links for 2011-01-09

• Joe. My. God.: Here's How Giffords' Opponent Sold Himself In The 2010 Campaign
  For those who don't know – RINO stands for Republican In Name Only. Imagine an imagine like that on a Sinn Fein poster. 🙂
• Iceland summons US envoy over demand for MP's Twitter details | World news | The Guardian
• David Burgess: the extraordinary life and death of a human rights lawyer | UK news | The Observer
  A truly exceptional person. A fascinating story.
• BBC News – Brazil's raw materials and the Chinese bikini problem
  ' "Do you want to see Jesus?" the helicopter pilot asked us. It would be an unusual offer from anyone, but from a pilot it would normally be a cause for serious concern. Not today, though. '
• BBC News – Seychelles tortoises: Giants ruling the Aldabra lagoon
  What an idyllic place.
• Salmaan Taseer, Aasia Bibi and Pakistan's struggle with extremism | World news | The Observer
  A very clear summary of what happened in Pakistan last week in the case of the politician murdered by his bodyguard for supporting a Christian woman sentenced to hanging for blasphemy.
• Only religious thugs love blasphemy laws | Nick Cohen | Comment is free | The Observer
  ' "RIP Pakistan," sighed Salman Rushdie after Taseer's murder. "What should one say of a country in which an assassin is showered with rose petals while a decent man lies dead?" Despair is a reasonable response to a failed state. When Islamists have penetrated the bodyguards of leading politicians and threaten one day to capture nuclear weapons, it may be the only response'
  Our own law making it a crime to £outrage a substantial number of the adherents of [a] religion" is an example of something that, while well intended, could be badly abused.
  There are some exceptionally interesting comments… scroll down to the one from "tinlaurelledandhardy" and read the poem that hung in her father's outhouse. 🙂

~ by Lynn Duffy on January 10, 2011.