I was at a friend’s house yesterday evening when he turned on the television and I heard the ominous words, “An Air France flight with 309 people aboard crashed…” and my whole body immediately braced, expecting bad bad news. But … Continue reading →
A few days from now will be the sixtieth anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The rightness of that decision is still being vigorously debated. Here’s an article from the Weekly Standard (hat tip: Austin Bay) … Continue reading →
I don’t usually write about events in my purely personal, non-political life, but I’m going to make an exception. Towards the end of my recent visit to California, my ninety-one-year-old mother had a stroke. Even though she is ninety-one, this … Continue reading →
I am hereby amending this post to refer not just to charges of racism, but to include charges of being against a certain culture, ethnicity, group, or people. I wouldn’t want my remarks to be limited only to those who … Continue reading →
Via Bookworm, this article from the American Thinker seems to be agreeing with me about the basically leftist, as opposed to the basically anti-Semitic, orientation of some anti-Israel pro-Palestinian Christian ministers (boy, that’s a mouthful!). Author James Lewis writes: The … Continue reading →
In this post of mine about Peretz’s article on the attitude of the Presbyterian and Episcopalian church leaderships towards Israel and the Palestinians, I found this interesting comment from one of my many anonymous readers: “nihilistic darlings” “murderous ideologies” “the … Continue reading →
Via Dean Esmay, here’s a thought-provoking Martin Peretz article from last week’s issue of The New Republic (no subscription necessary in this case). Peretz’s “J’accuse” is directed towards the support by the hierarchy of the Presbyterian and Episcopalian churches of … Continue reading →
There are certain authors I keep coming back to. One of them is Milan Kundera, whom I first read and loved about twenty-five years ago, but whose works, on rereading, seem even more loaded with political and philosophical insight than … Continue reading →
This editorial is from Tuesday’s New York Times, but the attitude it expresses could have been found in almost any liberal newspaper. Subsequent to the London subway bombings, New York has had to decide how to increase security on public … Continue reading →
There have been a number of recent demonstrations in Egypt against terrorism. Blogger Big Pharaoh describes some of the goings-on here and here. Big Pharaoh found the experience exhilarating and empowering: Today was a great day for me. I feel … Continue reading →
Ever since Koko the gorilla learned a rudimentary form of sign language years ago, our concept of animal consciousness has expanded. Putting aside for a moment the debate over whether animal communication can ever constitute actual language itself–whatever you call … Continue reading →
Just a short while after the Afghan war ended, the articles began. They screamed “The Taliban are back;” “The Taliban are taking over;” The Taliban are currently in control of most of the country,” (or they soon will be). So, … Continue reading →