You are the Good

Two hundred years ago a tyrant bestrode the world, trampling nations and cultures and peoples, crushing them and destroying and killing on a massive scale unseen before in the world. If this Colossus had been a better man than Napoleon, perhaps we might not be so sickened by his works. But who other than a monster would act in such a way? What man of faith could walk on the earth and look down at a bleeding world beneath him and think, "This is the Good."

More at: http://nodhimmitude.blogspot.com/2010/09/you-are-good.html

Before the brutal rain of years weather the pretty Muslim....

I have it in mind that Abdooss the Anonymous is a delicate young thing who has yet to learn the nature of Nature and his/her place in the hard matrix of it. Worse still for those of us sensitive to the pointless but inevitable suffering of the weak and timid, the innocent and naive. Abdooss will suffer, will sometimes scream, will likely die in misery after a life of Man in the world. Such is life. I like it, myself, in spite of the pain I see others suffering. It's not a just world we live in, it's just the best we can do. And the best I can do for the young Muslim who wonders why we war and why against his innocence, I present the following tale of woe and laughing horror to lighten the coming years, one drop at a time.

She looked still surprised when she told me the other young men on the boat didn’t like her boyfriend, there being no reason she could see for them not liking him, he being attractive and nice, courteous and kind. The other young men on the boat tormented him, seemingly for his time in the army, which she felt was unfair to him, he having been conscripted. And she sighed and looked dreamy when she said he fell overboard one evening and was caught in the boat propellers, how awful it was to see him like that, how she’d never forget him. “He was so nice, you know.”

I do know. I recall laughing out loud when she told me that. ...

http://nodhimmitude.blogspot.com/2008/02/drop-in-river-of-time-1.html

Is Justice Private?

Somali pirates have increasingly been attacking international ships in the past few years, and though there have been few deaths of civilians, there is some large concern over the safety of ship crews and the need for commerce to continue in the world even at the risk of death of pirates. Shipping continues despite the threat of Somali piracy. Now it comes to guns. Is it right or wrong to defend shipping and crews from violent, maybe not-so-violent, Somali pirates? After all, Somali pirates hardly ever kill civilians in the course of their attacks. Should we kill them anyway? And who has such a right-- if we do determine to kill Somali pirates? Do civilians have such a lawful right? Isn't it murder? Maybe, because Somalis do so little actual violence, and because they are driven to it by illegal dumping of toxic waste by capitalists who blithely poison Somali fishing grounds, the natives are simply getting some just but otherwise unforthcoming economic justice, and the capitalists are over-reacting to some poor fishermen who simply want to live and feed their families.

MORE.