Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her 'mirror' in great new bio

Wanted Women: Faith, Lies, and the War on Terror: The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Aafia Siddiqui by Deborah Scroggins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is a great twin biography/history, kind of like a pair of Plutarch's "parallel lives." Indeed, Scroggins notes that it's possible Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Aafia Siddiqui could have cone in each other's directions; Ali herself has said so.

Beyond the general parallels, the thing I most noted about Ali is that it's more obvious than ever, from this book, why she threw her lot in with the neocons politically and the Gnu Atheist "philosophically." Both groups, and Ali, tend toward absolutism in their interpretation of various events. And also, while Ali is perhaps not quite Sarah Palin, Scroggins makes clear that she has a love of the limelight and publicity too. While she is still a sympathetic figure to some degree, she's less so to me than she was before I read this book, and she wasn't totally sympathetic then.

Siddiqui is less well-known; in fact, despite her trial and conviction, I knew very little about her. That said, an MIT graduate of graduate school becoming one of al-Qaeda’s top female backers is indeed a caution … a caution in part to the Ali types who want to say that all Islam is fundamentalist, and that it’s fundamentalist because of its backwardness.

Scroggins also offers a peek or two at Pakistan’s ISI and just how closely connected it may have been to Siddiqui.



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Leny Dykstra: Financial guru?

Who knew? But, the Los Angeles Times, calls Dyskstra, aka "Nails," by exactly that phrase:

Dykstra, who faced up to a four-year sentence, must serve his time in state prison. He had pleaded no contest to grand theft auto and filing a false financial statement in connection with a scheme to use somebody else's paperwork to steal or lease several new cars, according to court records.

No more a financial guru than he was a baseball genius. (Or a courtroom guru ... trying to withdraw a "Nolo" long after it was made?)

Philosophy's the same by any name

I agree in part with Colin McGinn, that many people may have bad conceptions about philosophy. But, his idea of renaming the discipline will have little effect. As for the science-philosophy gap, that comes im large part, in many areas, from scientists believing they're too good to need the insight of philosophers, especially those pesky critters called philosophers of science.

Well, as something like Pop Ev Psych shows, noooooo, scientists often need a lot of philosophical help, even straightening out.

What about God and the first tornado, ma'am?

I'm no Gnu Atheist, and I know at bottom line people in general are creatures of emotion, and desire for psychological comfort first, then rationality second.

Nonetheless, I can't help but point out this line from a survivor of the Harrisburg, Ill., tornado, in light of the possibility that a new round of severe weather could bring more twisters to the area:

"You just keep thinking, 'God, please don't let there be another tornado.'"

Sorry, Ms. Wise, but the god you believe in, under your belief system, already let one happen there. Why not another?

UPDATE: Apparently no God, or karma-reliever, for this 14-month-old tornado victim, either.

IF religious people were willing to drop either omnipotence or omnibenevolence from belief systems, then non-Gnu Atheists like me would dialogue more on more issues. And, this is primarily an  issue of western monotheisms.

But ...  

Or course,. as I've said before, karma is in some ways  worse than hell, so I'm not letting Buddhism or Hinduism off the hook.

In eitherr caser, at some point, when the emotoinal and psychological burdens get to be enough, don't the shells crumble? Now, for non-Gnu Atheist, I recognize that until those shells DO crumble, the psychological value they offer isn't to be sniffed at. But, large swaths of the ancient west knew better, that religions less overarching, with fewer, less absolute emotional shells, often were better in the long run.

It's called "acceptance," without invoking an omnipotent-and-omnibenevolent deity who, as "a lover of life but player of pawns," will ultimately tie you in emotional, not just intellectual, knots.

Are red states all leeches?

Alternet's story to that end doesn't link to the NYT original, nor to TPM's take on it, but let's deconstruct it.

First, Alternet does acknowledge that red-state Texas is a mild anti-leach, but claims that's all due to resources. Well, if true, that would also apply to hard-rock mining in a number of Western states and the oil + gas + coal of Wyoming. Texas is rather a state with several big cities from red Houston to reddish Fort Worth to neutral Dallas (blue in the central core) to blue Austin.

And, on the flip side, California, the largest blue state, is a leech.

Second, the biggest red-state leech, Mississippi, is arguably so in part because of blue-type black voters, or black non-voters. That's the same reason blue-state New Mexico is a huge leech, too.

So, please, the story is more nuanced than Alternet plays it out to be.

Bad move, Bud Selig

Contra people like Yahoo's Steve Henson, everything about MLB Commissioner Bud Selig's expansion of the playoffs just seems wrong. The extra team, alone, seems to make baseball more and more "just another sport." The one-game play-in between teams 4 and 5, after the 162-game season, amkes it too arbitrary. (When previous play-ins have been done, I've always liked the NL doing a 2-of-3, vs. the AL single game system.)

I say, let's go back to two divisions per league and let both wildcards come from the same division. If you want to have four playoff teams, rather than even fewer, that's the best way. It also addresses "unbalanced schedule" issues.