Who really is St Nicholas?

Who really is St Nicholas?  

Does he wear a Red suit because he is a Communist?  Did he have reindeer?  Does he bring presents to everyone?

Is Globalism Good?

It was Reinhold Niebuhr that pointed out the hypocrisy inherent in "a nation".  “Patriotism transmutes individual unselfishness into national egoism”, and through service to the state is committed the worst atrocities known to man.  The morality of nations broke the "golden rule".  To make the world a better place it was thought, one needed to think of nations as nonexistent, without boundaries, as God intended, as one sees the earth from space.  This thinking was prevalent in Washington DC, beginning with Carter, and continuing until the present including including Obama, McCain, and others.  What is wrong with this thinking?

William of Occam - Franciscan Monk

What has the Catholic church contributed to Science?  Few know that William was a monk, and he is best known for his critique of another person's writing that caused him to be labeled a heretic.  He took a vow of poverty, and espoused this way of living.

In his writing he alludes to unnecessarily complicated reasoning- involving a plenitude of extraneous reasoning, and this has been passed down to us via several others but most recently Lord "Who wanted to sleep with someone else's wife" Bertie Russell.  He reiterated the "Occam Razor" approach to reasoning, but he entirely misunderstood William of Occam.

William believed in God, and thought that only by faith alone could you understand this.  Therefore he affirmed that everything is derived from God alone, and therefore it unnecessarily complicates to involve other causes.

What Bertrand Russell tried to claim is patently false- the simplest explanation is the best.  It is a statement of limited human intellect and mental focus, and our penchant for the simple by collective affirmation and tendency.

Who would believe that Russell coined the term "Occam razor" and spread the thinking about, because he wanted to sleep with someone else's wife?  It may seem complicated, but it is in fact, true.

Does LSD heighten creativity?

In Michael Brooks “Secret Anarchy of Science”, he relates how Ludwig Feuerbach, known for writing down  “Der Mench ist, was er isst”, was essentially right when he related that Science has no method, and it is just a bunch of people trying things anyway possible.  Brooks then, in his post- modern analysis, posits that mind-altering drugs are useful in precipitating  that “mental flash” of insight, that strangely untried juxtaposition.  He then related how many researchers at Berkeley were taking LSD to assist them in mental explorations.
It is amazing, and alarming, how many express a desire to experiment. They relate “LSD has killed fewer people than prescription drugs”. “ They ought to legalize this!”  Their response is common shtick for the use of prohibited substances.
Besides helping Cary Grant with his sexual deviancy, and spreading the idea of LSD being transformative, there are also reports of damaged minds- burned brains locked in an autistic stupor. Seeing researchers wrapped up into fetal balls, or jumping out of windows, does help one to believe that the mind is freed from normal strictures.
However, LSD causes alterations of synaptic functions the mind transcribes into sensations.  Since the brain function is altered, this alters one’s perception and emotions in unpredictable ways, to the point of inducing severe trauma. As one lady related to me: “Anyone who uses LSD, doesn’t know how to use their brains.”
For me, I shall stick to citrus: oranges and mind altering papayas.  I shall observe nature, staring into a campfire, sunsets and sunrises and stellar asterisms.  Maybe I'll take a little Vitamin D in these dark winter months.