consider changing your WordPress name to: “The red herring” It suits your rhetorical style and your… Read more »
What’s the connection between pirates and pointing out the emperor’s lack of clothing? My take wasn’t rhetorical, nor was it deliberately wrong. Perhaps you should change your name to: “Charitable towards others? Never heard of it.” For Doug to speak of being cryptic, and then to, in the context of Hollywood, suggest that we become pirates, indicates to me he endorses piracy of Hollywood media. And how would a Christian detach themselves from the failed Hollywood project? By not funding it. It makes sense. If I’m wrong, you’ll have to do a better job pointing it out than assuming the… Read more »
Wow ‘Red! Looks like some Red Herrings die hard! Despite your denial, your take was indeed rhetorical, it was deliberately wrong and your comment : “Doug seems to be of the idea that certain laws ought to be broken because they’re bad.” is as rhetorical, deliberately wrong and uncharitable as they come! (Yo Ho!) (see what I did there?) ; – ) Then below, John Callaghan notes a similar GKC reference: “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” This comment, like Wilson’s is rhetorical, and not… Read more »
Mike, allow me to introduce you to adad0. He’s the resident aw shucks, passive aggressive court jester. With one big exception.
“With one big exception.”
An actual sense of humor. ; – )
For instance, one guy alleges that I am “too nice”,
but mayo has me down as “aggressive”, but somehow “passive” at the same time!
Mayo sounds like the right consistency for someone who finds blog comments “aggressive”.
“Mayo sounds like the right consistency for someone who finds blog comments “aggressive”.”
Yet does not see his own comments as such.
Well, you can’t leave mayo out to long. This is what happens when it spoils!
; – )
I can’t imagine that Doug would ever countenance piracy. Illegally downloading a movie is no different from sneaking into the theatre without buying a ticket, or going to the Target and shoplifting DVDs. The blatant immorality of a property owner doesn’t excuse the actions of the thief.
No it is not. Physically taking a DVD, irrespective of whether it contains anything on it, is taking a fixed material object.
It is somewhat more like sneaking into a movie except the theatre is owned and the criteria set by the owner of me being on the premises is to pay him money.
It is more like watching an outdoor movie from over the fence—and ignoring the signs telling me not to.
Bethyada, I don’t see theft as confined solely to the taking of material objects. Depriving someone of payment to which he is legally entitled is a kind of theft. When you pirate a movie, you are depriving a whole bunch of people of residuals which are rightfully theirs. How is defrauding an insurance company by filing a false claim not a kind of theft. I am taking money which belongs to them as surely as if I went to their office and demanded cash at gunpoint. If I get on the subway without buying a ticket, I am not merely… Read more »
What do you mean by rightfully theirs?
When you sign a contract to appear a a principal in a movie, you get paid a daily rate as well as a percentage of the film’s future profits. Depending on the movie, residuals (the amount you are paid every time your movie is shown in some other venue such as television or on an airplane) may generate more income than you earned during your time on the set. That was true for my daughter, whose first few years of residual payments for her first film brought in decent money. So, residuals are a part of the payment an actor… Read more »
So by “rightfully” you mean rights as secured by the government through law? How does the state get the ability to confer rights? Does it, or do rights exist and the state has the role of maintaining those rights?
If I buy a book can I read it more than once? Can I read it to my children? Can I lend it? Can I on-sell it? Can I memorise it and give recitals free of charge? Can I make a copy by hand and give it away? Can I quote it? How much of it?
Does the government have a legitimate role in adjudicating contract disputes? Does it have a role in preventing employers from defrauding their workers? There is a presumption that if you are the owner of something, the government through the judicial system will protect your ownership right. That something does not have to be a physical object. If I run a daycare center and paint a picture of Mickey Mouse on the walls, you may be sure that DIsney will sue me for trademark infringement which is a kind of theft. I am using their product (the character of Mickey Mouse)… Read more »
Jill, forget the legalities for a moment. The law in this area is a mess.
Answer my questions from a moral perspective. Which are acceptable? Why?
Can I read a book more than once?
Can I read it to my children?
Can I lend it?
Can I on-sell it?
Can I memorise it and give recitals free of charge?
Can I make a copy by hand and give it away?
Can I quote it?
How much of it?
That is tough, Bethyada, because I am a legalistic kind of woman. But, let me try. My answers to questions one to five are yes, absolutely. You could ethically have all your friends come over and listen to you read it to them. You could make audiotapes to while away the lonely hours of hospital patients. You could read it to the blind. I find all of these activities totally ethical because you are not making any money from the use of the book. I don’t have an ethical problem with your making a handwritten copy of the book (if… Read more »
Some good answers. I’ll try and get to this, but to be clear, I was not really addressing plagiarism, I meant how much of a text can I quote (morally) even with attribution?
Your main problem seems to be loss of sales for the author? Reasonable I say. Why then can you make a single copy and give it away?
Bethyada, I think the amount you can ethically quote depends on the purpose and context. If you are a student writing for a teacher, you can quote (with attribution) as much as you can get away with in terms of the assignment. Most teachers would think anything over 25% of the total word count to be excessive, even in a research paper. What would be completely unethical is to scan a copyrighted book and publish it on the web, even if you put quotation marks on the first and last page and add a footnote and bibliography. I would find… Read more »
Perhaps you and the blog owner should revisit US and international copyright law.
Thank you Bethyada, for making a distinction between sitting on cheapskate hill to watch the football game and being an outright thief.
I can’t see anything wrong with sitting on a hill and watching a game. Or standing a block away from Disneyland and watching the fireworks.
Do you not have the concept of intellectual property in Canada? I’m pretty sure you do. Maybe you’re just confused because down in Moscow, it appears that in certain circles, it’s okay if they steal your intellectual property (plagiary), however it’s not okay if someone steals theirs. I think there’s a word for that.
I am well aware of the concept, I just deny it. Legislators make illogical definitions all the time.
And the problem with plagiarism is not often theft because a writer is permitted to quote another without the original author getting compensated. So the issue of plagiarism in writing is more one of lying than it is of theft.
Beth, I’ve read your comment a half-dozen times. Your denial withstanding, the only thing I can conclude is that you have never worked hard to produce a product, whether a piece of music, an article, an essay, a novel, a work of art, a photograph, a new technology, or an architectural design. Because if you had, you would feel differently about someone appropriating your hard work, without permission, for their own benefit. Someone who would do that is at best ignorant of the law and common decency, at worst they are lazy and unethical.
There are strong feelings about this, I just discovered. I hadn’t realized that there are libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, and others who reject the concept of ownership of ideas, inventions, and artistic works. I don’t understand their thinking, and I’m hoping that Bethyada will enlighten me. I willingly concede that some of the laws are both flawed and contradictory, but I think that a person of good faith reads the rules carefully and seeks help when necessary is not likely to run into trouble. But I don’t get the basic concept. Professional photographers take pictures for money. If I use those pictures… Read more »
I am defrauding him by not paying the price he has set for reproduction of his work
Note the emphasised words.
Why wouldn’t the producer of the work (or his appointed agent) be the one to set the price? Your barber, your dentist, and your tax accountant set their prices. If you find the price excessive, you go someplace else. But an honest person can’t use the service or product and then refuse to pay full price.
A freelance photographer earns his living taking pictures he thinks have marketable value. Why would anyone assume he or she has a right to the product of the photographer’s work without paying for it?
My point is that he is selling me both the object and sets a price for me to reproduce that object in the future. But I have already paid for the object.
Mayo, 10/12/2017 : ……”lazy and unethical”
Romenesko, March 21, 2014: …….. “LAZY AND UNETHICAL”
Now now Mayo, where ever oh ever was your attribution?
(Insert unsolicited lecture on fair use and public domain below.) ; – )
Or perhaps I have thought long and hard about this issue, and read a few books on it to boot. I do care about those who put in the work. The old days when copyright was given to publishers instead of the author, or universities owning all patents on products produced by employees. These are the powerful trying to ride over the little man. I do care about justice, but the history of IP has courts granting rights inappropriately and slowed innovation. Your own country continues to extent copyright at the whim of Disney which does absolutely nothing for most… Read more »
Joe, who do you think lives in Canada? You are confusing me.
Doug who?
Doug seems to be of the idea that certain laws ought to be broken because they’re bad. I suppose piracy would be allowable in this case, according to his thinking.
That’s to be expected of someone know for the occasional plagiary.
Wow, you’re boring.
Does it bother you that everyone is talking past you and ignoring your monomania?
Arwen,
Careful, it sounds like Joe may be suffering from a “mayonnaise complex”, the desperate attempt to escape being something other than bland and unremarkable. ; – )
…and made entirely from vegetable oil.
It’s a reference to a quote from H.L. Mencken commenting on the change in tone of the poetry of his time:
(Prejudices: first series, 1919)
John, sometimes I think that you are frighteningly well informed on far too wide a range of subjects.
Thank you for the compliment.
I have to say that Google now makes it frighteningly easy to be well-informed on almost an infinite number of subjects.
If I had to guess at the larger meaning of Doug’s reference, I’d point you to Stefan Molyneux’s exhortation yesterday.
His take is that there is now a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in the arts: the king is dead. His lords’ and ladies’ authority has been dealt a grievous blow. This weakened state will not last forever, so the moment is ripe for an enterprising pirate to charge in and grab the crown.
Maybe he means slit the cable cord?
This is yet another great work from you, Pastor Wilson. Too bad the catechism of the left has declared that thinking is to be avoided at all costs. Otherwise, we might see some real change in Hollywood… Of course, even they did, I still don’t think a one of them would actually know what cornpone means. MeMe, I’m sure it is very hard to get a police call for such crimes as Weinstein’s to actually amount to anything in Hollywood, and I can’t imagine the fear that a woman might face with such a dilemma. But don’t you think she… Read more »
“I can’t imagine the fear that a woman might face with such a dilemma. But don’t you think she should call nevertheless? Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead? ” No. For all our talk of false allegations and women who allegedly report every little thing, in my experience it is virtually impossible to get most victims of sexual assault to report anything at all. I myself would never report a thing because first off it’s almost a given my husband and a few bil’s would be going to jail, the system would not believe me, and I’d be raked over… Read more »
MeMe, do you mean that if you were raped, you would not report the rapist to the police? If the rapist continued to attack women, would you feel any moral responsibility for not reporting him?
Jilly, does it ever occur to you that your propensity to constantly question my moral compunction when you don’t even know the facts, is arrogant to say the least and self righteous at best?
MeMe, I’m sorry to have offended you; I meant no disrespect. I was surprised that you who feel so strongly about protecting women’s safety would take such a hard line against involving law enforcement. It wasn’t based on any assumption; it was in direct response to your saying that you” would never report a thing.” Every time I watch Law and Order Special Victims Unit, Lt. Benson tells the women that if they don’t report rapes, the rapist will keep getting away with it. I I was just surprised that you took the opposite stand.
Jilly,
FYI, I have never met a cream puff that was anything like arrogant or self righteous. ; – )
Sweetness and light is their typical demeanor.
@Jill Smith,
“I was surprised that you who feel so strongly about protecting women’s safety would take such a hard line against involving law enforcement.”
I’m not. Apparently you have missed MeMe’s previous statements on the subject. She is consistent on it. I consider it a ridiculous perspective, one more example of her unusual beliefs.
I must have missed them. I don’t think that the police and the courts automatically disbelieve people who report sexual assault. But prosecutors have to determine if there is enough evidence to take something to trial, and in rape and assault cases, part of that determination is assessing the credibility of the complainant.
Thank you for your explanation of your position, but I must disagree. First, for a perp like this, once one woman comes out, others follow. We saw it with Bill Cosby, and now Weinstein, and I’m sure there are other lower-profile cases that are similar. And please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not trying to say that there aren’t potential complications for the victim who speaks up, but she should nonetheless. It is a hard choice to make, but to appeal to the history of different crimes, all those who had information on the mob and chose to share it took… Read more »
The powerlessness of forced and unreported victimhood really stinks, but I would encourage people to just show some respect for all those victims who have not reported. They often have many good reasons for their choices and it is our naive eyes that want everything to have a fairytale ending with justice served and all the wrongs made right.
They may have very good reasons, and I feel very sorry for them. But I would tend to feel very guilty if my failure to report a sexual assault led the the rape of another woman. I might feel remorse that I had put my own feelings ahead of her safety.
I actually partially agree with Doug for once, though I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone who actually believes that “obedience to every random sexual impulse will be totally great, self-actualizing, fulfilling, natural, life-affirming, and helpful in the process of self-discovery.” That’s a bit of a caricature. But here’s the practical problem with a Weinstein: If someone has power, anyone who challenges him is risking a lot, and that’s not a price that some young starlet hoping to make it big is willing to take. Fifteen women independently and credibly accused Donald Trump of sexual assaults. He… Read more »
I don’t blame her for not coming forward. Most people are not very brave when courage might be a dream killer. But silence when speech was called for does not entitle one to suddenly find courage when there is no longer any risk in telling the truth.
No, not a caricature. At least part of the point is that walking down a certain road comes with the pesky fact of getting somewhere. The sort of rationales advanced for allowing the present sexual madness offer little if any defense from the few kinds of sex which the perverts still pretend to be scandalized by. And actually, far from defense, they grease the skids. But as usual, Krychek, here we are again, begging you to be epistemologically and ethically self-aware. It always reminds me of Lewis describing the strange inability of his atheistic, scientifically trained friends to grasp the… Read more »
Dave, spend a few minutes thinking through what life would be like if one actually were obedient to every random sexual impulse.
You are engaging in the fallacy of the false alternative, in which the only two choices are evangelical Christian sexual morality or anything goes. But those are not the only two choices. I would bet that most atheists are as appalled at Weinstein’s behavior as anyone here, albeit for different reasons.
So I read the “Jolly Roger” in the way that Mike did, though John offers a credible alternative given that Mencken is a favourite author of Doug’s. So the paragraph remains cryptic to me. But, if the request is to pirate movies rather than paying to see them, what are we to do? I am more sceptical of the existence of intellectual property than even Doug is. Whatever I{P is, it is not property. The jury is still out (for me) on whether one can argue for government support for a temporary monopoly for a copyright. Yet the laws still… Read more »
Bethyada, some people have learned the hard way that intellectual property rights can be taken very seriously indeed. The jury that found George Harrison guilty of plagiarizing the Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine” in his song “My Sweet Lord” believed that his copying the melody was subconscious rather than deliberate. Nonetheless their original assessment of damages was $1.5 million. If they had thought he did it deliberately, the damages would probably have been astronomical. I’m puzzled why you would not see the deliberate theft of someone’s original intellectual work as wrong and not merely illegal.
On intellectual property, there’s a free ebook (more a pamphlet) you can read from Stephan Kinsella entitled “Intellectual Property”. My take on government is it has limited rights. The government has no more right to control who can perform a piece of music than it does to control at what time and in what position a married couple engages in coitus. If the government truly can make an idea property, then it can’t take that away (copyright cannot expire, anymore than my car stops being mine after 5 years). Nor can I sing a song to my family if the… Read more »
I have read Kinsella’s book Against Intellectual Property. Published by Mises.org under creative commons. I hear that they make all their books free online.
Book was okay but not philosophical enough, more pragmatic and legal (IIRC).
Well, Mike, it isn’t quite that bad. You can sing “It’s Small World” to your family as often as they are willing to hear it. You can go to a karaoke bar and sing it all night long. You can sing it with your family and put the video on youtube. What you can’t do is make a recording of thet song and sell it to the public without getting Disney’s permission and paying a royalty. You can sing a song from “Cats!” at your church concert with no fear of breaking the law, even if the concert charged admission.… Read more »
Well, perhaps instead of raiding the ship, we scuttle it instead.
Though most of the allegations we’ve heard before, these latest revelations and statements (Weinstein and Pitt) brings into sharper focus as to whether and how we should support the monster that keeps us “informed” and entertained.
Remember that Babylon the Great traded in the “bodies and souls of men”(KJV: “and slaves, and souls of men”) per Rev. 18:13.
Why are we talking about pirating something that is no treasure to be desired by a Christian in the first place?
“I would invite more Christians to cheerfully detach themselves from this failed project.”
Oh. So you mean there is such a THING as worldliness? My bad. I thought you were Reformed. The Reformed don’t talk about detachment from culture; they preach dominion. You sound rather Anabaptist here.
At least your moving toward Christianity.
James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Anabaptist?! Oh, man! Them’s fightin’ words, there. What will you say next? That evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse?
Or maybe you’re one of those cornpones Doug mentioned who thinks that in the last days, evil men will lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts…
Good job, bro. Carry on!
Weinstein is the epitome of following the “American dream”… more’s the pity.
The outrage and revulsion that comes from what he has done, and the subsequent culture that glosses over his behaviour, while true and good can only exist because we know it’s wrong. In the core of our beings we know what he did is evil, thus proving that the “American dream” is not Christian by any stretch of the imagination and is abhorrent in the eyes of the Lord.
Weinstein Trump Cosby Clinton R. Kelly Charlie Sheen Roger Ailes The difficulty that less powerful people have in coming forward when sexually harassed and abused by powerful men is well documented, and knows no political lines. I used the names above because they’re the most “famous”, but could have just as easily named powerful people in schools and churches who have done the same thing. Definitely a societal issue, but difficult to pin it on one particular subsection of society when the same thing has been happening for centuries from the Catholic Church to New Life, the White House to… Read more »
J’, keep in mind that doing the right thing is not always a slam dunk.
The right thing should be done, but the cost should be counted as well.
Even when the right thing is done, it can take a while for the institution in question to fall.
@Douglas Wilson,
“Wil E Coyote” should be “Wile E. Coyote”.
What a shock! Not only is the church full of sexual miscreants posing as leaders, now we discover to our utter amazement that Hollywood is eaten up with them, too. Who woulda thunk it?
I know, right? It’s almost as if sin were a real thing in the world.
Are we seeing the implosion of the Godless lifestyle promoted by so many of these people living within their respective Hollywood “art” bubble? They fudge moral truth to fit their proclivities. They smudge the lines not to be crossed, descending further down the slippery slope of debauchery, then champion the result as “normal.”
This may our wake-up call, our time to go [further] into the fray and present the one true God more boldly.
Folks who worship in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Are you not familiar with the scriptures? For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
Hey Mayo, what about people who live in glass jars?
; – )
Hehe…Although I prefer Miracle Whip to Mayo, which is maybe why he’s got an angry axe to grind. Unsure why he prefers attacking people, but hey, it’s a free country.
I think there was a mix up between condiments and condemnation! ; – )
If he adds some ketchup he could make a “Russian” [dressing] connection. It’s all a big “mayo” conspiracy in order to sway the “elected”.
Not really very constructive, wielding God’s word as a means to a legalistic end to justify hammering people over the head with it, – entirely misses the point.
It was all consensual
I really do not get the problem.
These women just want to feel like Victims
I predict men will move even faster to robots to avoid this nonsense
men get punished for consensual sex and not women
wow!