Posts Tagged ‘freedom’

Electoral fraud in Russia, claims the election winner

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 16:31 No Comments

If I were really snarky, I’d headline this post with a title like “In Soviet Russia, election frauds you!” Electoral frauds in Russia aren’t particularly shocking news, especially in Russia, but how often do you see it being claimed by the winner rather than the loser? Yet this is exactly what happened when a first [...]

This was posted under category: Politics Tags: , , ,

Rethinking democracy

Saturday, April 11, 2009 14:06 5 Comments

One thing that often irks me is when seemingly reasonable and well-educated people who hold liberal values actually choose to decry democracy. Their argument is that ordinary people are too uneducated, too narrow minded, and generally too stupid to be trusted with the power to ultimately determine the course of government. A good example of [...]

This was posted under category: Politics Tags: , , ,

PAS claims “half-naked” female students at Universiti Malaya party. Does not deliver.

Thursday, March 5, 2009 18:47 2 Comments

Like any hot-blooded male, I thought that news reports that female students at Universiti Malaya had attended an event on campus “half-naked” would lead to some racy photos. So I was disappointed when the photos that eventually turned up depicted nothing that you wouldn’t be able to see on any ordinary day in Kuala Lumpur. [...]

This was posted under category: Politics, Religion Tags: , , ,

Maker of “Fitna” film denied entry into UK

Saturday, February 14, 2009 13:43 No Comments

Remember the post I made a while back about the short film Fitna made by Dutch MP Geert Wilders? In that post, I condemned that film for its amateurish over-simplification of the facts around Islam and pointed out that it’s just as easy to find nasty stuff written for a more barbaric time from the [...]

This was posted under category: Religion Tags: , ,

Economic growth is good

Sunday, January 4, 2009 13:57 2 Comments

This post is an expansion of comments that I’ve made in response to posts made in De Minimis. In a way, it seems odd that I would need to make this post at all. After all, everyone instinctively feels that becoming wealthier is a good thing, right? So what possible arguments might one advance to [...]

This was posted under category: Economics, Philosophy Tags: , , ,

Protectionism is bad, period.

Friday, December 19, 2008 17:44 2 Comments

One blog that I’ve recently added to my regular reading list is De Minimis. I have no idea who the blog author is, but on general business and economic matters, I happily concede that he (I assume that the author is a “he”) is far more learned and well read that I am. He even [...]

This was posted under category: Economics Tags: , , , ,

Why newspapers aren’t neutral (and shouldn’t pretend to be)

Friday, November 14, 2008 16:04 3 Comments

A long time ago, while I was working as a stringer for The New Straits Times during my summer holidays, I got into a heated discussion with a couple of my colleagues on whether or not the press should be objective and neutral. My position was, and continues to be, that newspapers always have a [...]

This was posted under category: Politics Tags: ,