Dear SOG,

All we need is new ways
of thinking to cope with the nuclear age.
It's here that writers, with their concern
for the human condition and their special
skills with language, can enable us to
imagine the horrific reality of nuclear arms
and nerve us to build an alternative future.

As the writer Dorothy Green once remarked:

"No one has the right to exhort writers to
write on certain subjects or take up
particular moral stances. But if they love
their art, we can expect them to be on the
side of life rather than death, on the side
of being, rather than non-being, to prefer
the beauty of this planet to its desecration,
and to use fiction to reveal truths.
We need above all to fall in love with this
planet, which, as far as we know, is the only
one carefully balanced to sustain human life
without assistance from somewhere else.

In the most destructive age in history, the word
'creative' is more mindlessly bandied about
than ever before; a fact we need to ponder as writers.
The truth is that human beings came into a world
prepared for them. If we blow it up, we cannot
hope to put it together again. We cannot 'create'
something out of nothing: even the greatest artist
did not invent colour, nor the greatest musician
sound, nor the greatest writer speech. All we can do
is discover, imitate, re-arrange or destroy.

Our worst illusion is that we might return to the
state of primitive man. But he did not have polluted soil,
poisoned streams, irradiated game and vegetable foods."

Whether we choose to destroy our civilization or save it
is a collective decision. And it is through collective
action that ordinary people with few resources, other
than their own determination can change a national
consensus for war to a national consensus for peace.
This was done with the ending of the Vietnam war -
it can be done again, in our lifetime.

Back on subject...

I've got several "must-read" websites
for anyone with the interest and time.
They are well worth the time, I promise ...

http://www.australiansagainstracism.org/code/resources08.html

http://www.australiansagainstracism.org/code/resources04.html

http://www.australiansagainstracism.org/code/resources06.html

Westralis,
You said on Sunday, 13 June 2010 4:54:52 AM "For Jews and Muslims to teach that Jesus is a God is a blasphemy most heinous punishable by death".

So you believe the death penalty is applicable for such blasphemy. Who is currently applying this penalty? Not too many Jews are applying this penalty. I have several Orthodox Jewish relatives inclding a Rabbi we communicate admirably.

Do you believe this statement??

Stand aside.... Pew Surveys to the rescue, again....

How's this for those anti-Muslim Christians on this space?

"As in other recent Pew Global Attitudes surveys, this year’s survey finds only limited support for terrorism among Muslim publics. There is no country in which a majority of Muslims endorse suicide bombing, voice confidence in Osama bin Laden, or express a favorable view of al Qaeda.

"Still, a significant number of Muslims in some countries do embrace these positions. This is particularly true in Nigeria, where nearly half express confidence in bin Laden and offer a positive opinion of al Qaeda, and about a third say suicide attacks are at least sometimes justifiable. Support for suicide bombing is even higher in Lebanon, although virtually no Lebanese Muslims express a positive view of bin Laden or the organization he leads. Meanwhile, in Turkey across all three measures there is almost no support for extremism."

Of course, Nigeria is yet another Western ally, and full of evangelising Scripurue Union fruitcakes busy invading the lives of Muslims in an effort to steal their children and sell them into Heavenly Slavery into any number of Pentacostal pits-of-despair.

Maybe Lebanon still smarts from all the war crimes committed there under the banner of one God or another?

Oh dear, I nearly forgot, they are all the same Abrahamic god aren't they?

Who knows, but it just shows how 'religion' can impose violence on us all, if only as a political vehicle to carry unhappy mugs along and give them not only an excuse to behave badly, but also a 'positive' reward for doing so.

Foxy,
Comment on the links you gave.

The first link is informative about muslims.

The second link is also informative, but I could not care less about what clothes people wear unless it prevents facial identifacation, Like a helmet or veil. This would only apply in certain circumstances.

The third link is pure spin and sets out to distort the true facts. It simply tries to make out any objection to the 'illegals' is racism, which is simply untrue. No respect for the author. Obviously this groups agenda embraces more than their title states. That is false pretenses.

To critisize a persons conduct is NOT racism

To critisize a religion is NOT racism

To critisize a culture or aspect of same is NOT racism

Banjo
The term racism does get bandied about a bit and the race card is often misused which only serves to desensitise the act of racism and the awful effects it can have on a group of people.

Criticisms of religion and cultural practices is not necessarily racist but on occasion the criticism may originate from racist viewpoint or one of fear.

Criticism is one thing, villification another.