Didactic Mind

Domain Query: Byzantine Intrigues

We're back with another Domain Query podcast. Longtime reader and FotS JohnC911 emailed me earlier to ask the following:
I finished reading the book you recommended, Lost to the West by Lars Brownworth.
Amazing reading more on the Byzantine Empire, especially the different leaders that ruled over Constantinople.
The number of times that the empire should have fallen and yet continue survive and sometimes prosper [is amazing].
By the way I did have one question on it. What do you think might have happened if [the siege of] Constantinople in 1453 by the Turks had failed? 
We know about what happened after the fall of Constantinople with the Ottoman Empire taking over.
Also before the attack Constantine XI supported John VIII's position of Decree of Union, joining the Orthodox and Catholic churches.
During the siege there was also the last service with both Greek priest and Latin ones standing shoulder to shoulder. With the emperor turning to the Italian who were fighting with them, assuring them that they were now brothers, united by a common bond. 
As I say in this podcast, I actually don't recall recommending the book, and I definitely haven't read it. That said, I tackled the question as best as I could by looking at the history of the Byzantine Empire and concluded that:
a) The fall of the Byzantine Empire was pretty much inevitable;
b) If the siege of Constantinople had failed, the Ottoman Empire would have gone into immediate terminal decline;
c) I honestly don't know if that would have significantly changed the course of history given the power dynamics in Eastern Europe at the time;
Book References
Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilisation by Lars Brownworth;
BELIEVE! REAL CHRISTIANITY TAKING CHRISTENDOM BACK: A Reply to the Pederast Infested Vatican, the Churchians of All Denominations and a Manual for Atheists, Agnostics and Would-be Pagans by Giuseppe Filotto
The Glory of the Crusades by Steve Weidenkopf
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Didactic Mind, Ep 63: The Science Delusion

This week's episode covers a wide-ranging number of topics about science and the misguided faith that we put into scientists themselves. I start off by talking briefly about the Storming of the Hill, move on to Big Tech censorship and the ways in which you can avoid its impacts, and then get on to talking about what science really is. I discuss how the scientific method works, why it is limited in terms of its ability to explain the world, and why it is so dangerous to put blind faith and trust in scientists themselves. Links to all of the references that I provide - and there are a LOT - are given below.
Protect yourself from Big Tech censorship:
Get yourself a proper domain for your site or business with Namecheap;
Put your site onto a shared hosting service using A2Hosting for the fastest, most secure, and stable hosting platform around;
Create beautiful websites with amazing, feature-rich content using Divi from Elegant Themes;
Make sure that your web traffic is safe and protected from prying eyes using a VPN - I recommend Surfshark for the best features at the best value around, or GooseVPN for simple, no-nonsense browsing;
Books referenced in the podcast:
I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Dr. Norman Geisler and Dr. Frank Turek;
Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design by Dr. Stephen Meyer;
The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin;
Other books that you will probably find useful in this discussion:
The God Delusion by Prof. Richard Dawkins - it's actually quite a terrible book, with dreadful arguments and appallingly bad analogies, but it's worth reading if you want to get an idea of how Darwinian materialists "think";
The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Enquiry by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake - this is a direct answer to and refutation of the most egregiously foolish arguments made by the New Atheists, such as Dawkins;
Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake;
The Irrational Atheist: Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens by Our Beloved and Dreaded Supreme Dark Lord (PBUH) Vox Day;
Mere Christianity by Clive Staples Lewis - this one is a bit dense, yet very readable nonetheless, and makes clear that there is NO conflict whatsoever between the Christian worldview and the scientific one;
Videos referenced in this podcast:
The original lecture by Prof. Richard Feynman concerning the scientific method;
The superb lecture that Dr. James Tour gave at the Discovery Institute about the problems with the materialist views of the origin of life question;
An interview with Dr. Tour that drills deep into the specific synthetic organic chemistry problems with the origin of life issue;
A great Hoover Institute discussion with Stephen Meyer (PhD History & Philosophy of Science), David Berlinski (PhD Philosophy), and David Gelernter (PhD Computer Science) - so these aren't exactly your garden-variety armchair experts - about the immense mathematical challenges to Darwinian evolutionary theory;
Other references:
The South Korean doctor who falsified his cloning data is named Hwang Woo-suk, and he was tried and convicted for fraud and handed a suspended two-year sentence;
Here's a basic introduction to the replication crisis;
And here's an article that talks about that finding about smiling which cannot be easily reproduced;
The 26 testable scientific claims made in Genesis 1 and whether they are in fact correct (spoiler alert - YES);
As always, remember to like, share, comment, and subscribe - and if you have not already subscribed to the site mailing list, please do so here.

Didactic Mind, Ep 62: Tumble and Turn

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
-- John 1:1-5, English Standard Version
Happy New Year to all. Since it's only a couple of days to Sunday, I figured I would make a podcast today instead of Sunday, similar to the way I did things on Christmas. And today's podcast is all about the need to "tumble and turn" through the darkness of the past year and toward the light.
That phrase, "tumble and turn", was coined by a true Dark Knight, Ivan Throne, whose book, The Nine Laws, is in my opinion essential reading for all men who seek to harness ruthless Purpose and achieve great things in life. It applies perfectly as we go through 2021. In this podcast, I explain:
How 2020 was the crucible in which lies were burned away;
Why the Year from Hell was actually a huge gift in a number of areas, and pointed us toward the Truths of our time;
What YOU can do, starting today, to make the most of this year;
As I stated to my email subscribers - if you have not subscribed to my mailing list already, do so right here - this is how you can get on with your True Purpose this year:
Create a plan. A goal without a plan is nothing more than a wish. This is useless. You might as well resolve to create a business based on selling fairy dust and unicorn farts. If you want to achieve something, PLAN IT OUT. Setup specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART - yes, that's a bizblab acronym, but it works here) goals and set aside time every week to work on them.
Point yourself unerringly at the truth. You won't get it from the never-to-be-sufficiently-cursed whorenalists and presstittutes of the mainstream (((media))), obviously. But if you look for alternative views where you can find them, you will find the information you search for. By necessity, you will have to filter through lots of nonsense. But, think of it this way: you used to rely on the (((media))) to tell you the truth. Now you have to use your own brain. Which do you suppose is healthier for you?
Do not bother with the opinions of those who seek to demoralise you. I got into a huge row with a member of my own family just before the New Year over certain inconvenient and unpleasant "alternative facts" that I spread about General Tso's Chicken Pox. I know why it happened. My bias is toward hope and action. That person's bias is toward fear and lassitude. Your bias informs your worldview. Acknowledge your bias. Respect the right of others to hold a different point of view - but don't EVER let that view get in your way.
Seek out allies wherever possible. If you had told me 8 years ago that I would still be writing and blogging in 2021, and that my writing would reach thousands of people around the world, I would have laughed at you. But I found allies in my journey toward the truth. Some are good friends now. Look for help and you will often find it in the most unexpected of places.
Pray often and hard for help. Again, remember that you were not given a spirit of fear. But that does not mean that fear has no hold over you. Of course it does. The only way to fight it is to rely on a Power infinitely greater and mightier than you, that loves you beyond your capacity to experience love. You will need help in doing what you want to do this year. Ask for it, and you will find it given to you in strange ways and stranger places. But you do need to ASK.
Above all, never forget that no matter how dark times become, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The darkness will NEVER overcome it - not as long as men stand firm in defence of all that is true.
References cited in the podcast:
 Here is the paper that calls into question the Eurosurveillance (yes, seriously, that's the name of the journal that published it) Corman-Drosten paper;
The false positives generated by the application of RT-PCR testing to COVID-19 are real and severe;
Dr. Pierre Kory testified before a Senate panel about the effectiveness of ivermectin as a prophylactic treatment for the Kung Flu;
If you are a resident of PommieBastardLande (i.e. the UK) and you are sick of supporting the Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation, then you don't have to do so - you can stop paying your license fee and they can't do ONE SINGLE DAMNED THING to stop you if you don't use their services;

Didactic Mind, Ep 61: One Bright Star to GuideThem

May the peace and blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, brothers and sisters. Today's podcast is all about the miracle of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and the meaning and power of that miracle in our miracle-denying modern age. I cover a whole range of topics in this podcast:
The "Saturnalia" myth, which I addressed in much greater detail in a previous Domain Query podcast (and it was Kapios that asked the question - sorry dude);
The "impossible conundrum" that God solved through the Immaculate Conception and birth of Jesus;
My absolute contempt and utter hatred for the lukewarm blasphemies of "progressive" Christianity - you might need to lower the volume a little for that bit;
Some concepts introduced through my reading of C. S. Lewis's classic apologetic work, Mere Christianity, which I cannot recommend strongly enough despite its evident flaws;
A look through various passages in Scripture that demonstrate the kind of King that Jesus Christ really was - and is;
A comparison between Jesus's teachings and The Way of Walking Alone by Miyamoto Musashi to show that Jesus was a hard man teaching a hard path - a warrior's path;
Looking at waging war in the spiritual realm in a way that we might understand through Dr. Michael Heiser's breakdown of "the Upside Down" in Netflix's hit series Stranger Things;
... and quite  a lot more besides. This one is a dense podcast, and deliberately so, since I deal with a lot of serious issues. But the core of it lies in a sincere appreciation of what Christmas is and why it is so important.
By the way, the title of this podcast does not come only from the story of the Three Kings who journeyed under the guidance of a bright star to pay homage to the newborn King. It also comes from the superb novella and short-story collection by the greatest living Grandmaster of science fiction, John C. Wright. Unfortunately, I cannot actually find the book on sale anywhere - I think the author yanked it from publication. I have no idea why, because it truly is wonderful. I would kill for a mere one-tenth of the writing talent that Mr. Wright has.
As always, remember to like, share, comment, and subscribe either at the site or on Podbean itself.
And, most importantly - MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Didactic Mind, Ep 60: The Eye of the Storm

This week's podcast is all about the feeling that many of us have that something really big is coming at us. The past year has been full of immensely difficult challenges, and most of us have felt drained and weakened by the trials that we have had to endure at some point or another. In this podcast, I review some of the many, MANY lies that we have been told over the past year, and I offer up some thoughts about what is coming and why you need to prepare yourself for it. I end on a message of hope and faith as Christmas approaches, so that you can understand how to get through a 2021 that is almost certain to be even worse than 2020 was.
Some links and points of interest:
If you have never read Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, be sure to pick up a copy TODAY, because it really is perhaps the easiest and yet most wonderfully written short book of apologetics that you will ever experience;
As I mentioned in the podcast, now is a great time to get yourself a proper VPN client - either Goose VPN if you just want a simple and straightforward client, or Surfshark if you want the hands-down best-value VPN package out there;
Turns out that I was wrong - you CAN find the video of Google's leaked internal video, "The Selfish Ledger", on YouTube itself;
The Danish mask study that had to be re-written three times to become more suitable for politically correct publication can be found here;
 The original Corman-Drosten paper that made RT-PCR testing popular around the world has now been retracted because it turns out to have been based on a whole lot of bad data and assumptions;
As if all of THAT wasn't enough, there MIGHT be some reason to think that the Pfizer vaccine is actually REALLY FREAKIN' DANGEROUS;
Read the site here, support my work here, and get your Christmas shopping done through Amazon (and support me in the process) through some of my affiliate links - nothing says "Happy Christmas!" quite like a Kershaw folding knife, as far as I'm concerned.

Didactic Mind, Ep 59: Burning Books and Burning Truths

This week's episode is once again about Islam and Christianity, and the vast contrast between the two on the subject of Scriptural inerrancy. Muslims have long claimed that the New Testament is corrupted and that our Christian revelations are therefore unreliable. This is nonsense and I show exactly why. I then move on to examine the claims that Muslims make about the inerrancy and reliability of their own Koranic scriptures, and I show, based on their own sources and historical evidence uncovered in the last few years, that there is nothing "eternal, revealed, complete, and unchanging" about their Koran.
I cite a number of different videos and YouTube channels that you can use to educate yourself on these fascinating subjects. I will provide a full list of supporting materials - insofar as I can collect them all, because the list of such things is enormous - down below.
This podcast is now live on Google Podcasts, Apple iTunes, Spotify, and now Pandora as well. So be sure to like, share, comment, and subscribe on your platform of choice!
Videos and channels to watch:
Dr. Daniel Wallace on how much and how badly the scribes corrupted the New Testament;
Dr. Frank Turek with his brilliant "God's Blockchain" argument about the many manuscripts of the New Testament;
Dr. Jay Smith explains the huge problems with the qira'ats and the rasm manuscripts that show the complete nonsense of the "inerrancy" claim that Muslims constantly make;
Pastor Anthony Rogers debates Dr. Shabir Ally - actually he completely DESTROYED him - on, among other things, the supposed "contradictions" in the New Testament about the Christology of Jesus Christ;
Dr. David Wood shows how Sh. Dr. Yasir Qadhi flatly contradicts himself on the issue of Koranic preservation;
More videos here, here, here, and here from various Christian apologetics channels showing similar contradictions in Islamic texts and beliefs;
Unrelated - in case anyone is interested, here is the video that I referenced right at the beginning about a drug called ivermectin which apparently has exceptional prophylactic properties against the Kung Flu;
Put simply, the idea that the Koran was perfectly preserved is arrant nonsense. The challenge to Muslims is straightforward:
If you claim that your Koran was perfectly preserved from 634 AD onwards, then SHOW IT TO US. Show us ONE Koranic manuscript, dating back to the time of Uthman - we'll give you Uthman, we won't even make you go to the time of Abu Bakr - that consists of 114 surahs, that is exactly the same in every way as your current Hafs text.
If you cannot do this - then stop making this absurd claim.
And if you find yourself questioning your faith - come on home. We have exactly what you're looking for. You want a revelation that is eternal, sent down, complete, and unchanged.
We Christians have Him. His name is Jesus Christ, King of Kings and LORD.
So come on back. Come on home. Come to Jesus Christ.

Domain Query: The Kosher Kali

In this latest edition of the Domain Query series, I answer an interesting set of points posed by reader Johnny in a comment on an unrelated post:
Didact,
See here :https://www.unz.com/article/hate-filled-hindu-priti-patel-is-sycophantic-to-jews-psychopathic-to-whites/
While I have come to conclude that Indian immigration to the US is a net negative (I used to think all skilled immigration that earns above the national average income is a plus as long as they aren’t Muslim terrorists), a lot of White Trashionalists have gone further.
The above article is pretty extreme, and goes too far. The author hates even ‘right wing’ Indians like Priti Patel and Nikki Haley, due to their support of Israel (as if almost 100% of white politicians don’t do the same). The author also conflates a lot of other things falsely, by saying that since India is the ‘rape capital of the world’, Indian immigration means tons of rapes in the US.
Muslim Pakistanis in Rotherham are one thing, but I don’t know of a single non-Muslim Indian in the West raping a woman here (and I doubt Indian men are strong enough to overpower a non-Indian woman in the first place). He also thinks that even elite tech Indians are 3 days away from shitting on the streets.
That, of course, goes too far. But I wanted your opinion on the article and comments for an accurate assessment of what is and is not valid. I believe that you are probably the most fairminded person on such topics.
White Trashionalists are the dregs of the white population for sure. No wonder the ‘community’ is 100% male and has a lot of gay men.
So I had a go at answering these points, at some length. There are three major issues to hit:
Whether Priti Patel is a pleasant person to work for - my guess is, probably not, but I don't have any direct evidence and I think that Mr. Langdon probably goes way too far in his screed;
Whether the Israel Lobby has too much influence and power in Britain - in my view, they do, and that's not a good thing, and Jews in Europe and the UK need to understand that they are wearing out their welcome very quickly, and they should apply their considerable energies and skills in making the great country of Israel even greater;
Whether Indian immigration to the First World is a good thing - as far as I'm concerned, the answer is an unequivocal NO, but I provide more context and in a rather different tone from Mr. Langdon;
Here are some other resources to read and consider on these three points:
I referenced an article about a civil servant who left the Home Office under a cloud due to his repeated rows with the Home Secretary, Ms Patel. He's not the only one, as it turns out, and Ms Patel's behaviour is cited as the reason why there is significant turnover at the top of the Home Office. Given the kinds of Swamp Creatures who inhabit those posts, that is not a Bad Thing at all in my view.
I talked at some length about Boris Berezovskiy, the Russian Jewish oligarch who basically said that every Jew's first allegiance is to Israel. Here's a long article about how one Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin - or, as we call him, the Neo-Tsar - rose to power, in which that specific point is raised repeatedly.
Mr. Langdon's article references an article from The Guardian that says that rape is a runaway problem in India and it is the world's most dangerous country for women. That is BALDERDASH. Here's an article from a couple of years ago that puts India in its proper context. India is definitely not a good place for women, but it's FAR from the worst.
Finally, with respect to the point that Johnny makes above about the implication that even India's tech elites are just a few steps away from defecating in the streets... that actually isn't so far-fetched. For reference, check out this lengthy article from Richard Grenier called "The Gandhi that Nobody Knows" - here is the money quote:
When Gandhi attended his first Indian National Congress he was most distressed at seeing the Hindus—not laborers but high-caste Hindus, civic leaders—defecating all over the place, as if to pay attention to where the feces fell was somehow unclean. (For, as V.S. Naipaul puts it, in a twisted Hindu way it is unclean to clean. It is unclean even to notice. “It was the business of the sweepers to remove excrement, and until the sweepers came, people were content to live in the midst of their own excrement.”)
Draw your own conclusions from that, really.
In summary, Mr. Langdon's article does go too far in several areas. But SOME of what he says is indeed valid.

Didactic Mind, Ep 58: Operation MINDCRIME

This week's episode is all about ranting against the never-to-be-sufficiently-cursed whorenalists and presstitutes of the mainstream (((media))). I talk about many topics, including:
Shout-outs to my friends Adam Piggott and Last Redoubt for their excellent contributions to this side of the 'Sphere of late;
Thanks to Men of the West for taking up my articles and featuring them;
References to easily the best QUEENSRYCHE album of all time;
The nature of the (((media))) and why it has always been partisan;
The evil that the (((media))) currently represents, and why the notion of "impartiality" is so ridiculous;
My unfiltered and very honest thoughts about exactly what to do with most "journalists" these days;
Exactly why the (((media))) lie to you and the sinister purpose behind those lies;
What you can do in an age of (((media))) lies and bullshit to protect yourself from their predations;
 
Oh, I found that clip via Bill Whittle of that whorenalist on Charlie Rose's show talking about how the (((media))) were biased in favour of John Kerry and gave him about a 15-point lead in the polls just because of their blatant electioneering.
As always, please like, share, comment, and subscribe to the podcast, and make sure that you sign up for my email list if you have not done so already.

Didactic Mind, Ep 57: The Rods and the Ax

This week's podcast episode touches on many subjects, ranging from Robert A. Heinlein's controversial classic military sci-fi novel, STARSHIP TROOPERS, to the Beer Bug, to the nature of rights and responsibilities. I discuss a lot of different points here:
Why STARSHIP TROOPERS is such a brilliant book, and why everyone should read it;
The 12 "Juvenile" novels that Heinlein wrote:
Rocket Ship Galileo
Space Cadet
Red Planet
The Rolling Stones
Farmer in the Sky
Between Planets
Starman Jones
The Star Beast
Tunnel in the Sky
Time for the Stars
Citizen of the Galaxy
Have Space Suit, Will Travel
The truth about the Coof and the statistics behind it:
Actual CDC mortality statistics indicating that 99% of those under 70 will survive just fine;
The GIGANTIC and glaring mathematical error, made by CDC researchers, that caused all of this insanity in the first place;
The latest gold-standard Danish RCT study that concludes that there is no statistically significant effect in infection rates between people who do and do not wear masks;
The real science behind whether or not masks work at stopping influenza and similar viruses from being transmitted among populations;
The impact of giving the vote to anyone without regard to who earned it and who didn't:
How government spending was affected by giving women the vote;
Cumulative net fiscal impact per capita by gender and age from New Zealand government data from 2010 shows that women are net drains on the public fisc, while men are net contributors;
And yes, I was originally right, the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution gave women the right to vote.
I also wrote a few posts on this subject a few years ago that are worth reading. The most important one is about rights and responsibilities, written all the way back in 2013.
Remember to rate, comment, and subscribe here, and be sure to subscribe to my mailing list as well!

Didactic Mind, Ep 56: God's Not Dead

This week's episode is a wide-ranging one, in which I cover a number of different topics:
The current state of the utterly corrupted 2020 electile dysfunction in the USA and Vox Day's enigmatic yet upbeat response to the current demoralisation and gaslighting campaigns from the traitorous (((media)));
The powerful forces on the move in the world and outside of it, inspired by a quote from Ronald Reagan's legendary 1964 RNC speech;
The irrationality of atheism and the lack of any objective atheistic moral code, based on Q&A sessions featuring an atheist named Cody and Christian apologist Dr. Frank Turek;
The holes in the arguments made by otherwise brilliant thinkers like Bertrand Russel in his essay, "Why I Am Not a Christian", and the issues with his facts and logic;
Evidence for the actual events depicted in the Bible, as presented in documentaries like Patterns of Evidence: Exodus;
The perfection of morality that we can find within the Bible through sources such as the Ten Commandments;
The nature of the spiritual war that we find ourselves fighting right now;
... and plenty more.
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