Category Archives: Middle east

Who let the loons out?

June 18, 2008 – 6:43 pm

I’ve always been a bit suspicious of the concerns about leftist academic bias common on the right. The central issue for me is fairness, not politics. As long as academics and teachers mark fairly, I’m not too worried if they believe that we’re all secretly manipulated by a race of purple midgets living on Mars [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Academia, Fark! | Comments (22)

“You have to die, so that I can live.”

February 20, 2008 – 6:33 pm

Last night, I watched a rather depressing documentary on SBS called The Anatomy of Evil. It was about people who perpetrate genocide. I’ve been morbidly fascinated with this question for a while now, as I’ve explained in an earlier post. I’ve never quite been able to fathom how people could shoot/gas/blow up an innocent civilian.
This [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Politics, Religion, Terrorism | Comments (19)

Egypt and FGM

June 30, 2007 – 12:58 pm

It’s awful that it has taken the death of a 12 year old girl to precipitate change, but it is good that Egypt is now looking at banning female genital mutilation outright. Even more positively, leaders in the Sunni Muslim and Coptic Christian communities have spoken out unequivocally against the practice, which is practiced by [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Feminism | Comments (1)

An apposite quotation

December 30, 2006 – 11:36 am

Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them. -T.S. Eliot, poet (1888-1965)
I found this nice little quotation today. It encapsulates my own opinion on these matters so pithily, concisely and, [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Politics | Comments (2)

Middle Eastern Misery

December 14, 2006 – 2:34 pm

It’s a sad world. I read in the paper yesterday that the Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon turned up to the Iranian Holocaust denial “conference” organised by President Ahmadinejad.
I wonder if the Grand Dragon is aware of the history of Iran? Iran’s official religion is Shi’a Islam. As a result of the 1979 Islamic revolution, [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Politics | Comments (2)

More on the Middle East and Anti-Semitism

September 6, 2006 – 4:23 am

I refer to my earlier posts on the Middle East and Anti-Semitism. Simplistic portrayals of Middle Eastern issues are divisive and unhelpful. It seems that there are big problems on university campuses with some “left-wing” groups who take a simple line that Israel (and therefore Jewish people) are evil. I was very pleased to read [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Politics | Comments (0)

A rant about anti-Semitism

August 20, 2006 – 1:21 am

I don’t know why some particular groups in society seem to attract conspiracy theories: for example, Jews, Cathars, Masons, Opus Dei…to name a few. I never heard anyone say “I want to kill that Presbyterian”, or of an allegation that there is a Taoist plot to control the world.
An issue which has been eating away [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Politics | Comments (9)

The Middle East - How has it come to this?

July 21, 2006 – 11:38 am

I have been inspired by CeeCee’s post on the topic of the Middle East. How have things reached the point where there is open warfare in the Middle East?
This is not a rant, but a layperson’s guide to Middle Eastern history and an exploration of how matters have escalated. I am attempting to provide an [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in History, Politics | Comments (1)

The Left and the Islamists

June 29, 2006 – 9:14 pm

I read Michael Gawenda’s opinion in The Age on 26 June 2006 with great interest. Essentially, it says that the liberal Left in America has lost its way, hating George Bush and all he stands for to the extent that it ends up siding with Islamist terrorists. Some of the left make excuses for the [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Politics | Comments (11)