NEWS OF THE Bagram Air Base Quran burnings, and the riots which have followed, reproduced the usual concern that perhaps no amount of evident contrition would prevent a violent response. Here is an illustration of the root of this anxiety, from a Reuters article of February 22: “Critics say Western troops often fail to grasp the country’s religious and cultural sensitivities. Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.”
Posted in Essay
Tagged war, Canada, Afghanistan, Qur'an, News, Taliban, Current Events, Bagram, Reuters, Kabul, Peter J. Munson
AT DINNER one evening in the 1990s, while I was living down the road from Kingston Penitentiary, the English Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s ‘panopticon’ came up.
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Posted in Essay
AMONG MY earliest encounters of The Simpsons was an animation festival in Philadelphia, in the Spring of 1989. I was doing some work with Habitat for Humanity and decided one night to take in a movie. The first episode of The Simpsons proper was months in the future: in early 1989, the rough and amateurish output of Matt Groening which I saw that night (and which didn’t much impress me) was recognizable only as the interludes of the Tracey Ullman Show. Ullman then was known as an accomplished impersonator and a sharp witted Brit, but within a couple years she was eclipsed by this inauspicious cartoon team constituted of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Who knew? From such humble beginnings came what is arguably the most successful animated serious of television history.
Posted in Essay
2 December National Post 5 December Interview with Marie Wadden 16 December Interview with Shawn Tupper 21 December Interview with Bob Watts 23 December Interview with Shelagh Rogers 10 January Interview with Herb Gray 11 January Interview with Mario Dion 17 January Interview with Jamie Scott 23 January Interview with Mike Cachagee and Maggie Hodgson 1 February Interview with The Rt. Hon. Paul Martin 7 February Interview with Fran Iacobucci 8 February Interview with Phil Fontaine 15 February Interview with Peter Harrison 21 February National Post
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"This stand against religious totalitarianism constitutes a war with no foreseeable end. Whether you accept the fact or you do not, it is the battle of our generation and it is furthermore a necessary battle." | READ Living in the Age of the Endless War.
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