Quick Roundup 31

Is "Junkalanche" a word?

I would like to thank Steve "Junkman" Milloy, the publisher of JunkScience.com, for linking to my article "Beware of Greens Bearing Nukes".

(I think the link will eventually be archived here. In either case, search the term "nukes" to find the link.)

Selective Confidence

And on the subject of environmentalism, The Charlotte Capitalist provides the following excellent quotation from George Reisman:

The environmental movement maintains that science and technology cannot be relied upon to build a safe atomic power plant, to produce a pesticide that is safe, or even to bake a loaf of bread that is safe, if that loaf of bread contains chemical preservatives.

When it comes to global warming, however, it turns out that there is one area in which the environmental movement displays the most breathtaking confidence in the reliability of science and technology, an area in which, until recently, no one, not even the staunchest supporters of science and technology, had ever thought to assert very much confidence at all. The one thing, the environmental movement holds, that science and technology can do so well that we are entitled to have unlimited confidence in them is forecast the weather for the next one hundred years!

Happy Blogiversary!

Fellow submarine blogger Vigilis has been on patrol in the blogosphere aboard Molten Eagle for a year now!

Spiritual Expropriation

China, which has banned his movie Brokeback Mountain, is heaping praise on its director, Ang Lee, on the heels of his being named "Best Director" at the Oscars.

Perhaps, if China spent less time playing "thought policeman", and more time protecting the rights of its citizens to think and act freely, it would have a lot more to be proud of from many more of its own citizens. Indeed, some of them might even do great things without having to live outside China!

America's Ticking Bomb

At MEMRI is an article that echoes some things that I and others have said about the attraction that radical Islam holds for some youth in our country. However, it comes this time from the horse's mouth:

At a time when Arab and Islamic leaders and organizations are investing great efforts and large amounts of money and time in order to improve the image of Islam and of the Muslims, some imams are working in an organized manner to brainwash adolescents in the Muslim community and to plant bogus ideas in their minds concerning Islam, jihad, takfir [accusing other Muslims of apostasy], heresy and the way [Muslim] society has strayed from the right path. They give them interpretations of Koranic verses that have been [deliberately] chosen so as to lead them to rebel against their parents, their families, and even against the society in which they live.

[The youths] neglect their studies and spend their time watching videotapes and listening to audio tapes - most of which are given to them for free - on ways to train Muslim youth in military and ideological jihad, along with reports on the suffering of Muslims in some Muslim countries, as well as Koranic verses and sermons that encourage jihad, martyrdom, self-sacrifice, and the striking of terror into the hearts of the enemy.

While I don't think that Islam (or any other religion) will lead to civilized behavior if taught consistently, I would agree that the vestiges of civilized behavior are lost during the imperfect cultural transmission from parent to child of which Muhriz al-Husseini, who is the editor of a U.S. Arabic newspaper, speaks.

He also points to some features of "vulnerable" youths.

[These agents] then pass them on to religious propagandists, who live in a number of American cities. The most important criteria for choosing these youths are their natural propensity for rebellion, their lack of fluency in Arabic... [and] their feelings of alienation and suffering due to their indeterminate identity - that is, [their] identity that is neither Eastern nor Western, but split...

The imperfect cultural transmission I am far more concerned about, however, is our own. Multiculturalism is largely to blame for the lack of a "Western identity" in these youths. And given our educational system, I'd add that these youths are not only non-fluent in Arabic, but also in the far more important basic elements of Western thought.

WWJT

Gideon Reich notes an attack on Bush's tax policy based on Christian principles.

Contrary to Dennis Prager, many people have no problem drawing the somewhat socialistic implications of these two ancient religions. C. S. Lewis in his Mere Christianity admitted that a truly Christian society would be more socialist society. Now, we have a detailed article (hat-tip Andrew Sullivan) that claims to be "An Evaluation of Federal Tax Policy Based on Judeo-Christian Ethics."

Related: WWJC.

Note to Self

Read this article on the daily habits of ten top executives (HT: David Veksler).

-- CAV

Updates

Today: Corrected WWJT, where I had mistakenly called the attack on Bush "from the religious right".