The Bartlett Diaries - Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Us - updates
Senator Andrew Bartlett seems a nice enough guy, in a semi-depressed, lefty high school teacher-ish sort of way. His post (above) about the Middle East crisis seems to mark out nicely the sort of wishy washy paralysis that his line of thinking lends itself to:
The way the so-called "‘war on terror"’ is portrayed and prosecuted includes a very strong inference that it is a battle between militant Islam and the West – in crude but none the less reasonably valid terms, "‘them"’ and "‘us’". I don'’t accept the view that this is a struggle between Islam and the West, but unfortunately, the more it is portrayed this way by western leaders and commentators, the more this perception can become a reality...
He goes on to cite (with approval) the recent Karen Armstrong article in The Guardian. I have just read the article, which was referred to in the essay I recommended in Saturday's post.
The more I read of Armstrong's take on Islam, the more suspicious I become of the validity of her views. Of course, I should actually read her books and some detailed criticism of her work, but I am just reporting a strong suspicion here. [I have started reading some internet criticism of her; it seems there is plenty of it about, but the search for what some authoritative historians say about it continues.]
As for what Armstrong thinks of the current crisis, she says:
Doubtless with this anniversary in mind [the London bombings], the prime minister has complained that British Muslims are not doing enough to deal with the extremists. The "moderate" Muslims, he said testily, must confront the Islamists; they cannot condemn their methods while tacitly condoning their anger. The extremists' anti-western views are wrong, and mainstream Muslims must tell them that violent jihad "is not the religion of Islam".
This regrettable step will put yet more pressure on a community already under strain. It ignores the fact that the chief problem for most Muslims is not "the west" per se, but the suffering of Muslims in Guant¡namo, Abu Ghraib, Iraq and Palestine. Many Britons share this dismay, but the strong emphasis placed by Islam upon justice and community solidarity makes this a religious issue for Muslims. When they see their brothers and sisters systematically oppressed and humiliated, some feel as wounded as a Christian who sees the Bible spat upon or the eucharistic host violated.
She states that radical Islamists hate moderate Islamists just as much, if not more, than the West.
I find it rather extraordinary that a call for moderate Islamists to do more to reject the extremists in their midst can be called "regrettable". My take on her examples:
Guantanamo: while some innocents caught up in this, most had (presumably) at least had some connection to the actual militant combatants. If these people despise moderate Muslims, as Armstrong complains, why is their detention such a problem for the moderates?
Abu Graib: very bad behaviour dealt with when revealed. The rule of law and taking responsibility for what your own military does seems to be the lesson that moderates should be told to take from this.
Iraq: surely everyone now sees this as mainly between the branches of Islam. That a framework for a modern and fairer style of government has been set up by the West, and apparently endorsed by the high voter turnout, seems beyond dispute. Does Armstrong think there is any point at which the West can stop being blamed for the inability of conflicting sects to make a government work?
Palestine: an ongoing sore that the militants recently chose to inflame.
Surely the main problem with Armstrong's comments are that they indicate complete sympathy towards the unfortunate tendency of many Muslims to prefer the mantle of victimhood, and to avoid responsibility for ongoing conflict by its radical elements, or to take opportunities as they present themselves and make them work. That is what will hurt much more than a call for moderates to be involved in attempts to de-radicalise their militants. (Who, after all, are clearly in the midst of many Western muslim communities, not isolated from them.)
Back to Bartlett's post:
The trouble with governments trying to insist that we are at war with so-called Islamist terrorists is that the paradigm of war virtually forces people onto one side or another, as the middle ground tends to get blasted away by both extremes.
In what respect are they "so called" terrorists, Andrew?
Perhaps I am being a little mean here; I actually did have some earlier reservations about the use of the phrase "war on terrorism" when Bush first invoked it. I have a preference for keeping the term "war" for the traditional sense of armed conflict between nation states. Using it loosely does encourage ideas such as the application of the Geneva Conventions in circumstances where the "combatants" use techniques which invalidate the right to protection under those treaties. The Supreme Court's recent majority ruling may in fact appear more reasonable to people than it should because of the use of the phrase.
However, the state of the world since 9/11 has caused my initial doubt about the use of the term to evaporate.
The advantage of the term is that it reflects the seriousness of the issue and it is, after all, consistent with the terminology that mad Islamists use themselves.
That the Left can still find an issue with it indicates a lack of willingness to call a spade a spade, and revives the spectre of political correctness with its rparalysisparaylsis on certain issues from the 1980's and 1990's. It does not help them politically regain power.
Having said that, there naturally may come a point at which the conduct of the campaign by the Israelis may become indisputably morally wrong and/or counterproductive to their long term interests. It is just that simple tallies of how many civilians are killed by Israel compared to their own loses is not going to be the test, and in my books Israel seems far from reaching the point of legitimate criticism yet. (I don't have significant problem with the infradtructure targetting either, as I can several legitimate reasons to attack them in this particular case.)
Monday, July 17, 2006
The ever helpful Iranian leadership
Iran Focus-Iran’s Supreme Leader says Israel is “satanic and cancerous” - Special Wire - News
Well, it not just the loopy puppet-ish President who likes to throw petrol on the fire. The religious leadership has this to say:
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described Israel on Sunday as “satanic and cancerous” and praised the Lebanese group Hezbollah for its “jihad” against the Jewish state.
“This regime is an infectious tumour for the entire Islamic world”, Khamenei said in a speech that was aired on state television.
He rejected the demand by U.S. President George W. Bush that Hezbollah disarm, vowing, “This will never happen”.
Well, it not just the loopy puppet-ish President who likes to throw petrol on the fire. The religious leadership has this to say:
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described Israel on Sunday as “satanic and cancerous” and praised the Lebanese group Hezbollah for its “jihad” against the Jewish state.
“This regime is an infectious tumour for the entire Islamic world”, Khamenei said in a speech that was aired on state television.
He rejected the demand by U.S. President George W. Bush that Hezbollah disarm, vowing, “This will never happen”.
Kind of late to be worrying about it now
Jonathan Chait: Is Bush Still Too Dumb to Be President? - Los Angeles Times
This LA Times columnist decides to bring up the issue of Bush's intelligence again. Why bother when he is on the last leg of his fixed term anyway? Maybe he thinks it be added to the grounds for impeachment.
This LA Times columnist decides to bring up the issue of Bush's intelligence again. Why bother when he is on the last leg of his fixed term anyway? Maybe he thinks it be added to the grounds for impeachment.
Out of proportion?
neo-neocon: The danger of "proportionality" in war
The always readable Neo-neocon has a good post on the issue of proportionality in war. A key paragraph:
It's in the interests of those with less power, and fewer arms, to advance the doctrine of "proportionality." This evens the playing field, something like a handicap in golf, and makes the game better sport for those with fewer skills. The concept of proportionality comes, no doubt, at least partly from fear of a truly disproportionate response; from some sort of concern for the weak. But it also comes from a disproportionate concern that weaker, third-world countries shouldn't be disadvantaged in any way because of their weakness, that they should be allowed to attack a stronger nation with relative impunity because, after all, they're weaker; and, after all, they're "brown;" and, after all, the West is imperialist and guilty; and, after all...and on and on.
But go read it all, and watch some of the fireworks in the comments too.
The always readable Neo-neocon has a good post on the issue of proportionality in war. A key paragraph:
It's in the interests of those with less power, and fewer arms, to advance the doctrine of "proportionality." This evens the playing field, something like a handicap in golf, and makes the game better sport for those with fewer skills. The concept of proportionality comes, no doubt, at least partly from fear of a truly disproportionate response; from some sort of concern for the weak. But it also comes from a disproportionate concern that weaker, third-world countries shouldn't be disadvantaged in any way because of their weakness, that they should be allowed to attack a stronger nation with relative impunity because, after all, they're weaker; and, after all, they're "brown;" and, after all, the West is imperialist and guilty; and, after all...and on and on.
But go read it all, and watch some of the fireworks in the comments too.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
A good essay on the trouble with Islam
To the death
I just found this recent essay from The Guardian on the question of Islam and terrorism, and it's very good.
The last paragraphs:
As I argued in a piece on Ken Loach's film The Wind that Shakes the Barley on Cif two weeks ago, ideology - uncompromising, appealing to purity of thought and action, murderous - is required to give real or imagined wrongs a framework, a cause and both a battle cry and a battle order. You must fight for something as well as against something. And one of the most powerful of such ideologies has been, in very different forms, an appeal to oneness: oneness of nation and ethnos (Nazism); one-ness of class and party (communism) and oneness of faith, state and thought (Islamism).
The ability to dehumanise large tracts of fellow human beings, because they are non-Aryan, or bourgeois, or non-Muslim, lends great strength to the cause: strength enough to cause adherents to gladly murder, and willingly die, for it.
I just found this recent essay from The Guardian on the question of Islam and terrorism, and it's very good.
The last paragraphs:
As I argued in a piece on Ken Loach's film The Wind that Shakes the Barley on Cif two weeks ago, ideology - uncompromising, appealing to purity of thought and action, murderous - is required to give real or imagined wrongs a framework, a cause and both a battle cry and a battle order. You must fight for something as well as against something. And one of the most powerful of such ideologies has been, in very different forms, an appeal to oneness: oneness of nation and ethnos (Nazism); one-ness of class and party (communism) and oneness of faith, state and thought (Islamism).
The ability to dehumanise large tracts of fellow human beings, because they are non-Aryan, or bourgeois, or non-Muslim, lends great strength to the cause: strength enough to cause adherents to gladly murder, and willingly die, for it.
Israel and it enemies
Aljazeera.Net - Lebanon divided over Hezbollah raid
Aljazeera explains the conflict within Lebanon on the role of Hezbollah in that country:
Dalia Salaam, a Lebanese Middle East analyst, says, "Hezbollah is currently the only political party in Lebanon fighting to save the country."
"The US and Europe should ask Israel to restrain itself. After all, no one, not even President George Bush or the Israeli government, can afford to escalate the situation."
But Ramzi Salha, a travel agent, says: "Whatever the agenda of Hezbollah is, it is not necessarily the agenda of the Lebanese people.
"They have not been designated by the Lebanese people to decide what is best for the country."
With the 22-year Israeli occupation over, many Lebanese say it is time for Hezbollah to lay down its weapons as demanded by UN Security Council resolution 1559.
Few are suggesting a return to war is coming, but Hezbollah's rivals are increasingly complaining that the only Lebanese group that was allowed to keep its weapons after the civil war has become more powerful than the state.
As you may expect, I also like Charles Krauthammer's article on the current situation. He highlights a point that has bothered me a lot over the years: the media's seeming amnesia about the fact that Israel only ended up with the occupied territories because it won the wars that attempted to eradicate it as a nation:
For four decades we have been told that the cause of the anger, violence and terror against Israel is its occupation of the territories seized in that war. End the occupation and the "cycle of violence'' ceases.
The problem with this claim was that before Israel came into possession of the West Bank and Gaza in the Six Day War, every Arab state had rejected Israel's right to exist and declared Israel's pre-1967 borders -- now deemed sacred -- to be nothing more than the armistice lines suspending, and not ending, the 1948-49 war to exterminate Israel.
Finally, this Lebanese issue of having a heavily armed militia force that is separate from the government armed forces seems to be the same problem facing Iraq, Gaza, and probably other countries, for all I know. How do the people of these countries think that they can ever be properly governed when private armies are allowed to retain arms? Until this fundamental problem is rectified, unrest in the region will surely continue indefinitely.
Aljazeera explains the conflict within Lebanon on the role of Hezbollah in that country:
Dalia Salaam, a Lebanese Middle East analyst, says, "Hezbollah is currently the only political party in Lebanon fighting to save the country."
"The US and Europe should ask Israel to restrain itself. After all, no one, not even President George Bush or the Israeli government, can afford to escalate the situation."
But Ramzi Salha, a travel agent, says: "Whatever the agenda of Hezbollah is, it is not necessarily the agenda of the Lebanese people.
"They have not been designated by the Lebanese people to decide what is best for the country."
With the 22-year Israeli occupation over, many Lebanese say it is time for Hezbollah to lay down its weapons as demanded by UN Security Council resolution 1559.
Few are suggesting a return to war is coming, but Hezbollah's rivals are increasingly complaining that the only Lebanese group that was allowed to keep its weapons after the civil war has become more powerful than the state.
As you may expect, I also like Charles Krauthammer's article on the current situation. He highlights a point that has bothered me a lot over the years: the media's seeming amnesia about the fact that Israel only ended up with the occupied territories because it won the wars that attempted to eradicate it as a nation:
For four decades we have been told that the cause of the anger, violence and terror against Israel is its occupation of the territories seized in that war. End the occupation and the "cycle of violence'' ceases.
The problem with this claim was that before Israel came into possession of the West Bank and Gaza in the Six Day War, every Arab state had rejected Israel's right to exist and declared Israel's pre-1967 borders -- now deemed sacred -- to be nothing more than the armistice lines suspending, and not ending, the 1948-49 war to exterminate Israel.
Finally, this Lebanese issue of having a heavily armed militia force that is separate from the government armed forces seems to be the same problem facing Iraq, Gaza, and probably other countries, for all I know. How do the people of these countries think that they can ever be properly governed when private armies are allowed to retain arms? Until this fundamental problem is rectified, unrest in the region will surely continue indefinitely.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Time for a Conservative government
SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Health | IVF hurdle for single women and lesbians to be overthrown
From the above story:
Fertility clinics and NHS trusts will no longer be able to stop single mothers and lesbian couples having IVF treatment following a shake-up of embryology regulation expected later this year.
The public health minister, Caroline Flint, yesterday gave the clearest indication yet that a child's "need for a father" will be removed as a requirement before a woman undergoes fertility treatment.
A change of name from "fertility treatment" is deserved then, because a failure of "fertility" is not what they are "curing". How about, "Government insemination service" instead, at least for the NHS ones?
From the above story:
Fertility clinics and NHS trusts will no longer be able to stop single mothers and lesbian couples having IVF treatment following a shake-up of embryology regulation expected later this year.
The public health minister, Caroline Flint, yesterday gave the clearest indication yet that a child's "need for a father" will be removed as a requirement before a woman undergoes fertility treatment.
A change of name from "fertility treatment" is deserved then, because a failure of "fertility" is not what they are "curing". How about, "Government insemination service" instead, at least for the NHS ones?
That's all it what ever about??
Novak-Rove exchange lasted 20 seconds - Yahoo! News
Good Lord, it was even more trivial than what anyone seemed to imagine:
Regarding Wilson's CIA-sponsored trip, Novak said he told Rove, "I understand that his wife works at the CIA and she initiated the mission." The columnist said Rove replied, "Oh, you know that, too."
"I took that as a confirmation that she worked with the CIA and initiated" her husband's mission to Africa, Novak said. "I really distinctly remember him saying, 'You know that, too.'"
"We talked about Joe Wilson's wife for about maybe 20 seconds," Novak said.
According to Rove's legal team, the White House political adviser recalls the conversation regarding Wilson's wife differently, saying that he replied to Novak that "I've heard that, too" rather than "You know that, too."
Good Lord, it was even more trivial than what anyone seemed to imagine:
Regarding Wilson's CIA-sponsored trip, Novak said he told Rove, "I understand that his wife works at the CIA and she initiated the mission." The columnist said Rove replied, "Oh, you know that, too."
"I took that as a confirmation that she worked with the CIA and initiated" her husband's mission to Africa, Novak said. "I really distinctly remember him saying, 'You know that, too.'"
"We talked about Joe Wilson's wife for about maybe 20 seconds," Novak said.
According to Rove's legal team, the White House political adviser recalls the conversation regarding Wilson's wife differently, saying that he replied to Novak that "I've heard that, too" rather than "You know that, too."
Leunig renews attempt to court the Palestinian readership
Cartoons - Cartoon - Opinion - theage.com.au
I'm surprised that Tim Blair doesn't seem to have a post yet about Leunig's latest cartoon.
Having a go at the suffering of children in war and conflict is a legitimate subject for a cartoonist. But Leunig's take suggests that the Israelis are targetting children deliberately.
Also, just how hard is it to be even handed when drawing a cartoon? Here's a suggestion: fold the paper in two, and one side draw some Hamas terrorists shooting a completely indiscriminate rocket into an Israeli city, and hitting a school. On the other side, draw a half dozen palestinian kids being killed as "collateral" in a reprisal attack (being careful to also show the dead adult terrorists who were actually the target.)
There, pithy point about children being unwitting target of terrorism and war is made; dishonest blaming of one side only for killing kids avoided. Is that so hard to do?
While we're at it, show children on one side being given guns to brandish on the streets, watching a neverending media glorification of matyrdom, and being taught that everyone in the neighbouring country (which has no right to exist) is a legitimate target until the neighbour State ceases to exist. On the other side show...oh, well maybe a bit of a problem finding the balance there.
I'm surprised that Tim Blair doesn't seem to have a post yet about Leunig's latest cartoon.
Having a go at the suffering of children in war and conflict is a legitimate subject for a cartoonist. But Leunig's take suggests that the Israelis are targetting children deliberately.
Also, just how hard is it to be even handed when drawing a cartoon? Here's a suggestion: fold the paper in two, and one side draw some Hamas terrorists shooting a completely indiscriminate rocket into an Israeli city, and hitting a school. On the other side, draw a half dozen palestinian kids being killed as "collateral" in a reprisal attack (being careful to also show the dead adult terrorists who were actually the target.)
There, pithy point about children being unwitting target of terrorism and war is made; dishonest blaming of one side only for killing kids avoided. Is that so hard to do?
While we're at it, show children on one side being given guns to brandish on the streets, watching a neverending media glorification of matyrdom, and being taught that everyone in the neighbouring country (which has no right to exist) is a legitimate target until the neighbour State ceases to exist. On the other side show...oh, well maybe a bit of a problem finding the balance there.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Timothy Leary back from the grave
Independent Online Edition > Health Medical
A very odd story this:
Forty years after Timothy Leary, the apostle of drug-induced mysticism, urged his hippie followers to "tune in, turn on, and drop out", researchers at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland, have for the first time demonstrated that mystical experiences can be produced safely in the laboratory.... For the US study, 30 middle-aged volunteers who had religious or spiritual interests attended two eight-hour drug sessions, two months apart, receiving psilocybin in one session and a non-hallucinogenic stimulant, Ritalin, in the other. They were not told which drug was which.
Note in bold the first thing to question about this study.
One third described the experience with psilocybin as the single most spiritually significant of their lifetimes and two thirds rated it among their five most meaningful experiences. In more than 60 per cent of cases the experience qualified as a "full mystical experience" based on established psychological scales, the researchers say. Some likened it to the importance of the birth of their first child or the death of a parent. The effects persisted for at least two months. Eighty per cent of the volunteers reported moderately or greatly increased well-being or life satisfaction. Relatives, friends and colleagues confirmed the changes.
Ooh, sounds all so inspiring. But then:
A third of the volunteers became frightened during the drug sessions with some reporting feelings of paranoia. The researchers say psilocybin is not toxic or addictive, unlike alcohol and cocaine, but that volunteers must be accompanied throughout the experience by people who can help them through it.
I just find it incredibly hard to believe that they could ever overcome the unreliability of such "therapy". Wasn't there enough work done on using hallucinogenic and other mind altering drugs (such as ecstacy) in the 1940's to 1960's to see that this is not a worthwhile way to go?
A very odd story this:
Forty years after Timothy Leary, the apostle of drug-induced mysticism, urged his hippie followers to "tune in, turn on, and drop out", researchers at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland, have for the first time demonstrated that mystical experiences can be produced safely in the laboratory.... For the US study, 30 middle-aged volunteers who had religious or spiritual interests attended two eight-hour drug sessions, two months apart, receiving psilocybin in one session and a non-hallucinogenic stimulant, Ritalin, in the other. They were not told which drug was which.
Note in bold the first thing to question about this study.
One third described the experience with psilocybin as the single most spiritually significant of their lifetimes and two thirds rated it among their five most meaningful experiences. In more than 60 per cent of cases the experience qualified as a "full mystical experience" based on established psychological scales, the researchers say. Some likened it to the importance of the birth of their first child or the death of a parent. The effects persisted for at least two months. Eighty per cent of the volunteers reported moderately or greatly increased well-being or life satisfaction. Relatives, friends and colleagues confirmed the changes.
Ooh, sounds all so inspiring. But then:
A third of the volunteers became frightened during the drug sessions with some reporting feelings of paranoia. The researchers say psilocybin is not toxic or addictive, unlike alcohol and cocaine, but that volunteers must be accompanied throughout the experience by people who can help them through it.
I just find it incredibly hard to believe that they could ever overcome the unreliability of such "therapy". Wasn't there enough work done on using hallucinogenic and other mind altering drugs (such as ecstacy) in the 1940's to 1960's to see that this is not a worthwhile way to go?
Japanese lesson of the day
The Japan Times Online - Porn 'anime' boasts big U.S. beachhead
From the above article:
The popularity of Japanese animation overseas was again highlighted in Anime Expo 2006 in California earlier this month, but a growing boom in the genre's pornographic segment is raising eyebrows among the world's fans of Pokemon and other less-graphic content.
"The best-selling product overseas now is a pornographic makeover of 'Gundam Seed,' " said Masuzo Furukawa of Mandarake Inc., referring to a popular Japanese animation....
The general intolerance toward pornographic animation and comic books in the West is another factor for overseas fans to seek out Japanese products, Furukawa said.
"Fans in America seek something special in this anime, and reading them is cathartic," he said.
The pornographic anime boom has even made the word "hentai" (perverted) recognizable among anime fans worldwide. Hentai is now used overseas to describe anime with strong sexual content.
Love the use of "cathartic" with respect to what is basically porn.
From the above article:
The popularity of Japanese animation overseas was again highlighted in Anime Expo 2006 in California earlier this month, but a growing boom in the genre's pornographic segment is raising eyebrows among the world's fans of Pokemon and other less-graphic content.
"The best-selling product overseas now is a pornographic makeover of 'Gundam Seed,' " said Masuzo Furukawa of Mandarake Inc., referring to a popular Japanese animation....
The general intolerance toward pornographic animation and comic books in the West is another factor for overseas fans to seek out Japanese products, Furukawa said.
"Fans in America seek something special in this anime, and reading them is cathartic," he said.
The pornographic anime boom has even made the word "hentai" (perverted) recognizable among anime fans worldwide. Hentai is now used overseas to describe anime with strong sexual content.
Love the use of "cathartic" with respect to what is basically porn.
Einstein at home
Letters reveal Einstein's personal life - Yahoo! News
If, like me, you have never read an Einstein biography, this short article gives some brief insight into his private life:
Einstein is known to have had a dozen lovers, two of whom he married, Wolff said.
Most striking about the more than 1,300 newly released letters was the way Einstein discussed his extramarital affairs with his second wife, Elsa, and his stepdaughter, Margot, the archivists said.
Michanowski is mentioned in three of the newly unsealed letters.
In a letter to Margot Einstein in 1931, Einstein complained that "Mrs. M." — Michanowski — "followed me (to England), and her chasing me is getting out of control."
What was the attraction? One assumes it had more to do with fame and power than physicality. (Funny how the same in a woman makes most men nervous.) More:
Einstein's dalliances and abrupt, even cruel treatment of his first wife, Mileva, have been documented in biographies. He has also been portrayed as an indifferent father unwilling to take on the obligations of parenthood.
Gutfreund said the latest collection shows Einstein to have been more involved with and warmer to his first family than previously thought. Letter from the boys showed "they understood he loved them," he said.
What happened to the Einstein boys, I wonder. What a liability to have in science class in high school!
And Einstein himself got a bit sick of his own theory:
The father of the theory of relativity apparently did not want to be bound up with it eternally. In a 1921 letter to Elsa, Einstein confided, "Soon I'll be fed up with the relativity. Even such a thing fades away when one is too involved with it."
If, like me, you have never read an Einstein biography, this short article gives some brief insight into his private life:
Einstein is known to have had a dozen lovers, two of whom he married, Wolff said.
Most striking about the more than 1,300 newly released letters was the way Einstein discussed his extramarital affairs with his second wife, Elsa, and his stepdaughter, Margot, the archivists said.
Michanowski is mentioned in three of the newly unsealed letters.
In a letter to Margot Einstein in 1931, Einstein complained that "Mrs. M." — Michanowski — "followed me (to England), and her chasing me is getting out of control."
What was the attraction? One assumes it had more to do with fame and power than physicality. (Funny how the same in a woman makes most men nervous.) More:
Einstein's dalliances and abrupt, even cruel treatment of his first wife, Mileva, have been documented in biographies. He has also been portrayed as an indifferent father unwilling to take on the obligations of parenthood.
Gutfreund said the latest collection shows Einstein to have been more involved with and warmer to his first family than previously thought. Letter from the boys showed "they understood he loved them," he said.
What happened to the Einstein boys, I wonder. What a liability to have in science class in high school!
And Einstein himself got a bit sick of his own theory:
The father of the theory of relativity apparently did not want to be bound up with it eternally. In a 1921 letter to Elsa, Einstein confided, "Soon I'll be fed up with the relativity. Even such a thing fades away when one is too involved with it."
Second childhood indeed
BBC NEWS | Health | Dolls 'help Alzheimer's patients'
A couple of months ago I had to make a short visit to a retirement village/nursing home type of place. When I was leaving, I noticed an elderly woman in the sitting area nursing a teddy bear wrapped in a blanket.
I later mentioned this to my mother who said that she knew that soft toys were often used by nursing homes residents (or at least the ones with dementia).
The study above shows how important that such toys can have with dementia patients. "Second childhood" is a more accurate phrase than I had previously realised.
A couple of months ago I had to make a short visit to a retirement village/nursing home type of place. When I was leaving, I noticed an elderly woman in the sitting area nursing a teddy bear wrapped in a blanket.
I later mentioned this to my mother who said that she knew that soft toys were often used by nursing homes residents (or at least the ones with dementia).
The study above shows how important that such toys can have with dementia patients. "Second childhood" is a more accurate phrase than I had previously realised.
The always irritating Phillip Adams
Ethics the issue, not proclivities | Phillip Adams | The Australian
My very first post in this blog was about Phillip Adams "outing" Graham Kennedy on his radio show, while Kennedy was still alive. Adam's studio guest, Kennedy's long time close friend Noelene Brown, was invited by Adams to talk about this, and (to her credit) she flatly refused, saying it was a very private matter for Graham and she was not comfortable talking about it.
Mind you, Adams made it clear that he thought highly of Kennedy. He just seems to have a complete blind spot about respecting the right to privacy over the matter of sexuality. (Which is ironic considering that I recall one interview with Adams in which he explained how furious he was with media talk about his private life when he went through a divorce.)
Fast forward to today's Adams column (above.) Talk about disingenuous. While denying that Alan Jones' sexuality is important, and noting that that other media commentators (David Marr and Mike Carlton) had "distorted" the debate about Jone's biography by "outing" Jones, Adams then goes on to talk in detail about the aftermath of the "London incident" which was what originally brought Jone's sexuality into public discussion!
Adams even paints himself as something of a supporting hero, although it is hard to believe the teenage boy mentality that would lead Adams to send a message to Jones of the type he admits to:
Thus when an entire station was aghast at allegations of an incident in London I sent him a cheery message of support. Told him to keep his chin up. Said something Edna Everage-ish about British spunk.
(Adams says that Jones subsequently visited Adams home to explain the incident, so maybe Jones didn't take offence. I still wonder what others think of Adam's level of maturity, and would indeed like to see a biography of him.)
Again, Adams is completing ignoring any concept of a right to privacy, and in the process takes the opportunity of praising himself as the hero for being the one who wants society to better accept homosexuality. What a jerk.
My very first post in this blog was about Phillip Adams "outing" Graham Kennedy on his radio show, while Kennedy was still alive. Adam's studio guest, Kennedy's long time close friend Noelene Brown, was invited by Adams to talk about this, and (to her credit) she flatly refused, saying it was a very private matter for Graham and she was not comfortable talking about it.
Mind you, Adams made it clear that he thought highly of Kennedy. He just seems to have a complete blind spot about respecting the right to privacy over the matter of sexuality. (Which is ironic considering that I recall one interview with Adams in which he explained how furious he was with media talk about his private life when he went through a divorce.)
Fast forward to today's Adams column (above.) Talk about disingenuous. While denying that Alan Jones' sexuality is important, and noting that that other media commentators (David Marr and Mike Carlton) had "distorted" the debate about Jone's biography by "outing" Jones, Adams then goes on to talk in detail about the aftermath of the "London incident" which was what originally brought Jone's sexuality into public discussion!
Adams even paints himself as something of a supporting hero, although it is hard to believe the teenage boy mentality that would lead Adams to send a message to Jones of the type he admits to:
Thus when an entire station was aghast at allegations of an incident in London I sent him a cheery message of support. Told him to keep his chin up. Said something Edna Everage-ish about British spunk.
(Adams says that Jones subsequently visited Adams home to explain the incident, so maybe Jones didn't take offence. I still wonder what others think of Adam's level of maturity, and would indeed like to see a biography of him.)
Again, Adams is completing ignoring any concept of a right to privacy, and in the process takes the opportunity of praising himself as the hero for being the one who wants society to better accept homosexuality. What a jerk.
Political Theatre
Take a note: it won't help Costello at all - Opinion - smh.com.au
Nothing much to say about Howard/Costello. All part of the political theatre, and not very edifying. If politicians did not spend so much time on internal party maneuvering they could devote a lot more time to policy and things that matter to their constituents.
As Gerard Henderson notes in his column above:
The fact is that there are few genuine friendships in politics - for the obvious reason that politicians are involved in a continuing contest for the top job.
Maybe true but kind of sad.
Nothing much to say about Howard/Costello. All part of the political theatre, and not very edifying. If politicians did not spend so much time on internal party maneuvering they could devote a lot more time to policy and things that matter to their constituents.
As Gerard Henderson notes in his column above:
The fact is that there are few genuine friendships in politics - for the obvious reason that politicians are involved in a continuing contest for the top job.
Maybe true but kind of sad.
Now for something completely different: yowies, UFOs and bad smells
Yowieland
See the link for a Fortean Times article on yowie sightings in Australia. (For the foreign reader, a yowie is Australia's version of bigfoot.)
I have never had much interest in yowie stories, but one thing that interests me about them is the association of the beast with a foul smell. This is because when I was about 19, an acquaintance with whom I had sometimes been camping (in a group) in bush locations around South East Queensland told me that he had gone camping (with one or two other mates, I forget) and had been frightened by loud crunching sounds in the undergrowth in the middle of the night. What disturbed him most was the intense foul smell that he said accompanied the sounds. It was the smell in particular that make him frightened, and convinced him it was not just some sleepless kangaroo or other mundane explanation.
He was an odd character, but one that I would describe as pragmatic and not given to fantasy. I guess the belief that yowies smell bad might have been around generally then; I seem to recall that it was the first time that I had heard of it, and it was only later that I read of other people's accounts that did indeed mention the smell.
If scary crunchy sounds are caused by other animals (and I guess something as mundane as a cow or deer would make heaps of sound,) I am not sure what large (or small) animal in Australia is routinely accompanied by a bad smell. It is this relatively minor aspect of the story that makes it more convincing.
Interestingly, bad sulphurous type smells have been associated with paranormal phenomena of all kinds, even UFO's. (There are some who think yowies, bigfoot and other strange creatures are visitors from another dimension, hence the connection with the paranormal.)
I remember, again when I was about 19, glancing through a book on the interesting Kaikoura UFO sightings of 1978 by a journalist who was on the airplane. I seem to recall that he mentioned that after the incident, for several weeks at least, he would unexpectedly notice sulfurous smells around him. (I think he said it seemed the smell was on his skin, but it is a long time ago that I was furtively looking at the book in a shop.) At the time, I remember thinking that he was a bit of a nutter for drawing this connection. Perhaps I was a little unfair. (I also know that many people think it was squid boats lights that the planes were misidentifying. I don't know; I haven't read much about it to have a firm opinion.)
It does seem odd to me, though, for any modern story of UFOs (which most people have thought are just advanced technology) to be linked with a smell that a few centuries ago would have been taken to be evidence of demonic association.
All part of life's interesting oddities.
See the link for a Fortean Times article on yowie sightings in Australia. (For the foreign reader, a yowie is Australia's version of bigfoot.)
I have never had much interest in yowie stories, but one thing that interests me about them is the association of the beast with a foul smell. This is because when I was about 19, an acquaintance with whom I had sometimes been camping (in a group) in bush locations around South East Queensland told me that he had gone camping (with one or two other mates, I forget) and had been frightened by loud crunching sounds in the undergrowth in the middle of the night. What disturbed him most was the intense foul smell that he said accompanied the sounds. It was the smell in particular that make him frightened, and convinced him it was not just some sleepless kangaroo or other mundane explanation.
He was an odd character, but one that I would describe as pragmatic and not given to fantasy. I guess the belief that yowies smell bad might have been around generally then; I seem to recall that it was the first time that I had heard of it, and it was only later that I read of other people's accounts that did indeed mention the smell.
If scary crunchy sounds are caused by other animals (and I guess something as mundane as a cow or deer would make heaps of sound,) I am not sure what large (or small) animal in Australia is routinely accompanied by a bad smell. It is this relatively minor aspect of the story that makes it more convincing.
Interestingly, bad sulphurous type smells have been associated with paranormal phenomena of all kinds, even UFO's. (There are some who think yowies, bigfoot and other strange creatures are visitors from another dimension, hence the connection with the paranormal.)
I remember, again when I was about 19, glancing through a book on the interesting Kaikoura UFO sightings of 1978 by a journalist who was on the airplane. I seem to recall that he mentioned that after the incident, for several weeks at least, he would unexpectedly notice sulfurous smells around him. (I think he said it seemed the smell was on his skin, but it is a long time ago that I was furtively looking at the book in a shop.) At the time, I remember thinking that he was a bit of a nutter for drawing this connection. Perhaps I was a little unfair. (I also know that many people think it was squid boats lights that the planes were misidentifying. I don't know; I haven't read much about it to have a firm opinion.)
It does seem odd to me, though, for any modern story of UFOs (which most people have thought are just advanced technology) to be linked with a smell that a few centuries ago would have been taken to be evidence of demonic association.
All part of life's interesting oddities.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Kids today
man of lettuce: Kidults
A worrying story over at Man of Lettuce about some teen girls from families with more money than sense.
A worrying story over at Man of Lettuce about some teen girls from families with more money than sense.
Imre on the gullible
Fellow travellers' tales | Features | The Australian
Interesting story by Imre Salusinszky on a conference looking at the phenomena of the Australian academic "fellow travellers" who went to the Soviet Union and loved what they saw.
I like this line best:
As for McAuley, Tasmanian critic Cassandra Pybus found his anti-communism such a puzzle in her 1999 book, The Devil and James McAuley that she was forced to put it all down to suppressed homosexual impulses.
Obviously.
Interesting story by Imre Salusinszky on a conference looking at the phenomena of the Australian academic "fellow travellers" who went to the Soviet Union and loved what they saw.
I like this line best:
As for McAuley, Tasmanian critic Cassandra Pybus found his anti-communism such a puzzle in her 1999 book, The Devil and James McAuley that she was forced to put it all down to suppressed homosexual impulses.
Obviously.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
An interesting test for hidden dimensions
New Scientist SPACE - Breaking News - Mini solar system could reveal hidden dimensions
I wonder, do readers like the way I can jump from talking crap (see last post) to theoretical physics?
Anyhow, the story above proposes an slightly odd sounding experiment to test for hidden dimensions. (Build a tiny version of a solar system and run it in space.) Neat.
I wonder, do readers like the way I can jump from talking crap (see last post) to theoretical physics?
Anyhow, the story above proposes an slightly odd sounding experiment to test for hidden dimensions. (Build a tiny version of a solar system and run it in space.) Neat.
Toilet humour to start the week
Foreign Correspondent - 04/07/2006: India - Untouchables
For those who missed last week's Foreign Correspondent, the link above is to a transcript of the story on toilets in India. (Or more particularly, about the lack of toilets there.)
Some extracts:
BORMANN: It’s staggering that in a country of one billion people 80 percent don’t have a toilet and most in cities and towns aren’t connected to a sewage system anyway. That’s eight hundred million people going in the open in rivers, under bridges, anywhere they might hope to get some privacy.
The footage showed that indeed there is little privacy there. Not much sign of toilet paper for the poor masses either.
The story showed the undertouchable woman whose job it was to clean out the "toilets" in some houses. These were accessed from an external hatch, with the poor woman covering the poop with some dust, putting it in a bucket, then going a short distance and putting in an open running gutter/drain in the street!
Oddly enough, said a woman from a charity that specifically is all about building toilets:
It’s not that this is a poor man’s problem, in many places people have the money to build houses but they do not think it necessary to create a toilet or to construct a toilet.
I don't mean to sound too impolite, but compared to the rest of the world, it's kinda taking a long time for this idea to catch on , isn't it?
The story also featured an odd man in a toilet museum. His funniest line was:
The day you give a clean toilet to a lady she will never go on the road to do this thing.
I'm pretty sure any man will go for the toilet over using the river, too.
India in many respects sounds a very interesting place to visit. I assume that smell is not one of them, though.
For those who missed last week's Foreign Correspondent, the link above is to a transcript of the story on toilets in India. (Or more particularly, about the lack of toilets there.)
Some extracts:
BORMANN: It’s staggering that in a country of one billion people 80 percent don’t have a toilet and most in cities and towns aren’t connected to a sewage system anyway. That’s eight hundred million people going in the open in rivers, under bridges, anywhere they might hope to get some privacy.
The footage showed that indeed there is little privacy there. Not much sign of toilet paper for the poor masses either.
The story showed the undertouchable woman whose job it was to clean out the "toilets" in some houses. These were accessed from an external hatch, with the poor woman covering the poop with some dust, putting it in a bucket, then going a short distance and putting in an open running gutter/drain in the street!
Oddly enough, said a woman from a charity that specifically is all about building toilets:
It’s not that this is a poor man’s problem, in many places people have the money to build houses but they do not think it necessary to create a toilet or to construct a toilet.
I don't mean to sound too impolite, but compared to the rest of the world, it's kinda taking a long time for this idea to catch on , isn't it?
The story also featured an odd man in a toilet museum. His funniest line was:
The day you give a clean toilet to a lady she will never go on the road to do this thing.
I'm pretty sure any man will go for the toilet over using the river, too.
India in many respects sounds a very interesting place to visit. I assume that smell is not one of them, though.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Islamophobia and The Guardian
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Out of a cycle of ignorance
The link is to a Guardian column by American John Esposito, in which he complains about Western Islamophobia.
I don't have time to double check his take on the recent polling of Muslim nations, but I do recommend the reader's comments following the article for some very strong counterarguments. I like "Ryans" post in particular, which is a bit too long to copy here.
The link is to a Guardian column by American John Esposito, in which he complains about Western Islamophobia.
I don't have time to double check his take on the recent polling of Muslim nations, but I do recommend the reader's comments following the article for some very strong counterarguments. I like "Ryans" post in particular, which is a bit too long to copy here.
Rats supporting conservatives, again
news @ nature.com-Rats taking cannabis get taste for heroin-Study suggests cannabis-users may be vulnerable to harder drugs.
Here we go again. Nothing terribly conclusive about the above work, but yet again a case of drug research seemingly coming round to validate old fuddy-duddy conservative's long held suspicions about marijuana:
Neuroscientists have found that rats are more likely to get hooked on heroin if they have previously been given cannabis. The studies suggest a biological mechanism — at least in rats — for the much-publicized effect of cannabis as a 'gateway' to harder drugs.
The discovery hints that the brain system that produces pleasurable sensations when exposed to heroin may be 'primed' by earlier exposure to cannabis, say researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, who carried out the study.
I note that one site criticises the report, but on some fairly spurious grounds:
But the article did not note that the problem with the “gateway theory” is that the vast majority of cannabis users never try harder drugs. While most illegal drug users start with the most widely available illegal drug — marijuana — most marijuana users start and stop with cannabis. Some 50 percent of high school students try marijuana before graduation, but just eight percent try cocaine, six percent try methamphetamine and less than one percent try heroin. This is why the Institute of Medicine, in a 1999 report on the use of marijuana as medicine, gave no credence to the gateway idea.
In fact, the news@nature report does talk about the role of social issues when you talk of "gateway drug". The point of the study was clearly stated as this:
There has long been a debate about whether exposure to drugs such as nicotine or marijuana might lead to harder habits. Many argue that the most important factors in the equation are social ones: people who get one drug from a dealer are probably more inclined to try another. But researchers are still interested to know whether there is any physiological effect that might additionally predispose users of so-called soft drugs to harder-drug addiction.
Fair enough. Seems to me to not be too much point in being nitpicky about what exactly the "gateway theory" means, if studies do confirm use of cannibis means greater addiction to harder drugs if you try them. (Even if it is only social reasons as to why you have the opportunity to try them.)
UPDATE: Futurepundit's post on this story points out that it should be no surprise. Early alcohol use is a clearly related to increased alcoholism in future too:
In results that echo earlier studies, of those individuals who began drinking before age 14, 47 percent experienced dependence at some point, vs. 9 percent of those who began drinking at age 21 or older. In general, each additional year earlier than 21 that a respondent began to drink, the greater the odds that he or she would develop alcohol dependence at some point in life. While one quarter of all drinkers in the survey started drinking by age 16, nearly half (46 percent) of drinkers who developed alcohol dependence began drinking at age 16 or younger.
Here we go again. Nothing terribly conclusive about the above work, but yet again a case of drug research seemingly coming round to validate old fuddy-duddy conservative's long held suspicions about marijuana:
Neuroscientists have found that rats are more likely to get hooked on heroin if they have previously been given cannabis. The studies suggest a biological mechanism — at least in rats — for the much-publicized effect of cannabis as a 'gateway' to harder drugs.
The discovery hints that the brain system that produces pleasurable sensations when exposed to heroin may be 'primed' by earlier exposure to cannabis, say researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, who carried out the study.
I note that one site criticises the report, but on some fairly spurious grounds:
But the article did not note that the problem with the “gateway theory” is that the vast majority of cannabis users never try harder drugs. While most illegal drug users start with the most widely available illegal drug — marijuana — most marijuana users start and stop with cannabis. Some 50 percent of high school students try marijuana before graduation, but just eight percent try cocaine, six percent try methamphetamine and less than one percent try heroin. This is why the Institute of Medicine, in a 1999 report on the use of marijuana as medicine, gave no credence to the gateway idea.
In fact, the news@nature report does talk about the role of social issues when you talk of "gateway drug". The point of the study was clearly stated as this:
There has long been a debate about whether exposure to drugs such as nicotine or marijuana might lead to harder habits. Many argue that the most important factors in the equation are social ones: people who get one drug from a dealer are probably more inclined to try another. But researchers are still interested to know whether there is any physiological effect that might additionally predispose users of so-called soft drugs to harder-drug addiction.
Fair enough. Seems to me to not be too much point in being nitpicky about what exactly the "gateway theory" means, if studies do confirm use of cannibis means greater addiction to harder drugs if you try them. (Even if it is only social reasons as to why you have the opportunity to try them.)
UPDATE: Futurepundit's post on this story points out that it should be no surprise. Early alcohol use is a clearly related to increased alcoholism in future too:
In results that echo earlier studies, of those individuals who began drinking before age 14, 47 percent experienced dependence at some point, vs. 9 percent of those who began drinking at age 21 or older. In general, each additional year earlier than 21 that a respondent began to drink, the greater the odds that he or she would develop alcohol dependence at some point in life. While one quarter of all drinkers in the survey started drinking by age 16, nearly half (46 percent) of drinkers who developed alcohol dependence began drinking at age 16 or younger.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Hitchens time again
Cause and Effect - It's time to stop blaming the good guys for problems in Iraq. By Christopher Hitchens
It's been a little while since Hitchen's last Slate column on Iraq. The new one is pretty good though. (It even has a bit of Bush bashing to keep everyone happy.)
The final paragraph though is good:
Whatever its disagreements over the initial confrontation may have been, the international community has a moral and legal obligation, expressed in a major U.N. resolution, to assist in the reconstruction of Iraq and to support its elected government. This cannot happen while serious powers like Russia use even their own victims to make the wrong point. And it cannot happen while so much of the intellectual and media life of this country is infected with Putinism: a nasty combination of the cynical with the unrealistic.
It's been a little while since Hitchen's last Slate column on Iraq. The new one is pretty good though. (It even has a bit of Bush bashing to keep everyone happy.)
The final paragraph though is good:
Whatever its disagreements over the initial confrontation may have been, the international community has a moral and legal obligation, expressed in a major U.N. resolution, to assist in the reconstruction of Iraq and to support its elected government. This cannot happen while serious powers like Russia use even their own victims to make the wrong point. And it cannot happen while so much of the intellectual and media life of this country is infected with Putinism: a nasty combination of the cynical with the unrealistic.
What a laugh
Beazley against history revival | News | The Australian
Beazley and the State education ministers do nothing to help their credibility by their poo-pooing (or should that be "pooh-poohing"? - my education has gaps) reaction to the Federal proposal to get history back to some fundamentals. Teachers being so highly unionised, what else can the Labor side say?:
KIM Beazley has dismissed the push by federal Education Minister Julie Bishop to reinstate the teaching of traditional Australian history in schools as an "elite preoccupation"...
South Australian Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith said: "We believe the necessary facts in a child's education should be determined by teachers and experts in the field, not politicians."...
Tasmanian Education Minister David Bartlett said he was "horrified" by the proposal and added: "If this is a stalking horse for John Howard's personal Australian history being taught inschools then I am not interested."
What a hoot! Problem is, I strongly suspect that most of the public would be well on side with the Federal government on this one, and don't like teachers setting the agenda (or coming up with unintelligible methods of reporting progress). It's just that the educational academics (and many teachers) don't realise it. Or think they know what is best anyway.
Beazley and the State education ministers do nothing to help their credibility by their poo-pooing (or should that be "pooh-poohing"? - my education has gaps) reaction to the Federal proposal to get history back to some fundamentals. Teachers being so highly unionised, what else can the Labor side say?:
KIM Beazley has dismissed the push by federal Education Minister Julie Bishop to reinstate the teaching of traditional Australian history in schools as an "elite preoccupation"...
South Australian Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith said: "We believe the necessary facts in a child's education should be determined by teachers and experts in the field, not politicians."...
Tasmanian Education Minister David Bartlett said he was "horrified" by the proposal and added: "If this is a stalking horse for John Howard's personal Australian history being taught inschools then I am not interested."
What a hoot! Problem is, I strongly suspect that most of the public would be well on side with the Federal government on this one, and don't like teachers setting the agenda (or coming up with unintelligible methods of reporting progress). It's just that the educational academics (and many teachers) don't realise it. Or think they know what is best anyway.
Palestinian apologist ignores rockets
'Dispute' or 'occupation?' - Opinion - theage.com.au
The Age has a staff writer today come to Hamas' defence. Interesting that while the capture of CPL Shalit is mentioned (in a way to suggest that it is wrong to blame the Palestinian Authority for that), the continual rain of missiles from Gaza into Israel since the withdrawal from Gaza is not.
Question: why should Israel recognize the Hamas "government " when it acts as if it has no intention of policing itself to prevent terrorist attacks from Gaza into Israel?
That the "man in the street" in Gaza suffers to varying degrees from Israel's response is not really in doubt. But why don't they take the line that they have to show real self governance to prevent the counterproductive provocation? How hard would it be for a "real" government anywhere else in the world to have patrols to see where the missiles are being launched from, or built?
The column also says:
Hamas, meanwhile, has limited itself to de facto and not de jure recognition of Israel because it understands that the sovereignty which stands in need of recognition is not Israeli but Palestinian. Or, to put it another way, the question is not "is Israel?" but " where is Israel?"
To be honest, I don't quite follow what Hamas (or elements of it) have said recently about "de facto" recognition of Israel. But, as far as I know, no one is questioning that those towns now receiving missiles from Gaza are definitely Israeli towns.
UPDATE: for an opinion piece that does seem to talk realistically about the whole Palestinian problem, see this one in the Jerusalem Post. An extract:
I still believe what I've always believed - that Israel has no right to rule the Palestinians, that ruling them is bad, not good, for Israeli security, so it's both immoral and impractical for Israel to gobble up the only territory the Palestinians have for their own.
However, the belief I've lost is that the Palestinians are a basically rational, reasonable nation, that they can be talked into putting down their weapons and making peace with Israel - if not out of goodwill, than out of their own self-interest.
What I believe now is that only Israeli military deterrence, which will no doubt require the periodic use of force, can get the Palestinians to stop fighting.
I strongly recommend it. Pity it ends on such a pessimistic note, though.
The Age has a staff writer today come to Hamas' defence. Interesting that while the capture of CPL Shalit is mentioned (in a way to suggest that it is wrong to blame the Palestinian Authority for that), the continual rain of missiles from Gaza into Israel since the withdrawal from Gaza is not.
Question: why should Israel recognize the Hamas "government " when it acts as if it has no intention of policing itself to prevent terrorist attacks from Gaza into Israel?
That the "man in the street" in Gaza suffers to varying degrees from Israel's response is not really in doubt. But why don't they take the line that they have to show real self governance to prevent the counterproductive provocation? How hard would it be for a "real" government anywhere else in the world to have patrols to see where the missiles are being launched from, or built?
The column also says:
Hamas, meanwhile, has limited itself to de facto and not de jure recognition of Israel because it understands that the sovereignty which stands in need of recognition is not Israeli but Palestinian. Or, to put it another way, the question is not "is Israel?" but " where is Israel?"
To be honest, I don't quite follow what Hamas (or elements of it) have said recently about "de facto" recognition of Israel. But, as far as I know, no one is questioning that those towns now receiving missiles from Gaza are definitely Israeli towns.
UPDATE: for an opinion piece that does seem to talk realistically about the whole Palestinian problem, see this one in the Jerusalem Post. An extract:
I still believe what I've always believed - that Israel has no right to rule the Palestinians, that ruling them is bad, not good, for Israeli security, so it's both immoral and impractical for Israel to gobble up the only territory the Palestinians have for their own.
However, the belief I've lost is that the Palestinians are a basically rational, reasonable nation, that they can be talked into putting down their weapons and making peace with Israel - if not out of goodwill, than out of their own self-interest.
What I believe now is that only Israeli military deterrence, which will no doubt require the periodic use of force, can get the Palestinians to stop fighting.
I strongly recommend it. Pity it ends on such a pessimistic note, though.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Not smart Part II
IAF strikes school, Internal Ministry building in Gaza | Jerusalem Post
As a sign that at least certain elements in Gaza do not want any form of quick resolution to the crisis there, an even longer range missile is shot into Israel:
The attacks came after a Kassam rocket traversed a record range of 12 kilometers and landed Tuesday night for the first time in the heart of Ashkelon, sending the city's 120,000 residents into a state of fear that their city would be bombarded by rockets like Sderot has since the disengagement last summer.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert termed the Kassam attack a "grave escalation" for which Hamas is responsible and for which there will be far-reaching ramifications.
As a sign that at least certain elements in Gaza do not want any form of quick resolution to the crisis there, an even longer range missile is shot into Israel:
The attacks came after a Kassam rocket traversed a record range of 12 kilometers and landed Tuesday night for the first time in the heart of Ashkelon, sending the city's 120,000 residents into a state of fear that their city would be bombarded by rockets like Sderot has since the disengagement last summer.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert termed the Kassam attack a "grave escalation" for which Hamas is responsible and for which there will be far-reaching ramifications.
Taxing airplane gas in Europe
Air fares 'to double' as Europe votes for green tax - World - Times Online
From the above:
AIR passengers will be charged up to £40 extra for a return ticket within Europe to pay for the environmental impact of their journeys, under plans approved by the European Parliament yesterday.
MEPs voted in favour of the “immediate introduction” of a tax on jet fuel for flights within the 25 member states of the EU. The charge would double the cost of millions of budget airline flights.
This is going to go over a treat with the public.
Some more:
Andrew Sentance, BA’s head of environmental affairs, admitted that aviation could account for almost half of Britain’s total CO2 emissions by 2050, compared with 6 per cent today.
Something tells me that such figures are likely to be rubbery in the extreme.
Meanwhile, what is to be done about China and India?
From the above:
AIR passengers will be charged up to £40 extra for a return ticket within Europe to pay for the environmental impact of their journeys, under plans approved by the European Parliament yesterday.
MEPs voted in favour of the “immediate introduction” of a tax on jet fuel for flights within the 25 member states of the EU. The charge would double the cost of millions of budget airline flights.
This is going to go over a treat with the public.
Some more:
Andrew Sentance, BA’s head of environmental affairs, admitted that aviation could account for almost half of Britain’s total CO2 emissions by 2050, compared with 6 per cent today.
Something tells me that such figures are likely to be rubbery in the extreme.
Meanwhile, what is to be done about China and India?
Death of a parapsychologist
Guardian Unlimited | Obituaries | John Beloff
Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of parapsychology would have heard of the name of John Beloff. He's now off finding out first hand if there is life after death.
From his obituary above comes this piece of irony:
By the time Beloff visited Rhine, he was already acquiring a reputation as a psi-inhibitory experimenter - that is, an experimenter whose presence seemed to discourage the appearance of evidence for psychic functioning. None of his experiments yielded positive results.
He sounds just the right sort of person for this line of inquiry, though:
In an area where passions run high and opinions too often are guided by prejudice, Beloff relied on data and reason. He had no theistic inclinations; and always demonstrated an even-handed approach to the material and to opposing points of view. So although he never overtly encountered the paranormal first-hand, and although he never succeeded in obtaining evidence for psychic functioning in his own experiments, he saw no choice but to accept at least some of the evidence for ESP, PK, and survival of death.
Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of parapsychology would have heard of the name of John Beloff. He's now off finding out first hand if there is life after death.
From his obituary above comes this piece of irony:
By the time Beloff visited Rhine, he was already acquiring a reputation as a psi-inhibitory experimenter - that is, an experimenter whose presence seemed to discourage the appearance of evidence for psychic functioning. None of his experiments yielded positive results.
He sounds just the right sort of person for this line of inquiry, though:
In an area where passions run high and opinions too often are guided by prejudice, Beloff relied on data and reason. He had no theistic inclinations; and always demonstrated an even-handed approach to the material and to opposing points of view. So although he never overtly encountered the paranormal first-hand, and although he never succeeded in obtaining evidence for psychic functioning in his own experiments, he saw no choice but to accept at least some of the evidence for ESP, PK, and survival of death.
Shuttle sightings
Thank God the shuttle launched successfully. A 4 July takeoff disaster would have attracted no end of commentary on the dire symbolism for the United States.
In Brisbane, there would seem to be many morning opportunities to see the shuttle in the next few days, and one evening opportunity low to the north. From the Nasa website comes this list for Brisbane (more details are at the site):
SHUTTLE
Wed Jul 12/05:44 AM
Thr Jul 13/06:05 AM
Fri Jul 14/04:55 AM
Sat Jul 15/05:17 AM
Sun Jul 16/05:39 AM
Tue Jul 18/04:52 AM
Wed Jul 19/06:20 PM
It is good to show it to young children.
In Brisbane, there would seem to be many morning opportunities to see the shuttle in the next few days, and one evening opportunity low to the north. From the Nasa website comes this list for Brisbane (more details are at the site):
SHUTTLE
Wed Jul 12/05:44 AM
Thr Jul 13/06:05 AM
Fri Jul 14/04:55 AM
Sat Jul 15/05:17 AM
Sun Jul 16/05:39 AM
Tue Jul 18/04:52 AM
Wed Jul 19/06:20 PM
It is good to show it to young children.
The Alan Jones affair
Disputed book 'may out Jones' - Top stories - Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au
Well, Mike Carlton gives voice to the reasons that everyone must have already suspected were behind concerns that Master's biography of Alan Jones will attract a defamation action. (That sentence will make absolutely no sense to a reader from overseas.)
I have just a few comments:
1. Defenders of ABC left wing bias often allege that it is just balancing up the right wing media bias as demonstrated by Alan Jone's power. But, surely all moderately thoughtful right wingers, who generally hold down jobs and don't sit around listening to Sydney daytime radio, don't find Jones persuasive or very likeable, do they? And if he is seen to have political influence on "struggle town" listeners, aren't they are exactly the type who virtually never listen to or watch the ABC to get the counterbalance to the Alan Jones bias.
2. How anyone finds him even likeable as a media personality has long been beyond my understanding.
3. There is little explanation in the media of the point that in legal actions, the winning party is generally awarded costs (that is, they are to be paid by the loser). However, the way legal costs are done means that there is always a significant percentage of the total costs to the client that will not be recoverable from the loser. As a rough rule of thumb, I think this can be around 30% of the total costs, but probably it depends from case to case and in which jurisdiction. I imagine that if you have a bunch of QC's involved it might be higher, but I am just guessing.
Therefore it is not inconsistent to have a legal opinion saying that the ABC should win a defamation action, but still to have the commercial concern about how much money may be lost in defending it. As I take it that profit from Australian published books is not all that high (given the limited market), it seems reasonable grounds for concern for a commerical enterprise.
4. That said, it is easy for the likes of Phillip Adams to paint this as a case of political appointments to the ABC board acting politically. It would be good if they could defend themselves of that charge. (Does anyone know what the 3 most controversial members of the board think of Jones anyway?)
5. If the book is published by someone, which seems likely, then no one has been denied the dubious pleasure of reading the biography anyone. (And Chris Masters can stop moaning as if all his work is for nought.)
UPDATE: Oh. Keith Windshuttle has denied he was involved. Good.
Well, Mike Carlton gives voice to the reasons that everyone must have already suspected were behind concerns that Master's biography of Alan Jones will attract a defamation action. (That sentence will make absolutely no sense to a reader from overseas.)
I have just a few comments:
1. Defenders of ABC left wing bias often allege that it is just balancing up the right wing media bias as demonstrated by Alan Jone's power. But, surely all moderately thoughtful right wingers, who generally hold down jobs and don't sit around listening to Sydney daytime radio, don't find Jones persuasive or very likeable, do they? And if he is seen to have political influence on "struggle town" listeners, aren't they are exactly the type who virtually never listen to or watch the ABC to get the counterbalance to the Alan Jones bias.
2. How anyone finds him even likeable as a media personality has long been beyond my understanding.
3. There is little explanation in the media of the point that in legal actions, the winning party is generally awarded costs (that is, they are to be paid by the loser). However, the way legal costs are done means that there is always a significant percentage of the total costs to the client that will not be recoverable from the loser. As a rough rule of thumb, I think this can be around 30% of the total costs, but probably it depends from case to case and in which jurisdiction. I imagine that if you have a bunch of QC's involved it might be higher, but I am just guessing.
Therefore it is not inconsistent to have a legal opinion saying that the ABC should win a defamation action, but still to have the commercial concern about how much money may be lost in defending it. As I take it that profit from Australian published books is not all that high (given the limited market), it seems reasonable grounds for concern for a commerical enterprise.
4. That said, it is easy for the likes of Phillip Adams to paint this as a case of political appointments to the ABC board acting politically. It would be good if they could defend themselves of that charge. (Does anyone know what the 3 most controversial members of the board think of Jones anyway?)
5. If the book is published by someone, which seems likely, then no one has been denied the dubious pleasure of reading the biography anyone. (And Chris Masters can stop moaning as if all his work is for nought.)
UPDATE: Oh. Keith Windshuttle has denied he was involved. Good.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
The "rat community" gets uptight
1,000 pet rodents euthanized; rat lovers furious
From San Francisco comes a story which uses political language in a context that just makes me giggle. (There's also a twist that no journalist could resist):
Rat lovers were furious Wednesday that a Petaluma animal shelter had euthanized more than 1,000 of the rodents taken last week from a man who had been hoarding the creatures inside his home.
Roger Dier, 67, was cited for misdemeanor animal cruelty last week after animal control officers found hordes of squealing rats inside his dingy one-bedroom house in Petaluma. Nancee Tavares, the city's Animal Services manager, had promised to find homes for as many rats as possible but admitted Wednesday that some 1,020 of them had to be put down. ...
Rat fanciers, who had formed an e-mail chain called "petalumarats" in an attempt to find homes for the rodents, were horrified. The shelter was bombarded Wednesday with angry phone calls and e-mails. Most members of the rat lobby felt they had been misled.
"This is an unspeakable injustice to those rats who deserved better," Phyllis Mason, a self-described rat lover, wrote in an e-mail. "Why didn't the Petaluma Animal Shelter give us a chance to help? ..."
Tina Bird, of Campbell, said the rat community was in the process of mobilizing when the rodents were killed.
"Maybe they would have been better advised to leave the animals in their horrible conditions until we, the rat community, had a few days to get moving," she wrote in an e-mail...
Now for the odd connection:
She said Dier, a convicted armed robber who first gained notoriety when his home in Southern California was used as a hideout for two men later convicted in the 1963 plot to kidnap the son and namesake of Rat Pack leader Frank Sinatra, didn't seem like a bad guy, just a bit troubled.
"He's an intelligent man to talk to, but he smells like rat urine," Tavares said.
There are photos to the story too, if ever you wanted to see the effects of having a thousand rats lose in your house. (The rats themselves are pretty cute, in my books.)
From San Francisco comes a story which uses political language in a context that just makes me giggle. (There's also a twist that no journalist could resist):
Rat lovers were furious Wednesday that a Petaluma animal shelter had euthanized more than 1,000 of the rodents taken last week from a man who had been hoarding the creatures inside his home.
Roger Dier, 67, was cited for misdemeanor animal cruelty last week after animal control officers found hordes of squealing rats inside his dingy one-bedroom house in Petaluma. Nancee Tavares, the city's Animal Services manager, had promised to find homes for as many rats as possible but admitted Wednesday that some 1,020 of them had to be put down. ...
Rat fanciers, who had formed an e-mail chain called "petalumarats" in an attempt to find homes for the rodents, were horrified. The shelter was bombarded Wednesday with angry phone calls and e-mails. Most members of the rat lobby felt they had been misled.
"This is an unspeakable injustice to those rats who deserved better," Phyllis Mason, a self-described rat lover, wrote in an e-mail. "Why didn't the Petaluma Animal Shelter give us a chance to help? ..."
Tina Bird, of Campbell, said the rat community was in the process of mobilizing when the rodents were killed.
"Maybe they would have been better advised to leave the animals in their horrible conditions until we, the rat community, had a few days to get moving," she wrote in an e-mail...
Now for the odd connection:
She said Dier, a convicted armed robber who first gained notoriety when his home in Southern California was used as a hideout for two men later convicted in the 1963 plot to kidnap the son and namesake of Rat Pack leader Frank Sinatra, didn't seem like a bad guy, just a bit troubled.
"He's an intelligent man to talk to, but he smells like rat urine," Tavares said.
There are photos to the story too, if ever you wanted to see the effects of having a thousand rats lose in your house. (The rats themselves are pretty cute, in my books.)
Too late for the Schiavo family now
news @ nature.com�-'Miracle recovery' shows brain's resilience - Man who 'awoke' after 19 years shows how nerve cells can regrow.
The article above seems highly relevant to the Schiavo case, but it is no use now:
The amazing recovery of a man who had spent almost two decades in a barely conscious state has revealed the brain's previously unrecognized powers of recovery.
Terry Wallis became a media star in 2003 when he emerged from the minimally conscious state (MCS) in which he had spent 19 years, since suffering severe brain damage in a motor accident. At the time, his 'miracle' recovery was a mystery. Researchers who have examined his brain now think that his emergence was due to painstaking regrowth of the affected areas that ultimately allowed him to regain some of his faculties....
Neurologists are reluctant to declare that PVS, the condition at the centre of the controversial debate over US sufferer Terri Schiavo, can ever be truly permanent. Earlier this year, researchers made the bizarre discovery that some PVS patients could be roused with a simple sleeping pill (see 'Sleeping pills offer wake-up call to vegetative patients').
But the tendency is to assume that the chances of recovery trail off with time, an assumption that will be overturned by the latest discovery, Laureys hopes. "That's the real message," he says.
Having said that, the article does not suggest that such remarkable recoveries are ever likely to be anything other than rare. However, if in the Schiavo case there were no issues with the cost of her treatment, and a family who wanted to be actively involved in caring for her, it does seem a pity that they were denied the chance to see if she could recover.
The article above seems highly relevant to the Schiavo case, but it is no use now:
The amazing recovery of a man who had spent almost two decades in a barely conscious state has revealed the brain's previously unrecognized powers of recovery.
Terry Wallis became a media star in 2003 when he emerged from the minimally conscious state (MCS) in which he had spent 19 years, since suffering severe brain damage in a motor accident. At the time, his 'miracle' recovery was a mystery. Researchers who have examined his brain now think that his emergence was due to painstaking regrowth of the affected areas that ultimately allowed him to regain some of his faculties....
Neurologists are reluctant to declare that PVS, the condition at the centre of the controversial debate over US sufferer Terri Schiavo, can ever be truly permanent. Earlier this year, researchers made the bizarre discovery that some PVS patients could be roused with a simple sleeping pill (see 'Sleeping pills offer wake-up call to vegetative patients').
But the tendency is to assume that the chances of recovery trail off with time, an assumption that will be overturned by the latest discovery, Laureys hopes. "That's the real message," he says.
Having said that, the article does not suggest that such remarkable recoveries are ever likely to be anything other than rare. However, if in the Schiavo case there were no issues with the cost of her treatment, and a family who wanted to be actively involved in caring for her, it does seem a pity that they were denied the chance to see if she could recover.
At least they are having the debate
Hewitt cool on Catholic leader's call for abortion inquiry - Health - Times Online
Britain shows good sense in at least having a debate about late term abortion limits. (It is also interesting that the Catholic Church is involved, but not in any hysterical sense.) In Australia, late term abortion has trouble even making the agenda.
One other thing of interest from the above article: it refers to there being about 200,000 abortions a year in Britain. That's with a population of about 60,000,000. In Australia, the figures for abortion are a bit rubbery, but seem to be around 100,000 on a population base one third that of Britain.
Why is our rate seemingly so much higher?
Britain shows good sense in at least having a debate about late term abortion limits. (It is also interesting that the Catholic Church is involved, but not in any hysterical sense.) In Australia, late term abortion has trouble even making the agenda.
One other thing of interest from the above article: it refers to there being about 200,000 abortions a year in Britain. That's with a population of about 60,000,000. In Australia, the figures for abortion are a bit rubbery, but seem to be around 100,000 on a population base one third that of Britain.
Why is our rate seemingly so much higher?
What counts as a "heatwave" in Britain
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Britain set for 'blistering' weekend
From the above:
Weather forecasters today predicted that a mini-heatwave would hit the UK over the next few days, with temperatures in southern England set to reach the low 30s.
Temperatures across the UK will rise over the weekend, with England expected to get most of the dry, clear weather. They are predicted to reach 30C tomorrow and 32C on Sunday and Monday in southern England.
Cloudier conditions are expected from the Midlands to the north, but temperatures are still likely to reach 25C in Scotland by Monday.
Paul Knightley, a forecaster at the PA WeatherCentre, said temperatures would be "blistering over the next few days". "Everyone should remember to drink plenty of water, use suncream and don't sit in the sun too long," he said.
Pathetic! If I lived there, I would be praying for global warming.
From the above:
Weather forecasters today predicted that a mini-heatwave would hit the UK over the next few days, with temperatures in southern England set to reach the low 30s.
Temperatures across the UK will rise over the weekend, with England expected to get most of the dry, clear weather. They are predicted to reach 30C tomorrow and 32C on Sunday and Monday in southern England.
Cloudier conditions are expected from the Midlands to the north, but temperatures are still likely to reach 25C in Scotland by Monday.
Paul Knightley, a forecaster at the PA WeatherCentre, said temperatures would be "blistering over the next few days". "Everyone should remember to drink plenty of water, use suncream and don't sit in the sun too long," he said.
Pathetic! If I lived there, I would be praying for global warming.
Krauthammer on the Gaza crisis
TIME.com - Remember What Happened Here
Charles Krauthammer always talks bluntly about the Middle East, and his column on the Gaza crisis summarises the situation well.
One snippet that is particularly interesting is this (on the reason that rocket attacks on Israel have continued after the pull out from Gaza):
The logic for those continued attacks is to be found in the so-called phase plan adopted in 1974 by the Palestine National Council in Cairo. Realizing that they would never be able to destroy Israel in one fell swoop, the Palestinians adopted a graduated plan to wipe out Israel. First, accept any territory given to them in any part of historic Palestine. Then, use that sanctuary to wage war until Israel is destroyed.
I wonder what Palestinian supporters have to say about that.
Charles Krauthammer always talks bluntly about the Middle East, and his column on the Gaza crisis summarises the situation well.
One snippet that is particularly interesting is this (on the reason that rocket attacks on Israel have continued after the pull out from Gaza):
The logic for those continued attacks is to be found in the so-called phase plan adopted in 1974 by the Palestine National Council in Cairo. Realizing that they would never be able to destroy Israel in one fell swoop, the Palestinians adopted a graduated plan to wipe out Israel. First, accept any territory given to them in any part of historic Palestine. Then, use that sanctuary to wage war until Israel is destroyed.
I wonder what Palestinian supporters have to say about that.
Monday, July 03, 2006
Mark Steyn (and me) on the Supreme Court
Court finds a right to jihad in the Constitution
In the article above, Steyn strongly attacks one element of the US Supreme Court decision against the military commission process (namely, the application of a part of the Geneva Conventions to a captured al Qaeda member.)
His basic argument is a summary of part of the dissenting judges' opinion, which is well worth reading in the original. An extract (which makes more sense if you read Steyn's article first):
The President's interpretation of Common Article 3 is reasonable and should be sustained. The conflict with al Qaeda is international in character in the sense that it is occurring in various nations around the globe. Thus, it is also "occurring in the territory of" more than "one of the High Contracting Parties." The Court [the majority, I think this means] does not dispute the President's judgments respecting the nature of our conflict with al Qaeda, nor does it suggest that the President's interpretation of Common Article 3 is implausible or foreclosed by the text of the treaty. Indeed, the Court concedes that Common Article 3 is principally concerned with "furnish[ing] minimal protection to rebels involved in ... a civil war," ante, at 68, precisely the type of conflict the President's interpretation envisions to be subject to Common Article 3. Instead, the Court, without acknowledging its duty to defer to the President, adopts its own, admittedly plausible, reading of Common Article 3. But where, as here, an ambiguous treaty provision ("not of an international character") is susceptible of two plausible, and reasonable, interpretations, our precedents require us to defer to the Executive's interpretation.
The Australian media was full of "Howard should embarrassed" commentary on this, with Michelle Grattan particularly harsh:
Howard claims he is not embarrassed by the American judgement. He should be. In retrospect (and for that matter, at the time), the Government's November 2003 statement accepting the military commissions looks craven.
Maybe it would if 3 Supreme Court judges had not agreed with Howard and Bush. There is no acknowledgement in Grattan's article that it was a 5/3 split decision. Yes of course that is still a "win", but split decisions (or at least close ones) mean the losing side has not lost face completely.
And I suspect that any non lawyer reading it can see that the dissenting judgement is far from implausible in its reasoning. It was also expressed in strong terms. Take this opening paragraph:
On December 30, 2005, Congress enacted the Detainee Treatment Act (DTA). It unambiguously provides that, as of that date, "no court, justice, or judge" shall have jurisdiction to consider the habeas application of a Guantanamo Bay detainee. Notwithstanding this plain directive, the Court today concludes that, on what it calls the statute's most natural reading, every "court, justice, or judge" before whom such a habeas application was pending on December 30 has jurisdiction to hear, consider, and render judgment on it. This conclusion is patently erroneous. And even if it were not, the jurisdiction supposedly retained should, in an exercise of sound equitable discretion, not be exercised.....
And from way further down, where they consider the majority's other arguments even if they are right on the jurisdiction to hear issue:
We are not engaged in a traditional battle with a nation-state, but with a worldwide, hydra-headed enemy, who lurks in the shadows conspiring to reproduce the atrocities of September 11, 2001, and who has boasted of sending suicide bombers into civilian gatherings, has proudly distributed videotapes of beheadings of civilian workers, and has tortured and dismembered captured American soldiers. But according to the plurality, when our Armed Forces capture those who are plotting terrorist atrocities like the bombing of the Khobar Towers, the bombing of the U. S. S. Cole, and the attacks of September 11--even if their plots are advanced to the very brink of fulfillment--our military cannot charge those criminals with any offense against the laws of war. Instead, our troops must catch the terrorists "redhanded," ante, at 48, in the midst of the attack itself, in order to bring them to justice. Not only is this conclusion fundamentally inconsistent with the cardinal principal of the law of war, namely protecting non-combatants, but it would sorely hamper the President's ability to confront and defeat a new and deadly enemy.
Of course, I am no expert on US law, but a reading of the dissenting judgement does give the impression that it was the majority that was pushing the interpretative envelope here, not the dissenters.
National Review's editorial on the decision is white hot with anger, and having looked at the case now, I can see why. The editorial seems very well argued to me.
In the article above, Steyn strongly attacks one element of the US Supreme Court decision against the military commission process (namely, the application of a part of the Geneva Conventions to a captured al Qaeda member.)
His basic argument is a summary of part of the dissenting judges' opinion, which is well worth reading in the original. An extract (which makes more sense if you read Steyn's article first):
The President's interpretation of Common Article 3 is reasonable and should be sustained. The conflict with al Qaeda is international in character in the sense that it is occurring in various nations around the globe. Thus, it is also "occurring in the territory of" more than "one of the High Contracting Parties." The Court [the majority, I think this means] does not dispute the President's judgments respecting the nature of our conflict with al Qaeda, nor does it suggest that the President's interpretation of Common Article 3 is implausible or foreclosed by the text of the treaty. Indeed, the Court concedes that Common Article 3 is principally concerned with "furnish[ing] minimal protection to rebels involved in ... a civil war," ante, at 68, precisely the type of conflict the President's interpretation envisions to be subject to Common Article 3. Instead, the Court, without acknowledging its duty to defer to the President, adopts its own, admittedly plausible, reading of Common Article 3. But where, as here, an ambiguous treaty provision ("not of an international character") is susceptible of two plausible, and reasonable, interpretations, our precedents require us to defer to the Executive's interpretation.
The Australian media was full of "Howard should embarrassed" commentary on this, with Michelle Grattan particularly harsh:
Howard claims he is not embarrassed by the American judgement. He should be. In retrospect (and for that matter, at the time), the Government's November 2003 statement accepting the military commissions looks craven.
Maybe it would if 3 Supreme Court judges had not agreed with Howard and Bush. There is no acknowledgement in Grattan's article that it was a 5/3 split decision. Yes of course that is still a "win", but split decisions (or at least close ones) mean the losing side has not lost face completely.
And I suspect that any non lawyer reading it can see that the dissenting judgement is far from implausible in its reasoning. It was also expressed in strong terms. Take this opening paragraph:
On December 30, 2005, Congress enacted the Detainee Treatment Act (DTA). It unambiguously provides that, as of that date, "no court, justice, or judge" shall have jurisdiction to consider the habeas application of a Guantanamo Bay detainee. Notwithstanding this plain directive, the Court today concludes that, on what it calls the statute's most natural reading, every "court, justice, or judge" before whom such a habeas application was pending on December 30 has jurisdiction to hear, consider, and render judgment on it. This conclusion is patently erroneous. And even if it were not, the jurisdiction supposedly retained should, in an exercise of sound equitable discretion, not be exercised.....
And from way further down, where they consider the majority's other arguments even if they are right on the jurisdiction to hear issue:
We are not engaged in a traditional battle with a nation-state, but with a worldwide, hydra-headed enemy, who lurks in the shadows conspiring to reproduce the atrocities of September 11, 2001, and who has boasted of sending suicide bombers into civilian gatherings, has proudly distributed videotapes of beheadings of civilian workers, and has tortured and dismembered captured American soldiers. But according to the plurality, when our Armed Forces capture those who are plotting terrorist atrocities like the bombing of the Khobar Towers, the bombing of the U. S. S. Cole, and the attacks of September 11--even if their plots are advanced to the very brink of fulfillment--our military cannot charge those criminals with any offense against the laws of war. Instead, our troops must catch the terrorists "redhanded," ante, at 48, in the midst of the attack itself, in order to bring them to justice. Not only is this conclusion fundamentally inconsistent with the cardinal principal of the law of war, namely protecting non-combatants, but it would sorely hamper the President's ability to confront and defeat a new and deadly enemy.
Of course, I am no expert on US law, but a reading of the dissenting judgement does give the impression that it was the majority that was pushing the interpretative envelope here, not the dissenters.
National Review's editorial on the decision is white hot with anger, and having looked at the case now, I can see why. The editorial seems very well argued to me.
Bashir helps ensure peaceful outcome (not)
Indonesian cleric: Israel is the enemy | Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post notes:
"Israel is the enemy of Allah," militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir told hundreds of members of the Muslim-based Crescent Star Party in the capital Jakarta. "That is why Indonesia should send holy warriors there."
The Jerusalem Post notes:
"Israel is the enemy of Allah," militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir told hundreds of members of the Muslim-based Crescent Star Party in the capital Jakarta. "That is why Indonesia should send holy warriors there."
Bright ideas
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Lighting the key to energy saving
The article above notes how much electricity could be saved if lighting was more efficient.
I wonder if an authoritarian country like China could just ban the production and importation of incandesent bulbs as a way of saving on electricity. (They probably make most of the rest of the world's bulbs, though.)
Here's my personal theory: if nations legislatively banned 7-Eleven Stores from using so much internal lighting they are like being in the inside of the sun, there would be an immediate detectable reduction in global greenhouse gases.
(Is it just Australia, or are all 7-Eleven shops so painfully lit?)
The article above notes how much electricity could be saved if lighting was more efficient.
I wonder if an authoritarian country like China could just ban the production and importation of incandesent bulbs as a way of saving on electricity. (They probably make most of the rest of the world's bulbs, though.)
Here's my personal theory: if nations legislatively banned 7-Eleven Stores from using so much internal lighting they are like being in the inside of the sun, there would be an immediate detectable reduction in global greenhouse gases.
(Is it just Australia, or are all 7-Eleven shops so painfully lit?)
Cats, toxoplasma & madness (again)
There have been a few more recent articles on cats and madness. (Another issue you can trust Opinion Dominion to follow for you.)
This article from the New York Times is mainly a look at research about how toxoplasma gondii spreads and works. It is a pretty weird infection:
Once Toxoplasma enters a host, it spreads quickly. Within hours it can be detected in the heart and other organs. It is even able to infect the brain, which is protected from most pathogens by a tight barrier.
Antonio Barragan ...[was] puzzled at first about how Toxoplasma managed this swift journey.
"When we looked for parasites in the blood, we found very few that were just swimming around," said Barragan, an associate professor. But the scientists observed many of the parasites inside immune cells known as dendritic cells.
Barragan was intrigued. Dendritic cells, common in the gut, often come into contact with pathogens. They respond by crawling to the lymph nodes or the spleen, where they communicate with other immune cells.
"That led us to think, what if this parasite is directing these cells to move and to disseminate through the body?" Barragan said. He and his colleagues put dendritic cells in a dish and injected them with Toxoplasma. They noticed that the parasites triggered a peculiar change: the dendritic cells became hyperactive, crawling for an entire day.
Erk.
Also, as noted on the web in many places, studies indicate that the infection in rats makes them lose their fear of cats. How this happens is very odd:
Scientists at Stanford University recently followed up on these experiments, studying rats and mice. "They actually show a mild attraction to the cat odor," said Ajai Vyas, a Stanford neurobiologist. "It's not just the loss of an old behavior. A new behavior is being induced."
Vyas and his colleagues found that Toxoplasma's effects were precisely aimed at cat odor. The rats were still afraid of dog odor but not of rabbit odor. They could also acquire new fearful responses. "Only the innate fear to the cat was different, which was very surprising," he said.
How Toxoplasma incites this change is a mystery. It is possible that the parasite alters the production of certain neurotransmitters. "But I don't know how some global change could have such a specific effect," Vyas said.
This article is a summary of research going on about schizophrenia and infections, with this comment on studies looking at the possible treatment for toxoplasma (and other infections) for those suffering schizophrenia symptoms:
...we are conducting several double-blind treatment trials that involve the use of adjunctive antibiotics and antiviral medications in persons with schizophrenia and bipolar illness. To date, these medications show some promise in patients with recent-onset disease. The results are less remarkable in persons with long-standing illness. In the future, it might even be possible to develop a vaccine to protect children against possible infections that contribute to these 2 mental illnesses.
Even with what is known today, in clinical settings, some patients who present initially with symptoms suggestive of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder could instead be in the initial stages of viral encephalitis. Some physicians would argue that patients with first-admission psychosis should have a lumbar puncture and CSF analysis, adding other studies as appropriate if indicated by an increase in CSF protein or lymphocytes.
If you feel you are going mad, maybe this should be suggested to your doctor. Just don't mention that you read it on a blog.
This article from the New York Times is mainly a look at research about how toxoplasma gondii spreads and works. It is a pretty weird infection:
Once Toxoplasma enters a host, it spreads quickly. Within hours it can be detected in the heart and other organs. It is even able to infect the brain, which is protected from most pathogens by a tight barrier.
Antonio Barragan ...[was] puzzled at first about how Toxoplasma managed this swift journey.
"When we looked for parasites in the blood, we found very few that were just swimming around," said Barragan, an associate professor. But the scientists observed many of the parasites inside immune cells known as dendritic cells.
Barragan was intrigued. Dendritic cells, common in the gut, often come into contact with pathogens. They respond by crawling to the lymph nodes or the spleen, where they communicate with other immune cells.
"That led us to think, what if this parasite is directing these cells to move and to disseminate through the body?" Barragan said. He and his colleagues put dendritic cells in a dish and injected them with Toxoplasma. They noticed that the parasites triggered a peculiar change: the dendritic cells became hyperactive, crawling for an entire day.
Erk.
Also, as noted on the web in many places, studies indicate that the infection in rats makes them lose their fear of cats. How this happens is very odd:
Scientists at Stanford University recently followed up on these experiments, studying rats and mice. "They actually show a mild attraction to the cat odor," said Ajai Vyas, a Stanford neurobiologist. "It's not just the loss of an old behavior. A new behavior is being induced."
Vyas and his colleagues found that Toxoplasma's effects were precisely aimed at cat odor. The rats were still afraid of dog odor but not of rabbit odor. They could also acquire new fearful responses. "Only the innate fear to the cat was different, which was very surprising," he said.
How Toxoplasma incites this change is a mystery. It is possible that the parasite alters the production of certain neurotransmitters. "But I don't know how some global change could have such a specific effect," Vyas said.
This article is a summary of research going on about schizophrenia and infections, with this comment on studies looking at the possible treatment for toxoplasma (and other infections) for those suffering schizophrenia symptoms:
...we are conducting several double-blind treatment trials that involve the use of adjunctive antibiotics and antiviral medications in persons with schizophrenia and bipolar illness. To date, these medications show some promise in patients with recent-onset disease. The results are less remarkable in persons with long-standing illness. In the future, it might even be possible to develop a vaccine to protect children against possible infections that contribute to these 2 mental illnesses.
Even with what is known today, in clinical settings, some patients who present initially with symptoms suggestive of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder could instead be in the initial stages of viral encephalitis. Some physicians would argue that patients with first-admission psychosis should have a lumbar puncture and CSF analysis, adding other studies as appropriate if indicated by an increase in CSF protein or lymphocytes.
If you feel you are going mad, maybe this should be suggested to your doctor. Just don't mention that you read it on a blog.
The pomegranate cure
ScienceDaily: Pomegranate Juice Helps Keep PSA Levels Stable In Men With Prostate Cancer
The report above seems to show strong results from pomegranate juice in helping men with prostate cancer. Not a cure, but a significant help. (At the end of the report, it would seem that the study was paid for by a pomegranate grower, but still...)
Who thought of pomegranates as a possible important help for prostate cancer in the first place? I will check around the internet later.
The report above seems to show strong results from pomegranate juice in helping men with prostate cancer. Not a cure, but a significant help. (At the end of the report, it would seem that the study was paid for by a pomegranate grower, but still...)
Who thought of pomegranates as a possible important help for prostate cancer in the first place? I will check around the internet later.
Jellyfish will save the planet!
ScienceDaily: Jellyfish-like Creatures May Play Major Role In Fate Of Carbon Dioxide In The Ocean
Previously this blog covered the importance of krill poo as a CO2 sink. Now (see the above link) it's jellyfish poo too:
Transparent jellyfish-like creatures known as salps, considered by many a low member in the ocean food web, may be more important to the fate of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the ocean than previously thought.
In the May issue of Deep Sea Research, scientists report that salps, about the size of a human thumb, swarming by the billions in “hot spots” may be transporting tons of carbon per day from the ocean surface to the deep sea and keep it from re-entering the atmosphere. Salps are semi-transparent, barrel-shaped marine animals that move through the water by drawing water in the front end and propelling it out the rear in a sort of jet propulsion. The water passes over a mucus membrane that vacuums it clean of all edible material....
“Salps swim, feed, and produce waste continuously,” Madin said. “They take in small packages of carbon and make them into big packages that sink fast.”
In previous work, Madin and WHOI biologist Richard Harbison found that salp fecal pellets sink as much as 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) a day. The scientists also showed that when salps die, their bodies also sink fast—up to 475 meters (1,575 feet) a day, faster than most pellets. If salps are really a dead-end in the food web and remain uneaten on the way down, they could send even more carbon to the deep.
Who else can readers trust to keep them up to date on the developing science of marine poo?
Previously this blog covered the importance of krill poo as a CO2 sink. Now (see the above link) it's jellyfish poo too:
Transparent jellyfish-like creatures known as salps, considered by many a low member in the ocean food web, may be more important to the fate of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the ocean than previously thought.
In the May issue of Deep Sea Research, scientists report that salps, about the size of a human thumb, swarming by the billions in “hot spots” may be transporting tons of carbon per day from the ocean surface to the deep sea and keep it from re-entering the atmosphere. Salps are semi-transparent, barrel-shaped marine animals that move through the water by drawing water in the front end and propelling it out the rear in a sort of jet propulsion. The water passes over a mucus membrane that vacuums it clean of all edible material....
“Salps swim, feed, and produce waste continuously,” Madin said. “They take in small packages of carbon and make them into big packages that sink fast.”
In previous work, Madin and WHOI biologist Richard Harbison found that salp fecal pellets sink as much as 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) a day. The scientists also showed that when salps die, their bodies also sink fast—up to 475 meters (1,575 feet) a day, faster than most pellets. If salps are really a dead-end in the food web and remain uneaten on the way down, they could send even more carbon to the deep.
Who else can readers trust to keep them up to date on the developing science of marine poo?
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Death by asteroid later this century?
Friday 13th asteroid a close call - National - smh.com.au
Most readers have probably heard of the asteroid that is due to zip past earth tomorrow, fortunately at a safe distance. However, as the short story above notes:
But astronomers fear Earth could be in very real danger on Friday, April 13, 2029, when another 400-metre-wide asteroid, called Apophis, is predicted to pass at a distance of just 35,000 kilometres.
"If an asteroid [that big] hit Earth it could destroy an area half the size of NSW," Dr Nick Lomb of Sydney Observatory said.
Apart from direct destruction, the effect on the climate would presumably be enormous for some years.
Wikipedia has a pretty detailed entry about Apophis:
As of February 2005 it is predicted that the asteroid will pass just below the altitude of geosynchronous satellites, which are at 35,786 km (22,300 mi).
Now that is close. But it could get worse:
A pass on April 13, 2036 still carries some risk.
Apophis remains at level one on the Torino scale because of a very low but non-zero probability of impact in 2036. However, the close approach in 2029 will substantially alter the object's orbit, making predictions uncertain without more data. "If we get radar ranging in 2013 [the next good opportunity], we should be able to predict the location of 2004 MN4 out to at least 2070." said Jon Giorgini of JPL [3].
So I guess we have some years notice. What worries me is if the close visit in 2029 causes enough of a change in orbit for it to hit in 2036, that is only 7 years to do something about it.
And if it hits Earth, how much energy will it release?:
NASA initially estimated the energy that Apophis would have released if it impacted Earth as the equivalent of 1480 megatons of TNT (114,000 times the energy from the nuclear bomb Little Boy, dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan). A more refined later NASA estimate was 880 megatons, which is still around 65,500 times the energy of the bomb mentioned above. The impacts which created the Barringer Crater or caused the Tunguska event are estimated to be in the 10-20 megaton range. The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa was the equivalent of roughly 200 megatons.
So about 40 times bigger than Tunguska, which according to Wikipedia, caused damage over an area of 2,150 square kilometers.
Start building your kid's asteroid shelters now. I'm sure a good one takes a lot of time.
Most readers have probably heard of the asteroid that is due to zip past earth tomorrow, fortunately at a safe distance. However, as the short story above notes:
But astronomers fear Earth could be in very real danger on Friday, April 13, 2029, when another 400-metre-wide asteroid, called Apophis, is predicted to pass at a distance of just 35,000 kilometres.
"If an asteroid [that big] hit Earth it could destroy an area half the size of NSW," Dr Nick Lomb of Sydney Observatory said.
Apart from direct destruction, the effect on the climate would presumably be enormous for some years.
Wikipedia has a pretty detailed entry about Apophis:
As of February 2005 it is predicted that the asteroid will pass just below the altitude of geosynchronous satellites, which are at 35,786 km (22,300 mi).
Now that is close. But it could get worse:
A pass on April 13, 2036 still carries some risk.
Apophis remains at level one on the Torino scale because of a very low but non-zero probability of impact in 2036. However, the close approach in 2029 will substantially alter the object's orbit, making predictions uncertain without more data. "If we get radar ranging in 2013 [the next good opportunity], we should be able to predict the location of 2004 MN4 out to at least 2070." said Jon Giorgini of JPL [3].
So I guess we have some years notice. What worries me is if the close visit in 2029 causes enough of a change in orbit for it to hit in 2036, that is only 7 years to do something about it.
And if it hits Earth, how much energy will it release?:
NASA initially estimated the energy that Apophis would have released if it impacted Earth as the equivalent of 1480 megatons of TNT (114,000 times the energy from the nuclear bomb Little Boy, dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan). A more refined later NASA estimate was 880 megatons, which is still around 65,500 times the energy of the bomb mentioned above. The impacts which created the Barringer Crater or caused the Tunguska event are estimated to be in the 10-20 megaton range. The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa was the equivalent of roughly 200 megatons.
So about 40 times bigger than Tunguska, which according to Wikipedia, caused damage over an area of 2,150 square kilometers.
Start building your kid's asteroid shelters now. I'm sure a good one takes a lot of time.
Bjorn Lomborg on priorities
The Observer | Comment | Climate change can wait. World health can't
Nothing particularly new in Bjorn's article above (talking mainly of the "Copenhagen Consensus") but he is always interesting to read.
I note that the Wikipedia entry on the Copenhagen Consensus quotes criticisms of it by bearded blogger economist John Quiggan.
Nothing particularly new in Bjorn's article above (talking mainly of the "Copenhagen Consensus") but he is always interesting to read.
I note that the Wikipedia entry on the Copenhagen Consensus quotes criticisms of it by bearded blogger economist John Quiggan.
On Islam in Leeds
Focus: Undercover on planet Beeston - Sunday Times - Times Online
This is an interesting article by a British Muslim journalist who went "undercover" in Leeds for 6 weeks to get a feeling for the
Islamic community there.
The journalist does not try very hard to make it clear how widespread the more radical opinions are held, but it is disturbing enough.
This is an interesting article by a British Muslim journalist who went "undercover" in Leeds for 6 weeks to get a feeling for the
Islamic community there.
The journalist does not try very hard to make it clear how widespread the more radical opinions are held, but it is disturbing enough.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Saturday's Aussie newspapers
It'll take more than a fraction of fiction to overcome way too many chords
Richard Glover's column today (above) sticks to his family and life, with his usual witty approach on those topics.
Mike Carlton recounts this story about what he had to do once to get a pay rise:
It was always bare knuckle at the Packer fun factory. I once had to inch my way along an exterior wall of the main building, three storeys from the ground like a human fly, to dive through Sam Chisholm's office window to demand a pay rise. (He gave it to me, laughing like a drain, the wicked old bastard).
He doesn't seem to be joking. Some detail as to why he had to do this would be worthwhile.
Over at The Australian, the start of the lead story ("HUNDREDS of thousands of middle-income families are shouldering a heavier tax burden today than they were 10 years ago, despite the Howard Government's latest tax cuts") turns out just to be following Labor spin on some rather confusing financial analysis, a lot of which (further down in the report) reads quite favourably for the government.
And some interesting work for historians coming up:
POPE Benedict has decided to open all Vatican archives from 1922 to 1939, giving new insight into what the Catholic Church knew and did as Europe saw the rise of Nazism in Germany and the Spanish Civil War.
At The Age, they give a column to a euthanasia advocate trying to drum up support for legislative change in Victoria. Then, in fine print at the bottom of the web version of the article, it says:
For assistance or information visit www.beyondblue.org.au, call Suicide Helpline Victoria on 1300 651 251 or Lifeline on 131 114.
Isn't that sort of like saying "if you believe this article, please call these organisations so you can be talked out of it."
Richard Glover's column today (above) sticks to his family and life, with his usual witty approach on those topics.
Mike Carlton recounts this story about what he had to do once to get a pay rise:
It was always bare knuckle at the Packer fun factory. I once had to inch my way along an exterior wall of the main building, three storeys from the ground like a human fly, to dive through Sam Chisholm's office window to demand a pay rise. (He gave it to me, laughing like a drain, the wicked old bastard).
He doesn't seem to be joking. Some detail as to why he had to do this would be worthwhile.
Over at The Australian, the start of the lead story ("HUNDREDS of thousands of middle-income families are shouldering a heavier tax burden today than they were 10 years ago, despite the Howard Government's latest tax cuts") turns out just to be following Labor spin on some rather confusing financial analysis, a lot of which (further down in the report) reads quite favourably for the government.
And some interesting work for historians coming up:
POPE Benedict has decided to open all Vatican archives from 1922 to 1939, giving new insight into what the Catholic Church knew and did as Europe saw the rise of Nazism in Germany and the Spanish Civil War.
At The Age, they give a column to a euthanasia advocate trying to drum up support for legislative change in Victoria. Then, in fine print at the bottom of the web version of the article, it says:
For assistance or information visit www.beyondblue.org.au, call Suicide Helpline Victoria on 1300 651 251 or Lifeline on 131 114.
Isn't that sort of like saying "if you believe this article, please call these organisations so you can be talked out of it."
How helpful...
Cleric Vows Iran Will Never Talk With U.S. on Nuclear Program - New York Times
From the above:
...European leaders had pressed for years for the United States to join earlier rounds of talks with Iran, and when the Bush administration decided in late May to offer to join any new discussions, the move was seen as a major concession and a prime inducement for Tehran.
On Tuesday, however, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he saw "no use" in talking with the United States.
And today, Mr. Khatami went further, declaring that "with regards to our nuclear case, we have nothing to do with the U.S. and principally, our officials will have no talks with the U.S.," according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
The rest of the story is worth reading too. It's a difficult world.
From the above:
...European leaders had pressed for years for the United States to join earlier rounds of talks with Iran, and when the Bush administration decided in late May to offer to join any new discussions, the move was seen as a major concession and a prime inducement for Tehran.
On Tuesday, however, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he saw "no use" in talking with the United States.
And today, Mr. Khatami went further, declaring that "with regards to our nuclear case, we have nothing to do with the U.S. and principally, our officials will have no talks with the U.S.," according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
The rest of the story is worth reading too. It's a difficult world.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Don't bet on Hillary Clinton
Marty Kaplan: Hillary's Daou Jones - Yahoo! News
The story above notes that Hillary has engaged Peter Daou to help her campaign.
This is a bad sign for Hillary. As I noted earlier this year, Daou has no grip on reality when it comes to assessing what the "media bias" is. Maybe he makes the common mistake of calling it a "right wing bias" when all he really means is "to the right of me".
If Hillary hopes to regain Lefty "street cred" by hiring someone well to the Left of her, I can't see it working. The Daily Kos crowd are just not that open to rational argument anyway.
UPDATE:
Here are some quotes from Daou's Huffington Post gig (click the asterisk for the link):
* We hear a lot about "angry" bloggers, but very little about the disturbingly lobotomized demeanor of certain administration officials (and ex-officials) -- Cheney, Powell, Gonzales, and Rice come to mind. There's something exceedingly peculiar about their ultracalm delivery and Mona Lisa-like permasmirk, especially when discussing issues like the Iraq war, a bloodbath they helped instigate...
* Bush's clownish banter with reporters - which is on constant display during press conferences - stands in such stark contrast to his administration's destructive policies and to the gravity of the bloodbath in Iraq that it is deeply unsettling to watch. This may be impolitic, but wouldn't refraining from frat-style horseplay be appropriate for this man? Or at the least, can't reporters suppress their raucous laughter every time he blurts out another jibe... the way they did when Colbert put them in their place?
* Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and their ilk have made an industry out of liberal-bashing. Coulter fits in perfectly with those hate-traffickers. And contrary to the false Michael Moore comparisons made by Leno and others, there is no progressive counterpart to these people on the national stage.
See what I mean? That last line floors me. No grip on reality at all, I say, and a pretty clear deep and personal loathing of Bush and all of his administration. Regardless of how well "connected" he is in blogging, having a guy with such a lack of personal judgement on your team is not a good idea.
The story above notes that Hillary has engaged Peter Daou to help her campaign.
This is a bad sign for Hillary. As I noted earlier this year, Daou has no grip on reality when it comes to assessing what the "media bias" is. Maybe he makes the common mistake of calling it a "right wing bias" when all he really means is "to the right of me".
If Hillary hopes to regain Lefty "street cred" by hiring someone well to the Left of her, I can't see it working. The Daily Kos crowd are just not that open to rational argument anyway.
UPDATE:
Here are some quotes from Daou's Huffington Post gig (click the asterisk for the link):
* We hear a lot about "angry" bloggers, but very little about the disturbingly lobotomized demeanor of certain administration officials (and ex-officials) -- Cheney, Powell, Gonzales, and Rice come to mind. There's something exceedingly peculiar about their ultracalm delivery and Mona Lisa-like permasmirk, especially when discussing issues like the Iraq war, a bloodbath they helped instigate...
* Bush's clownish banter with reporters - which is on constant display during press conferences - stands in such stark contrast to his administration's destructive policies and to the gravity of the bloodbath in Iraq that it is deeply unsettling to watch. This may be impolitic, but wouldn't refraining from frat-style horseplay be appropriate for this man? Or at the least, can't reporters suppress their raucous laughter every time he blurts out another jibe... the way they did when Colbert put them in their place?
* Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and their ilk have made an industry out of liberal-bashing. Coulter fits in perfectly with those hate-traffickers. And contrary to the false Michael Moore comparisons made by Leno and others, there is no progressive counterpart to these people on the national stage.
See what I mean? That last line floors me. No grip on reality at all, I say, and a pretty clear deep and personal loathing of Bush and all of his administration. Regardless of how well "connected" he is in blogging, having a guy with such a lack of personal judgement on your team is not a good idea.
Matt Price on the union rallies
Talkback callers blitz the Bomber | Matt Price | The Australian
I liked this line:
More than 80,000 people turned out in Melbourne, which is mightily impressive until you remember it's Melbourne, where 80,000 would turn out to see Jana Pittman recite blank verse.
My personal assessment: the numbers were not enough for Labor to consider it a resounding success. It is also likely that repeating such rallies would backfire. The Newspoll CE Sol Lebovic on Radio National yesterday put it all in perspective. Unfortunately, no transcript is up, but you can hear it here. Essentially, the story was that yes, voters are rating IR as a bigger issue than they did before, but it is still far from the top of the list of their concerns.
I liked this line:
More than 80,000 people turned out in Melbourne, which is mightily impressive until you remember it's Melbourne, where 80,000 would turn out to see Jana Pittman recite blank verse.
My personal assessment: the numbers were not enough for Labor to consider it a resounding success. It is also likely that repeating such rallies would backfire. The Newspoll CE Sol Lebovic on Radio National yesterday put it all in perspective. Unfortunately, no transcript is up, but you can hear it here. Essentially, the story was that yes, voters are rating IR as a bigger issue than they did before, but it is still far from the top of the list of their concerns.
Scorpionman danger
ScienceDaily: Radioactive Scorpion Venom For Fighting Cancer
Obviously prepared to ignore the scientific dangers of radioactive insect venom (well known to all readers/viewers of Spiderman), these researchers actually may be onto something good.
Obviously prepared to ignore the scientific dangers of radioactive insect venom (well known to all readers/viewers of Spiderman), these researchers actually may be onto something good.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
No responsibility taken
I just watched ABC's Lateline, with a pathetic interview performance by a member of the Palestinian government (sorry, transcript is not yet available for me to check the name) about the current Gaza crisis.
The transcript should be up at this site tomorrow. He would not call for the release of the hostage soldier, and made out as if the Israelis just sit there taking pot shots at anyone and everyone in Gaza for no reason at all. He mentioned "restraint" on the Palestinian side several times.
Interviewer Tony Jones did not really do much to challenge the deceptive claims, and in particular did not mention the continual rain of missiles from Gaza into Sderot, including some since they took young CPL Shalit. Jones did try to get him to be clear as to what the Palistinian government's position was, and did succeed to some extent in cutting short the rambling.
Frankly, with government members taking such a weak position, the Palestinians cannot expect to receive more than lukewarm support even from their usual sympathisers in the West.
UPDATE: Yes, the transcript is up at the ABC Lateline link above. Some extracts:
....the Israeli Minister was saying that the Israelis have shown lots of restraint in the past few days. I'm not sure that's correct because the Palestinians are the ones who have been showing the most, the utmost restraint in the past one-and-a-half years. The Palestinians have committed themselves to a calming and they have strictly abided by their position and during this one-and-a-half years there was no military action from the Palestinian side. Basically, the military action was all the time before the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and after it. The military action was always directed to Palestinian civilians, all the time killing children, women, elders, all the time only from the Palestinian side....
This soldier, first he's a military man. He's a soldier. He's sitting in his tank on the border of the Gaza Strip. He's shelling the children of the Gaza Strip every day, all the time for a one-and-a-half years or more and now when one group, one small group of the Palestinians, have tried to do something to avoid this continuous shelling and continuous massacre in the Gaza Strip, now the whole world is very touchy about a thing like that....
TONY JONES: I'm sorry. You now have the Israeli Army camped outside the city of Rafah. They've invaded Gaza and they want this man back. They clearly are not going to leave until they get him back. Do you believe without conditions the kidnappers should give him back?
DR ABDUL RAHMAN ZAIDAN: I'm not going to interfere in this. I've not interfered as a Government.
The transcript should be up at this site tomorrow. He would not call for the release of the hostage soldier, and made out as if the Israelis just sit there taking pot shots at anyone and everyone in Gaza for no reason at all. He mentioned "restraint" on the Palestinian side several times.
Interviewer Tony Jones did not really do much to challenge the deceptive claims, and in particular did not mention the continual rain of missiles from Gaza into Sderot, including some since they took young CPL Shalit. Jones did try to get him to be clear as to what the Palistinian government's position was, and did succeed to some extent in cutting short the rambling.
Frankly, with government members taking such a weak position, the Palestinians cannot expect to receive more than lukewarm support even from their usual sympathisers in the West.
UPDATE: Yes, the transcript is up at the ABC Lateline link above. Some extracts:
....the Israeli Minister was saying that the Israelis have shown lots of restraint in the past few days. I'm not sure that's correct because the Palestinians are the ones who have been showing the most, the utmost restraint in the past one-and-a-half years. The Palestinians have committed themselves to a calming and they have strictly abided by their position and during this one-and-a-half years there was no military action from the Palestinian side. Basically, the military action was all the time before the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and after it. The military action was always directed to Palestinian civilians, all the time killing children, women, elders, all the time only from the Palestinian side....
This soldier, first he's a military man. He's a soldier. He's sitting in his tank on the border of the Gaza Strip. He's shelling the children of the Gaza Strip every day, all the time for a one-and-a-half years or more and now when one group, one small group of the Palestinians, have tried to do something to avoid this continuous shelling and continuous massacre in the Gaza Strip, now the whole world is very touchy about a thing like that....
TONY JONES: I'm sorry. You now have the Israeli Army camped outside the city of Rafah. They've invaded Gaza and they want this man back. They clearly are not going to leave until they get him back. Do you believe without conditions the kidnappers should give him back?
DR ABDUL RAHMAN ZAIDAN: I'm not going to interfere in this. I've not interfered as a Government.
Building lifeboats
TCS Daily - The Ultimate Lifeboat
James Pinkerton does a good job in explaining why space colonization is a good and important goal, as a lifeboat for humanity.
Funny how this idea seemingly got lost from any mainstream airing for something like three decades!
Of course, science fiction readers (at least those who liked it before the genre went mostly interior and pessimistic with cyberpunk, the rise of fantasy, and the dubious quality of neverending reincarnations of Star Trek and Star Wars) always understood that this was the point of having an active space program, but they just weren't able to say it out loud without fear of ridicule.
The ridicule is indeed still there, and, as Zoe Brain noted, a surprisingly large amount of it can now come from young scientist types. Shame on them.
Anyway, good to have it out in the open again, and NASA actually going back to a place where there might be somewhere you can live without having to take even your own water. (The Moon.)
James Pinkerton does a good job in explaining why space colonization is a good and important goal, as a lifeboat for humanity.
Funny how this idea seemingly got lost from any mainstream airing for something like three decades!
Of course, science fiction readers (at least those who liked it before the genre went mostly interior and pessimistic with cyberpunk, the rise of fantasy, and the dubious quality of neverending reincarnations of Star Trek and Star Wars) always understood that this was the point of having an active space program, but they just weren't able to say it out loud without fear of ridicule.
The ridicule is indeed still there, and, as Zoe Brain noted, a surprisingly large amount of it can now come from young scientist types. Shame on them.
Anyway, good to have it out in the open again, and NASA actually going back to a place where there might be somewhere you can live without having to take even your own water. (The Moon.)
Wrong
Saddam death would worsen Iraq violence: lawyer|Reuters.com
The lawyer in question is, however, nutty Ramsey Clarke. Just as a reminder, remember this, and Hitchen's article about him here. The best part of Hitchen's column is this:
He [Clarke] has now twice said in public that, given the war with the Shiite republic of Iran, Saddam was entitled to take stern measures. “He had this huge war going on, and you have to act firmly when you have an assassination attempt,” he told the BBC.
To this he calmly added that he himself had more than once been shoved aside by Secret Service agents eager to defend the president of the United States (and of course one remembers the mass arrests, beatings and executions that followed the assassination attempts on presidents Ford and Reagan).
The worst thing from the Reuters story is this:
On Tuesday a prosecutor said a separate trial is to begin in August in which Saddam would face genocide charges in the killings of tens of thousands of Iraqs' Kurds in 1988 in a military operation to force them from their villages.
Let's just hope that they don't want to spend years delaying punishment just to secure more and more death penalty sentences.
The lawyer in question is, however, nutty Ramsey Clarke. Just as a reminder, remember this, and Hitchen's article about him here. The best part of Hitchen's column is this:
He [Clarke] has now twice said in public that, given the war with the Shiite republic of Iran, Saddam was entitled to take stern measures. “He had this huge war going on, and you have to act firmly when you have an assassination attempt,” he told the BBC.
To this he calmly added that he himself had more than once been shoved aside by Secret Service agents eager to defend the president of the United States (and of course one remembers the mass arrests, beatings and executions that followed the assassination attempts on presidents Ford and Reagan).
The worst thing from the Reuters story is this:
On Tuesday a prosecutor said a separate trial is to begin in August in which Saddam would face genocide charges in the killings of tens of thousands of Iraqs' Kurds in 1988 in a military operation to force them from their villages.
Let's just hope that they don't want to spend years delaying punishment just to secure more and more death penalty sentences.
Calls for an engineering solution
How to Cool a Planet (Maybe) - New York Times
How timely. A short but interesting article on the "big" engineering ideas to counter global warming.
Hmm. No one mentions my idea of trying to create a volcanic eruption with H bombs on some island no one wants. (The best feature of my plan is that I can't think of a more perfect idea to upset Greenies.)
How timely. A short but interesting article on the "big" engineering ideas to counter global warming.
Hmm. No one mentions my idea of trying to create a volcanic eruption with H bombs on some island no one wants. (The best feature of my plan is that I can't think of a more perfect idea to upset Greenies.)
Bye bye tropical glaciers
ScienceDaily: First Compilation Of Tropical Ice Cores Shows Abrupt Global Climate Shifts
A not very encouraging study about what core drilling in tropical glaciers tells us about climate change.
A not very encouraging study about what core drilling in tropical glaciers tells us about climate change.
Further reason for Kyoto scepticism
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Germany to spark 'climate crisis'
From the above report:
The German government is about to trigger a new crisis in Europe's flagship climate policy, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
BBC News understands the German cabinet is likely to agree a deal that will reduce carbon emissions from industry by only 0.6% between 2004 and 2012.
The decision is likely to influence other EU countries, including the UK, which still have to set their own caps.
Environmental groups describe the target as "pathetic and shameful"....
Climate analysts now fear a meltdown of EU climate leadership.
"I have been a big supporter of the EU ETS, but hearing the German news I feel more depressed than I ever have done about our ability to tackle climate change," said Professor Michael Grubb of the UK Carbon Trust, set up by the British government to help create a low-carbon economy.
"I really believed that Europe would lead the way through the EU ETS but now I wonder whether this will ever happen."
The news will offer comfort to US climate sceptics who predicted that Europe would talk big on climate change but fail to impose large carbon cuts on its own industries.
UPDATE: this post scored a link from Pajamas Media, but it said that my post "commented on" this report. In fact, this was one of my lazy posts, and the whole of it was just extracts from parts of the BBC report. (I didn't make it perfectly clear to newcomers that that was what I had done, but regular readers should know that I always highlight quotes in blue.) After I saw the PM link, I made it clearer at the top of the post that it was only an extract.
Sorry for any confusion. Just want to make sure people understood the words were not my own.
Anyway, newcomers should also note my other recent (lazy) post about reasons to be sceptical about Kyoto.
From the above report:
The German government is about to trigger a new crisis in Europe's flagship climate policy, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
BBC News understands the German cabinet is likely to agree a deal that will reduce carbon emissions from industry by only 0.6% between 2004 and 2012.
The decision is likely to influence other EU countries, including the UK, which still have to set their own caps.
Environmental groups describe the target as "pathetic and shameful"....
Climate analysts now fear a meltdown of EU climate leadership.
"I have been a big supporter of the EU ETS, but hearing the German news I feel more depressed than I ever have done about our ability to tackle climate change," said Professor Michael Grubb of the UK Carbon Trust, set up by the British government to help create a low-carbon economy.
"I really believed that Europe would lead the way through the EU ETS but now I wonder whether this will ever happen."
The news will offer comfort to US climate sceptics who predicted that Europe would talk big on climate change but fail to impose large carbon cuts on its own industries.
UPDATE: this post scored a link from Pajamas Media, but it said that my post "commented on" this report. In fact, this was one of my lazy posts, and the whole of it was just extracts from parts of the BBC report. (I didn't make it perfectly clear to newcomers that that was what I had done, but regular readers should know that I always highlight quotes in blue.) After I saw the PM link, I made it clearer at the top of the post that it was only an extract.
Sorry for any confusion. Just want to make sure people understood the words were not my own.
Anyway, newcomers should also note my other recent (lazy) post about reasons to be sceptical about Kyoto.
Howard, Asia and books
Rowan Callick: A respected statesman in Asia | Opinion | The Australian
Today's piece in The Australian notes that Howard has established a strong relationship with China, and the dire predictions about how the opposite would happen:
Whole books were commissioned by excitable publishers on the theme - now too odd even to fill remainder trays - that we, Lee Kuan Yew's "poor white trash of Asia", were about to fall further into disrepute and doom on account of our leader's lack of empathy with Asians. His true sin, of course, was that he was not really "one of us", the cognoscenti.
Former diplomat Tony Kevin wrote in The Howard Years (2004): "It's a fact that Australia has lost most of its former sensitivity in its dealings with diplomatic associations of countries of the Asia-Pacific region." Another former diplomat, Alison Broinowski, wrote in Howard's War (2003): "We are now less in tune with our nearest neighbours than we have been since the 1970s."
Former prime minister Paul Keating said in 2000: "Australia's relevance to Asia, and our position and influence in Asia, has diminished enormously in John Howard's time."
Predictably, the criticism has been turned on its head, and Howard is being lambasted from the universities and elsewhere as an appeaser of Asian tyrants in Indonesia and China. He should be acting, they say, in a more Australian way and opposing the traducers of human rights in Papua and Tibet.
How true.
Just generally on the book trade, I am often surprised that publishers do commission books on political topics where the validity of the views expressed will soon be established within a short time of publication. Why do publishers take such gambles? For example, the flurry of books about Latham. The one by Micheal Duffy about Latham and Abbott was sort of a double whammy of dubious relevance, as Abbott's increasingly noticed religious views surely mean he looks less and less likely as a possible leader of the Liberals.
Today's piece in The Australian notes that Howard has established a strong relationship with China, and the dire predictions about how the opposite would happen:
Whole books were commissioned by excitable publishers on the theme - now too odd even to fill remainder trays - that we, Lee Kuan Yew's "poor white trash of Asia", were about to fall further into disrepute and doom on account of our leader's lack of empathy with Asians. His true sin, of course, was that he was not really "one of us", the cognoscenti.
Former diplomat Tony Kevin wrote in The Howard Years (2004): "It's a fact that Australia has lost most of its former sensitivity in its dealings with diplomatic associations of countries of the Asia-Pacific region." Another former diplomat, Alison Broinowski, wrote in Howard's War (2003): "We are now less in tune with our nearest neighbours than we have been since the 1970s."
Former prime minister Paul Keating said in 2000: "Australia's relevance to Asia, and our position and influence in Asia, has diminished enormously in John Howard's time."
Predictably, the criticism has been turned on its head, and Howard is being lambasted from the universities and elsewhere as an appeaser of Asian tyrants in Indonesia and China. He should be acting, they say, in a more Australian way and opposing the traducers of human rights in Papua and Tibet.
How true.
Just generally on the book trade, I am often surprised that publishers do commission books on political topics where the validity of the views expressed will soon be established within a short time of publication. Why do publishers take such gambles? For example, the flurry of books about Latham. The one by Micheal Duffy about Latham and Abbott was sort of a double whammy of dubious relevance, as Abbott's increasingly noticed religious views surely mean he looks less and less likely as a possible leader of the Liberals.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Not very likely
Saddam clings to hope US will enlist his aid: lawyer - Yahoo! News
Saddam Hussein is certain his trial for crimes against humanity will result in the death penalty, but clings to the hope that Washington will use the sentence as leverage to enlist his aid to tamp down the insurgency in Iraq, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
If Saddam believes this, surely some of the insurgents believe it too.
Saddam Hussein is certain his trial for crimes against humanity will result in the death penalty, but clings to the hope that Washington will use the sentence as leverage to enlist his aid to tamp down the insurgency in Iraq, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
If Saddam believes this, surely some of the insurgents believe it too.
Not smart
Four wounded as Kassam hits Sderot | Jerusalem Post
From the story above:
Even as IDF forces were massing in large numbers on Gaza's border for a possible ground incursion to rescue kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, three Kassam rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel Monday evening...
The rocket fire comes as Islamic Jihad claimed to have developed a new longer-range rocket to be used against Israeli targets, Channel 1 reported. The groups said the new "Quds 4" projectile has a range of 20 kilometers, three times longer then the crude Kassam rockets.
On Sunday, Fatah announced that they had biological and chemical weapons capabilities. They said that they would not hesitate to use unconventional warheads on missiles.
That Israel keeps getting taunted by a random rain of missiles, with promises of more to come, causes some readers of the Jerusalem Post to react rather strongly:
Israel showed goodwill and restraint while Kassams were falling on Sderot and soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice. It is enough! Cut off all gas, electricity, water and other services to Gaza and seal them off from the civilised world hermetically. Let them suffer and suffer until they learn the lesson that terror brings suffering. The fait of Israel is more relevant than the biased world opinion.
And this:
I ask my fellow Jews when are you going to wake up. The only compassionate thing to do is to give the terrorists 24 hours to return the soldier unharmed, if they don't blow up every single person living in Gaza. Unfortunatley, this is the only language that these terrorists understand. If you do not kill them and their children, they and their children will kill you. When are the smartest-stupidest people on earth going to wake up to the facts.?
It does indeed seem that some major confrontational crisis over Gaza is on its way.
From the story above:
Even as IDF forces were massing in large numbers on Gaza's border for a possible ground incursion to rescue kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, three Kassam rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel Monday evening...
The rocket fire comes as Islamic Jihad claimed to have developed a new longer-range rocket to be used against Israeli targets, Channel 1 reported. The groups said the new "Quds 4" projectile has a range of 20 kilometers, three times longer then the crude Kassam rockets.
On Sunday, Fatah announced that they had biological and chemical weapons capabilities. They said that they would not hesitate to use unconventional warheads on missiles.
That Israel keeps getting taunted by a random rain of missiles, with promises of more to come, causes some readers of the Jerusalem Post to react rather strongly:
Israel showed goodwill and restraint while Kassams were falling on Sderot and soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice. It is enough! Cut off all gas, electricity, water and other services to Gaza and seal them off from the civilised world hermetically. Let them suffer and suffer until they learn the lesson that terror brings suffering. The fait of Israel is more relevant than the biased world opinion.
And this:
I ask my fellow Jews when are you going to wake up. The only compassionate thing to do is to give the terrorists 24 hours to return the soldier unharmed, if they don't blow up every single person living in Gaza. Unfortunatley, this is the only language that these terrorists understand. If you do not kill them and their children, they and their children will kill you. When are the smartest-stupidest people on earth going to wake up to the facts.?
It does indeed seem that some major confrontational crisis over Gaza is on its way.
I was the Walrus
adn.com | alaska : Walruses lured to their deaths
This story reminds me of Douglas Adams' falling whale. Turns out some walruses in Alaska have a similar experience:
Federal wildlife biologists have erected a 250-foot-long fence to stop walruses from accidentally plummeting off cliffs to their death on a Bristol Bay beach....
No one is sure why the Cape Peirce walruses fall.
Abraham said the shellfish-loving animals have a strong sense of smell that may lead them over the seaside cliff. They don't see well, which may not help, he added.
"(They) follow their nose -- that's my theory," he said.
It's not suicide, said MacDonald, who's watched videotapes of the falling walruses recorded during the 1990s.
Once the first go over, others follow, many dropping headfirst in a free fall to the ground, he said.
"They land on the rocks below, crush their skull, and end of story," he said.
But others do a 180 while sliding off the top, desperately try to stop as if they've made a mistake. It doesn't work, he said.
This story reminds me of Douglas Adams' falling whale. Turns out some walruses in Alaska have a similar experience:
Federal wildlife biologists have erected a 250-foot-long fence to stop walruses from accidentally plummeting off cliffs to their death on a Bristol Bay beach....
No one is sure why the Cape Peirce walruses fall.
Abraham said the shellfish-loving animals have a strong sense of smell that may lead them over the seaside cliff. They don't see well, which may not help, he added.
"(They) follow their nose -- that's my theory," he said.
It's not suicide, said MacDonald, who's watched videotapes of the falling walruses recorded during the 1990s.
Once the first go over, others follow, many dropping headfirst in a free fall to the ground, he said.
"They land on the rocks below, crush their skull, and end of story," he said.
But others do a 180 while sliding off the top, desperately try to stop as if they've made a mistake. It doesn't work, he said.
Bill Gates helps prostitutes
Bill Gates Gives Smart Cards to 500 Hookers - Gizmodo
This story might attract more attention soon.
Nice of him, I guess.
This story might attract more attention soon.
Nice of him, I guess.
God talk
Beware the folly of clever men in power - Comment - Times Online
The Times column above talks of the problem of having intellectuals in charge of important organisations. It cites Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as an example:
The first [trait] is an inability to communicate in a fashion that others find comprehensible.
This, for example, is Dr Williams discussing God in a recent address. “We need, not human words that will decisively capture what the Word of God has done and is doing, but words that will show us how much time we have to take in fathoming this reality, helping us turn and move and see, from what may be infinitesimally different perspectives, the patterns of light and shadow in a world where the Word’s light has been made manifest.” Er, yes, I suppose.
Give me CS Lewis any day.
But Catholics are in danger in getting in on the issue of confusing language too:
Australian bishops have voted in principle to accept a new translation of the Mass into English that the Vatican favours as being more faithful to the original Latin text.
Where the priest says, "The Lord be with you," and parishioners answer, "And also with you", Catholics will soon reply, "And also with your spirit."
But more complex phrases might still be vetoed by Australian bishops when they meet in November to consider any local modifications.
Changes to the phrase "one in being with the Father" in the Nicene Creed to "consubstantial with the Father", may not survive for long.
I am guessing that some common sense from the Bishops may prevail. Changing the language to make even clearer a theological issue that was settled 1,700 years ago, and which affects no one on a day to day basis, seems unnecessary (to put it very mildly).
The Times column above talks of the problem of having intellectuals in charge of important organisations. It cites Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as an example:
The first [trait] is an inability to communicate in a fashion that others find comprehensible.
This, for example, is Dr Williams discussing God in a recent address. “We need, not human words that will decisively capture what the Word of God has done and is doing, but words that will show us how much time we have to take in fathoming this reality, helping us turn and move and see, from what may be infinitesimally different perspectives, the patterns of light and shadow in a world where the Word’s light has been made manifest.” Er, yes, I suppose.
Give me CS Lewis any day.
But Catholics are in danger in getting in on the issue of confusing language too:
Australian bishops have voted in principle to accept a new translation of the Mass into English that the Vatican favours as being more faithful to the original Latin text.
Where the priest says, "The Lord be with you," and parishioners answer, "And also with you", Catholics will soon reply, "And also with your spirit."
But more complex phrases might still be vetoed by Australian bishops when they meet in November to consider any local modifications.
Changes to the phrase "one in being with the Father" in the Nicene Creed to "consubstantial with the Father", may not survive for long.
I am guessing that some common sense from the Bishops may prevail. Changing the language to make even clearer a theological issue that was settled 1,700 years ago, and which affects no one on a day to day basis, seems unnecessary (to put it very mildly).
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