Magic Statistics

In an apparent contradiction of President Bush's belief that the Iraqi people want democracy, a pro-American member of Iraq's parliament says

there is "no relationship between Islam and democracy."

Islamic or "sharia" law has "nothing to do with democracy or human rights," according to Iyad Jamal Al-Din, and mixing Islam and democracy "is like mixing Marxists and capitalists."

Mr Al-Din thinks the Iraqi Constitution relies too heavily on religious principles and advocates a more secularised Iraq.

In the opposite corner, we have over a hundred European imams who believe that Islam is quite compatible with democracy and human rights.

European imams have pledged to work harder to prove that Islam is compatible with democracy and that the majority of Muslims living in the West support human rights, free speech and pluralism.

Now you tell us!  Where were those guys during the anti-cartoon demonstrations last February?  Where were they when other, more radical, European imams were demanding, and receiving, apologies from European governments for standing idly by while their independent newspapers exercised their "human right" of "free speech"?

Nevertheless, even though it arrives too late for the Cartoon Jihad, this could be a positive development.  Perhaps those hundred imams will be able to exercise a moderating influence on European Islam.  We shall see.

Both links via The Pearcey Report.

Maybe it's just me, but I found this story in the London Telegraph creepy:

Hairy Houdini, master parasite
(Filed: 10/04/2006)

THE Houdini of the parasite world has been found by scientists. It escapes by taking over the mind of its insect hosts to make them commit suicide by jumping into water so they are eaten by a fish.

The gordian or horsehair worm acts after it has grown to occupy all but the head and the legs of its host. It is able to wriggle free within a few minutes even if its hapless host is swallowed by a predator.

Fleur Ponton, the French scientist who made the discovery, told the journal Nature that this is the first time a parasite has demonstrated such an ability.

Is that really necessary?  I know that nature, "red in tooth and claw", is notoriously amoral and indifferent to suffering, but still this seems a step beyond indifference to active malice.  Does the worm derive some sort of evil thrill from its final malevolent flourish?

I wonder how Darwinian theory might explain this.  What's the evolutionary advantage in making one's prey go insane and feed itself to some other predator?

"Hairy Houdini"?  Cute.

A momentous discovery:  An ancient document that challenges traditional Christian teaching has been found in an abandoned house in Brunswick, New Jersey.  It contains a dialogue between two young theologians named Skip and Muffy who discuss their disagreements with fundamental moral doctrines of the church.  Here's a key passage:

"The Church is— I mean— it's just a bunch of, like, rules and stuff," said Muffy.

"Yeah," Skip replied. "I mean, really. Hey, don't let that thing go out."

The document also contains a thought-provoking and deeply philosophical cosmology.

"Have you ever thought," said Skip, "that the solar system is just like an atom in this really gigantic alternate universe, and the planets are just, like, electrons spinning around, and the sun is, like, the nucleus?"

"Wow," said Muffy. "Heavy. And then we'd be, like, just tiny little, like, specks that you can't even see.

""Riiight," said Skip, exhaling slowly. "Far out, huh?"

Many readers will probably find The Gospel of Skip and Muffy more plausible than The Gospel of Judas, even though the latter has now reportedly been authenticated by Dan Rather and Mary Mapes.

Read the whole thing.

via The Waffling Anglican.