Da Gianni, Melbourne St, North Adelaide, 25 September 2011

From rationality to superstition

“It is no secret … that we live in a post-Enlightenment age in which rationality, science, evidence, logical argument and debate have lost the battle in many sectors, and perhaps even in society generally, to superstition, faith, opinion and orthodoxy. While we continue to make giant technological advances, we may be the first generation to have turned back the epochal clock — to have gone backward intellectually from advanced modes of thinking into old modes of belief.”

Neal Gabler, ‘The Elusive Big Idea’, New York Times, 13 August 2011

Basil Hayden bourbon at The Stag

Spring

She twirls amongst flowers,
her skin sun-pink
with the first breath of spring,
and as she turns,
her dress flares
like the wings of
the birds that join her dance
under the cerulean sky.
Her face lights up
with the serenity
this moment brings,
and as she sings
in wordless celebration
of the new life
that starts today,
I fall a little more in love.

The right to free speech

I love this.

From Let’s Not Tolerate the Haters:

[Cory] Bernardi and [Geert] Wilders are stereotypical of our modern Right to Free Speech Worrier. They’re male. They’re in positions of power. And they’re paid an exorbitant amount for doing not terribly much.

But the defining characteristic is their self indulgence: their rights are more important than your rights. You don’t have a right to have your religion respected, because Cory Bernardi has the right to free speech. You don’t have a right to enjoy our great country unmolested, because Cory Bernardi has the right to free speech. And you certainly don’t have the right to feel welcome or even invited to celebrate your rich cultural heritage in Australia, because Cory Bernardi has the right to express whatever half-baked, pig-ignorant, and mendacious idea comes into his overtaxed mind.

 

Lost rhino

Irises

Red tulip

White tulip

Tulips