Our gibbering spiteful government wants to bring in a sprawling new registration scheme for all adults working with or having dealings with children, to help stop paedophiles popping up unexpectedly. Uproar. But we are told to calm down: Sir Roger, whose agency will run the vetting scheme, said: "We need […]
Here is a piece by Douglas Rushkoff at Edge which tries to get at the deep roots of economic theory, and finds it wanting: The economy in which we operate is not a natural system, but a set of rules developed in the Late Middle Ages in order to prevent […]
My earlier posting about Vladimir Putin’s ‘Letter to Poles’ has been taken up (in a shorter version) by RFE/RL. Have a look at the comments from pro-Russian types, which are especially agitated on the subject of whether the Red Army in 1920 was attempting another ‘land grab’ by invading Western […]
A certain Van Jones, influential Marxist activist cum President Obama’s senior adviser on so-called green jobs, has resigned. A direct hit on the Obama Administration by some of its opponents. Why? The New York Times, Washington Post, NBC, ABC and CBS will have been all over this one explaining the background and assessing what […]
Once upon a time telephone calls went down specific lines; a ‘switchboard’ was a large, er, board at which an operator sat switching plugs to and fro into holes to connect individual people. That got automated. Calls became cheaper and cheaper. Then along came computers. Then the Internet. Based on (very cool) packet-switching […]
Three Thousands Versts of Loneliness analyses Putin’s approach to Soviet and Russian history as revealed in his letter to Poland: The ‘Putinite regime’ is commonly portrayed as if it were intent on overseeing Stalin’s rehabilitation, often with the implied aim of entrenching its own, purportedly authoritarian, project. As this weblog […]
As many senior international dignitaries gather in Gdansk today to commemorate the start of WW2, Russian Prime Minister Putin (one of the guests) has written an open letter to Poland to give a clear and (as of now) definitive Russian view on the Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact. Here is the Russian official […]
Aaargh. Bosnia hits another political crisis or two or three: Meanwhile, Bosnia’s state government – the Council of Ministers – is facing a similar crisis after the strongest Bosniak party, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, announced it may boycott the government over the issue of top appointments to key state […]
Last year I reviewed Jonah Goldberg’s fine best-selling book Liberal Fascism. Here and here. Two of my better efforts (I’d say), so have a look if you have not rummaged that far back in the blog. Jonah has had his own blog talking about the book and its many ideas. But […]
Dan Hannan has some gracious things to say about Senator Kennedy’s commitment to parliamentary process. Funnily enough, the torrent of material appearing on the BBC and elsewhere seems to have little if anything to say about the time Kennedy secretly talked to the KGB to try to thwart the election of Ronald […]
