Moral Equivalence!!!!

Wednesday's fun photo, courtesy of my wife (click to enlarge): Now, I don't think the nesting dolls vendor in Riga, Latvia, intended to make any political statement with this display (nor, really, do I), but such an arrangement in, say, an L.A. storefront would send...

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Queer as Folk

Andrew Sullivan scolds the organizers of a gay pride parade in Madrid for withdrawing their invitation to an Israeli float: Barring an Israeli float in Madrid's gay pride parade seems perverse, exclusive and pernicious. They think they could have a pride parade in...

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Minarets: Ban Them, or Bomb Them?

Well, the Swiss – or, more accurately, a majority of voters in democratic Switzerland – have gone and done something wrong and dumb, approving a referendum that bans the construction of minarets. Libertarian demerits are certainly in order. But one very wrong,...

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All the Wrong Reasons

There's a lot to ponder in this open letter to Barack Obama from Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa, et al., but I'll stick to this part: We have to cherish and protect the multitude of educational, professional, and other networks and friendships that underpin our friendship...

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Medvedev’s ‘Tough Guy Act’

According to CBS, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's first six months in office have contradicted the "liberal" reputation he (apparently) had when he was first elected. Maybe it's a shock to some that one can be "soft spoken" and never have been a KGB spook and yet...

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War Doesn’t End With Treaties

Something made me perk up this morning, going through the weekend's news. After two weeks of reading about South Ossetia's irregulars, the militiamen blamed for everything from looting to attempted genocide, in the periphery of news stories, this morning I read this...

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The Arrogant Hypocrisy of the U.S. Government

Is there any government more hypocritical than the U.S. government? Has there ever been? The United States is considering punishing Russia for its military actions in Georgia by cancelling U.S. participation in an annual Russia-NATO naval exercise. Read the full...

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