In the current American elections, John McCain’s last-gasp attempt at gaining the support of a majority of American voters revolves around trying to make voters believe that Barrack Obama is a Socialist, deep down, because Obama wants to raise taxes for the richest Americans. (Obama’s tax rate on the richest taxpayers would still be lower [...]
All three of the debates in the American presidential election are now behind us. This seems like a good time to give some overall impressions of the campaign and of the two candidates, so I will begin with those impressions, then focus on one particular issue that has been badly misrepresented in the more conservative [...]
I couldn’t resist a few remarks on my impressions of the recent American nominating convention for the Republican Party, nominating John McCain for their candidate. I’ll be relatively brief, for a change. American presidential nominating conventions have changed over my lifetime. In the 1960s and earlier, these conventions were news-making, business-like affairs, where important party [...]
To my readers: I wrote and submitted the following originally during the proceedings to oust Mr. Musharraf. The editors of the Pakistani Spectator very sensibly chose to hold my article back until the more urgent Pakistani news played out, as that urgent, timely news deserved immediate comment, and my own article would be no less [...]
This is the fourth article in my series begun with my earlier article Limits of Free Speech, all dealing with issues behind free speech and free expression. (I originally planned just two articles, but these topics sometimes take on a life of their own! I do think this will be my last on the topic [...]
You may believe me or not, but I wrote the following article, which is unaltered except for this new opening paragraph, before the recent bombing at the Danish embassy gave tragic illustration of the sad folly and irreplaceable human losses that can result from hideous over-reaction to the words or images of a handful of [...]
I will begin with a few remarks inspired by the responses to my last article Limits of Free Speech: Based on those insightful responses, I think that earlier article (which focused on the legal issues behind free speech) missed the more important question, which is how best to live with the moral responsibilities of free [...]
I would like to describe an American perspective on free speech in today’s article. In US legal terms, “freedom of speech” is actually broader than it sounds, really extending to a freedom that applies to all forms of expression. For example, the US Supreme Court has held that laws forbidding burning the US flag are [...]
In today’s article, I continue my recent discussion of political parties, begun in How Many Parties. In response to that article, the comments mainly focused on the problems with alliances, where alliances tend to defeat the intended role of a representative democracy where the parliament or congress ought to decide issues based on the majority [...]
I want to begin by congratulating all of you in Pakistan on your recent elections, which appear to have peacefully moved your nation in a positive direction chosen by the people of Pakistan, in spite of fears that undemocratic forces would prevent such a move. I fervently hope that our own upcoming US elections can [...]
