Can someone explain why Royal Bank of Scotland, bailed out by the tax-payer, is held accountable for shareholders losing their money after being duped by Fred Goodwin and Co? If RBS had not been bailed out, it would have failed and shareholders would have lost out. Being bailed out by the tax-payer, it is essentially …
Category: History
Denial and post-truth – the real problem with faith
The film Denial has been recently released in British cinemas after its premier at the Toronto film festival on '9/11' last year and its UK premier on International Holocaust Memorial Day 27th January 2017. It gives the outline of the libel trial brought by notorious Holocaust denier David Irving against the American historian Deborah Lipstadt …
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What is Islamic Reformation?
Tonight, 14 Feb 2017, BBC Newsnight's Viewsnight carried an opinion that Islamic State is a Reformation in islam. Canadian author Graeme Wood compared the similarities of the rise of Islamic State (ISIS) with the Protestant Reformation under Martin Luther, pointing to 1. the call to return to the original sources (the Bible and Quran) to …
Patrick’s Places – the difference between Law and Gospel
Patrick’s Places – the difference between Law and Gospelby Patrick Hamilton, 1527. Patrick Hamilton was Scotland’s first Reformer and martyr, burned at the stake by Roman Catholic cardinal Beaton at St Andrews in 1528 for preaching the Gospel. Of noble birth, he graduated MA from the College of Montaigu, Paris, in 1520 and enrolled in …
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What did Jesus really say?
You may be familiar with the argument that we don't know what Jesus said because His sayings were written down after the event. I came across it recently when people were discussing how to live a good life. Jesus was mentioned as an example, but not as the answer. When various aspects of His life …
PLUTO and the ANZACs
We had a very full evening on Street Pastors last night. It began with a brief chat with an athlete who slowed down her running for a chat about the constellation Orion, shining clearly in the sky, then we came across a veteran of the South Korean war who told us about Pluto. I suspected …
Climate change
Notice that the language is changing from global warming to climate change. The hottest year in recent times was 1995. The media furore about global warming was about the attempt to 'get rid of the mediaeval warm period' - in other words, to remove from the temperature graphs the awkward fact that temperatures in the …
Donald's Thoughts 