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Electric Scotland News
Ukraine war: US releases last military aid for Kyiv for now
The White House has approved another tranche of US military aid to Ukraine worth some $250m (£195m). The latest package includes air defence, artillery and small arms ammunition, and anti-tank weapons, US officials say. But it marks the last funding available without fresh approval from Congress, where talks have stalled.
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Israel Gaza war: Israel warns Hezbollah and Lebanon over border fighting
Israel will act to remove Hezbollah from the border with Lebanon if the militia group's attacks continue, an Israeli minister has warned.
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The crisis in Sudan is escalating
Read more at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20231228160355/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-crisis-in-sudan-is-escalating-can-canada-do-anything-to-help/
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Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time. Here is what caught my eye this week...
Poilievre says Trudeau lacks moral compass
The Sun's political columnist Brian Lilley talks with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre about how he is different than Justin Trudeau and why Canadians should vote him in as the next Prime Minister of Canada.
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/06nohHEEtGY?si=SXO2xmwGLoko4zzR
Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence system slammed for failing pupils
Politicians have criticised the Curriculum for Excellence (CFE) education system.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/s...upils-31730793
Denmark Declares War on Multiculturalism
For many years, decades even, the rich Nordic social democracies were seen as the perfect haven for immigration. Regardless of origin, race, religion or any other status, most of these countries were built by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of foreigners. Some time ago, however, all this has begun to change, especially in Denmark. Denmark is by far the Nordic country that has taken the most radical approach to illegal immigration. Did you know that the Danish government is even demolishing immigrant neighbourhoods? In this video we tell you all the details.
Watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFZjSwzdFyM
Why can't Sweden get gang violence under control?
This has never happened before in Sweden: The government has called in the army to help combat rampant gang violence in the cities. The police seem overwhelmed, the politicians helpless. In 2022, 62 people were killed in shootings. And both perpetrators and victims are getting younger. During his research in Stockholm and Uppsala, our reporter wants to find out: Why is this wave of violence hitting 'tranquil' Sweden of all places...Why can't the authorities get it under control? Is the situation partly due to a failed integration policy? And: What are the ways out of the violence? Our reporter meets ex-gangsters, survivors, police officers and social workers.
Watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwWMjxLrmVE
The Story Behind the Rise of Hamas
Even as all eyes were on the PLO, a small Islamist group slowly took root in the Gaza Strip in the late 1980s. But under the leadership of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas grew and grew, and ultimately became the murderous terror group it is today. This is its story.
Read more at:
https://www.spiegel.de/international...c-dbd0c43c3613
Russia Is a Storm, China Is Climate Change
Spying from China continues to grow in both volume and sophistication. The cyber-snoops from the People's Republic have moved beyond companies and are now seeking to exert influence on politics in Germany all while keeping a close eye on dissidents and minorities.
Read more at:
https://www.spiegel.de/international...8-e5032ad0a367
The King's Christmas Broadcast 2023
HM King Charles III delivers his annual Christmas message to the nation and the Commonwealth.
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/WgUunxUH3yw?si=MJCPdrnzkxGoO8WP
Conrad Black: The Human Rights Commission's moronic attack on Christmas
Of course, there is nothing remotely discriminatory about Christmas
Read more at:
https://archive.is/YT7Lw
Chicago Scots: How Scottish values and traditions are helping care for the elderly in Illinois
At a Highland Games event just days after the death of his father, Gus Noble felt a lump rise in his throat as he prepared to introduce an emotional pipe band rendition dedicated to loved ones lost.
Read more at:
https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/chicag...y-in-illinois/
Boris Johnson rejoices over Brexit trade deal boost which will open up Africa to the UK
EXCLUSIVE: Britain is eyeing a major Brexit trade deal which could open up the African continent to business and has put a smile on Boris Johnson's face.
Read more at:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/polit...morocco-africa
Electric Canadian
Lunenburgh
Or the Old Eastern District, its settlement and early progress with Personal Recollections of the Town of Cornwall, from 1824; to which are added A History of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York and Other Corps; the Names of all those who Drew Lands in the Counties of Stormont. Dundas and Glengarry, up to November, 1786; and Several other Lists of Interest to the Descendants of the Old Settlers by J. F. Pringle, Judge County Court (1890) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist.../lunenberg.pdf
Memories of Early Walsh and Graburn
This book was commenced as a centennial project of the Walsh branch of Alberta Women's Insitutes. It contains a collection of the memories of Margaret Fulton. It was started in 1966 with much interest and cooperation from residents of the district (Maple Creek, Sask., Fort Walsh, Alb., & Graburn, Alb.) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ory%20Book.pdf
Thoughts - the 25th day of December 2023 Christmas
A Merry Christmas from the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...2023-christmas
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 24th day of December 2023 - Love & Charity
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...3-love-charity
Sir Charles Dilke's New Book
"Problems of Greater Britain", in two volumes, by Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, Bart., reviewed by the Marquis of Lorne (1890)
You can read this review and read the two volume publication at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/history/problems.htm
Recollections About the Life of the First Ukrainian Settlers in Canada
Collected and Written by William A. Czumer, Translation by Louis T. Laychuk, Introduction by Manoly R. Lupul, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Edmonton 1981 (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...sabo00czum.pdf
Electric Scotland
The True History of Alexander, John, and Patrick
And of the Great Mercantile & Manufacturing concern carried on by them under their firm of John, Alexander, & Co., From an old M.S. in the Museum of the Sydney University, Australia by the Professor of Ancient History in the College of Saint Mungo. (1855) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/busines...00unkngoog.pdf
The Life of Doctor Archibald Cameron
Brother to Donald Cameron of Lochiel. Chief of that Clan (1753) (pdf)
You can read this old book at:
https://electricscotland.com/webclan...archi_1753.pdf
Michael Bruce and the Ode to the Cuckoo
By J. C Shairp
You can read this article at:
https://electricscotland.com/poetry/cuckoo.htm
Good Words
1873 edition in which there are a number of stories from the Late Rev. Norman MacLeod
You can read this volume at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ne_1873_14.pdf
Story
Pro-Hamas protesters are sanctimonious psychopaths
By Jordon Peterson
We are now exposed to the truly appalling spectacle of widespread demonstrations across the West supporting – explicitly or implicitly – the terrorists of Hamas. Some of the most shocking scenes unfolded in London, a city often held up as a beacon of immigration-fueled multiculturalism – one that has now seemingly lost its shine.
Yet, troublesome though the impact of such accelerated immigration may be, it is by no means the main reason why Hamas has acquired so much support. It is instead the careless naivete and sheer blind heedlessness of the West in dealing with one of its most deadly national foes – Iran – in combination with the destructive ideological reaction presently threatening our culture to the core.
The tyranny of the Iranian mullahs
We like to believe, in our oft-unearned comfort, that differences in metaphysical and religious outlook can simply be overlooked in favour of the humanity we all hypothetically share. In consequence, we fail to seriously consider the very real differences that still exist between people (especially at their worst), and which cause the eternal conflicts and predatory and parasitic criminal activity that keep so much of the world poor, miserable and mean. We believe we can wave the magic wand of goodwill, and have all such variance in opinion and outlook vanish at the borders, leaving nothing behind but the much-vaunted “diversity” whose pursuit has become a moral imperative – or else.
We also foolishly underestimate the persistence, strength and cunning of those who regard our virtues and freedoms as vices and historical accidents. Some reports have Hamas leaders or former leaders taking up residence in London, or operating in the West with little genuine constraint. Regardless of the truth of those specific claims, or the clear and present danger posed by those leaders, there can be little doubt that the serpentine authoritarian operatives of our enemies are now causing as much disruption as they possibly can everywhere in the major cities of the democratic world.
The most germane example is currently provided by the tyrants of Tehran. Are we really too stupid to detect the presence of the Iranian pseudo-religious thugs behind these massive demonstrations, taking full advantage of the current conflict in Israel, which they did everything possible to bring about? It has long been to the advantage of the totalitarians who wish to cling pathetically to their power in the Middle East and elsewhere to use the Palestinians as cannon-fodder and goads in the side of the Jewish state, upon whom everything throughout time can so conveniently be blamed.
We need to remember that the Iranian mullahs are on the ropes. They are hated, with a vengeance, by their own citizens, and deservedly so. They are, in addition, existentially threatened by the Abraham Accords, and are doing everything in their power to discredit and destroy them. These agreements, long deemed impossible by the entrenched and intransigent State Department bureaucracy, brought peace and the possibility of cooperative prosperity to certain Arab/Muslim countries (the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, and Sudan).
The much more powerful Saudis also welcomed and facilitated these initiatives behind-the-scenes. We therefore missed a stellar and historically unprecedented opportunity to bring them into the pro-Israel fold, mostly because of Democrat unwillingness to credit Donald Trump’s administration with any positive achievements whatsoever.
This is tragic, as the Abraham Accords profoundly undermined the narrative of “Muslims against everyone else” (most focally Jews); a narrative the bloody psychopaths always and inevitably depended upon to motivate the worst of themselves and their followers. Thus, it is in the clear interest of the Iran “leadership” to force the Israelis to defend themselves, using all due force, so that their military and strategic prowess can be spun as even more evidence of their oppressive and colonial ways.
Which brings us precisely to the central problem: the vengeful narrative of victim and victimiser that has infected broad swathes of the Western world.
A new front in the culture war
Everyone who hasn’t lived under a rock for the last two decades understands that we are in a culture war of unprecedented depth and breadth. It has not yet broken out into full-fledged conflict, although it came close with the Black Lives Matter and January 6 protests and, most recently and seriously, the massive aforementioned pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Disturbing as the dark cloud of the latter may well be, it came with the proverbial silver lining: the unquestionable revelation of the true nature of the culture war: a revelation shocking to so many. How could it possibly be that so much of Western academia (as well as progressives, more generally) could support the very movement behind the worst planned attack on Jews since the Holocaust?
To understand that, we must come to understand the unholy alliance between postmodern philosophy and Marxism; something particularly, although not uniquely, attributable to one Michel Foucault, currently the world’s most-cited academic.
Foucault, who was the very embodiment of resentful bitterness (not least because of the alienation he suffered due to his sexual proclivities) devoted his tremendous intellect to the task of reducing all human motivation to a single dimension: that of power. For Foucault and his idiot quasi-Nietzschean followers, there is no reality other than that of compulsion and force: no responsibility, no rights, no truth, no heaven above nor hell below – nothing but the all-against-all of Thomas Hobbes.
Even those claiming to be motivated by, say, the intellectual tradition, the liberal ethos, or even the much-vaunted current Goddess of All-Encompassing Compassion are, according to the postmodernists, pursuing nothing but their own narrowly self-centred aims. Loathas they were to accept the existence of any uniting story – any “supreme meta-narrative,” in the jargon – they were eager to adopt this infinitely broadened formulation of the arrogant, resentful Marxist victim/victimiser narrative that was particularly attractive to so many major French intellectuals of the time. Thus – and predictably – they swallowed the proverbial camel, while straining at a gnat.
History, for Marx, was best understood as the eternal battle between the corrupt haves and the innocent, virtuous and oppressed have-nots – the now-cliched bourgeoisie and proletariat.
The world he proclaimed was thus pure conflict: two classes of inevitable enemies, eternally vied off against one another for control of the economic spoils (the only domain of value posited to exist, once all the religious and metaphysical “opiate of the masses” had been properly and progressively stripped away). This has morphed, under the pressure of the postmodern de-constructive ethos, into the meta-Marxism that similarly proclaims two classes of humanity, but in even starker form: the victims (those from whom the victimisers have robbed) and the victimisers (those who have everything – or anything at all).
The dichotomy is no longer merely economic, as it was under Marx. Instead, it characterises every conceivable dimension of categorisation, sexual, gendered (so-called), religious, ethnic, racial, athletic, aesthetic and meritorious. Everywhere there is the dynamic of power, and the inequality it inevitably produces; everywhere there are evil oppressors and the virtuous oppressed. This is the standard doctrine of the “elite” universities. From such sources, it has disseminated everywhere – and is opposed by faculty, students, administrators and now common citizens at their great peril.
The festishisation of victimhood, and its consequences
In this bleak existential landscape, there are no sovereign citizens of ineffable essential worth, exchanging rational opinions in the attempt to bring clarity, productivity, generosity and truth to the fore. There are no divinely-souled human beings, capable of civilised cooperation and competition. There are merely competitors in an irreducibly ideological realm, clamouring for arbitrarily-granted attention and fighting for power – with the worst of those promoting the veritable language of freedom, rights, responsibility and human dignity for no other reason than their narrow self-aggrandisation.
There is no property: only theft. There is no merit: only the definitions of merit that serve the powerful. There is no intrinsically-meaningful human struggle. Instead, there are the brief dominance-motivated battles of mortal material beings, struggling in pointless quasi-Darwinian competition, trampling in the rush to seek status on the heads of the arbitrarily less-fortunate others.
A more comprehensively destructive, nihilistic and inevitably sadistic doctrine has never been imagined; neither has a system of thought ever so clearly and unapologetically justified the use of force and compulsion. Remember: if nothing exists but power, it is only the fool who fails to use it.
In this nightmarish world, there are only two social positions: you and your group (for there are no “individuals” in this conceptual scheme) are either victims or victimisers. This is a very simple theory, and something therefore profoundly attractive to the wilfully blind, stupid and ignorant. It is equally convenient, however, to the bitter and resentful – and, therefore, downright irresistible to those who combine both sets of dubious attributes.
The central venomous claim? If you are successful, in any guise, by any standards of comparison whatsoever, then you are a victimiser. If you are not, you are a victim.
A rigid moral claim accompanies this act of starkly black-and-white comparison: there are, as well, only two forms of acceptable and laudable moral conduct or reputation. If you are a victim, or an “ally,” you are with no further effort goodness incarnate. This is supposed, on “philosophical” grounds, to be self-evident, following as it does so deservedly in the wake of your loudly trumpeted compassion. If you are a victimiser, however, look the hell out: you are evil incarnate, and inescapably so: a predatory parasite, rightly subject to the most brutal of treatment. Indeed, the terrible treatment you thereby experience does nothing but redound to the credit of your so-Godly-and-compassionate persecutors.
If you are a victimiser, after all, you have no moral standing whatsoever. No punishment is therefore undeserved, or sufficiently severe. This is true even if you are “only” a member of a victimising group, and have done nothing wrong other than that, because “individual” is a category that within the postmodern philosophy no longer exists.
If you are a victim, by contrast, any and all moral outrage is justified, worthy and laudable – even morally required – even if you are merely a self-aggrandising, vindictive and hypocritical “ally” of some marginalised group. The fact that such latitude in reactive or vengeful action fully opens the door to the worst possible actions by the worst imaginable narcissists and psychopaths is also something rapidly glossed over or ignored by the vengeful ideologues of the postmodern Left – most likely because it is an outcome most intensely desired in the their most resentful fantasies.
‘Victimisers’ and its impact on the Israel-Gaza conflict
What does this mean, specifically, for understanding the Israel-Gaza conflict and the world-wide demonstrations following in its aftermath?
Well, few would disagree that Israel is a highly successful nation. It is a society that hyper-values intellectual accomplishment and success. Does this make it admirable? Not to those for whom any sign of success whatsoever indicates the dynamic of victimiser and victim. Not to those who would rather assume that such success must be a consequence of some behind-the-scenes conspiracy. Ability, effort and merit do not exist, remember, in the postmodern meta-Marxist world. Historic attacks on Israel and its citizens jives in more modern times all-too-well with the radical Leftist insistence that success is nothing more than the evil consequence of the evil capitalist system in which it arose.
The consequent inevitable conclusion that the disproportionately successful Israelis must then be uniquely exploitative turns out to be very convenient for the Iranian leader-thugs, eternally hoping to deflect the attention away from their own unforgivable failings.
There are plenty of Arabs or Muslim oppressors for the truly “compassionate” folk on the Left to concern themselves with. There are many truly oppressed people. Take for example the devastated inhabitants of Sudan, where various militias operate brutally and invisibly – completely off the radar of many virtue-signallers in the West. The same might be said even more broadly of the women of Iran, the oppression of whom is a clear hallmark of psychopathic brutality.
Where are the howls of outrage from the Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge do-gooders about the plight of the veiled in that brutal state? Even Amnesty International, most notable now for its woke foolishness, has called without success on the world to make its objections to such things noted.
Even if the Palestinians were victimised – and some case can be made for that – they are certainly not alone, and it is hard to put forward a credible argument that the Jews of the region don’t deserve at least equal a priori sympathy, especially given how many are direct descendants of those who went through some of the worst catastrophes in the history of the world under the Nazis – something acknowledged by the UN when it announced an independent Jewish state (and, lest it be forgotten, a corresponding Arab state) in 1948.
A warning from history
The danger of the victim/victimiser narrative, as such, cannot be overstated. It was its promulgation that engendered Lenin, Stalin and Mao. It was its spread that gave rise to Nazi Germany, and to the more recent absolute catastrophe of the Rwandan massacres. It is a tale as old as time: Cain himself was the first victim, and his good brother, Abel, the first victimiser, deserving of nothing less than a violent death.
The instinct operating within the doctrine driving such divisions is aimed not at the forgiveness and peace it constantly claims but the punishment and mayhem that it more truly and most deeply desires. This is a motive in keeping that famously diagnosed by George Orwell in The Road to Wigan Pier, where he accused the intellectual socialists, in particular, of not so much loving the poor as hating the rich. Such simple and convenient identification of oppressor provides the murderous with precisely the balm to conscience required to despise and torture, with the best of conscience.
There are now hundreds of thousands marching for the demonisation of Jews, manipulated, behind the scenes, by the actions of the Iranian autocrats. They would have little purchase, however, if not enabled by the wretched, simple-minded, prideful “intellectual” Western ideologues, fulminating hatred in the name of compassion, contaminating everything everywhere of any worth whatsoever with the dread accusation of exploitation and oppression.
This has happened time and time again in history. The descendants of the ancient Israelites are the universal canaries in the coal mine. If we allow those who are envious of their success to rule, or even to move among us unimpeded in their actions, we are most truly laying our necks, as well as theirs, on the line. We will pay the dread piper, inevitably, as societies and the individuals who compose them have always paid for committing this most egregious, covetous, arrogant, prideful and sadistic of sins.
Enough stupidity and blindness. The barbarians are no longer at the gate. They are inside – inside our cities, our civilisation, and our souls. Too many clamour, in consequence, to once again punish Jews. The bloodthirsty desires and doctrines motivating and justifying such behaviour must be identified, understood and rejected, before things get seriously out of hand – and that could happen sooner and with more devastating force than even the most pessimistic among us might be inclined to think.
END
The above story comes from:
https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/blog...s-psychopaths/
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you and wishing you all a Very Happy New Year
Alastair
Ukraine war: US releases last military aid for Kyiv for now
The White House has approved another tranche of US military aid to Ukraine worth some $250m (£195m). The latest package includes air defence, artillery and small arms ammunition, and anti-tank weapons, US officials say. But it marks the last funding available without fresh approval from Congress, where talks have stalled.
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Israel Gaza war: Israel warns Hezbollah and Lebanon over border fighting
Israel will act to remove Hezbollah from the border with Lebanon if the militia group's attacks continue, an Israeli minister has warned.
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The crisis in Sudan is escalating
Read more at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20231228160355/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-crisis-in-sudan-is-escalating-can-canada-do-anything-to-help/
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And Wishing you all a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year for 2024
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time. Here is what caught my eye this week...
Poilievre says Trudeau lacks moral compass
The Sun's political columnist Brian Lilley talks with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre about how he is different than Justin Trudeau and why Canadians should vote him in as the next Prime Minister of Canada.
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/06nohHEEtGY?si=SXO2xmwGLoko4zzR
Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence system slammed for failing pupils
Politicians have criticised the Curriculum for Excellence (CFE) education system.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/s...upils-31730793
Denmark Declares War on Multiculturalism
For many years, decades even, the rich Nordic social democracies were seen as the perfect haven for immigration. Regardless of origin, race, religion or any other status, most of these countries were built by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of foreigners. Some time ago, however, all this has begun to change, especially in Denmark. Denmark is by far the Nordic country that has taken the most radical approach to illegal immigration. Did you know that the Danish government is even demolishing immigrant neighbourhoods? In this video we tell you all the details.
Watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFZjSwzdFyM
Why can't Sweden get gang violence under control?
This has never happened before in Sweden: The government has called in the army to help combat rampant gang violence in the cities. The police seem overwhelmed, the politicians helpless. In 2022, 62 people were killed in shootings. And both perpetrators and victims are getting younger. During his research in Stockholm and Uppsala, our reporter wants to find out: Why is this wave of violence hitting 'tranquil' Sweden of all places...Why can't the authorities get it under control? Is the situation partly due to a failed integration policy? And: What are the ways out of the violence? Our reporter meets ex-gangsters, survivors, police officers and social workers.
Watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwWMjxLrmVE
The Story Behind the Rise of Hamas
Even as all eyes were on the PLO, a small Islamist group slowly took root in the Gaza Strip in the late 1980s. But under the leadership of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas grew and grew, and ultimately became the murderous terror group it is today. This is its story.
Read more at:
https://www.spiegel.de/international...c-dbd0c43c3613
Russia Is a Storm, China Is Climate Change
Spying from China continues to grow in both volume and sophistication. The cyber-snoops from the People's Republic have moved beyond companies and are now seeking to exert influence on politics in Germany all while keeping a close eye on dissidents and minorities.
Read more at:
https://www.spiegel.de/international...8-e5032ad0a367
The King's Christmas Broadcast 2023
HM King Charles III delivers his annual Christmas message to the nation and the Commonwealth.
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/WgUunxUH3yw?si=MJCPdrnzkxGoO8WP
Conrad Black: The Human Rights Commission's moronic attack on Christmas
Of course, there is nothing remotely discriminatory about Christmas
Read more at:
https://archive.is/YT7Lw
Chicago Scots: How Scottish values and traditions are helping care for the elderly in Illinois
At a Highland Games event just days after the death of his father, Gus Noble felt a lump rise in his throat as he prepared to introduce an emotional pipe band rendition dedicated to loved ones lost.
Read more at:
https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/chicag...y-in-illinois/
Boris Johnson rejoices over Brexit trade deal boost which will open up Africa to the UK
EXCLUSIVE: Britain is eyeing a major Brexit trade deal which could open up the African continent to business and has put a smile on Boris Johnson's face.
Read more at:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/polit...morocco-africa
Electric Canadian
Lunenburgh
Or the Old Eastern District, its settlement and early progress with Personal Recollections of the Town of Cornwall, from 1824; to which are added A History of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York and Other Corps; the Names of all those who Drew Lands in the Counties of Stormont. Dundas and Glengarry, up to November, 1786; and Several other Lists of Interest to the Descendants of the Old Settlers by J. F. Pringle, Judge County Court (1890) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist.../lunenberg.pdf
Memories of Early Walsh and Graburn
This book was commenced as a centennial project of the Walsh branch of Alberta Women's Insitutes. It contains a collection of the memories of Margaret Fulton. It was started in 1966 with much interest and cooperation from residents of the district (Maple Creek, Sask., Fort Walsh, Alb., & Graburn, Alb.) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ory%20Book.pdf
Thoughts - the 25th day of December 2023 Christmas
A Merry Christmas from the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...2023-christmas
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 24th day of December 2023 - Love & Charity
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...3-love-charity
Sir Charles Dilke's New Book
"Problems of Greater Britain", in two volumes, by Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, Bart., reviewed by the Marquis of Lorne (1890)
You can read this review and read the two volume publication at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/history/problems.htm
Recollections About the Life of the First Ukrainian Settlers in Canada
Collected and Written by William A. Czumer, Translation by Louis T. Laychuk, Introduction by Manoly R. Lupul, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Edmonton 1981 (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...sabo00czum.pdf
Electric Scotland
The True History of Alexander, John, and Patrick
And of the Great Mercantile & Manufacturing concern carried on by them under their firm of John, Alexander, & Co., From an old M.S. in the Museum of the Sydney University, Australia by the Professor of Ancient History in the College of Saint Mungo. (1855) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/busines...00unkngoog.pdf
The Life of Doctor Archibald Cameron
Brother to Donald Cameron of Lochiel. Chief of that Clan (1753) (pdf)
You can read this old book at:
https://electricscotland.com/webclan...archi_1753.pdf
Michael Bruce and the Ode to the Cuckoo
By J. C Shairp
You can read this article at:
https://electricscotland.com/poetry/cuckoo.htm
Good Words
1873 edition in which there are a number of stories from the Late Rev. Norman MacLeod
You can read this volume at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ne_1873_14.pdf
Story
Pro-Hamas protesters are sanctimonious psychopaths
By Jordon Peterson
We are now exposed to the truly appalling spectacle of widespread demonstrations across the West supporting – explicitly or implicitly – the terrorists of Hamas. Some of the most shocking scenes unfolded in London, a city often held up as a beacon of immigration-fueled multiculturalism – one that has now seemingly lost its shine.
Yet, troublesome though the impact of such accelerated immigration may be, it is by no means the main reason why Hamas has acquired so much support. It is instead the careless naivete and sheer blind heedlessness of the West in dealing with one of its most deadly national foes – Iran – in combination with the destructive ideological reaction presently threatening our culture to the core.
The tyranny of the Iranian mullahs
We like to believe, in our oft-unearned comfort, that differences in metaphysical and religious outlook can simply be overlooked in favour of the humanity we all hypothetically share. In consequence, we fail to seriously consider the very real differences that still exist between people (especially at their worst), and which cause the eternal conflicts and predatory and parasitic criminal activity that keep so much of the world poor, miserable and mean. We believe we can wave the magic wand of goodwill, and have all such variance in opinion and outlook vanish at the borders, leaving nothing behind but the much-vaunted “diversity” whose pursuit has become a moral imperative – or else.
We also foolishly underestimate the persistence, strength and cunning of those who regard our virtues and freedoms as vices and historical accidents. Some reports have Hamas leaders or former leaders taking up residence in London, or operating in the West with little genuine constraint. Regardless of the truth of those specific claims, or the clear and present danger posed by those leaders, there can be little doubt that the serpentine authoritarian operatives of our enemies are now causing as much disruption as they possibly can everywhere in the major cities of the democratic world.
The most germane example is currently provided by the tyrants of Tehran. Are we really too stupid to detect the presence of the Iranian pseudo-religious thugs behind these massive demonstrations, taking full advantage of the current conflict in Israel, which they did everything possible to bring about? It has long been to the advantage of the totalitarians who wish to cling pathetically to their power in the Middle East and elsewhere to use the Palestinians as cannon-fodder and goads in the side of the Jewish state, upon whom everything throughout time can so conveniently be blamed.
We need to remember that the Iranian mullahs are on the ropes. They are hated, with a vengeance, by their own citizens, and deservedly so. They are, in addition, existentially threatened by the Abraham Accords, and are doing everything in their power to discredit and destroy them. These agreements, long deemed impossible by the entrenched and intransigent State Department bureaucracy, brought peace and the possibility of cooperative prosperity to certain Arab/Muslim countries (the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, and Sudan).
The much more powerful Saudis also welcomed and facilitated these initiatives behind-the-scenes. We therefore missed a stellar and historically unprecedented opportunity to bring them into the pro-Israel fold, mostly because of Democrat unwillingness to credit Donald Trump’s administration with any positive achievements whatsoever.
This is tragic, as the Abraham Accords profoundly undermined the narrative of “Muslims against everyone else” (most focally Jews); a narrative the bloody psychopaths always and inevitably depended upon to motivate the worst of themselves and their followers. Thus, it is in the clear interest of the Iran “leadership” to force the Israelis to defend themselves, using all due force, so that their military and strategic prowess can be spun as even more evidence of their oppressive and colonial ways.
Which brings us precisely to the central problem: the vengeful narrative of victim and victimiser that has infected broad swathes of the Western world.
A new front in the culture war
Everyone who hasn’t lived under a rock for the last two decades understands that we are in a culture war of unprecedented depth and breadth. It has not yet broken out into full-fledged conflict, although it came close with the Black Lives Matter and January 6 protests and, most recently and seriously, the massive aforementioned pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Disturbing as the dark cloud of the latter may well be, it came with the proverbial silver lining: the unquestionable revelation of the true nature of the culture war: a revelation shocking to so many. How could it possibly be that so much of Western academia (as well as progressives, more generally) could support the very movement behind the worst planned attack on Jews since the Holocaust?
To understand that, we must come to understand the unholy alliance between postmodern philosophy and Marxism; something particularly, although not uniquely, attributable to one Michel Foucault, currently the world’s most-cited academic.
Foucault, who was the very embodiment of resentful bitterness (not least because of the alienation he suffered due to his sexual proclivities) devoted his tremendous intellect to the task of reducing all human motivation to a single dimension: that of power. For Foucault and his idiot quasi-Nietzschean followers, there is no reality other than that of compulsion and force: no responsibility, no rights, no truth, no heaven above nor hell below – nothing but the all-against-all of Thomas Hobbes.
Even those claiming to be motivated by, say, the intellectual tradition, the liberal ethos, or even the much-vaunted current Goddess of All-Encompassing Compassion are, according to the postmodernists, pursuing nothing but their own narrowly self-centred aims. Loathas they were to accept the existence of any uniting story – any “supreme meta-narrative,” in the jargon – they were eager to adopt this infinitely broadened formulation of the arrogant, resentful Marxist victim/victimiser narrative that was particularly attractive to so many major French intellectuals of the time. Thus – and predictably – they swallowed the proverbial camel, while straining at a gnat.
History, for Marx, was best understood as the eternal battle between the corrupt haves and the innocent, virtuous and oppressed have-nots – the now-cliched bourgeoisie and proletariat.
The world he proclaimed was thus pure conflict: two classes of inevitable enemies, eternally vied off against one another for control of the economic spoils (the only domain of value posited to exist, once all the religious and metaphysical “opiate of the masses” had been properly and progressively stripped away). This has morphed, under the pressure of the postmodern de-constructive ethos, into the meta-Marxism that similarly proclaims two classes of humanity, but in even starker form: the victims (those from whom the victimisers have robbed) and the victimisers (those who have everything – or anything at all).
The dichotomy is no longer merely economic, as it was under Marx. Instead, it characterises every conceivable dimension of categorisation, sexual, gendered (so-called), religious, ethnic, racial, athletic, aesthetic and meritorious. Everywhere there is the dynamic of power, and the inequality it inevitably produces; everywhere there are evil oppressors and the virtuous oppressed. This is the standard doctrine of the “elite” universities. From such sources, it has disseminated everywhere – and is opposed by faculty, students, administrators and now common citizens at their great peril.
The festishisation of victimhood, and its consequences
In this bleak existential landscape, there are no sovereign citizens of ineffable essential worth, exchanging rational opinions in the attempt to bring clarity, productivity, generosity and truth to the fore. There are no divinely-souled human beings, capable of civilised cooperation and competition. There are merely competitors in an irreducibly ideological realm, clamouring for arbitrarily-granted attention and fighting for power – with the worst of those promoting the veritable language of freedom, rights, responsibility and human dignity for no other reason than their narrow self-aggrandisation.
There is no property: only theft. There is no merit: only the definitions of merit that serve the powerful. There is no intrinsically-meaningful human struggle. Instead, there are the brief dominance-motivated battles of mortal material beings, struggling in pointless quasi-Darwinian competition, trampling in the rush to seek status on the heads of the arbitrarily less-fortunate others.
A more comprehensively destructive, nihilistic and inevitably sadistic doctrine has never been imagined; neither has a system of thought ever so clearly and unapologetically justified the use of force and compulsion. Remember: if nothing exists but power, it is only the fool who fails to use it.
In this nightmarish world, there are only two social positions: you and your group (for there are no “individuals” in this conceptual scheme) are either victims or victimisers. This is a very simple theory, and something therefore profoundly attractive to the wilfully blind, stupid and ignorant. It is equally convenient, however, to the bitter and resentful – and, therefore, downright irresistible to those who combine both sets of dubious attributes.
The central venomous claim? If you are successful, in any guise, by any standards of comparison whatsoever, then you are a victimiser. If you are not, you are a victim.
A rigid moral claim accompanies this act of starkly black-and-white comparison: there are, as well, only two forms of acceptable and laudable moral conduct or reputation. If you are a victim, or an “ally,” you are with no further effort goodness incarnate. This is supposed, on “philosophical” grounds, to be self-evident, following as it does so deservedly in the wake of your loudly trumpeted compassion. If you are a victimiser, however, look the hell out: you are evil incarnate, and inescapably so: a predatory parasite, rightly subject to the most brutal of treatment. Indeed, the terrible treatment you thereby experience does nothing but redound to the credit of your so-Godly-and-compassionate persecutors.
If you are a victimiser, after all, you have no moral standing whatsoever. No punishment is therefore undeserved, or sufficiently severe. This is true even if you are “only” a member of a victimising group, and have done nothing wrong other than that, because “individual” is a category that within the postmodern philosophy no longer exists.
If you are a victim, by contrast, any and all moral outrage is justified, worthy and laudable – even morally required – even if you are merely a self-aggrandising, vindictive and hypocritical “ally” of some marginalised group. The fact that such latitude in reactive or vengeful action fully opens the door to the worst possible actions by the worst imaginable narcissists and psychopaths is also something rapidly glossed over or ignored by the vengeful ideologues of the postmodern Left – most likely because it is an outcome most intensely desired in the their most resentful fantasies.
‘Victimisers’ and its impact on the Israel-Gaza conflict
What does this mean, specifically, for understanding the Israel-Gaza conflict and the world-wide demonstrations following in its aftermath?
Well, few would disagree that Israel is a highly successful nation. It is a society that hyper-values intellectual accomplishment and success. Does this make it admirable? Not to those for whom any sign of success whatsoever indicates the dynamic of victimiser and victim. Not to those who would rather assume that such success must be a consequence of some behind-the-scenes conspiracy. Ability, effort and merit do not exist, remember, in the postmodern meta-Marxist world. Historic attacks on Israel and its citizens jives in more modern times all-too-well with the radical Leftist insistence that success is nothing more than the evil consequence of the evil capitalist system in which it arose.
The consequent inevitable conclusion that the disproportionately successful Israelis must then be uniquely exploitative turns out to be very convenient for the Iranian leader-thugs, eternally hoping to deflect the attention away from their own unforgivable failings.
There are plenty of Arabs or Muslim oppressors for the truly “compassionate” folk on the Left to concern themselves with. There are many truly oppressed people. Take for example the devastated inhabitants of Sudan, where various militias operate brutally and invisibly – completely off the radar of many virtue-signallers in the West. The same might be said even more broadly of the women of Iran, the oppression of whom is a clear hallmark of psychopathic brutality.
Where are the howls of outrage from the Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge do-gooders about the plight of the veiled in that brutal state? Even Amnesty International, most notable now for its woke foolishness, has called without success on the world to make its objections to such things noted.
Even if the Palestinians were victimised – and some case can be made for that – they are certainly not alone, and it is hard to put forward a credible argument that the Jews of the region don’t deserve at least equal a priori sympathy, especially given how many are direct descendants of those who went through some of the worst catastrophes in the history of the world under the Nazis – something acknowledged by the UN when it announced an independent Jewish state (and, lest it be forgotten, a corresponding Arab state) in 1948.
A warning from history
The danger of the victim/victimiser narrative, as such, cannot be overstated. It was its promulgation that engendered Lenin, Stalin and Mao. It was its spread that gave rise to Nazi Germany, and to the more recent absolute catastrophe of the Rwandan massacres. It is a tale as old as time: Cain himself was the first victim, and his good brother, Abel, the first victimiser, deserving of nothing less than a violent death.
The instinct operating within the doctrine driving such divisions is aimed not at the forgiveness and peace it constantly claims but the punishment and mayhem that it more truly and most deeply desires. This is a motive in keeping that famously diagnosed by George Orwell in The Road to Wigan Pier, where he accused the intellectual socialists, in particular, of not so much loving the poor as hating the rich. Such simple and convenient identification of oppressor provides the murderous with precisely the balm to conscience required to despise and torture, with the best of conscience.
There are now hundreds of thousands marching for the demonisation of Jews, manipulated, behind the scenes, by the actions of the Iranian autocrats. They would have little purchase, however, if not enabled by the wretched, simple-minded, prideful “intellectual” Western ideologues, fulminating hatred in the name of compassion, contaminating everything everywhere of any worth whatsoever with the dread accusation of exploitation and oppression.
This has happened time and time again in history. The descendants of the ancient Israelites are the universal canaries in the coal mine. If we allow those who are envious of their success to rule, or even to move among us unimpeded in their actions, we are most truly laying our necks, as well as theirs, on the line. We will pay the dread piper, inevitably, as societies and the individuals who compose them have always paid for committing this most egregious, covetous, arrogant, prideful and sadistic of sins.
Enough stupidity and blindness. The barbarians are no longer at the gate. They are inside – inside our cities, our civilisation, and our souls. Too many clamour, in consequence, to once again punish Jews. The bloodthirsty desires and doctrines motivating and justifying such behaviour must be identified, understood and rejected, before things get seriously out of hand – and that could happen sooner and with more devastating force than even the most pessimistic among us might be inclined to think.
END
The above story comes from:
https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/blog...s-psychopaths/
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you and wishing you all a Very Happy New Year
Alastair
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