An Austrian opposite-sex couple are suing for the right to have a civil partnership.

As the debate over health care grinds on in the US, the NHS is doing its bit to provide a suitable horrible example of socialised medicine.

A girl dies after police and safety officials were delayed by 2 hours from entering the water to rescue her by health and ( Read more... )

Proposing a “market test” of (pdf) Randian objectivism versus Mises subjectivism. (Paper submitted here.)

A classic example of how property rights are about protecting ordinary folk.

A really nice discussion of “GDP-fetishism”.

Continuing the blow-by-blow of the economic crisis of the 1930s.

Looking at the connection between aid and economic ( Read more... )

Mapping wine, beer and spirits belts in Europe.

Life imitating Art Garfunkel: political scandal in Ulster involving Mrs Robinson and much younger lover.

An employer in Britain told that she could not advertise for reliable workers because it discriminated against unreliable workers. Yes, it does: precisely the point, surely?

Norway does not seem ( Read more... )

JFK’s 1961 “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” speech. Ronald Reagan’s 1987 “Mr Gorbachev, tear down that wall” speech.

About the difficulties of immigration in Europe:
One of the most amazing statistics in the history of European immigration is that the number of foreign residents in Germany rose steadily between 1971 and 2000 - from three million to about 7. ( Read more... )

The case of the ludicrous over-reaction by officials of Britain’s “surveillance state” when a mother applied to get her daughter into a primary school has become some of a cause celebre:
But the intrusions visited on Jenny Paton, a 40-year-old mother of three, were startling just the same. Suspecting Ms. Paton of falsifying her address to get her ( Read more... )

A 101 year old former librarian and war veteran bear hugged a 47-year old robber into submission. Tough folk, those librarians.

A Scottish brewer has released Nanny State Beer™.

Largest ever hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold found:
It is no longer politically correct to refer to the period as the dark ages - but Anglo-Saxon England remains a shadowy ( Read more... )

About Georgia’s bumpy road to democracy.

Post with lots of links on the difficult time for Ireland and its very unpopular government.

Signs of change in attitudes to Islam in Europe. A highly critical review of a (pdf) new book worried about Muslims in Europe. The UK reports a tenfold increase in suspected forced marriages in four years ( Read more... )

Residents of a council housing block told to remove welcome mats and pot plants as health and safety risks. The Brits are being encouraged to report neighbours who have "too much" money as potentially living off the proceeds of crime.

The text of one of Gordon Brown’s quitting minister’s resignation letter.

A new Eurosceptic group is being formed ( Read more... )

A Tudor recreation site in the UK.

A Somali immigrant wins damages in a Swedish court for mistreatment by her parents, including genital mutilation.

In the UK, a mother is gaoled for three years for forcing her school age daughters to marry their cousins.

UK-French relations have not been helped by revelations of the level of official ineptitude ( Read more... )

About all the non-Germans who were willing to help with the Holocaust.

Apparent attack on the Dutch royal family kills driver of the car involved.

President Sarkozy and his wife finding flirting on-air generates lots of hits.

Economic and immigration pressures are moving European voters to the Right, but will authoritarians or libertarians win ( Read more... )