Religions > Atheism > OT: True democrats uphold our liberties - not destroy them
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
03 Sep 2006 07:10:59 AM |
| Object: |
OT: True democrats uphold our liberties - not destroy them |
True democrats uphold our liberties - not destroy them
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1863751,00.html
Since the events of 9/11, some former libertarians have advocated
levels of repression that no civilised society wants or needs
Henry Porter
Sunday September 3, 2006
The Observer
It is five years since the Twin Towers fell, five years during which we
have seen awful sequels to 9/11, some big mistakes made by the West,
but also a few triumphs of detection, notably by the British police and
intelligence services.
It has all gone past in a flash and perhaps the unusual anxiety of the
period has prevented us from acknowledging an important fact. The West
has been largely unchanged by the menace of Islamist terror and so the
aim of the jihad launched from the caves of Afghanistan has, thus far,
been largely thwarted.
Britain would benefit from Clinton's tough love
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1863730,00.html
Forcing people to finding a job, which has worked in America, is a
policy New Labour should adopt
Will Hutton
Sunday September 3, 2006
The Observer
Bill Clinton is not the most obvious politician to become the darling
of the conservatives, but recently, he has been luxuriating in praise
from some improbable quarters. The reason? He's the man who really did
end welfare as Americans knew it - the promise he made when he signed
the Welfare Reform Act into law 10 years ago.
Benefit was to become a transitional, rather than a permanent, aspect
of peoples' lives. The permanent feature would be work. Welfare
recipients, mostly single mothers in the US system, could receive
benefit from the Federal government for a maximum of five years in
their lives. After that, nothing. Unless they worked, they would have
no income. Many American liberals accused Clinton of meanness and
legislative child abuse - and I remember having great reservations.
Turn on, tune in - or drown in a sea of mediocrity
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1863551,00.html
Simon Caulkin
Sunday September 3, 2006
The Observer
'We must reject the idea - well-intentioned, but dead wrong - that the
primary path to greatness in the social sectors is to become "more like
a business".' The interesting thing about this proposition, which runs
counter to a tidal wave of advice and practice, is that it comes not
from an unreconstructed member of Old Labour, but from the author of
two of the most interesting and respected business books of the 1990s,
Jim Collins.
In Built to Last, co-written with Jerry Porras, and Good to Great,
Collins tried to identify what distinguished enduringly excellent
organisations from the merely good, and how one could become the other.
Now, in a 30-page monograph to accompany what has come to be known as
G2G, Collins extends the thinking to the public and social sectors.
While you're reading this, Google is hatching a new idea
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1863621,00.html
John Naughton
Sunday September 3, 2006
The Observer
Why does Google remind one of Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls for 20
years and arguably the most inventive judge of his time, forever
generating new precedents and concepts and requiring the weekly
updating of legal textbooks? Things got so bad that a law student once
famously wrote to the Times requesting that the Master of the Rolls
should stop making new law until the Bar exams were over.
Google is like Denning on steroids. Scarcely a week goes by without it
unveiling yet another wheeze to put someone else out of business. The
converse also applies: if Google says it wants to be your friend - as
with eBay recently - your share price goes up. But in the main most of
Google's announcements involve plans to eat somebody's lunch. In the
past two weeks, for example, it let slip that it has researchers
working on computer-based monitoring of ambient noise (to pick up
information about what TV programmes are being watched and extract
advertising-related data from the real-time transcript). This has the
television industry in a lather, not to mention the folks at Rajar, who
have so far failed to develop a workable system for monitoring radio
listening in a digital age.
Read and digest, Mr Blair
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1863510,00.html
The remarkable life of Gertrude Bell offers invaluable lessons on the
state of Iraq today, says Rachel Aspden
Sunday September 3, 2006
The Guardian
Daughter of the Desert: The Remarkable Life of Gertrude Bell
by Georgina Howell
Pan Macmillan =A320, pp518
Occupying Iraq has never been a straightforward affair. 'The object of
every government here has always been to keep the Shia divines from
taking charge of public affairs,' Gertrude Bell, Britain's Oriental
Secretary in Baghdad, wrote in 1920.
She had just been granted an audience, unheard of for a woman, with
Seyyid Hasan al-Sadr, the forbidding head of Iraq's most powerful Shia
family and great-greatgrandfather of today's notorious 'radical Shia
cleric' Moqtada al-Sadr. As she ran through the elaborate Arabic
courtesies, Bell was unimpressed. 'I said to myself, "If only that
great blue turban of yours would fall off and leave you sitting there
with a bald head, I should think you just like everyone else."'
Robert Fisk: American and Muslim: six million people in search of an
identity
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1325459.ece
Seattle businessmen, students, Miami housewives... Well, what did I
expect, asks Robert Fisk at the Chicago Muslim convention
Published: 03 September 2006
A guy with brown eyes and dark skin and a thick American accent walks
up to talk to me. I guess he's an Iranian, possibly a Pakistani.
Where're you from, I ask? "Austin, Texas," he replies. Fisk foiled
again. But where do you originally come from I ask him? "I was born in
Newark, New Jersey." Fisk clears his throat. Where does his family
originally come from? I'm beginning to feel like the man from Homeland
Security, racially profiling my new friend. "Lahore," he replies
laconically and I try to make amends. The only beautiful city in
Pakistan, I say, and he smiles witheringly at me.
And I go on making the same mistake at the conference hall where the
biggest annual convention of American Muslims - perhaps 32,000 of them
- is meeting for a weekend of speeches and discussions that run all the
way from drug addiction to Condi Rice's "new" and bloody Middle East,
from banking without interest to the Bush administration's use of
torture and yes, of course, the after-effects on Muslims of the
international crimes against humanity of September 11, 2001.
For Bush, Hope and Fear in Lessons of Midterms Past
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/weekinreview/03greenberg.html?ref=3Dweeki=
nreview&pagewanted=3Dall
By DAVID GREENBERG
President Bush is having a bad year. And like President Truman in 1946,
he has cause to worry about the coming midterm elections.
The I'm-Not-Ugly American
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/magazine/03wwln_lede.html
By ANN HULBERT
Were your travels abroad this summer politically fraught?
'A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines'
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/books/review/Holt.t.html?ref=3Dreview
By JANNA LEVIN
Reviewed by JIM HOLT
The narrator of Janna Levin's novel calls G=F6del and Turing her
"two mad treasures."
A MADMAN DREAMS OF TURING MACHINES
By Janna Levin.
230 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. $23.95.
30 Teenagers, 7 Short Movies, 1 Dream of Peace
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/movies/03hays.html?ref=3Dmiddleeast
By MATTHEW HAYS
The organizers of the Peace It Together Camp never expected it would be
easy to bring together 10 Israeli, 10 Palestinian and 10 Canadian
teenagers. They also never expected to do so in a time of war.
Rove's Word Is No Longer G.O.P. Gospel
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/washington/03rove.web.html?ref=3Dus&pagew=
anted=3Dall
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JIM RUTENBERG
Karl Rove is struggling to steer the Republicans to victory despite
diminished political authority.
How to Become a World Citizen, Before Going to College
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/business/yourmoney/03gap.html?ref=3Dbusin=
ess
By TANYA MOHN
Spending a year abroad before going to college can foster a solid sense
of direction.
The State of Research Isn't All That Grand
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/business/yourmoney/03view.html?ref=3Dbusi=
ness&pagewanted=3Dall
By ANNA BERNASEK
What price does America pay for skimping on research?
GOP Focus on Security Issues to Sideline Other Matters
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/02/AR200609020=
0451_pf.html
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 3, 2006; A03
Congress will return to Washington this week with the Republican
majorities in both chambers at risk and GOP leaders planning to turn
the floors of the House and Senate into battlegrounds over which
political party can best protect the country from terrorists and other
security threats.
But in devoting the few remaining legislative days almost exclusively
to security issues, Republicans will leave major domestic tasks undone,
including President Bush's prized immigration overhaul and
long-promised legislation to toughen the restrictions on lobbying after
a wide-ranging corruption scandal. No budget plan for 2007 will be
completed. Promised relief for seniors struggling with their Medicare
prescription drug plans will have to wait. And as many as eight of the
11 bills needed to fund the government will not be passed before the
November elections.
More GOP Districts Counted as Vulnerable
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/02/AR200609020=
0975_pf.html
Number Doubled Over the Summer
By Dan Balz and David S. Broder
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 3, 2006; A01
Facing the most difficult political environment since they took control
of Congress in 1994, Republicans begin the final two months of the
midterm campaign in growing danger of losing the House while fighting
to preserve at best a slim majority in the Senate, according to
strategists and officials in both parties.
Over the summer, the political battlefield has expanded well beyond the
roughly 20 GOP House seats originally thought to be vulnerable. Now
some Republicans concede there may be almost twice as many districts
from which Democrats could wrest the 15 additional seats they need to
take control.
A Change in Tone -- and a Stumble
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR200609010=
1456.html
On Iraq, Bush Embraces Nuance. Trusting the Public Is Another Matter.
By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, September 3, 2006; Page B07
President Bush made headlines recently by adopting a more somber,
realistic tone on Iraq. Then Bush, his vice president and his defense
secretary stepped all over that message with unduly harsh assaults on
the war's critics last week. What gives?
Several things provide an answer of sorts, and all of them suggest that
the transition from the shock-and-awe tactics of Bush's first term to a
more cooperative, diplomatic approach this time around is still very
much a work in progress.
Fixing A Broken Congress
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR200609010=
1454.html
By David S. Broder
Sunday, September 3, 2006; Page B07
Congress returns for a final preelection push this week, with few of
its members believing there is much hope of salvaging some real
accomplishments from this dismal session.
In an interview last week, one of the Republican leaders of the House
told me that in the 21 districts he visited during the August recess,
including those in his own Midwestern state, immigration vies with Iraq
as a matter of major concern to the voters. Does that mean, I asked,
that you're likely to try to complete a final version of the
immigration reform bill, endorsed by President Bush and passed in
different forms by the House and Senate?
Hizbullah's Worrisome Weapon
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14640261/site/newsweek/
Imagine if terrorists got hold of car bombs with wings. Now they can.
By Dan Ephron
Newsweek
Sept. 11, 2006 issue - Hizbullah's chief, Hassan Nasrallah, spent the
past two years bragging about a remote-control aircraft that could
carry an explosive device to strike a target anywhere inside Israel. He
finally put that threat into action a few weeks ago, during the Lebanon
war, launching three of the pilotless planes toward Israeli
targets-including two on the war's last day. They were Iranian-built
Ababil unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), capable of carrying an 88-pound
warhead for up to 150 miles. The Israelis say Hizbullah received at
least 12 UAVs from Iran before the war-meaning that Nasrallah may
still have a small arsenal of them hidden away for future use.
Walking the World Stage
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14640264/site/newsweek/
What makes Barack Obama, a man with a meager public record, light the
fires of hope from here to the far corners of Africa?
By Ellis Cose
Newsweek
Sept. 11, 2006 issue - It is not too early to pronounce Barack Obama a
political phenomenon unlike any previously seen on the American scene.
He proved that last week in Kenya, where he was received in a manner
more befitting a messiah than a junior senator bearing nothing more
than opinions and good cheer. Obama began his two-week African odyssey
in South Africa and ended it in Chad, but Kenya (the only country in
which his wife and two young daughters accompanied him) was at its
literal and emotional center. For it was in Kenya (in a village called
Kogelo, Alego, in a district called Siaya), where paternal roots run
unbreakably deep, that his father was born. The Luo tribesmen there
claim Obama as one of their own; and as his motorcade passed through
Kisumu en route to his ancestral village, thousands lined the path.
The New Naysayers
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14638243/site/newsweek/
In the midst of religious revival, three scholars argue that atheism is
smarter.
By Jerry Adler
Newsweek
Sept. 11, 2006 issue - Americans answered the atrocities of September
11, overwhelmingly, with faith. Attacked in the name of God, they
turned to God for comfort; in the week after the attacks, nearly 70
percent said they were praying more than usual. Confronted by a hatred
that seemed inexplicable, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson proclaimed
that God was mad at America because it harbored feminists, gays and
civil libertarians. Sam Harris, then a 34-year-old graduate student in
neuroscience, had a different reaction. On Sept. 12, he began a book.
If, he reasoned, young men were slaughtering people in the name of
religion-something that had been going on since long before 2001, of
course-then perhaps the problem was religion itself. The book would
be called "The End of Faith," which to most Americans probably sounds
like a lament. To Harris it is something to be encouraged.
The Year of Living Fearfully
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14640262/site/newsweek/
He has gone from being an obscure and not-so-powerful politician to a
central player in the Mideast, simply by goading the United States.
By Fareed Zakaria
Newsweek
Sept. 11, 2006 issue - It's 1938, says the liberal columnist Richard
Cohen, evoking images of Hitler's armies massing in the face of an
appeasing West. No, no, says Newt Gingrich, the Third World War has
already begun. Neoconservatives, who can be counted on to escalate,
argue that we're actually in the thick of the Fourth World War. The
historian Bernard Lewis warned a few weeks ago that Iran's president,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, could be planning to annihilate Israel (and
perhaps even the United States) on Aug. 22 because it was a significant
day for Muslims.
The 'Islamofascists'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14640535/site/newsweek/
Bush's new national-security offensive has been plagued by debate over
what to call the bad guys.
By Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey
Newsweek
Sept. 11, 2006 issue - Last fall White House aides were grappling with
a seemingly simple question that had eluded them for years: what should
the president, in his many speeches on the war on terror, call the
enemy? They were searching for a single clean phrase that could both
define the foe and reassure Americans who were confused by a conflict
that had grown much bigger than Osama bin Laden. But the answer was
anything but simple. Some academics preferred the term "Islamism," but
the aides thought that sounded too much as if America were fighting the
entire religion. Another option: jihadism. But to many Muslims, it's a
positive word that doesn't necessarily evoke bloodshed. Some preferred
the conservative buzzword "Islamofascism," which was catchy and tied
neatly into Bush's historical view of the struggle.
This is the New Japan
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14640269/site/newsweek/
Immigrants are transforming a once insular society, and more of them
are on their way.
By Christian Caryl and Akiko Kashiwagi
Newsweek International
Sept. 11, 2006 issue - A few years ago, when Milton Minoru Takahashi
first set out to improve conditions for Brazilian guest workers living
in Nagoya, he thought he'd be telling Japanese about soccer, samba and
Brazilian beaches. They were the sales hooks the Brazilian-Japanese
Takahashi-who works for a nonprofit foundation that aids the 60,000
foreigners in Nagoya-thought could open locals' eyes to the beauties
of Brazilian culture. But, he says, "the Japanese didn't want to hear
about those things. They wanted to talk about noise and
garbage"-problems allegedly caused by the Brazilian immigrants in
their neighborhoods.
My Kingdom for a What?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14640271/site/newsweek/
How Barter became big business on the Internet
By Benjamin Sutherland
Newsweek International
Sept. 11, 2006 issue - Last weekend Montreal blogger Kyle MacDonald
threw a party to celebrate the fact that he got his new Saskatchewan
home in exchange for a red paper clip. Starting a year ago, MacDonald
bartered the clip for increasingly valuable stuff, including a camp
stove and free rent in a Phoenix flat. Having announced his aim (the
house) in advance, MacDonald likely got a boost from techies eager to
see the Internet pass this audacious test of its networking power. "My
whole motto was 'Start small, think big, and have fun'," says
MacDonald, 26, "I really kept my effort on the creative side rather
than the business side."
Living Underground
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14628564/site/newsweek/
This is the real clash of civilizations-a brutal war for the bottom
rung of Europe's ladder.
By Christopher Dickey
Newsweek International
Sept. 11, 2006 issue - The drinking water ran out seven days into the
voyage. The cheap Global Positioning System onboard for navigation
broke. Finally their fuel ran out, too. All those on the boat would
have died but for happenstance. A Spanish naval cutter came across them
foundering in high seas, picked them up and took them to safety-in
precisely the place, ironically, that they were trying to reach.
Making Room
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14640268/site/newsweek/
Argentina finds a place for its local immigrants.
By Brian Byrnes
Newsweek International
Sept. 11, 2006 issue - The fire that swept through a Buenos Aires
textile plant on March 30, killing six Bolivian immigrants, left behind
more than wreckage. The victims of the sweatshop blaze had no permits
to work in Argentina, and their deaths pushed the government of
President N=E9stor Kirchner to start up an innovative program that
encourages illegal immigrants to register with local authorities. Known
as Patria Grande (Greater Fatherland), the scheme offers a two-year
residence visa to foreigners who have no criminal record and can prove
they are citizens of countries affiliated with the Mercosur trading
bloc. The response has been overwhelming: more than 200,000
applications have been processed since Patria Grande was unveiled on
April 17, and each weekday morning hundreds and even thousands of
undocumented immigrants queue up outside consulates and other
government-approved offices to fill out the requisite paperwork.
"Overall, this is a step in the right direction," says Juan Carlos
Acero, a 26-year-old native of La Paz who moved to Argentina in 2001
and now works as a construction laborer. "This will benefit those of us
who work hard and support our children."
Mao's Revenge
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14638212/site/newsweek/
Subsuming one's identity into an electronically aggregated mass is akin
to Mao's China
By Steven Levy
Newsweek International
Sept. 11, 2006 issue - Jaron Lanier is a man of many
talents-virtual-reality pioneer, New Age composer, visual artist and
artificial-intelligence scientist. Now Lanier has taken on another
role: dyspeptic critic of the surging trend of digital collectivism, an
ethic that celebrates and exploits the ability of the Web to aggregate
the preferences and behaviors of millions of people. In a recent essay
posted on the Web site Edge.org, Lanier disparages the recent spate of
efforts that rely on conscious collaboration (like the
anyone-can-participate online reference work Wikipedia) or passive
polling (the so-called meta sites like Digg, which draw on user
response to rank news articles and blog postings). To Lanier these
represent a rejection of individual expression and creativity. To
emphasize the enormity of this movement, Lanier titled his essay
"Digital Maoism."
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