Intellectual Consistency 

About that champion of free speech...

The lawsuit against Mr. Wilders has been hailed in the Netherlands as a good thing for democracy. I am not so sure. It makes him look more important than he should be. In fact, the response of Dutch Muslims to his film last year was exemplary: most said nothing at all. And when a small Dutch Muslim TV station offered to broadcast the film, after all other stations had refused, the grand champion of free speech resolutely turned the offer down.

via The Watchers of Mr. Aaronovitch

Pointless in Gaza

A question

Does anyone ever change his mind about the Arab-Israeli conflict?

How lame am I?

Really quite seriously lame

So, about that New Years resolution to blog more often...

I'm going to cheat, by linking to people more clever than I am and basking in the reflected glory:

1. LemmusLemmus has turned a recent hospitalization into a thought-provoking and entertaining couple of posts.

2. Science blogger JDC asks why lies are worse than bullshit.

3. Andrew Hickey offers a very smart critique of libertarianism. He's also persuaded me to read Stephenson's new book (although I think he's mistaken to call Penrose "half-bright".)

4. Andrew Rilstone beats another "War on Christmas" myth to death. 

5. PJ has a detailed and really important post regarding the relationship between incapacity benefit and mental health.  

This year, I hope to be posting about the invention of the laser, more on memes, a defence of Roger Penrose, why "quantum cryptography" should really be called "quantum key distribution",  speculation about why the The Economist's coverage of religion is so poor, and why you should care about electron spin.

Of course, given last years track record, I should write two of the above. 

Happy New Year to everyone!

Edmund@Political Scientist