Category Archives: history

It isn’t always about the mean

‘Draw Muhammad’ cartoonist changes name, goes into hiding at FBI’s insistence: Seattle Weekly announced Wednesday that it will no longer run Molly Norris’s artwork. The newspaper is also reporting that legally, there is no more “Molly Norris.” Norris — the … Continue reading

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Islam, generalizations, barbarism, and structural conflicts

My friend Aziz Poonawalla left a somewhat irritated comment below as to my attitudes and generalizations about Muslims and Islam. I took notice, because I had a somewhat similar response from a Muslim friend on Facebook to another comment I … Continue reading

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Jean Vianney

Author and historian John Cornwell may be a Roman Catholic but, as his writings frequently reveal, he is no great friend of the Vatican, something that always has to be remembered when reading his commentaries on that particular institution. Nevertheless … Continue reading

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Archbishop Duranty

When, writing in Bloomberg News, George Walden begins his review of a new book on the colossal Mao-manufactured famine that was among the most hideous atrocities of the twentieth century, he does so in a curiously forgiving way: When Julie … Continue reading

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Only Three Words

In the course of its long history, the Russian Orthodox Church has not been on, so to speak, the side of the angels quite as often as perhaps it should have been, but this account (extracted from a recent Spectator … Continue reading

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On experts

On the Left right now they’re passing around a paper which suggests that immigration boosts median income. Since the modern American elite Left is pro-immigration they naturally take a shine to such papers, and my own impression from talking to … Continue reading

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Having our way with the past, for it has no honor!

Ross Douthat’s new column, Islam in Two Americas is getting a lot of play. Douthat has to constrain his prose to make it suitable for a print column…I can almost see the excisions of nuance and subtly necessitated by the … Continue reading

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When a situation becomes an attribute

In my post below I made a distinction between a set of actions and behaviors arising from a particular situation, and those arising from an attribute. Psychopaths may behave totally normally and ethically in a situation where deviation from the … Continue reading

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Democralatry strikes again!

Jeff Jarvis: There are those in the press and government who don’t like or trust the public they serve. It is an unliberal attitude–which can come from Liberals, by the way–for it doesn’t buy the core belief of liberal democracy … Continue reading

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Obituary of the Year

One of my life’s minor pleasures is a daily trip to the obituary pages. And there’s usually no better place to turn to for this than the Daily Telegraph. This ripping yarn proves just why. It tells the tale of … Continue reading

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