The Belmont Club The Cold War in the Phillipines; Lots of notes, ending: "Leafing through history, one realizes that it is possible to write an account of warfare without mentioning a single weapons system other than the human mind. The reader can try to expunge from the tale all reference to the human heart, but in vain: for man is at the center of warfare. His will is its ultimate prize; his broken body its ultimate currency. In that light the 'deprogramming' efforts of the Australian Federal Police in the dingy corners of the world are simply a return of warfare to its roots. The jihadis want our souls; the rule in warfare is that we will want theirs."

What if they think the strong horse is the most cruel horse -- only?

Media Lies -Cartoons - After a long note by a poli sci prof on shwoing and discussing the cartoons: "If students whose concentration is politics and media are ignorant of facts, then the media has failed them in a fundamental way. If the media's failure to inform stems from a political bias, it is all the more insidious, because it seeks not only to inform but to influence by refusing to publicize salient information that allows the citizens in a democracy to make informed decisions."

The media is failing Western Civ.

normblog Lying as speech: "When David Irving was sentenced to a prison term for Holocaust denial I stated the view that he shouldn't have been. I stated it without much argument, appealing simply to standard free speech principles. Here I want to defend that view by considering the two main ways of challenging it I've come across in the discussion that has been going on since Irving was jailed.

These are, in short: (a) to question whether free speech protections should be invoked to apply to blatant falsification of historical evidence; and (b) to suggest that Holocaust denial amounts to incitement, threatening both democracy and lives."

Norm works on demolishing both of them. Since hate speech laws aren't going away, his demolishing isn't complete; but it's a mighty effort.