Syria: Intervention for the sake of it

by Denis Joe

I was sitting in a café in Liverpool market last week and was surprised to hear talk, amongst the customers, about the imminent attack on Syria. Some people voiced the opinion that “They should keep out of it”, “Let them sort it out themselves” and “This will lead to World War 3”. What seemed strange about the way the customers were talking about a potential intervention in Syria was the matter-of-fact way in which it was discussed. There seemed to be a strong sense of detachment, particularly in the use of ‘they’ instead of ‘we’, as if military interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya have normalised a practice that at one time would have been seen as exceptional. It reminded me of Obama’s first presidential campaign, when he promised to take US troops out of Iraq and send them to Afghanistan. Very few, if any, anti-war protesters or politicians challenged this stance.

Military coup in Egypt

and the “hypocrisy” of the “human rights industry”

by Julia Savage

“There are many striking things about the political situation in Egypt. But perhaps the most striking thing is the silence of those who pose as human-rights cheerleaders, of the West’s head shakers over tyranny in far off lands, who have gone strangely mute, or at least uncharacteristically coy, in the face of the Egyptian military’s seizure of power and repression of dissent.”

Brendan O’Neill, Spiked, 30 July 2013

Protecting us from freedom

by Simon Belt

In the 1960s and 1970s when I grew up, the retort 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me' was often said in and around the school playground. Indeed, teachers would often send anyone who told tales about people calling them names, back out in the playground to deal with things themselves. The kids who told tales to teachers would usually have more harsh ribbing directed at them than anything prompting the tale telling in the first place. 

Pornography on the Internet - a necessity?

by Joanne Green

This article attempts to scrutinise if internet pornography is a necessity for today’s existence. Locating statistical popularity of internet pornography from reliable sources was difficult and much of the research of the effects of pornography was paediatric and animalia.

2005 research in America of a 1500 National Sample identified two in five 10-17 year olds had been ‘exposed to online pornography’ in 2004, and for 415 of those the exposure was unwanted (Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2007). They defined unwanted exposure as,

‘being exposed to pictures of naked people or people having sex without seeking or expecting such pictures, when doing online searches, surfing the web, opening email, or instant messages or links in messages.’