INTERESTING TIMES

Just yesterday I finally stopped ignoring the Middle East and looked up a few things. Like who is Shia and who is Sunni. And who has nukes and where. And what exactly an Islamist is. It was....a useful exercise. Anyone else out there taking an interest in this juncture of history? I'm ready to be educated.

It just seems to me, after one *ok a fraction of one* day of looking into it, that the majority Sunnis in most of the Middle East have been supremely frustrated trying to deal with their less conservative, more secular Shia neighbors. And it seems clear to me that America has at least attempted to enact a separation of church and state, even though those words do not appear in the constitution. It was in the First Amendment to the US Constitution that Congress was to "make no law respecting respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". As wikipedia points out, lots of nations have this idea in their code, and there is a great range of shades of gray in its execution. Here in America we do fairly well, but nowhere near a perfect score. For one thing, the constitution has no control over the states and what local laws might be passed. Which may be how we have gigantic crosses along Interstate 5 in Washington State. Not so different from other places, where religion is supposed to guide personal and political life. Here we seem only able to elect Christian presidents. We like to think that we are above it, but we are surely not.

So I know I am rambling and I will call it quits. If you have an opinion about what is the crux of what is going on--in Syria, Turkey, Kurdistan, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Russia or any other involved party, feel free to comment and tell me! I'm building a mind map.

**Created Syria tag.

He makes a good argument for the use of nuclear power to limit the burning of fossil fuels. And he paints the US opposition to this effort as a selfish gambit to keep the world hooked on oil. There's a translation of his speech here.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/26/2455293.htm
Lots of Christains are mighty miffed, but once again I find myself agreeing with this man's criticisms of imperialist powers today, and with his hopes for the future of humanity.
( direct quotes from the ABC article )

I don't think the TV guy has much of a clue, but maybe you do.
Thanks to rinku for keeping me up to date.

Yesterday (while studying biochem) I halfway listened to the democratic presidential candidate debate on NPR and the first (of 3 toughies) question that they tackled was Iran. The whole time the candidates were dancing around the questions of "how dangerous are they" and "are we justified to attack" I was thinking about what a reasonable leader (in Iran or elsewhere) would do in response to the demonstrated threat posed by the United States of America.
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