thoughts in and out of season
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn called the Colombian aphoristic philosopher Nicolas Gomez Davila (1913-1994) “the brightest thinker on the Right.” It is perhaps no coincidence that his writings have been altogether unavailable in English. Nikos Salingaros just did English speakers a service by translating some of his thoughts on artistic, architectural, and urban matters. They’re an … More ...
Evidence that American Christians are generally more American than Christian, and that opposition to the “radical religious right” is basically a mopping-up operation: Unbelieving ‘born-agains’. Most born-agains reject the Trinity and consider salvation a matter of living a good life. A third or more deny the Resurrection, and accept premarital cohabitation and same-sex unions. … More ...
The effect of “equality” on self-government: Bias Feared in School Plan for Councils. New York City has 32 elected school boards. Most potential voters don’t have school-age children, and fewer than 5% participate in electing the boards. So the city wants to replace the school boards with parent councils elected by PTA officers. That … More ...
Daniel Pipes has a list of questions he says are helpful in Identifying Muslim Moderates. It occurred to me that with surprisingly slight modification the list could become a guide for identifying liberal moderates:
Evidence that there is at least one sensible European politician: Czech President Vaclav Klaus warns Europe of ‘dream world’ woes. He doesn’t like the EU, thinks the Europeans are living in lotus-land, views the Euro as a purely political scheme, believes “you cannot have a democratic accountability in anything bigger than a nation … More ...
A French parliamentary group has called for a ban on the wearing of any visible religious symbols in schools. The question had been whether Muslim girls can wear Islamic head scarves, but if that’s a problem why isn’t it a problem for a Catholic girl to wear a little silver cross? President Chirac takes the … More ...
If draconian measures are needed to enforce a law, we should ask whether the public benefit justifies the penalties. A copyright bill is being introduced in the Senate that would make it a federal felony punishable by five years in prison to use a camcorder to make a copy of a film in a movie … More ...
Nikos Salingaros has made some fascinating material available that gives the background to an essay he wrote on “The Derrida Virus” that I mentioned a month or so ago. (The essay is no longer available on the web but it appears it will be published in Telos.) The material provides a perspective on how … More ...
William Buckley left some on the American Right with a residue of Anglophilia and Ivy League snobbery. Here’s something guaranteed to cure even the most stubborn case: lady nominalist leaves Yale to take Regius Chair of Divinity at Oxford. The bit about the black leather clerical attire (the lady is also an Episcopal priestess … More ...
Do small boys still play cops and robbers? If they do, here are a couple of variations they might try: nail a small businessman for having an ashtray in his shop and fine him $6,000. After that they can take a bishop down to headquarters and grill him over allegations that he said that some … More ...