Friday, February 5, 2010

HOT5 Daily 2/5/2010

1. "How’s That Diplomacy Working, Mr. President?" Projecting weakness rarely works well.

Representative Sample: Obama has wasted a full year pursuing a diplomatic-engagement scheme that never had a chance of success. The idea that you could win Moscow’s heart by betraying the Czech Republic and Poland (over missile defense) or woo China by demonstrating weakness on human rights and trade issues only convinced those countries that Obama’s main characteristic as a leader was neither charisma nor eloquence but rather weakness.

2. "Citizenship: Drawing a Line" The French realize that their citizenship is worth something.

Representative Sample: France, unlike other European countries, seems to be willing to draw clear lines regarding what citizenship and French values mean, and to deny it without concern over leftist or politically correct criticism. 

3. "17 Kinds of Atheism"An interesting attempt to categorize different varieties of atheist positions.

Representative Sample: here are 17 kinds of atheism, organized into 7 sets. Some kinds of atheism can be combined in a person, and some cannot. For example, it is perfectly consistent to be an agnostic, narrow, friendly atheist. But one cannot simultaneously be both a passive atheist and a militant atheist.

4. "Anti-terror policies from Bizzaro World" Killing an American citizen is ok as long as we get "specific permission." But we have to give rights to foreign terrorists. 

Representative Sample:“We take direct actions against terrorists in the intelligence community,” he said. “If we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that.”

5. "More on Ancient Jews, Pyramids, Pharaohs, and the Exodus"The Exodus that never occurred.

Representative Sample:To claim that a group of thousands (let alone hundreds of thousands) could camp for even a week (let alone forty years) and leave no archaeological evidence displays gross naivete. A group numbering anywhere close to a million would have constituted the world’s largest city in those times, and short of a tectonic subduction, entire cities do not disappear. 

To submit a blog post for HOT5 Daily, please e-mail me at unrright@NOSPAMgmail.com. Put HOT5 in the subject.

2 comments:

  1. Good to see another right leaning atheist blogger. Found your food from your post on Dunnings pyramids post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. There are a few of us.

    ReplyDelete