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Saturday, March 11, 2006Pics of the day...Ducks! Snow!!!
posted by gbarto at 12:52 AM Thursday, March 09, 2006Scott Adams:Every day feels like a gift now. And that, my friends, is the rarest neurological disorder of them all.Read the entry to find out why. And read the whole blog to see the thought processes of one of the strangest, most interesting and most thought-provoking guys out there.
posted by gbarto at 6:48 PM A touch of class: Not that there were any good alternatives, but there were alternatives. And so, a tip of the hat to the Dubai Ports Co. and the UAE for getting the President and Congress out of the tangle they'd gotten themselves into. In this deal, the White House blew it by sitting tight instead of pre-empting complaints with, say, a short statement about how pleased they were to have an Arab ally... Congress blew it on two fronts: The Republicans blew it by going nuclear before finding out what was on the White House's mind, a mistake because as bad off as he is, W is still better at a) bouncing back from messes and b) propping up the party as a whole than they are. Kneecapping their star to get a shot at the spotlight was idiotic. The Democrats blew it because they gave full and complete license to the idea that Arabs - er, Ay-rabs - are potentially dangerous and to be regarded with suspicion. The next time the right says to hell with the niceties, the "ragheads" need extra supervision, the best the Democrats will be able to do is to argue about when and how much you can discriminate against Arabs and Arab nations, not whether it's appropriate at all. The Bill/Hill contrast was particularly rich: she says keep the foreigners out while he lobbies for them and, in the past, welcomed Chinese arms merchants into the White House to share a cup of coffee. Looking at the endgame in this, the UAE and the Dubai Ports Co., whatever one's doubts about them, look like reasonably intelligent and self-aware entities that know where they stand and work to make the best of it. The leaders of the two major parties in our self-governing entity look all the poorer for it.
posted by gbarto at 6:37 PM Is Christianity compatible with democracy? Ann Althouse looks at the question, Is Islam compatible with democracy? Responding to a commenter who isn't too sure, she then astutely notes: You could have said the same thing about Christianity, looking at Europe not all that long ago in the great historical scheme of things. The question is whether the two things are compatible, not whether the religion necessarily or strongly leads people to democracy.More curiously, another commenter reminds: It isn't a "tendency" to think that the sovereign state is the location of law for all of society--it's part of fundamental Christian doctrine. Matthew 22:21, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, render unto God what is God's." The separation of Church and State is laid out in the founding documents of the Church itself!While Jesus plainly believed this, many of his followers did not. Especially those who purported to speak for God in allocating power to themselves. Charlemagne famously commented that Paris was worth a mass, but the Catholic church of the time did not dwell on whether it was rendering unto God that which was Caesar's when it issued a charter for the Holy Roman Empire.* The portion of the Catholic hierarchy that gave us the Inquisition and the Crusades is now all but gone, but when it had its chance, it tried to rule. While modern day atheists use this as a reason to eschew the church, the rest of us should take a little comfort in how much things have changed. Is Islam compatible with democracy? Hmm... Is Christianity compatible with democracy? If the question is whether those who derive their power from the church will willingly relinquish it or hold to interpretations that justify their power, the answer is clear. But in the longer term, societies find interpretations - correct or not - that make faith more personal and less the province of powerful institutions. As they do with everything else. While we're all chattering about An Army of Davids, it's worth recalling the Armies of Davids that passed out Luther's pamphlets, then the libels against Louis XV, setting the stage for the democratization first of faith, then of Europe. As the individual becomes more empowered in the Islamic world, he - and she! - will choose interpretations of the faith compatible with pursuing emergent individual interests. And Islam, like the all-powerful Catholicism of the first millenia, will change or die. *Oops. While Clovis and Charlemagne obtained the Catholic Church's blessing for their rule in the early days of France and used it to advantage, it was Henry IV who on his conversion from Protestantism said "Paris is worth a mass." Thanks to Anton Sherwood for the correction.
posted by gbarto at 10:52 AM Wednesday, March 08, 2006LGF highlights a French Socialist mayor who got it right:...he play, “Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet,” uses the founder of Islam to lampoon all forms of religious frenzy and intolerance.France has centuries of experience of the hell that comes when politics and religion intertwine. There are those who think appeasing the Muslims is fine. There were those who thought playing along with the Vatican wasn't too much to ask, too. It's good to see that at least some French folks of the variety who know the danger of letting the Pope run their country are likewise sensitive to the danger of turning it over to the imams. Ecrasez l'infâme!
posted by gbarto at 4:45 PM Tuesday, March 07, 2006Dude, you're getting... a lawsuit?Michael Dell's computer company (at Dell.com) is apparently suing Paul Dell's company (DellWebSites.com) because Michael Dell is the only man allowed to use the Dell name since he's richer. (link on the headline) Or something like that. In other news, schoolchildren are being asked to sing "The Farmer in the Barn," thus ending a century-plus abuse of Michael Dell's name. As a libertarian, I oppose regulation and hate to advocate more in a thankfully relatively unregulated place like the internet. But it would be nice if the big corporations didn't spend so much time seemingly asking for it.
posted by gbarto at 2:27 PM |
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