Nicola Sturgeon: First 100 Days

First Minister's Website

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The Barronelle Stutzman Story

Publiée le 2014-03-16

Barronelle Stutzman's story 

(Owner of Arlene's Flowers) 

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NewsShaft - Episode 2

February 26, 2015

This week we're discussing Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind's dodgy dealings earlier in the week, and poor old Natalie Bennet of the Greens' LBC interview gaffe, as well as coverage of First Ministers Questions. Joining us to discuss all that is our special guest Christopher Silver.

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Skype Conversation with Dr Morag Kerr on Lockerbie

Independence Live

Youtube         Livestream

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Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp: Deutsche Bank - incomprehensible contradiction & indefensible union

Deutsche Bank: 

the incomprehensible contradiction

 and the indefensible union

by Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp (14 Feb 2015)

Deutsche Bank on the 13th of September last year claimed that a Yes vote would go down in history as a political and economic crisis for Scotland as big as the Great Depression in the US, has just published a report that states that Scotland is one of wealthiest regions across Europe and can make the case that it would prosper by seceding and going it alone.

The 'Great Depression' headline was one of the most outlandish and frankly ridiculous scare stories of the whole independence campaign.  It came as part of the call from Downing Street for big business to come to the aid of the floundering No campaign...

Read full article here

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David Whyte: 'How Corrupt is Britain?'

David Whyte: 'How Corrupt is Britain?', Pluto Press, 2015

"Banks accused of rate-fixing; Members of Parliament cooking the books; major defence contractors investigated over suspect arms deals; Police accused of being paid off by tabloids. The headlines are unrelenting these days. Perhaps it’s high time we ask: just exactly how corrupt is Britain?"

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Dooyeweerd: Supra-temporal heart of humankind

Dooyeweerd: 

Supra-temporal heart of humankind

God created humankind in His image. In the heart of humankind, the religious root, the center of its being, God concentrated all of creation toward His service; here He laid the supra-temporal root of all temporal creatures. This human heart, from which according to Scriptures flow the wellsprings of life, transcends all things temporal in the service of God. The whole religious sense (meaning) of God's creation lies in our heart, our entire ego, our complete self. This heart, in which according to the Word eternity has been laid, is the true supra-temporal center of human existence. At the same time it is the creaturely center of all of God's creation. The apostasy of this heart, of this root of creation, necessarily swept with it all temporal creation. In Adam not only all humankind fell, but also that entire temporal cosmos of which humankind was the crowned head. And in Christ, the Word become flesh, the second Covenant Head, God gave the new root of His redeemed creation, in Whom true humanity was implanted through self-surrender, through surrender of the center of existence, the heart.

(from "The Christian View of the State" by Herman Dooyeweerd)

See also 
Dr J. Glenn Friesen's 
Dooyeweerd Glossary entry 
for HEART
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My Own Life: Oliver Sacks on Learning He Has Terminal Cancer

Drawing by Hanna Barczyk

My Own Life

Oliver Sacks on Learning He Has Terminal Cancer

The New York Times 19 Feb 2015

A MONTH ago, I felt that I was in good health, even robust health. At 81, I still swim a mile a day. But my luck has run out — a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver.

Read full article here

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NewsShaft - Episode 1

NewsShaft

"The definitive Scottish politics podcast."

Released every Thursday at 2pm.

Presented by Jack Foster, James Devoy and Carolyn Scott.

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Jorge Luis Borges Interviewed by Ronald Christ (1967)

Jorge Luis Borges, 1976 (Wiki)

Jorge Luis Borges 

The Art of Fiction No. 39

Interviewed by Ronald Christ

The Paris Review 

Winter-Spring 1967, No. 40

BORGES: [...] I remember the first novel in English I read through was a Scottish novel called The House with the Green Shutters.

INTERVIEWER: Who wrote that?

BORGES: A man called Douglas. Then that was plagiarized by the man who wrote Hatters Castle—Cronin—there was the same plot, practically. The book was written in the Scots dialect—I mean, people instead of saying money speak of bawbees or instead of children, bairns—that's an Old English and Norse word also—and they say nicht for night: that's Old English.

INTERVIEWER: And how old were you when you read that?

BORGES: I must have been about—there were many things I didn't understand—I must have been about ten or eleven. Before that, of course, I had read The Jungle Book, and I had read Stevenson's Treasure Island, a very fine book. But the first real novel was that novel. When I read that, I wanted to be Scotch, and then I asked my grandmother, and she was very indignant about it. She said, “Thank goodness that you're not!” Of course, maybe she was wrong. She came from Northumberland; they must have had some Scottish blood in them. Perhaps even Danish blood way back.

Read full interview here

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Billy Kay (video interview)

Newsnet TV  (13 Feb 2015)

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon: London UCL Speech/ Q&A (11 Feb 2015)

(Proceedings start at 3 mins into video)

Rt Hon Nicola Sturgeon MSP 

First Minister of Scotland 

"Austerity, inequality and the Scottish 

approach to economic growth"

UCL Political Science and The Constitution Unit

London, 11 Feb 2015

Nicola Sturgeon is Scotland’s first female First Minister 

and the first female to lead any of the devolved UK administrations.

TEXT of SPEECH

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Lydia Jaeger: Dooyeweerd et Van Til

Lydia Jaeger

Herman Dooyeweerd, 

la « spéculation sur le logos » et la vérité

Sola scriptura – la jalousie de Dieu implique qu'aucune tradition humaine ne doit concurrencer l'autorité de la révélation biblique. Cependant, nous ne pouvons qu'être reconnaissants envers le Seigneur pour l'enseignement des docteurs (d'hier et d'aujourd'hui) qu'il a donnés à son Église. Parmi les grands noms du passé, l'étudiant d'Henri Blocher repérait vite un groupe d'auteurs moins connus, mais qui revêtaient manifestement une importance particulière : le courant dit « néo-calviniste », avec comme figure de proie Abraham Kuyper, Herman Dooyeweerd et Cornelius Van Til. Même si l'étudiant était souvent  long à comprendre la signification de leur pensée, il avait conscience du bénéfice qu'il aurait à fréquenter leurs écrits. Grâce à l'encouragement ferme de mon professeur de théologie systématique et de pensée contemporaine, j'ai persévéré quand les textes – de Dooyeweerd et de Van Til surtout – se révélèrent, à la première lecture, d'accès ardu. L'effort a été récompensé : à divers moments de mon cheminement intellectuel, ils m'ont fourni des clés précieuses pour l'analyse épistémologique.

PDF ICI

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Dieu comme seule source 
de la connaissance 
— l’apologétique de Cornelius Van Til

La foi au début de l’apologétique 

« Quand on vous demande pourquoi vous espérez, soyez toujours prêts à donner des explications » (1 Pi 3.15) : dès les premiers temps de l’Église, l’apologétique, c’est-à-dire la défense raisonnée de la foi face aux arguments du non croyant a constitué une partie intégrante de l’annonce de l’Évangile. Elle est indispensable si la foi doit se distinguer de la crédulité ; sans elle, la conversion relèverait d’un choix arbitraire, et le croyant ne pourrait pas aimer Dieu « de toute sa pensée » (Luc 10.27). Mais avant qu’on avance tel ou tel argument en faveur de la foi chrétienne, il faut poser la question de la méthode : Quels types d’argument utiliser ? Quelle est la bonne démarche pour « prouver » la vérité du christianisme ? Et en particulier : Quelle place accorder à la foi en Dieu dans la démarche apologétique elle-même ? L’œuvre du théologien néo-calviniste Cornelius Van Til s’inscrit dans la réflexion aux fondements de l’apologétique.

PDF ICI

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Is Government a Product of the Fall?

Is Government a Product of the Fall?

by Richard Mouw (29 Jan 2015)

What if the fall had not happened? Would institutions like the government have a place? Or is it just a necessary evil that exists only as a means to govern sinners and our selfish impulses? In this excerpt, Richard Mouw explores the goodness, purpose, and design of government, showing that—when functioning properly—government can be life-giving.

Read article here

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Dear Justice Kennedy: An Open Letter from the Child of a Loving Gay Parent

Dear Justice Kennedy: 

An Open Letter from the Child 

of a Loving Gay Parent

by Katy Faust (2 Feb 2015)

Dear Justice Kennedy,

June is nigh, and with it will come your ruling on the most contentious political issue of our time: marriage.

I write because I am one of many children with gay parents who believe we should protect marriage. I believe you were right when, during the Proposition 8 deliberations, you said “the voice of those children [of same-sex parents] is important.” I’d like to explain why I think redefining marriage would actually serve to strip these children of their most fundamental rights.

It’s very difficult to speak about this subject, because I love my mom. Most of us children with gay parents do. We also love their partner(s). You don’t hear much from us because, as far as the media are concerned, it’s impossible that we could both love our gay parent(s) and oppose gay marriage. Many are of the opinion I should not exist. But I do, and I’m not the only one.

This debate, at its core, is about one thing.

It’s about children.

Read full article here

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Indyref changed everything – except what makes ‘news’ at BBC Scotland

Indyref changed everything – 

except what makes ‘news’ 

at BBC Scotland

By G.A. Ponsonby (4 Feb 2015)

As ever, the talking heads and professional pundits ignore the elephant in the room when discussing Scottish politics – the BBC. Devolution didn’t change the BBC in Scotland, the SNP’s 2007 win didn’t change it, the nationalists 2011 historic majority didn’t change it either. The referendum even saw the BBC regress into a pro-Union colonial broadcaster.

BBC Scotland will alter this UK General election, at least in Scotland, of that there is no doubt. Whether the corporation can arrest completely the SNP surge remains to be seen, but it will try.

Read full article here

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