Saving the Female Fetus Dmji,
I`m late to this discussion. You seem to be of the view that abortion is wrong? Would it be OK if, after amniocentesis, a woman chooses to abort not wanting to be saddled with a (severely) disabled child? People to choose to abort a female fetus because they don`t want to be saddled with a child that they will have to pay a lot of dowry for and with little pecuniary ROI. How`s this different?
Or is this to improve india`s image abroad and come across as a moral people?
Your equating this to foeticide naturally begs the question - is abortion murder?

Finding Kashmir\'s Pain in London A very moving account..
This is a reminder that in violent conflicts between powerful actors it`s the little people who get stepped on..

Finding Kashmir\'s Pain in London A very moving account..
This is a reminder that in violent conflicts between powerful actors it`s the little people who get stepped on..

Is Iran Headed for War? #101 arjun_m
and just like Urstruly is ``supporting`` WOT?

Is Iran Headed for War? #59 From what i understand, Ahmedinajad has only the power of the pulpit. It`s the Ayatollahs who pull the strings. I agree that Ahmedinajad should put a nookie in his mouth and not say another word.
As for Iran`s testing missiles and such, they are really worried of an israeli attack on their nuclear facilities and these tests are a message to the israelis.
Iraq was a militarily neutered and economically weakened country. Iran on the other hand would be very difficult to invade. Just as with North Korea where the mutual sabre rattling got the Koreans and the US to a detente, so will it happen with iran. Attacking iran outright would be suicidal for the US since that would feed into the jehadi campaign even more. There will be some softening up by way of economic sanctions and such as a prelude to a military engagement but that engangement is unlikely to come any time soon.

Is Iran Headed for War? #98 arjun_m, but you are supporting them with your tax money..

Apostasy and Islam #470 zeemax
That`s interesting logic, quran must be most miraculous because nothing else is believed by a billion people to be so. In your search for why the quran has stayed the way it has, you are being unfair to the rest of the package. It`s like what natural-born americans claim about their constitution - that it is an amazing document that has built up a country. At a different time and a different place, the US constitution would be nothing but another description of what a society wanted to be. After all, there has been idealists everywhere commiting their dreams to paper but it is a string of chance events that are required to bolster the belief in the document until everything becomes self-sustaining. It`s in the nature of the beast. Had the Union lost the civil war, the constitution might as well be history. The current fealty to the constitution derives from a whole host of things but by and large it is engrained in the american culture - even tho at times like these that fealty seems to elicit nothing more than a lip service.

Apostasy and Islam #457 hasanji,
That is profound, very profound.
Besides, what use is a god who`d rather be right than reasonable?

Apostasy and Islam #243 dude, as long as we are in the realm of speculation, ``facts`` don`t matter.

Apostasy and Islam GT, all sankaracharyas COULD be vaishnavites but i know for a fact that the kanchi one isn`t.

Apostasy and Islam GT, a lot of things COULD be, and you could also be HP.
My understanding is that buddhists by and large were engaged in debate by the adwaitists and the losing side had to renounce its faith. This COULD be a folk tale for no one I know was present and we don`t have any sort of photographic or other semi-convincing evidence.
What is also known is that Jains were put to death in the south when a king was (re?)converted to shaivism.

Images and Symbols -- Deconstructing the Iraq War Slowly but surely the war crimes of the american military are coming to light. But, if history is any indication, the criminals will never be punished. Dubya should be sitting in the court with Saddam Hussein.
Here`s link to a video.
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002589.htm

Apostasy and Islam #132 urstruly begs the question. Why should the nominal christians sacrifice for the sake of an outdated ideology?
BTW if one god was better than multiple gods, surely zero gods is even better?

Apostasy and Islam Humans are imaginative enough and basically decent enough that no ideology can survive adaptation and reinterpretation for long.
Consider this: thought to spoken words and then to written words and then to understanding the meaning of the written word - each step involves interpretation, not to mention translation from one language to another, one era to another, and one culture to another. A good writer is ambiguous enough to want his or her creation to have multiple personalities and speak to each reader in the reader`s own language.
Thus it is with religious texts, even the quran. What imposes stricture is the intercessors, the ayatollahs, the mullahs, and the priests.
There are socialist, capitalist and communist muslims each finding enough support in the quran and Muhammed`s life that they, in their own minds, can reconcile their other beliefs with their religion.

The Bubble Bursts #387 zeemax
Methinks you`re quoting someone`s conjecture. What we actually know about this particular episode comes almost entirely from Gandhiji`s letters to Bhave and others and Nirmal Bose`s books.

#397 DMji
That was a nice little summary. You have overlooked one important thing - that islam in india perforce had become a syncretic religion. The confluence of Bhakti movement and sufi ideology made it possible to bridge the gap between the two religions. I don`t know if sufi conversions were a major factor but from what i understand it was fairly significant. Even mass conversions could happen for something other than economic or social reasons. Even today we see entire groups convert to one cult or another headed by one swamiji or another over a period of time.

Rifts, Fissures, Cracks, Gaping Holes #90 speaking of idiot brahmins, harimau is an excellent example.

When schooling changed over from the gurukul system to the western method of imparting secular education in a neutral setting, brahmins also made the switch, since they were pretty much the only ones involved in the gurukul system. This gave them a head start when it came to acquiring useful, modern knowledge. It was nothing more than happenstance.
As Jang alludes, our administrative system has been staffed with high castes, and especially brahmins starting from the british era. If you think the country is screwed up, blame it on the brahmins then.
I have known lots of idiot brahmins who got cushy jobs because they had vital connections - someone knew someone else who was in a secretariat in dilli and the person gets a helping hand, gets a few promotions like clockwork and the cycle starts over with him helping someone else. Not surprisingly, the connections are caste related.
What the reservation system attempts to do is break these connections and restore some semblance of equal opportunity. You have to swing the other way a little to make for all the advantages that the current set enjoys.
Even tho as a person of brahmin parentage, i have been at the wrong end of the reservation system, i heartily endorse the quota system. It has its flaws and it needs to be tweaked for sure, but that it is there sends a strong message to the deprived castes that there is some hope. It may not transpire at the end, but it`s better than nothing.