Comments on: Must it be Halloween everyday?

By: A.R.Yngve

A.R.Yngve — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:29:59 +0000

Right now, I can’t think of a more frightening Halloween mask than Rudy Giuliani’s face.

By: vishal

vishal — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:53:16 +0000

I was at the Halloween parade in NYC yesterday.. Darth vador, witches, predator et al. but nobody wore costume of a suicide bomber .. isn’t that the real face of fear rt now ?

By: rah

rah — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:02:42 +0000

I'm with Amit, though, turn off the TV.

Man, I got slammed when I suggested that.

Did anyone see that piece in the Wash Post today about the Rumsfeld memos? Some of his quotes from the piece:

"Talk about Somalia, the Philippines, etc. Make the American people realize they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists," he wrote. "Too often Muslims are against physical labor, so they bring in Koreans and Pakistanis while their young people remain unemployed," he wrote. "An unemployed population is easy to recruit to radicalism."

That last one doesn't really have anything to do with fear, but I thought it interesting that he makes a distinction between Muslims and Pakistanis. Pakistan is overwhelmingly populated by Muslims! So f#$%n' dumb for so many reasons.

By: Nafar

Nafar — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:38:17 +0000

"Homer was worng," wrote Heracleitus of Ephesus, Homer was wrong in saying: 'would that strife might perish from among gods and men!' He did not see that he was praying for the destruction of the universe; for if his prayer were heard, all things would pass away." These are words on which superhumanists should medidate. Aspiring toward a consistent perfection, they are aspiring towards annihilation. The Hindus had the wit to see and the courage to proclaim the fact; Nirvana, the goal of their striving, is nothingness. Wherever life exists, there also is inconsistency, division, strife.

From Christopher Hitchens' - letters to a young contrarian.

By: Nafar

Nafar — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:21:14 +0000

KXB - neo-cons are not suggesting that the iranians are out for world domination. they are, however, [rightly] claiming that, if the persians are allowed to obtain nukes, they could jeopardise global security.
everbody, including zakaria, who checks the wind direction before putting pen to paper, knows that if they do get the nukes, other sunni states, like ksa [no prizes for guessing who will help ksa achieve their objective], will soon follow. a very, very, very, bad situation for all, including india, which, in case of war with pakistan, will likely bear the brunt of the fallout, literally.

By: amaun

amaun — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:59:53 +0000

What kind of environmental catastrophes in the 1970s are you talking about?

The impending ice age.

By: KXB

KXB — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:21:50 +0000

What kind of environmental catastrophes in the 1970s are you talking about?

One popular one was overpopulation. People came up with Malthusian arguments on how food production would not keep up with population increases. Yet, we produce more food than ever - it is is pricing and distribution that is out of whack. Running out of landfill space was another one. And most drinking water (in the U.S.) is so much cleaner now than 30 years ago that Aquafina and Dasanu simply pour tap water into bottles and sell it at a premium.

By: Candadai Tirumalai

Candadai Tirumalai — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:04:03 +0000

The motto of Ranjitsinji, the legendary batsman, after whom the Ranji Trophy is named, was “Fear not (Gabrao math).

By: Amit

Amit — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:29:54 +0000

The same types who "predicted" environmental catastrophe in the 1970s are at it today. Problems exist, sure -- and can be solved.

Can you please elucidate more? What kind of environmental catastrophes in the 1970s are you talking about?

By: Candadai Tirumalai

Candadai Tirumalai — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:08:54 +0000

In his first Inaugural Address (1933), with the nation confronting the specter of Depression, Franklin Roosevelt spoke his well known words, “…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. When I first came to the States in 1960, Republican Americans argued that what got America out of the Depression was not FDR’s New Deal but the economic activity unleashed by the nation’s entry into the Second World War. On a different plane, as economic opportunities in a society increase, fear of the immediate boss diminishes. In his “Ethics” Aristotle places the Golden Mean between extremes. I do not remember that he discusses fear but I believe he would locate the Golden Mean of rational or justified fear between a foolish fearlessness, as in the face of a hungry lion, on the one hand, and an irrational or cowardly fear, on the other.