What happened to turning the other cheek? Haha, I love the flying elbow dive by the monk in red at about 12 seconds in.
JERUSALEM — Rival monks brawled this Sunday at one of Christianity's holiest sites, and police have detained two clergymen for questioning.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says fighting erupted Sunday between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The church marks the traditional site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial and resurrection.
Police detained one monk from each side.
Rosenfeld says fighting flared over preparations for the annual ceremony held by the Armenians to commemorate the 4th century discovery of the cross believed to have been used to crucify Jesus.
Six Christian sects control the ancient church. They regularly fight over turf and influence, and Israeli police must occasionally intervene.
This should bode well for the McCain/Palin campaign...
Transcript Extracts:
Sarkozy: Yes, hello, Governor Palin. Yes hello, Mrs Governor? Palin: Hello, this is Sarah, how are you? S: Fine, and you? This is Nicolas Sarkozy speaking, how are you? P: Oooooh, it's so good, its so good to hear you. Thank you for calling us. S: Oh, it's a pleasure. P: Thank you sir, we have such great respect for you, John McCain and I. We love you! And thank you for taking a few minutes to talk to me. S: I follow your campaigns closely with my special American adviser Johnny Hallyday (NOTE: Hallyday is a French singer and actor), you know? P: Yes! Good.
S: You see, I got elected in France because I'm real and you seem to be someone who's real as well. P: Yes. Yeah. Nicolas, we so appreciate this opportunity S: You know I see you as a president one day, you too. P: (Giggle) Maybe in eight years! (Giggle)
S: Well, I hope for you. You know, we have a lot in common because personally one of my favourite activities is to hunt, too. P: Oh, very good! We should go hunting together! S: Exactly, we could go try hunting by helicopter like you did. I never did that. Like we say in French, on pourrait tuer des bebe phoques, aussi. (One could kill all the baby seals). P: Well, I think we could have a lot of fun together, as we're getting work done. We can kill two birds with one stone that way. S: I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun! Palin: (Giggle) S: I'd really love to go, so long as we don't bring Vice President Cheney. P: Noooo, I'll be a careful shot, yes.
S: Yes, you know we have a lot in common also, because except that from my house I can see Belgium. That's kind of less interesting than you. P: Well, see, we're right next door to different countries that we all need to be working with, yes.
S: Some people said in the last days - and I thought that was mean - that you weren't experienced enough in foreign relations and you know that's completely false. That's the thing I said to my great friend, the prime minister of Canada, Stef Carse (NOTE: Stef Carse is a Canadian singer). P: Well, he's doing fine, too, and yeah, when you come into a position underestimated it gives you an opportunity to prove the pundints (NOTE: she calls pundits pundints) and the critics wrong. You work that much harder.
S: I was wondering because you are so next to him, one of my good friends, the prime minister of Quebec, Mr Richard Z Sirois (NOTE: hes a Canadian comedian), have you met him recently? Did he come to one of your rallies? P: I haven't seen him at one of the rallies but it's been great working with the Canadian officials in my role as Governor. We have a great co-operative effort there as we work on all of our resource-development projects. You know, I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally and your beautiful wife. Oh my goodness! You've added a lot of energy to your country with that, ha, beautiful family of yours. S: Thank you very much. You know my wife Carla would love to meet you, even though you know she was a bit jealous that I was supposed to speak to you today. P: (Giggle) Well, give her a big hug for me. S: You know my wife is a popular singer and a former hot top model and she's so hot in bed. She even wrote a song for you. P: Oh my goodness! I didn't know that! S: Yes, in French it's called Le Rouge A Levres Sur Un Cochon (NOTE: it means Lipstick on a Pig), or if you prefer in English, Joe the Plumber...it's his life, Joe the Plumber. P: Maybe she understands some of the unfair criticism but I bet you she is such a hard worker, too, and she realizes you just plough through that criticism.
S: I just want to be sure. I dont quite understand the phenomenon Joe the Plumber. That's not your husband, right? P: That's not my husband but he's a normal American who just works hard and doesn't want government to take his money. S: Yes, yes, I understand we have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France. It's called Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit. P: Right, that's what it's all about, its the middle class and government needing to work for them. You're a very good example for us here.
S: I must say Governor Palin, I love the documentary they made on your life. You know, Hustler's Nailin' Palin? P: Ohh, good, thank you! Yes. S: That was really edgy. P: (Giggle) Well, good.
Another article by Sam Harris on Sarah Palin. Some highlights:
Palin may be a perfectly wonderful person, a loving mother and a great American success story—but she is a beauty queen/sports reporter who stumbled into small-town politics, and who is now on the verge of stumbling into, or upon, world history.
For all my concern about Bush's religious beliefs, and about his merely average grasp of terrestrial reality, I have never once thought that he was an over-the-brink, Rapture-ready extremist. Palin seems as though she might be the real McCoy.
Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated.
When asked why she is qualified to shoulder more responsibility than any person has held in human history, Palin cites her refusal to hesitate. "You can't blink," she told Gibson repeatedly, as though this were a primordial truth of wise governance. Let us hope that a President Palin would blink, again and again, while more thoughtful people decide the fate of civilization.
The actuarial tables on the Social Security Administration website suggest that there is a better than 10% chance that McCain will die during his first term in office. Needless to say, the Reaper’s scything only grows more insistent thereafter. Should President McCain survive his first term and get elected to a second, there is a 27% chance that Palin will become the first female U.S. president by 2015.
McCain has so little respect for the presidency of the United States that he is willing to put the girl next door (soon, too, to be a grandma) into office beside him.
In response to a greater than average amount of negative feedback, what follows is part of an addendum to the LA Times article Harris posted this on his website:
So, let me simply declare that I would be overjoyed to have a qualified woman in the White House. I would, likewise, be overjoyed to have a qualified African American in the White House. In fact, I would be overjoyed to have a qualified WASP man in the White House. I will be guardedly optimistic to have a very smart (and somewhat qualified) Barack Obama in the White House. And I would be frankly terrified to have a religious bumpkin like Sarah Palin in the White House. I think you should share this last conviction. Hence my latest opinion piece.
Christianity: The belief that some cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. Makes perfect sense.
I haven't been posting much lately because I was away on vacation last week and this trend is likely to continue as I resume school this fall. I will be posting more video playlists of debates and lectures in the short term - I just don't have enough time to compose any lengthy essays or rebuttals with everything that's going on.
Be on the look out for more Christopher Hitchens debates coming soon. To view my entire collection of video playlists visit my Youtube page: NCSkeptic.
In February, you said you might support vouchers and charter schools if empirical data showed that they improve education (some studies show that they do). Admirably, your position was, "I will not allow my predispositions to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn." After pressure from the teachers unions, you quickly backed off from that position, stating that your campaign doesn't support vouchers "in any shape or form." What prompted that change? And if it's important that we not "throw up our hands" and "walk away from the public schools," why do you send your own kids to private schools?
To John McCain -
In 1989, your wife Cindy became addicted to the prescription drugs Percocet and Vicodin. Eventually, she began stealing medication from the non-profit medical charity she ran to assist the victims of war and disaster areas. You and your wife were able to negotiate a settlement with the Justice Department that let her off with restitution and admission to a rehabilitation center, but no fines, jail time or even public disclosure. Certainly no one could fault you for trying to save your spouse from criminal sanction. But you're consistently one of the most strident drug warriors in Congress. You've voted to strengthen penalties against those who use and traffic in both illicit drugs and who divert prescription drugs. You've supported mandatory minimums and harsher penalties for first-time offenders. Why shouldn't average people without powerful connections who make the same mistakes your wife made be shown the same leniency and mercy the criminal justice system showed her?
Thanks to Russell Roberts of Cafe Hayek for the pointer.
Islam's compatibility with democracy, the rule of law and freedom of speech is a subject of immense salience and importance in the early 21st century. In the Royal Society of Arts in London, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who lives under a death threat imposed by Muslim fundamentalists, debates this problem with Timothy Garton Ash, who has in the past criticised her for being an 'enlightenment fundamentalist'. (Dec. 2007)
DURING HIS U.S. TOUR in 2008, Biologist and bestselling author Richard Dawkins met with some of the world's leading scientists to discuss topics such as Quantum Physics, Biology, Evolutionary Psychology, Science education, religion, atheism and more. This video brings you the fascinating unedited discussions between Richard Dawkins and Nobel Prize-winning Physicist Steven Weinberg, Physicist Lawrence Krauss, Biologist and blogger PZ Myers, and Evolutionary Psychologist David Buss.
From a public conversation at Stanford University to private conversations in Austin and Minneapolis, this collection offers a rare and inspirational opportunity to observe some of today's top scientists as they discuss some of the big issues without interruption.
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