Michael Bates: May 2019 Archives
"Australian polling is broken: here's how to fix itThe last 50 or 60 Newspolls showed Labor comfortably ahead. What if, in reality, Labor was at best level pegging or even behind? How has this affected our political commentary and political behaviour? Did polling create a parallel universe where all the activity of the past few years, especially the leadership coups and prime ministerial changes, were based on illusions, phantoms of public opinion that did not exist?
"The consequences for our political system is bad enough but when one considers the millions of person-hours the pundits, broadcasters, journos and the average punter have spent analysing a situation that may not have even existed - it's a frightening thought to contemplate."
Corps of Engineers 1986 Tulsa Flood Water Analysis
PDF containing aerial photos of the 1986 Arkansas River flood in Tulsa County. Interesting to see the state of the areas that are now the Creek Nation River Spirit Casino and Riverwalk Crossing.
King Abdullah vows to complete restoration of Church of Holy Sepulchre
"When Jordan's King Abdullah announced May 7 that he is planning to help fund the restoration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from his own funds, many were caught off guard. The announcement surprised church leaders in Jerusalem who have been unable to reach a funding agreement for fear that a church funding the restoration would make ownership claims to it.
"Orthodox Church spokesman Father Issa Musleh enthusiastically welcomed the decision in a phone interview with Al-Monitor, saying, 'The decision of His Majesty King Abdullah II is a dream come true. We have been trying for decades to find a way around the stalemate of who would fund the restoration.'...
"Simon Azazian, a researcher of the history of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, told Al-Monitor that Abdullah's involvement resolved a long-standing problem that has resulted in the deterioration of the church. 'While any of the three major churches -- Orthodox, Franciscans and the Armenians -- can easily raise the needed funds to carry out the restoration, the other churches would then worry that those who fund the restoration somehow have extra powers and rights to administer it.'"
Table recording: KMOD Tulsa | September 1, 1977 - Airchexx
An aircheck featuring DJ Mel Myers on "the Rainbow Station, KMOD, Ninety-Seven-and-a-Half." The aircheck begins with two ads for "the Rubicon Headshop, Tulsa's original headshop and boutique, with more pipes, clips, and bongs than anywhere in Oklahoma." 647 S. Peoria. Later, there's a newsbreak with Kitty Roberts. UA Fontana Four and UA Forum Twin (southside of 21st east of Garnett) movie theaters get a mention.
Ray Blanchard Discusses Transgender Science and Orthodoxy | National Review
"I don't think there is any substantive difference [between the word 'paraphilia' and the word 'pervert']. I mean the word 'pervert' had become part of the lay vocabulary and was routinely used as an insult or as a derogatory comment whether seriously or in jest. Everybody knew the word pervert, had a vague idea of what it meant, and knew that it was something bad. So, the word paraphilia was substituted because it had a nice medical sound to it, and it had not and still has not entered the popular vocabulary as an insult....
"I think there have historically been precedents, and they have typically involved more females than males, which is also true like in the [Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria] phenomenon. For example, recovered memory was a fad for a while, and ritual satanic child abuse was a fad. Typically, these involved more female adolescents than males for whatever reason.
"If you want to go a little further back in history and look at the Salem witch trials in the U.S. in the late 17th century, most of the individuals who were claiming to have been attacked by witches and who were executed as witches were predominantly female. While it was older ladies who were hanged as witches, it was young ladies who accused them of witchcraft. So there seems to be something about a young adolescent female population that is particularly vulnerable to certain kinds of psychiatric phenomena...."
"Educated people in general have a sympathy for the downtrodden or the unfortunate that's built into liberal-arts education in the Western world -- and I think that's a good thing. I think it's a good thing that people should get some kind of built-in bias towards the underdog and towards the suffering. But I think in this case, that tendency and that bias on the part of liberal media has been misused by trans activists to influence treatment of cases of those who would actually do better in the long term if they could simply accept their anatomic sex, and here I'm talking about the young kids, 60 to 80 percent of whom are going to normalize in gender identity even without any clinical intervention."
"A Labor campaign trailer was forced to an abrupt halt on Monday after it drove straight into the pathway of a low bridge - despite the bridge's low clearance being clearly signposted."
We condemn the bridge for non-inclusiveness, and we condemn its hateful, non-inclusive 2.8 m clearance warning sign.
Rocque's_Map_of_London_1741-5.jpg
"Map accompanying 'London in the 18th Century' by Sir Walter Besant. Published by Adam and Charles Black, London.
Rachel Held Evans Had a Story - Point of View - John Stonestreet
John Stonestreet wrote this kind, thoughtful, personal reflection on Rachel Held Evans, the ex-Christian activist and author who died recently at a young age. Stonestreet knew and worked with her, her father, and her husband at Bryan College. He asked Christianity Today to remove it from the website, because her family said it hurt their feelings.
"I think Rachel was wrong, seriously so, about many things, including things of grave importance. In tribute, many have written how she helped expand the tent of evangelicalism and convinced many skeptics to stay at the faith table. I think, as a friend put it, she often ushered the vulnerable into her doubts and championed wrong ideas. Rachel once wrote that the scandal of the gospel is not who is kept out but who is allowed in. I think she was right about that, but we'd probably not have to dig too deeply below the surface of that statement to find disagreement as well.
"If there is some sort of lesson or morale to what I've written, I don't know how to articulate it other than to remind us that everyone, even those we deeply disagree with, has a story. Their stories, like ours, include life experiences, friends, family members, and deeply held beliefs about life and the world. I don't know why God decided our stories should cross, and I've no idea why her story came to an end when it did. Death is awful. I just pray that God surrounds her sister, her parents, her children, and her husband with grace and comfort."
