Sean Penn's interview with Raul Castro

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081215/penn

 

On a lighter note: Steve McQueen was a pilot, not a celebrity, at Santa Paula Airport.

Why does everything have to be an ethical struggle?

-Z

 

Very Cool, Z!

McQueen was one of the greatest.

Also let's not forget Cliff Robertson!

Great actor but also a heck of a pilot: one of the few people on this planet that not only flew both a Spitfire AND a Me109 but owned both aircraft!

There was this odd-ball movie; "The Tao of Steve" good movie to see.

 

Raul comes forward as a bloke with good sense of humour, but this commentator from the New Yorker is even more fun! - Obama the Socialist

 

Sean Penn always has good intentions -- that I never doubt. He's a great actor and a well-intentioned multi-millionaire. In his spare time, I guess, he studies politics and weighs the weighty issues facing us in this Welt, our mortal coil.

OK. Hitchens tolerates Penn because it's wise to, but I bet you he rolls his eyes often!

 

something else interesting! See if your agree with islamists views on what the UN's role should be!



"These are the findings from a WorldPublicOpinion.org survey in Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Iran, Indonesia, the Palestinian Territories, and Azerbaijan. Muslims in Nigeria (50% of the general population) were also polled."










"While many people in Muslim countries express disappointment with the UN, this actually masks their underlying desire for a UN that is robust and powerful," comments Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org.


And then, here surfaces the conflict between people's wishes and their apprehensions about reality -

 

I think Aleksei II of the Russian Orthodox Church died today. May he rest in peace. I don't know if it's true, but earlier today I read that there are only four (4) mosques in Moscow(?). I think there are at least 2 million Muslims living thereabouts, legally or not, many from the ex-Soviet respublics, naturally. But as always Saudi Arabia wants to build more mosques, and the rumor is that the Russians asked that the Kingdom reciprocate by allowing a church to be built in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis would never allow a christian church to be built in Saudi Arabia! Let's just say that they don't subscribe to the Western idea of "diversity," LOL

 

Humm... a free and democratic survey in Muslim countries... What a refreshing concept.

How many of those people voted in that survey that were told they would not be whipped or beaten if they answered the way "god" would want them to answer- namely answer the way their religious leaders instructed them to answer?

According to the poll though, the UN should be invading and liberating ALL Muslim countries for human rights violations.... at least.

 

lol, thats prejudice in its purest forms...

Are you surprised they would like that?
However, most of the countries with human rights violations are in fact the closest US allies. The USA is proping up dictatorial regimes to suppress the anti-american populations. Which only makes the populations ever more anti-american. Egypt, Pakistan, Algeria come to mind...

 

wow, thats quite a good move! i like it!
but I suspect most of post-soviet muslims are in fact quite atheist : )


Yes, in Sofia there is also only one mosque although there is many thousands of muslims (including large recent arab imigration). Now Saudis are giving money for a enormous new mosque to be built in the outskirts including an islam madrasah, international college and so on.
It is raising a lot of emotions in the population. Obviously, we have quite delicate feelings about islam, and the current problems with the 'turkish' political party are making it even worse.

Last month in Poland i talked to one girl who is specialising in iranistik. She was telling me also about the internal tensions between the bulgarian turks and the arab immigrants in Sofia. As a bulgarian it is very difficult to learn about these things going on!

You know that the balkan islam has quite deviated from the sunni doctrine, its got elements of christianity and of the shia sufism and lots of paganism in it. (but most notable difference is the drinking of lots of rakiya going on )
many of our muslims are in fact kazalbash or alevi. while the new arabs are strict sunni (the old arabs that came in the 70s were communists and atheist obviously )

 

Errr ... how does that work out?

 

they're infidel muslims... ?

 

like, how i am an orthodox who is an atheist?

 

PS: i remember first time I heard in the UK - 'i find Christians quite stupid really'
i was amazed.
or whatever refering 'the Christians' in the 3rd person. in bulgarian language it would be very awkward to say. linguistically, unless your name is Mehmed and you wear a cap

 

Hmmm, IMO the 2 are mutually exclusive. You are EITHER a christian OR an atheist, not both.

 

Yeah. Not being a practicing Christian doesn't make you an atheist.

-Z

 

as far as I know atheist means 'not believing there is God' ? so I am using it correctly.

not sure, what is your definition for non-practicing Christian?
There is plenty of people here who believe there is God (in fact most, by my observations) but dont bother to pray or follow the church rituals. That sounds like non-practicing Christian.


anyway, I have found that the concepts of religious affiliation has been altered in the West. Your society has divorced from tradition too long ago. Religion is something you buy 2 for 1 in the supermarket church, just like you buy fake tomatoes in Tesco.
Therefore for you one that chooses to not go shopping (or open to the doorstep dealers) is not a Christian.

In the rest of the world it isnt quite like that. We still live close to the soil, and close to our religious tradition, even if some dont believe in God.

In EEurope communism tried hard to change this, but success is only partial. It did bring us closer to 'modern Europe' though, for better or for worse.

 

A Christian is someone who believes in the Christian God whereas an atheist flatly denies the existence of ANY deity. Call me silly, but I find that these concepts are not agreeable with each other. An atheist Christian is sort of like a virgin whore.

As for your umpteenth tirade about the general materialist decadence of the west and the admirable spiritual purity of "the rest of the world" ... aren't you getting tired of that?
It's not that I don't agree that it's too much about the money these days and too little about the things that really matter, I just don't see that this is necessarily much different in other, non-western societies.

 

Oh come-on grobar, "the rest of the world"? "We"????
Are you really Chinese or Indian?
Yes, the USA is far more secular in tradition that Europe.
We(ok, they) have had from the beginning a separation of Church and State.
Certainly to many observers it would seem that the new "gods" of the USA could be Coca Cola, Philip Morris and the Madison Avenue advertising powers.

However in all societies there are going to be those that are "thinkers" and those that are "believers".

Religion in the USA for the most part is something private and personal and is not to interfere with government in any way, shape or form. Freedom of religious expression and practice has been a fundamental right for nearly 300 years.

Give or take a few years of witch burnings in New England.....

 

<-- looseleaf