Start building a wall -- everyone's doing it!

With the Israeli High Court coming back with a decision that they can not rule on the construction of the security wall because the question asked was too general, it seems that everyone is getting into the act of building walls for one reason or another. Saudi Arabia and Yemen are having talks to build a wall along their mutual borders to prevent smuggling and illegal crossing. Of course you can't have a protest about Israel building a wall without building one yourself, which is exactly what German protesters did this weekend at the former location of Checkpoint Charlie.

MSNBC has a somewhat lengthy article on one of the questions brought up by Mel Gibson's new film, The Passion, asking 'Who killed Jesus?' They correctly point out that the film's portrayal of the Jewish high priests as bloodthirsty compared to Pontius Pilate who is played as a figure bullied into handing down the sentence is incorrect. Historically, it was likely the other way around, as the article points out:

The two earliest and most reliable extra-Biblical references to Jesus those of the historians Josephus and Tacitus say Jesus was executed by Pilate. The Roman prefect was Caiaphas' political superior and even controlled when the Jewish priests could wear their vestments and thus conduct Jewish rites in the Temple. Pilate was not the humane figure Gibson depicts. According to Philo of Alexandria, the prefect was of "inflexible, stubborn, and cruel disposition," and known to execute troublemakers without trial.

The article continues on to give a historical perspective on the writing of the Gospels, emphasizing how political and social conditions caused the authors to change the perspective of the story.

Although I heard this story on the Daily Show last night, I found it reported in the BBC today. Apparently an American Airlines pilot decided to ask all Christians on his flight to raise their hands and then proceed to call all non-Christians 'crazy.' As John Steward put it last night, "I don't know what people are getting upset about. What could possibly go wrong with the controls of the airplane in the hands of a religious zealot?"

A couple of interesting science stories:
- Scientific American has an article review a number of books published recently that try to explain consciousnessss.
- Nissan is experimenting with a 'sonic gun' that they hope will surpress hailstorms.
- The New York Times has an article about how people perceiveve heat. You should check it out just for the picture of the guy taking an 'ice bath.'

A little warning for those of you who decided that signing up for Friendster or a similar service was a good idea. You might be compromising your privacy.

It's really time for Dean to wake up and smell the coffee when it comes to his presidential run, but unfortunately he just announced that even if he looses Wisconsin (which probably means that he expects to), he won't quit the race. Now that he's reduced his message to rallying against 'Washington insiders' and 'special interests,' he's basically turned himself into a one-trick pony. Just a small note to this message -- everyone is an insider once you get there, and everyone has special interests. To think that you don't (or won't) is sheer lunacy.

Both of my pet stories seemed to have wrapped up this week, with the French legislature passing the headscarves law by a huge majority, and President Khatami conceded defeat in trying to reinstate the remaining banned candidates before the elections on February 20th. Still, his public opposition challenged the authority of the Guardian Council and was effective in reinstating some of the banned candidates. The process of democratization is slow, so one can't expect a country like Iran to immediately transform itself into a modern Western republic. What is important is the gains made this time around by President Khatami and the other reformers.

In another display of how different America is with the rest of the world culturally, we have two opposing stories. First from the Christian Science Monitor, a story about how the Massachusetts legislaturere is expected to pass a constitutional amendment banning homosexuals from marriage, the leader of the British Conservative Party, Michael Howard, has just announced that he endorses gay partnerships. He does differentiate between civil unions, which he supports, and marriage, which he doesn't, but for the leader of the major right-wing party to come out with such a stance is telling of how the rest of the world is dealing with this issue. The Guardian quotes him as saying:

"Families are changing, not all conform to the traditional pattern. I continue to believe that the conventional marriage and family is the best environment within which to bring up children. But many couples now choose not to marry. And more same-sex couples want to take on the shared responsibilities of a committed relationship. Civil partnership differs from marriage. Marriage is a separate and special relationship which we should continue to celebrate and sustain. To recognise civil partnership is not, in any way, to denigrate or downgrade marriage. It is to recognise and respect the fact that many people want to live their lives in different ways."

Finally in brief:
- The United Nations has begun a rehabilitation program for the thousands of underage Afghan fighters.
- Shelia Copps continues to flirt with the NDP despite running for the Liberal nomination.
- The BBC reports scores of people killed in new clashes in Ethiopia blamed on ethic violence.