Monthly Archives: October 2009

UNICEF, boo!

What’s different about Kiva: Contrast Kiva with, for example, UNICEF. Kiva makes it possible to trace the path of your donation, to the extent that such tracing is realistic (and it largely turns out to be more along the lines … Continue reading

Posted in culture | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Notes

The post on Creationism & potential Republican candidates is getting a lot of linkage. A quick note, the title was a bit hyperbolic. I am simply suggesting that from where we stand today the power of the Christian Right has … Continue reading

Posted in culture | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Magical thinking watch: foreign policy chapter

The Obama Administration is bruiting it about that the president is impatient with the slow pace of “nation-building” in Afghanistan, reports the New York Times.  Nine months (Obama’s White House tenure)–or, hey, call it even eight years (since the bombing … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 4 Comments

We Are Doomed Reviewed

In Wall Street Journal today, favorably–one would like to say, “of course,” but these things are tricky.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Dead political religions

I recently read The Rise and Fall of Communism by Archie Brown. This is a general survey which runs roughly from the late 19th century down to the present day. Though there was a focus on the Soviet Union (for … Continue reading

Posted in culture, history | Tagged | 9 Comments

Nice animals

Conservative pundits occasionally imply that other-directed human virtues, such as charity, compassion, and mercy, came on the scene only thanks to Christianity.  No one has ever shown hospitality to a stranger or helped survivors of an earthquake in other cultures, … Continue reading

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Ice People Club

Is there, as some commentators have claimed, affirmative action at work in the awarding of Nobel Prizes? If there is, it has been almost entirely restricted to the Peace Prize in recent years. The Nobel Committee publishes a year-by-year list … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 59 Comments

The doctor made me not do it

We need to induce doctors to practice preventive, not just reactive, care!  is a favored nostrum in the current health care debate.  I’ve yet to hear an example of what this means.  Prevention lies overwhelmingly within the realm of individual … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 9 Comments

An advantage of polytheism

The Pope announced during his Angelus broadcast last Sunday that he was “imploring God to relieve the pain” of the survivors of  a recent flood in Sicily and of the recent earthquake in Indonesia, according to RAI International.  Such an … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 12 Comments

Contacting about a post or story

Most of you probably know this, but SR’s email address is contact -at- secularright.org. If you have a story or post you think might interest, feel free to send it along. No guarantee of linkage/commentary, but it happens.

Posted in Administration | 1 Comment