thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb British feminists call for continued Western occupation of Afghanistan, and Nicholas Kristof takes time out from abusing anyone with doubts about CEDAW to speak of “the half of the globe where to be female is to be persecuted until, often, death.” Is there a certain pattern here?
Meanwhile, closer to home, all decent people … More ...
The campaign to make international capital an engine of “human rights” continues: Apartheid suit to target U.S. and German firms (if the former South African government had been unable to borrow money it wouldn’t have lasted as long), and Myanmar Human Rights Abuse Case Against US Oil Giant to Go Ahead (UNOCAL knew the Burmese … More ...
Signs that things are the same everywhere: Nude Performance Artist Shocks Conservative Chile and Japanese Activists Hail Ruling on Transgender Sacking. The news reports can’t be relied upon, of course, but it appears there is no serious, sustained and effective opposition to such things anywhere. The ubiquity of cultural radicalism suggests that its sources … More ...
I found this BBC article, EU immigration policies condemned, a useful compendium of open-borders rhetorical devices:
A disturbing thing about the bishops’ response to the scandals resulting from entrenched homosexuality in the priesthood is that it illustrates the extent to which institutional orthodoxy in the Roman Catholic Church has become dependent on one man, the Pope. The other bishops, it appears, aren’t much interested—certainly not enough to break “collegiality,” which appears … More ...
The indisputable orthodoxy today is that companies need to be able to integrate all sorts of people into their workforce, and that diversity is strength. Hence such things as the following: Diversity drive at BP targets gay staff , and Wales: Training Service Opened To Combat Homophobia In Workplace. If you think there’s a … More ...
An interesting addition to social taxonomy—Indians in Malaysia: A community in distress. I don’t know of another expat Indian underclass. Possible causes: they have to compete with the far more numerous Chinese, and don’t benefit from the strong affirmative action programs in favor of the Malay majority. Also, they were brought to Malaya … More ...
Remembering Nixon: Was Richard M. Nixon a closet liberal? He could hardly help but be one functionally. The man was intelligent, ambitious and unprincipled. He had grand strategy but no vision or ultimate principles—what counted was what would work. So how could he do anything but go with the tendencies of the age?
Liberals have traditionally been very much concerned with procedure, perhaps because they justify their rule by saying they impose nothing substantive but only a general requirement of fair play. On the other hand, it’s obvious that on some issues like affirmative action they know what the answer has to be and all others are not … More ...
True multiculturalism—and true human rights, in accordance with original understandings—would involve finding point in common that a variety of cultures could affirm in all integrity. Here’s a splendid example: Islamic Bloc, Christian Right Team Up to Lobby U.N. Oddly, the Washington Post reporter doesn’t seem to approve, but describes the situation using the rhetoric … More ...