Category Archives: War

On marching, or at least standing around, against Trump

We cycled down from Kings Cross to Cambridge Circus around five, and reached Trafalgar Square about five thirty. The square was still full but there were open spaces on Whitehall and all the way down to parliament square, which was … Continue reading

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Scientism and fundamentalism (in honour of Jerry Coyne)

Below the fold is a piece I wrote for Zia Sardar’s magazine Critical Muslim. It’s rather long, partly because it contains an insertion on Sam Harris and torture. Although younger readers will not remember the new atheists this is a … Continue reading

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Yes we fucking could!

I suppose I would have been less shocked and disappointed if Obama had lost than when Kerry did because I could not, still cannot, imagine how anyone could have regarded Bush as even minimally competent by November 2004. But still … Continue reading

Posted in USA, War | 5 Comments

Why should anyone else feel good?

Something about the events of the last week have convinced me that Obama will lose horribly this autumn, and that the Clintonites were right in their assumption that America will not elect a black, metropolitan liberal president. I can’t quite … Continue reading

Posted in USA, War | 7 Comments

The Saunders defence bites back

Do we really want a certified nutter running Pakistan? It would appear from today’s FT that the US and Britain are perfectly happy with the prospect. When Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto’s widow, was trying to fight off corruption charges … Continue reading

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Who we, white man? (part xxxvi)

Larry Moran quotes an interview with Dan Dennett: “The very fact that we agree that there are moral limits that trump any claim of religious freedom—we wouldn’t accept a religion that engaged in human sacrifice or slavery, for instance—shows that … Continue reading

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Incidentally

The current issue of the New Yorker is a real winner. There are some classic cartoons, an unspeakably grim story by Annie Proulx about lives of two poor soldiers from Wyoming, and a series of small, thoughtful and illuminating stories … Continue reading

Posted in Journalism, War | 1 Comment

A Pelican History

England in the Eighteenth Century is a lovely, succinct and succulent volume from the Pelican History of England, written in 1950, at a time of fierce self-improvement. To quote the contemporary review in the Listener: As a portent in the … Continue reading

Posted in British politics, Literature, Science without worms, War | 1 Comment

The things that Telegraph readers say

Perhaps by coincidence, Damian Thompson was very quiet for a couple of months after I wrote about him reproducing a neo-nazi propaganda story on his Daily Telegraph blog, though he did ring up to say he would never speak to … Continue reading

Posted in British politics, Journalism, War | 6 Comments

The Telegraph brings news

I hope it’s not going to be another summer when the Daily Telegraph is the paper that knows what’s going on. I don’t mean that its reports are true, but that they are uniquely informative because they tell us what … Continue reading

Posted in War | 2 Comments