Deleuze once commented in a discussion with Foucault that "[a] theory is exactly like a box of tools. It has nothing to do with the signifier. It must be useful. It must function. And not for itself. If no one uses it, beginning with the theoretician himself (who then ceases to be a theoretician), then the theory is worthless or...
As part of his latest attack on Human Rights Watch, David Bernstein insists -- again -- that HRW "absolutely refuses to apologize or retract" when it is "wrong about Israel." He also claims that, "[t]hough challenged," I have "yet to come up with another, legitimate example of HRW officially responded to legitimate criticisms from pro-Israel sources the way it responded...
Ken is going to be so jealous that I blogged about this story first! Apparently, there is concern that a new robot capable of ingesting and extracting biomass from the environment will become some kind of robot zombie feasting on (yummy?) human flesh. The companies behind the robot, however, want us to know that nothing could be further from the...
Excellent news -- and a major blow to the AU's promise of impunity for Bashir, given the symbolic and practical importance of South Africa for the continent generally: SOUTH Africa will arrest Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir if he visits the country, despite an African Union decision to ignore a war crimes warrant against him, the foreign ministry said yesterday. Civil society...
Iran and Syria have a new neighbor! ...
David Bernstein is back with yet another attack on Human Rights Watch. This time, Bernstein is up in arms that, in 2006, HRW retracted a claim that armed Palestinian groups had committed war crimes by using human shields -- an action that he believes proves, in light of HRW's refusal to apologize for its allegedly false criticisms of Israel, that...
According to a national poll conducted by Time, now that Walter Cronkite is dead, John Stewart is America's most trusted newscaster. Stewart, 44%. Brian Williams, 29%. Charlie Gibson, 19%. Katie Couric: 7%. (I guess I shouldn't mock. If those were the choices, I'd have voted for him, too.)...
My thanks to Deb for her post on the Preliminary Report. I won't rehash what she said; I just wanted to offer a few thoughts on the military commissions and the detention policy. First, I think it is interesting that the Obama administration seems to be conceding that "material support for terrorism" is not a violation of the laws of...
David Bernstein has another snide post about Human Rights Watch today, this time concerning a presentation Sarah Leah Whitson gave about the Middle East at a panel discussion. I won't bother debating Bernstein's characterization of the presentation; you can watch it here. I'm more interested in the ease with which Bernstein disposes of the extremely complicated international-law issues raised by...
There's gall -- and then there's the Sudan: Sudan said on Monday it had referred Chad to the U.N. Security Council, accusing its neighbour of launching an air raid inside Sudanese territory. Sudan's army said two Chadian planes attacked a region inside the west Darfur district on Thursday -- the fourth raid Khartoum says N'Djamena has carried out in Sudan in two...
Academic books that have long quotes in foreign languages and don't provide translations of them -- even in the footnotes. I'm reading Eyal Benevisti's superb The International Law of Occupation, and there is French everywhere. I can usually get the gist (thanks, Mrs. Armour, for being such a good Latin teacher!), but I'm sure I lose the nuance. That is...
A recent poll conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org has found that the public in four Muslim-majority and African countries support the ICC's arrest warrant for Bashir, despite the fact that the governments in those countries oppose it: That's remarkable -- but the results of another question, designed to assess support for intervening in Darfur, by force if necessary, should the much-feared...
