We won't get fooled again ?

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

Thank you tcpip, for the link.


For anyone who cares to look, it is the 'vision' of Libya that the rebels who ousted Gadaffi wanted to create. A draft constitution .

It talks about ' democracy' and pledges support for a pluralist, secular state. It makes a declaration for women's equality, and for freedom of expression. seriously, i thought to myself, there is a lot to like.

And then I got to clause 7, and it said ( Read more... )

Jesus as a political figure

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

In a previous OP, I spoke of Religion as a subject, and it caused a bit of a storm. In this one I am going to focus on the political implications being a Christian, as I think it is still relevant to the subject of this forum.

If the Mods decide to delete on the grounds that it's too contentious, or flogging a dead horse, or simply O/T, I accept their decision. But what are the political implications for someone who claims to follow Christ?

For some, he is a historical person, a teacher of ethics, a philosopher, if you like - a Jewish version of Confucius, but nothing more. So, what did Jesus say? Well, the fact is that the crowd wanted to make Him king at one point and He just slipped away. He could easily have led a revolt to overthrow the Romans, and refused. Instead He said " My Kingdom is no part of this world". To his own followers, he gave a more detailed explanation of what this did and didn't mean.

When He gathered His disciples together for the last time before His execution, he told them plainly that while other kings and rulers lord it over their subjects, He considered Himself as a servant to His followers. "He who is your leader must be the servant to you all" He said, and to make the point, he took a bowl and towel and washed their feet.( Read more... )

Transnationalism

[foxglovehp.livejournal.com]

What the hell. I'll x-post this here:


I just finished reading John Ringo and Tom Kratman's book Yellow Eyes. It's a sci-fi book, part of the Posleen War series. The afterward of this book was fascinating and fortunately, is available on the Internet.


What made this timely and interesting for me is a discussion I recently had with my wife about the United Nations. It actually had to do with the Model UN and the geeks who are "Model UN types". Yep, that's me. I was in the Model UN for three years in High School. So she asked me, if that were true, why do I have such disdain for the real UN?


The answer is simple, really. Most high school kids approach Model UN with some kind of starry-eyed idealism about the UN, or at least use it as a forum to hone their public speaking skills. The more alert student realize fairly quickly, having experienced how the UN works just how dangerous but thankfully mostly impotent they really are and have I feel a better understanding of the world we really live in. A few sadly, come away from the experience with the misguided beliefs that the UN is actually an effective body, capable and effective on the world stage.


Anyway, this Ringo and Kratman's essay speaks to this issue as well, and I thought I would share it with you. I’d appreciate your comments:



Afterword to "Yellow Eyes"
© 2007 | John Ringo and Tom Kratman



( Read more... )

Descendant of slaveowners expel descendant of slaves from ethnic group:

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

http://news.yahoo.com/second-largest-u-indian-tribe-expels-slave-descendants-011650136.html

This is one in a series of controversies between Indian tribes which adopted slavery as part of becoming the Five Civilized Tribes and the descendants of those slaves.


The excerpt here:



The controversy stems from a footnote in the brutal history of U.S.
treatment of Native Americans. When many Indians were forced to move to
what later became Oklahoma from the eastern U.S. in 1838, some who had
owned plantations in the South brought along their slaves.


Some 4,000 Indians died during the forced march, which became known as the "Trail of Tears."


"And our ancestors carried the baggage," said Marilyn Vann, the Freedman leader who is a plaintiff in the legal battle.


Officially, there are about 2,800 Freedmen, but another 3,500 have
tribal membership applications pending, and there could be as many as
25,000 eligible to enter the tribe, according to Vann.


The tribal court decision was announced one day before absentee
ballots were to be mailed in the election of the Cherokee Principal
Chief.


"This is racism and apartheid in the 21st Century," said Vann, an engineer who lives in Oklahoma City.


Overlooks that in these Indian tribes the slaveowners themselves were part-white in descent and considered themselves more white than Cherokee, at least at the time. This is why some Indians fought for the Confederacy and one became a Brigadier General. Unfortunately humanity as a whole has a tendency to be bigoted, and thus this kind of thing happens. This in my view is a reprehenesible and disgusting thing to do. What do you guys think?

Cold Equations: Taking my own advice.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

In an effort to follow my own advice, and be less of a self-righteous douchebag, I am posting a list of recognized logical fallacies along with thier most common manifestations in political discussion...

First let us define some terms. The first is "Form", all logical arguments can be broken down into a simplified form. For instance; If A is equal to B, and B is equal to C, A is also equal to C. While the premises/variables (A,B, and C) may vary from argument to argument, the form will remain recognizable.

The next is "Validity", an argument form is valid if true premise(s) always result in a true conclusion. The actual truth or falsity of a specific argument has no bearing on it's Validity as a false premises can/will lead to false conclusions.

While the two are often used interchangeably "Soundness" is not synonymous with Validity. A "sound" argument is one where in the premises and conclusion are true. As stated above, an argument with a false premise and false conclusion can still be valid.

As a school of thought, Logic is the study and classification of argumentative forms. The classification of these forms provides the basic underpinnings of both Deductive Reason and Mathematics.

Pretty much any argument, from domestic disputes to a political debates, will consist of one or more of the commonly recognized forms. These forms often have specific rules and assumptions governing thier use. Logical Fallacies are the result of either not stating one's assumptions or failure to adhear to a form's rules.

So without further ado here is a list of common fallacies ( and thier relation to Talk_Politics... )