Monday, September 12, 2011

9/11 coverage


We’ve heard an awful lot about the terrible events of September 11, 2001 during the past week.  And it really was a terrible thing. An unprovoked, unnecessary, and unjustified attack on innocent civilians resulting in nearly 3,000 deaths. And for what? An ideal? To make a point? Or was it revenge?  Whatever the reason, it wasn’t enough to justify taking the lives, in so cruel a fashion, of people who could have had no part in affecting the lives of the murderers.

And the legacy of that action?   An unprovoked, unnecessary, and unjustified attack on Iraq resulting in over 100,000 innocent civilian deaths. Civilians who could have had no part in affecting the lives of their murderers. And for what? An ideal? To make a point? Or was it revenge?

It makes me wonder if all the coverage of what happened in New York was misguided. Maybe a lot more tears should be shed over the 100,000.  Maybe the real terrorists are on this side of the ocean, because, after all, isn’t any unprovoked attack on innocent civilians a terrorist attack? And can’t we measure the magnitude of the atrocity by the number of dead? 

If someone who murders 3,000 is a terrorist, then what do you call one who murders a 100,000?

Monday, September 5, 2011

Atheist Registry??

There's a chap in Florida who seems to think that there should be a national atheist registry.  Not so that normal, rational-minded people would be able to contact each other, etc. No, this registry would be so that the "right-thinking", gun-totin' people of the US, especially those in the south, I would think, can deal properly with atheists.

I have read people pointing out that many Christian groups around the world are, in fact, becoming more militant, more ignorant, more despicable, than the militant Islamists. I am begining to believe that they are right. I don't know whether it's due to our colder climate or what, but I am very grateful that we have far fewer of these lunatics up here in Canada.

If you'd like to know more, heres a link to follow: 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2011/sep/04/1