Posts by Joe Wylie
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Which is exactly (well, almost) what happened on an Air Malayasia flight pre-9/11. The Pilot nose-dived into the ground. Authorities covered up the cause of the accident, I think blaming mechanical problems, to explain the vertical nose dive which 60 Minutes (I think) proved is impossible to do unless the pilot wants to.
Got a link for that? Or perhaps you're just confused with the 1999 Silkair crash in North Sumatra?
-
"I got a 59 Chevy with a 387 and a Hirst on the floor..." (Bruce Springsteen)
Hirst?
Hurst.
http://www.hurst-shifters.com/Memorable kidlit: Anything Tove Jansson.
Moomins. Hattifatteners. Hemulins. The Mymble. The Groke. Salome the Little Creep. The meerschaum tram.
Wonderful stuff. -
I would argue that Pancasila is still the central tenet of the Indonesian nation, and has, in reality, been strengthened by the democratic debate.
Good to hear & thanks for that. Would be nice to have the first principle amended to give the option of being a godless apostate, though.
-
You'd have to look at which country has more influence over islam though: is it rich Saudi Arabia, with Mecca and Medina to where muslims go on pilgrimage, and which funds mosques around the world (including NZ). Or, is it poor and populous Indonesia?
Have to? That's quite an authoritarian streak you're developing there. Should you tire of your current day job, you might just have the makings of a fundamentalist mullah.
Seriously though, you got a point. The Saudis have been actively asserting their influence in Indonesia since the late '60s, mainly with financial gifts, such as petrodollar-funded girls' schools in the matrilinear Minang district of West Sumatra (another example of the non-monolithic nature of Islam), and more recently by training Indonesian clerics.
Since the downfall of Suharto the state philosophy of pancasila (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancasila_%28politics%29) has been eroded by Islamic fundamentalists. The first of pancasila's five principles was that you must subscribe to a monotheistic religion. It didn't necessarily have to be Islam. In the Moluccas, for example, Christian & Muslim communities co-existed, even helping one another with the building of mosques and churches. This kind of thing had Saudi-trained clerics throwing up their hands in holy horror. Suharto was happy to stoke the conflict along via the Indonesian military, who actively funded and transported Islamic activists into hot spots in the dying months of his regime.
Like the Timorese death squads and the state-backed provocateurs who fomented conflict with Indonesia's ethnic Chinese, the righteous Islamists have pretty much outlived their usefulness. -
Peter Rabbit narrowly escapes death in Mr. MacGregor's garden, and escapes only by shedding the trappings of anthropomorphism.
Tom Kitten is rolled in pastry and narrowly escapes being baked alive by the vile rat Samuel Whiskers.
Pigling Bland is sent to slaughter by his own mother and is saved by his superior intellect.
Squirrel Nutkin is violently relieved of his tale as punishment for disrupting a bizarre religious ceremony.Beatrix Potter didn't pull any punches. By comparison, Ayn Rand's a wuss.
-
A few facts about Islam:
In Wahabist Saudi Arabia, women must be veiled in public and are forbidden to drive.
In 90% Sunni Indonesia, with the world's largest population of muslims, a woman can go out, veiled or unveiled, on her motorbike pretty much whenever she chooses.
There are at least 20% more christians in Indonesia than there are in Australia (CIA World Factbook).Of course I'm only doing Osama's spadework here.
-
that's the world where good old boys can't even honestly call a human being a nigger or faggot or chink or retard.
That'd be the politically correct, hairy-armpitted world we live in today.
-
I like & appreciate that you're prepared to voice an opposing opinion in many of the discussions on Public Address, though I often find myself struggling more with your turn of phrase, than the ideas you're expressing.
I've heard that possessing a Fine Mind is like owning a Ferrari. While everyday life affords few opportunities to really put the foot to the floor, there's always the blogosphere.
-
it's also amazing how cherry picking a few dozen cases of abusive behaviour can tar a policy as "liberal and therefore bad".
Like the reference to that nasty little group who happen to be "at the vanguard of the antiwar movement". Therefore, if you harbour even the teensiest doubt about the manifest destiny of Bush & co., you're a dupe of these creepy lefties.
Just more weasel words from someone who's plainly unacquainted with the phenomenon of people thinking for themselves.
-
The notion there is no history as to why Sunnis are bombing markets and Shiites have formed death squads does not make sense.
It certainly doesn't, which is probably why no-one here seems to have advocated it. Citing Saddam's ruthlessness-on-stilts for the umpteenth time doesn't in any way absolve the US from having perpetrated a monumental blunder.