Are we serious about talking with Iran?

Stephen M. Walt wants to know, since he is confused by the mixed signals sent by the Obama administration, first saying that they want to talk and then putting forward proposals that were blatantly unacceptable to the Iranians, who predictably rejected them.

Justin Raimondo poses similar concerns, saying “For all this administration’s alleged attempts to “engage” the Iranians, there were never any serious efforts to come to any kind of agreement: unconditional demands, exemplified by this latest ultimatum, were always at the core of various Western “peace” proposals. Now that the Iranian drama is coming down to the wire, virtually all pretenses at real negotiations have been rapidly discarded.”

US policies towards Cuba must be condemned

Is there anything that symbolizes the absurdity of US attitudes towards Cuba more than the fact that Ozzie Guillen, the manager of the Miami Marlins baseball team, was suspended by team owners for remarks he made about Fidel Castro? What did he say that was so outrageous? “I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but (he) is still there.” How horrifying! This is despite the fact that even pope Ratzo just had a friendly meeting with Castro and called for an end to the embargo. There goes the pope’s chance of ever being made manager for the Marlins. [Read more…]

What atheists want

There can be, of course, no single agreed-upon answer to this question but it makes for a lot better title than the real point of this post, which is what do I, as an atheist, want.

What I want is what I imagine most people want, a world in which there is peace and justice and freedom from hunger. So what has atheism got to do with those goals that have no connection with religion per se? It is that I see religion as breeding sectarianism and tribalism and conflict, all major obstacles to achieving them. So getting rid of religion would be a major step forward. [Read more…]

Film review: Carnage

This film did not receive much publicity when it was released although it came out recently (2011), has a stellar cast (Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, and John C. Reilly, the first three being Oscar winners and the last a nominee), and was directed by Roman Polanski. It is set in New York City but was actually filmed in Europe, since Polanksi is a fugitive from the law in the US due to charges of rape of a minor. [Read more…]

Homophobia as self-phobia

The pattern has become drearily familiar: An outspoken opponent of equal rights for gays and lesbians is revealed to be a gay or lesbian. While such events provide opportunities for ruminations on hypocrisy, the more interesting question is why such people act in such self-denying ways. A recent study suggests that incongruence “between implicit and explicit measures of sexual orientation predicted a variety of homophobic behaviors, including self-reported anti-gay attitudes, implicit hostility towards gays, endorsement of anti-gay policies, and discriminatory bias such as the assignment of harsher punishments for homosexuals”. [Read more…]