totalitarianism today

Links for my lover.

Two members of Korn turn to God and then write memoirs about it.

Peter Augustine Lawler on nations, liberalism, and science. I've always thought Dr. Lawler might be the kind of man who would change his name to include "Augustine"...

Where will marching young evangelicals take the Christian Right?

Rick Warren might as well be crowned "king of publicity", but there's something in the Bible that suggests fame and fortune, especially the sort involving crowns, does not pave the path to heaven. Of course, with all the new hip-hop versions of the Bible at your local Lifeway, I'm sure you could find one that explains why Mr. Warren should strive for all the power and the glory he can get his hands on.

Confused firefighters fail to rescue a child wearing a firefighter costume. The implications are tremendous.

Walker Percy talks about a deranged world.

Misery (and a little too much lead) inspired Handel's Messiah.

Michael Novak's charity is limited by the organ heuristic.

136 drugs that cause cognitive impairment. Because you never know what you could have known.

Applications to work for the CIA rise dramatically. You can always count on government to fork out the dollars and do lots of hiring during economic down-times.

Virginia Tech is requiring "loyalty oaths to ideological diversity" from faculty. Next year, students will have to dedicate at least 79 hours per semester working for the good of the international proletariat.

The photo was taken by Marius Filipoiu.

Around the web in 20 minutes.

A map of mottos from Strange Maps.

Gold and other commodities retreat as the all-powerful, all-printable dollar rolls off the press. Meanwhile, Russia backs a return to the gold standard to ease the financial crisis.

Eric Heinze explains why Aristotle is compatible with Islam.

Harold James wonders if the current economic crisis will do for China what the Great Depression did for the United States, namely, pass the sceptre.

Bucharest surveys the benefits of handing out anti-social behavior orders, while citizens and bloggers find it difficult to hide their disgust.

Tariq Amin-Khan analyzes political Islam in a critique of traditional historical materialist style. It is always amusing when the revolutions become traditional.

Steve Chapman takes on the myth that Democrats lower defense spending.

The Anglo-American alliance extends to torture? Claims that secret agents working for MI5 and MI6 watched and encouraged the torture of a second British resident held by the Americans will be investigated by British police.

Is the US government adopting a stronger stance in the international drug war? In the case of Bolivia, it seems so. What happened to Obama's liberalism once he assumed office?

Russia is planning to create an Artic military force to guard its interests in the oil-rich and disputed Artic region.The strategy, approved by President Medvedev, declares the Arctic to be Russia's most important arena for “international and military security” in its relations with other countries. Maybe it will provide those suffering Russian oligarchs with a new project.

The US is still the pageant queen in military spending.

I like William Grigg.

Around the world in 20 minutes.

 Economic Policy Journal offers some lessons on the rise of totalitarianism.

Yossi Melman writes about alleged corruption in a massive Indian-Israeli arms deal, while Dalia Karpel wonders if look-alikes could ease the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The anti-"jihadists" at First Things get excited by Obama's recent warmongering and overtures to religious Crusades. How much more anti-life could an administration get? Let's all have tons of abortions and then go kill Muslims in the name of the Lord. Happy Sunday. God bless.

Rami Khouri presents a small problem for the anti-jihadists as he distinguishes six forms of Islam. Of course, this shouldn't be a problem at all for those who appreciate the art of equivocation.

Cut-and-paste reporting on Russian televison plus a great way to soak dishes and feet simultaneously.

David Brooks thinks Afghanistan is "the winnable war"; it holds potential for elevating bobo self-esteem.

CBS has a short and sweet detailed list of issues weighing on US-Russia relations at the momentum, while the Council on Foreign Relations has a timeline of the Iraq war with photos.

Peter Eisner reads between the lines of Iran's response to Obama.

Ann Jordan dissects the abolitionist fallacy in sex-trafficking policy.

A student and professor co-write an interesting paper (PDF) entitled "Sweatshop Labor is Wrong Unless the Jeans Are Cute: Motivated Moral Disengagement". I am a big fan of the "persuade the consumer to make moral decisions" approach over the problematic tendency to legislate such "moral" decisions. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, is a master in the art of persuading consumers to make moral choices without violating their dignity or freedom as choice-making individuals.

[The illustration is by Danica Novgorodoff.]

Current enchantments in the blogosphere.

Refrain: Oh how sweet to browse the blogs while rain dismounts from clouds again.

Europe Endless / Seductive pleas for archives, music, and ramblings through European history enough to make any heart itch for an atlas.

Far Outliers / Caught my eye with revisionist Stalin history and kept my gaze with books and baubles that glitter from the periphery.

Cosmin Bumbut / Photos with just enough light to banish the cliche of the ethereal. Credit for the photo on this post belongs to Cosmin.

The Orwell Diaries / Because afternoons are richer when you've shared your morning coffee with Orwell.

No-sword / Japanese music, culture, literature, poetry, and miscellany from a smitten man.

Kit-blog / There are many beautiful garments but only one perfect costume. A beautiful website with photos, digitalia, post-communisms, and musings.

Foto Fangen / A contuining conversation between Romanian photographers and their photos sans verbiage and theory.

Winds of Change / For the days when you prefer a thick steak to the lightness of green tea.

The Antiplanner / "Dedicted to the sunset of government planning". Need I elaborate?

Ironic Sans / Potassium, photos, and musings spiked by the requisite peevishness.

How to spend any spare 30 minutes between heart-wrenching office meetings.

"Democracy and the Muslim World" by Asef Bayat to learn more about how Muslims reconcile their faith with democratic government. 

"Retracing Michael Bhatia's Last Days in Afghanistan" to learn more about the interests, determinations, and character of a social scientist killed while consulting for the US military last May.

"Marina Tsvetaeva and the Poet Pair" by Annie Finch for the Russian literary perspective on office desks.

Josh Cochran's drawings for The Criterion collection, as pictured here (hat tip to drawn!).

"The Alphabet of Obscure Science Fiction Classics" from listology. Because a summer spent in obscurity is preferable to a summer with the texture of bestsellers.

The Observer Translation Project brings Romanian literature and Romanian brouha to the uninitiated global masses.

Andrei Codrescu's favorite books, or just books he chose to review, from all around the world. 

"I'm a Liberal, but...", a recent interview with Bernard Henry-Levi.

Nothing like a little argument among New Leftists, post-fascist Liberals over the moral highground to make management meetings seem less stupefying. In comparison, of course.

If you are feeling really adventurous, enjoy the new debates on the benefits of socialism inspired by our government's terrible management of war, the economy, and education.

You know things are bad when we can't afford our second lives anymore...

"Second Chances, Social Forgiveness, and the Internet" by Amitai Etzioni longs for a perfect, fuzzy, loving life on the internet. Since utopia has proven difficult t establish on this planet, some hope ether might be more fertile than soil.

Russ Kick comments on the latest tech tools which make it difficult for governments and elites to perform informational disappearing acts.

"Beyond Mankind" by Charles Rubin looks at the costs and consequences to tweaking that old human being in the name of bigger, better, and bolder.

Headline browsing.

Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman will go down in history as yet another corrupt Alabama leader. His conviction was upheld. +  Japan is ahead of its peers is more than one way-- pork spending. +  Eric Hobsbawm reviews the days of the interwar intellectual love affair with science and its consequences. + An interview with Jonah Lehrer offers brain science for the dilettante and lovely quotes from Chesteron, including “The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason". + Is it so wrong to ponders and practically pine for the days of required poetry recitation in public schools? Wouldn't it be helpful for those young men who have memorized every lyric concoted by Eminem to learn some classic poetry as well? The art of the home-made Valentine suffers for lack of good lyricists. +  Italo Calvio makes public his enchantment with they mysteries of the moon. +  Thomas Eddlem wonders how self-described Christians find scriptural injunctions for torture. +  Andy Worthington has published the definitive list of all 779 prisoners currently held in US prisons at Guantanamo. + Nick Gillespie is haunted by the past, particularly by those nineteenth century porn prosectuions. +  A new literary magazine, Gigantic, is better though not necessarily bigger. +  Neko Case continutes to derive creative satisfaction from the cyclones in her life. + New Jersey takes part in Big Read, a read-in funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Interestingly enough, no one has suggested continuing the read-in during rush hour traffic jams just so I could get a wonderful photograph for my guest bathroom. Life is neither fair nor just. + Leslie Lenkowsky bemoans Obama's plan to reduce charitable giving. + Jack Mann offers current class war survival tips with his Gun Shopping Guide. Everybody is doing it, but, as always, some people are doing it fancier than others. + Ed Howker thinks the drug war can never be won. It is a perpectual Vietnam. So why are we still fighting it? +  "Bosnia has no coherent foreign policy", but is Bosnia itself coherent? How to make coherent policy in incoherent political entities. + In Eastern Europe, the Museum of Funeral Customs would never be left to languish at death's door. Our problem here in the United States is that we don't have much respect for death; only for it's opposite, immortality. But you can't ignore the door while scurrying through to get the best seat in the room. + Reid Collins' rite of passage was not the quest, but the MRI. He shares his reverence.