Andrew at Hold that Thought, a new blog, has drawn my attention to a polemical piece by German social theorist Jurgen Habermas , arguing for a left-wing “yes” vote in the French referendum. Habermas’ major contention is that
What is vaunted today as the “European social model” can only be defended if European political strength grows [...]

When is a war a ‘just war’? According to the classic definition, one of the key criteria is that war is not waged lightly: going to war has to be the ‘last resort’.
But it can be tricky to tell when you’ve reached the ‘last resort’, or the last of anything; you could easily jump too [...]