Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
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 […]
Why I’m coming out…against gay marriage
A New York progressive braves the opprobrium of his peers by questioning same-sex marriage. Read my spiked article in full here.
Obama vs Romney: who do you hate least?
Both Obama and Romney are now tossed between public enthusiasm and public disdain, showing just how volatile this campaign has become. Read my spiked article in full here.
Obama is down in the polls, and only has himself to blame
It’s easy to be confused about this year’s presidential election. Throughout the latter part of 2011, President Obama was faring badly in opinion polls. Unemployment remained stubbornly high and a majority did not approve of his job performance. The talk was that almost any Republican could beat Obama. But then, as we headed into a new year, Obama’s fortunes appeared to change. Unemployment […]
Is America committing “superpower suicide”?
Yes, claims that America is rotting like the Roman Empire are over the top, but two new books swing too far in the other direction. Read my review of The World America Made by Robert Kagan, and Strategic Vision by Zbigniew Brzezinski, in spiked here.
Greece: no rescue
The eurozone finance ministers’ €130 billion bailout package for Greece announced on Tuesday, the second in two years, will not “rescue” Greece. It makes the economic situation worse, and represents a further tightening of the European Union’s stranglehold on national sovereignty and democracy in Greece. Euro bureaucrats claimed the deal was a success. “The new […]
Republicans taking the bait on the contraception issue?
In the cover story for Newsweek, Andrew Sullivan argues Obama’s compromise offer on the birth control and religious freedom controversy has “set a trap for the right”: The more Machiavellian observer might even suspect this is actually an improved bait and switch by Obama to more firmly identify the religious right with opposition to contraception, its weakest issue […]