The Mosque at Ground Zero

This is an article I wrote today

Amplify’d from www.examiner.com

One can only be concerned over the politicization of the controversy surrounding plans to build an Islamic center and mosque near the site of the World Trade Center. Elected officials have gone on record opposing the development of a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero.

So. "Is building a mosque 2 blocks from ground zero a good idea?" is not the right question (at least not the right question if one is trying to decide whether or not it should be permitted). The right questions are these: "Is it legal to be Muslim in America?" and "Has the 1st amendment of the US Bill of Rights been repealed?" Frankly I am a little afraid when elected officials are willing to ignore or violate the US Constitution. What if tomorrow someone doesn't like my religion? And the day after that the governor doesn't like your religion?Read more at www.examiner.com

 

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The Mosque at Ground Zero - New York Church & State | Examiner.com

The Mosque at Ground Zero - New York Church & State | Examiner.com

Concrete barrier removed in Jerusalem

"The situation greatly improved."

News about LESS conflict in Jerusalem.

Did you see or hear about it in any news source?

Amplify’d from www.upi.com

Concrete barrier removed in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- The dismantling began Sunday of a concrete barrier erected in the second intifada to protect Jerusalem residents from Palestinian sniper fire.

At the outbreak of the second intifada in October 2000, Palestinian snipers positioned themselves in Beit Jalla -- separated by a deep gorge from the Jerusalem neighborhood -- and shot at Israelis.

A decision was made two years later to erect high concrete barriers along the side of the neighborhood that overlooks the Palestinian areas, to enhance residents' security.

Home Front command officer Lt. Gen. Hezi Revivo Sunday said a decision was made to dismantle the barrier because of the greatly improved situation.

"The security situation in the area has greatly improved in recent years and there is no need to leave the barrier standing. However, if in the future the situation deteriorates and residents once again are threatened, we will erect it again," he told Israel Radio. Read more at www.upi.com

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Values in Knowledge Foundation

On August 10, 2010 the State of New York granted incorporation to the Values in Knowledge Foundation.

We are very excited for the official launch of this project.

Please visit the site as we begin the important work of the foundation.

Thank you

The end is near

Here's a comical piece of autobiographical bias



Naff is fine with scientific doomsday, but still finds room in his self-delight to disparage Christian believers

Amplify’d from www.huffingtonpost.com

You might think that scientists and Evangelicals have nothing in common. But you'd be wrong. Large numbers of both agree on one thing: the end is near.

A few years back, Sir Martin Rees, Britain's Royal Astronomer, published a book titled Our Final Century, in which he put the odds of human survival through this century at no better than 50-50. Now, biologist Frank Fenner, who played a key role in ending the scourge of smallpox, says the end is certain.

Fundies entertain no such doubts. Preacher Tim LaHaye and his potboiler copilot Jerry Jenkins have made a vast fortune describing the gory biblical end they gleefully anticipateRead more at www.huffingtonpost.com

 

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Getting in (and Out of) Line

The article might be a touch better written but it's observation is inventive and important.



It examines "queuing" as a sign of cultural and social evolution, and raises an important warning of reversion to a more subtle form of the old rudeness.

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

The reality may be more complicated, though, for in India and elsewhere, the reigning idea of modernity involves not just an evolution into queuing but also an evolution out. As scrums succumb to queues, queues are succumbing to the free market.

But the market also changes a culture. A line conceives of people as citizens, presumed equal, each with an identical 24 hours a day to spread among the lines around them. A market conceives of people as consumers, presumed unequal, with those who can pay in front of the others. It allocates efficiently, but it eliminates a feature of line culture: the idea that, in line at least, we are no better than anybody else.

In a way, the market’s spread is a return to another kind of scrum, one in which financial, and not physical, might means right. Perhaps one day lines will be remembered as antique, a quaint system in which things were granted simply for having shown up early, an interlude of relative equality between the scrums that reigned before and after. Read more at www.nytimes.com

 

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Gorilla glass, invented in 1962

Gorilla glass, invented in 1962