It angers me that Guatanamo has become the focus of “liberal” outrage in this country. Every day thousands of people are tortured in US prisons in various ways. Yet little is written condemning these practices. On the contrary, they are glorified and justified in popular culture (cf. Con Air for one of thousands of examples) [...]
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I have often mentioned this document on this blog, notably here and here. I strongly recommend anyone who hasn’t yet done so, to read it now.
Continue reading about Creating a Universal Standard for Human Rights
In the run up to the Iraqi war I was involved in a project called Stand Down which attempted to gather bloggers on the “right” and “left” of the political spectrum to write posts in opposition to going to war. Sadly the site is down. I say sadly because it would provide useful documentation of how correct the anti-war [...]
The war in Yugoslavia was a turning point in the human rights movement. Appalled by the atrocities they saw, many Western war correspondents advocated for military intervention by the US and the EU. The rallying cry was “how can we stand by and let another Holocaust happen?” Eventually (not soon enough for what would soon be known as the [...]
Continue reading about Feature: Humanitarian Intervention – Part I
Today is the fourth of July. In regards to patriotism, two quotes by Mark Twain succinctly describe my own attitudes:
“Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices [...]
Nearly two years ago, I wrote a piece titled Hypocrisy and Empire Part I. I raised some questions from my good friend Sister B. and promised to answer them in part II. For many reasons I never got around to writing that second article. However, since hypocrisy has been my theme for the last few [...]
Just a few days ago, I wrote an article about the Israeli government’s decision to exproriate Palestinian land in Jerusalem through exploiting some obscure law. At the time I noted that Natan Sharansky was surely involved in this.
As an alert reader pointed out, Natan Sharansky was not only involved, he was one of the instigators. [...]
The title of this piece comes from the Biblical book of Kings I, Chapter 22, verse 19. Ahab was a rich and powerful Israelite king, who coveted the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. Naboth refused to sell his only possession to the King, for he was greatly attached to his family plot. So Jezebeel, the [...]
Continue reading about Feature: Will you murder and also take possession?
When the UN was founded in 1948, the General Assembly adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It’s opening paragraph is based on the ideas of the enlightenment, embodied in the French Revolution:
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act [...]