Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
At present this includes posts on history of Zionism and modern Israel and Palestine as well as current events. Continue this setup? What of other histories? Adjust name of category? Currently includes Islamism (distinct from Islam) as an ideology of terrorism. Also currently includes Islamophobia and hostile denunciations of Islam — but see the question on Islam in Religion and Atheism.
Fear and self-imposed censorship has prevented the publication in the U.S. of Alan Hart’s book, Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews.
Hart discusses the message of his book on Information Clearing House.
He writes that Peres said there is no Israel lobby in the U.S. There is only the Likud lobby. I might have headed this post: The Likud lobby and betrayal of the U.S.
Go to The Globalization of Peace by Dr Hans Blix, on the University of Sydney news site.
He even took time to write to us members of Get Up!
Following is an excerpt and two YouTube video clip links from a Queensland Greens notice to party members concerning the coming election:
Continue reading ““I’d love to vote for the Greens, but I don’t want to waste my vote””
Why is my grief mingled with anger and not pride? And why am I continually haunted every Anzac day by the recollection of a very different Anzac day service tone so many years ago? Continue reading “myths of war, grapes of wrath”
Peter Singer is a moral philosopher currently based at Princeton University (see his Princeton homepage). He is most famous for his pioneering work on animal liberation but has advanced his utilitarian philosophy into a range of other controversial public areas as well. He has expressed disappointment that his arguments for alleviating human misery have been less influential than those he was expressed to reduce animal suffering.
The Singer Solution to World Poverty is a timeless argument, elegant in its simplicity and lacking only in suggestions that are consistent with what people have become habituated to doing and thinking. (And as “Bad” commented, it is essentially a discussion of Peter Unger’s argument in his 1996 Living High and Letting Die.)
I won’t repeat the argument here. It is only the equivalent of a 6 page chapter in his book, Writings on an Ethical Life. It’s readily available to all online.
But let’s compare relatively modern utilitarian ethics (judging an action to be right or wrong according to its consequences) with the ancient ethics of Jesus in relation to the poor. Continue reading “The ethics of Peter Singer and Jesus compared”
Loved the spin on this sad survey by the Australia Institute to see what the public thought of Australian politicians:
An Asian perspective on Bhutto’s return to Pakistan: Bhutto bombing kicks off war on US plan
Continue reading “mr military “what’s a judge?” vs ms civilian “swiss bank account””
As a past student of American history and society I relished catching up with more recent publications a couple of years ago and one of the more interesting was America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism (2004) by Anatol Lieven. Sharing some notes from one section of this book — a discussion of the link between millenarian religious beliefs and American nationalism — with anyone else interested. Continue reading “Millenarians and Nationalists”
A year or so ago a friend and I had a little stall at an International Women’s Day function in a park with the usual literature and a nice quota of friends and few newbies taking a look. But nothing beat the results we got when we decided to hold up silly masks in front of our faces and walk through the streets and shopping malls handing out our little pieces of paper spiel. Continue reading “Eggheads need more clowns and theatre”
Election is under way again in Australia hence adding a few more resource links for associates and interested persons over next few weeks.
Costello labels the Social Forum as an “extreme left wing group” consisting in “very large part of former-communists”.
This is part of his attempt to smear Julia Gillard for being a former organizer of Social Forum.
Facts about Social Forum: Continue reading “The (World) Social Forum (WSF)”
Dear conservative affluents,
Would it be too much to ask the right people (those in flash Chevron business suits and expensive cars) very nicely if they would mind withdrawing, very politely of course, their financial support from the Burmese regime — at least until relatives of the missing and arrested have a chance to check on their welfare or arrange for timely funerals as the case may be, and even allow for social workers to assist those with signs of post-traumatic stress resulting from events in recent weeks?
I fully understand that these right oil CEO people do have a priority by law to put their shareholders’ interests first, and they might grumble a bit if there was a dip in the prices of their assets. But with a bit of good-will I am sure at least a few could be persuaded at special meetings to go along with this — and the rest could surely come to some arrangement with certain legislators and executives to perhaps allow any losses to be offset by special tax benefits.
With arrangements like this it would spare me the discomfort of having to read articles like Cindy Sheehan’s here and the Amy Goodman one that she refers to here.
Hoping something can be done to make life a little more comfortable for us all.
Sweetreason
P.S. It might also help end my constant dreams that I am living among French aristocracy in July 13, 1789 and France is the whole world this time.
It’s happening at last. Iraqis are finally coming together to form a united front for American values like liberty, the right to bear arms, to rid their country of foreign influence, and terrorists too, at last.
From The Associated Press comes the report: Six Iraqi insurgent groups announce formation of a “political council” to liberate Iraq
A history of Dispensational Approaches by John Scott . . . .
Christian Zionism: Dispensationalism And The Roots Of Sectarian Theology
Related blog post: Christian Zionism: Assumptions and Dehumanization
Australian journalist Leigh Sales won the 2007 George Munster Award for Independent Journalism as a result of her book Detainee 002: the case of David Hicks.
In her speech in acknowledging this Award she expressed some bemusement at being accused of being in effect too fair or aggravatingly fair. That piqued my interest enough to fast track this book to the top of my “to read” list. (Leigh Sales speech is available on podcast here.)
Fair it is regarding the facts of the history of David Hicks and the history and nature of the legal issues surrounding his trial. The aggravation to my mind comes from Leigh Sales implication that a “pragmatic” approach, the approach she clearly favours, is the only truly humane and caring position for David Hicks as a person. Continue reading “Detainee 002: the case of David Hicks / Leigh Sales”