The Draft will Start in June 2005

“The pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide.” Read the article…

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Cultural Relativity for Dummies

As executive director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University School of Law, Doug Cassel speaks with authority when he contributes to WBEZ’s WorldView program. But his statements on Thursday’s Chicago Tonight left me stunned. Phil Ponce asked Cassel to compare the beheading of Nicolas Berg to the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal and Cassel suggested that Muslim men might prefer being beheaded to being humiliated sexually. The logic behind that statement brought me momentarily back to fourth grade when no amount of reasoning on my part could convince my colleagues that to worship God was to refuse His greatest gifts to us. According to the Bible (my young classmates’ holy scripture), “He” gave us consciousness and self-determination, and with them the awareness that life on Earth is finite. Therefore what could possibly be worse than death? Why even waste time kneeling to “Him”? Is it wise for any of us to recognize and respect a culture that sees humiliation as worse than death? Is it even possible for a culture to thrive if it doesn’t consider death the ultimate sacrifice? I know that redemption is big for Christians, too, but when was the last time a Jesus-lover became a suicide bomber? (Mel Gibson doesn’t count…) Bottom line: Stop listening to clerics, people! They’re just men in funny hats.

Updates

I haven’t posted anything in quite a few days. I’ve been busy with some freelance work that I’ll hopefully be able to share in the future, two very cool projects. The weather here in Chicago finally got nice (it’s balmy…sultry, even) and I’ve actually been leaving my house. World news, though, keeps getting worse so I’ve been taking a break from it. Bush still looks unbeatable, and the quagmire effect may actually work to his advantage. What I mean is voters may be reluctant to change leadership while it’s still real bad in Iraq. That’s too bad because I think a change in leadership would soften resistance to American aggression. What would be bad about having a new President who’s ego (and fortune) is not wrapped up in the outcome of the “war”?

Steely Dan: Confessions

Steely Dan: Confessions is a pretty cool idea for a promo.

Pills, Porn, Prostitution and Poo–I Mean Booze–Now Rampant in Iraq

Just like with the poppy trade in Afghanistan, the power vacuum caused by the U.S. presence in Iraq has jump-started the trade in vices.

“Some people say the spread of such things is designed to weaken our society,” says Col. Daoud Selman, a police chief in one of Baghdad’s roughest districts.

Hey, it worked in our ghettos.