air travel

One I forgot: Chirac's tax on air travel (with proceeds going to poor nations), like Gorgon Brown's IFF, might not be such a good idea (FT leader 3 July), but surely an international tax on aviation fuel is worth considering?

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Christopher Caldwell sums up the struggle over the US Supreme Court succintly (FT, 10 Sept) ... 'When senators ask if a nominee follows stare decisis [Latin for respecting precedent], they are asking whether he would overturn Roe [v Wade].'

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In France, where he keeps an office and publishes the books and tapes that have made him a hero to Muslim youth in the francophone world, he is regularly attacked as an Islamist troublemaker and anti-Semite.

No doubt it was the half-truths and rumours in the French press that inspired the US government to revoke his visa in July 2004.  (Andrew Hussey interview with Tariq Ramadan in the New Statesman, 12th September 2005)

It is no doubt true that 'British people [...] realised that they knew very little about Islam'. There was a TV programme called 'The Roots of 9/11', which I missed when I was on holiday, but it is to be repeated this week in the early hours(Friday 16 Sept).

Update (13 Sep): concerning the allegations of 'double discourse', compare the attacks on Michael Ignatieff (comments  here awaiting moderation - via this).