Madonna turns La Isla Bonita into a Roman Gypsy festival at Live Earth. She's almost 50, for Pete's sake, and still experimenting. As for Live Earth, I'm allergic to self-righteous pop-stars. But it's still surely a great thing that two years to the day after Islamists terrorized London, a vast, global musical concert can celebrate the freedom to sing and dance in that city, two freedoms Islamists hate and want to destroy.
"A Foulmouthed Flop" Excerpt: The reviews of the "Live Earth" global concert are in. (Daily Mail) Despite it all, Andrew Sullivan can't help himself -- he still hearts Madonna.... Weblog: Pajamas Media Tracked: Jul 9, 2007 9:15:10 AM
If the Israeli pols are doing this to win an election, or to demonstrate a "don't fuck with the Jews" bravado, it's clearly unjust. If they're doing it because they honestly think it is the best way to advance peace, their consciences, while troubled, may be clear.
Could the emergence of dramatically equal forms of marriage strengthen the model of male-female equality within straight marriage and undermine slightly the fundamentalist insistence on the subordination of wives? Yes. But only in so far as 1 percent of marriages change the 99 percent. The Christianist right always under-estimate the cultural power of the 99 percent with respect to the 1.
There is no "just war" excuse for Hamas' murderous terrorism or for its refusal to acknowledge or peacefully co-exist with Israel. But there's no reading of traditional just war theory that can defend what Israel is now doing.
The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back
