Archive for February, 2014

Whichever way the Ukraine goes, Putin wins

Whichever way the Ukraine goes, Putin wins

February 25, 2014 at 3:25 pm 0 comments

Normally I vary my topics from one day to the next, but the events in the Ukraine are so momentous that it would be frivolous to write about anything else. By and large, the press is treating the Ukraine as a proxy in a confrontation between Russia and the EU.Read More

Is Vincent Nichols actually George Clooney in disguise?

Is Vincent Nichols actually George Clooney in disguise?

February 15, 2014 at 12:31 pm 0 comments

It must be contagious. First George enlarged on the advisability of returning the Elgin marbles to Greece, a subject with which he’s manifestly and self-admittedly unfamiliar. Then Britain’s Catholic leader Archbishop Nichols accused the government of causing mass starvation by introducing some very marginal delays in processing welfare applications. InRead More

The Greeks have lost their marbles. Now what about George Clooney?

The Greeks have lost their marbles. Now what about George Clooney?

February 12, 2014 at 8:01 pm 0 comments

George is currently gracing London with his august presence. He’s here to promote his latest film that deals with Americans saving… well, not the world this time, but merely some art treasures looted by the Nazis. (The actual saving was done by an Englishman, but what’s an insignificant detail likeRead More

Smoking in cars is safer than state tyranny

Smoking in cars is safer than state tyranny

February 10, 2014 at 10:18 am 0 comments

Not smoking in cars full of children is a good idea. However, many good ideas result in awful laws, and the ban Parliament is about to pass is one such. Smoking in general is a rotten habit, as I can testify from 30 years of personal experience. It gives youRead More

The secular religion of the Left

The secular religion of the Left

February 10, 2014 at 8:00 am 0 comments

For most of human history, men and women have derived their moral dimension of life from the family and religion. Both of those are now dead or dying in the West under the influence of its new moral and ethical system. That system is one that we know in itsRead More

Belgium in the grip of suicide

Belgium in the grip of suicide

February 10, 2014 at 7:28 am 0 comments

What happens when a suicidal vision grips a nation? First, the young are eliminated. In 2013 the total fertility rate of Belgium was 1.65 – nowhere near the 2.1 rate needed for population replacement. The bulk of the births was supplied by non-native Belgians in any case. Then state sanctioned medical killing is recommendedRead More

The floods are your fault

The floods are your fault

February 7, 2014 at 11:12 pm 0 comments

Yet another deluge accompanied by 80mph winds is coming, and Britain is bracing herself for more floods this weekend. As is obvious to any reader of daily newspapers, such things don’t just happen. There has got to be an ultimately identifiable cause, and we’re the ones to identify it. MostRead More

Most medical research is flawed, says leading medical editor

Most medical research is flawed, says leading medical editor

February 7, 2014 at 5:57 pm 0 comments

Twenty years ago last week the statistician Doug Altman published an editorial in the BMJ arguing that much medical research was of poor quality and misleading. In his editorial entitled, “The Scandal of Poor Medical Research,” Altman wrote that much research was “seriously flawed through the use of inappropriate designs, unrepresentative samples,Read More

Where Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sally Bercow converge

Where Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sally Bercow converge

February 5, 2014 at 9:27 pm 0 comments

At first glance there isn’t much common ground.

Let’s boycott John Kerry, not Israel

February 3, 2014 at 12:20 pm 0 comments

The world is blessed with 206 independent states. Only one of them has its legitimacy, and indeed right to survive, questioned.

Some of the others routinely murder and torture their own citizens, control the press, …