Moon'd Ya!

Whatever.

The Super Scary Rev. Wright

Here are some scary quotes from "Barack's Reverend" via the WaPo!

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. . . . America's chickens are coming home to roost."

-- Sermon, September 2001

"Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run."

-- Sermon, 2006, delivered

Run for your lives!

Obama

I am just not impressed with Barack. I personally am not motivated by him nor do I believe his presidency will be much different than previous presidents.

• Arthur Silber
• Of National Lies and Racial America
• Change? Not In America's Backyard!

But I do find it quite absurd the fear people (see the Youtube comments) have of Wright:

Barack Obama's Latest Speech

Obama:



Then read Silber.

Required Reading: Arthur Silber

Over One Million Murdered -- and Nothing Has Been Learned

ethics bites: Richard Norman on What's Wrong With Killing?

MC frontalot: Livin' At The Corner Of Dude & Catastrophe

John Gray: The atheist delusion

Ah bullshit! 'secular fundamentalists':

Zealous atheism renews some of the worst features of Christianity and Islam. Just as much as these religions, it is a project of universal conversion.

This is nearly the stupidest thing ever. "Zealous atheism", such as Dennett and Dawkins, "renew[] some of the worst features of Christianity and Islam". You know, like the killing and stuff.

Just as much as these religions, it is a project of universal conversion. Evangelical atheists never doubt that human life can be transformed if everyone accepts their view of things, and they are certain that one way of living - their own, suitably embellished - is right for everybody.

Again, bullshit. Dawkins or Harris do not assert that they have a philosophy for life. Neither of them, nor Dennett or Hitchens, seek to replace religion with something of their own design. In fact, one of the criticisms charged is that they are just tearing down something "vital" to people without having anything to replace it.

Zealous atheism renews some of the worst features of Christianity and Islam. Just as much as these religions, it is a project of universal conversion. Evangelical atheists never doubt that human life can be transformed if everyone accepts their view of things, and they are certain that one way of living - their own, suitably embellished - is right for everybody. To be sure, atheism need not be a missionary creed of this kind. It is entirely reasonable to have no religious beliefs, and yet be friendly to religion. It is a funny sort of humanism that condemns an impulse that is peculiarly human. Yet that is what evangelical atheists do when they demonise religion.

This is nearly the stupidest thing ever. "Zealous atheism", such as Dennett and Dawkins, "renew[] some of the worst features of Christianity and Islam". You know, like the killing and stuff.

Zealous atheism renews some of the worst features of Christianity and Islam. Just as much as these religions, it is a project of universal conversion. Evangelical atheists never doubt that human life can be transformed if everyone accepts their view of things, and they are certain that one way of living - their own, suitably embellished - is right for everybody. To be sure, atheism need not be a missionary creed of this kind. It is entirely reasonable to have no religious beliefs, and yet be friendly to religion. It is a funny sort of humanism that condemns an impulse that is peculiarly human. Yet that is what evangelical atheists do when they demonise religion.

This is nearly the stupidest thing ever. "Zealous atheism", such as Dennett and Dawkins, "renew[] some of the worst features of Christianity and Islam". You know, like the killing and stuff.

Zealous atheism renews some of the worst features of Christianity and Islam. Just as much as these religions, it is a project of universal conversion. Evangelical atheists never doubt that human life can be transformed if everyone accepts their view of things, and they are certain that one way of living - their own, suitably embellished - is right for everybody. To be sure, atheism need not be a missionary creed of this kind. It is entirely reasonable to have no religious beliefs, and yet be friendly to religion. It is a funny sort of humanism that condemns an impulse that is peculiarly human. Yet that is what evangelical atheists do when they demonise religion.

This is nearly the stupidest thing ever. "Zealous atheism", such as Dennett and Dawkins, "renew[] some of the worst features of Christianity and Islam". You know, like the killing and stuff.

Philosophy Bites: Miranda Fricker on Epistemic Injustice

Philosophy Bites: Melissa Lane on Plato and Totalitarianism

ethics bites: Miranda Fricker on Blame And Historic Injustice

Philosophy Bites: Thomas Pink on Free Will

Autism and Personhood

From Bill, here is a very fascinating article on autism:

[Amanda] Baggs [wiki personal] is part of an increasingly visible and highly networked community of autistics. Over the past decade, this group has benefited enormously from the Internet as well as innovations like type-to-speech software. Baggs may never have considered herself trapped in her own world, but thanks to technology, she can communicate with the same speed and specificity as someone using spoken language.

Prof. Ted Honderich: Free Will Links

On offer here eventually will be a good selection of the most important pieces of writing on the various subjects in the philosophy of Determinism and Freedom.

More On Barack Obama

Two more articles. These are regarding the "cult" of Obama (if such a thing exists). I am rather put off of Barack because of this, but I like Jacoby a lot (please read Freethinkers), so I should question myself every now and then:

HTML Mencken (Sadly No!): The Cult Thing

Susan Jacoby: Hope Is Not A "Cult of Personality"

More On Barack Obama

Here are two more articles on Barack.

The first is from Newsweek's OnFaith. It concerns Barack's religious rhetoric in a recent speech:

And during the course of that sermon, I was introduced to someone named Jesus Christ. I learned that my sins could be redeemed and that if I placed my trust in Christ, He could set me on the path to eternal life.

And:

And whenever I hear stories about Americans who feel like no one’s looking out for them, like they’ve been left behind, I’m reminded that God has a plan for his people. . . . But it’s a plan He’s left to us to fulfill.

And:

I’d like to begin with a prayer. It comes to us from Jeremiah 29, when the prophet sent out a letter to those exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon. It was a time of uncertainty, and a time of despair. But the prophet Jeremiah told them to banish their fear – that though they were scattered, and though they felt lost, God had not left them. “For I know the plans I have for you,” the Lord revealed to Jeremiah, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God had a plan for His people. That was the truth that Jeremiah grasped – the creed that brought comfort to the exiles – that faith is not just a pathway to personal redemption, but a force that can bind us together and lift us up as a community.

Yuck.

---

The second is actually about a (recently former) adviser to Barack: Samantha Power. I have never been too thrilled with her, but I can not actually remember why! Well, this article did not help my opinion of her:

They [comparing Barack Obama & Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN special envoy to Iraq] both have these gargantuan intellects that enabled them to hold very complex thoughts, but also this amazing charisma that let them market whatever they ended up with in terms of policy judgements.

More fawning. Gag.

"Obama has talked a lot about the importance of moving away from electocracy," she says, trying to move on to more comfortable territory, and suggesting that the way people actually live is more important than the "reification of elections".

It is always easy to slap on a -ocracy to make it scary.

"There will be situations where the priority is self-defence," she says, indicating that a preference for multilateralism only goes so far. "President Obama, like every other leader on earth, is still going to be looking out for national and economic interests.

Obama voters better not forget it when we bomb the next country.

She opens her hands wide at the UN secretary general's name. "Is that all there is?" she asks. "Can we afford to do without a global figure, a global leader?" Sergio Vieira de Mello is sadly no longer available to fill such a role. But Samantha Power knows a man who is.

Right, the messiah cometh.

Lee Arnold: Ecolanguage

Lee Arnold: Ecolanguage

Explained:



Social Security:



Bush's Tax Cuts:



Al Gore's The Assault on Reason:

xkcd: Is your fruit easy?

Harold Pinter's Nobel Speech 2005

From Chris Floyd: Harold Pinter (wiki)

Required Reading: Chomsky on Terror(ism)

The Most Wanted List

Another Article on Free Will

Another article on free will.

Not bad overall.

Anything to Discredit Determinism

Determinists are cheaters!!

And poor Prof. Jonathan Schooler:

He hasn't decided for himself whether there is [free will] or not.

"It's an open question. . . . If there is no free will, then you're just a collection of neurons," he said.

There just has to be something more! He just has to have meaning in the universe, to someone!

Talk about low self-esteem.

Chomsky Video Fix

War Made Easy

Get it.