Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
-
On corrupt politicians and the media
An Irish Senator, Shane Ross, wrote a quite staggering article in the Irish Sunday Indepedent last Sunday, 23 March. I was incensed after reading it. Senator Ross indicates, by implication in his argument, that it ok to evade tax, and basically to rob banks. It forms a part of an argument about Ireland’s former leader…
-
Apologies
Sorry I haven’t blogged today – had a few things to do. Will be blogging tomorrow about Ireland’s ‘Great Man’ – Charles J. Haughey.
-
Editing war
I was pointed to the site ogrish.com by Bernie – to be honest some of the pictures are sickening. As are many of the pictures on AlJazeera’s website. Of interest to me was one particular picture that I am posting for only one reason – its ‘sanitisation’. I will not normally be posting these images.…
-
Saddam starts to sound more like his hero, Stalin
Robert Fisk of the Independent is currently writing his stories from Baghdad. Some of the things he mentions are interesting – and I have thought about the way in which the Iraqi Ministers give the dead and wounded statistics – they don’t appear over the top, and are quite believeable given the scale of UK-US…
-
Martin Amis – The Palace of the End
On March 4 2003, the Guardian published an article by Martin Amis. It was entitled ‘Palace of the End’. I read the article and gave a synopsis of it on that day. The article has since been taken down from the Guardian’s website. But literally hundreds of people are looking for the article – I…
-
War in Iraq: Christina Lamb
Karlin has a text exerpt from a radio show, Pat Kenny on Radio 1 (Ireland), in which London Times journalist Christina Lamb made some interesting observations. I listened to the show at the time, but as usual, Karlin beat me to the blog story. Here is some of what Christina notes: I’m not under any…
-
Death to French Fries: Matthew Engel
Matthew Engel has a funny take on the ‘French Fries’ story. He wonders why the French have become the enemy when the war is being fought against the Iraqi regime. He hints that making France the enemy was a pursued policy of the UK and US. I would be inclined to agree. Many of the…
-
Suddenly, the government of the United States has discovered the virtues of international law
George Monbiot again this week. He deals with the issue ot PoWs, and their rights. Monbiot questions the anger of the US administration at TV pictures of captured US soldiers – because they have done far worse to the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay. His argument is telling here: The US government claims that these men…
-
Why now?: Richard Norton-Taylor
Richard Norton-Taylor exposes a large amount of dissent within the British government concerning any war with Iraq. He reports that many withing the British security establishment feel that any invasion of Iraq, would simply lead to more Islamic extremists. As a leaked secret document from the defence intelligence staff puts it: “Al-Qaida will take advantage…
-
Troops find hidden Iraqi cruise missiles
This is very disturbing indeed, if true. It could mean there are many more bunkers like this in Iraq, and such weapons could lengthen the war dramatically. But the most disturbing find was two Russian-made Harith cruise missiles, each six metres (20ft) long, and nine warheads hidden in two enormous, reinforced-concrete bunkers.
Got any book recommendations?