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The funny Topsy-turvy world of international relations began spinning anti-clockwise with this from Al-Jazeera:
“Iraq has agreed to pay compensation to US citizens who say they were tortured or traumatised by the regime of Saddam Hussein, the late Iraqi leader. The money would be given to Americans who were affected by the Iraqi invasion of neighbouring Kuwait in 1990, a senior Iraqi government official was cited as saying by the Associated Press news agency on Saturday.
“This agreement is related to the invasion of Kuwait during the former regime time. Saddam detained US citizens as human shields, and he did torture,” the official, who did not want to be named, said.
The official said that Baghdad had agreed to pay about $400m to the claimants.”
Apparently it is to grease the international wheels of justice and hopefully allow the sanctions against Iraq to be lifted.
“The agreement, signed by US and Iraqi officials, ends years of legal battles and could help Iraq emerge from United Nations sanctions put in place two decades ago. Baghdad would need the help of the Washington to remove the sanctions, and the settlement may remove what has been a stumbling block between the two sides.”
While the US is at it I think they should demand reparations from Nicaragua, Vietnam and the Philippines as they to all had the indecency not to bow immediately before imperial policy.
I am going to use the discussion points found on RichardDawkins.net as the basis of this feature.
Calilasseia is the author of the post and deserves many rich accolades for assembling so much useful information in one spot. This constitutes an open thread of sorts, please leave your opinions and observations in the comment section.
Enjoy!
[18] The argument via link to crap websites/copy-paste screed/crap YouTube video.
By now, those who have been paying attention know what’s coming next. So, if you haven’t been paying attention, you’re in for a shock.
Time and time again, we see creationists turning up, posting a one-line post consisting of a link to some worthless apologetics website, thinking that they’re going to “stick it to the stoopid atheists”. Aside from the fact that this is terminally lazy, and merely demonstrates that the poster couldn’t be bothered to present the “arguments” contained in said link using original prose of his or her own devising (which requires one to have actually bothered to read the apologetics in question, which a surprisingly large number of link spammers never do), the fatuousness of this approach should become evident very quickly upon asking the following question. If you are told that you have been diagnosed with a brain tumour, who are you going to ask to remove it? Are you going to ask a professional neurosurgeon, who has trained for years specifically to perform this operation, or are you going to ask a football coach?
If that question seems inane to you, then it is MEANT to seem inane. Specifically for the purpose of bringing into sharp relief the inanity involved in pointing to an apologetics website as a purported source of “scientific” knowledge, as opposed to pointing to the website of, say, an actual university evolutionary biology department, or the website of an actual evolutionary biologist, or the website of a scientific journal that publishes papers in this field. If you think some wank-break televangelist in a $5,000 suit paid for by gullible rubes is somehow an “expert” in the field, then once again, you really are in need of an education. Which of course brings us back to [2] above.
Let’s get this straight once and for all. Websites devoted to religious apologetics are worthless as sources of genuine scientific information. If you want real scientific information, you go to a professional scientist, a professional scientific body, or a professional scientific journal. This is why science textbooks are written by actual scientists. Because, in case you hadn’t worked this out, these are the people who know, and who are paid to know. I don’t care how many people purportedly possessing Ph.Ds are cited by your favourite apologetics website, this is irrelevant, because the mere fact that those people are contributing to that website means that they are NOT practising real science, they are practising apologetics, which again brings us back to [2] above. Which means that the likes of AiG, ICR, the Discovery Institute and the various other organisations that act as ideological stormtroopers for mythology-based doctrine are worthless from the standpoint of disseminating genuine scientific information, because their primary interest is apologetics. Their primary interest is propagandising for mythology. As a consequence, these websites frequently misrepresent valid science (again, see [2] above). Indeed, several of them peddle outright lies about science (see [3] above, where I provide a handy link to the destruction of one instance of said lies). Consequently, if you come here linking to one of these organisations, the response from the critical thinkers here will be to go into petunias mode (again, see Douglas Adams for the reference).
Whilst we’re here, I might as well address the related argument by copy-paste screed canard, which fits in here too. Copying and pasting a large wall of text from an apologetics website, dumping it here in the same manner in which an incontinent baby dumps the contents of its nappies on the floor, then running off thinking that you have somehow “refuted” valid science, merely earns you our lasting scorn and derision. Even more so if there is a stark contrast between the literacy level of the copy-paste screed, and that of posts containing your own words. If you are unable to spell words of more than five letters correctly when writing your own posts, and unable to post more than, say, 15 words in such posts, then suddenly unleash a wall of text upon us, the critical thinkers will know what they’re dealing with, and the resulting savaging that your posts will receive will not be pretty to watch. Picture the spectacle that would result if you slashed a baby with a Stanley knife, then tossed it into a piranha infested river. That’s what will happen to your posts.
The same spectacle will result if you post a link to, or embed, a crap YouTube video. If we see John Pendelton, Kent Hovind or any of the other well-known charlatans appearing, or for that matter any of the well-known wannabees, popping up in the video clip, other than for the purpose of having their execrable ignorance, stupidity and wilful dishonesty eviscerated, then your post gets the piranha treatment.
We need more of this, because secular rationality, like syntax and grammar are highly overrated.
The religiously deluded are up to their old tricks. The corporate media will always take the easy story as it will sell ads, and ads are what they all about. The disproportionate amount of attention this church and pastor have received shows how completely our news agencies are failing in their duty to provide citizens with information that is relevant to their lives.
“A Florida minister who had been considering burning copies of the Qur’an to mark the anniversary of 9/11 will not go ahead with the plan on Saturday, his son said.
“There will be no Qur’an burning tomorrow,” Terry Jones’s 29-year old son, Luke Jones, told reporters outside his father’s Gainesville church Friday. But Luke Jones said he did not know if it might happen in the future.”
Kind of anti-climactic after all the hoopla. It is almost like they realized they were acting like douche-nozzles and decided to retreat from the stupidity of their position.
“On a confusing Thursday, Jones initially said he had decided to call off the burning because of a deal negotiated with Musri that organizers of the effort to build an Islamic centre near Ground Zero had agreed to move its location.
Musri replied that he could only set up a meeting with Rauf.
Later that night, Jones claimed Musri “clearly, clearly lied to us” about the centre being moved.”
Typical christain mendacity as the meeting with the Imam seems to only have happened in Jones’s mind. But, blaming the other party for your failure is pretty much standard operation procedure.
The next quote is from President Obama who waded into this story, giving it undeserved legitimacy. He pontificates about how bad this whole situation could potentially be and how it will affect America’s image abroad. All Obama needed to do was dismiss this menagerie of clowns and continue with matters that were actually relevant to the American people. But he does not:
“Earlier Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama said that burning copies of the Qur’an is “contrary to what [America] was
Giving unwarranted attention to the deluded.
founded on” and “the best imaginable recruiting tool for al-Qaeda.
Speaking at a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Obama referred to but did not name Terry Jones.
“The idea that we would burn the sacred texts of someone else’s religion is contrary to what this country stands for,” Obama said. “It’s contrary to what this nation was founded on, and my hope is that this individual prays on it and refrains from doing it.”
Obama had already condemned Jones’s plan, joining other political leaders, top military officials and foreign dignitaries who have said burning the Qur’an would provoke militants in Afghanistan and put the lives of international soldiers in jeopardy.”
Newsflash: American’s reputation abroad sucks. This particular incident, given the general foreign policy direction of the US, is minor compared to what the US currently doing.
It enlightening to watch as one group of religious crazies can derail the entire media cycle, but hey, forgoing responsible reporting and instead prioritizing profits is all we can really expect of the news media these days. If they had only covered the story like this:
This article from Al Jazeera is yet another exemplar of how societies, if they wish to have freedom and human rights as key features, must steer away from theocracy and toward rational, secular rule.
Religion: Persecuting and possibly executing human rights activists.
Shiva Nazar-Ahari charged with “warring against God” and having links to opposition groups as trial opens in Tehran.
A court in Tehran, the Iranian capital, has tried a female human rights activist and journalist on charges including “warring against God,” which has the potential punishment of death.
Shiva Nazar-Ahari, 26, went on trial on Saturday “on charges of Moharebeh [warring against God], conspiring and gathering to commit a crime, propaganda against the regime and harming public order,” Mohammad Sharif, her lawyer, said.
How lovely; and sadly, unsurprising as the corrosive effects of religion are clearly on display for the world to see. Where religion is a dominant force we can simply toss away rational thought and belief in reality. You can be put to death for creating war on fictive characters that most likely do not exist.
Consider, if god is omnipotent, does he really need to be defended by mere mortals? I would think that if he existed he could deal quite succinctly with anyone that brought war to his house. However, in context of a human based and perpetuated theocracy that will actually kill people who dare to question its bullshite beliefs the reasons are evident. Persecuting people for calling the deluded on their fatuous nonsense becomes a useful method for dealing with dissent and rational objections to state endorsed mythology.
“But the story here is not about a trial or seeking to get to the bottom of a crime. It is about trying to created a narrative that the authorities would like to portrary about justifying the continued clampdown that we are seeing in this country.
A sham trial that is propping up a vapid theocracy, nothing new here. Expect more to come soon as Tehran roots out more people who dare to make war on imaginary beings.
*Update: The situation is not improving.
Sociological Images always has something disturbing or depressing. Today is a little of both.
“This also nicely illustrates male privilege in the last panel, and how the worst problems with street harassment often don’t come from the men on the street harassing you – but rather from the prevailing attitudes among society/other men that it’s something you should welcome.”
*sigh*
Can religion get any more insipidly weird? Apparently the answer is yes.
DIGHTON —
“Phone calls from God still had some children in awe Thursday morning at St. Nicholas of Myra vacation bible school.
“He told me to fish for people,” 8-year-old Noelle Nunes said, “and tell everyone about him.”
“He told me to follow in his footsteps,” 7-year-old Jack Dubois said. “The phone call really surprised me. He didn’t say an awful lot, he just told me to follow him.”
Every child participating in this program received a call from God Wednesday as they took part in games, music and crafts all this week at the church’s vacation bible school.
Impersonating god is a no-no according the christian magic book of choice, but hey if it reinforces the tragic brainwashing endured by children it must be good.
I’m just waiting till someone tries to rig a talking burning bush – Hilarity, I promise, would ensue.
Phone calls from and singing with god!
Oh to be at the table for this meeting. Eddie ‘Big Oil’ Stelmach and the Pembina institute are going to talk about the Tarsands in Alberta and their viability as a resource for the US.
“Premier Ed Stelmach is scheduled to meet with the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, next Wednesday in Ottawa. The powerful U.S. Democrat is a key figure in the debate over energy resources and she wants to know more about the Alberta oilsands.”
The initial reports were that it was only going to be the oil companies front man our democratically elected and beloved Premier. This however is not the case. The Pembina Institute has also been invited to participate in the meeting with Pelosi.
“Marlo Raynolds, the executive director of environmental think-tank Pembina Institute, has been invited to join a round-table discussion with Pelosi on Thursday along with other non-governmental organizations and First Nations groups.
“I think this is probably one of the most important meetings that the Pembina Institute has been invited to,” he said.”
I can just imagine the dear leaders eyes rolling as his governments assertions about the oilsands will actually be scrutinized and called into question. Poisoning the Athabasca river in the name of resource extraction might not fly too well with Pelosi. Not that our magnanimous government would consider covering up or smearing people who have the audacity to raise concerns about what is happening to the people and the environment because of the tarsands resource extraction project. After-all, what is a little more cancer and increased mortality for Fort Chipewyan, compared with serving the energy needs of the USA? (See the study here and the controversy about the study here.)
Forest Ethics has been kicking up quite a fuss over the carbon output of Oil Sands, enough of a stink to cause many major US corporations to exclude Alberta crude from their lists of energy suppliers. Oil courtier Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach’s role in the upcoming meeting becomes a little more clear as Stelmack’s concern for corporate profit the people of Alberta will be front and centre on his agenda.
My hope is that the Pembina Institutes’s representative can interject some much needed balance and a people based perspective to counter the corrosive effects of a mendacious PR campaign our province has been waging trumpeting how awesome the Oil Sands are.
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