Posted on August 30th, 2008 by Kip
The phrase, "the games are over" can have multiple meanings in China: Around four million Chinese youngsters are addicted to the Internet, mainly attracted by "unhealthy" online games, state media reported Friday, citing a top legislator. … The [standing committee of the National People's Congress] has called for stricter monitoring of Internet games that have [...]
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Posted on August 24th, 2008 by Kip
It's so rare for me to agree with a New York Times editorial that I feel compelled to take advantage of the occasion: Beijing got what it wanted out of this globally televised spectacular. It reaped a huge prestige bonanza that it will surely use to promote its international influence and, we fear, further tighten [...]
Filed under: Foreign Affairs, Libertarianism | 4 Comments »
Posted on August 22nd, 2008 by Kip
So let me see if I understand this correctly: China, in connection with the Beijing Olympics, violates free speech rights, violates free press rights, violates religious rights, violates property rights, banishes frail old women to "re-education camps," muzzles the Internet (including — gasp! — iTunes), detains foreigners (including Americans), etc., etc., etc. And almost nobody [...]
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Posted on August 18th, 2008 by Kip
To review: Health care, however defined, is a scarce good like any other good or service. And like any other scarce good or service, it must be rationed. The only question is how it will be rationed — by private market forces (perhaps bounded by a minimal, humane social safety net for the truly incompetent) [...]
Filed under: Foreign Affairs, Socialized Medicine | 1 Comment »
Posted on August 11th, 2008 by Kip
It's hard to blog about it, because the situation changes so quickly. But three hasty stitches emerge from the conflict. 1. Russia is a hopeless thugocracy. Putin is a dictator, or at least a proto-dictator. He would bring back the Soviet Union in a flash if he thought he could. In the meantime he will [...]
Filed under: Foreign Affairs | 1 Comment »
Posted on August 8th, 2008 by Kip
This blog is on symbolic hiatus on Friday, 8 August 2008, the date of the opening ceremony for the Summer Olympics, to protest the betrayal, by the morally defective International Olympic Committee and its myopic apologists, of the core principles of freedom of thought — including speech, press and religion — enjoyed and held dear [...]
Filed under: Foreign Affairs, Libertarianism | 1 Comment »
Posted on July 24th, 2008 by Kip
In other news, the EU has "bendiness" rules for food: Twisted carrots, warped leeks and bent cucumbers may soon appear — officially — on EU shop shelves as Europe's farm chief overrides opposition from leading producer countries to her marketing simplification plan. One of the most popular jibes about EU over-regulation, where zealous Brussels bureaucrats [...]
Filed under: Capitalism, Foreign Affairs, Freedom of Contract, Property Rights | 1 Comment »
Posted on July 22nd, 2008 by Kip
More goatherder justice: Iran has sentenced eight women and one man convicted of adultery to death by stoning, activists said Sunday. A lawyer and women's rights activist, Shadi Sadr, said the nine, who are between 27 and 50 years old, were convicted of adultery in separate cases in different Iranian cities. Trial protocol was not [...]
Filed under: Foreign Affairs, Gay Rights and Issues, Religion of Peace | 1 Comment »
Posted on July 21st, 2008 by Kip
"We should tell Maliki, loudly and in public, that he owes his job to us, and that further prosecution of our military operations in his country will be conducted with regard only to U.S. interests, as determined in consensus by our established domestic political processes. And if he doesn't like that, he can go to [...]
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Posted on July 17th, 2008 by Kip
Just some quick pass-alongs. ITEM: A gaggle of Philadelphia-based bigots have lost their appeal, of their lost lawsuit, in which they insisted that they, somehow, have a right to throw temper tantrums in public — Anti-homosexual activists arrested when they disobeyed police orders to move during Philadelphia's 2004 OutFest celebration had a right to demonstrate [...]
Filed under: Activist Legislators & Nanny Statists, First Amendment - Speech, Foreign Affairs, Gay Rights and Issues, Law, Society, Religion, Culture Wars | Comments Off