tdaxp

Mike Daisey, the hillarious author of 21 Dog years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com, had his notes ruined during an assault during a walk-out. The whole thing is on Youtube, and Mike's blog.

Apparently, the criminal (Mike calls him a terrorist, and it's hard to disagree with that term) is a self-described Christian. Of course the assalut wasn't Christian. The assault was the opposite of Christian. This isolate crime -- this particular act of terror -- has a more in common with the Muslim cartoon riots. Which, perhaps, is appropriate. The assault against Mike Daisey is a perversion of a Christian, as Islam is an heresey of Christianity.

"Bush Turns to Fear-Mongering: Creation of 'Islamic' Bogeyman," by Juan Cole, Informed Comment, 6 September 2006, http://www.juancole.com/2006/09/bush-turns-to-fear-mongering-creation.html.

The latest column by Juan Cole (a Professor at the University of Michigan) is his usual semi-factual self

Iran has not launched a war on a neighbor since the late 1700s.

True... ish. (Never mind that in the Tanker War, Kuwait required assistance of both the Soviet Union and the United States to protect her ships from Iranian aggression.

Another comment comparing the Syrian regime to California New-Agers must be read in context to be believed.

Next, Dr. Cole attacks the usual enemies -- Christians and Texans

If you want to know what is really going on, it is a struggle for control of the Strategic Ellipse, which just happens demographically to be mostly Muslim. Bush has to demonize the Muslim world in order to justify his swooping down on the Strategic Ellipse. If demons occupy it, obviously they have to be cleared out in favor of Christian fundamentalists or at least Texas oilmen.

This paragraph leads to an interesting map where Cole defines a "strategic ellipse." The map combines the best of Barnettian and Spykmanian geopolitics.



Leaving aside Cole's incoherent rant, what we are left with is the fact that much of the world's oil and gas comes from countries we don't much trust. Hopefully President Bush is serious about a geogreen gas tax.

Note: This is a selection from Network Politics, a tdaxp series.

"The Power of the Mustard Seed: Why strict churches are strong," by Judith Shulevitz, Slate, 12 May 2005, http://www.slate.com/id/2118313/?GT1=6443.

Pre-Modern Politics (PMP), also called 0th Generational War (0GW), is hierarchical and family-based.
4th Generation of Modern Politics (4GP or 4GW) is flat and ideology-based

When PMP and 4GP forces combine, they are very powerful

Judy Shulevitz starts by wondering by stricter faiths -- religions harder to observe -- have been growing while more licentious churches have been failing

It isn't easy to explain why some people submit enthusiastically to religious law, especially when you're talking to people who have never had the slightest desire to do so. Why limit yourself to a "theology of the body," as the late Pope John Paul II called it, when birth control and stem-cell research promise relief from two of the most painful vicissitudes of bodily existence, unwanted pregnancy and degenerative disease? Why restrict yourself to kosher food, when kashrut relies on zoological classifications that went out of date thousands of years ago?

Then Shulevitz describes a Laurence Iannacconne essay -- Why Strict Churches are Strong...