I was traveling when the whole thing about the cartoons of Mohammed his the world media. My first reaction was to think, “Jeez, guys, chill out. It’s just cartoons by infidels! It’s not as if your media doesn’t make nasty cartoons too, you know. Now, I know that it’s considered wrong to depict Mohammed, and that in Islam that’s rooted in a more deep and lasting taboo on pictorial depictions of Allah. Okay, fine, that’s their religion. But the thing is, nobody has any right to force others to obey their religion. For example, Muslim extremists would probably also like …
Tag: politics
Different Meanings of “Colonize”…
The bits I agreed with in this article on colonization of space and colonization in history at The Space Review only had the effect of making me feel more uneasy about the bits I disagreed with. Colonization in the past always involved other humans, which is a big difference. Though I think if Mars does contain basic life of any kind, we’d have to refrain from settling there — at least, we couldn’t stay for too long.
Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read (according to China Miéville)
Instead of the Lunar New Year Readathon I did last year, I’m considering trying to work my way through China Miéville’s list of Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read over at Fantastic Metropolis. Some of those books will be difficult-to-get, but I just got a credit card approved, so it might be possible to order them, used, if I really want to make my way through the whole list. (Meaning, the books I haven’t read, which is the majority of Miéville’s selections.)
Not Impressed With Your Choice, Canada
While I am not surprised, I am also no impressed that Harper is in office in Canada. Here we go, back to the days of Mulroney lapdogging to America. And just when America’s doing so well on the world stage. Sigh. At least it’s a minority government. They won’t be able to crucify gays in the street and give the death penalty for people with recriminalized pot. Not till they get a majority government, anyway. And before you ask, no, I did not vote. I would have to lie — to claim I had an intention to return to Canada …
The Living Wage on a Dying Planet
Over at TomPaine.com, I was reading through some letters on the subject of “The Dying Wage”, and ran across an interesting one: The problem with the wage ethic article is that when foreign-made goods can be produced with a lower wage then they will not be produced here. We have only three choices: 1. Let the American worker work for the same wages they do in China or India and suffer a similar deprived lifestyle because the imports are cheaper. Real American wages have been declining since 1977. 2. Keep the minimum wage in place, let untaxed cheap imports flood …