Author Archives: skepticlawyer

Public Service Announcement

June 17, 2008 – 3:17 am

In light of recent revelations about Caz & the Hack, perhaps we should have been a bit less willing to accede to an archival request from the National Library of Australia, but we have. That means this site is now archived electronically in the library’s ‘PANDORA‘ archive.
We’re not sure how regularly this is likely to [...]

Posted in Blogging, Site News | Comments (5)

‘I am Woman, hear me detonate’

June 15, 2008 – 6:34 am

That’s not my line, it’s Tim Blair’s. Apparently female members of Al Qaeda have been barred from blowing themselves up, and they ain’t happy. I have to admit I rolled laughing when I first saw it (the ‘oh shit, I have now seen everything’ school of laughter). Now I’m just pissed off. What sort of [...]

Posted in Feminism, Terrorism | Comments (30)

Mutual obligation + high EMTRs = suxxor

June 13, 2008 – 2:29 am

It’s not very often that you get a neat summary of one of the most inspiring libertarian arguments in one short piece, but Jason Soon has done a great job on mutual obligation over at Catallaxy. I agree with him - and I also think mutual obligation is an utterly pointless exercise in time-wasting that [...]

Posted in Economics, Taxation | Comments (13)

Osgoode Hall v Mark Steyn

June 10, 2008 – 8:35 am

This whole Mark Steyn fooferaw just gets slimier and slimier.
It appears that Canada’s leading law school is busily turning out the Human Rights equivalent of ambulance chasers. The main man on Steyn’s case (referred to as ‘Head Sock’ all over steynonline) is one Kharrum Awan, a recent graduate of Osgoode Hall School of Law (a [...]

Posted in Free Speech, Law | Comments (37)

What we call ‘the news’

June 9, 2008 – 6:50 am

This post from Nick at Club Troppo and this one from Mark at Larvatus Prodeo made me think of the funny below. Somehow, I don’t think there’s any going back.

What We Call the News | Funny Jokes at JibJab

Posted in Media, Technology | Comments (2)

Economics v Islam: a cage match

June 8, 2008 – 7:31 am

“We’re the ones who will change you,” the Norwegian imam Mullah Krekar told the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet in 2006. “Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes. Every Western woman in the EU is producing an average of 1.4 children. Every Muslim woman in the same countries [...]

Posted in Economics, Feminism, Free Speech, Immigration, Skeptics | Comments (30)

Quote for the Day

June 7, 2008 – 6:16 pm

If in the last few years you haven’t discarded a major opinion, or acquired a new one,
check your pulse. You may be dead.
- Frank Gelett Burgess (1866-1951)

Posted in General | Comments (0)

Two cheers for Westminster (or why President Obama won’t be able to change much at all)

June 5, 2008 – 11:51 pm

Barack Obama has campaigned thus far on a strong platform of ‘change’. On one level, he’s been very unspecific; on another he has deliberately sought to be less partisan in his message, trying to include more people in his vision. His most pointed and intelligent criticisms of current political practice focus on the partisan divide [...]

Posted in Law, Politics, Public Policy | Comments (5)

Lulz and legals bleg

June 3, 2008 – 7:56 am

I’m going to reveal my technical idiocy here, but I can’t think of any other way around it.
Legal Eagle and I have had a few requests, both online and offline, for a post on the legal issues arising out of the ongoing Spin Starts Here/Lulz Starts Here imbroglio. Yesterday, we thought we pretty much had [...]

Posted in Blogging, Internet, Law | Comments (10)

Perverse positives

June 3, 2008 – 3:39 am

As food prices soar around the world, apparently one group (deservedly) losing out is Afghanistan’s Taliban. Local farmers prefer to grow wheat these days - there’s more profit in it for them. Opium profits helped to fund the Taliban - so much so, they’re still trying to lever farmers to keep growing it. Without the [...]

Posted in Economics | Comments (2)