Santorum avers that “America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography.” He pledges to use the resources of the Department of Justice to fight that “pandemic,” by bringing obscenity prosecutions against pornographers. I would note that this is very … Continue reading
(g) Any person who uses tear gas or tear gas weapons except in self-defense is guilty of a public offense and is punishable byimprisonment in a state prison for 16 months, or two or three years or in a county … Continue reading
There’s no privacy Imagine the U.S. Census as conducted by direct marketers – that’s the social graph. Social networks exist to sell you crap. The icky feeling you get when your friend starts to talk to you about Amway, or … Continue reading
Asheville’s Occupy Wall Street, day one. The story, with images and statements from protesters, is here on Image Asheville
What follows is my submission to the Colin Brown Human Rights Project. This is a community consultation process carried out by the Law Reform Institute of Tasmania, at the behest of the Tasmanian State Government. The project is described here … Continue reading
Tasmania is considering bringing in a bill or charter of human rights, following the lead of the Australian Capital Territory and the state of Victoria. It has asked the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute to investigate the matter, consult with the … Continue reading
Freedom of speech in Australia is in far worse shape than generally understood. Frank Moorhouse, researching his essay, “The writer in a time of terror” came across first one and then a large number of extremely frightening examples of Orwellian … Continue reading
Complex systems can have emergent properties. In other words the interactions between the constituent elements of the system can give rise to events, patterns, and behaviours which are not easy to predict by examination of the individual elements in isolation. … Continue reading
This week I’ve found myself by turns angry and sad about politics for the first time since the Israeli bombardment of civilians in Lebanon. This time the reason, I think, is that I had begun to believe that the right … Continue reading
From Comment is Free a summary of Bush’s true failure: America is dedicated to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Had Thomas Jefferson never written those words, it would be hard to invent better ideals to set against the … Continue reading
Australia is probably typical of the English speaking west in that it’s citizens are being buried in an avalanche of red tape. The litigious society meets the risk-averse society and the answer seems to be bureaucracy. We have occupational health … Continue reading
Edgar Jacobi: Heh. Well, you know that kind of cancer that you get better from eventually? Rorschach: Yes. Edgar Jacobi: Well, that ain’t the kind of cancer I got. Judi Bari and Earth First! In the 1980s some environmental activists, … Continue reading
Funny and sad. George Galloway has a few things to say to the US Senate.
The Ethics of Selfishness was always intended as an introduction to this article, which broadly speaking deals with altruism. I wanted to outline a proposal for a system of public ethics which was sufficient in scope to provide a useful … Continue reading
Craig Murray was a UK diplomat who protested Britain’s complicity in torture and human rights abuses in Uzbekistan. He was subject to a smear campaign, although eventually cleared, and lost his job. He has written a book about the issue, … Continue reading
States are sovereign; they determine their own laws and regulate their own actions. Interactions between states are therefore always to some extent a matter of realpolitik. Nevertheless there is a collegial system of law based on treaties, decisions by the … Continue reading
A catalogue of continuing atrocity by the US in Iraq. An AP report including allegations of a multiple murder to conceal a rape. This seems to be passing unnoticed, but the repercussions are disastrous. The story is here. Update: The … Continue reading
TheWaz recently posted an article giving the link to the Wired magazine leaking of the documents involved in the AT&T NSA wiretap case brought by EFF. It boils down to the idea that if your internet traffic goes through any … Continue reading