http://www.democraticunderground.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sat, 25 May 2013 05:21:42 Sat, 25 May 2013 05:21:42 I think that True Scotsmen sometimes get a bit of a bad rap, in religion and in politics.

Of course, there is always debate about what Christianity, or Islam, or leftism, or Conservativism consists of. And from a logical point of view, it *is* unreasonable to say that 'Tom is no true Christian, b... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/48 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:06:07 Hope Not Hate are inviting people to sign a book of condolences for the Norwegian people. Here is the link, for anyone who wants to sign.

http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/page/s/today-we-are-all-norwegian... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/47 Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:55:07 as indeed I tend to dislike the term New anything. Generally, it either means 'Not at all any more' as in 'New Labour'; or something very old that people are trying to present as a new feature of evil modern life as in 'The new antisemitism' (nothing new about antisemitism!)

New Atheism seems to ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/46 Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:46:20 I don't think that they do so by creating divisions between left and right. Quite the contrary. They would like nothing better than to neutralize even the moderate left through compromise with the right. The right wing media, especially in America from what I gather, like to portray the 'left' as di... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/45 Sun, 27 Mar 2011 05:13:20 Firstly,although I consider homeopathic medicines a waste of money, I would only consider homeopathy as 'a religion' or 'anti-science' if it is accompanied by a rejection of so-called 'conventional' medicine.

The rejection of conventional medicine seems to me generally more right-wing than left-... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/43 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 05:29:42 I don't think it is restricted to a Communist/ anti-Communist distinction. In fact, left-right in Britain has usually had relatively little to do with such a distinction.

People can be left in one area and right in another. But I would say that the fundamental differences between left and right a... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/42 Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:02:39 was that he cut benefits to working disabled people, ignoring the fact that for disabled people, being able to work generally *costs more money* (e.g. they are more likely to need to own a car, or to take taxis).

I think that we can agree that, with the one exception of the passage of the Disabil... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/39 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:39:24 http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/Defeated-2010-election-analyses

The one real 'feel-good' story of the election - though undoubtedly they will regroup and we will always have to be on guard against them; they will never really go away!... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/38 Wed, 02 Jun 2010 10:45:28 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/28/english-defence-league-guardian-investigation

MPs expressed concern tonight after it emerged that far-right activists are planning to step up their provocative street campaign by targeting some of the UK's highest-profile Muslim communities, raising fears ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/37 Sat, 29 May 2010 10:15:55 http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/may/18/coalition-education-policy-cuts

Michael Gove will make much of the new focus implied by the departmental name change. One of his first acts as education secretary was to send a letter to key supporters in which he said he wanted to "refocus the depa... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/36 Tue, 18 May 2010 14:26:01 He is the sort of rather simplistic evolutionary psychologist who thinks that every individual item of behaviour must be genetically controlled and have directly evolved for some specific purpose.

This can lead, and does in his case, to very reactionary views that traditional social mores are 'hu... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/41 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:33:05 It is true that authoritarian leaders who impose an ideology to maintain power for themselves often end up resembling each other - whether the ideology is explicitly right-wing (Fascism), religious (Christianity or Islam) or supposedly left-wing (Communism). However, the commonality is between the a... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/32 Sat, 26 Dec 2009 08:24:19 In response to some comments here: I interpreted 'shunning' as meaning not excluding far right-wingers from society and its provisions, but simply putting their views on a real-life version of 'ignore' rather than trying to convert them or compromise with them.

I think that while on the one hand ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/31 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:49:45 RON PAUL: WHY SHOULD HE WORRY SOMEONE THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY?


Ron Paul won’t win the presidential election, or come anywhere near it. He will continue to be a Texas Congressman. I will continue to live in England, thousands of miles away from him. So why should I worry about him?


Some quo... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/29 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:50:19 I think that there are differences between plausible and less plausible CTs, and also between a hypothesis that is rejected when the evidence does not support, and one which is held firmly in spite of the evidence.

There are indeed 'dangers of allowing fantastic, baseless ideas to morph into a be... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/28 Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:04:35 that anyone who is against the establishment can't be all bad/ that the left-right distinction is artificial/ that temporary alliances between progressives and anti-war or anti-establishment right-wingers are acceptable in the cause of single-issue campaigns/ that 'even a stopped clock is right twic... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/27 Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:34:13 Admittedly I have not read the Prager/Telushkin books on antisemitism, and I take your point that they're not about politics. However I would find it difficult to fully take Prager's views on antisemitism on board, when he is himself such a xenophobe and so culturally intolerant.

The word 'conser... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/25 Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:07:11 There were other people who helped to earn those children their desks.

Most directly, the people who paid for them. The taxpayers. Republicans and their RW equivalents elsewhere regard it as a patriotic duty to fight for your country (even if they often think it should be someone else's patriotic... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/26 Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:53:54 While there are plenty of genuine criticisms one can make of Israel, they are not the reason for anti-semitism which long predated the State of Israel. One could as well say that racism is caused by people's objections to certain African leaders.

Moreover, I feel that there is a certain type of h... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/19 Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:36:46 How is unrestricted free-market libertarianism going to benefit working-class or poorer people? How is someone who says that it is a 'serious error' to consider that 'because someone needs (medical) care, they are entitled to it' a friend to anyone but the rich (and perhaps temporarily to very young... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/44 Sun, 30 Dec 2007 17:43:33 but I think that the *reality* of liberty *for all* can only come from the left, or at least from outside the real right.

As I said on another thread, one cannot do without *either* civil liberties *or* humane social and economic policies that protect people from discrimination, poverty and hards... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/18 Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:51:46 Here is an interesting article by Elizabeth Spelke on (lack of) intrinsic gender differences in maths and science: particularly interesting for its report on steady reduction over the years in gender differences in science and maths.

http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~lds/sexsci/

Here's a debate on ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/3 Sat, 08 Dec 2007 03:49:49 in Pipes expressing concern that the Muslim immigrants will take over, and destroy Europaean values, when he himself (or at least people whom he endorses) seem to want nothing more than to destroy Europaean values themselves!

Mark Steyn, with his approval, argued that: 'freeing up Europe's funds ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/16 Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:39:45 Boys and girls within a family can be treated very differently.

It's not news that *overall* males tend to be closer to the extremes in all sorts of tests. If there's a genetic basis, it would presumably be due to the fact that unusual recessive genes on the X chromosome will usually be suppresse... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/5 Mon, 24 Sep 2007 12:05:02 A few British variants, with a great deal of interbreeding and cross-fertilization:

Taxophobius Thatcheritus: Obsessed with the evils of taxes, and would much rather see all public services run to the ground than pay a penny more in tax. Considers that if people are poor it's their own fault for ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftishBrit/14 Sat, 15 Sep 2007 13:21:56