Friday, 12 March 2004Bombings in MadridIn the wake of the terrorist bomb attacks in Madrid, and in homage to Le Monde's response to the 11-Sep attacks, here's a sentiment I'd like to see echoed around the world: We are all Spanish.I think the Spanish would be Somos todos Españoles, but my Spanish (lo siento) isn't good enough for me to be certain. posted 0449 Z-8 [link] Tuesday, 24 February 2004Which book are you?Blue Pyramid has another "personality quiz" out, and it's to its usual respectable standards. After the Country Quiz, it's the Book Quiz. So what did I get? posted 0319 Z-8 [more..] Saturday, 21 February 2004A matter of beliefNorman Geras has some observations on an opinion piece in the Grauniad by one Mary Kenny, concerning planned guidelines for teaching atheism, humanism and agnosticism as part of religious education (RE) in the United Kingdom. posted 0403 Z-8 [more..] Wednesday, 4 February 2004A quick review of the British national pressRecently, I've been watching Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister on DVD. It's a work which has stood the test of time to a remarkable extent, especially considering the end of the Cold War. I'd like to offer a little excerpt from the episode A Conflict of Interest, regarding the British national dailies. posted 0159 Z-8 [more..] Monday, 2 February 2004CandidatesThe upcoming presidential election is rather academic to me in one way, since I'm not an American citizen. On the other hand, I do live here, so who wins in November is going to affect my life. Via Plastic Gangster, I came upon the AOL Presidential Match Guide, which compares your answers to a series of questions about various issues with the candidates' stated platforms and ranks them accordingly. posted 0359 Z-8 [more..] Sunday, 1 February 2004PrivatisationThere's very little I could say about the results of the Hutton inquiry that hasn't been said elsewhere by now, so I'm not going to comment on it. However, I do note that the Hutton report's findings have been seized on by proponents of privatising the BBC. That's an idea that doesn't sit well with me, and it's not a matter of "state control vs. free market" ideology. posted 0319 Z-8 [more..] Tuesday, 27 January 2004(Root) BeerI'm not ending the evening on that last entry, so I'm going to blog about something completely trivial: beverages! posted 0022 Z-8 [more..] Monday, 26 January 2004A peek into the AbyssFollowing on from my previous post, morality may be elusive, but there some things one simply viscerally recognises as evil. During my time at the ICTY, my colleagues and I often made jokes which were in poor taste, but which helped us fight back against the stress of dealing with unpleasant material. But there if there was only one topic which was off-limits for humour, it was rape cases. Today's episode of Fresh Air on National Public Radio consisted of an interview with journalist Peter Landesman, who wrote an article on the trade in sex slaves to and within the United States which appeared in yesterday's New York Times Magazine (registration required). Landesman's report covers some of the most ghastly things I've ever read, and yes, that is saying something. If I had to pick one crime for which I could never imagine a mitigating circumstance, it's probably what you'll read and hear about in these pieces. Do not read if you want to avoid being depressed today. (The Fresh Air episode requires Real or WMP to play.) Update: via Normblog, an entry on the NYT article by Timothy Burke, who does a better job of the my last two posts than I did. posted 2136 Z-8 [link] Lights on a foggy night Observant readers will have noted that I am apparently unable to use the term "moral clarity" without putting it in quote marks. I did so in my previous post, and I did so last April. To be blunt, it's a phrase I don't believe in. I don't believe people who claim to possess it, and I seriously doubt such a thing can even exist, and I don't think the notion that it can is in any way beneficial. That may seem a rather radical opinion, and it deserves some elaboration. posted 0137 Z-8 [more..] Sunday, 25 January 2004A new can of wormsAn article appeared in today's Seattle Times (reprinted from the WaPo), "Libya inquiry uncovers nuke-parts 'supermarket'." The basic story is not news, though the extent of it may well be. It has emerged recently that Iran, North Korea and Libya all acquired nuclear technology of Pakistani origin. In the case of Iran and North Korea, any possible involvement on the Pakistani government's part took place before General Musharraf seized power, but both Iran and Libya are believed in recent years to have acquired materials from a front company in Dubai, thought to be operated by people who previously worked on the Pakistani nuclear development programme. Abdul Qadeer Khan, who spearheaded the development of the Pakistani bomb and after whom the Pakistani nuclear research laboratory is named, has also come under suspicion in connection with the sale of equipment to Iran. There is no reason to assume that the Pakistani government is complicit in this matter, but in that case there exists a disturbing possibility that it is not in control of its own nuclear programme. And if the materials trafficked by rogue scientists were pilfered from the Pakistani nuclear programme, that would be one thing; if they—as the WaPo article suggests—have set up manufacturing facilities to independently produce parts, well, that would be downright scary. (Hat tip to Carolyn, my wife, for the Times article; I have also drawn on the article "Rogues step in" from The Economist of 08-Jan-2004.) posted 2356 Z-8 [link] Thursday, 22 January 2004Some thoughts on language and constitutional lawFor the past five years or so, I've been a 'net junkie, and hanging out on discussion forums has been part of that. The internet is, unsurprisingly, and overwhelmingly Anglophone place, and one of the things which has been driven home to me in that time—and even more so since I emigrated to the United States—is that it can be a very tricky thing to enter into debate with people who have a different linguistic frame of reference than you do. Several of my formative years were spent in the UK, and as a result, I'm bilingual in Dutch and English (I even speak English with a Home Counties accent). Because of this, I frequently cross-reference between the two languages, especially where the definition and etymology of words are concerned (it doesn't help that I was taught French, German, Latin and ancient Greek in school). This is no more evident than when I get involved in discussions involving the "Establishment Clause" of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. posted 0155 Z-8 [more..] |
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