Sunday, 28 June 2026

Is a proposition nation in fact a theocracy?

 

13:00  CLAIRE KHAW joins.
14:00  Time of day

Elevenses: mid-morning coffee break

In general, when modern secular books reference canonical hours in the Middle Ages, these are the equivalent times:

  • Vigil (eighth hour of night: 2 a.m.)
  • Matins (a later portion of Vigil, from 3 a.m. to dawn)
  • Lauds (dawn; approximately 5 a.m., but varies seasonally)
  • Prime (early morning, the first hour of daylight, approximately 6 a.m.)
  • Terce (third hour, 9 a.m.)
  • Sext (sixth hour, noon)
  • None (ninth hour, 3 p.m.)
  • Vespers (sunset, approximately 6 p.m.)
  • Compline (end of the day before retiring, approximately 7 p.m.)
  • Church bells are tolled at the fixed times of these canonical hours in some Christian traditions as a call to prayer.
Muslim prayer times

AI Overview                 

Muslims perform five obligatory daily prayers (Salah), determined by the position of the sun. The names of these daily prayer times are: 

Fajr (dawn), Dhuhr (midday), Asr (late afternoon), Maghrib (sunset), and Isha (night).

The names, specific timings, and a brief description of each daily prayer include:

Fajr: Prayed at dawn, just before sunrise. It represents a fresh start to the day.

Dhuhr: Prayed at midday, shortly after the sun reaches its highest point in the sky.

Asr: Prayed in the late afternoon, when shadows are roughly equivalent in length to the objects casting them.

Maghrib: Prayed immediately at sunset.

Isha: Prayed at night, when the twilight has disappeared and complete darkness sets in.


15:00  Jews pray three times a day. 

16:00  PVK on the Third Commandment

https://thevoiceofreason-ann.blogspot.com/2026/06/is-it-problem-for-americans-that.html

19:00  The numbering of the Ten Commandments

21:00  Graven image

22:00  Opportunity cost

23:00  Why worship idols?

24:00  The opportunity cost of not being rightly guided by the Koran.

25:00  Pascal's Wager

26:00  Jewish afterlife

27:00  Beheading, burning, stoned and strangulation

28:00   Agnosticism

29:00  Supreme Court

32:00  American voters are the most proximate people in a position to do anything about their government. 

33:00  America is the only proposition nation in the world. 

34:00  Declaration of Independence

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

37:00  Political and moral philosopher, social and political scientist

39:00  The king is the man who leads his men into battle. 

40:00  Constantine the Great 

41:00  Edict of Milan 313

Council of Nicaea 325

42:00  Edward Gibbon's on the Decline and Fall of Empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_the_Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire

AI Overview

Many of the Founding Fathers eagerly read Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.Published starting in 1776, the multi-volume work became a massive bestseller in the new United States. The founders actively purchased copies for their personal libraries and ordered sets for the use of the Continental Congress.

Gibbon’s warnings about how easily a republic could slip into tyranny through a corrupted, apathetic citizenry resonated deeply with the political philosophy of figures like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The history served as a cautionary tale of how the concentration of power and loss of civic virtue can cause a great civilization to fall.

42:00  Machiavelli on mercenaries

AI Overview                 

In his political treatise The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli famously declared that mercenaries are "useless and dangerous". He argued that a ruler who relies on hired soldiers will never be secure, as they are undisciplined, disloyal, and motivated solely by money rather than a willingness to die for the state.

Machiavelli’s core arguments against mercenaries include:

Unreliability: They are quick to flee or demand more money when war actually breaks out, but are perfectly happy to serve during peacetime.

The Two Traps: If a mercenary captain is incompetent, the state is ruined. If the captain is highly skilled and capable, they become a threat, as they will inevitably aspire to seize power and oppress their employer.

No Real Loyalty: He summarized their character famously: "They have no fear of God, no loyalty to men". In peace, they despoil the state, and in war, the enemy does.

Perversion of War: Writing about the Italian condottieri of his time, Machiavelli noted they artificially reduced the danger of conflict by avoiding casualties, refusing to fight at night, and avoiding winter campaigns. He believed this cowardice brought "slavery and contempt" to Italy. 

44:00  Noahide laws

47:00  The Books of the Old Testament included in the Catholic and Protestant Churches

48:00  Utilitarian Islamic Nationalist 

Imperial Reformist

50:00  Atheists cannot think of a better guide than the Koran.

51:00  The Beatitudes are campaign promises.

54:00  Olson tells me to be nicer and to stop making unflattering generalisations of Christians and putting him in that category

57:00  Brett's position

No comments:

Post a Comment