Isocracy Newletter 18, July 19, 2010
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Isocracy Activities
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Initiated by the Isocracy Network, individuals from the Progressive Atheists, the Secular Party of Australia, the Melbourne Unitarian Church, Humanist Society of Victoria, Atheist Meetup and others were in attendance. The group seeks to extend its scope of membership to include mainstream religious organisations who also support the separation of Church and State.
In the upcoming Federal election the group has identified same-sex marriage rights and the National School Chaplaincy Pprogram as two particular issues that will be targetted. For the Victorian state election the group will be concentrating on supporting MPs who have been targetted by the Right to Life association for supporting reproductive rights legislation and supporting the teaching of secular ethics in schools.
Essay: The Zero State Solution in Palestine
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In a "Zero-State" solution, governance would be secular and democratic. There would be no special benefits on the basis of nationalities, real or imagined, or religious affiliation that were separate from the rights of all citizens. Of course the region would remain a Jewish homeland just as other regions and cultures have their homeland too; but that is quite distinct from a Jewish (or Islamic, or other) state. Organisations like the Israel Land Administration would retain their role in holding natural resources as a public good, but without the horrendous prohibitions on leasing rights that currently exist (this is a particularly clear example of the difference between "the governance of people" and "the administration of things"). Finally, in a "zero-state solution", there are no standing armies only reserve militia and emergency services; the purpose is local defense and civil order, not invasive war. The path to peace will never exist without the abolition of the means to war.
More at: http://isocracy.org/node/59
Review: Joseph A Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies
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Tainter aims to provide a theory as to why most complex societies so far have not just faded away but abruptly collapsed, short of the current world-wide one, there we don't know yet. But he fails. He repeats the phrase "diminishing marginal returns on complexity" a lot but it sounds like something he overheard someone in the economics department saying (which he is not from, he's an archaeologist) and now just repeats it. Just repeating it doesn't make it true.
More at: http://isocracy.org/node/60
News of Emancipation and Oppression
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(Late) New Media Haven for Iceland: A proposal by WikiLeaks to build an international "new media haven" in Iceland, with the world's strongest press and whistleblower protection laws has unanimously passed the Icelandic Parliament.
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/16/icelandic-modern-med.html
Violence Continues in Pakistan: On July 1st, at least 42 people were killed after two suicide bombings struck the Data Durbar Complex, a Sufi shrine in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province. It is unknown who carried out the attack on the liberal Islamic shrine, but it is the second assault on a religious site in the city in recent months, following an attack on the minority Ahmadi sect in late May which killed 94 people.
The shrine is devoted to Hazrat Usman Hajwery, a 12th century mystic popularly considered to be the spiritual protector of the city.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/02/suicide-bombers-kill-dozens-...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2010/jul/02/lahore-sufi-shrine-s...
Oil Leak Capped : On July 15 BP said that it had capped its hemorrhaging well, at least temporarily, marking the first time in since April 20 that oil was not gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. The April 20 explosion killed eleven workers and has been releasing between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day, causing a slick of some 6,500km^2. On 16 June, after meeting with President Obama, BP executives agreed to create a $20 billion spill response fund, which has ruined the livelihoods of many local families.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/us/16spill.html?_r=1
Somali Conflict, Uganda Bombing: The death toll from twin blasts that hit the Ugandan capital as football fans gathered to watch the World Cup final has risen to 74, officials say. Another 70 were injured in the explosions at a Kampala rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant. Police are investigating whether the blasts were suicide bombings, and blamed Somalia's al-Shabaab militants, who have threatened Uganda because of their peacekeeping mission in that country. Al-Shabaab controls much of southern Somalia where it has implemented it's own version of Sharia law. Meanwhile inter-clan fighting has killed another 42 in Somalia itself.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10593771
http://tinyurl.com/28tc8d4