tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591Thu, 31 May 2012 09:32:02 +0000This blog is dedicated to the worldwide struggle for freedom, individual liberties, moral autonomy and the right to self-ownership - against any kind of legal paternalism, legal moralism and authoritarianism. Its aim is to post related news and commentary published mainly in the major U.S., European and Greek media. It was created by Prof. Aristides Hatzis of the University of Athens.http://www.self-ownership.org/noreply@blogger.com (Aristides Hatzis)Blogger985125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-573756589293228482Wed, 30 May 2012 07:00:00 +00002012-05-31T12:32:02.338+03:00by David Gordon Mises Daily May 30, 2012 In many countries, though not in the United States, laws prohibit "hate speech." Those who, in Jeremy Waldron's opinion, uncritically elevate the benefits of free speech over competing values oppose hate-speech laws; but Waldron thinks that a strong case can be made in their favor. (Waldron thinks that there are "very few First Amendment Absolutists" [p.http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/05/harm-in-hate-speech-laws.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-7672011014431468539Wed, 30 May 2012 05:05:00 +00002012-05-31T02:06:13.454+03:00by Chen Guangcheng New York Times May 29, 2012 Since I arrived in the United States on May 19, people have asked me, “What do you want to do here?” I have come here to study temporarily, not to seek political asylum. And while I pursue my studies, I hope that the Chinese government and the Communist Party will conduct a thorough investigation of the lawless punishment inflicted on me and my http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/05/how-china-flouts-its-laws.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-6686639934890569769Sun, 27 May 2012 13:00:00 +00002012-05-28T02:01:07.622+03:00by Marc Sommers New York Times May 27, 2012 Rwanda’s Paul Kagame is accustomed to accolades. On May 12, he received yet another honorary degree, this time from William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Celebrating Kagame is in vogue because he is credited with leading a remarkable recovery from war and genocide in the heart of Africa. There certainly have been achievements in Kagame’s Rwandahttp://www.self-ownership.org/2012/05/darling-dictator-of-day.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-4729891138159551493Sat, 19 May 2012 05:27:00 +00002012-05-20T12:27:28.330+03:00New York Times Editorial May 18, 2012 On Wednesday, a federal judge struck down a law allowing the indefinite detention of anyone suspected of terrorism on American soil as a violation of free speech and due process. Two days later, the House made it clear it considered those to be petty concerns, voting to keep the repellent practice of indefinite detention on the books. On a 238-to-182 vote, http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/05/new-attack-on-constitution.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-814765981717135005Fri, 18 May 2012 02:30:00 +00002012-05-19T00:17:47.848+03:00by Michael A. Fitts and Amy Gadsden Project Syndicate May 18, 2012 A last-minute deal between the United States and China may afford human-rights lawyer and activist Chen Guangcheng the opportunity to enroll in law school in New York. But, even if a way out of the diplomatic debacle is at hand, much about the case remains troubling. In particular, despite more than three decades of legal reformhttp://www.self-ownership.org/2012/05/chinas-misrule-of-law.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-492663661983408433Sun, 13 May 2012 14:00:00 +00002012-05-15T12:31:08.278+03:00του Πάσχου Μανδραβέλη Καθημερινή 13 Μαΐου 2012 Η Δημοκρατία δεν ευλογεί την παραβίαση των κανόνων συμβίωσης, απλώς επιτρέπει σε όλους να συμμετάσχουν στον ορισμό αυτών των κανόνων. «Σε μια δημοκρατία», έγραψε ο Αμερικανός δικαστής Φίλιξ Φρανκφούρτερ, «το υψηλότερο αξίωμα είναι αυτό του πολίτη». Αυτό είναι μια άλλη ανάγνωση του πρώτου άρθρου στα συντάγματα όλων των χωρών, που περίπου λένε ό,τι http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/05/blog-post_15.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-652334543552505971Sun, 13 May 2012 12:30:00 +00002012-05-14T13:34:30.089+03:00by Nicholas Bequelin New York Times May 13, 2012 Does the law matter in China? A cursory look at the two crises that have hit the Chinese government in recent weeks — one at the very top, with the purge of Bo Xilai, and one at the grassroots, with the escape from unlawful house arrest of the blind activist Chen Guangcheng — suggests not. The two cases have in common an overt and blatant http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/05/does-law-matter-in-china.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-4924217791088299561Sun, 13 May 2012 07:30:00 +00002012-05-13T21:29:50.636+03:00του Κωνσταντίνου Μπογδάνου Protagon.gr 13 Μαΐου 2012 Δεν ξέρω ποιοι ήταν, αλλά ξέρω ποιοι είναι. Πρώτος, ο κακός μου εαυτός. Μετά, η κακιά ώρα. Ύστερα, τρεις τύποι μαυροντυμένοι (εγώ όλους ψηλούς τους βλέπω) με άρβυλα. Πιστεύω πως δεν ήθελαν να με σκοτώσουν. Αν ήθελαν, θα το είχαν πετύχει. Είχαν όλο το χρόνο στη διάθεσή τους. Να μου σπάσουν πόδια και χέρια, να με μαχαιρώσουν και να με ξεκάνουν.http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/05/blog-post_13.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Aristides Hatzis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-7687719368599191889Fri, 11 May 2012 17:05:00 +00002012-05-12T16:10:53.354+03:00του Ηλία Κανέλλη Τα Νέα 11 Μαΐου 2012 Ο ξυλοδαρμός του δημοσιογράφου Κωνσταντίνου Μπογδάνου από αγνώστους, χθες τα ξημερώματα στα Εξάρχεια, είναι ένα ακόμα περιστατικό προπηλακισμού εναντίον δημοσιογράφου. Δεν είναι πρωτοφανές. Εντάσσεται σε μια κουλτούρα της βίας που άρχισε να εκφράζεται με το σύνθημα «αλήτες, ρουφιάνοι, δημοσιογράφοι» και κερδίζει συνεχώς έδαφος τον τελευταίο καιρό. Η άνοδοςhttp://www.self-ownership.org/2012/05/blog-post_12.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-5462990569612737363Thu, 03 May 2012 11:42:00 +00002012-05-04T12:50:52.366+03:00της Γιούλης Φωκά-Καβαλιεράκη Το Βήμα 3 Μαΐου 2012 Αν υπάρχει μια τουλάχιστον αδιαμφισβήτητη αρχή σε μια φιλελεύθερη δημοκρατία αυτή είναι ότι όλοι είναι ίσοι και ίσες απέναντι στους νόμους. Είτε είσαι σύζυγος υπουργού από το Κολωνάκι, είτε εκδιδόμενη γυναίκα στο εξαθλιωμένο κέντρο της Αθήνας, από τη στιγμή που θα παραβείς το νόμο, η δικαιοσύνη οφείλει να σε αντιμετωπίσει με τους ίδιους κανόνες http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/05/blog-post.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-2124306854797465327Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:03:00 +00002012-04-26T17:56:26.509+03:00by Mark Malloch-Brown Financial Times April 26, 2012 As Kofi Annan’s number two at the UN, I recall a long few days painstakingly monitoring with lawyers the procedures for the handover of the exiled Charles Taylor by his Nigerian hosts-turned-captors to the Liberian authorities and thence in mid-air to the UN and so to the Hague and his trial. Everything had to be done by the book to avoid http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/04/charles-taylor-verdict-shows-that.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-7986357381251044446Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:20:00 +00002012-04-27T10:33:57.452+03:00του Διονύση Γουσέτη Athens Voice 25 Απριλίου 2012 Έχει επανειλημμένα ειπωθεί ότι τούτη η κρίση δεν είναι μόνο οικονομική. Σε ψηλότερο επίπεδο είναι πολιτική και σε ακόμη ψηλότερο πολιτιστική. Καίριος δείκτης του πολιτισμού μια κοινωνίας είναι η εφαρμογή της νομοθεσίας και των κανόνων για τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα. Θυμίζω τρία περιστατικά παραβίασης ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων που έγιναν μόλις τον http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/04/blog-post.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-5634114906716578038Wed, 25 Apr 2012 05:12:00 +00002012-04-26T01:12:52.350+03:00Washington Post April 25, 2012 Every morning in this mountain village in eastern Afghanistan, four dozen girls sneak through a square opening in a mud-baked wall, defying a Taliban edict. A U.S.-funded girls school about a mile away was shuttered by insurgents in 2007, two years after it opened. They warned residents that despite a new government in Kabul and an international aid effort focusedhttp://www.self-ownership.org/2012/04/in-afghanistan-underground-girls-school.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-5098463475789075137Sat, 21 Apr 2012 05:08:00 +00002012-04-23T02:12:55.237+03:00Economist April 21, 2012 In labour camps across its remote northern reaches, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea detains an estimated 150,000-200,000 political prisoners. The regime claims to hold precisely none. Or rather, in the formulation of the late Kim Jong Il, punishing the enemies of the state protects the North Korean people’s human rights. The gulag’s captives are not told of http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/04/north-koreas-gulag-never-again.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-1025939426519156555Sat, 21 Apr 2012 05:00:00 +00002012-04-23T02:12:34.617+03:00Economist April 21, 2012 Looking down on members of a 1.1m-strong army that applauded his every remark, Kim Jong Un giggled with delight during the centenary on April 15th of the birth of his late grandfather, Kim Il Sung. The contrast with his unsmiling father, Kim Jong Il, who died in December, could not have been clearer. Unlike his father, the mop-haired Mr Kim spoke directly to the nation,http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/04/north-koreas-prison-camps-gulag-behind.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-8811159684063074167Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:15:00 +00002012-04-23T02:16:15.210+03:00by Reed Brody Los Angeles Times April 19, 2012 Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, wearing white prison clothes, seemed by turns amused and bewildered as he sat in a bright room last week during a pretrial hearing at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Nashiri is charged with being a key organizer of Al Qaeda's attack on the U.S. destroyer Cole on Oct. 12, 2000, off the coast of Yemen, which http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/04/no-real-justice-in-guantanamo.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-1255944939353784456Thu, 19 Apr 2012 05:03:00 +00002012-04-23T02:04:01.981+03:00by David A. Schulz New York Times April 18, 2012 Last week I stood before a military judge at Guantánamo Bay to argue that the press and public had a constitutional right to observe the proceedings of military commissions. It is an argument I’ve made scores of times on behalf of news organizations objecting to closed proceedings in criminal and civil trials, but this was the first time that a http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/04/guantanamo-trials-should-be-open.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-6846134621353630059Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:05:00 +00002012-03-23T18:59:04.873+02:00του Κωστή Παπαϊωάννου Τα Νέα 22 Μαρτίου 2012 Συγκλονιστικά στοιχεία παρουσιάστηκαν χτες από το νεοσύστατο Δίκτυο Καταγραφής Περιστατικών Ρατσιστικής Βίας. Η πρώτη πιλοτική καταγραφή κάλυψε έναν εξαιρετικά περιορισμένο γεωγραφικό χώρο (στην Αθήνα την περιοχή Ομόνοιας, την Πλατεία Αττικής, τον Αγιο Παντελεήμονα, επίσης ορισμένες περιοχές της Πάτρας). Αρα τα αποτελέσματα δεν αποτελούν ούτε καν τηνhttp://www.self-ownership.org/2012/03/blog-post_23.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-3634194370566656161Wed, 14 Mar 2012 06:58:00 +00002012-03-17T23:00:39.251+02:00by Casey Lartigue, Jr. Korea Times March 13, 2012 The message was clear: "Don’t do what we’re doing" when it comes to welfare and economic policies. That’s what (former) Senator Franco Debendetti and lawyer Alessandro De Nicola of Italy, and University of Athens professor Aristides Hatzis said in policy forums organized by the Center for Free Enterprise (CFE) in Seoul last August and October. http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/03/mything-point-on-sweden.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-735331066348265048Tue, 13 Mar 2012 21:31:00 +00002012-03-17T22:51:55.322+02:00by Geoffrey R. Stone Huffington Post March 13, 2012 Nations at war have always had the legal authority to detain captured enemy soldiers ("prisoners of war") to prevent them from returning to the battlefield. Similarly, the U.S. has the legal authority to detain captured "enemy combatants" in the War on Terror in order to ensure the safety of the nation. Central to the legality (and morality) http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/03/guantanamo-whatever-government-says.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-7335174147040699457Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:16:00 +00002012-03-17T23:23:22.506+02:00by Dick Teresi Wall Street Journal March 13, 2012 The last time I renewed my driver's license, the clerk at the DMV asked if she should check me off as an organ donor. I said no. She looked at me and asked again. I said, "No. Just check the box that says, 'I am a heartless, selfish bastard.'" Becoming an organ donor seems like a win-win situation. Some 3.3 people on the transplant waiting listhttp://www.self-ownership.org/2012/03/what-you-lose-when-you-sign-that-donor.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-8251240572352560755Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:00:00 +00002012-03-10T01:42:13.539+02:00by Jonathan Turley Los Angeles Times March 9, 2012 The recent exchange between an atheist and a judge in a small courtroom in rural Pennsylvania could have come out of a Dickens novel. Magisterial District Judge Mark Martin was hearing a case in which an irate Muslim stood accused of attacking an atheist, Ernest Perce, because he was wearing a "Zombie Mohammed" costume on Halloween. Although http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/03/free-speech-under-fire.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-1124027539564293453Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:22:00 +00002012-03-08T17:22:25.980+02:00Letters of Note March 7, 2012 In 1938, some months after the initial publication of The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien and his British publisher, Stanley Unwin, opened talks with Rütten & Loening, a Berlin-based publishing house who were keen to translate the novel for the German market. All was going well until, in July, they wrote to Tolkien and asked for proof of his Aryan descent. Tolkien was http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/03/i-have-no-ancestors-of-that-gifted.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-2858423988000276372Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:18:00 +00002012-03-08T17:18:27.084+02:00του Νίκου Δήμου Lifo 7 Μαρτίου 2012 Καλά να είναι δύσκολες οι επιλογές στη ζωή - αλλά να είναι ακόμα δυσκολότερες οι μεταθανάτιες; Σε αυτήν τη χώρα, όπου οι ελευθερίες όλο και στενεύουν, όπου δανειστές, πολιτικοί, συνδικαλιστές, μας πιέζουν από κάθε πλευρά, έρχονται τώρα αρχιερείς και Φαρισαίοι να μας επιβάλουν τη μεταθανάτια μοίρα μας. Την ιστορία ίσως την έχετε ακούσει. Ομόφωνα το Δημοτικό http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/03/blog-post.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8502980338043872591.post-1439285315272102004Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:17:00 +00002012-02-24T19:21:16.632+02:00του Αριστείδη Χατζή Τα Νέα 23 Φεβρουαρίου 2012 Η είδηση πέρασε σχεδόν απαρατήρητη. Στις αρχές Σεπτεμβρίου το Μονομελές Πρωτοδικείο Λαμίας έκρινε παράνομη και απέρριψε την αίτηση για ίδρυση συλλόγου που είχαν υποβάλει σπουδαστές στο ΤΕΙ Λαμίας. Αυτό που ενόχλησε το δικαστήριο ήταν ότι στους βασικούς σκοπούς του συλλόγου συμπεριλαμβάνονταν η δράση ενάντια «στους ιμπεριαλιστικούς σχεδιασμούς http://www.self-ownership.org/2012/02/blog-post_24.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Yulie Foka)0