On June 8, I blogged about news reports that said that under pressure from South Korean creationists, their ministry of education had eliminated evolution from their science textbooks. This was, of course, rather bad since it suggested that creationists had established a beachhead in another country. I expressed surprise that a country that was surging in terms of science and technology was taking such a retrograde step. [Read more…]
Jonathan Krohn was a conservative sensation when, in 2009 at the tender age of 13, he published a book Defining Conservatism and also spoke at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). It was all rather harmless, though it was a little odd to see old politicians scrambling to associate themselves with a child’s view of politics and pronounce him the face of the next generation of conservatism. [Read more…]
I do not follow too closely the extreme right commentariat, having neither the time nor the stomach to wade through all that ranting. But Roy Edroso of the Village Voice is made of sterner stuff and in an interesting article has carefully chronicled the right wing reaction to the Supreme Court verdict on the Affordable Care Act. [Read more…]
The scandal involving Barclays bank and its finagling of the LIBOR rate has been huge news in the UK but not much here. For those interested, Matt Taibbi has been posting frequent updates explaining what is going on. The latest revelation indicates collusion between Barclays and the British government to lie about interest rates. This should not be surprising. What is surprising is that it is coming out in public. [Read more…]
The new French government has said that it would implement one of its campaign promises and make same sex marriage and gay adoption legal, starting in 2013. The prime minister told parliament that “Our society is evolving, lifestyles and mentalities are changing.” [Read more…]
Juries are almost always told that it is their job to judge the facts of the case before them and it is only up to the judge to interpret the law. But that is wrong. Juries can judge both the facts and the law and have the right to acquit someone of a crime if they feel that the law under which the person was convicted is an unjust one, even if the facts of the case clearly show that the person is guilty. Such a result is known as ‘jury nullification’. [Read more…]
On this independence day holiday, I am repeating a post on what to me is one of the most intriguing phrases in the US Declaration of Independence. It is contained in the famous sentence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
I have always found the inclusion of “the pursuit of happiness” as an inalienable right to be appealing. One does not expect to see such a quaint sentiment in a revolutionary political document, and its presence sheds an interesting and positive light on the minds and aspirations of the people who drafted it. [Read more…]
On this day in 1988, a US warship in the Strait of Hormuz shot down a civilian Iranian passenger airliner, killing all 290 people on board. After being found culpable by the International Court of Justice, the US paid reparations but never apologized for the shooting, with then vice-president and later president George H. W. Bush famously saying, “I’ll never apologize for the United States of America. Ever. I don’t care what the facts are.” Because as god’s chosen people and nation, we are never wrong. [Read more…]