Part of the problem of modern government is that many social schemes are funded on Ponzi-scheme principles – the whole thing is paid for today on the assumption that there will be enough people tomorrow to keep chipping in too. And the day after. But as we know, demographic forecasts […]
Mark Steyn is usually known as a writer delivering sharp witty jabs against progressive ideas and people: Obama’s a community organizer. We’re the community. He organizes us. What part of that don’t you get? But he also turns out strikingly thoughtful and interesting pieces about civilisational concerns. Such as this terrific essay about how […]
A well-turned piece by Carne Ross (Independent Diplomat) taking up the release by North Korea of the two American journalists on the problems facing diplomats as and when hostages are grabbed: Even Bill Clinton’s harshest critic should celebrate this rescue as triumphant and humane. But as the women’s families breathe […]
This Washington Post article makes a deft case for the claim that the anonymous Joker/Socialist posters of President Obama are really racist: Although Ledger was white, and the Joker is white, this equation of the wounded and the wounding mirrors basic racial typology in America. Urban blacks — the thinking […]
Craig Murray swings at President Clinton for being photographed with the ‘appalling’ Gulnara Karimova, the not unattractive daughter of the leader of Uzbekistan. Just why Clinton is posing with the appalling Gulnara Karimova is unclear. But it might well relate to the continued efforts by the Obama administration to improve […]
Over in the USA a lot of noise is being generated by people speculating that President Obama is not for various technical reasons an American citizen and so should not have been allowed to run for President. Yawn. But there may be other reasons for wanting to see all the […]
The Americans have a way with words: a good loser is a Loser. In other words, by contemplating the possibility of defeat yet remaining cheerful about it you psych yourself down – and help bring defeat about. Which brings us to President Obama’s recent remarkable off-hand thought: I’m always worried about […]
I was over at the UK’s international development department (DFID) today, talking about the current British attempts to ‘join up’ military and civilian efforts in world trouble-spots. As I was looking at these questions with both the benefit of years of insider experience and now the irresponsibility of non-office, it […]
The Presidential drama (or not) in Honduras drags on despite my own best attempts to end it by going on holiday. I see that Hillary Clinton is more nuanced about a possible return by ex-President Zelaya, now a ‘reckless’ move. What happens if a demonstration in favour of the new situation is […]
Is here. It is better than his Cairo speech which had rather too many philosophically incoherent passages. This one is easier to make, of course, as he is aiming it at one country in particular and not at an amorphous ‘Muslim world’. So the key messages can be more finely […]
