busyIndia's Right Wing Wants Nuclear War
Mumbai's terrorist outrage of November 26 has found a response truly matching it in madness. A call for a nuclear war - and nothing less - has come as the culmination of warped and warlike reactions to the traumatizing tragedy, which has claimed a toll of 200 lives.
It's not the battle-goddess Durga who's watching this fight unfold. It's Kali, the goddess of death and transformation. Kali, whose small black feet step on the stars to put them out, at the end of an age.
"Thousands Made Slaves" in Darfur
BBC News: "Strong evidence has emerged of children and adults being used as slaves in Sudan's Darfur region, a study says. Kidnapped men have been forced to work on farmland controlled by Janjaweed militias, the Darfur Consortium says. Eyewitnesses also say the Sudanese army has been involved in abducting women and children to be sex slaves and domestic staff for troops in Khartoum."
Not mentioned in the article is the obvious outcome of using sex slaves: babies of mixed descent. That's going to be an onoing problem for years -- unless the parents kill them all -- because history shows that in cases of racial conflict, nobody really wants mixed babies.
Somali government splitsMogadishu - Somalia's UN-backed government was crumbling Tuesday as the president defied parliament and Kenya announced sanctions against him in a strong public rebuke. The government dispute will do nothing to stabilise the administration, which wields virtually no authority in the face of powerful Islamic insurgents who have taken over most of the country.
I really think that people who can't work and play well with others should not be allowed to run countries.
December 17 2008, 18:52:47 UTC 12 years ago
December 18 2008, 04:08:00 UTC 12 years ago
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Re: ...poisons everything
December 19 2008, 03:16:05 UTC 12 years ago
The level of threat goes up and down, over time. This is a notable rise, worth watching. Because, you know, if they manage to start WW3, I'd like to know whose name to whisper in Kali's ear followed by "... should be reincarnated as a tapeworm."
>> And... could any of these things happen without people confusing the suspension of disbelief (faith) with morality? <<
Yes, but it would happen less often. Skeptics get into trouble too, it's just differently flavored.
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Re: ...poisons everything
December 19 2008, 17:50:36 UTC 12 years ago
For crimes against humanity ... I'd look for situations where the authorities being questioned were trying to uphold good order, or where what the skeptics created was much worse than the dogma at hand. Check WWII treatment of war prisoners, and heresies in the Dark Ages.
I think dogmatic thinking leads to disaster more readily than skeptical thinking, because zealots tend to band together while skeptics are more often loners. But that doesn't mean you can't create a whopping disaster at both ends of the scale. A healthy balance is desirable.