Health, Religion and State Intervention.
on Jan 4, 2009 in Pentecostalism Philosophy Politics Religion Scientology In today’s Telegraph Damien Thompson reports on some internet speculation concerning the death of Jett Travolta, the son of John Travolta on early this month (HT Madpriest). At issue is the suggestion which creepily was speculated upon over a y.

Book Round-Up
on Jan 3, 2009 in Books I’m a little behind on book reviews at the moment so the perfunctory short reviews to “catch me up” are posted below - Richard J Evans, Telling Lies About Hitler: The Holocaust, History and the David Irving Trial, Verso, 2002

On Targeting Civilians: Israel’s Attack on Gaza - Jus in Bello? (i)
on Dec 30, 2008 in Politics Theology War and Peace Gaza Hamas Israel Just War I have a pretty dreadful record of finishing blog series but I’m going to try to take an attempt at another one. In this series I will analyse the current Israeli military offensive in Gaza in terms of Just War Theory (JWT).Well, here’

December Books
on Dec 30, 2008 in Books Incoming Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society, Vintage, 1964. Jacques Ellul & Patrick Troude-Chastnet, Jacques Ellul on Politics, Technology, and Christianity, Wipf & Stock, 2005. Roy Hattersley, John Wesley: A Brand from the Burning,

Huntington Dead
on Dec 28, 2008 in Philosophy Politics War and Peace Clash of Civilizations Samuel Huntingdon The New York Times reports that Samuel Huntington has died at the age of 81 (HT Steve). Huntingdon, until 2007 a Professor of Political Science at Harvard, is best known for his Clash of Civilizations thesis he first put forward in 1993 and later exp...

Books of the Year 2008
on Dec 23, 2008 in Books Uncategorized Now is has good a time as any to recap on this year’s books a single some out for special mention. So, as I did last year I will separate into two categories. Religion/Theology and Politics/Philosophy. I will also add a worth a mention comment..

Zizek on Immigration
on Dec 22, 2008 in Politics Zizek Following on from my last dose of Zizek on Humanitarian Intervention I read a section of Violence yesterday that made me literally want to exclaim out in appreciation, which, bearing in mind I was in a service station on the M5 may not have been a go...