inkbluesky

Freedom takes a hit worldwide

A new report by Washington watchdog group Freedom House says a clampdown on political rights made 43 countries ‘not free’ in 2007. 

One explanation the report finds for the continuing decline is the influence of larger or more powerful countries on their weaker or impressionable neighbors. Freedom House finds that important regional players such as China, Russia, and Venezuela are being followed by their smaller neighbors. Russia’s own retreat from freedoms is emulated in Belarus and some states of central Asia, for example, while other governments not drawn to the Russian example – like those in Estonia or Georgia – are still challenged by Russia’s regional weight.

China’s growing economic clout with regimes well beyond its borders – particularly in Africa – is also playing a role.

Some might find this report a little perplexing in light of assurances by a certain frat boy from Connecticut that freedom was on the march. It appears that in the last seven years and for the foreseeable future he has created….well exactly zero democracies. Bush: Democracy Is On The March 

Citing hopeful signs from Lebanon to Afghanistan, President Bush said Tuesday that democracy is beginning to spread across the Middle East and that authoritarian rule is “the last gasp of a discredited past.”

greek belfry 

Not all of New York’s subways are dreary. Tile art photos documented by Michael Sporn.

Be kind and don’t leave vibrating objects lying around. Jon Steward disassembles Mr. Meritocracy himself Jonah Goldberg. Jonah is best known for fighting multiple wars from his mom’s basement. Honest debate is great, but when it comes to some people such as Mr. G it would be nice if he had the intellectual capacity and moral integrity to have such a debate.