Useless

We have often wondered about the naive faith in the benefits of technology which has swept the education words over the last ten years. The truth is that spending billions in computing equipment is relatively easy, while forming good teachers is very hard. It is even harder when there is not much philosophical clarity about what it means to educate.

Picking up the pieces

An update on the situation in Lebanon.

Si vis pacem para bellum

One may not like V.D. Hanson's militaristic rethoric, but it is in fact true that utopian pacifism has never prevented any wars.

A good Catholic...

who never had a Catholic thought in his whole life. Joshka Fisher is so representative of the 1968 generation in Europe:
a) A Catholic.
b) Who was taught a completely moralistic understanding of his faith (still today he identifies Catholicism with a Manichean good vs. evil world view).
c) Who thus embraced a utopian ideology completely removed from the realistic Catholic view of the human condition (Glucksmann is right!).

Double miracle

The NYTimes reports a miracle.

Just starting

An interesting piece by John Allen from Honduras.

Party men

Amir Taheri notices that foreign policy experts in the US are affected by domestic political allegiances to a very significant degree. This probably reflects the fact that the key foreign policy jobs are assigned by political appointment, rather than just seniority in the diplomatic corps. Of course, this can have harmful effects.

Stone witness

A beautiful Armenian church is restored in Turkey (but they did not put the cross back on top of it).

The cold light of science

It is a sign of how reason has been reduced in our culture that we take seriously psycologists when they "discover" the most obvious things about human nature. Hey, they are SCIENTISTS! They are "studying meaning" from a SCIENTIFIC standpoint! They PROVED that humans want "to feel we're significant beings in a meaningful world." The Chicago Tribune never suspected that before.

A remnant

During the last few years, several interesting people have walked away from the ruins of Anglicanism.

Something hidden behind things

A new biography of Einstein.

The scientist('s)...religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire.

Playing with fire.

Many wars started from this kind of (mis)calculation.

To be in love or not?

You have to simpathize with the Afghans: it is tragic when your choices are between socially enforced moralism and Western nihilism.

Freedom?

A speech by Bernard Lewis on Islam and the West.

My guy

Peggy Noonan points out that an age short on ideas is necessarily big on loyalty.