A Muslim's Defense of Geert Wilders

True democracy will always be an ass, rewarding and providing platforms to demagogues like Wilders, France's Jean Marie Le Pen and the British Nationalist Party. However, even such provide outlets for certain groupings in society, the disgruntled (and disillusioned), pessimistic, social illiterate paranoids. It merely proves that they too have a voice, as should anyone else for that matter.



Society as structured today, especially in an urban setting, provides the biggest ever test on tolerance and suchlike. We unconsciously hold our ways of doing things superior to any other offerings, creating ground for bigotry and the kind of xenophobia as Wilders and company seem intent on. Yet all this boils down to insecurities that humans are incessantly plagued with.



Jailing him makes him a martyr to his core constiuency, thus creating an undeserving hero. What is the alternative viewpoint on this one from his immediate society and what does the administration of the day think? Such views could have provided some different slant to this piece and allowed for better debate.



Democracy in summary is all about either having your cake or opting to eat the same.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Calls the Question on Geithner

Wow to the analysis. Sounds, from the article, that all the Obama administration was doing is apply band aid to severe wounds. Was it damage control or some attempt at finding solutions. Instead of apportioning blame as suggested by some, why not solve it first then discuss options when the whole mess is getting cleaned up? At this precise moment, who started the fire isn't as important as putting it out.



As pointed out, the US economy is in more trouble than 90s Japan, in the sense of massive debts and deficits especially from a trade point of view. Seems to me like Obama's regime is making an attempt to resolve this, beginning with an honest audit of what banks are really up to. Will the financial sector reforms eventually reach the privileged and seemingly untouchable Wall Street? That coupled with this veto might prove quite a blow to Geithner, a product (and beneficiary) of WS.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

<em>Shadow Elite</em>: The Small Government Lie - How <em>Both</em> Parties Stood By as Our Government Burned

Interesting area of debate. What should form government priority? The people from whom it gets its funding, yeah even the Gene Cranick's, or should it walk around with some list of taxpayers who will receive first priority in services? Is Cranick any less of a citizen as others who pay up their required fees? Should the ordinary citizen give up on the government altogether and seek own solutions to problems? Who is the government anyway? Isn't it the very Cranick whose house the fire department allowed to burn?



Government would ordinarily arrest Cranick for non-payment of tax, right? Why then should his house be allowed to burn just because he's not paid up the requisite fees? I don't envy the government in this one.



The citizen must come first and this is one area politics is totally incapable of dealing with. Thomas Browne: Government is too big and important to be left to politicians.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Lou Dobbs, Hypocrisy and Corporate Power

Even hypocrites like Dobbs reveal some truths about the human condition. We are all beneficiaries of roads, bridges we never built, nor wells we never dug, but forgetting is a human speciality. It is even more so once we've benefited, and then the railing begins. Dobbs, like the political types in Congress and elsewhere might just be a reflection of larger society or even ourselves.



The US is one of the economies that have benefited from other cultures, mostly foreign, but it's not unique. All major empires did, at macro level, just like all of us do at micro level. Can any economy, leave alone the US, function minus such illegal workers? Even here, one might not employ a foreign national, but we do employ child labor. Isn't that just a variation of this theme?



Hypocrisy is so deeply ingrained in the human condition that it would be near impossible to start highlighting specific cases. If the question of what you're doing about it was posed back to you, how would you go about answering it?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Glenn Beck Mocks Fire Victims, Reaches New Depths of Awfulness

I'm currently watching the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies, and keep connecting something to this seemingly ubiquitous Glenn Beck. Is Beck like Freddie Kruger, in the sense that once unmentioned he'll fade away? Maybe it's time this guy was given a media blackout. He's despicable and a lowlife.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Religious People Must Rally to Restore Sanity

You're right Mikdow. Crusades weren't about religion, that was the pretext. Jerusalem, subject of interest by christianity and the Saracens, was a figurehead, point of reference, a bragging point. Whoever won it first would be able to call out checkmate and thus "win" over the loser.



People of similar religion in Ireland, used the divide into catholic and protestant was a justification to either support England (the colonizer and predominantly protestant) or stand on the other side (catholic).



Relgion in ancient Egypt was used to create a master ruling class, who would in turn enslave others (the ruled), a model replicated by Hinduism in India, with Brahmins (priest caste), over everyone else, and in particular the lower castes from where much of labor and taxes emanate.



I still call this unfortunate and totally lacking in genuineness. Humans always seem to desire fights, and it's double sad when the deity's name is used as one more excuse.
About Jon Stewart
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

What Is Femininity?

For once a feminist article that is relatively non-threatening and sober. No offense.



Humans, let alone males and females, are different, period. Not superior or inferior, just different. We were created alike, born only with spit in the mouth, and all other accidents of birth notwithstanding, what works in us is more or less the same. We do possess different personalities, and that's valid, but human history shows the race getting carried away by differences rather than focusing on similarities.



It's never a competition, and the earlier we can ever figure that out the better for all concerned. What we lack most of all is honesty in dialogue. An interesting read to me.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost