Linkage
Tickling Santa.
Croquet Crochet cuttlefish. Via kirieldp.
Actor Richard Widmark has died.
Bhutan has held its first democratic election: it seems to have been very, well, Bhutanese. More on Bhutan’s move to democracy.
How natural law libertarianism and social contract/utilitarian libertarianism don’t lead you to the same places. Responding to critics.
About racism in the Arab world. Which is homegrown (and, in fact, pre-dates European racism.)
About Lebanon as an insight into the Arab world: Though far and away the most liberal, democratic and sophisticated of Arabic-speaking countries, Lebanon, as Mackey convincingly shows, still hasn’t managed to overcome the Arab world’s troubles. Identity is rooted in family, clan, sect and ideology more than in the nation. The weak central government can’t administer or police its territory. Meddlesome foreigners use the country for proxy wars, at times occupying swaths of its land with their own soldiers. Borders are only vaguely defined in some places, and everywhere else were drawn up by Western imperialists in collaboration with local clients.
The connection between Kossovo, Taiwan and Tibet. The Sudanese government is confident that it can count on Chinese support.
Reasons to think Zimbabwe’s election won’t be free and fair. But that’s not entirely how it worked out (pdf). A stunning opposition victory. More links. Still more. And more still. The extent of Zimbabwe’s collapse under Mugabe: Average life expectancy dropped from 63 years in 1990 to 37.3 years in 2005, according to World Bank and U.N. figures. A South African on the complicit silence of South Africa. Zimbabwe and its diaspora is rife with rumours.
Croquet Crochet cuttlefish. Via kirieldp.
Actor Richard Widmark has died.
Bhutan has held its first democratic election: it seems to have been very, well, Bhutanese. More on Bhutan’s move to democracy.
How natural law libertarianism and social contract/utilitarian libertarianism don’t lead you to the same places. Responding to critics.
About racism in the Arab world. Which is homegrown (and, in fact, pre-dates European racism.)
About Lebanon as an insight into the Arab world: Though far and away the most liberal, democratic and sophisticated of Arabic-speaking countries, Lebanon, as Mackey convincingly shows, still hasn’t managed to overcome the Arab world’s troubles. Identity is rooted in family, clan, sect and ideology more than in the nation. The weak central government can’t administer or police its territory. Meddlesome foreigners use the country for proxy wars, at times occupying swaths of its land with their own soldiers. Borders are only vaguely defined in some places, and everywhere else were drawn up by Western imperialists in collaboration with local clients.
The connection between Kossovo, Taiwan and Tibet. The Sudanese government is confident that it can count on Chinese support.
Reasons to think Zimbabwe’s election won’t be free and fair. But that’s not entirely how it worked out (pdf). A stunning opposition victory. More links. Still more. And more still. The extent of Zimbabwe’s collapse under Mugabe: Average life expectancy dropped from 63 years in 1990 to 37.3 years in 2005, according to World Bank and U.N. figures. A South African on the complicit silence of South Africa. Zimbabwe and its diaspora is rife with rumours.