All posts tagged: defy

What Is the Philosophy of Law and Does it Defy Justice?

What Is the Philosophy of Law and Does it Defy Justice?

Published by Sam Flores

Summary The philosophy of law’s central conflict is between Natural Law (a higher moral order) and Legal Positivism (state-enforced rules). It asks a dangerous question: what makes a law truly legitimate rather than just legal? Ancient Greek thinkers like Plato and Aristotle established that justice is the essential foundation for a well-ordered society. The Speluncean Explorers case illustrates the intense clash between written law and moral necessity in extreme circumstances. Show more   Though it emerged as a formal academic field in the 20th century, the roots of the philosophy of law are embedded in the very origins of Western thought. Usually conflated with ethicists, philosophers debated whether law is merely a tool of state power or a reflection of a higher cosmic order. Thus, from the divine decrees of the ancient world to the modern clash between Natural Law and Legal Positivism, this discipline asks the most dangerous question of all: what makes a law legitimate rather than merely legal?   Historical Overview Zeus holding a thunderbolt, discovered in Smyrna in 1680, by Pierre Granier, via Louvre Museum   As a social phenomenon, law has …

US House Members Defy Leadership, to Force Vote on Ukraine Aid

US House Members Defy Leadership, to Force Vote on Ukraine Aid

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) – A U.S. House of Representatives petition to ⁠force ⁠a floor vote on providing security aid to ⁠Ukraine and imposing new sanctions on Russia reached the 218-signature threshold to move ahead on Wednesday, the ​latest successful bid by lawmakers to defy the chamber’s Republican leadership. California Representative Kevin Kiley, who switched his party affiliation to independent from Republican in March, signed ‌the “discharge petition” on Wednesday, giving it enough ‌signatures to force a vote in the House, likely in early June. While many members of Congress from both parties have strongly supported Ukraine since ⁠Russia launched its full-scale ⁠invasion in February 2022, some of President Donald Trump’s closest Republican allies – including House and ​Senate leadership – have grown cooler since he returned to the White House in January 2025. U.S. aid to the Kyiv government has slowed sharply even as Russia and Ukraine have been pummelling each other with missiles, drones and artillery, with no end to the war in sight. Peace talks are stalled, with Ukraine rejecting Putin’s ​demand …

Artists Defy Censorship on Palestine

Artists Defy Censorship on Palestine

Published by Jenni Sidey

Entering the main exhibition of the 2026 Venice Biennale, “In Minor Keys,” from the Arsenale, the first artwork one encounters is a poem. “If I must die / you must live / to tell my story,” the poem by Palestinian poet and professor Refaat Alareer begins. Those lines became a rallying cry for the pro-Palestine movement after Alareer was killed in Gaza by an Israeli airstrike in December 2023, and have since achieved a ubiquity that once seemed all but impossible for a poem in the 21st century. For “In Minor Keys,” the poem acts as a kind of benediction or, perhaps, a statement of purpose. The last edition of the Biennale opened just seven months after October 7; this edition is truly the first to grapple fully with the bloodshed wrought since. For the most part, the destruction of Gaza, like the rise of global fascism, is an unignorable context that every work in the show breathes in. Related Articles Take The Garden of the Broken-Hearted (2026), a new work by British Ethiopian artist Theo Eshetu …

Tucker Carlson Urges U.S. Officials To Defy Trump On Iran Orders: “Say No, Absolutely Not”

Tucker Carlson Urges U.S. Officials To Defy Trump On Iran Orders: “Say No, Absolutely Not”

Published by Jenni Sidey

Tucker Carlson has publicly called on White House aides and Pentagon officials to refuse President Donald Trump’s orders if they involve mass attacks on Iranian civilians or the possible use of nuclear weapons, telling them to “say no, absolutely not” directly to the president and, if necessary, to “figure out the codes on the football yourself.” The remarks, made on his popular podcast, come amid the ongoing U.S.-Israel military campaign against Iran and have triggered an immediate backlash from the White House. Carlson framed the potential escalation as “evil” and a desecration of Christian and Islamic values, specifically criticising Trump’s recent social-media rhetoric urging the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight.” Carlson argued that such actions would mark “the end of the American empire as we understand it” and run directly counter to the “America First” principles Trump campaigned on. Carlson’s comments come after the US and Israel’s aggressive bombing of Iran, which began with airstrikes earlier this year and has escalated into broader operations aimed …

Yellow jackets can defy the wind to swarm your picnic

Yellow jackets can defy the wind to swarm your picnic

Published by skeptic

behavior: The way something (often a person or other organism) conducts itself or acts towards others. biology: The study of living things. The scientists who study them are known as biologists. chemical: A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (bond) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made when two hydrogen atoms bond to one oxygen atom. Its chemical formula is H2O. Chemical also can be an adjective to describe properties of materials that are the result of various reactions between different compounds. drone: A remote-controlled, pilotless aircraft or missile. engineer: A person who uses science and math to solve problems. As a verb, to engineer means to design a device, material or process that will solve some problem or unmet need. environment: The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature and humidity (or even the placement of things …

Portuguese leaders defy floods and far right to hold Sunday presidential runoff

Portuguese leaders defy floods and far right to hold Sunday presidential runoff

Published by Sam Flores

Portuguese voters head back to the polls for the runoff round of the country’s presidential election on Sunday despite an ongoing state of emergency amid devastating storms.  More than 7,000 people have been evacuated in Spain and Portugal since early February and at least two people died after torrential rain and flooding hit the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal has declared a state of emergency in 69 of its 308 municipalities, and thousands of residents remain without power. Far-right leader André Ventura, the runner-up candidate heading into the deciding round, has spent the past week calling for the election to be postponed until order can be restored. “It is neither unfair nor disproportionate to say that a large part of the country is in a state of calamity, we are reaching brutal levels of need, and we are not capable of holding elections in this environment,” he said. As of Saturday, 19 especially hard-hit municipalities — home to 31,862 voters — have been given permission to delay the vote by one week. But outgoing President Marcelo Rebelo …

I tested 35+ ultraportable Windows PCs last year, but only one seems to defy physics

I tested 35+ ultraportable Windows PCs last year, but only one seems to defy physics

Published by skeptic

ZDNET’s key takeaways The LG Gram 17 (2025) is on sale now for $1,199. You won’t find a thinner, lighter 17-inch laptop out there, and Intel’s Lunar Lake CPU is a big upgrade from last year’s. The touchscreen is wobbly, the black matte finish attracts fingerprints, and I wish it had a haptic trackpad. more buying choices Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. So you like a big screen, 17-inch laptop, but you want to carry it around without breaking your back? I got you. LG’s Gram 17 lives up to its name as the lightest, thinnest 17-inch laptop you’ve likely laid your eyes on. We’ve gone hands-on with multiple models from LG’s Gram series over the past few years, such as 2024’s Gram Pro 17 and the Gram Pro 16 2-in-1. Luckily, the new Gram 17 has some improvements over last year’s model, and honestly, the differences between the base model and the Pro aren’t as prominent as you might expect. Also: I tested the world’s smallest 1TB SSD drive, and it’s biggest downside …

US Democrats urge EU to defy Trump on oil and gas rules – POLITICO

US Democrats urge EU to defy Trump on oil and gas rules – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

The EU has so far resisted pressure to change the EU Methane Regulation, which came into effect last year. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas often released through leaks and flaring during the extraction, refining and transport of petrochemicals. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, EU shipments of U.S. oil and gas have shot up. Natural gas imports in particular are up fourfold. During President Joe Biden’s term in office the EU and U.S. agreed with industry to clamp down on waste and pollution. Last year, the Trump Administration began rolling back domestic regulation of methane. While last year the U.S. wrote to EU countries demanding they delay requirements for American companies to report their emissions data until 2035 and offer “regulatory equivalence,” meaning U.S. producers would automatically comply with the methane rules. “These dramatic, politicized swings in domestic methane regulations are not only detrimental to climate and energy security objectives, but run counter to American industry’s own stated goals for methane management,” the letter from U.S. lawmakers read. “So long as the …

Bridgerton Boss Hoped To Defy ‘Harmful’ Stereotypes About Bisexual Men In Season 4

Bridgerton Boss Hoped To Defy ‘Harmful’ Stereotypes About Bisexual Men In Season 4

Published by Sam Flores

Bridgerton showrunner Jess Brownell has said it was “really important” to her that Benedict Bridgerton’s queerness remain a key part of his character in season four, which sees him pursuing a long-term romance with a new female character. During a new interview with Variety, Brownell was asked about the fact that Luke Thompson’s character’s bisexuality was widely explored in the most recent season of the Netflix period drama. She responded: “It’s really important that just because someone might end up in a heterosexual-presenting relationship, that does not negate their queerness. “I think Benedict’s queerness will always be a piece of his identity. And when we were talking about representation, I don’t think there’s a lot of representation that I’ve seen of bisexual men.” Brownell continued: “There is a really harmful and untrue stereotype that bisexual men are actually just gay men. More often, we see bisexual men ending up in media in homosexual-presenting relationships. “And it felt fresh and important to see a bisexual man ending up in a heterosexual-presenting relationship and still owning the …