The growing presence of Palantir in the UK is no longer just a procurement story. The company now holds roughly £600 million in public contracts across the NHS, the Ministry of Defence, local councils and policing, while two petitions calling for ministers to sever ties with the firm have drawn more than 229,000 signatures. The concern is not limited to cost or outsourcing. It is that a company built in the worlds of intelligence, surveillance and military analysis is moving deeper into some of the UK’s most sensitive institutions at the same moment its leadership is becoming more explicit about the kind of technological order it wants to build. [Read More]

Regardless of how you might feel about the Iran war, as I previously stated, when I was called in to give me a briefing on Russia, I was told that we would NOT be at war with Russia - it would be with China. As they say, you only know who your friends are in times of trouble. This war has revealed that our supposed allies are really enemies waiting for the opportunity to stab this upstart colony called America in the back. In reality, they were always enemies, jealous that they lost their power to this fledgling upstart. The United States has only been feared - not admired. [Read More]

What are religious systems if not guides for ethics? Any religion worth its salt must give its followers a concrete notion of the good life - of virtue, justice, and rectitude. It needs to offer a conception of what counts as good in this world; it must explain how a person can be good, and how people collectively can create the best possible existence for themselves. These things will naturally be tied to a specific conception of God (or the gods), but still, concrete and specific ethical norms must be the outcome; otherwise, followers will be largely left in the dark regarding how to conduct a proper life.

Judaism is no exception. The basic outline of this religion is of course found in the Jewish Bible, the Old Testament (the Tanakh). Unfortunately, from an ethical perspective, the Old Testament is an utter fiasco: moral precepts abound, but they are ambiguous, contradictory, vapid, and arbitrary. And worse: they lead to a catastrophic and repulsive set of attitudes, as I will demonstrate. [Read More]

The Iran War kicked off the price spike but it was uncanny how a machinery was so quickly put in place to instruct everyone of what to do. The panic about how to respond is intensifying. The crisis is without precedent, they say. We have to try new approaches, dramatic ones.

Suddenly, this institution called the International Energy Agency holds new prominence in world media. Founded in 1974, it’s an NGO associated with OPEC. It has no hard but only soft power – like the World Health Organization, with whom the IEA shares a similarly authoritative branding. [Read More]