The beat goes on
Business as usual: more fraud in the EU, Gideon’s bibles to be expelled from Calgary hospitals to avoid discrimination, and roast pig forbidden in Bath, England because Muslims and animal rights types wouldn’t approve.
James Kalb
New York Magazine counsels sexual restraint!
Pascal observed that it’s difficult to speak chastely of chastity, and it must be far more difficult to speak chastely of pornography. Still, you have to deal with what’s around us, and it’s worth noting that even New York Magazine, which is in the business of treating everything as a consumer good, is starting … More ...
Crusade bad, jihad good
It’s hard to make out exactly what’s going on, but it appears that in the Australian state of Victoria if you give the term “jihad” its usual meaning and say Muslims believe in it, you’ll be taken to court for “religious vilification” and the Catholic Church will take the side of your prosecutors.
The whole past is illegitimate
Nobody’s ever good enough: Gandhi attacked as racist in South Africa.
Why therapy?
The culture of therapy calls for some explanation, and there’s a new book out in England that claims it’s the natural consequence of the collapse of the Left. The Left claimed that everyone could get what he wants through social engineering. That turned out to be impossible, so a whole industry has grown up … More ...
Queen asks what her new job will be
The Queen of England has decided she needs to investigate the stuff Tony Blair’s been telling her about the proposed EU constitution: Queen raises fears over EU constitution. It seems she’s concerned about the effect of Article 10, which gives EU law primacy over the law of member states, on her position as sovereign. … More ...
More on love and marriage
Wendy McElroy gives some startling statistics on the decline of marriage in her piece on The Marriage Strike (by men who don’t much like what current family law has to offer them). During the first half of the ’90s the marriage rate dropped from 9.8 to 7.6—I had no idea there had been such a … More ...
What’s good about America?
I’m not impressed by the argument that America is good because it’s free, equal, democratic and prosperous, or because a lot of people from all over the world want to move here. There are good things to be said about America on those grounds, but they can also be said about other Western countries, and … More ...
An Anglican bishop on the problem of evil
Statements in a radio interview given by Anglican bishop Martin Reynolds display the essentials of liberal antihomophobia: Anti-gay archbishop Jensen likened to Hitler. According to Reynolds, the claim that deviant sexual intercourse is bad, so homosexual couplings aren’t equivalent to marriages and those who affirm such things in their lives shouldn’t be pastors of … More ...
Bent to straight
In spite of hate speech laws the mainstream press is probably a bit freer and more diverse in Britain than America. Here, for example, is a reasonably straightforward article on reparative therapy for homosexual orientation—something you’re not likely to see in the national press here. For those who pursue it, more often than not … More ...