An interesting article I bookmarked a week or so ago and then forgot about …

Wahhabis are often described in clichéd terms as being the “Puritans” of the Muslim world. An analogy I have never liked. True the Puritans espoused a literal interpretation of scriptural texts; beyond that, however the similarities are minimal. The Puritans were intellectual heavyweights coupling Renaissance humanism with knowledge of scriptures and divinity. They complemented their religious readings with the Greek classics of Cicero, Virgil, Terence and Ovid. In addition to writing the first children books, they emphasized public schooling for all and founded Harvard, the first American university. For them, religion provided a stimulus and prelude for scientific thought. Among their members, they could count numerous fellows of the Royal Society of London. Most importantly, the Puritans were political and religious outcasts.

The Wahhabis certainly are not Puritans in any true sense of the word. The more apt comparison, I believe, is the evangelical Christian movement in modern times. Both the Wahhabis and the Evangelicals champion an ultra-literalist interpretation of the holy texts, casting them both at odds with the precedents set by their ancestors and with their co-religionists in modern times. Both Evangelicals and Wahhabis shun scientific/rational thought and treat the idea of a renewed interpretation of religious texts as anathema. Both groups have tremendous financial resources enabling the rapid spread of their beliefs. Most importantly, both have disproportionate access to the corridors of power—the Evangelicals and their incestuous relationship with the Bush administration, the Wahhabis and the Saudi royal family, although the latter is in a state of flux.

Thanks to Tim for the new look of MalnurturedSnayDOTNet - not quite as clausterphobic as it used to be!

… I posted about the internal strife affecting the GOP.

Over at Right Thinking from the Left Coast, Lee today writes, “Does anyone else find this laughable? The Bush administration, and his allies in Congress, have increased federal spending and the size of government by something like 20%. I’ll say one thing for the Democrats, when they come up with a spending proposal they also come up with the tax increases necessary to fund it. The whole idea behind conservativism is that you cut taxes and you also cut spending at the same time. Bush passed massive tax cuts, which I supported and still support. He launched a war, which I supported and still support. But now he’s talking about a new round of tax cuts …
… I have a hell of a lot more respect for a tax-and-spend liberal than a spend-and-worry-about-paying-for-it-later Republican. Think about it, here we have the Republicans who are spending on credit criticizing the Democrats who want to spend while raising the money first. I never thought I’d hear these words come out of my mouth, but the Republicans are insane when it comes to their fiscal policy.
Any pretense of smaller government on the part of the GOP is officially over.”

And over at Impudence Mismatch, McRutter writes, “What were previously laughably extremist positions, such as withdrawing from the UN, withdrawing from mediating middle-east peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and “recreating the Arab world” through military means are now standard Republican doctrines. They can no longer claim to represent mainstream traditional conservatism.”

John Eisenhower, son of the former President, also broke with the Republican Party, as reported here. In a rare public announcement, Eisenhower said he switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent after 50 years after losing confidence in his former party. He said Kerry has demonstrated courage, competence and a concern for tackling the “widening socio-economic gap in this country.”

Four years ago, George W. Bush was the great hope of the Republican Party. And today, as convservatives abandon it, he has all but destroyed it. Regardless of who wins in less than a month, the Republican Party is at a crossroads about what they stand for - small government and fiscal responsibility? Not if they stick to this path.

George H.W. Bush would be so proud.

No, Alaska is part of the U.S., ya’ moron!

But WHY IN THE NAME OF ZEUS’S BUTTHOLE* are the DVD sets of Northern Exposure so dammed expensive? Argueably the best dramatic series of the nineteen-nineties, and the parka is cute and all … but $40? For eight episodes? Puh-lease. You’re paying like $7 an episode!

I’m going to grumble and take a peak on eBay.

Oh - good movie for people who don’t mind subtitles, “Good-Bye Lenin”, about a (somewhat) disfunctional family trying to survive in East Germany after the collapse of the Iron Curtain.

Reading Laura at Apt. 11D, I’m all of a sudden overcome with a gratitude that I don’t have any children. I have enough trouble feeding my cats on time …

Just for random fun, I typed in the name of my high school into Google, and came up with this cool alumni website where people could post what they were up to. Anyway, a lot of the people I knew in high school have gone on to do cool things - lawyers, uh, lawyers …

Kind of made me feel sad that here I am delivering pizzas. Doh! Well, I’m writing too … I’m just not making ANY money writing. But it is fun, and I get to be all dour and grim and act British, so it might be worth it. Anyway, I decided to post an entry:

After two years at oh so lovely HCC, I moved to oh so not-a-bit-better Towson (”The Colony”) in 1999 and started my continuing quest for a degree (go a semester, take a year off, go a semester…) at Towson University … first for a history degree, now towards an English degree (I think I have like two classes to take before I can graduate, but I’m too lazy to verify that). I support myself as a freelance writer … but since that pays barely enough to support my cocaine and heroin habit, I supplement my income by working at a pizza shop and every now and then (like, when the rent-collector comes a knockin’) taking hostages for ransom.

I’ve also become very bitter and sarcastic in my old age.

Over at Piquant Rants & Sassy Impudence, Rachel wrote on Sept. 29th (the day before the debate), “Tomorrow night, George Bush is going to make John Kerry look like a pure-D, grade-A, first-class jackass. And I am so positively full of delight and anticipation that I can hardly bear my own self right now.”

She hasn’t updated her blog since. Think she comitted hari-kari over the absolutely horrid job Bush did? And speaking of Bush … what, did he think he was going to a rally where he could just keep sprouting, “It’s a hard job … it’s a hard job … I’m going to cut taxes…”

Please.

So, not only has he packed his staff with loyal patronage appointees, but they’re apparently part of an incompetent organization that he headed which doesn’t get along with the group that they’re supposed to overhaul. Goss is acting in the grand tradition of the Bush Campaignistration. And all this after he swore, just swore that he wasn’t a partisan hack. Well, a spymaster does have to know how to lie, after all.

- via Paperwight’s Fair Shot