Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
US response to Middle East protests: validating grievances, sacrificing free speech
Once again, we see images of demonstrations and rioting in the capitals across the Middle East. But unlike the “Arab spring”, these protests are explicitly anti-American: gathering at US embassies, with placards denouncing the US and American flags in flames. In Libya, four Americans, including the ambassador, were killed following an attack on the US […]
Shouting ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire!’ is not serious politics
The rise of a tyranny of fact-checkers in the US election, who constantly call out politicians on their ‘lies’, is a very unhealthy development. Read my spiked article in full here.
The tyranny of the fact checkers
The election season in America has seen two new and related developments: constant accusations of “lies” and the rise of “fact checkers” as the arbiters of political debate. For the past two months or more, both the Obama and Romney camps have engaged in tit-for-tat accusations of lying. At the outset, both sides claimed the […]
That Eastwood routine again
Like many, I referred to Clint Eastwood’s skit at the Republican National Convention as “bizarre”. In a tweet, I called it a “debacle”. I still hold to those descriptions, but as comedy, it “killed”, as Bill Maher put it. Watching it again (see video above), Eastwood’s routine really had its moments. The use of the […]
Romney’s empty suit vs. Obama’s empty chair
With the hope hoopla of the 2008 campaign a distant memory, now we have a contest between a letdown president and a vacuous challenger. Read my spiked article in full here.
Enlightened liberals vs chicken-chewing morons
The Chick-fil-A controversy in America reveals just how illiberal and intolerant supporters of same-sex marriage are becoming. Read my spiked article in full here.
Life, liberty…what a load of selfish nonsense!
Yesterday was the 4th of July, the day Americans celebrate the country’s independence. But the writer Kurt Andersen decided to be a party pooper, and took to the New York Times op-ed pages to bemoan “the downside of liberty”. “The document we’re celebrating today says in its second line that axiomatic human rights include ‘Life, Liberty and the […]
Re-opening the American mind
Twenty-five years on, a re-read of Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind reveals just how wrong liberals were to hate it, and how wrong conservatives were to claim it as their ideological bible. Read my review, in the spiked review of books, here.
Here we go again: Nanny Bloomberg bans large sodas
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Bans on smoking in restaurants. Then outdoors, in parks. Bans on artificial trans fat in restaurant food. A demand to post health inspection grades in big letters on restaurant windows. Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York City and billionaire, has made a name for himself […]
The liberal case against gay marriage
Following on from my spiked article on the gay marriage debate, I recommend an essay I found by Susan M. Shell, “The liberal case against gay marriage”. Published in The Public Interest in the summer of 2004, it remains highly relevant. Shell makes the important point that “the most stubborn and intransigent opponents in the […]