Which Is the Real Culture of Death?

Christians like to say that those who support abortion, euthanasia, and physician assisted suicide are celebrating a "Culture of Death." They conveniently leave out people who are in favor of the death penalty, of course (with the exception of Pope JPII, at least he was consistent.)

But given that Christians believe that we should all sacrifice the pleasures of this life for access to heaven in the hereafter, are they really pro-life? They tell us to forgo the pleasures of the flesh, and that we have to do in this life what some deity tells us to, so we will be rewarded when we die. The whole idea that there is any form of existence superior to life, necessarily devalues life. Those in favor of abortion, euthanasia and suicide, however, hold life to such a high value that they won't allow it to be tarnished and desecrated by unwanted pregnancy and terminal illness. They revel in all the pleasures that this life offers and hold them far higher, than the promise of any reward that may be granted in death.

It is those who fantasize about an afterlife superior to real life that are truly celebrating a culture of death.

Media Puppets

Looks like the "confessions" that he sailors gave were more conditional statements edited to look like confessions.

According to the Daily Mail,

"Lt Carman said: 'At no time did we apologise.' He said that they always qualified their statements when interviewed, saying things like 'according to the information you have presented to us'. It appears these qualifiers were edited out of the versions broadcast."

Still, even qualified statements like that came far too easily from these guys.

Finally, a Rational Strategy

Any competent analyst can see that violence against Muslims, even against terrorists is the best way to help them recruit more terrorists. In too many cases, using violence against terrorists has proven to be like trying to kill weeds with fertilizer. It worked against Al Qaida in Afghanistan, although not so well against the Taliban, but in Iraq Operation Iraqi Freedom has been a more effective Al Qaida recruiting tool than anything they could come up with themselves.

So what should be done against terrorists? A story in today's New York Times tells us about Dutch soldiers taking a much smarter approach. A lot of the Taliban's power comes from the fact that many people are still dependant upon them, so the Dutch are focusing on building infrastructure and giving people an alternative.

In their own words, “We’re not here to fight the Taliban... We’re here to make the Taliban irrelevant.”

Also from the NYT article,

"Dutch officers also say the approach has yielded promising results here. Sometimes villagers have warned them of ambushes or roadside bombs, and in several villages the Dutch are rarely attacked. Since the task force began operations last August, it has not suffered a combat fatality."

A Recant at Last

The freed British sailors are now saying that they were well inside Iraqi waters and that they only confessed because they were told that if they didn't they would face seven years in Iranian prison.

Maybe the guys on the right about the behaviour of these sailors. They confessed when threatened merely with seven years in prison. No torture, not even a death threat. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and kept my mind open that they were telling the truth when they confessed, but now it's clear that these guys are clearly just a bunch of pussies.

They're Home and No Recant Yet

According to this article the hostages, although now home and safe from Iranian intimidation and torture, are not recanting their confessions.

They're practically saying that they had a great time.

"I would not say anything different to here and I will be completely truthful. I will definitely promote Iran actually, there is a lot of ignorance in the UK about Iran and the people."

"We had had a very pleasant stay under the conditions we were in. Obviously we were not tourists. All the treatment has been fantastic towards us and there is no bad feeling at all towards Iran."

Still waiting for a response from Tony.

A Very Pragmatic Religion

People who criticize environmentalism like to say that it is a "religion." They think it's based on faith, a concept of doomsday, and that we believe that driving cars and building factories and polluting the sacred air and water is a "sin" for which we will eventually be punished.

That's funny, I thought I wanted clean air because I have this strange aversion to breathing poison. I didn't know that the air was so holy.

Ahmadinewhatthefuckinejad?

So Iran is letting the hostages go. No negotiations, no daring MI5 rescue operation, just "*yawn* whatever, here are your guys back."

Ahmadinejad says, "When we think of Islamic kindness, we are not expecting anything in return." This makes me think there are one of two things going on here: either this whole thing was a stunt to allow Ahmadinejad to make himself look like the good guy by "pardoning" the Brittish hostages, which is quite contrived seeing as international law says that if someone illegally enters your waters, you intercept them and turn them back rather than capture them, or there was some kind of back door deal made that convinced Mahmoud of the wisdom of releasing these guys.

Given that Ahmadinejad really wants people to believe that, "really guys, I did this out of the kindness of my heart. No one is coercing me to release these people in any way," the latter situation seems somewhat more likely.

What I can't wait to see is whether the confessions that the captives gave will be recanted, and what the right-wing crazies are going to do/say if they aren't.