After a long silence, the exxcellent Marvin of The Electric Smack Shack has posted links to Jonathan Miller’s wonderful documentary A Rough History of Disbelief, which apparently is available on Google video. Highly recommended.
Tag: politics
“What A Terrorist Incident in Ancient Rome Can Teach Us” and Thoughts from George Soros
This New York Times piece deals fascinatingly with the parallels between the fall of Rome and what’s happened in the government of the US since 9-11. (Via Shawn Scarber, Insurgent Fantasist) UPDATE: Ritu also posted something along vaguely similar critical lines (though without thoughts of the ancient world), something written by George Soros.
Viridian links
Worthwhile links from the most recent Viridian Note: rubber sidewalks, making fuel from CO2, and evidence of the acceleration of the melting of the ice on Greenland. I worry that no matter what, everything is indeed falling apart. We humans are just stupid enough to keep pushing for cash until the world collapses, I sometime think.
Cheazoid DVDs and a funny T-shirt and thoughts on an old article and airline security
So while I was in Itaewon picking up shirts — short-sleeved shirts, I’m low on them, really, and it’s still warm enough for me to want some for work — I ended up dropping by the Halal food shop, actually one of them, because there are a few, and picked up some Bollywood DVDs. One of them, “Death Walks At Midnight/Aatma”, is totally worthless: it’s two CD-Rs with about 30 minutes of video on each. Krrish/Na Tum Jaano Na Hum are both cinema-rips and when I tried to play them in Totem, the subtitles were wonky — they started at the middle …
Like Totaly wanna be a Top Bloggar!!1
I’ve, like, decided that my way is to b TOP. So I’m gunna spell things wrong and like, refer to people in my life as letters L can be Lime and like the people I work with can be H an L and S and J, and I’m gonna post like a totally long thing about stuff that’s goin on. heee. No, I’m not directing this at anyone in particular, but my god. It just makes me imagine what the slush piles of old looked like, before people cold get their “writing” illusions served by instantaneous self-publishing. I imagine it …
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… if they wish to see my thoughts on Matthew Fox’s relatively recent book A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality and the Transformation of Christianity.
A New Reformation, by Matthew Fox
So I am definitely going to write a futuristic thing in which Foxean Catholics are sparring with Old Roman Catholics, while New Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians compete for ratings online. The idea of a futuristic second Reformation is one that really does fascinate me, as it could articulate the divisions and issues withing Christendom in interesting ways, ways that highlight just how much, or how little, a version of Christianity might either choose to, or resist the urge to, deform itself to fit popular culture and/or any of several available secular/ideological consensus realities. Fox’s observations in A New …
Get Outta Here, Beanpole
A listmate from a discussion list for the magazine I write a column for, Cahoots, posted a link to an interesting article: Reuters carried a story titled Ban on skinny models shocks fashion world. The logic is not simply that teenagers emulate what they see on the runway, and go bulimic or anorexic as a result… but rather, it’s just that they want to portray “healthy body images” at the government-sponsored Madrid fashion week. You know, you have to sit back and think about just how dysfunctional your civilization is when the demand that its iconic representatives of womanhood (which …
On Appropriation, Race, Popular Culture, and Dorky White Asiaphiles
So I happened upon this blog post at reappropriate, and it got me thinking. To be honest, I didn’t trawl my way through all the comments that followed the post, but I did read a fair number of them. I was tempted to respond with something snide about how young people are so apt to map their personal anger into statements about the entire world, couched in politics for the greater safety from criticism and negative response. But I decided that, as generalizing and as mistaken as parts of the post are (in my opinion), it’s unfair to respond in …
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Adam blogs it like it is: So let’s see… five years after 9/11 and the US is despised the world over, the mightiest army in the world is being nickel-and-dimed to death in a pointless quagmire, Al Qaeda has more members than ever (and several successful franchises as well!), Iran is the dominant power in the Persian Gulf, the guy that ordered the 9/11 attacks is being protected by a key “ally”, our economy is tanking, gas is over $270 a gallon and our government has moved into the business of torture at the retail and wholesale levels. Wow! Can …