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January 13, 2007
encouraging words
"I would confess I'm no expert on Iraq. [...] I'm no expert on military matters."U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
, addressng the U.S. Senate, three weeks after assuming his post.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer; 12 January, 2007; page A1; 'Bush's plan draws bipartisan Hill fire'
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Posted by williamfrick at 7:55 PM | Comments (0)
January 8, 2007
dark thoughts
According to scientists, there is an invisible, dark matter surrounding all visible matter.
In fact, this dark matter makes up over 95 percent of all matter in the universe.
"I like to think of visible matter as the olive in the martini of dark matter."
Sean Carroll, Theoretical Physicist at the California Institute of Technology.
Seattle Times; 8 January, 2007; p A4; 'Scientists Map the unseen universe'
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Posted by williamfrick at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
January 5, 2007
the Mytilenian Debate
There's one particularly eggheaded member of KIW's vast worldwide staff who, right about September 12, 2001, was asking everyone he knew to read Greek historian Thucydides' description of something called The Mytilenian Debate. 
Thucydides, who was the Western World's first real historian, wrote 'The History of the Peloponnesian War' sometime around 430 B.C. The book describes a 27-year war between Athens and Sparta.
The war was bitterly fought. At one point, the city of Mytilene betrayed Athens, and allied itself with Sparta. Mytilene was then recaptured by Athens.
And thus a dilemma was created for democratic Athens. What to do with the Mytilenians?
Should the City of Athens kill all the Mytilenian men and enslave the Mytilenian women and children, as the followers of Cleon advocated?
Or would Athens be made stronger (and safer) in the long run, by showing an example of mercy and trying to win Mytilenian hearts and minds? A position put forth by Diodotus.
After a public debate, the people of Athens were divided between the two positions.
Eventually the cruelties of Cleon were carried out. But, as the followers of Diodotus had warned, those policies boomeranged, and led to the destruction of the city of Athens and all of its society.
And that's how the first democracy died.
There are some reasons to read history.
Thucydides; 'The History of the Peloponnesian War'; circa 430 B.C.; pages 212-223
Posted by williamfrick at 4:28 AM | Comments (1)
January 1, 2007
faith, indeed . . .
Recently a member of KIW’s legal staff had to get up at an ungodly hour – like 7 am – in order to attend a hearing. The silver lining to this hardship was an unanticipated exposure to a radio show called Morning Edition – and a right-on essay by a fellow named Richard Rohr.
"Whenever I think there's a perfect pattern, further reading and study reveal an exception. Whenever I want to say "only" or "always," someone or something proves me wrong. My scientist friends have come up with things like "principles of uncertainty" and dark holes. They're willing to live inside imagined hypotheses and theories. But many religious folks insist on answers that are always true. We love closure, resolution and clarity, while thinking that we are people of "faith"! How strange that the very word "faith" has come to mean its exact opposite."
Richard Rohr, former Franciscan priest, and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Morning Edition, December 18, 2006; 'Utterly Humbled by Mystery'
Utterly Humbled by Mystery.mp3 (4 minutes and 3 seconds)
Posted by williamfrick at 2:08 PM | Comments (0)