Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Poll: 72 percent of troops want out of Iraq in a year
Seventy two percent of U.S. troops in Iraq believe the United States should pull out within one year, a column by Nicholas Kristof in Tuesday's New York Times reveals. The poll was conducted by Zogby International and is the first poll to examine the attitudes of those currently serving in the wartorn nation.
The full poll is available here. Excerpts from Kristof's column follow. Following Kristof's excerpts are excerpts from Zogby's poll. [...]
[Read the whole article here]
Il Professore a Bloomberg News: «Noi dovremo andare per strada a convincere la gente. La legge sul conflitto d'interessi? La farò»
ROMA - Chi guarda tanta tv, vota Berlusconi. Questa l'opinione di Prodi sul rapporta tra media e politica in Itlia. «Un vantaggio enorme. Soldi e media servono enormemente - dice il leader dell'Unione -. Se faccio delle analisi di correlazione fra i miei votanti e le ore passate davanti alla Tv io trovo un rapporto perfetto. Meno ore si passano davanti alla tv, più votano per me. Più ore davanti alla tv, più votano per Berlusconi. Ma questa è la vita, le tv le ha in mano lui e noi dovremo andare per strada, nelle piazze a parlare con la gente e a convincerla». [...]
COMMENTO:
Quando Berlusconi si affacciò per la prima volta nel mondo della politica, pensai immediatamente che da quel momento in poi soap opera, varietà con ballerine sculettanti, e tutto quanto di artificiale - e artificialmente gaio, ottimista, spendaccione, morboso e regressivo - apparisse sulle sue TV sarebbe diventato un messaggio elettorale subliminale.
Non è affatto irragionevole ritenere che esista un sottile e inconsapevole meccanismo - strisciante come è strisciante la manipolazione pubblicitaria - per il quale la vacua soddisfazione della visione dello spettacolo televisivo si trasforma in consenso. Il tele-dipendente sviluppa una forma di gratitudine nei confronti di chi gli somministra la droga quotidiana. E, sempre in forza di questa gratitudine, il tele-dipendente è più propenso a chiudere un occhio sull'incompetenza politica del "pusher" della droga mediatica fatta di spettacoli voyeuristici, morbosità da talk-show, bellocci e bellocce e risate preregistrate.
Altro che 'par condicio'!
La sola esistenza di Canale 5, Italia 1 e Rete 4 in Italia rappresentano un incessante e martellante droga commerciale e politica.
D'altra parte anche i continui attacchi di Berlusconi a magistrati e ai "comunisti" (che Berlusconi vede dappertutto, soprattutto in chi lo critica), in puro stile di caccia alle streghe di anacronistico stampo maccartista, e il cercare di alimentare antagonismi e paure irrazionali, rappresentano un'ennesima riprova di una ricerca di consenso politico che si basa, come nella comunicazione televisiva, su slogan e meccanismi di controllo e manipolazione di tipo pubblicitario.
La pubblicità, per definizione, si basa su una faccia tosta dichiarativa, che non si preoccupa di esprimere la verità ma di martellare un messaggio per ottenere il controllo di determinati atti che portino il consumatore all'acquisto di un prodotto, indipendentemente dalla precisa verifica della loro qualità.
Lo stesso meccanismo adottato da Berlusconi nella sua strategia 'politica' basata sulla regressione e l'irrazionalità e non sulla comunicazione di dati che il potenziale elettore possa utilizzare per compiere scelte avvedute.
Toll in Iraq's Deadly Surge: 1,300 [in one week]
"BAGHDAD, Feb. 27 -- Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside of major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news media.[...]"
From BBC News:
"People across the world overwhelmingly believe the war in Iraq has increased the likelihood of terrorist attacks worldwide, a poll for the BBC reveals.
Some 60% of people in 35 countries surveyed believe this is the case, against just 12% who think terrorist attacks have become less likely. [...]"
Poll: Bush Ratings At All-Time Low
Americans are also overwhelmingly opposed to the Bush-backed deal giving a Dubai-owned company operational control over six major U.S. ports. Seven in 10 Americans, including 58 percent of Republicans, say they're opposed to the agreement.
CBS News senior White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports that now it turns out the Coast Guard had concerns about the ports deal, a disclosure that is no doubt troubling to a president who assured Americans there was no security risk from the deal.
The troubling results for the Bush administration come amid reminders about the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina and negative assessments of how the government and the president have handled it for six months.[...]
Read the whole article here.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
The fact that Tom Monaghan is building his dream Catholic-only, anti-condom, anti porno, pious city in Florida is old news, though I must confess I had not heard about it until today when a primary Italian newspaper spoke about this.
The name of the city is "Ave Maria"!
In other words Catholic fetishism embraces architecture and town-planning for the first time in the United States.
If someone told me, and I had not read about it, I'd think it is a joke. But it is not.
It seems that Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza, is hoping that his Catholic city project will replicate itself in the entire country. I think the idea of having, practically, a ghetto-like Catholic-only city is not too smart, in times in which exchange, mutual acceptance, multiculturalism should be encouraged. It sounds a fanatical and insular idea.
It is also an....evangelically debatable idea. Do Catholics need a place in which they can rub each other up, all self-pleased for their piety? I thought the idea was to seek those in spiritual need rather, not those who have found Jezus already. According to the Gospel that is, if that counts.
Anyway in thsi city no porno e no condoms are allowed. And of course no abortion.
I predict an increase in unintended pregnancies in Florida.
Anyway even some Catholics are perplexed. An excerpt from an article found in the Internet:
"In addition to a myriad of other legal questions, there could be all sorts of problems related to education and health care. Would public tax dollars be used to support private schools? What will happen regarding reproductive health care services? Will pharmacies refuse to dispense birth control? Will people not be able to have advance directives regarding health care choices that might conflict with Catholic teachings at the end of their lives?" she asked.
"From a human and a Catholic perspective, I don't think it is a good idea for human beings to isolate themselves from diversity and differences," Kissling added.
From a religious perspective, Kissling believes that tolerance and diversity make stronger Catholics: "We have to learn to tolerate the fact that there are other religions -- as well as non-believers -- and the interplay of cultures help make each of us more productive members of society. A Catholic-only town goes totally against that."
"If you are a conservative Catholic, aren't your values strong enough to live in a pluralistic society without fear? Interacting with children of other faiths and no faiths can only enrich their Catholicism."
Friday, February 24, 2006
In this picture, Paris Hilton and Anne Lenz: a good looking couple, aren't they?
So it looks like Paris Hilton has engaged in yet another 'video-artistic' performace. This time not with a man but with another woman, Playboy beauty Anne Lenz.. Not that I care, even if it is amusing how easily Ms. Hilton makes the headlines.
Also, one wonders why people are so anxious to know who Ms. Hilton copulates with and how. But yes, sex is the engine of the world one way or another, I guess. And maybe people are curious because deep inside they would like to have more sex or less 'orthodox' and less 'born-again' sex. But they don't. so they spy the headlines.
Anyway, in case you wonder, this post is absolutely meaningless, and is only an experiment to see how many hits I get for simply mentioning Ms. Paris Hilton and Ms. Anne Lenz! Sorry if you expected a semiotic analysis of the new (lesbian) 'video-event'.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
State postpones Morales execution
Ethical dilemma for doctors: 'This is a job for an executioner, not a physician'
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
A decision by two California anesthesiologists to participate in the execution of Michael Morales -- and then to abruptly withdraw -- underscores the fierce opposition to physicians getting involved in capital punishment led by medical groups that consider such a role for doctors unethical.
The American Medical Association, the California Medical Association, the American Society of Anesthesiologists and its California affiliate have long declared their opposition to the participation of doctors in executions, but their ethical pronouncements carry no legal authority in the state.
Although the Medical Board of California may weigh ethical issues during proceedings to revoke the licenses of physicians, it has no authority to sanction doctors except for violations of law.
"We do not enforce ethics,'' said Medical Board spokeswoman Candace Cohen.
With the fate of Morales still in the balance Tuesday afternoon, the California Medical Association said it would sponsor a bill in the state Legislature that would make it illegal for doctors to play any role in executions. Under the bill, a doctor would not even be able to pronounce the prisoner dead.
"We believe physician involvement in capital punishment at any level is unethical behavior,'' said Dr. Michael Sexton, an emergency physician in Marin County and president of the California Medical Association, the state's largest organization of doctors. [...]
Read the whole article here.
In 2004, the United States was the fourth country in the world in the number of homicides that go by the name of "capital punishment". After China, Iran, and Vietnam. What a company uh?
One cannot but be sincerely pleased that such a barbarian practice - prone to irreparable errors and, it has emerged, more likely to be sentenced to non-white individuals - have been halted in the case of Morales.
No country with capital punishment can define itself civilised. And a Christian supporting capital punishment is an ambulating contradiction.
From News.Scotsman.com:
Neocon architect says: 'Pull it down'
NEOCONSERVATISM has failed the United States and needs to be replaced by a more realistic foreign policy agenda, according to one of its prime architects.
Francis Fukuyama, who wrote the best-selling book The End of History and was a member of the neoconservative project, now says that, both as a political symbol and a body of thought, it has "evolved into something I can no longer support". He says it should be discarded on to history's pile of discredited ideologies.
In an extract from his forthcoming book, America at the Crossroads, Mr Fukuyama declares that the doctrine "is now in shambles" and that its failure has demonstrated "the danger of good intentions carried to extremes".
[...]
Mr Fukuyama, one of the US's most influential public intellectuals, concludes that "it seems very unlikely that history will judge either the intervention [in Iraq] itself or the ideas animating it kindly".
Going further, he says the movements' advocates are Leninists who "believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will. Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practised by the United States".
Although Mr Fukuyama still supports the idea of democratic reform - complete with establishing the institutions of liberal modernity - in the Middle East, he warns that this process alone will not immediately reduce the threats and dangers the US faces. "Radical Islamism is a by-product of modernisation itself, arising from the loss of identity that accompanies the transition to a modern, pluralist society. More democracy will mean more alienation, radicalisation and - yes, unfortunately - terrorism," he says.
"By definition, outsiders can't 'impose' democracy on a country that doesn't want it; demand for democracy and reform must be domestic. Democracy promotion is therefore a long-term and opportunistic process that has to await the gradual ripening of political and economic conditions to be effective."
Read the whole article here.
COMMENT:
Interesting article. Historian Francis Fukuyama shows courage in declaring that the neoconservativism has failed and should be replaced. Although I would have expected an historian would have known better before. It was clear that neoconservatism was a dead-end dangerous path.
History should have taught some lessons that would have suggested prudence. First off, it was clear that in the Middle East the U.S. had not a great reputation, after an unconditional support given to Israel for decades, despite dozens of U.N. resolutions against Israel for its occupation of territories and use of violence and destruction and denial of human rights. But most importantly, the idea of forcing democracy onto a country is an enormous error, and forcing it by death and destruction is even a bigger, an inhumanly so, error. When the pro-western monarchy lead by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi tried to forced modernisation in Iran, for instance, this lead to the 1979 Islamic Revolution by ayatollah Khomeini. This should have taught a historical lesson.
To use a simile, when a patronising teacher beats a student, demanding that the student embody the teacher's idea of good behaviour, the teacher violates the student's integrity, and violently so. And of course the student will perceive this as something unjust. If you think countries as individuals, it appears clear that when a bully tries to impose his vision through violence, even when animated by "good intentions", he still remains a bully. It is a matter of respect of the sphere of self-determination of other individuals. Of course a beaten student will resent the beatings of the patronising teacher, however "pious" and "compassionate" and "just" and "democratic" the teacher proclaims his guts to be.
The United States has behaved like a bully, and yet expected this would have brought about success and even gratitude. It bombed massively and contaminated a nation that posed no threat, killed tens of thousands of people and expected to be welcome with flowers. What type of hallucinating ideology can lead to such vision?
Interestingly, Fukuyama compared the neocons with Leninists. In fact neocons have behaved, and behave, like self-proclaimed "enlightened vanguards" which deem they have the right to impose their will and vision onto others, domestically and in foreign relations. But of course the comparison could be made with most totalitarian ideolologies, including Fascism and Nazism.
A plethora of examples are available that show how the current US administration embody the typical behaviour of totalitarian systems, even domestically: deceit, lies, manipulation of truth, exploitation of fear to build up central, unconditional power (more or less saying "I am the commander-in-chief, what I do is always right, have faith"), disrespect of the Constitution, cronyisms, corruption, exploitation of religion for political agendas, secret prisons, "extraordinary renditions", torture, and denial of human rights. And last but not least, eavesdropping on its own citizens.
How could anybody think that this has not gone too far?
I trust the few Americans left who condone all this will open their eyes very soon.
Monday, February 20, 2006
What has happened to America's Jesus?
By Rob Borsellino
That goes back to when he was caring and compassionate all the time, not just during the political campaign season.
He used to bring people together and give them hope. He wouldn't have his people get in your face and tell you to fight gay rights or you'll burn in hell. That's not what he was about. That's not the Jesus who made folks such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson rich and famous. He was a different guy from the 21st-century American Jesus Christ.
When I recently visited Sicily, Italy, the old Jesus was all over the place. His statue was on the counter at the restaurant and the coffee house. His image was on the wall at the clothing store and in the hotel lobby. And there was a huge painting of him on the side of an apartment building.
It was interesting because I didn't go to Sicily looking for a religious experience. I went looking for what's left of my family. My grandfather and his brother came to the United States in 1904 and left behind their parents and two sisters. The sisters had kids, grandkids, great grandkids.
I never met any of those people, and I knew nothing about Sicily except the obvious - pizza and the Mafia. My wife thought it was time to connect. She made some calls and let the family know we were coming.
We landed in Palermo, got our bags and were met by my cousin Peppino Rizzuti, who was holding a handwritten sign with my name on it.
He was there with three other cousins. They hooked us up with more family and spent the next seven days driving us all over the island and stuffing us with mozzarella, prosciutto, olives and about 50 kinds of pasta.
My cousin Maria made the sign of the cross before she ate. My cousin Antonio's car had a figurine of a saint on the dashboard. My cousin Gian Marco had a beautiful cross hanging from his neck.
But nobody was going on about God, Jesus and religion. It didn't come up. I saw all that and was reminded that you can be a decent person - a good son, husband and father - and still oppose the war in
Iraq. You can be a caring, thoughtful member of your community and still question whether Justice
Samuel Alito should have been confirmed. Jesus won't get mad at you.
Several times during the week, I thought about telling my family what's happened to Jesus in the United States - how he's been kidnapped by politicians and preachers who decide what he does and doesn't think. They speak for him, and it doesn't always make sense.
They say Jesus is "pro life," but he doesn't seem to have a problem with the death penalty. And he thinks stem cell research - something that would save lives - is no different from murdering babies. They say he's the embodiment of kindness, love, decency and compassion. But he hates gays, lesbians and Muslims. And he's not too crazy about Buddhists, Hindus and the rest. Jews? He can put up with them if he has to.
The Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka claims to speak for Jesus and goes around the country talking about how "
AIDS cures fags." Pat Robertson says it would be a good idea if the United States killed the president of Venezuela. It would be a lot cheaper than starting another war.
All week I went over that stuff in my head and decided not to mention any of it to the family.
It would make America look ridiculous.
Rob Borsellino is a columnist for The Des Moines Register and author of So I'm talkin' to this guy ...
UK radiation jump blamed on Iraq shells
RADIATION detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in uranium levels in the atmosphere after the “shock and awe” bombing campaign against Iraq, according to a report.
Environmental scientists who uncovered the figures through freedom of information laws say it is evidence that depleted uranium from the shells was carried by wind currents to Britain.
Government officials, however, say the sharp rise in uranium detected by radiation monitors in Berkshire was a coincidence and probably came from local sources.
The results from testing stations at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston and four other stations within a 10-mile radius were obtained by Chris Busby, of Liverpool University’s department of human anatomy and cell biology.
Each detector recorded a significant rise in uranium levels during the Gulf war bombing campaign in March 2003. The reading from a park in Reading was high enough for the Environment Agency to be alerted. [...]
[read the whole article here and the report here]
COMMENT:
It is already a shameful act of barbarianism to use radioactive weapons (in Iraq, Afghanistan etc.) whose effects will last for thousands of years and which are already affecting newborns with diseases caused by genetical alterations (see below and here for more photographs).
You also contaminate countries that are thousands of miles away from the scenes of your fucking PNAC-power-driven wars, Mr. President. But that's ok too right? To hell with ethics and the world, as long as you can deploy your expensive toys of death, increase military spending, and hold power while exploiting fear.
Is this the way you spread "freedom" Mr. Bush? Is this the way you boost peace, solidarity and understanding amonst nations? Is this the way you foster love for your country? With wars based on deception and with weapons whose effect go on for thousands of years? Do you get a kick out of this, self-proclaimed compassionate, born-again, Mr. president?
by Joe London
If love-thy-neighbour religions put the same energy and efforts in opposing gratuitous wars and the abuses of corporate-political power as they do in opposing "fornication sins", this would be a better world.
But as it is, Christians are often complicits, if only by omission and by warped priorities, of death and destruction in the world.
They are, for the most part, lenient towards the power, while lambasting the powerless and ordinary human beings.
Where is the large part of Christians when it comes to condemning war, extraordinary renditions, torture, air raids on villages in countries not at war, use of illegal weapons (phosphorous and depleted uranium), death penalty, exploitation of rich countries over poor ones, global warming, pollution (do next generations matter?), corruption, cronyisms, inefficiency?
These are all examples in which lives and lands are destroyed, fundamental rights of people are denied, and the very future of vast masses of people is put at risk, if not already nonexisting. Where is the thy-your-neigbour Christian outrage in these cases?
It is easy to be pious amongst one's affluent friends and shake hands with them after a Sunday ceremony. It is equally easy to cleanse one's conscience by giving a little coin to charities, turning one's eyes blind on injustice and its causes. Such Christians do not appear to strive to enter through the narrow door, rather they wallow in blind self-indulgence.
Their alleged love should make their awareness and intelligence alert, should trigger a genuine desire to understand and solve all problems, to uncompromise with injustice with no exception, and to empathise with the unprivileged rather than with those with power.
Does this happen? Is faith something to flaunt, to pin on your jacket, dispensing from understanding and acts?
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Depleted Uranium Death Toll
Tops 11,000
Nationwide Media Blackout Keeps U.S. Public Ignorant About This Important Story
By James P. Tucker Jr.This view was expressed by Arthur Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter.
“The real reason for Mr. Principi’s departure was really never given,” Bernklau said. “However, a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the U.S. military.”
The “malady [from DU] that thousands of our military have suffered and died from has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. . . . The terrible truth is now being revealed,” Bernklau said.
Of the 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are now dead, he said. By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability. More than a decade later, more than half (56 percent) who served in Gulf War I have permanent medical problems. The disability rate for veterans of the world wars of the last century was 5 percent, rising to 10 percent in Vietnam.
“The VA secretary was aware of this fact as far back as 2000,” Bernklau said. “He and the Bush administration have been hiding these facts, but now, thanks to Moret’s report, it is far too big to hide or to cover up.”
Terry Johnson, public affairs specialist at the VA, recently reported that veterans of both Persian Gulf wars now on disability total 518,739, Bernklau said.
“The long-term effect of DU is a virtual death sentence,” Bernklau said. “Marion Fulk, a nuclear chemist, who retired from the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, and was also involved in the Manhattan Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in the soldiers [from the second war] as ‘spectacular’—and a matter of concern.’ ”
While this important story appeared in a Washington newspaper and the wire services, it did not receive national exposure—a compelling sign that the American public is being kept in the dark about the terrible effects of this toxic weapon. (Veterans for Constitutional Law can be reached at (516) 474-4261.)
Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute - as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003
Further info: Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War by Leuren Moret
Please circulate this story.
The Bush administration and ordinary media keep people ignorant on this.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Brown warned White House before Katrina struck
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
"A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side." - Aristotle
VIDEO: Rev. Lowery’s Standing Ovation
Speaking before four presidents, including President George W. Bush, Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery received a standing ovation today at the Coretta Scott King funeral. Watch it:
"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. [Standing Ovation] But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor."
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Monday, February 06, 2006
Reporter hits McClellan on taps: 'You know what happened to Nixon when he broke the law'
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan got in a heated row with a White House correspondent at Monday's press briefing over President Bush's warantless domestic spying program, RAW STORY has learned.
The questioner, believed to be outspoken liberal columnist Helen Thomas, who has been covering the White House since President John F. Kennedy, asks McClellan if Bush should obey the law.
The relevant part of transcript follows. RAW STORY is trying to confirm the questioner, but is currently unable to view C-SPAN's coverage of the exchange.
[Read the whole article here]
Sunday, February 05, 2006
by Joe London
Going through Benedict XVI's encyclical letter "Deus caritas est", after reading an interesting Italian article by Eugenio Scalfari, it appears clear to me that many self-professed Christians, Catholics included, live completely immersed in murky waters of befuddlement, contradiction and hypocrisy.
Benedict XVI writes:
"In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message [Love your neighbour as yourself] is both timely and significant."
The above statement is important and surely reflects the Christian vision of life. Yet, many Christians, Catholics too, have supported a war, which was even shamefully passed as 'inspired by God' ("I consulted a higher Father", said Bush). They have given support - not mitigated by reason, let alone faith - to a war based on lies and deception and animated by power, blood-thirst, hate and vengeance.
And what about economical systems? Supposedly Christianity of the origins supported a vision by which things are shared accoding to need, not according to merit:
Acts 2:44
44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all [men], as every man had need.
Does this happen nowadays? Self-proclaimed Christians often support economical visions by which the opposite is done: more is given to those who have and less to those who don't have.
Even Benedict XVI, in his Encyclic, underlines:
"Historically, the issue of the just ordering of the collectivity had taken a new dimension with the industrialization of society in the nineteenth century. The rise of modern industry caused the old social structures to collapse, while the growth of a class of salaried workers provoked radical changes in the fabric of society. The relationship between capital and labour now became the decisive issue—an issue which in that form was previously unknown. Capital and the means of production were now the new source of power which, concentrated in the hands of a few, led to the suppression of the rights of the working classes, against which they had to rebel."
Unsurprisingly, entire masses of self-professed Christians keep buying their weapons, deploy their tanks, share designs of world primacy, ignore the poor and those in need (as if their condition meant lack of divine favour and wealth, conversely, showed a 'manifest destiny'), favour privilege, use faith as a vehicle of hate.
Words alone and self-indulgence are by no means a sign of adherence to what the supposed Christian vision is. Pharisees too thought they were pious and just.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
An intense controversy started in Europe after the publishing by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten of 12 cartoons depicting Muhammad, founder of Islam, who, according to muslim religion, must not be represented iconographically.
Although satiric cartoons, or even plain opinions expressed in words, might hurt the susceptibilities of those object of them, be they politicians, presidents, members of clergy or some people in general, to even conceive that freedom of press should be limited in order to not upset anybody would be not only impossible but wrong. It would mean a paralysis of expression itself. Different visions and ideas must be able to circulate and be expressed.
Also, satire is used by everybody, even by those who might, at times, complain about it. So, whoever never satirised or laughed at a cartoon, "let them cast the first stone".
This said, not always satire might be considered tasteful, good or opportune in a given situation. But the measure of taste or opportunity must be set by those who publish it. Bad satire or bad articles, superficiality, rough bashing and blatant partisanship on a given newspaper will simply mean that people will stop buying that newspaper.
Reactions like fatwas or threats are absolutely absurd and out of proportion compared to mere drawings.
Which is also an opinion found in The Guardian:
Yet it takes two civilisations to clash, and debate about the images cannot exclude discussion of Muslim reactions from Indonesia, Pakistan, Gaza or Luton. For the protests, boycotts, flag-burnings and bomb threats seem out of proportion to any slight, real or imagined. It was the editor of a Jordanian magazine who asked (rhetorically) what created more prejudice against Islam, these poor caricatures or pictures of a masked Iraqi hostage-taker slashing the throat of a victim live on camera, or a suicide bomber blowing himself up during a wedding ceremony, acts carried out by fanatical extremists in the name of jihad.
As we know, some people sometimes end up taking things and themselves too seriously, when they believe in God, be they Christians, Muslims or others. Religion, almost any religion, is a factor of division, and a particularly heinous one, in that people raise their human, fallible opinions to heights of alleged perfection and divine revelation, and get trapped in a mesh of arrogance and intolerance.
But extremism and intolerance are an intrinsic contradiction with the deepest aspirations to harmony, love and non-violence that the most enlightened spirits have expressed.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Why does George W. Bush shave?
by Joe London
Contrary to what one may think, Catholic religion does not have, amongst 'Western religions' the prerogative of representing a sick and dissociated vision of reality, and of being characterised by quite strange rituals (the Communion is really a cannibalistic ritual, if one accepts the idea of transubstantiation). It is in good company.
This is hardly surprising. When, as it happens in religion, blind faith and sheepishness triumph over reason, the outcomes invariably are of psychiatric relevance.
Consider, some evangelical fundamentalists. The self-righteousness and self-indulgence of these self-proclaimed 'saved' ones are, frankly, quite disgusting, surely a good pretext to give way, at full speed, to unequalled heights of condescencion. And their obsession for biblical literalism is, really, a cause of intellectual regression for entire generations of people. A proof of this statement? A poll has showed that 83% of American people believe that Jesus Christ was born from a virgin, but only 28% believes in evolution.
Consider also how biblical teachings are cherry-picked according to the fundamentalists' whims. We all know what's the position of the average born-again on premarital sex, condoms or homosexuality. But why do they concentrate on some verses of the bible (written by people utterly ignorant by today's standards) while ignoring others?
According to the Bible one should have a full, untrimmed, beard [Leviticus 19:27] (why does George W. Bush shave?), tattoos are forbidden [Leviticus 19:28], you can't eat rabbits, pigs, shellfish such as shrimp, lobsters, crabs, clams [Lev. 11:10-12], it is ok to have slaves [Leviticus 19:20] (mind you, I would not be surprised if some people in the "Bible belt" states thought so nowadays, too), you must not read horoscopes [Lev. 19:31] etc. etc. etc.
So it seems like it is ok to ignore the (alleged) "word of God" in some cases, but not in others.
So really, one can easily see that in the case of American fundamentalists, the Bible is used to boost otherwise debatable opinions, when such opinions are particularly scarce of rational foundation, or are outrightly idiotic.
But I would like to mention now something shoking and strikingly idiotic concerning some Jewish rituals. I recently came across a document written by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which was reporting on some cases of infection of Herpes virus amonst infants. How was the infection trasmitted? The NYC DOHMH informs that the infection took place through Metzitzah b'pehis, a "religious practice performed by some mohelim (religious circumcisers) in the Jewish community".
Oh well, one may wonder what this Metzitzah b'pehis is. In case one does not not know, the document provides an explanation, candidly, as if it was the most natural thing of this world:
"In metzitzah b'peh, the mohel places his mouth on the freshly circumcised penis to draw blood away from the cut. If the mohel is infected with oral herpes (as most adults are), metzitzah b'peh can expose the infant to the herpes virus. While severe illness associated with this practice may be rare, there is a definite risk of infection."
Now, I am not an expert of Jewish religion, but when one reads about such tribalistic, barbarian and frankly quite disgusting and abusive rituals, one cannot but consider this a further evidence of the idiocy of religion and of its being a factor of unquestioned, noncritical perpetuation of ancient, savage visions (of which, as we have seen, Catholics, Evangelicals and Jewish have their share).
And some people, in the Western world, think of a primacy of some religions (Christianity and Judaism) over others? What a joke.
Adam must have eaten just a tiny bite of that fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, or the fruit must have been rotten. Because rather than knowledge, and the pursuit of it, the above examples show how stupidity and ignorance are blithely trasmitted from generation to generation. That is the real original sin.
"Fa concorrenza allo Spagnolo"
di DANIELE SEMERARO
ROMA - La famosa frase "Italiani: mafia, pizza e mandolino" (da pronunciare rigorosamente con accento newyorkese) con la quale spesso, all'estero, siamo simpaticamente apostrofati potrebbe presto sparire. Almeno dal pensiero comune degli statunitensi. Secondo i dati forniti dal consolato italiano a New York, infatti, sembra che negli ultimi anni ci sia stato un vero e proprio boom non solo verso la nostra cultura, la nostra storia, il nostro stile di vita. Ma anche verso la nostra lingua, che ha raggiunto vette decisamente inaspettate: si calcola, infatti, che l'Italiano, come lingua straniera studiata nei college e nelle high school, stia facendo concorrenza addirittura allo Spagnolo.
E all'interno di questo trend positivo si colloca anche la decisione di distribuire "America Oggi", il primo quotidiano in lingua italiana prodotto e stampato negli Stati Uniti, a tutti gli studenti delle classi di scuola superiore che studiano l'Italiano. In modo da creare, anche tramite internet, un ponte diretto con gli studenti del nostro Paese. Ma andiamo con ordine. [Read the whole article here].
COMMENT: It makes sense to study Italian. Not only is Italian a beautiful language and proficiency in such a language allows accessing directly some masterpieces of world literature (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and others), art and music, but a person proficient in Italian develops a great understanding of languages such as Spanish, Portuguese and French. Spanish in particular is very similar to Italian, so much so that some Italian people are able to hold a conversation with Spanish people without having ever studied Spanish.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
One of the worst abuses of children is teaching them that something should be accepted unquestioningly by virtue of mere authority, loyalty, or passive compliance with ancient legacies, even if without evidence.
Even when parents are animated by the best intentions, this attitude is conveyed obliquely through religion. Children are very soon familiarised wiith a logic of authoritarianism and arbitrariness and with a schizophrenic approach by which one should believe in other people's fantasies and remove or push aside healthy doubts.
In the worst cases, especially in Catholic upbringing, children are also exposed to sado-masochistic content: constant extolling of pain, sacrifice and renunciation, images and exaltation of tortured, maimed or crucified saints, diffidence towards tangible life, unhealthy association of reality, body and sex with sin.
Any honest psychologist should not but conclude that the exposition to such sick content is tantamount to abuse.
And as we well know, scandals involving sex-starved, supposedly celibate queer priests who abuse minors sexually are not unfrequent either.
And yet, despite this millenary form of mental, physical and sexual abuse perpetrated by some religions, we accord them privileges, we renounce to properly question them, to analyse their heinous aspects, to protect ourselves from their anachronisms, absurdities and perversions, we even entrust them with educational responsibilities, so that they can reinforce the vicious circle of alienation and dissociation and vice in young minds who would need healthier notions!
Surely a Sunday show of queers in drag with a knack for rituals, candles, incenses, falsetto voices, and fetishes for naked scourged and maimed naked bodies, can be amusing for adults, in a gothic and somewhat sick kind of way, but it gets boring after a while, and should one put up with everything else, with the abuses, with the mental sickness, with the perversions passed as education, because of a pathetic, sick and frankly poor show? And shouldn't the voodoo-like tribalistic rituals and fantasies of Christians, and Catholics in particular, at least be forbidden to minors?
Everybody would be better off going fishing or doing something healthy in the open air. A real God, if existed, would be happier if one did that, instead of going to listen to muliebrous self-appointed queer representatives of his who show off in their precious vestments and laces and golden toys.
