I can believe that there are some academics out there who would defend torture. What I find more difficult to accept is the willingness of the media to pick up this work, to give it widespread publicity, and turn the authors into minor celebrities.
Also, I wonder why it is that the appalling views of the […]

In case you were wondering why I’ve taken such an interest in this case, and deviated from my usual diversion topics, one of my aims was to try to get search engine hits for Terri Schiavo to link to good summaries of the case.
Now that Crooked Timber is back on line there are a few […]

Looking at the poll watcher on myDD it struck me how obvious the divide is in the US. It also struck me that the blue (DEM) states tended to be those (i) that I know the most about; (ii) I have friends living in; (iii) have most of the best universities; (iv) have most of […]

I have to admit I’ve been a bit distracted today, following the US election results on the BBC flash animation, on C-SPAN , and here. I’m also obsessively following the blog discussions at Crooked Timber and John Quiggan. Sadly, it is looking like Bush will win Ohio and Florida, and thus win the election.
One […]

I was wrong. It hurts.

This isn’t my idea, but it is quite a good one. Here’s a way of turning the upcoming election into a no-lose situation. All you have to do is work out how much you think a victory for your favoured party is worth.
For next weekend’s Australian election, on Centrebet you can back a Coalition victory […]

Just a quick follow up to my previous post on the upcoming election. Robert Manne has written this interesting opinion piece in today’s Age.
It is good to see that at least one intellectual is getting a voice in our generally crass and simplistic media. And just to emphasise how bad our media can be, […]

Up till now I’ve deliberately kept politics out of this blog. It isn’t that I’m not interested, in fact it is precisely the opposite: I haven’t politically blogged because I have too much to say. But now I just can’t resist…
One circus (the Olympics) has just finished and another begins. “Honest” John Howard calls an […]