News and Views

(It's been a while since we've done one of these posts, and if you're new here and wondering what's the point, this post might explain. The short answer is that this is an exercise for my two high school students to help them created the news journals they are supposed to be adding to each week).

The six larges aid agencies in Darfur are very worried. They suggest a complete collapse of humanitarian aid in this country without drastic measures.

Was a member of the Taliban found with Anthrax? SeeDubya at Junkyard blog wants to know, and he wants to know why more journalists aren't covering the story, if only to debunk it.

Those Common Room Scholars who have been or will shortly be reading a biography of Samuel Johnson (and you know who you are), might enjoy this essay on the man over at Horsefeathers.

This story of CIA intrique, Russian novels, and the publication of the Nobel prize winning Dr. Zhivago is fascinating. Is the idea that the CIA paid to publish and promote the novel more outrageous than the fact that the KGB tried to suppress it and persecuted the author? Should the CIA be in the business of publishing Russian Literature? (Should the CIA be in business?)

The entire history of the 20th century attests to the fanaticism of modernity. And it's incontestable that the belief in progress has taken on the aspect of a faith, with its high priests from Saint Simon to August Comte, not forgetting Victor Hugo. The hideous secular religions of Nazism and communism, with their deadly rituals and mass massacres, were just as gruesome as the worst theocracies - of which they, at least as far as communism goes, considered themselves the radical negation. More people were killed in opposition to God in the 20th century than in the name of God.

From this article, largely addressing the bigotry of equivilancy, as seen by the West's disdainful, sneering treatment of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and insistance on that most racist of practices, Multiculturalism, because "it chains people to their roots," treating them as backward children, incapable of embracing Western values.


More politics of envy. It's a shame. Jealous comparisons just don't make for sound economic policy.

General Petraeus' nomination- Betsy says there's a bit of dissonance there.

The UN does it again. Businesses in business to make a profit are supposedly evil- corporations bad, bad, bad. The UN funnels millions of dollars (intended for the poor) directly past the poor and needy into a dictator's pocket without any oversight to speak of, but I'm reactionary for seeing a problem with continued UN support. Rrrright.

More on Jimmy Carter and his support for terrorists. Sorry, folks. It is what it is.

Interesting:

Muslims worldwide believe Islamic law is compatible with democracy and most admire values championed by the US but doubt Washington is serious about implementing them overseas, according to a poll.

Will we ever escape the sixties?

The internet and television

Oil, Ethanol, and energy sources

Thieves broke in to this man's home and stole computers, Christmas gifts, and personal items. On the computers were hundreds of family photographs. British police were uninterested in investigating this crime. The victim of the crime posted fliers offering a reward for the return of his goods, no questions asked. Guess who stands in greater danger of being arrested? The thieves or the robbed citizen?

On January 20th, London’s mayor Ken Livingstone hosted a debate in the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, across the street from Westminster Abbey, on “A World Civilisation or a Clash of Civilisations”. The jumping-off point of the debate was Samuel Huntington’s famous book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. The principal speaker besides “Red Ken” was Daniel Pipes, the noted author and a charter member of the Counterjihad.

The media is ignoring this event, but you can see it for yourself and form your own opinions, thanks to the magic of the internet (see that link a few spots up about t.v.) View a segment each day and discuss amongst yourselves.=)

The Declaration of Independence condensed to a space the size of a white blood cell.

Islam in Europe

If you're interested in the Scooter Libby trial (Plamegate), then Just One MInute and Talk Left are covering it.