Catch-Up Week, Day 1: News Rants and Philosophy Quotes

Hey, folks! I hope everyone had a great weekend. There are a number of items today, and this week begins a sort of catch-up week for me, so expect some items of interest. Also, if you absolutely don't care about the news, or if your name is Father Time, don't miss the section at the bottom of this post.

NATO Forces Will Stay in Afghanistan for Another Year (AP, AFP), but...

Times: Obama - involve Taleban in Afghanistan future

Peace an illusion, says Israel FM (BBC, Times) - As long as terrorists care more about killing Jews than they do about preserving the lives of their own children, there will never be peace.

Times: Comment: absurd decision on Obama makes a mockery of the Nobel peace prize; BBC: Have Your Say: What do you think of Obama's Nobel Prize? - The One's spin machine has to be hating life at the moment. In trying to congratulate him for not being George Bush, the Nobel committee has brought additional attention to the fact that President Obama's administration has, thus far, been a big joke. That's harsh.

CNN: Swiss city allows controversial right-wing poster

BBC: Chinese pipeline 'threatens' Chad villages

BBC: Camp Ashraf groups vow to fight on - More about the aftermath of the raid that the Iraqi security forces ran on the MEK base in Iraq a couple of months ago.

BBC: Sole surviving union jack from Battle of Trafalgar up for auction

Guardian: [Anglican] Church removes power from women bishops

UPI: Australia to lighten soldier body armor

AFP: Tea, nuts, and tribal talks in Southern Afghanistan

Guardian: Britain refuses to lend Iran artefact

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I have a few articles that I'd like to comment on this morning.

AFP: Qaeda urges Uighurs to launch jihad against China: SITE

The last thing al Qaeda needs to do is piss off the Chinese. Terrorists use knock-offs of Russian weapons manufactured by the Chinese. Also, the Chinese have the largest land army in the world, and al Qaeda would do very well to let the proverbial sleeping dog lie. For the time being, the Chinese government is content to watch America and her allies as they struggle to consolidate Iraq and wage a difficult campaign in Afghanistan. If al Qaeda drags the Uighurs into an all out jihad, all bets are off. As much as I'd like to see someone take the Chinese down a peg or two, and as much as I'd like to see the Chinese actually cooperate with the West in the war against Islamist terrorists, al Qaeda has a lot to lose on this one - and, let's face it, getting the Chinese into this fight is a taller order than al Qaeda is likely able to make good on.

Times: [Gaza] donkeys earn their stripes by posing as zebras; CNN: Animation confronts Gaza breast cancer taboo

Why is it that I should be sympathetic for the people in Gaza? Rather than stop people from launching rockets at Israel for long enough to get some sanctions suspended, the Gazans are dying donkeys to look like zebras. Gaza is so screwed up that its "doctors" can't even diagnose breast cancer - they claim that it will "go away once [women] get married"! And I'm supposed to feel sorry for these people, and believe that it's all Israel's fault? Ridiculous.

Times: I refuse to freeze with the green Nimbys - The money quote:

The more I try to be green, the more the showy extremism of the green lobby infuriates me. Not because it’s pious and hypocritical — although it is — but because it’s so wantonly ineffectual. Face it, Dreadhead, it’s time for some pragmatism. People in the developing world aren’t going to spend their lives in dank holes, eating weevils, however much you might like them to. Failure to accept that will only hold us back.

Telegraph: 40 MPs in plea to Barack Obama over computer hacker Gary McKinnon - It's an old article from a few months ago, but I looked for it specifically so that I could make note of the money quote from McKinnon's mother:

I'm desperately trying to get through to Obama. This is from the Bush era, it is not of Obama, he would not want this to happen.
- Janis Sharp, mother of Gary McKinnon

First and foremost, if this guy hacked into DoD computer systems, he should be held accountable for his actions, regardless of where he did it - and I'd say the same thing if it was an American who had hacked into the .txt file on the 486 that the Ministry of Defense uses to store its top secret nuclear launch codes. The fact that he allegedly suffers from Asperger's is immaterial - if his condition is so severe that he can't be held responsible for his actions, then he should never be allowed to touch a computer, he should be detained to prevent him from doing anything like this again, and his parents should be the ones who are jailed.

Second, blaming the whole thing on President Bush is just absolutely ridiculous. So, President Obama couldn't possibly want some guy who hacked into DoD computer systems to be brought to justice for his crimes? It's not "of Obama"? He "wouldn't want this to happen"? If that were the case (and as much as I dislike President Obama, I highly doubt that), then it would be time for impeachment proceedings. This is just absolutely ridiculous.

Okay, that's the end of my news rants for today. Now, for something a bit different...
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For the last several months, I've added a new item to my morning Bible study and prayer time. At first, it was a review of the Anglican short catechism. I followed that with the Anglican Articles of Religion. Once I'd completed the Articles, I moved on to Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, which I finished a couple of weeks ago. I've now started on Confessions by St. Augustine. I've been meaning, for the last few days, to include a couple of quotes from these two latest texts, so today I'm finally going to get around to doing so. First, a passage from Mere Christianity that jumped out at me.

All the same, the New Testament, without going into details, gives us a pretty clear hint of what a fully Christian society would be like. Perhaps it gives us more than we can take. It tells us that there are to be no passengers or parasites: if a man does not work, he ought not to eat. Every one is to work with his own hands, and what is more, every one's work is to produce something good: there will be no manufacture of silly luxuries and then of sillier advertisements to persuade us to buy them. And there is to be no "swank" or "side," no putting on airs. To that extent Christian society would be what we now call Leftist. On the other hand, it is always insisting on obedience - obedience (and outward marks of respect) from all of us to properly appointed magistrates, from children to parents, and (I am afraid this is going to be very unpopular) from wives to husbands. Thirdly, it is to be a cheerful society: full of singing and rejoicing, and regarding worry or anxiety as wrong. Courtesy is one of the Christian virtues; and the New Testament hates what it calls "busybodies".
- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book III, Chapter 3

I'm not sure that I'd agree with the description of the initial tenets as "Leftist" - in fact, it sounds very capitalistic to me. Communist and socialist societies are generally defined by providing for all, regardless of the quality or quantity of one's efforts. The part that really jumped out at me was the fourth sentence: "Every one is to work with his own hands, and what is more, every one's work is to produce something good: there will be no manufacture of silly luxuries and then of sillier advertisements to persuade us to buy them." I think that even Father Time might see eye to eye with me on that one.

Overall, I enjoyed Mere Christianity quite a bit - it made me think about a number of questions that are commonly posed about Christian doctrine in ways that I hadn't considered before. I haven't quite fallen in love with Confessions yet, but I've found a few interesting quotations and passages. Here's the first.

"There are some who seduce through philosophy, under a great, alluring, and honorable name, using it to color and adorn their own errors."
- Augustine, Confessions, Book III, Chapter IV

I think that this is absolutely true. Now, it's worth noting that while I tend to be fairly exclusive with respect to doctrine and theology, I acknowledge that many philosophies have a great deal of overlap and/or merit. For example, I'm a devout and orthodox Protestant Christian, but I've also found a great deal of merit from Stoicism, which is an ancient Greco-Roman system of philosophy that was popular with the Roman military during the early centuries after Christ. Father Time and I have also discussed Buddhism, and while I don't follow it directly, we've found certain points of overlap between the philosophy of Buddhism (which, according to him, is less a religion and more a system of philosophy), and my own beliefs. There are, however, a wide array of both religious and political philosophies in circulation at any given point in history (to include today) that lack any sort of merit, and these philosophies are often structured in such a way as to mask their own shortcomings, thus discouraging or even preventing any sort of scrutiny. So, Augustine's point holds a lot of water in my estimation.

As I continue to read Confessions, and follow on with History of the Church by Eusebius, I'll continue to post interesting passages as I find them.

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Throughout the rest of the week, I plan to post a few items that I've been holding onto for a while. So, this is a sort of catch-up week for me, in addition to being a regular week as far as news and other random items are concerned. And who knows, maybe there will be some news of great interest to share with you folks. Until then, have a great Monday.