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Parasites invading Houses of Parliament – DO SOMETHING!!! Shocking news, despite the best efforts of voters over the years, and repeated manifesto promises, and reform of the House of Lords, all of which has been to no avail, parasites are invading the Houses of Parliament.
As Oliver Cromwell put it:
You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!
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“Invading” implies they have not been there for the last hundred years 🙄
Every line of that video clip had me nodding my head. Apparently the parasites “were living in chairs where humans sit for hours end” and they “live in upholstery as well as bedding”. However I beg leave to doubt the statement that they are “not dangerous”. Nor was I convinced by the claim that they had been “eradicated”. Or “erradicated” as the British Broadcasting Corporation spells the word.
This is too funny. The jokes write themselves; even Al Franken couldn’t screw it up. There’s no sport to it at all.
Natalie, I’m glad to see you caught that typo, too.
I can picture the bedbugs arguing and one condemning another with “You lousy politician …”.
One can but dream, eh?
I doubt Oliver Cromwell would have been much use in dealing with the problem – he did not really accept science.
Unlike Martin Luther, Oliver Cromwell did not write works denouncing “that whore reason” or claiming that humans were NOT human beings, but were really flesh robots (i.e. without agency – free will. Thus making God the author of sin – as if everything is predetermined by God, as the determinist Martin Luther claimed, then every rape, murder, sadistic torture……. is THE PERSONAL CHOICE AND “WILL” OF GOD – Mr Luther’s position makes this conclusion inescapable, as he grants only GOD agency, humans having no free will according to Mr Luther (human beings, human agents, not existing according to Mr Luther – with the belief in human agency [moral responsibility] being, according to Mr Luther, yet another reason why the Jews must be destroyed). However, Mr Cromwell in practice rejected science – for example in his rejection of treatment for his malaria, so it is unlikely that he would have supported the chemical treatments needed to deal with the problem in the Palace of Westminster.
I remember my last work trip to New York City a number of years ago.
My local guy warned me off of all of the nice places I usually stayed, and directed me to a cheap Holiday Inn Express in midtown.
It was the only place that wasn’t suffering from a bedbug infestation.
Karl Barth (the German Swiss theologian) argued that the British were “hopelessly Pelagain”, meaning followers of the free will belief of the 5th century Roman British theologian Pelagius – against Augustine, the main supporter of predestination at the time and the creator of the theologian arguments justifying the use of violence, persecution, to enforce doctrines in the Christian Church. Even if they, the British, had never heard of Pelagius himself. Indeed in a philosophical sense the Battle of Britain in 1940 was a continuation of the conflict between Pelagius and Augustine (at least IF one takes the extreme, and radically and deliberately ANTI rational version of Augustine pushed by Martin Luther), and one can find the same themes in the First World War book “Greenmantle” by John Buchan (1915 I believe) – with the German agents shown as being of high intelligence, but as rejecting reason in the moral sense (i.e. moral responsibility – free will, agency) and allying with Islam. Islam, or at least mainstream Islam, taking the same philosophical position.
Defenders of Oliver Cromwell might well cite this – and point to his good deeds. Certainly there is nothing in Cromwell about destroying the Jews (quite the contrary), or nonresistance to the Ottomans Empire (Mr Luther viewed the Islamic invasion as a punishment send by God – and denounced resistance to tyranny and conquest, although he later revised his opinions when pushed to do so by the Princes who were backing him), nor is there any support for the institution of SERFDOM in the speeches of Mr Cromwell (the institution of serfdom was spreading in the time of Mr Luther – and he fully supported its SPREAD, regardless of the number of peasants one needed to kill in order to expand the peculiar institution).
Certainly Mr Cromwell did seek help for his mental illness (depression – then known as melanocholia), whereas Mr Luther would have had the doctor burned as alive as a witch (both he “witchcraft” and the burning for it being the will of God – if one takes Mr Luther’s philosophical-theological position, God being the creator of evil and no human having the ability to make any real choices). So it is possible that Mr Cromwell would responded correctly to the problem in the Palace of Westminster – and, it should be noted, that German science and technology developed very well indeed, in spite of Mr Luther’s teaching that human beings, i.e. human agents, do not exist.
The efforts of English language thinkers (Pelagius NOT being an English speaker of course) to try and reconcile the theology of Martin Luther and John Calvin with free will are long (going at least up to James McCosh – 1811 to 1894) are long, but break on the rock that predestination does indeed imply determinism (as Martin Luther openly accepted – indeed celebrated with a sort of Satanic glee). But it remains the case that at least in England (if not in Scotland) the Reformation ended up with most Christians (certainly by the 18th century – the century of Old Whig domination) as being FURTHER AWAY from Augustine rather than closer to Augustine. Unlike most European countries – with the possible exception of the Netherlands. The Anglican Church (at least in the 18th century) being strongly ANTI predestinationist. Such 17th century theologians and philosophers as Ralph Cudworth being popular in the 18th century (although forgotten in the 19th century) and both the British and the American Dr Samuel Johnson being strongly in support of Free Will.
However, it remains the case that if one takes the extreme view of Augustine pushed by Martin Luther then there is no basic moral (philosophical) difference between humans (who are not beings) and the bugs in the chairs of the Palace of Westminster. So, for example, the National Socialists of the Third Reich did not make bad moral choices in their murders of millions of people – as there is no such thing as CHOICE, humans being essentially the same as the bugs (neither having free will – moral agency).
It should be pointed out that faith is not, according to Martin Luther, a choice (as nothing is a choice – only God having agency). People do not choose to believe in God (there is no choice of a “leap of faith”) – for example Satan believes in God (and knows His power) and actions (rape, torture, murder – or good deeds) are irrelevant (Mr Luther not only leaving out Books of the Bible, and translating other parts with his own spin, but also rejects some of the Books he leaves in – such as the Epistle of James, which is an “Epistle of Straw”). Logically, therefore, Satan (who believes in God) will be saved and will have an eternity of joy in Heaven – whilst people who live a life a service to others (heroically saving them from robbery, rape, murder….) will burn for all eternity in Hell – if it is predestined for them to do so (by no choice of their own – as choice does not exist, and who beliefs in God, has faith, and who does NOT is predestined because everything is predestined).
The American 18th century philosopher Jonathan Edwards was asked to stop telling little children how they would be tortured for all eternity in Hell – regardless of how good they were in life (see above – good or bad actions are irrelevant in this theology – as humans, like the bugs in the Palace of Westminster, have no moral agency – free will). Mr Edwards replied, with perfect consistency, that he could not choose to stop telling the little children of the various tortures (which he described in loving detail) they would suffer in Hell for all eternity – as he has was predestined to say these things (just as a preacher is predestined to preach – even though, if one takes the doctrine of predestination seriously, preaching is UTTERLY POINTLESS as who is going to be saved was decided before the universe was created).
I think the correct answer to this would be to say, as one drives Mr Edwards away with a whip – “I am predestined to do this – just as you were predestined to abuse the little children”.
“Sorry old chap. But I was predestined to shoot down your Messerschmitt 109 with my Hurricane, I had no moral choice in the matter – because there is no such thing as moral choice”.
bobby b
Wasn’t there a Federal ban a few years back on the only effective insecticide that actually kills the critters? I recall hearing about the subsequent infestation, but not how it all played out in terms of any repeal, or new treatments.
And may I say that the Sage of Kettering has excelled himself here, with leaps that would make Bob Beamon gasp with awe.
I think it was some Jewish thinkers who managed to reconcile Free will and Determinism. Your life can be considered as a maze- You have free will to choose which path to take, even though God knows the outcome of whatever choice you make.