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Monthly Archives: July 2009
Terrorism and Human Rights (20): Targeted Killing of Terrorists
(source) Are governments, or even private individuals, allowed to kill terrorists when killing them is the only way to prevent a terrorist attack? Intuitively, I would say “yes”, but only if certain conditions are met: the attack must be imminent, and … Continue reading
Posted in law, terror, war
Tagged anti-terrorism, ira, ius in bello, law of war, military, murder, osama bin laden, punishment, SAS, state murder, targeted killings, terrorism, violence, war on terrorism
2 Comments
Political Jokes & Funny Quotes (46): Capitalist Hell and Communist Hell
A man dies and goes to hell. There he discovers that he has a choice: he can go to capitalist hell or to communist hell. Naturally, he wants to compare the two, so he goes over to capitalist hell. There … Continue reading
Posted in comedy, political jokes and funny quotes
Tagged capitalism, communism, hell, joke, marxism
6 Comments
Human Rights Quote (74): Should We Stop Giving Aid to Africa?
(source) In this previous post on the same subject, I quoted Paul Collier’s criticism of Dambisa Moyo’s hugely overhyped but enjoyable book on development aid. Here’s another critical quote: Surely, Moyo should recognize the difference between aid provided to oppressive kleptocrats … Continue reading
Posted in aid, books, health, human rights quote, poverty
Tagged africa, aids, Dambisa Moyo, development, development aid, HIV, international development aid
7 Comments
Political Graffiti (53): Dumb-ocracy
(source) More on the role of knowledge and intelligence (or even expertise) in politics, especially democratic politics – democracy is often derided as the rule by the ignorant masses – is here, here and here. More outdated anti-Bush tirades are … Continue reading
Posted in art, democracy, political graffiti
Tagged bush, democracy, expert, graffiti, guerilla art, knowledge, political graffiti, politics, street art, stupidity, urban art
1 Comment
Migration and Human Rights (18): Number of Refugees, End of 2008
From The Economist: At the end of 2008 10.5m refugees were in the direct care of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, down slightly from 11.4m a year earlier. The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq again caused the largest numbers … Continue reading
Posted in citizenship, statistics, war
Tagged afghanistan, iraq, refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, war
1 Comment
Human Rights and Risk
(source) Obviously, we all run the risk of having our rights violated. Depending on where you live in the world, this risk may be big or small. For some, the risk always remains a risk, and their rights are always respected. But that’s the … Continue reading
Posted in philosophy
Tagged arbitrariness, arbitrary arrest, fear, human rights, human rights violations, nozick, probability, risk, ticking bomb, torture, war on terrorism
6 Comments
The Causes of Poverty (23): Better Healthcare = More People = More Poverty?
I’ve already debunked this equation before. In short, the “argument”, if you can call it that, goes like this. Investment in better healthcare results in lower mortality rates (especially child mortality rates) and larger populations. If more people have to … Continue reading
Posted in causes of poverty, health, poverty
Tagged economics, fertility rates, health care, infant mortality rates, malthusianism, mortality, overpopulation, poverty, Thomas Malthus
4 Comments
Human Rights Poem (68): Mary’s Song (Holocaust)
(source) Mary’s Song, by Sylvia Plath The Sunday lamb cracks in its fat. The fat Sacrifices its opacity. . . . A window, holy gold. The fire makes it precious, The same fire Melting the tallow heretics, Ousting the Jews. … Continue reading
Posted in horror, human rights poem
Tagged genocide, holocaust, human rights, human rights poem, poem, poetry, politics
1 Comment
The Compatibility of Freedom and Equality (7): Negative and Positive Freedom
(source) It think it’s fair to say that both the libertarian and egalitarian conceptions of freedom are wrong. Libertarians traditionally adopt a negative kind of freedom. More precisely, they believe that individuals should be free from interference, especially interference by … Continue reading
Posted in compatibility of freedom and equality, freedom and equality, what is freedom
Tagged capabilities, equal freedom, equality of opportunity, freedom, interference, libertarianism, negative freedom, obama, positive freedom, property, redistribution, resources, spreading the wealth around
8 Comments
