Monthly Archives: January 2010

A Lesson From 26/11 – Better PR?

Recently there have been reports of a terrorist group aligned with LeT planning on hijacking an Air India flight and using paragliders to launch suicide attacks against India. The kind of lucidity, clarity, and specificity in the news reports seemed unusual (almost unprecedented) for India. Looks like among the lessons learnt from 26/11 is that it is not sufficient to just do your job, you need to make sure that your stakeholders (the people of India) know that you are doing your job. In other words PR/marketing. So are we going to see more ‘transparency’ from the government on intelligence information and credibility of terrorists threats?

January 23, 2010 – 7:20 pm | By Semantic Overload | Posted in india | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

Pat Robertson, Explained

Pat Robertson is no stranger to controversies, and uncomfortably so. He has been called everything from ‘loathsome’ to ‘philanthropist’. The latest in his never ending list of quivering diatribe is his assertion is the people of Haiti are ‘cursed’ because they made a ‘pact with the devil’. His previous such statements include concurring that 9/11 happened because of ACLU, the abortionists, the pagans, the feminists and the LGBT community, and that hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for America’s sins. Of course, The Onion has been generous enough to have its own additions it this!

One is forced to wonder: why is Pat Robertson saying such things knowing fully well that he is hurting people through his statements and hate? There has to be a logical explanation for it, and I think I have found one. My explanation is based on three important assumptions: (a) Pat Robertson believes that Jesus died for everyone’s sins, (b) he believes that the end times is near, and (c) he is a capitalist.

January 20, 2010 – 11:13 pm | By Semantic Overload | Posted in humor, religion, US | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Donate for Haiti – With Care

The 7.0 earthquake that rocked Haiti on Jan 12th has left all of us reeling. All of us want to help in any way we can. Before you rush out to make donations either in cash or in kind, please keep in mind a few things below: Know the organization you are donating to: It …

January 15, 2010 – 5:21 pm | By Semantic Overload | Posted in advocacy | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Philosophical Forays into Justice with Michael Sandel

Prof. Michael Sandel from Harvard University offered a 12-lecture course on “Justice: A Journey in Moral Reasoning” last year. Prof. Sandel makes a wonderful argument for studying philosophy as a means for understanding the answers that we already know, and he goes on to warn the audience that understanding political and social philosophy is, ironically, going to make you worse citizens, not better! You couldn’t ask for a more provocative set up to the lectures!

Here is the first video of the 12 [link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY]

January 14, 2010 – 7:35 pm | By Semantic Overload | Posted in discussion, education, philosophy, video | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off