Antiwar.com

It is sometimes all too easy to see why the British left are so adamantine in their assumption of moral superiority. Take for example the absence of right wing opposition to ‘Gypsy’ Jack Straw’s Immigration and Asylum Bill in the last parliament. This truly terrible bill had as one of its many odious ingredients the … Continue reading “Let Them In”

In my last column, I told some of the story of Cold War liberalism. Today, I want to look at a similar phenomenon, one which might be considered a forerunner of Cold War liberalism. That phenomenon is liberal imperialism. The fact that there is such an historical category already suggests that “liberalism” was, from a … Continue reading “John Stuart Mill and Liberal Imperialism”

The Israeli Taliban had its national convention the other day, and the nutballs won out: the Likud party went on record as declaring that it would never accept the legitimacy of a Palestinian state. In a stemwinder of a speech, ultra-rightist Benjamin Netanyahu gave voice to what has been, up to now, a largely unspoken … Continue reading “Israel’s Taliban”

Next to the ever-present irony and all-pervading lies, hypocrisy is a major fixture of the Balkans nowadays. Besides the usual discrepancy between words and deeds common to politics, there is also a frequent discrepancy between words themselves, a sure sign that those who speak them have as much commitment to principles as a windsock.Like Master, … Continue reading “Empire in the Balkans: Hypocrisy Rampant”

Israel’s internet amen corner is going ape-sh*t this morning [May 12], with James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal’s "Best of the Web" and his blogger-clone, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, both taking out after the Israeli "art students" story – and, of course, poor little me. Oh, what fun – it’s a hoot seeing these … Continue reading “Spinning a Spy Scandal”

  Behind Enemy Lines:Fact or Fiction? by Stella L. Jatras 5/14/02 Behind Enemy Lines is being released on VHS and DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment after an unsuccessful box office showing and less than favorable reviews.  The war film was released two months earlier than scheduled in theaters throughout the country in order … Continue reading “Behind Enemy Lines: Fact or Fiction?”

U.S. Wades Into More Imperial OutpostsWell, let’s see. The Brits have declared "Operation Snipe" (if nothing else you have to acknowledge a certain understated Brit sense of humor there), the latest two-week effort to round up al Qaida remnants, to be successfully completed. From the news reports there’s little evidence that the operation accomplished much … Continue reading “U.S. Wades Into More Imperial Outposts”

Although Warren Buffet gets first prize for the most irresponsible statement by a public figure in recent days – for saying that a future nuclear attack on the United States is “a virtual certainty” – Senator Bob Graham (D-Florida) comes in a close second. According to Graham, members of Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based “Party of God,” … Continue reading “The Fearmongers”

If justice were a more common habit, then Jack Straw would have been lynched on his recent visit to Gibraltar. The Foreign Secretary would have been left dangling from the end of one of the colony’s ornate lampposts, Barbary Apes gleefully swinging from his lifeless limbs, with some one iconic image winging its way round … Continue reading “Gibraltar: It’s Ours, and We’re Keeping It”

Happy Mother’s Day! Today Mom becomes "Queen for a Day," like the name of that old TV show. Newspaper and TV ad sales will soar and florists and department stores will be bless whoever dreamed up the holiday. To them, the Day means Sales! To the rest of us it stands for nothing more than … Continue reading “Happy Mother’s Day…But Quiet, We’re at War Now”