Monthly Archives: October 2011

"The best way to improve the elections is to improve the society. The best way to destroy the society is to focus too heavily on elections. The rational choice between two bums who are both worse than the two who were offered up in the previous election cannot possibly be rational."

"If the Arab spring was interpreted as a mere social struggle for political reform and democracy, then it would offer no ideological gain for Iran's Islamic leaders against their enemy. The ideological dimension of the struggle against the West is so crucial for the Islamic leaders that they have even interpreted current protests against economic hardship in several western countries, including the Wall Street occupation movements, as a clear sign of the collapse of western civilization."

"What we are witnessing, then, is the second coming of independence, which promises a non-colonial order. It signals the end of the "Middle East", which would translate into the end of dependency on the "West". This is salutary for Europe and the United States, as well, if we finally accept and appreciate that non-western societies are writing their own history. They don't need us to dictate words to them and to pester them with our patronizing wisdom. This is what the Iraq war and the uprisings should have taught us."

"Men who beat and kill their wives and daughters do not do so because their religion allows it. More often than not, they follow their religious obligations selectively, implementing injunctions that suit their personal convenience; it is thus hypocritical and seriously misleading to insist that every aspect of a Muslim’s actual daily conduct is an exact mirror image of Islamic teachings, or that true Islam is what most Muslims do. No one mirrors their faith perfectly, even though most aspire towards such perfection. The same applies to other religions and those who profess them. Unfortunately, reality shows that within the distorted mindset and worldview of chronic abusers, the above-mentioned verses and Prophetic traditions are ignored."

"Aguerre says that in 2006 she knew of four countries that were manufacturing armed UAVs, and that now she knows of 56. So, the argument that drones keep "people" out of harm's way (with people redefined to mean U.S. citizens) doesn't hold up very solidly. We have also already had a suicide bomb attack on a drone piloting location and had drone pilots commit suicide, not to mention the risks of long-term blowback, the damage being done to the rule of law, and all the human beings killed and injured from among the non-U.S. 95% of humanity."