thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb Did you hear the one about the UN bureaucrat, the feminist and the Canadian? Here it is, from the Toronto Star: U.N. report says Canada failing its women. In fact the story’s no joke, however absurd it may be. Because Canada signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against … More ...
What’s the difference between the red and blue states? Here are some answers: Our Secularist Democratic Party (from The Public Interest), and The “morality gap” is becoming the key variable in American politics (from The Atlantic Monthly).
The Public Interest piece documents the obvious truth that the story of the “culture wars” is … More ...
More on the Eloi Union (EU): Eurotalk vs. Ameritalk. Why do anything now when you can keep on going through process forever?
Is it torture time? Afghan detainees’ deaths ruled homicides. According to their death certificates, two enemy combatants who died in U.S. custody at Bagram air base in Afghanistan died from blunt-force homicide. In general, the U.S. admits to a policy of using “stress and duress” during interrogation, including deprivation of sleep, various disorienting tactics, … More ...
Amnesty International made its name working for “prisoners of conscience,” defined as “people imprisoned solely because of their political or religious beliefs, gender, or their racial or ethnic origin, who have neither used nor advocated violence.” Like most bureaucratic and public policy organizations they’ve suffered mission creep, and most recently have hired a full-time lobbyist… More ...
Italian political posters are much more stylishly designed than in America, and when you combine the high style with the habitual cynicism about government it’s hard to believe any of it should be taken seriously. So when I was in Venice recently I was inclined to view the rainbow-colored peace banners fluttering from windows as … More ...
Why is this a good idea? Here’s an overview of the Somali Bantu we’re taking in because they qualify as “a persecuted class of people who deserve to be resettled in America”:
… More ...“The Bantus have had little formal education, low literacy and English levels, large families, almost no U.S. support system, and an almost total
The issues are getting too weird for comment: the Libertarian Party is conducting a “Guns for Tots” program in Harlem to protest proposed legislation banning all toy guns, while the Village Voice notes that war toys being sold in Easter baskets often feature soldiers with light-colored hair.
It is a requirement of human freedom and dignity that Catholic doctrine be understood as true, unchanging and publicly knowable. To the extent doctrine is settled and knowable, to be a Catholic is not to subject oneself to the rule of priests but to live intelligently in the world. Doctrine then plays a part (speaking … More ...
There will always be an England, or maybe some other country with the same name: Spectator and its Tory MP editor may face charges over Taki race rant. In a short opinion piece the columnist Taki used the expressions “black thugs” and “multiply like flies” in connection with West Indians. The Guardian, heir … More ...