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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (59234)	9/20/2002 3:17:09 PM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 82486

Having not seen the Bennett material he carps about, I cannot comment on that, but in general, Kinsley is full of hooey. There has been plenty of discussion over the years in neoconservative journals about the dysfunctions in Arab societies, the background of Islamic totalitarianism, and the various sources of conflict between the Muslim world and the West. Part of the problem is that a lot of it has to do with "mythological" narratives, explaining the wane of Islamic splendor as a dropping off of zeal and consequent loss of Allah's favor, allowing the rise of Western Imperialism and, eventually, the humiliation of having Jews occupy lands regarded as Arab and Muslim. Of course, since the United States is the status quo power, it is the "Great Satan", and since the nadir of Arab prestige is associated with the strength and prosperity of Israel, it is a particular obsession. Anyway, the various Islamicist groups are united in assuming that strict adherence to shari'ah will get them back in Allah's favor, and provide them with the means to break the yoke of the current international system, and promote the ascendency of the Islamic world. Some of the credibility of this comes from the difficulty of undereducated people to understand history, politics, and economics in terms of largely impersonal forces, and instead to need to interpret things dramatically, identifying villains. Some of it comes from the fact that the Islamic world never went through a systematic "secularization" of the state, so the claim of religious law is still very great. Some of it is desperation, especially in an "honor" culture, such as the Arabs, where slights and humiliations are felt particularly keenly, and young women are still murdered for dishonoring their families..........

To: Lane3 who wrote (59234)	9/20/2002 3:29:09 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

Getting back to the evil question, the thing that ties together Nazism, Communism, Islamic totalitarianism, and other evil political cults, is murderous fanaticism. No one cared if the tales about Jewish bankers, bourgeois exploitation, or the Great Satan were true, they served as a conduit of rage, and enabled one to focus one's discontent. It was a relief to find the enemy and plot against him. It is the irresponsibility and willingness to rush to judgment that is evil; the resistance to acknowledging complexity or considering what you might be culpable for if wrong; the eagerness to surrender responsibility and merge with the group, or to consider how much of one's lot might be one's own fault, or no more than bad luck; in sum, the embrace of murder as a first resort in order to exalt oneself and one's fate........

To: Lane3 who wrote (59234)	9/20/2002 3:35:56 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Here's a topic discussed here recently. SEPTEMBER 20, 14:42 ET Implant Helps Deaf Ex-Miss America By ANGELA POTTER Associated Press Writer AP/Gail Burton [22K] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BALTIMORE (AP)— Heather Whitestone McCallum, deaf since childhood, could deal with not hearing her name announced as the next Miss America in 1995. But when one of her sons fell and scraped his head in the back yard and she couldn't hear his cry, she drew the line. Suddenly, the hearing aid she relied on to hear muffled words and shifting, shapeless sounds wasn't enough. ``I said 'Lord, what am I going to do? I can't stand not being there for my son when he cries and needs my help,''' said the 29-year-old McCallum. On Aug. 7, the former Alabama beauty queen received a cochlear implant, an electronic device that improves sound quality and speech recognition with the hope of hearing her two sons, ages 2 1/2 and 15 months. The implant procedure, performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, required six weeks for healing before the device could be activated. On Thursday, doctors ushered in a whole new world of sound as they tuned the device, which was implanted in her right ear. McCallum's audiologist, Jennifer Yeagle, clapped her hands as a test. McCallum nodded, frowned, then put a hand over her face as she began to cry. But not for the reason you might think. ``When I heard the clap, I just couldn't believe it,'' McCallum said. ``I cried. It was the first sound from my right ear. It was more loud and clear than what I heard with my hearing aid.'' McCallum still has not been able to hear her boys, who were with her when the implant was activated. But deciphering sounds will take time, Yeagle said. ``A lot of people expect an 'Ah-ha!' effect,'' said the audiologist. ``It's not a fix. It doesn't repair hearing. Therapy, time and patience are my three big things.'' Deaf after getting meningitis at 18 months, McCallum has used a hearing aid for years and also reads lips. So when cochlear implants were commercially marketed in the United States in the mid-1980s, she didn't think she needed one. Being unable to hear her boys laugh, cry or even ask for something simple like a piece of toast changed her mind. The silence was an agonizing reminder that she was missing some of motherhood. That's when she and her husband, who live in Atlanta, began researching the implants and went to Johns Hopkins, which performs 120 implants a year. McCallum's type of hearing loss made her a candidate. ``She has a profound sensorineural hearing loss in both ears,'' Yeagle said. ``Her left ear is slightly better in hearing. That's the ear (in which) she wore the hearing aid.'' Sensorineural hearing loss means the eardrum, bones and structures of the ear are intact, but the tiny hair cells that line the cochlea, the spiral part of the inner ear, are damaged. That prevents the flow of acoustical impulses to the remaining nerve fibers. A cochlear implant provides electrical stimulation to the auditory nerve fibers. For the time being, McCallum is thrilled with the small sounds she is hearing now. ``In a way, God said to me, ``Be patient, you will hear your boy's voice at the right time. Each day, I will bless you with a new gift.''' What has she heard so far? The rustling of her makeup bag. The low thud of a car door. ``Hair spray,'' she said, making a ``shhhhhhh'' sound. In an interview Friday on ABC's ``Good Morning America,'' McCallum said the most beautiful sound so far was that of water running into a sink Thursday night while she brushed her teeth. ``It's so gentle. It's very soft and it reminded me of my favorite role model, Helen Keller,'' she said recalling the famous story of another Alabama woman with a disability. Keller was deaf and blind. ``She felt the water, and she realized there's a name for water,'' McCallum said. ``That's the same kind of joy I had in my heart when I heard the water before I went to bed.'' ———