[BLOG] Some Thursday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Crooked Timber's Niamh Hardiman writes about the tensions between democracy and effective supranational governance in the European Union, in Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti's statements.


• Eastern Approaches' T.J. profiles one of the first prominent Sikh immigrants in Slovenia, a business-owner.


• The Global Sociology Blog gives a qualified positive review of Paolo Bacigalupi's young-adult novel Ship Breaker.


• GNXP's Razib Khan considers the ways in which the people of Madagascar, descended from Austronesian-speaking migrants from Southeast Asia, seem to have developed in isolation from trends in the ancestral homeland and elsewhere. Interesting comments.


• Language Hat notes the shift from "vous" to "tu" in French.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money's SEK expects that in the aftermath of Mitt Romney's collapse as a candidate, American extremists are likely to be even more vocal than before.


• Marginal Revolution links to a remarkable essay claiming the Khmer Rouge never committed genocide in Cambodia but instead did as much good as they could in its brief reign. There are no words.


• A guest post at Registan observes that Uzbek culture and language are gradually being excluded from public space in Kyrgyzstan's Osh, which saw anti-Uzbek pogroms two years ago.


• Torontoist follows protests of Toronto Muslims outside the American consulate at the infamous Innocence of Muslims video.