Further to my post on the Sense About Science campaign to keep libel laws out of scientific debate, Simon Singh has announced that he intends to appeal Mr Justice Eady’s ruling on the meaning of the word ‘bogus‘. In short, it means that Mr Singh has taken the brave and praiseworthy step of deciding to [...]

Sense About Science are running a campaign, in the wake of the Singh vs BCA case (more information from the excellent Jack of Kent), to keep libel laws out of scientific debate and are seeking signatures for this statement We the undersigned believe that it is inappropriate to use the English libel laws to silence [...]

Congratulations to Governor John Baldacci (D) who today signed a bill legalising same-sex marriage in Maine after LD1020 passed the state senate by 21 to 13, having passed the state house yesterday by 89 to 57. Congratulations also to Sen Dennis Damon who sponsored the bill. The law does not compel religious organisations to perform [...]

Firstly, this isn’t murder. Battery, yes; manslaughter, perhaps; conduct unbecoming, definitely. We do not have enough evidence yet to say that the actions of the police lead to Ian Tomlinson’s death. The fact that A happened after B does not imply that B caused A. It may be that Mr Tomlinson’s sand had run out, [...]

Lord Oakeshott, a LibDem peer, has used parliamentary privilege to say what everyone knew: the seven Barclays memos about tax avoidance schemes are available on Wikileaks. Those are the memos that Barclays had removed by an injunction – aka gagging order – at half past two in the morning on the seventeenth of March. From [...]

New Mexico has abolished its death penalty, the Seattle Times reports. Gov. Bill Richardson (Dem) was a former supporter of capital punishment; he has changed his position and, the bill easily having passed the NM house and senate, signed it into law. New Mexico has a substantial Catholic population – on the order of a [...]

As various people have noted (not least Septic Isle), s76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act is somewhere between barmy and 1984. The relevant section reads 58A Eliciting, publishing or communicating information about members of armed forces etc (1) A person commits an offence who— (a) elicits or attempts to elicit information about an individual who is [...]

Teddy Roosevelt referred to the Presidency of the USA as a ‘bully pulpit‘. He used the former word in the (Famous Five) sense of ‘bully for you’. In other words, it’s a great platform from which to promote an idea or ideology. Any elected representative can, eventually, be removed from office in a reasonably-functioning democracy. [...]

Iain Dale asks why we should accept people who aren’t connected with Britain from Guantánamo Bay. These are my reasons why we should. Firstly, it is in our strategic interest for two reasons. I will look at the morality and legality later, but it is enough to say that many states and people, friendly, neutral [...]

I wonder, because he’s joined Phorm as a non-exec director. Story at the Guardian. Background at the Political Penguin. xD.