July-August 2022 Volume Volume LXVI, Number 7-8, No. 588
Freedom and the Great Man of Dubai
Percy Bysshe Shelley: a Maggot in the Brain
Ronald Searle in Heaven and Hell
Devoured by Weaklings: The Chosen Fate of the West
Christians and Jews: Between Story and History
The Truth and Post-Truth about Slavery
Contents
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'Not everyone who rides a horse is a jockey?' Is this the winning lines in a school poetry competition, or an excerpt from a worthy yet underwhelming canonical text? Neither of the above, for the would-be writer on the waters, the great visionary, is none other than Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum
February 22, 2024
12 mins
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The scandalous denizens of the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva in 1816 were some of the leading figures in all literary history. The demands they made on themselves and those around them were extreme, and none could have known how little time some had left
September 24, 2022
37 mins
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In 1950 it was a good time to visit Paris—no socialist mayor destroying the streets and monuments, no piles of garbage, no drugs and violence, no terrorism. The city comfortably worn by tradition and the everyday, as seen by the artist, leans on the fantastic—the dream of a man who lived nightmares as a prisoner of the Japanese
August 29, 2022
11 mins
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The West’s ruling ideology has been drawn up by self-appointed elites and imposed without debate or consent -- a judicial and political construct and a captious religion. Like Islam, when it first appeared in the seventh century, it deifies what was previously regarded as evil, and demonises what had been regarded regarded as good
August 23, 2022
23 mins
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Progressive Christians seek to construct a liberationist Jesus to solve whatever they think ails the body politic. They are enthusiastic about the Jewish Jesus only if his Jewishness suits their agenda. Admittedly, when Christians began exploring the Jewish Jesus, they did so clumsily. Yet admitting the clumsiness does not detract from the Jewishness as a historical fact
August 21, 2022
21 mins
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Leftists dwell on slavery in order to generate resentment and racial hatred, to belittle democratic institutions and to use such tactics as a springboard for attaining absolute political power. Like Derrida, in their futile effort to convince us, ironically, of their truth, the postmodern Left employ the very forms they deny have any validity
August 17, 2022
18 mins
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Sometimes behavioural challenges appear insurmountable and, given populist belief in the therapeutic benefits of cannabis, it is not surprising drug companies are rallying to the cause. But will it help children on the autism spectrum, a current focus of advocacy and research, and at what cost?
August 15, 2022
24 mins
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Something happened to newly installed Treasurer Jim Chalmers a few days after the May 21 election, when he suddenly discovered a previous government could indeed be blamed for conditions inherited by a new government. This perspective neatly inverted his initial eagerness to claim credit for the more cheerful aspects of Morrison & Co's economic management
August 13, 2022
8 mins
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The oppression of democracy and the legal persecution of its supporters is fostered by the conscious erosion of political responsibility, resulting recently in that ultimate farcical pantomime of the one-horse election for Chief Executive. These developments are relevant to the future standing of the courts, the last institution not yet entirely under Beijing's control
August 11, 2022
39 mins
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People grow accustomed to comfort very quickly and experience its loss as a real trauma. Thus, when Germans and other Europeans proclaimed after the invasion of Ukraine that they wouldn’t mind if Russia turned off the gas supply, I was immediately sceptical -- a thoroughly sound suspicion as subsequent events have demonstrated
August 7, 2022
8 mins
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Douglas Murray’s 'The War on the West' is simultaneously droll and distressing, a fine overview of the destructive Left and its determination not to rest until we all submit to its ever-expanding totalitarian ambitions. The duty of all sensible people is to resist.
August 2, 2022
25 mins
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Modern Western legislatures are in no way the lineal descendants of the ancient Greek citizens’ assemblies, and neither is present-day Indian democracy the lineal descendant of the ancient Indian ganarajya. But unlike their Western counterparts, present-day Indians live in the same places as their ancient ancestors, worship the same gods, and tell the same stories
July 30, 2022
8 mins
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Conservatives can no longer be taken seriously as liberal-conservative fusionists, because our historical moment demands something more robust than the mere defence of individual rights and free markets. Token appearances from Russell Kirk and Roger Scruton in the footnotes will not save us from the liberal vacuum that right-wing Millian thought has created
July 28, 2022
21 mins
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'The ruins of a dead consensus' is how the New Catallaxy blog recently described the Right’s current predicament, where now hatreds reign in place of the former marital bliss. There are a number of strands to the new resistance to the former liberal-conservative alliance to be unpacked, not least the need to to re-imagine the conservative project itself
July 26, 2022
23 mins
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The intriguing tale of Anne Neill’s long-term exploits as a deeply embedded ASIO informant inside the Communist Party is one of the more fascinating case studies in Phillip Deery's new book, 'Spies and Sparrows: ASIO and the Cold War'. At the other extreme there is Max Wechsler, who found the undercover life too burdensome to endure
July 18, 2022
16 mins
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'1883' and 'The Power of the Dog' are chalk and cheese in framing the American West. The former, a prequel to the 'Yellowstone' series, takes its liberties but is overall an often moving repackaging of the frontier legend. Jane Campion's effort, on the other had, takes a powerful novel and laces it with her personal input, a curious homoerotic fascination not least of all
July 16, 2022
27 mins
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The frequent claim that Aboriginal culture is the oldest continuous culture on Earth is a curious one. First, it is factually incorrect, as that distinction belongs to the San people of South Africa. Second, how did this strange alliance of white political progressivism and indigenous cultural conservatism come to exist and why does it survive?
July 15, 2022
18 mins
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The focus on the alleged merits of pre-contact Aboriginal society is almost always accompanied by the denigration of settlers as genocidal butchers. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this viewpoint is not so much designed to highlight the plight of the Aborigines as to undermine support for Australian democracy and the successful society which has developed since 1788
July 13, 2022
9 mins
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'Dave came in trailing clouds of feathers. He had been watching the turbines and was covered as usual with the remains of birds unfortunate enough to have flown into the vast blades. Mr Bandt, glad-handing representative of the Beautiful Wind Clean Energy Company, clutched his briefcase to his chest and backed away as Dad reached for his shotgun'
July 9, 2022
11 mins
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I concluded a book in 1996 by pondering what might be needed to respond to the threat of climate change, which I accepted as a given. Then, over time, I began to note climate science's reliance on fallacious arguments and its advocates' wild-eyed schemes. Now, to crown this litany of folly, we are urged to help the planet reach carbon neutrality. Well it can't be done, it's as simple as that
July 3, 2022
19 mins
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Nothing, Yet! A short non-verbal smile flickered momentarily as his […]
June 30, 2022
2 mins
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Cut to the Horse Pain under the ribs? Mr Hypochondriac, […]
June 30, 2022
2 mins
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On a starry night Massed yet dispersed across the sky […]
June 30, 2022
1 mins
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The Class of ’65 I never dared be radical when […]
June 30, 2022
2 mins
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The ghost of Dante visits the Crown Casino Nearly all […]
June 30, 2022
2 mins
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The Magnolia Tree They felled the beautiful magnolia tree […]
June 30, 2022
1 mins
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My Friend Is Swiping & Scrolling My friend in the […]
June 30, 2022
3 mins
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A Reckoning It’s a day like any other: yesterday, its […]
June 30, 2022
1 mins
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The Native American Quilt Native American in browns and reds […]
June 30, 2022
2 mins
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Mappiness Just like being there, only flatter. An unfolded […]
June 30, 2022
1 mins
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The Public Pathways Flying Squad Reports Investigations are continuing into […]
June 30, 2022
3 mins
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A Hushed Corporate Exchange She: There’s something wrong: we’ve been […]
June 30, 2022
2 mins
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King Parrots enthroned in high boughs although arrayed in […]
June 30, 2022
4 mins
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Les arrivistes Do magpies still recall the Pliocene? If […]
June 30, 2022
3 mins
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The new syllabus introduced changes in assessment for his subject […]
June 30, 2022
8 mins
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Has anybody in Australia even heard of William Henry Donald—W.H. […]
June 29, 2022
27 mins
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The year 1933 marks the beginning of a new diplomatic […]
June 29, 2022
15 mins
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On the night of Sunday, May 31, 1942, Sydney Harbour […]
June 29, 2022
11 mins
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ANGLOPHOBIA: The Unrecognised Hatred Richard Harrison and Frank Salter Part […]
June 29, 2022
60 mins
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In his first statement on assuming office, our new Prime […]
June 29, 2022
8 mins
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Sir: I enjoyed Barry Spurr’s argument in “The Vicious Circle […]
June 29, 2022
3 mins