This article in the International News is a good response to two articles in the New York Times, one by Nick Kristof, and one by Tom Friedman. Implicit in the article are two points: there is a difference between giving someone fish (charity) and teaching him to fish (development), and it’s not the white man’s burden anymore.
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Violating the Saints – NYTimes.com
She gets that we can no longer politicize religion and hope that it stays “safe.” Violating the Saints – NYTimes.com. There is no poetry in the aftermath of a bombing. After the initial fireball, there’s choking black smoke, people running everywhere, screaming in fear and panic. There is blood, and body parts strewn on the ground. Rescue workers must claw their way inside, facing searing heat and burning wreckage, to find what little remains of both the victims and the perpetrators.
NYPD’s Religious Profiling – Ta-Nehisi Coates – National – The Atlantic
NYPD’s Religious Profiling – Ta-Nehisi Coates – National – The Atlantic. This where you see the really long-term effects of terrorism. It’s not simply the number of people you murder, it’s how the smallest can alter the character of a country. Some incompetent asshole straps a bomb to his underwear, and now we have to get full body scans. The free exchange of ideas is one of democracy’s greatest benefits. Universities, ostensibly, are supposed to showcase that more than anywhere else. But for want of conjured evil, we’re willing to part with that asset.
Tempting Faith
For those of you haven’t heard yet, a new book is coming out Monday called Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction. Written by David Kuo, who was a well-placed person in the Office of Faith Based initiatives, it details how the Bush administration used faith to further a political agenda. Via Street Prophets, I found this interview hosted on Crooks and Liars. To me the most pertinent passage is: One official who rated grant applications told Kuo, “ when I saw one of those non-Christian groups in the set I was reviewing, I just stopped looking at them…