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Monthly Archives: November 2010
20 Years after Sexual Personae: Has Camille Paglia Become a Big Wash Out?
At Pajama’s Media, Bruce Bawer takes after Camille Paglia, most especially for her failure to extensively critique Islam, which is, he says, among “the most serious issues of our time”: [O]n Canadian TV earlier this year, the once feisty, vivacious Paglia … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Camille Paglia, Christopher Hitchens, Islam, Sexual Personae, women's equality, women's rights
4 Comments
Islamic Militants Seek Pakistan’s Nuclear Arsenal
This today at the BBC: In one of the latest cables to be released by Wikileaks, senior UK Foreign Office official Mariot Leslie told US diplomats in September 2009 that Britain had “deep concerns about the safety and security of Pakistan’s … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged America, BBC, disarmament, Islam, Muslims, nuclear terrorism, nuclear war, nuclear weapons, Pakistan, peace, war, wikileaks
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The Euro Crisis: European Leaders Wing It and Deny Reality
At Spiegel Online, Stefan Schultz offers this ironic assessment of the way that Europe’s leaders have, thus far, managed the euro crisis: Since the start of the euro crisis, Europe’s leaders have perfected two techniques: scrambling to catch up with events, and … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged economics, euro crisis, europe, global economy, the dollar, the euro
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Solar Roofs over Parking Lots Are Going Viral in California and The Southwest
This is in the New York Times this week: Ersatz roofs made of solar panels have sprouted above dozens of school parking lots in the state [of California], altering vistas and promoting a philosophy of green thinking among the young. Yet … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged college, eco-friendly, ecology, green energy, oil, solar, solar car ports, solar parking lots, sun, the environment
1 Comment
Abu Dhabi and Qatar Meet Frank Gehry and I.M. Pei: This Too Is Islamic Civilization?
A AAA+++ for effort. According to the New York Times today, the royal leadership of two tiny Muslim countries, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, seeing down the road a time when they’ll need to gather brains into their cisterns rather than oil, are turning … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged abu dhabi, art, atheism, crossroads, God, Islam, Muslims, osama bin laden, qatar, the Enlightenment, the middle east
2 Comments
Faust in the Middle East: I’ll Give You Oil Wells If You’ll Give Me Brain Drains
Here’s a little statistic buried in a long article at the ResetDOC (Dialogue on Civilizations) website on efforts to bring science to (Islamic) regions that are otherwise anti-freedom of thought: [T]he governments of Arab nations (led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt) are investing … Continue reading
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Tagged brain drain, brain drains, faust, Islam, mind wells, Muslims, oil, oil wells, science, the middle east
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A Thankgiving Proclamation from a Governor Who, in 1936, Could Seriously Write
This spell-casting Thanksgiving proclamation was penned by Connecticut Governor Wilber Cross in 1936: Time out of mind at this turn of the seasons when the hardy oak leaves rustle in the wind and the frost gives a tang to the air and … Continue reading
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Tagged America, beauty, calendars, life, seasons, thanksgiving, writing
2 Comments
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Is Spain Too Big to Fail? Are We?
The following was in the New York Times on the day before Thanksgiving, 2010. It describes with stark clarity the vicious debt whirlpool that Spain is in the grips of. I wonder what Paul Krugman would say about this. I suppose that, someday, the United States could find … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged America, bond markets, debt, europe, globalism, islands, john donne, spain, the economy
1 Comment
Ben Franklin: Science Hippie
I love the Promethean line that Anne Marie Jacquez Turgot wrote to accompany Houdon’s bust of Benjamin Franklin: Eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis. Translation: He snatched the lightning from heaven and the sceptre from tyrants. That says it all. Ben Franklin: another science oriented … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged America, Ben Franklin, God, hippies, question authority, science hippie, Zeus
1 Comment
What a New Korean War Might Entail: Hundreds of Thousands of Casualties in Just the First Three Months
In case you’re wondering what a war on the Korean peninsula might entail, this appeared in the Atlantic Monthly back in the July/August 2005 edition of the magazine. It was written by Scott Stossel: North Korea is widely believed to have … Continue reading
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Tagged chemical weapons, korea, north korea, nuclear weapons, south korea, war, weapons of mass destruction, wmd
1 Comment
Kim Jong-il is Clinically Sadistic and Paranoid. And He Has A Bomb.
If you’re wondering what we’re dealing with in Kim Jong-il of North Korea, I found a rather sobering psychological evaluation of him, and offer a quote from it. The paper appeared in the journal Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, Vol. 1, No. … Continue reading
“Jews Look Like Monkeys and Pigs”: Medieval Cultism and Antisemitism in British Islamic Schools
Out of 30,000 schools in Great Britain, 160 are Muslim faith schools. Below is a deeply troubling BBC report on what some of these schools are teaching: So this is what happens when you set out to live a segregated and parallel … Continue reading
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Tagged antisemitism, atheism, cults, England, fundamentalism, Islam, medievalism, Muslims, women's rights
8 Comments
Think Mind Wells, Not Oil Wells: Is Where You Live a Brain Drain or a Brain Collector?
If you want to be hopeful about the human future (including America’s), think about this: free minds and strong exchange economies are positively correlated. It’s not that there is a one-to-one relationship between them, but wherever you have free minds the odds are good, … Continue reading
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Tagged America, freedom, hope, mind wells, oil, oil wells, optimism, the brain, the economy, the mind
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An Agnostic Interviews an Imam: Kamal Tells a Non-Retaliation Story from His Tradition and Discusses the Prayer Rug
In the below clip, Kamal al Khatib offers an anecdote from the life of Muhammad that illustrates (for him) Islam’s general commitment to non-retaliation. I’ve actually heard the story that Kamal tells from another Muslim. I recall the previous telling of the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnosticism, atheism, Christians, Islam, Jews, Judaism, monotheism, muhammad, Muslims
2 Comments
Prometheus Unbound 