So, secret concentration camps for children - how far down are they on the slide into fascism, actually...? (Are we close? There already?)... (read more)
Governors Johnson & Weld are in favour of a balanced budget, term limits, and end to military adventurism, a simplified tax system, continued immigration to strengthen our immigrant nation, and strong protections for civil liberties including marriage equality. In other words, they believe in what most Americans do: fiscal responsibility, and social tolerance.... (read more)
The rise of Trump, and Trumpism, is the worst thing I've witnessed happen in or to American in my lifetime. It is a hundred times more dangerous and damaging than 9/11, as it strikes at the very heart of what America is and represents. Right now, simply, America is having a close call with fascism.... (read more)
Get some.... (read more)
The EU is the body who thought - on the one continent in the world that is not experiencing economic growth - it would be a good idea to make each of 500 million people spend five minutes a day reading about and clicking to consent on cookies, on every single web site they visit, forever. ... (read more)
In December of 2012, I had the first month of my life when earnings from my writing actually paid my bills - thanks utterly and entirely to Kindle Direct Publishing. I have been writing full-time ever since. And I have now achieved my dream of being a jobbing novelist. ALL THANKS TO JEFF BEZOS AND KDP.... (read more)
I dug this book and its author's voice. It's a blast to read - witty, funny, and breezy, as well as grabby and well-organised with lots of mini-case studies and tips broken out - and profoundly insightful and most especially inspiring.... (read more)
Here's a bit of contemporary history for you. After the 2008 election, but before the handover of power, Bush invited Obama over to the White House for a one-on-one sit-down meeting, in which he begged the incoming president to preserve just two programs...... (read more)
Spend just a few minutes watching these delightfully entertaining two-minute videos introducing you to your real, thrilling alternative to Dipshit (Romney) and Spendthrift (Obama).... (read more)
I really think everyone ought to watch the recent speeches by President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu at the U.N. The vivid moral clarity shown here - about orgiastic religious violence, about a nuclear-armed and messianic terror state in Iran, about a citizenry-slaughtering dictator in Syria - is much needed, and frankly awesome.... (read more)
So this was the Great Friday of 2012. The long years of my three-month contract were finally drawing to a close. And since it was by far the nicest day of the year so far, we all repaired to the best spot in the universe: the garden of The Troubadour in Earl's Court.... (read more)
Thank you, Grandpa, for taking four years out to save civilization in the 20th century.... (read more)
FREEDOM - Not to be fucked with... (read more)
• Rocking With The Egyptians In London • A Couple of Video Recap Highlights • And "A New Beginning in Egypt"... (read more)
Not one to give you a moment's rest from news of the Egyptian Revolution, nor to pass up an opportunity to trumpet the Egyptians' awesomeness, here are a few new awesome things... Here are Egyptian folks self-organising to clean up Tahrir Square (not to mention provide medical care, and feed people). These guys make me proud just to be a human being.... (read more)
Okay, I know I'm turning into a broken Fuches on this subject - but as long as Egyptians are still pouring daily into Liberation Square and facing down machete-wielding government thugs, the least I can bloody well do is keep on blogging. Speaking of heroics, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has been dispatching daily from Tahrir Square for several days now (despite serious risk of violence or disappearance). This video is awesome, especially if you happen to be of a feminist bent.... (read more)
If you've been ruling a country of 80 million people by fear for 30 years, you can certainly roust up a few hundred, or even a couple of thousand, thugs on a week's notice - to go out and rough up peaceful protestors, to instigate violence, to foment chaos. So that you can cling to power as the saviour from chaos. Bastard.... (read more)
We owe it to the brave men and women of Tahrir Square - and to our own history and values - to make one thing very clear: We stand with the peaceful throngs pleading for democracy.... (read more)
I was privileged to be able to turn out on Saturday to stand with the incredibly brave Egyptian people in their struggle for freedom. It was a wonderful, inspiring day.... (read more)
One degree centigrade. Iron grey skies. Freezing, blasting wind across Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. This was officially one of those "You Don't Have To Enjoy It / You Just Have To Fucking Do It" runs.... (read more)
The Egyptian regime has done what police states always do in a crunch - they cracked skulls, rounded people up in unmarked vans, and hauled them off to secret prisons. In a modern totalitarian twist, they've also blocked Twitter.... (read more)
First-of-their-kind anti-government protests have rocked Egypt. As many at 15,000 people gathered yesterday in al-Tahrir Square in Cairo. Word on the street is that there will be a demo outside the Egyptian Embassy in London (Mayfair), today--from 3pm to 6pm.... (read more)
If you haven't already got a program, here's your concise guide to a few of the new Iraqi ministers (not a few of whom have pretty interesting and, in some cases heroic, backgrounds).... (read more)
"The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it." - John Stuart Mill... (read more)
Proud to be an American again today. A federal judge has ruled that the state's ban on same-sex marriage violated the 14th Amendment's rights to equal protection and due process of law.... (read more)
Unless he belonged somewhere, unless his life had some meaning and direction, he would feel like a particle of dust and be overcome by his individual insignificance.... (read more)
In every pro-Palestinian European forum I hear the left yelling with fervor: "We want freedom for the people!" Not true. They are never concerned with freedom for the people of Syria or Yemen or Iran or Sudan, or other such nations. And they are never preoccupied when Hamas destroys freedom for the Palestinians. They are only concerned with using the concept of Palestinian freedom as a weapon against Israel.... (read more)
There's a pretty important and powerful line of argument against the nationalisation of health care. I figured right-wing nut-job columnist Mark Steyn would have done the best job articulating this.... (read more)
"We are Iraqis. We have had it much worse than this."... (read more)
The world - or, rather, the U.N. and the "international community" - are now so far through the looking glass that the leader of the Jewish State had last month to stand up in front of the U.N. and wave the Nazi minutes planning the extermination of the Jews, and the plans for the Auschwitz-Berkenau camp, to demonstrate that one third of the Jewish race was actually exterminated. ... (read more)
I'd forgotten, until reminded late this morning, that today is 7/7 - the fourth anniversary of the London Tube and bus bombings. So today seems a good, if not entirely un-controversial, day to point up the recent report: Sharia Law or 'One law for all'? from the think-tank Civitas... (read more)
A belated message of congratulations and admiration and best wishes to the brave and long-suffering Iraqi people... (read more)
As you will have read (and some of you thoughtfully commented upon), Dutch MP Geert Wilders was refused admission to the United Kingdom yesterday due to his political views... Below is the speech that Mr Wilders would have delivered in the House of Lords, had it not been banned.... (read more)
"Liberty, as a principle, has no application to any state of things anterior to the time when mankind have become capable of being improved by free and equal discussion.... (read more)
The fact that McCain lost me has now freed me to vote my conscience: to vote Libertarian - the Party of Principle.... (read more)
Today, May 14th, is Israeli Independence Day. On this day, 60 years ago, the founders of Israel proclaimed a national homeland for Jews, a sanctuary from the slaughter in Europe, and an end to two millennia of wandering. So happy birthday, Israel - and here's to you... (read more)
I actually have no idea how much coverage in the U.S. has been given to Dutch politician Geert Wilders - and his new short film, Fitna ("Strife" in Arabic). Wilders is a self-proclaimed defender of free speech and harsh critic of Islam, who has sought to restrict immigration into the Netherlands from non-Western countries. ... (read more)
Sir, Martin Samuel adduces a variety of compelling reasons why it would be impossible to free-range breed the 1.6 billion chickens consumed in the UK every year (comment, Feb 29). Here's an idea: how about just refraining from tormenting, killing and eating the 1.6 billion sensitive birds altogether?... (read more)
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and (thus) head of the Church of England, gave a speech in which he predicted that the adoption of some parts of sharia (Islamic religious law) within the UK were "inevitable"... (read more)
"The mission of the United Nations requires liberating people from tyranny and violence. The first article of the Universal Declaration begins, 'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.'... (read more)
This is an essay that I've been writing in my head - and reciting bits of out loud at various intervals, in variously heated discussions - for five years. I write and publish it now for the following reasons:... (read more)
Shortly after posting my recent piece on the spectacularly and amusingly unsuccessful attacks in London and Glasgow, I realised I'd mislabelled the perpetrators in calling them "losers". Much more apt would have been the lovely, amusing, and oh-so-useful British epithet of "muppets". These guys truly are muppets of the first rank, and they're running a Muppet Jihad.... (read more)
Happy Liberation Day to the brave and long-suffering Iraqi people. We stand with you.... (read more)
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." - George Orwell ... (read more)
"Denmark - a small democracy, which resisted Hitler bravely and protected its Jews as well as itself - a country with an open society, a system of confessional pluralism, and a free press, has been subjected to a fantastic, incredible, organized campaign of lies and hatred and violence - which has attacked its freedom, its trade, its citizens, and its embassies... (read more)
"The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity . . . It was the deep knowledge - and pray God we have not lost it - that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest."... (read more)
"Defying the suicide bombers and head-hackers, courageous Iraqis went to the polls in huge numbers. Before the vote, the naysayers told us that the indelible purple dye on each voter's finger would mark them out for punishment by 'insurgents'. Instead, it became a defiant symbol of the country's freedom.... (read more)
"We wanted to be the first to vote here. This is our country. We have to do it. There should be no excuse for anyone not to come. These elections will decide the destiny of the country." - Amir Mahmoud Jawad, 18, Iraqi high school student... (read more)
The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.... (read more)
Happy 228th birthday, United States of America (from an American abroad). As previously noted, America - the only nation-state ever founded on the basis of a philosophy - is not a place nor a people, but a set of principles and ideals.... (read more)
"The British people are the sort of partners you want when serious work needs doing. The men and women of this kingdom are kind and steadfast and generous and brave, and America is fortunate to call this country our closest friend in the world." - George W. Bush, yesterday's Whitehall address... (read more)
"Whatever the duration of this struggle, and whatever the difficulties, we will not permit the triumph of violence in the affairs of men - free people will set the course of history.... (read more)
Lake Malawi is the 3rd largest in Africa (behind Tanganyika (Burton's discovery) and Victoria), and the 9th largest in the world. It is 580km long, and believed to be 750m at its deepest point. Moreover, due to it's waves, winds, tides, and unpredictable weather, it is officially classified as "the sea."... (read more)
Oh, Yeah, and What Exactly Am I Doing Anyway? (aka THE SCOOP): I'm closing out my apartment, putting all my stuff in storage, bidding the Bay Area adieu, and flying Back East... (read more)
Sunday evening, and swinging by Walgreens I picked up: * A new, black, 200-page, 5.5x3.5 Mead "Fat 'Lil Notebook." * Another $3.99 chrono sports watch, with alarm! Yeah! These are two of the top pieces of gear that got me through Europe last year.... (read more)
