Street Artist Banksy On The Worst Crimes

Are you committing one of these ‘great’ crimes?

The Pot’s Still Brewing For The Tea Party

The Article: The Tea Party Movement: Still Brewing in The Economist.

The Text: UNLIKE colleagues such as Bob Bennett, a senator from Utah unceremoniously dumped by the Republican Party in 2010, Dick Lugar was not caught off guard. He had known for well over a year that he would face a strong, tea-party backed rival in the primary for the Senate seat he has held for the past 35 years. He planned accordingly, voting more conservatively, amassing a large war-chest and cranking up his get-out-the-vote operation. Nonetheless, yesterday Mr Lugar lost the primary by a whopping 20-point margin, to Richard Mourdock, Indiana’s state treasurer and a hero to many tea-partiers.

Politicians from both parties had described the race as a test of the tea party’s strength. As the candidate himself puts it, “Rumours of the death of the tea party have been exaggerated.” Jackie Bodnar, of Freedom Works, a campaign outfit that supports tea-party groups, says his victory will give impetus to tea-party candidates seeking the Republican nomination for Senate seats in Florida, Texas and Utah, among other races. Moreover, Mr Lugar’s defeat, says Theda Skocpol, of Harvard, “will send another shudder through the Republican ranks in Congress”.

Those who thought the tea-party movement was wilting after helping to propel Republicans to a thumping victory in the mid-term elections of 2010, Mr Mourdock argues, were simply mistaking evolution for disillusion. Randy Harrison, the founder of the Hancock County tea party, bears this narrative out. At first, he says, “we were just a bunch of people getting together and griping.” Over time, his group began to engage more formally in local politics. They have familiarised themselves with—and objected to—the county government’s scheme for local improvements. They have invited Republican and Democratic candidates to speak at their meetings (no Democrats have ever accepted), and endorsed some of them, including Mr Mourdock. Several members are now running for local office.

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White Wine And George Zimmerman’s Arrest

FYI: The White Entertainment Channel is FOX News.

The Absence Of Humility Regarding Syria

The Article: The Absence Of Humility In Our Thoughts On Syria by Adam Gallagher in The Speckled Axe.

The Text: For over a year, the people of Syria have called for the downfall of the Assad regime. The United Nations estimates that nearly 10,000 Syrians have been killed, with thousands more injured or detained. With this brutality in mind, calls for “humanitarian intervention” in Syria have become increasingly vociferous. Proponents of such an intervention frequently point to the long-term benefits of ousting the Assad regime along with the egregious human violations taking place.

The purported hope is that the fall of the regime will manifest a new democratic reality in Syria and remove a key regional ally to Iran. Many details of such an intervention remain, as usual, disturbingly opaque, as do the potential consequences – beyond the assumed humanitarian and geopolitical triumphs. This deserves closer attention. In addition, the Syria case provides an opportunity to probe the concepts that often underlay arguments for this type of military action.

I would posit that, as human beings, one general point of agreement (that still somehow all too frequently seems to get lost) is that we should not revoke another human beings’ right to life. Philosophers have long argued about what exceptions may be applied to this, and the concept of self-defense is usually granted one. What naturally follows from this is whether humans have the right to kill someone who is threatening the life of another? Arguments usually suggest that person A should try to prevent person B from killing person C, but should first and foremost try to incapacitate B and only kill B as a last resort. If B must be killed to save the life of C or the lives of many people, then the loss of B’s life can be justified.

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A Quick Definition Of Social Darwinism

The old lady’s right.