Samruni kristninnar og kapitalismans

Í áhugaverðri grein sem ég las fyrir stuttu er talað um samfélag öfga-kristinna, sem myndast hefur í Colorado Springs, nokkurnvegin í miðju Bandaríkjanna, sem kallast Nýtt Líf (e: New Life). Samfélagið myndaðist í kringum kirkju sem stofnuð var af auðkýfingnum Ted Haggard, á 9. áratugnum, eftir sýn sem hann fékk í bíltúr um svæðið. Ted er þessa dagana í forsvari fyrir National Association of Evangelicals, sem samanstendur af 45.000 sóknum og 30 milljónum ofsatrúaðra, öflugustu kristnu lobbígrúppu sem fyrirfinnst í Bandaríkjunum. Hann er víst í vikulegu sambandi við Bush og föruneyti, sem nota hann óspart til að hanna sína pólitíska stefnu svo hún henti kristnu öfgamönnunum sem Bush á embætti sitt að þakka. Það sem Bush fær á móti er hinsvegar ekkert smáræði, Ted þessi er nefnilega afar ötull talsmaður markaðsfrjálshyggju og hefur gert bók Tómasar Friedmans, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, að skyldulesningu allra presta á sinni könnu. Ted sér nefnilega markaðsfrjálshyggjuna sem hið fullkomna trúboðstæki;

Free-market economics is a “truth” Ted says he learned in his first job in professional Christendom, as a Bible smuggler in Eastern Europe. Globalization, he believes, is merely a vehicle for the spread of Christianity.

Ted er líka afar herskár;

And that is why [Ted] believes spiritual war requires a virile, worldly counterpart. “I teach a strong ideology of the use of power,” he says, “of military might, as a public service.” He is for preemptive war, because he believes the Bible’s exhortations against sin set for us a preemptive paradigm, and he is for ferocious war, because “the Bible’s bloody. There’s a lot about blood.”

Þú bara verður að lesa þessa grein: Soldiers of Christ I: Inside America's most powerful megachurch

Það heiðarlegasta sem Bush hefur sagt opinberlega...

... er þetta:

See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.

Héðan: President Participates in Social Security Conversation in New York

Fundið á Fark.com.

Dawkins tjáir sig um sköpunarsinna

Creationism: God's gift to the ignorant

Science feeds on mystery. As my colleague Matt Ridley has put it: “Most scientists are bored by what they have already discovered. It is ignorance that drives them on.” Science mines ignorance. Mystery — that which we don’t yet know; that which we don’t yet understand — is the mother lode that scientists seek out. Mystics exult in mystery and want it to stay mysterious. Scientists exult in mystery for a very different reason: it gives them something to do.

Lesið restina hér.

Áhrif heimsvæðingarinnar í Suður-Ameríku

Eyðing Amazon-regnskógarins hefur sjaldan verið hraðari en nú

Mogginn tekur fram að með eyðingu skógarins sé verið að búa til ræktarland, en lætur það liggja á milli hluta að ræktarland þetta sé undir sojabaunir, til útfluttnings.

Ítarlegri frétt BBC:
Amazon destruction accelerating

Úr þessari athyglisverðu skýrslu (pdf):

Since the early 1990s, Brazil has accelerated the pace of economic liberalization. The reforms, however, have failed to promote the dynamic integration of the Brazilian economy into the world economy. Economic growth has been slow and the country’s export profile has been reinforced rather than altered by the new policies. This has adverse consequences for sustainability, as many manufacturing and agricultural export industries in Brazil continue to be potentially environmentally damaging. Brazil’s comparative advantages are based on the intensive use of natural resources and energy. In agriculture, soy production nearly doubled in the second half of the 1990s, putting added pressure on fragile lands.

Meira um sama efni:
Hamburger Consumption Spurs Amazon Deforestation

Afar skemmtilegar umsagnir um "What the #$*! Do We Know!?"

The minds boggle

Hér eru umsagnir nokkurra vísindamanna, þar á meðal Dawkins, um kvikmyndina What the #$*! Do We Know!?, mynd sem er víst óðum að öðlast költ status í Bandaríkjunum. Nokkuð skondið, svo ekki sé meira sagt.

Úrdráttur í sem fæstum orðum gæti verið eitthvað á þessa leið: #$"%?*! drasl.

Indverskir bændur fá að kenna á heimsvæðingunni

India's suicide epidemic is blamed on the British

Summary:

The current link between aid and economic liberalization has forced developing countries to adopt policies that do harm to their own people. In India, the suicide rate among farmers (typically a low risk group) has skyrocketed due to overwhelming debt and shame, debts that exceed 5 – 10 times a normal income yet pale in comparison to some first world credit card bills. In an effort to globalize and force trade onto other, less competitive countries, the British government has inadvertantly funded this spike in suicides. The question that begs to be asked is: “will other countries persuaded into liberalization of their economies reap the same benefits?”

Hlutverk vísinda í bandarískum stjórnmálum

The Attack on Science

Summary:

Lest we forget the war of reason being waged in America that has been swept under the rug and utterly ignored by the media, may this quote be a reminder, “As you know, we’re studying safe levels for arsenic in drinking water to base our decision on sound science, the scientists told us we need to test the water glasses of about 3,000 people. Thank you for participating. ”

Tengt efni:
Beware 'Sound Science.' It's Doublespeak for Trouble
The Fraud of 'Sound Science'

Andspyrnan í Írak og óvinir hennar

Hér er áhugaverð grein úr New York Times, þar sem talað er um nýjasta útspil Bandaríkjamanna gegn andspyrnunni í Írak, Generálinn Adnan Thabit, alvöru rudda sem svífst víst einskis.

Early one evening, I [Peter Maass] was sitting in his office when an officer entered with a click of his heels—an Iraqi salute of sorts. He reported to Adnan that a rebel weapons cache had been discovered, and Adnan congratulated him—but issued a warning. ‘’If even one AK-47 is stolen,’’ he said, ‘’I will kill you.’’ After a pause, he smiled and refined the threat. ‘’No,’’ he said, ‘’I will kill your’’—and he used a coarse word that referred to the officer’s most private body part. There was nervous laughter. Everyone seemed certain that not a single gun, or single anything, would go missing.

Í skýrslu írösku andspyrnunnar frá mánudeginum 18. apríl kemur eftirfarandi fram:

The puppet police reported that 10 armed men enter the home of Major General ‘Adnan Thabit in Baghdad and killed him and one of his relatives, according to Reuters.

Þar fór það.