I’m really trying not to flip out every time the right wing says something this week, but Sarah Palin is not making it easy for me. Her latest statement on the Giffords incident is, in a word, vile. Not only does Palin miss the chance to show any contrition for drawing up maps with crosshairs [...]
Posts Tagged ‘violence’
Blood Libel and the Sacrificial Crisis
Posted: January 12, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: blood libel, Christianity, Giffords, Rene Girard, right wing, sacrificial crisis, Sarah Palin, Tuscon shooting, violence
1
Brittle
Posted: January 9, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: Arizona, Gabrielle Giffords, guns, Jesse Kelly, Sarah Palin, terrorism, violence
U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) was shot today at a public event outside a grocery store in her home district. Many other people were hurt or killed, including a 9-year-old child. Giffords has been the target of repeated nudge-nudge-wink-wink incitements by the right wing over the past several months, including being put on a “hit [...]
Media Failing to Ask Tough Questions on Afghanistan War…Again
Posted: August 15, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: act.ly, Afghanistan, Air Force, Army, Brave New Foundation, David Gregory, insurgents, journalism, Katie Couric, marines, media, Meet the Press, military, Navy, Obama, petition, Petraeus, propaganda, Rethink Afghanistan, Robert Greenwald, spin, Taliban, troops, violence
Sign our act.ly petition to tell the next journalists on Petraeus’ media tour to ask tough questions and expose his effort to extend the Afghanistan War. General Petraeus is on a media tour to sell the idea that the U.S. military is “making progress” in Afghanistan, a well-worn message aimed at convincing elites to extend [...]
Reasons for Hope
Posted: July 22, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Christianity, nonviolence, Revelation, violence
A friend recently sent me a great article from The New Scientist called “Winning the Ultimate Battle,” which details the work of anthropologists and others showing that war is not inherent in human biology. …[A]nthropologists Carolyn and Melvin Ember from Yale University…argue that biology alone cannot explain documented patterns of warfare. They oversee the Human [...]
Sliding Goalposts
Posted: July 9, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Christianity, Good Samaritan, Jesus, logic, Martin Luther King, nonviolence, Pete Kilner, violence
Today I came across Joan Baez’s “funny defense” against the “What would you do if…?” critique of pacifism. It’s a fantastic short read, and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s ever been pinned in a corner by hypothetical arguments about the necessity of violence in some situations (although Baez is wrong about Jesus’s teachings counseling [...]
ScienceNews: “Gamers crave control and competence, not carnage”
Posted: May 22, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: video games, violence
Study turns belief commonly held by video game industry, gamers, on its head By Laura Sanders Blood, guts and gore aren’t what thrill avid gamers when they slaughter zombies in The House of the Dead III video game, a new study suggests. Instead, feelings of control and competence are what the players crave. The new [...]
Devils Wear Halos, Too
Posted: August 27, 2008 in UncategorizedTags: Call of Duty, gaming, Halo, military training, video games, violence, Wii
My wife just sent me a link that I will use as my next big post topic, but for now, enjoy: Some might say that all those teenagers “wasting time” on Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 are actually the warfighters of tomorrow, training themselves at zero cost to the U.S. taxpayer. In fact, [...]
