Saturday, October 18, 2014

Friday, October 17, 2014

why_men_love_war


n wrote that war is the enduring condition of twentieth-century man. He was only partly right. War is the enduring condition of man, period. Men have gone to war over everything from Helen of Troy to Jenkins's ear. Two million Frenchmen and Englishmen died in muddy trenches in World War I because a student shot an archduke. The truth is, the reasons don't matter. There is a reason for every war and a war for every reason.


---Steve

Scott Brown: We Wouldn’t Have Ebola If Mitt Was President | Wonkette

http://wonkette.com/563687/scott-brown-we-wouldnt-have-ebola-if-mitt-was-president

Why don't you leave the grown-ups to talk about how to deal with Ebola, and you can stick to what you know: hanging out with the young Republicans and giving free beer to the co-eds at the college tailgate parties, where the cool kids talk about the very issues you want to focus on,
Read more at http://wonkette.com/563687/scott-brown-we-wouldnt-have-ebola-if-mitt-was-president#3mxHHaQjfHtJA0sw.99

---Steve

Sunday, October 12, 2014

The idea that the Quran is God’s literal and most perfect word


We can continue to be in denial and claim that ISIS's ideology has nothing to do with Islam, hoping to dissuade the jihadis and silence the anti-Muslim bigots. Thing is, with the Quran at so many people's fingertips these days, neither the jihadis nor the anti-Muslim bigots are believing this anymore and we are simply hurting our own credibility.

If we want to really solve the problem and maybe even regain some credibility, we need leaders who are willing to put forth the idea that we have to change the way we regard the Quran. Treating the Quran as God's perfect and literal word to man is creating too much havoc.

Only when the notions of Quranic infallibility and inerrancy are challenged, will it be possible for believing Muslims to openly admit that according to literalist interpretations at least, violent and hateful passages exist in the Quran: passages that call for fighting those who don't believe in Allah, that support ISIS's ideology and help them recruit young Muslims like Aqsa Mahmood.


---Steve

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Tweet from Dan Wineman (@dwineman)

Dan Wineman (@dwineman)
Evolution of music sales:
1. Pay a lot
2. Pay a little
3. Pay anything
4. OK fine, just pay once a month
5. Fuck you, now you own a U2 album

Download the official Twitter app here


---Steve

Monday, October 06, 2014

Tweet from ZanDark Lorda Da Fif (@ZandarVTS)

ZanDark Lorda Da Fif (@ZandarVTS)
RT @LOLGOP: Same-sex marriage. Now legal in every state where Mitt Romney owns a home. || Game, set, match

Download the official Twitter app here


---Steve

Slate: The Better Call Saul Music Video Is a Great Advertisement, but a Better Song

I thought you would like this article from The Slate Magazine for iPad




---Steve

Friday, October 03, 2014

New Statesman | John Gray: is religion to blame for history’s bloodiest wars?

http://www.newstatesman.com/2014/09/lambs-slaughter

Conventional distinctions between religious and secular belief pass over the role that belief itself plays in our lives. "We are meaning-seeking creatures," Karen Armstrong writes wisely, "and, unlike other animals, fall very easily into despair if we fail to make sense of our lives." We are unlike our animal kin in another way. Only human beings kill and die for the sake of beliefs about themselves and the nature of the world. Looking for sense in their lives, they attack others who find meaning in beliefs different from their own. The violence of faith cannot be exorcised by demonising religion. It goes with being human.

---Steve