Category Archives: culture

Happy Christmas!

How to mark Christmas, grandest and jolliest and most syncretic of festivals, this year? With this brief extract, I think, from The Exiles by Ray Bradbury, who, of course, died just a few months ago: A door banged wide in … Continue reading

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Sir Patrick Moore (1923-2012)

One of Britain’s television legends has just died. His Daily Telegraph obituary can be found here. Some key extracts: A genuine eccentric who never took himself too seriously, Moore played up to his image as a “mad professor”, and wrote … Continue reading

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Armagideon Time (Again)

Cross-posted on the Corner: Here we go again. The Daily Telegraph reports on the approach of the latest doomsday: Ahead of December 21, which marks the conclusion of the 5,125-year “Long Count” Mayan calendar, panic buying of candles and essentials … Continue reading

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Vandals

The totalitarian Saudi regime has been busy again. The Daily Telegraph’s Damian Thompson reports: …The long-cherished ambition of Saudi Arabia’s ruling Wahhabi sect to smash up the ancient buildings of Mecca and Medina is nearing fruition. In Mecca, the house … Continue reading

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Glimpses of Barbarism

From the Economist: In July a mentally disturbed Muslim man, arrested for blasphemy in the Punjab city of Bahawalpur, was dragged out of the police station by a crowd of 2,000 and set on fire. In 2009 accusations of blasphemy … Continue reading

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Art Restoration

In the wake of this, this?

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Layers of difference

In The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order Samuel P. Huntington placed Russia in the “Orthodox” civilization, as opposed to the “Western” class. Over 20 years since the collapse of the Communist bloc I think one must … Continue reading

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Witchcraft. London. 2012.

Via The Daily Telegraph: ‘Political correctness’ is preventing police from stopping child abuse by parents and church leaders who believe in witchcraft, a minister warns. Tim Loughton, the children’s minister, said that a “wall of silence” was obscuring the full … Continue reading

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American loons

My friends often wonder why I identify as a conservative in light of the existence of loons such as Pat Robertson. The problem from where I stand is that lunacy is found to your Left and your Right. My friends … Continue reading

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Hikikomori, Literally

Via the Daily Telegraph: Seventy members of an Islamist sect who have been living in an underground bunker without heat or sunlight for nearly a decade have been discovered living on the outskirts of the city of Kazan in Russia. … Continue reading

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