Archive for the ‘Middle East’ Tag
Jasper, Alabama, 1987 — Photo by Sam Fentress in the September 1987 issue of “DoubleTake”
With the worsening crisis in the middle-east and oil prices well over $110 a barrel, I thought I would share this 1987 photo showing gas prices with the religious message above this Shell station sign. I’m not sure such messages help, but what the hell!
“Some passersby take exception to the mixing of spiritual and commercial messages, Fentress says, but he believes the signs were made with the best of intentions.”
“It reminds me of a joke I heard once about a guy who goes to confession and asks, ‘Father, is it OK if I smoke while I pray?’ And the priest says, ‘No, my son.’ But when the next guy comes in and asks, ‘Father, is it OK if I pray while I smoke?’ the priest says, ‘Sure, that’s fine.’ “
— kenne
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How Do You Find Truth When Each Sides Position is Based On Lies?
Reasonable people agree with the value and importance of truth. But what seems to overtake its value in the Middle East conflict is that the evidence for one position vs. another is accepted as if it had been conclusively proved and therefore moral and just. The outside observer is left confused when each line of thought generates a contradiction.
“I wish I didn’t believe that the events now unfolding in the Middle East are too complicated for unalloyed outrage. I wish the arguments of only one side rang wholly true to me. I am the first to accuse myself of paralyzing moral generosity — the fatal empathy that terrorists prey on. But ambivalence is not the same as moral equivalence, and holy war, no matter who is waging it, makes my flesh crawl.
In Milton’s poem Samson Agonistes, Samson – blinded, in chains — cries out, “Promise was that I / Should Israel from Philistian yoke deliver; / Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him / Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves.” But when Samson shows the strength to shun Delilah, God restores his power, enabling him to pull down the temple and kill the Philistines, though along with himself.”
These are the words of Marty Kaplan, which appeared today in The Huffington Post, titled, “Eyeless In Gaza.” Click here to read the complete article.
kenne
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How Do You Find Truth When Each Sides Position is Based On Lies?
Reasonable people agree with the value and importance of truth. But what seems to overtake its value in the Middle East conflict is that the evidence for one position vs. another is accepted as if it had been conclusively proved and therefore moral and just. The outside observer is left confused when each line of thought generates a contradiction.
“I wish I didn’t believe that the events now unfolding in the Middle East are too complicated for unalloyed outrage. I wish the arguments of only one side rang wholly true to me. I am the first to accuse myself of paralyzing moral generosity — the fatal empathy that terrorists prey on. But ambivalence is not the same as moral equivalence, and holy war, no matter who is waging it, makes my flesh crawl.
In Milton’s poem Samson Agonistes, Samson – blinded, in chains — cries out, “Promise was that I / Should Israel from Philistian yoke deliver; / Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him / Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves.” But when Samson shows the strength to shun Delilah, God restores his power, enabling him to pull down the temple and kill the Philistines, though along with himself.”
These are the words of Marty Kaplan, which appeared today in The Huffington Post, titled, “Eyeless In Gaza.” Click here to read the complete article.
kenne
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