“Heroes” and the “9/11 Truth” Virus

So, what’s the connection between the plotline of “Heroes” and the 9/11 Truth virus?<Spoilers ahead>Both involve secret conspiracies to blow up New York for political gain…. Much to the detriment our our ability to make our way through.But the real question is this: when is Michelle Malkin going to take on “Heroes” the way she did Rosie O’Donnell and Ron Paul?

Nussbaum on Democracy in India

What’s happening in Turkey is a different kind ofconflict from the conflict in India which is different from what we have goingon here in the U.S. Huntington’s thesis of a Clash of Civilizations betweenour way and their way of doing things is a great frameworkto use to explore these issues, with only the minor flaw of being falsified bythe facts.But there’s another important point lurking in Nussbaum’s piece:The real “clash of civilizations” is not between “Islam” and “theWest,” but instead within virtually all modern nations — between people whoare prepared to live on terms of equal respect with others who are different,and those who seek the protection of homogeneity and the domination of asingle “pure” religious and ethnic tradition…. Some of the good guys, some ofthose who work for pluralism and respect, play for the other team; and some ofthe bad guys, who work towards the absolute exclusion of alternate views, arein your own dugout.At a deeper level, as Gandhi claimed, it is a clash within theindividual self, between the urge to dominate and defile the other and awillingness to live respectfully on terms of compassion and equality, with allthe vulnerability that such a life entails.The real clash is on the level of individual psychology, between those who canaccept, can feel comfortable working and living with people unlike themselves,and people who – on some level – need cultural, social or ideologicaluniformity.

Is Blogging Dangerous?

Here’s my brief, contrarian question: are we, as a representative democracy, well-served by allowing just anyone blog about anything they want?Take the (mal-named) War on Terror: to win this war we need — as opposed to a conventional war where winning just means killing more of them than they kill of us — to eradicate the very roots that give rise to mujaheddin and Al Queda…. To simplistic thinkers on the Left (MIchael Moore and too-smart-for-his-own-good Noam Chomsky) the source of terror is purely economic in origin — usually viewed as a shallow story about us exploiting them for oil.

Wolfowitz Resigns…

…and yet the world continues to turn.What a silly way to fall from grace: a scandal that should have been easily avoided, but because it taps into deep-seated dislike of his management style he gets no benefit of the doubt.Considering how much we’re all supposed to hate Wolfowitz — becasue Michael Moore tells us so!

Falwell Tributes

And pray for the repose of his soul.On the other hand we have Falwell taken to task for his crimes by Timothy Sandefur at Positive Liberty:Jerry Falwell was an embarrassment to a nation whose values of toleration, liberty, and reason he sought to undermine in every conceivable way. He exploited the ignorance of some of the most helpless members of our society, and sought only to train more like him to spread a ludicrous and insidious dogma into the most powerful levels of government—and, of course, to dissolve the separation of church and state that stands as the greatest defense against such ambitions.Which is the right approach to take?