By tom | September 22, 2005
Homosexuals, even those who are celibate, will be barred from becoming Roman Catholic priests, a church official said Wednesday, under stricter rules soon to be released on one of the most sensitive issues facing the church
This statement – in today’s New York Times – has put me in a spin. While there is a case [...]
By tom | September 20, 2005
The International Herald Tribune reports on the death sentence passed on Iwan Darmawan for his part in the bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004. So pleased was he that Darmawan told reporters:
I am thankful for being sentenced to death. I am happy because I will die a martyr
Now let’s get this straight. [...]
By tom | September 14, 2005
Our fears are not unfounded.
I have long come to terms with the evil axis that exists between yoga and surfing: the postures and style, the serenity within both, plus the contributions they make toward increasing my Cool potency – at least in my mind.
Now the Circle is encircled, the triumvirate Trinitised. The terrain of [...]
By tom | September 1, 2005
Some of the hyperbole surrounding the recent hurricane in the American South is thrown into relief by Fletch:
I swear, if i hear another American Reporter on CNN describe Hurricane ‘Katrina’ as the ‘American Tsunami’ I’m going to go off my trolly…
Correct. The levee of “perspective” seems to have been swept away by the hurricane. [...]
Hot on the heels of the Danes’ “sexual health is a human right” debate, our friends in the Persian Gulf have returned to an earlier justification of the State’s telos without resorting to a rights-based argument; rather, it recalls a notion of justice. Justice, however, is far and away a lofty ideal and the long [...]
The little one has been busy working on the site. Moved by cajoles, strained by a lack of nicotine and forcefully driven to the arms of unsociability, what’s left of my self is found here.
Little of the old site remains, and what remains has been re-cast in alternative form, in part as a response [...]
Someone good-hearted, and thus ever-so-naive, thought of the wonders he could achieve – presumably to provoke the UN to action – if only the International Community could agree upon a working definition of “terrorism”. He offered:
“Terrorism is the deliberate targeting by an individual, a group of people or a state of non-combatant civilians with an [...]
By tom | December 4, 2004
How the mighty have fallen. The BBC fell victim to an “elaborate hoax” perpetrated by those Fight Clubesque “Yes Men”. Their logic is ancient:
“Yes men are people who agree with the boss. They are constantly nodding to advance themselves. We agree extra wholeheartedly with people, not to advance ourselves but to make clear what [...]
By tom | October 26, 2004
So our friend has been re-elected. Why this should be so remains a mystery to most of us present here at IMD. What is our response? Do we shrug our shoulders and wander our own way? Do we condem democracy – or the democratic process – for its apparent irrationality? Indeed, can we not [...]
By tom | October 22, 2004
The year’s end is near and so is the Thai Prime Minister’s. I wonder what the ubiquitous international community has to say about the Thai approach to conflict resolution.
Sometimes I despair. Religious conflict is part of South East Asia’s awakening, as much as the Inquisition, the Templars and Cathars were constitutive of Europe’s medieval making. [...]
