some religion late in the week
On Thursday I went to hear Dr William Cavanaugh deliver a lecture with a somewhat long title The Sacrifice of Love - The Eucharist as resistance to terror and torture. It was part of the Catholic Theological College's lecture series, and while I have no links with that particular institution, I was alerted to the lecture by the good folk at Ridley College Bookshop in Parkville.
Dr Cavanaugh hails from the US and delivered a talk that drew on his study and personal experience with the situation in Chile when General Pinochet was in command, and led on to our current day experience of the so-called War on Terror. There were significant points made, one being about torture being a requirement to maintain a supply of enemies so that a war could carry on. "Despite the rhetoric, wars are never simply about making friends. Wars are about the imaginary dividing of the world into friends and enemies. And enemies must exist in sufficient abundance and sufficient monstrosity if a war is to be sustained".
People can be made to say anything under duress - even those with no connection to the resistance. The atrocities at Abu Ghraib were mentioned in relation to comments by former US interrogators that they never got intelligence from their interrogation subjects.
Much more to say, but I think I'll look out for the transcript if it appears on the web. I'm told a podcast will be available, too.
And on the computing front, I've acquired an Airport card for the old Powerbook G3. These original 802.11b cards are hard to find and expensive on Ebay, but this one came from a friend who was retiring an old PowerMac G4. I've got the new G4 PB with Airport Extreme of course, but having the old G3 set up for Airport internet sharing is handy and I've had my fill of trying to get the job done with third-party PCMCIA cards and flaky third-party drivers.
Dr Cavanaugh hails from the US and delivered a talk that drew on his study and personal experience with the situation in Chile when General Pinochet was in command, and led on to our current day experience of the so-called War on Terror. There were significant points made, one being about torture being a requirement to maintain a supply of enemies so that a war could carry on. "Despite the rhetoric, wars are never simply about making friends. Wars are about the imaginary dividing of the world into friends and enemies. And enemies must exist in sufficient abundance and sufficient monstrosity if a war is to be sustained".
People can be made to say anything under duress - even those with no connection to the resistance. The atrocities at Abu Ghraib were mentioned in relation to comments by former US interrogators that they never got intelligence from their interrogation subjects.
Much more to say, but I think I'll look out for the transcript if it appears on the web. I'm told a podcast will be available, too.
And on the computing front, I've acquired an Airport card for the old Powerbook G3. These original 802.11b cards are hard to find and expensive on Ebay, but this one came from a friend who was retiring an old PowerMac G4. I've got the new G4 PB with Airport Extreme of course, but having the old G3 set up for Airport internet sharing is handy and I've had my fill of trying to get the job done with third-party PCMCIA cards and flaky third-party drivers.
posted by Alex Wegman at 02:48
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