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In an unrelated post at Talk Islam, my friend (and staunch atheist) Razib of GNXP blog made an off-hand reference to “sky gods”. This is a term that atheists often use, in the context of dismissing belief in the divine. However, it’s a lazy terminology which applies more to polytheistic and pagan deities than monotheists,…

Ali Eteraz has a lengthy, lucid article on the root of Pakistan’s problem – namely, that it’s 1973 constitution has made it an Islamist state rather than a democratic one. Eteraz provides a lengthy historical background and context for how the constitution came to be and what motivated it’s implementation – in short, cynical politics…

Eric Martin at American Footprints points to this great, detailed assessment of the Iranian nuclear program (PDF) by the American Foreign Policy Project. Here’s a key excerpt: Although we often hear it said or implied that Iran is clearly pursuing nuclear weapons, the facts are more complex than that. The Director of National Intelligence Dennis…

The news just broke last night that Supreme Court Justice David Souter will retire. Souter was appointed by George HW Bush and proceeded to drive conservatives insane by refusing to bend to the right-wing agenda. Instead he has been what I consider a moderate voice on the court, though in general he has voted along with…

My friend, the writer G. Willow Wilson, is the author of the comic book series AIR which has been getting rave reviews and recognition. But AIR is more than a book, it’s also a cause! I’ll let Willow explain: Whacky as it is, AIR is a book with a message. So, for every copy of…

This is a great article in the London Review of Books about Islamic finance, in the context of the global banking crisis. I found this excerpt particularly insightful:  One of the central differences between the Islamic and conventional approaches to finance is that our own cults – which may well see a revision before the…

The news first broke on twitter, by @marcambinder, and was later confirmed by Chris Cillizza and Redstate: formerly Republican Senator Arlen Specter will switch parties and become a Democrat, giving the Dems a 60-seat majority in the Senate. Here’s the complete statement from Sen. Specter:   “I have been a Republican since 1966. I have…

In my last post I made the mistake of asserting that swine flu was not yet contagious between humans – that’s not true and it’s why the disease is being taken seriously by the health community. I think it is important to recognize that the reason we can snark about the public paranoia about swine…

Well, I am back from Oahu and find that in my absence, the world has returned to the brink of collapse, this time not from wayward financial systems or legions of mole men, but the devastating specter of the Swine Flu. What is swine flu? It appears to be a variant of influenza that originates…

I am attending the ISMRM conference in Honolulu this week, which is why I’ve been understandably distracted these past few days 🙂 I was rather curious about the muslim presence here in paradise, and it turns out that Hawai’i has a very vibrant muslim community. In hindsight this should have been obvious, given that Hawai’i…
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