Links to Articles on Current Issues

I intended to post something I was writing about an interesting non-fiction book I read recently, but as I had a lot to say about the book, I haven't had time to finish my commentary on it yet. Instead, here are links to some interesting articles on various topics, interspersed with occasional commentary.

Much of the news from Burma/Myanmar recently has been somewhat disturbing, such as this article about the connection between militant Buddhist monks and attacks on Muslims. Along with anti-Tamil and anti-Hindu rhetoric from some Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka, this is further evidence that Buddhism is not immune to violent religious chauvinism. On the plus side, at least Aung San Suu Kyi did address the issue, though despite what she says about her limited power to fix things, I would like to see her say and do more, including challenging anti-Rohingya prejudice. Elsewhere in the Southeast Asian region, China continues its aggressive imperialism in the South China Sea region, and activists are doing their best to see that big Western companies accept their share of the responsibility for the criminal disaster in Bangladesh (though I would also love to see the local owners and managers go to jail, especially the ones who ordered workers to go to work in an obviously unsafe building or lose a month's pay).

Climate change and the environment are of course issues that won't go away anytime soon (in fact, they'll be a matter for concern as long as human civilization exists). Here's an interesting recent commentary on climate change, specifically rising sea levels and another one on environmental problems faced by China. In addition, here are two articles by George Monbiot from last year about the Rio Earth Summit 2012, one on why we should be talking about sustainability, not "sustained growth", and another basically despairing of further multilateral government efforts to protect the world's environment.

I mentioned briefly in my last post that the new Pope Francis, while saying some good things, looks like he may still be a disappointment on some issues, such as the Vatican's ridiculous effort to make US nuns conform to conservative Catholic positions rather than focusing on social issues, despite some initial hopes otherwise. (For an extreme example of the ridiculous hardline the Catholic church takes on issues such as abortion, one need look no further than the case of the nun Margaret McBride who was excommunicated for involvement in an abortion to save a woman's life. Even given that she was later reinstated, she never should have been excommunicated in the first place, especially when we consider that countless priests who were found to be guilty of sexual abuse of minors were merely transferred, and not excommunicated). Despite this, some still hold out hope that Francis may prove flexible on issues such as priestly celibacy and liberation theology.

Debate continues on NASA's plans to send humans to an asteroid, with some asserting it might be more difficult than going to Mars, and Congress questioning the plan. While Mars would be my first choice, I think the asteroid mission sounds interesting, and if it's true, as NASA chief Charles Bolden implies, that it is cheaper than going back to the Moon or to Mars, than I'd certainly rather see them do that than nothing. Of course I'd even more like to see NASA's budget get tripled so they can do all three things, but that is not likely to happen. However, at a minimum, it should be increased enough to restore the budget for planetary science to the level of previous years.

In other US news, the Republicans have been trying to claim Obama deliberately caused recent flight delays in the US by having the FAA furlough air traffic controllers, when in truth the sequester left the FAA with no choice. But then as a Republican and a Democrat in a panel discussion at Columbia University agreed, US politics is broken. It's worth noting that the Republican (former Congressman Joe Scarborough) criticized his own party's failure to vote for failing to vote for expanded background checks on guns ("Who can be against that?") and said he'd be willing to support a stimulus plan that focused on rebuilding infrastructure and on science (both good ideas), though he claimed Obama's stimulus was ineffective (it wasn't, though it could have been much better).

Finally, a bit of political comedy. This Bloom County comic from the 1980s is a reminder that, unfortunately, the gun issue has been with us for a long time now. And the other day on the Daily Show Jon Stewart did an excellent bit on how right wing commentators on Fox seem to have little regard for the Constitution's Bill of Rights – except for the Second Amendment. Among numerous absurd comments, one that stood out was Ann Coulter's assertion that the Boston bomber's wife should go to jail just for wearing a hijab. Why do Americans give people like that a platform to spout their rhetoric on national TV?