Archive for September, 2014

The swag is mightier than the sword

The swag is mightier than the sword

September 21, 2014 at 4:42 pm 0 comments

Forty-nine Turkish hostages, including diplomats, women and children, have been released by the terrorists of Islamic State. The lavish scenes of jubilation on their safe return were prominent on Turkish TV. But did you see the earlier pictures of the fearless men of the Turks’ secret intelligence service, backed by special forces,Read More

Putin is screaming historical parallels – is anyone listening?

Putin is screaming historical parallels – is anyone listening?

September 19, 2014 at 6:30 pm 0 comments

One can observe two things about modern tyrants: first, they can’t resist divulging their plans; second, the world never listens. Marx, for example, laid down the blueprint for a modern totalitarian state, complete with genocide, democide, concentration camps, suppression of every liberty, dictatorship of a small elite, confiscation of allRead More

You’re in the wrong job, Your Grace

You’re in the wrong job, Your Grace

September 18, 2014 at 6:24 pm 0 comments

A financial consultant shouldn’t have fundamental misgivings about the morality of money. A geography teacher shouldn’t doubt that the Earth is round. A nuclear physicist shouldn’t wonder if the atom is really divisible. If these professionals are indeed beset by such doubts, any sensible person would be justified in thinkingRead More

Tractatus logico theologicus

September 17, 2014 at 4:09 pm 0 comments

Write this: you can write nothing. No one can, for what is said Is not the thing that is Except in that single case wherein The eternal Word was made flesh And dwelt among us. What is it that the poets are up to then? Only to take us toRead More

Dave on Islam: our heir to Blair plagiarises Dubya

Dave on Islam: our heir to Blair plagiarises Dubya

September 15, 2014 at 6:38 pm 0 comments

It was the current American VP Joe Biden who set the precedent. During his 1988 presidential campaign Biden repeated word for word Neil Kinnock’s speech on being the first in his family to go to university. Sorry, it wasn’t quite word for word: Joe did replace ‘the first Kinnock’ withRead More

Has the Third World War already started?

Has the Third World War already started?

September 14, 2014 at 6:43 pm 0 comments

Most historians agree that the Second World War started on 1 September, 1939. Some will argue that the real date was 23 August, when Molotov and Ribbentrop signed the pact whose secret protocol divided Europe between Germany and the Soviet Union. Some others will pick an even earlier date, suchRead More

We are at war/are not at war

We are at war/are not at war

September 13, 2014 at 4:21 pm 0 comments

One day after John Kerry declared that the US is “not at war…that is the wrong term” with Islamic State, the White House and the Pentagon announced, “We are at war with Islamic State.” It is reassuring to see that the power with the greatest ability to defend the westernRead More

IPSO is a facto

IPSO is a facto

September 8, 2014 at 4:17 pm 0 comments

Sir Alan Moses starts work this morning as chairman of the new Independent Press Standards Organisation IPSO and promises that it will not be “a sham.” Indeed it is not a sham: it is a political quango set up in response to campaigns by Hacked Off and Guardian journalists to abolishRead More

Just war Justin

Just war Justin

September 2, 2014 at 4:49 pm 0 comments

On an aeroplane returning from Korea, the Pope was asked if he thought it right for the western allies to bomb Islamic State in Iraq.  “Yes,” he said. The Archbishop of Canterbury was today asked the same question by Edward Stourton on The Sunday Programme. He answered in the usual LambethRead More

Thank God for the newspapers!

Thank God for the newspapers!

September 2, 2014 at 4:31 pm 0 comments

Something is rotten in the state of England. At the highest level, a rigid political policy which declares that ethnic and religious minorities must not be offended has ensured that for decades untold thousands of children have been sexually abused. This means that the largely imaginary crime of so calledRead More