Pet Peeves

1) People who send emails to mailing lists about their quiz results.

2) Blogs that contain nothing but quiz results. Aside from the bandwidth strain, it's more fluff than sense.

3) Blogs that don't have comments so I can't give input.

"Evil"

Lately, I've been hearing and reading that Mr. Hussein is "evil". Well, I think that the word isn't being used in the right context. Some say it as if Hussein was the devil himself. But he's not. Every human person is evil to a certain extent, Hussein perhaps more so than others. Good and evil aren't forces that you either belong to one side or the other. They actually overlap, which brings about some human complexities. But to say that "Sadam is evil" and that in itself is enough justification for war is errorneous.

I'd also like to point out that some of the gravest crimes arise from the best of intentions. And while people are quick to point that Hussein is evil, might I remind you that not all evil persons are in the public's view. Even the anti-Christ in the Bible is said to appear to be good but actually means to lead the world astray. I wouldn't go as far as to say that Bush is the anti-Christ, but people should have an idea of how causes (whether they're actually moral or not) might seem justified to a certain audience. And if people can be persuaded that waging war is righteous, well, what else can they be persuaded to do?

At least with Hussein, people realize he's a dictator. With other world leaders, they use more subtle propaganda to further their own ends. But either way, the end result is the same.

Gone

Will disapppear from the face of the earth for the next few days... it's not as if anyone will miss me.