Monthly Archives: March 2011

Measuring Human Rights (16): The Right to Healthcare

Posted on March 9, 2011 by

(There’s a more theoretical post here about the reasons why we should call health care a human right. But even if you think those are bad reasons, you may find the following useful). The right to health care is one … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, health, measuring human rights, statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Human Rights Maps (123): Lynchings in the U.S.

Posted on March 8, 2011 by

(source) More data on lynchings are here. More textual information on lynchings and racism here and here respectively. More human rights maps here.

Posted in data, discrimination and hate, equality, horror, human rights maps | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Ethics of Human Rights (44): Human Rights Between Cosmopolitanism and Partiality

Posted on March 7, 2011 by

Cosmopolitanism and partiality (or parochialism if you don’t mean it in a negative sense) are two very strong and yet contradictory moral intuitions. Let’s start with the former. Most of us have a strong sense of the arbitrariness of national … Continue reading →

Posted in aid, culture, ethics of human rights, globalization, international relations, intervention, justice, moral dilemmas, philosophy, poverty | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Statistical Jokes (23): Coin Toss

Posted on March 6, 2011 by

A statistics major was completely hung over the day of his final exam. It was a True/False test, so he decided to flip a coin for the answers. The stats professor watched the student the entire two hours as he … Continue reading →

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The Environment and Human Rights (5): Exporting Without Remorse: How Canada is Exporting Toxins to the 3rd World

Posted on March 5, 2011 by

[This is a post by guest writer Eric Stevenson, a health and safety advocate who resides in the Southeastern US]. Canada is well-known for its freshwater, its food, its winter sports, and its free health care system.  Its people have … Continue reading →

Posted in activism, health, human rights and the environment, international relations, trade | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Political Graffiti (131): Equality

Posted on March 4, 2011 by

(source, source) More on equality, desert and merit. More political graffiti.

Posted in art, equality, political graffiti | Tagged , | 1 Comment

A Killer Argument Against the Quantitative Approach to Human Rights?

Posted on March 3, 2011 by

Joseph Stalin wasn’t a very nice man. Among his lesser sins was his disdain for statistics: “kill a man and it’s a tragedy, kill a million and it’s a statistic”. What he meant of course was not just that it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in equality, measuring human rights, philosophy, statistics | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

My Latest Tweets

Posted on March 2, 2011 by

Universal Declaration guarantees a right to leave any country, but no right to enter other countries; I guess it’s a right to be lost at sea Assisted suicide is bad, government sanctioned murder is good; #Gaddafi logic http://bit.ly/fWXdLs #Libya How … Continue reading →

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Human Rights Ads (58): Child Soldiers

Posted on March 2, 2011 by

(source) More on child soldiers here. More human rights ads here.

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The Causes of Human Rights Violations (25): To What Extent Do Human Rights Depend on Large Numbers?

Posted on March 1, 2011 by

Let’s assume that the likelihood of a successful revolutionary overthrow of an authoritarian regime depends on how many people are involved in anti-government protests. (That’s a reasonable assumption, given the fact that mass opposition can grow so wide that repression … Continue reading →

Posted in activism, causes of human rights violations, democracy, philosophy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment