Catch-Up Week, Day 2: College Reading Redux

First, the news. Then, a catch-up item. Then, a quote from Augustine's Confessions. Joy.

CNN: Armenia, Turkey sign historic agreement; AP: Turkey: Armenia Must Pull Out of Nagorno-Karabakh - I can't really fathom this one. After a century of diplomatic tension caused by Turkish genocide of Armenians, the first thing that the Turks can come up with after reestablishing diplomatic relations is "Get your ass out of Nagorno-Karabakh"? Very, very odd.

AP: Irish National Liberation Army Renounces Violence in Ireland

Official: French Physicist Exchanged E-Mails With Al Qaeda Contact (AP, AFP)

BBC: What happened to global warming?

BBC: Afghans seek refuge in Tajikistan

Guardian: Mammoth find in Russia

Guardian: The 'no peace now' camp

Guardian: All the President's E-mails - A comedian writing for the Guardian once again envisions President Obama's E-mails, this time focusing on his Nobel Peace Prize.

Times: Taliban 'daisy chain' kingpin caught in raid

Times: US may pay Afghan fighters to ditch Taliban - I have to say, I don't know that this strategy would be as effective as it was in Iraq.

AFP: Tribal ties, Soviet legacy frustrate Afghan development

Michael Totten: Cult of Personality, In the Crosshairs of the Syrian-Iranian Axis - The first is a brief note about the inappropriateness of President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, and the second is an interesting interview with a Lebanese journalist/politician about politics in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East.

Just for Fun: Cracked.com presents Disaster Movies! The money quote: "Armageddon is in the Criterion Collection?" Priceless.

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A few years back, I was taking a course in Greek history, and we were assigned an essay titled "Not Out of Africa". In the last few decades, there's been a politically correct push to claim that civilization, and indeed human life as we know it, all arose out of Africa. Now, there's no actual evidence for that - and most of the claims are easily reduced to chaff with the use of the evidence that does exist - but that doesn't stop racially motivated "scholars" from making the claims.

I can't remember whether or not this link is the actual version of "Not Out of Africa: Modern Myth vs. Ancient History" by Mary Lefkowitz that I read, but if it isn't, it at least covers the high points. I forget what it was that made me decide to dig through the interwebz for it the other day, but I read it again, and found it fascinating. If you have any interest in the dark side of political correctness, or intellectual rigor, or academic honesty, or racial politics, or history in general, you might enjoy this.

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Today's philosophy quote is from Confessions by St. Augustine.

If physical objects please you, praise God for them, but turn back your love to their Creator, lest, in those things which please you, you displease him. If souls please you, let them be loved in God; for in themselves they are mutable, but in him firmly established--without him they would simply cease to exist. In him, then, let them be loved; and bring along to him with yourself as many souls as you can, and say to them: “Let us love him, for he himself created all these, and he is not far away from them. For he did not create them, and then go away. They are of him and in him. Behold, there he is, wherever truth is known. He is within the inmost heart, yet the heart has wandered away from him. Return to your heart, O you transgressors, and hold fast to him who made you. Stand with him and you shall stand fast. Rest in him and you shall be at rest. Where do you go along these rugged paths? Where are you going? The good that you love is from him, and insofar as it is also for him, it is both good and pleasant. But it will rightly be turned to bitterness if whatever comes from him is not rightly loved and if he is deserted for the love of the creature. Why then will you wander farther and farther in these difficult and toilsome ways? There is no rest where you seek it. Seek what you seek; but remember that it is not where you seek it. You seek for a blessed life in the land of death. It is not there. For how can there be a blessed life where life itself is not?”
- Augustine, Confessions, Book IV, Chapter XII

There will be another, longer passage from Confessions at some point this week, but that's all for today. Have a fantastic Tuesday, and check in tomorrow for more.