The scandal involving Barclays bank and its finagling of the LIBOR rate has been huge news in the UK but not much here. For those interested, Matt Taibbi has been posting frequent updates explaining what is going on. The latest revelation indicates collusion between Barclays and the British government to lie about interest rates. This should not be surprising. What is surprising is that it is coming out in public. [Read more…]
The new French government has said that it would implement one of its campaign promises and make same sex marriage and gay adoption legal, starting in 2013. The prime minister told parliament that “Our society is evolving, lifestyles and mentalities are changing.” [Read more…]
Juries are almost always told that it is their job to judge the facts of the case before them and it is only up to the judge to interpret the law. But that is wrong. Juries can judge both the facts and the law and have the right to acquit someone of a crime if they feel that the law under which the person was convicted is an unjust one, even if the facts of the case clearly show that the person is guilty. Such a result is known as ‘jury nullification’. [Read more…]
On this independence day holiday, I am repeating a post on what to me is one of the most intriguing phrases in the US Declaration of Independence. It is contained in the famous sentence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
I have always found the inclusion of “the pursuit of happiness” as an inalienable right to be appealing. One does not expect to see such a quaint sentiment in a revolutionary political document, and its presence sheds an interesting and positive light on the minds and aspirations of the people who drafted it. [Read more…]
On this day in 1988, a US warship in the Strait of Hormuz shot down a civilian Iranian passenger airliner, killing all 290 people on board. After being found culpable by the International Court of Justice, the US paid reparations but never apologized for the shooting, with then vice-president and later president George H. W. Bush famously saying, “I’ll never apologize for the United States of America. Ever. I don’t care what the facts are.” Because as god’s chosen people and nation, we are never wrong. [Read more…]
Once again, war rhetoric against Iran is being ramped up. That reliable warmonger Tom Gjelten of NPR had a report this morning about Iran threatening to blockade the Straits of Hormuz in retaliation for the increased economic sanctions that are being applied by the US and its allies in order to force Iran to give up its nuclear program, which the US and Israel claim is aimed at developing nuclear weapons and which Iran denies. As usual, Gjelten framed his report on whether the sanctions would be effective in forcing Iran to bend to the will of the US and Israel. [Read more…]
The Daily Show and The Colbert Report had their fun with the hyperventilating reactions to the health care verdict. [Read more…]
Following the surprising alignment of Chief Justice John Roberts with the so-called liberal wing of the US Supreme Court to hand president Obama a victory on the Affordable Care Act, there has been much speculation as to why he ruled the way he did. Speculating on the private motives of public figures is usually a waste of time (but fun!) and we will have to wait for his memoirs to find out if his reasons were different from his stated ones. But the nature of such speculations do tell us a lot about the state of our political discourse. [Read more…]
The fact that CNN and Fox News initially reported the wrong verdict was, in my opinion, a trivial matter that merely told us something about the absurd premium placed on being first with news by even a few minutes, as if news was some kind of Olympics event where only the first place finisher got the coveted gold medal. [Read more…]