thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb No big surprise: when they finally found a classical bust that still had its paint on, they noticed something:
… More ...It had … been assumed that classical statues were painted brightly. In fact, the colouring on the head is a delicate shade of orange-red, which, although faded, indicates that classical colouring was subtle and sophisticated.
Here’s an account of the thought of the French Jesuit, paleontologist, heresiarch and general space cadet Pierre Teilhard de Chardin that makes it a bit clearer why his evolutionary theology appeals so much to so many. If you make Christ the outcome of the evolution of an endlessly-more-universal this-worldly social process what you’ve really done … More ...
I’d been out of internet contact for 10 days or so and hadn’t seen the cartoons that supposedly gave rise to all the delayed Muslim outrage. When I did I was startled by how mild they were. A few of them seemed likely to offend: one that made the Islamic crescent look like horns … More ...
We’ve had a little back-and-forth on the modern state and what to make of it, so I thought I’d put together some notes for whatever anybody can make of them:
For those who want to keep tabs on where things stand, here’s a video (22 min. and 50 MB) of the speech by BNP leader Nick Griffin that’s getting him prosecuted for “using words or behaviour likely to stir up racial hatred.” The speech is more vehement than Enoch Powell’s so-called “rivers of blood” speech … More ...
In France, an MP is fined and denounced vehemently for criticizing homosexuality, and the Culture Minister wants him kicked out of the party. In this country we mostly don’t fine people for saying the wrong thing, we just re-educate them or put them in therapy. And then there’ll always be an England, … More ...
A neat dramatization of digital privacy concerns: The Google Robot FAQ (Last update: November 1st, 2030).
A reader wrote to comment on my essay on Traditionalism and the American Order, saying that I overstate the liberalism and understate the traditionalism of the American order. My response:
… More ...I don’t think I said that the U.S. as it has existed has been basically a product of liberalism or that it was stable
There’s a recent piece at View from the Right pointing out that while the call of Harvard academic Noel Ignatieff to “abolish the white race” sounds radical, it is really no different than the usual liberal and even mainstream conservative position that we should all work toward a state of affairs in which race doesn’t … More ...
