VINDICA

A cutting and insightful essay on the current conflict in Iraq that looks at it from the point of view of a Sunni-Shia fight. The Shia, too, may have to come to a time of reckoning. Their old tormentor was sent to the gallows, and a kinsman of theirs did the deed with the seal of the state. From the poor Shia slums of Baghdad, young avengers answered the Sunni campaign of terror with brutal terror of their own. The old notion--once dear to the Sunnis, and to the Shia a nagging source of fear and shame--that the Sunnis of Iraq were a martial race while the Shia were marked for lamentations and political quiescence has been broken for good.

I have felt that one of the reasons organized religions have their vast appeal is because they present a monopolistic vision of morality that is sadly emaciated in secular thought. I have always thought why there is no scientific research on the underpinning of morality? While there are professional Ethicists, it seemed like there was not much scientific funding for their activities. After all, Ethics is taught as a Philosophical, not as a Scientific subject in schools. However, new research in Neuro science and consiousness may finally be changing that. It can finally fight back against "out of body" and "near death" experiences that are held as "proof" of an afterlife. And when the physiological activity of the brain ceases, as far as anyone can tell the person's consciousness goes out of existence. Attempts to contact the souls of the dead (a pursuit of serious scientists a century ago) turned up only cheap magic tricks, and near death experien

A very long and detailed article by Jeff Sharlet includes many first hand references. The old theories have failed. The new Christ, fifty years ago no more than a corollary to American power, twenty-five years ago at its vanguard, is now at the very center. His followers are not anxiously awaiting his return at the Rapture; he’s here right now. They’re not envious of the middle class; they are the middle class. They’re not looking for a hero to lead them; they’re building biblical households, every man endowed with “headship” over his own family. They don’t silence sex; they promise sacred sex to those who couple properly—orgasms more intense for young Christians who wait than those experienced by secular lovers.

A hilarious piece that bemoans the boringness of sex scandals among American political class compared to those of their cousins in London. From Bill Clinton seeking body warmth in Lewinsky's pillowy embrace to Foley batting his eyelashes online, ... the high-profile Washington sex scandal is marked by desperate lunging, not lusty abandon. The piece ends with a pillorying of the American prudishness: It's just that a dreadful piety has taken hold in American life, predicated on the notion that no one misbehaves out of choice or inclination or a simple warm itch, but because they were driven to it by drink, drugs, or childhood dysfunction and finally thanks those Fundamentalist preachers who are keeping American hypocrisy alive! Well, at least we can go to bed happy and content in the knowledge that somewhere out there are Fundamentalist preachers up to no filthy good. They, bless them, are keeping the sacred flame of American hypocrisy brightly lit.

Not much of a surprise that the RSS is against discrimination against the Dalits. The indiscriminate vilification of the organization smooths over the subtle point that the RSS believes in Hindus as a unitary community. Because of this reason, it has consistently opposed such things as the Aryan invasion theory, untouchability and other forms of brutality that the Dalits are subjected to. The RSS has castigated what it repeatedly calls the “so-called uppers castes” for their discriminatory ways saying they are in fact of the “lowest levels” for doing so. It is heartening that they did not feel any compulsion to mince words.

An intriguing article about the collapse of Enron. The commonly held perception is that Enron executives hid information about the financial state of the company. However, it is argued here is that everything that was needed to correctly diagnose the state of the corporation was in public documents revealed by the company. Analysts were unable to get to the truth because there was just too much documentation out there. all Enron proves is that in an age of increasing financial complexity the “disclosure paradigm”—the idea that the more a company tells us about its business, the better off we are—has become an anachronism. So what is the answer? The article looks back at World War II and at individuals who analyzed Nazi propaganda as a way of figuring out what the Nazi leadership was really thinking. It argues that there is a dispenser and a consumer for information. Both have to be sufficiently sophisticated in order for the information exchange to be successful. as Enron’s busin