holy roller

For some of us, the ex-Cat Stevens represents a bit of nostalgia, or at the very least, something from the past. The guy wrote and sang a lot of music in the 60′s and since then. But he’s largely viewed as one of those from days past. This is partly because of his conversion to Islam, and partly because he walked away from the public light.

He’s found his place. In watching some newer videos of him performing and speaking, he emanates an aura of peacefulness. This is what I think about when I think about Islam. Not all that terrorist garble. That’s not about Islam, it’s about Islamism in the same way that Christianity is not about Christianism. Or the other way around. But it seems to me that Americans view themselves through the sort of “Christian” lens and we view the Arab world through an Islamist lens. But that isn’t fair is it? Let’s set aside the fact that we shouldn’t even be viewing ourselves through a religious or pseudo-religious lens and focus on the root of the problem: we see the best in ourselves, but the worst in others.

It’s my opinion that this phenomena is merely a part of the exceptionalist agenda, and most of us are mere sheep in the ideological crossfire. And by ideological, of course I mean economic. To the powers that be on ‘our’ side, anyhow, the only reason to have values and beliefs is to shore up our dominance and wealth.

Like lambs to the slaughter.

debate

Today I sat and critiqued debate rounds at a high school tournament where the most coherent argument for a 2040 government mandate that vehicles must be altern-energy was that we’re going to run out of oil.

I was underwhelmed to say the least. I did hear an underdeveloped argument over economic theory and philosophy. The con (anti-mandate) team claimed that the United States is a capitalist country, and therefore we should let the market decide. I won’t even delve into how wrong and more importantly, misinformed that claim is, but the aff (pro-mandate) team did a decent job of explaining and presenting some evidence pointing to the fact that the market is deceiving because of oil subsidies and other government regulations, not to mention the monopoly/collusion that oil companies hold over the energy sector.

It was nice to hear, but unfortunately the girls who argued this didn’t advance to nationals because they used a laptop in a prior round which is prohibited. But they didn’t know that. I looked for them after the awards ceremony to tell them how much I enjoyed watching them in action, but to no avail.

Somehow I think they know they are great. Aren’t all high school debaters?

oh, incurable humaness

Glenn Greenwald via Andrew Sullivan on not only Gaza, but the war on muslims. Read both articles. They are important.

Greenwald:

Those who giddily support not just civilian deaths in Gaza but every actual and proposed attack on Arab/Muslim countries — from the war in Iraq to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon to the proposed attacks on Iran and Syria and even continued escalation in Afghanistan — are able to do so because they don’t really see the Muslims they want to kill as being fully human.

Sullivan:

A refusal to grapple with the moral costs of this conflict, and a glib dismissal of the terrible human carnage now being inflicted by Israel (and paid for in part by Americans) is a sign of moral unseriousness.

My heart aches.

Lest we mention the terrorist Israelis, who are in part championed by the likes of Goldfarb and virtually all traditional media and political figures. You know, send a message to the Palestinians that if they continue to be “naughty” we will kill them and their families. It reeks of bad parenting. Greenwald asked a few weeks ago if there was any issue like the Israel issue in the United States where the people were generally split down the middle 50/50 pro-Israel/pro-Palestine but the entire political establishment (left to right) supported one side (Israel).

Let me just say it straight: If we continue to see Muslims, Arabs, Persians, and their kin as ‘less-than-human’ and attempt to be a blunt force in the region, we will never see peace. And we don’t deserve it either. But the true victims of our need to assert our will are the people in Palestine who are being hurt and killed–they deserve peace.

Mr. Obama has a full plate, and god help him because we really need a foreign policy of freedom. The world needs it.