Defending liberal democracy 17 Mar 20094 Oct 2017 I urge people to go read Russell Blackford’s submission to the Human Rights consultative committee in Australia. It deals with the changes and challenges to civil liberties in the modern era and although Australia-focussed, it generalises well once you get past our odd spelling conventions and local events. Censorship Politics Religion
History The forgotten Holocaust 15 Oct 2009 This is a disturbing essay by Timothy Snyder in the New York Review of Books, republished in Eurozine. It suggests that we do not remember the entirety of the Holocaust in German and Soviet hands. [H/T 3 Quarks Daily] Read More
Politics The Haneef washup 1 Feb 200818 Sep 2017 Readers will know that I got very angry about the Haneef Affair, in which a muslim Indian doctor was accused of being a terrorist and deported by the improper abuse of power by the minister for immigration of the previous government [here, here, here, here, here and here]. Now his… Read More
Logic and philosophy Explaining religion 2 – what is religion? 25 Oct 200718 Sep 2017 I now turn to the question of explananda – what is it that explanations of religion are adduced to explain? Read More
I argue that fully adequate protection of our rights and freedoms would require all of the following: The inclusion of core civil liberties — such as freedom of speech and expression, freedom of belief, conscience, and worship, and freedom of association — in a constitutionally-entrenched Bill of Rights, along with strong procedural protections before anyone can be subjected to punishment, imprisonment, detention, ill-treatment, or other loss of liberties. Hey! We Merkins tried this. It even works … occasionally. Very good, Russell.
I argue that fully adequate protection of our rights and freedoms would require all of the following: The inclusion of core civil liberties — such as freedom of speech and expression, freedom of belief, conscience, and worship, and freedom of association — in a constitutionally-entrenched Bill of Rights, along with strong procedural protections before anyone can be subjected to punishment, imprisonment, detention, ill-treatment, or other loss of liberties. Hey! We Merkins tried this. It even works … occasionally. Very good, Russell.