Conniptions

Kevin 07’s big call

Tue, 21 May 2013 04:48:44 GMT

Hi there, This will be of more interest to Australian readers, but here goes. In a blaze of carefully-planned publicity, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has just endorsed same-sex marriage. Kevin 07 (so called ever since his election triumph in 2007) describes himself as “a bit of a god-botherer (aka Christian)” and argues that the government should not impose Christian views on a godless electorate. This is a brainless argument for a dunderheaded policy. Let’s take an exhortation from the Book of Deuteronomy: "For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in the land.'" Aha! God-botherers support disability benefits. Abolish them now! Or the Gospel of Matthew: "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for… I was a stranger, and you took me in.” Aha! God-botherers support open door migration. Turn back the boats! Christian teaching and secular legislation are not mutually exclusive. Christians oppose redefining marriage because it is an important social justice issue, but so do atheists. They oppose it because it does a colossal injustice to vulnerable children. We should all oppose it because it makes it legal to deprive kids of the right to know their natural mother and father and to be raised by them. How did Kevin 07 evolve from resolute opposition to warm support? He felt alone. His children regarded him as “an unreconstructed dinosaur”. His wife described him as “antediluvian”. He didn’t want to offend a hard-working affable gay staffer who was a good friend. It sounds very much like the situation another lonely former PM found himself in, Thomas More. He was asked to queue up with England’s great and good in acquiescing to Henry VIII’s divorce. His response, as dramatised in the play A Man for All Seasons, seems particularly relevant to Kevin 07. More’s friend Norfolk says, “But damn it, Thomas, look at those names... You know those men! Can't you do what I did, and come with us for friendship?” To which More responds: “And when we stand before God, and you are sent to Paradise for doing according to your conscience, and I am damned for not doing according to mine, will you come with me, for friendship?” As one of this week’s articles shows, you don’t need to be a Christian to oppose redefining marriage. Brendan O’Neill, who writes from London, is a libertarian Marxist. He recently gave a powerful speech condemning it at the House of Lords. If only Kevin 07 had read it. In other developments, Ronan Wright reviews Star Trek: Into Darkness, a sci fi film which plays on contemporary fears about terrorism. Allen Frances, a leading American psychiatrist, complains that the latest edition of DSM-5, a handbook for psychiatrists, will end up making us all mad. And I have written an article asking whether Angelina Jolie made the right call in having a double mastectomy even though she had no symptoms of breast cancer. Cheers, Read more...

Dumb question, I know, but why was I there?

Sat, 18 May 2013 04:24:11 GMT

Hi there, The other day I spoke to the World Congress of Families in Sydney about on-line journalism with a print journalist, Miranda Devine, a columnist at the Daily Telegraph, and Karl Faase, a radio presenter. Not sure why they called upon journalists to enlighten so many very decent and respectable people. My favourite quote about what makes a good journalist comes from Fleet Street veteran Nicholas Tomalin: rat-like cunning, a plausible manner, a little literary ability, a willingness to betray, if not friends, at least acquaintances, and a passionate attachment to second-rate causes (not his exact words, but close enough). These are not qualities which characterise decent and respectable people. Thankfully, I was not required to speak at great length, because that would have exposed another of Tomalin’s prerequisites, “an implacable hatred of spokesmen, administrators, lawyers, public-relations men, and all those who would rather purvey words than policies”. However, this emotion does inspire our selection of articles this week. Anne Flack reports from Austria on a European Union survey which claims that LGBT people suffer from high levels of vilification and violence. She points out that the survey is poorly designed and almost meaningless. From Belgium, Steven Bieseman and Tom Mortier argue that legalised euthanasia is turning the ideology of absolute self-determination into a religion. We’ve all heard that our rapidly ageing work forces will easily cope by getting older people to work longer. Wishful thinking, writes Denyse O’Leary from Canada. And Peter Jon Mitchell reviews a new book on theories of parenting. He complains that many researchers are ignoring the data on what makes a good family. Back to the World Congress. US sociologist Brad Wilcox told the crowd that "in the vast majority of the developed world, children are more likely to thrive academically when they have two parents in the home”. This seems like a no-brainer, but the push for gay marriage means that adults’ rights are trumping children’s needs. Why family-friendly policies are being ditched in so many countries so quickly puzzles me, to be honest. Perhaps I need to rev up another of Tomalin’s KPIs, “a paranoid temperament”. Cheers, Read more...

Gosnell guilty

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:59:29 GMT

Hi there, Abortionist Kermit Gosnell was found guilty yesterday of the first-degree murder of three babies in his clinic in a poor Philadelphia neighbourhood. In fact, his crimes are so sickening that even the abortion lobby has disowned and denounced him. But the lurid details are a distraction from the guilt of Gosnell’s enablers. The atrocities at the Women’s Medical Society happened because politicians and bureaucrats shirked their statutory obligations. According to a Grand Jury Report, after the 1994 election of pro-choice Governor Tom Ridge (a Catholic, Republican, and Harvard grad), “the Pennsylvania Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics”. The bureaucrats did not want to enforce the laws because disagreeable discoveries might have brought abortion into disrepute. “We discovered,” said the Grand Jury, “that Pennsylvania’s Department of Health has deliberately chosen not to enforce laws.” Kermit Gosnell deserves to spend the rest of his life in jail. But what about his enablers? In shielding abortionists from the law, these people have exposed the notion of “safe, rare and legal” abortion as a farce. The rule of law has been corrupted for the sake of the ideology of pro-choice. In a final irony, America’s leading centre for bioethics, headed up by Ezekiel Emanuel, formerly President Obama’s health-care policy advisor, is a 20-minute drive away from Gosnell’s abortion clinic. Has the scandal on its doorstep rattled the academics there? Apparently not. “Kermit Gosnell” is not mentioned on its website or its Twitter feed; the latest post is an article on the ethics of hiring people who smoke. That’s what ideologues do: they yawn at tragedies that stop the hearts of decent people. Sheila Liaugminas covers the Gosnell verdict in her post this week. You might also be interested in a documentary on the case, 3801 Lancaster. It’s quite powerful. In other articles this week, Robert Oscar Lopez, a gay writer, makes a strong case against same-sex marriage and Robert Reilly expresses his dismay that the US State Department is exporting “gay rights” to countries with very different cultures. The death toll in the Bangladesh building collapse has risen to 1,127. Karl D. Stephan reflects on the need for more ethics in building regulation and a Bangladeshi journalist, William Gomes, points the finger at corrupt politicians and businessmen. Cheers, Read more...

does it matter if the most influential economist of the 20th century was gay?

Fri, 10 May 2013 07:22:42 GMT

Hi there, It was sad to read that Massachusetts communities were reluctant to inter the remains of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Apparently police had to search for a week to find a burial plot. Finally, they announced on Thursday, 19 days after his death, that a “courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide assistance to properly bury the deceased”. Three cheers for the funeral director who kept the body. “This is what we do,” the director of Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester told the Boston Globe. “I’m burying somebody who is dead. Everybody who is dead has the right to be buried.” Perhaps the managers of cemeteries felt the same way, but they were frightened by the protesters who stood outside the funeral home with placards like “Do not bury him on US soil” and “Bury the terrorist on US soil and we will unbury him”. The anger of people who may have been linked to victims of the bombing is understandable, but wrong. In the long run, forgiveness is more powerful than hatred, tolerance than exclusion. It is reassuring to see that someone was generous enough to offer this man a final resting place. As the week draws to a close, we have posted several stories. George Friedman looks back nostalgically to the certainties and united front of the Cold War era. Jill Tiefenthaler, president of Colorado College, explains why a liberal arts education is more necessary than ever. In a very moving story, Anne Ponton remembers the birth of her premature twins – a stark contrast to the appalling crimes allegedly committed by abortionist Kermit Gosnell. Finally we have posted two articles about a minor, but still significant, dispute over the legacy of economist John Maynard Keynes. The issue is the absurd indignation over some tactless remarks made by a Harvard professor on his homosexuality. An expert on Keynes, Ricardo Crespo, says that it is essentially irrelevant. Taking a different tack, I contend that the media firestorm is a worrying sign of intolerance. Enjoy! Read more...

Terrorism triangle in Boston

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:42:18 GMT

Hi there, The popularity of restaurants always puzzles me. In Melbourne I lived opposite a hole-in-the-wall pizza joint. Its owner-cook was a huge, stout, unshaven fellow who looked at empty tables night after night for 18 months, as miserable as Manet’s barmaid in his famous painting “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère”. One day the pizza joint closed and a couple of weekends later another restaurant opened which was full every lunch, every dinner, every evening until late into the night. It didn’t even appear to have a name, but it had patrons. So I was a bit curious about the fate of Pappa Rich, a Malaysian joint in the ground floor of an office building two or three doors up the road from MercatorNet’s suite. In its favour: police protection, as the local station is about 10 steps away, and medical attention from a clutch of specialists upstairs. Against it: no passing traffic, apart from burly cops cradling trays of take-away coffees from the café on the corner where all the passing traffic is. A big waste of money, I thought. Well, as usual, I was wrong. Pappa Rich is a Malaysian multinational brand and it had done its research. On opening day and every day since, weekdays and weekends, day and night, the restaurant was full and queues of 20 or 30 were waiting patiently for their fresh Roti Canai, Curry Laksa, Nasi Goreng, Fried Kuey Teow, and Tau Foo Fa King. A Malaysian friend of mind says that it’s just like Mom used to make for home-sick Malaysians. Malaysian Chinese, that is. Most of the Malaysians in Sydney are not Bumiputra, sons of the soil, but Chinese. That’s largely because since 1971 the Malaysian government has pursued a policy of positive discrimination in favour of the native Malays who make up about 70 percent of the population. Most of the university places are reserved for Malays and 95 percent of the government jobs are taken by Malays. Chinese with ambition pull up stumps and go overseas. And stay there. It is a tragedy for a bustling, resource-rich country of 30 million. On the weekend Malaysians went to the polls. The opposition, led by former deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, was not without its own problems, but it had promised to end the obsolete policy of affirmative action. But once again the government won, albeit with a decreased majority. Binoy Kampmark explains how in his article this week. Even if you don’t live in the region, it’s worthwhile taking an interest in the Malaysian experiment with affirmative action. Not only has the country lost some of its best and brightest, but the beneficiaries lose ambition and industriousness. It’s a lesson for the US as well as the Supreme Court studies whether states can ban affirmative action in university admissions. For readers Down Under, here’s a commercial for the World Congress of Families in Sydney, from Thursday, May 16, to Saturday, May 18. There is a very impressive line-up of speakers from all over the world, some of them MercatorNet contributors. (I am speaking on “Promoting the family in on-line media”.) Substantial student scholarships and family rebates are available to help people with tight budgets. Just ring Terri Kelleher on 03-9816-0800. There are only a few days to do, so sign up now! In other articles this week, I have written about a Belgian Nobel Prize winner who was euthanased on Saturday. Jennifer S. Bryson argues that terrorism is a complex phenomenon, and Shimon Glick, an Israeli medical ethicist, discusses the slippery slope. Cheers, Read more...

An unscheduled appearance

Fri, 03 May 2013 15:23:27 GMT

Hi there, I am making an unscheduled appearance for the weekend newsletter. Carolyn Moynihan, who normally composes it, recently had a nasty fall after a near miss by a careless driver. She will be convalescing with some minor injuries for a while. So this week’s message is shorter than usual, I’m afraid. Among the articles on the home page, geopolitical analyst George Friedman argues that the US and its European allies do not have the resources to stop the bloody civil war in Syria, however appalling it may be. Ashley Crouch writes from Manhattan about the fantasy world of fashion magazines. And we have two features based in the Netherlands. Queen Beatrix has abdicated after 33 years in favour of her son Willem-Alexander. This ends more than 100 years of women on the Dutch throne, writes Susie Protschky. And on a less festive note, I have reviewed an audacious fraud by Dutch social psychologist Diederik Stapel, in which I detect lessons for the same-sex marriage debate. There’s lots to read in the blog posts as well. Since we placed a selection of them on the main feed, they have been far more popular. Cheers. Read more...

Why is Obama so cozy with Planned Parenthood?

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:14:44 GMT

Hi there, The collapse last week of a garment factory in Bangladesh, with the loss of at least 360 lives, almost makes the Boston bombing look like one of those absurd Middle Class Problems you can read about on Twitter. The workers were making clothing for Western brands for as little as $40 a month. Huge cracks appeared in the building on the day before the disaster. Since several factories had collapsed with the loss of scores of lives in the last few years, employees were probably nervous. But the building’s owner, who was also a local politician, assured them that it was safe. Afterwards he disappeared although he was caught as he tried to cross the border into India. Disasters like this happened in the United States, too, in the early days of the industrial revolution. In 1860 something similar happened in Lawrence, Massachusetts. A mill buckled under the weight of the sewing machinery, killing about 150 workers. Nothing happened to the owners. In 1911, a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York and 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women, died. The circumstances were very much like a fire which killed 112 in Dhaka last November. The New York owners were prosecuted but acquitted. In fact, they actually profited from the disaster because the insurance payout exceeded the cost of the losses. Incompetence, skulduggery and knavery are constants in human nature. Surely the Western brands whose products were being cut and sewn in these grimy factories in Dhaka must have known that costs were low because safety standards were low. I’d endorse comments by Human Rights Watch on this tragedy: “It is time for companies to say that they will take no clothes from companies that do not meet minimum standards. Ignorance and cost can no longer be an excuse for some of the biggest companies in the world." There is reading aplenty in this issue of the newsletter. Raffaele Chiarulli says that Iron Man 3 is a delightful combination of humour, whizz-bang special effects and intellectual depth. Andrew E. Harrod reports from Germany about a gay politician with a unique family: two fathers, two mothers and one child. Luke Kemp and Deputy Editor Carolyn Moynihan disagree on opportunities for Gen Y as the baby boomers start turning up their toes. Karl D. Stephan explains why the explosion in the town of West, Texas, was so destructive. Finally, we have two articles on abortion. I have written one about a new abortion bill in Tasmania, which could be the world’s worst, if it becomes law. And Robert Reilly says that he cannot share President Obama’s cheery words for Planned Parenthood. Lots to read. You’d better get to work straight away! Oh, and before I forget, we are reaching the end of our appeal for funds. We desperately want to keep MercatorNet going -- please consider a donation. Cheers, Read more...

After Anzac Day

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:22:57 GMT

Hi there, Down Under yesterday we commemorated Anzac Day (see Marcus Roberts' fine post on Demography), and having a holiday on Thursday is not conducive to getting everything done by Friday afternoon. Perhaps that is why I am even later than usual with this newsletter; that’s the only excuse I can think of. Last week our parliament voted to “Mondayise” this holiday -- and Waitangi Day (our “founding” day) -- when they fall during a weekend so that workers get their full quota of public holidays. For various reasons -- some noble, some merely commercial -- it was a closely won vote, unlike the same sex marriage law which sailed through on the same day with an almost two-thirds majority. Ironically, one of the three grey-haired National (conservative) MP’s who distinguished themselves by their impassioned and witty speeches for gay marriage on the basis, putting it briefly, that tradition is bunk, was heard passionately arguing in the House a few weeks ago against Mondayising Anzac Day on the basis that this tradition is very important to New Zealanders. Shifting the emphasis to the holiday aspect would not, he averred, “do anything to grow the weight of history that makes these days worthy of being so important that they require people to stop their routines to reflect, which is, after all, the reason we have public holidays, so that we can remember, pay tribute, and teach the next generation why we as a nation are where we are, and what was sacrificed to get us here.” Indeed. Traditions are great, apparently, when they suit your party line but not when you have a personal reputation for liberal thinking to make. Speaking of the next generation, my sister travelled home from a visit to our brother in Napier yesterday and for part of the trip had a boy of about 13 next to her. He was a pleasant lad, a military cadet, who was happy to have taken part in the Dawn Parade and a later turnout. The sad bit was that his mother saw him onto the bus at Napier and his father was to meet him at the other end; they are divorced and each has a new partner. The boy revealed all this matter-of-factly, but how pitiful it is that the young are learning to respect the sacrifices of past generations while missing out on the best things that they fought for -- values that have received another heavy blow with the redefinition of marriage. There’s good news, however, in my piece about a lesbian academic who changed her mind about sex and other things when she struck up a friendship with a good Christian pastor. In other articles Susan Hansson clarifies the debate about religious liberty; Brendan Malone suggests there is a good take-home message in zombie movies; and, to be really controversial, Christie Thompson highlights some points from a bipartisan report refuting official claims about the use of torture on detainees. Finally, on the Reading Matters blog Clare Cannon highly recommends a recent fantasy series for younger readers -- watch her video. How I wish I had time to read some of these stories, which often sound superior to adult novels! Cheers, Read more...

Is breaking news broken after Boston?

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:45:41 GMT

Hi there, Quite some time ago, I worked as a beginning journalist in the business section of a Sydney newspaper. One of the senior fellows there was a Afrikaner from Johannesburg. But he was no fan of the apartheid regime then in power. He told me that when he was a junior reporter there, he was told to attend the morning police press conference. He returned bursting with excitement. “What’s up?” the editor said. “Amazing. There were six murders all in one night. This must be front page stuff,” my friend said. “Blacks, were they?” said the editor. “Forget it.” I was a bit shaken by this story – as was he, which explained why he migrated to Australia. But the problem of what makes news is still with us, even if the desperately unjust situation in South Africa belongs to the past. What makes bombing deaths in Boston worthy of more space in newspapers than bombing deaths in Baghdad? It’s actually a question which I have tackled in the lead story. Carolyn Moynihan has done a round-up of expert opinion on lessons from the Boston Marathon bombings. One interesting angle from an authority on the media is that breaking news is broken. The idea that tweets and social media will deliver quick, accurate information is quite wrong – as several ghastly blunders by major news organisations proved. In other articles this week, Ronan Wright reviews a stunning Danish film, A Hijacking, a drama about negotiations between a shipping company and Somali pirates. Olivia Carter discusses the first study which shows (scientifically) that a five-month-old child is conscious. And Bernadette Tobin analyses the issues at stake in patenting genes. This is an important issue with big consequences for health, business and human dignity which is now before the US Supreme Court. If you are a Sydney resident and you would like to help us create a better MercatorNet, come to our focus group on May 4 in the CBD. Contact our Business Manager, Tim Lee for details (tim.lee@mercatornet.com). Read more...

The Christians of Byzantium

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:10:18 GMT

I think my only encounter with Byzantium, growing up, was learning some stanzas of G K Chesterton’s epic poem about the Battle of Lepanto (1571). We actually recited them aloud, as we did many poems in those days, and consequently I have never forgotten the opening lines: “White founts falling in the courts of the sun, / And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run…” No-one, as I recall, explained the intriguing image or much else about the poem other than the fact that it was about a Catholic victory over the Moslems. Still, its unforgettable rhythm, images and sounds are occasionally evoked by some event. It came to me today as I read the article written for us by Lars Brownworth, author of a book called The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilisation. He reminds us that there is a Christian “Byzantium” which has survived ancient schisms and Muslim domination, only to be driven out by the current upheavals in the Middle East. Thanks to ancient prejudices, however, the Western world apparently couldn’t care less that Christian communities dating back to the time of the Apostles are disappearing. This is a real tragedy and injustice; I wonder what GKC would have to say about it. History rises up to rebuke us again this week in our excerpts from Martin Luther King Jr’s powerful Letter from a Birmingham Jail. It is 50 years this week since he wrote his defence of civil disobedience against unjust laws and, while racial segregation has ended, many people do not understand the natural law argument on which he based his defence. Indeed, a lot of intellectuals and political activists reject natural law completely – and so they are completely wrong when they claim the “civil rights” mantle for the campaign for gay marriage. And that’s all I have to say here about the stupidity and injustice New Zealand politicians inflicted on the country this week. In other articles Patrick Stokes suggests a principle that should govern protests against the dead; Pat Fagan of the Heritage Foundation rolls out some of the data confirming the essential connection between the intact family and national prosperity; and Tim Lee backgrounds the imminent Malaysian elections. There has been a lot of activity on the blogs. Blaise Joseph’s post on Conjugality about the florist being sued by Washington state for refusing to decorate a same-sex wedding venue has 350 comments. A recent post on Family Edge, The truth about big families, has 155 FB likes. And Tamara Rajakariar’s ticking off of Gangnam personality Psy for sexism has landed her in hot water with fans. I must say our young blog editors, and they include the Demography duo, Marcus and Shannon Roberts, are proving worth their weight in gold. (Not to undervalue anyone else, of course.) Speaking of gold… You might have noticed we are running an appeal for funds right now. We need your support to continue our work -- we need to raise $30,000 this month to cover our costs until the end of the year. To help us battle on, please give whatever sum you can afford. Cheers, Read more...

The Boston Massacre

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:09:03 GMT

Hi there, It’s hard to know what to say about the bombing at the Boston Marathon. So far three people have died and there are horrific injuries. Perhaps the best thing is to say nothing and pray for the killed and the wounded and their families. Trying to fit this tragedy into a prefabricated framework may feed the ego, but it makes you look like a jerk. Exhibit A is Dan Bidondi, a writer for a conspiracy website who was the first to ask Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick a question at his press conference. "Is this another false flag attack staged to take our civil liberties?" To which the governor politely replied, No, and asked for the next question. But it gave Mr Bidondi a crack at appearing on TV and an excuse to tweet his notoriety. It’s always best to wait for the facts. Whoever the bomber is, killing and maiming probably came second in his mind to spreading fear and hatred. Feverish speculation is a good way to lend him a hand. So far this week we have posted three articles. Ronan Wright reviews a film from Argentina about priests working in a ghastly slum. It may be helpful in understanding the new Pope’s background. I have written an obituary of Robert Edwards, the investor of IVF. He died two days after Margaret Thatcher and he may have changed the world more than she did. And Carolyn Moynihan has given the New York Times a big F for its coverage of the abortion scandal in Philadelphia. Finally Robert Reilly reflects upon the philosophical background to the push for same-sex marriage. It's a long article, but well worth reading. You might have realised that we are in the middle of a fund-raising campaign. MercatorNet is free: help us keep it that way! Cheers, Read more...

Big families are the future

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:49:40 GMT

Hi there, Carolyn Moynihan, who is taking a break this weekend, has interviewed a Harvard economist about the demographic freefall in Europe. It’s quite a fine piece and I recommend it. As a bonus it contains his fine characterisation of his colleagues: people who with a head for crunching numbers but who lack the personality to be actuaries. I tried my hand at crunching numbers a while ago when I was writing an article about big families. It turned out, I seem to recall, that only about 25% of women of childbearing age had 3 or more children but they contributed more than half of the children. The future, in other words, belongs to children from big families. Demographers ought to pay more attention to this segment of the population. They will change the world… As long as we are on this topic, Clare Horsfell, a new mum, has written a charming piece for Family Edge – the ten best things about life in a big family. It went viral on Facebook and has become one of the year’s most popular articles. Check it out here. Thanks, Clare. Some of our other articles this week deal with the demography theme. I have reported about the “little emperor syndrome” in China. Researchers say not only that these children really are spoilt but that their self-centredness could eventually be a problem for the country’s economic development. Philippa Taylor reports from the UK about a development which opens the door to genetic engineering of children. Darren Curnoe, an evolutionary biologist, asks why science journals devote so much space to discoveries of fossils of the ancestors of homo sapiens when there are so many other important issues to discuss. Finally, from London, Brendan O’Neill analyses why so many people are jumping on the same-sex marriage bandwagon. Cheers, Read more...

Maggie and Annette

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 05:34:58 GMT

Hi there, The world is paying tribute today to Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister of Britain, who died yesterday. The Economist described her as a “blue-rinse Boadicea” (the British queen who rebelled against the Romans), a witticism which gives an insight into how much she was hated and admired. In some parts of the country she is still loathed as the tyrant who made a wasteland and called it peace. One miner told The Guardian that her legacy was “catastrophic” and “horrendous”. But Winston Churchill was reviled, too, and he is acclaimed nowadays as the greatest of Britain’s prime ministers, just as Mrs Thatcher is being described as its greatest peacetime PM. She led her country out of decades of listless gloom and helped to restore it to its position as an economic, cultural and political powerhouse. In this issue, Peter Smith, Joanna Bogle and Lord David Alton weigh up her career and declare that the balance is positive. "I am not a consensus politician. I am a conviction politician," said Mrs Thatcher when she became leader of her party in 1975. Any public figure who dares to have convictions will have enemies. I wish there were more of them. #margaretthatcher may have been the trending hashtag in London today, but not in Los Angeles, which is mourning #annettefunicello, who also died yesterday. No, I was neither a Mouseketeer nor a fan of Beach Blanket Bingo. But she always projected an appealing image. In reading her obituaries, I discovered that, unlike most other child stars, she didn’t flare and burn out. After navigating a few of life’s speed humps, she raised a family and lived out of the limelight. It was her later years for which she ought to be remembered. Since about 1987 she battled with muscular sclerosis, which eventually left her unable to walk or talk. But she accepted her decline with a deep faith, good grace and patience. There are many roads to greatness. Maggie Thatcher took one; Annette Funicello took another. Let’s not stop here: there’s more to read in this issue. Margaret Somerville asks why Canada’s prime minister refuses to debate sex-selective abortion and Jennifer Bryson argues that the West is losing opportunities to help the Arab world become more democratic. Cheers, Read more...

How to earn a free lunch

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:04:06 GMT

Hi there, They say there is no such things as a free lunch, but that’s not quite true. I have had several free lunches at a local eatery and it’s all thanks to our local (free) suburban newspaper. Every week The Western Leader runs a crossword competition and correct entries go into a draw for lunch for two at The Falls, an historic house in West Auckland turned into a restaurant. My sister and a couple of friends religiously do the crosswords and post them off by Tuesday, winning over the last few years at least half a dozen lunches. Yet although the meals are free they are not completely unearned, since they involve research in some rather arcane fields of knowledge: television programmes of the 1980s, Rugby heroes of the early 20th century, colloquial names for New Zealand towns, obscure NZ rivers, winners of the Melbourne Cup (horses), celebrities unknown to people (us) who never watch local soaps, and so on. This is where I come in, being the one detailed to find this information on the internet. And I must say that it is remarkably easy, thanks to Google. The search engine has never failed yet to fill in the blanks in the crossword. Thanks, Sergey Brin and everybody. Isn’t the internet a wonderful thing? Of course, the net has its downside, as we all know. This week the NZ government introduced legislation to crack down on cyber-bullies and create a new agency to hear bullying complaints. That should help solve unemployment… Seriously though, kids have killed themselves after being persecuted online. But what is the answer? Izzy Kalman, a regular contributor and expert on bullying has some very practical advice for parents in one of our new articles – tips that don’t involve new government expenditure. In other articles: Tracy Mehan points out that the idea that nature is unchanging and that man is a destructive intruder is now questioned by many ecologists. Paul Russell in Australia and Peter Ryan in Canada tackle aspects of euthanasia; and George Friedman explains why the United States will continue to grow in power on the world scene. Our featured blog posts include fresh angles on Danish demography, African exceptionalism, polling in the US on same-sex marriage, and what Black pastors there are saying about that issue. Cheers, Read more...

In the mix

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:12:25 GMT

Hi there, You might notice something new about MercatorNet’s home page. Selected posts from our blogs are appearing, together with the articles. We’ve felt for a long time that we need to showcase the blogs. We are quite proud of them but because of the way they are displayed, some readers don’t even know that they exist. It can be a bit discouraging for their hard-working editors. So, as an experiment, some of the posts from Sheila Reports, Conjugality, Demography is Destiny, Family Edge, Reading Matters and Harambee will be displayed on the home page. I hope that they spark your interest in becoming regular readers. Later in the year, we hope to roll out a completely new design for the website. Our aim is to display the rich content better and to make MercatorNet easier to share through social networks. We are in the business of promoting sound ideas about human dignity and we want the message to spread far and wide. It has been a whole week since the last newsletter so the list of articles is long. With the gut-wrenching topic of child abuse in the news so often, this week we cover two scandals so big that films have been made about them. It turns out that both have major flaws in their arguments. Read Ronan Wright on the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, and Sean Murphy on how the Catholic Church handled an abuse case in Wisconsin. Francis Phillips reviews a history of forgotten Russian aristocrats. John Tirman decries a lack of sympathy for ordinary Iraqis and Afghans caught up in a ghastly war. Philip Sutton argues that the US Boy Scouts would be unwise to allow gay leaders in their ranks. Tristan McLindon says that getting married at 21 isn’t such a bad idea – he should know, as he just became engaged after a whirlwind courtship. And, for Easter, Peter Smith did a profit and loss statement on the creed which underpins Western culture. Send us your comments on the new layout. Cheers, Read more...

On British accents in Hollywood

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:01:35 GMT

Working on the internet is not conducive to structured, sequential thought, not that I have ever counted that among my talents. For instance, instead of fretting about Things That Matter, I have been brooding lately over something that has gnawed away at me for years. Why, when Hollywood is casting a truly sinister villain, do they recruit someone with a British accent? This conundrum first reared its ugly head as I was watching that Bollywood classic, Lagaan. Words fail me in describing its splendid characters. But the one I enjoyed most was the tyrant Captain Andrew Russell, who actually twirled his ruddy handlebar moustache. Bad to the bone was that boy. However, Bollywood had borrowed from Hollywood. Who is the most terrifying villain of all time? Surely it is Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter, in The Silence of the Lambs, played by Sir Anthony Hopkins. Actually, Sir Anthony was even more bloodthirsty in Titus Andronicus, another Hollywood production about unhappy families, mutilation and cannibalism. Then there is Alan Rickman in Die Hard, as a sophisticated and ruthless terrorist; Jason Isaacs in The Patriot, a sadistic Redcoat in the American Revolution; Ian McKellen as Magneto in X-Men. Even in animated features the bad guys have English accents. Remember Shere Khan in The Jungle Book, voiced by George Saunders? What clinches my argument is the sadistic Brit in Cliffhanger, that 1993 epic starring Sylvester Stallone. But he was played by an American, John Lithgow. To paint the dastard doubly dark, an English accent was needed. I am not the only one who has twigged to this. Oscar-winning English actress Helen Mirren said a while ago, “I think it's rather unfortunate that the villain in every movie is always British. We're such an easy target that they can comfortably make the Brits the villains.” Does anyone have any suggestions for putting an end to this offensive national stereotyping once and for all? We have five articles so far this week as Easter approaches. Like me, Alastair Roberts laments the passing of Google Reader. Vincenzina Santoro expresses some scepticism about the success of the International Day of Happiness. Helena Adeloju complains that Facebook has let her down. Today the US Supreme Court began hearing on two important same-sex marriage cases. Harvey C. Mansfield and Leon R. Kass, two distinguished American scholars, question the science behind the push for legalisation. And finally, Pedro Dutour dispels the smear about Pope Francis’s involvement in the Dirty War. There will be no newsletter on Saturday. MercatorNet is taking a holiday over Easter. See you next week! Read more...

Thoughts on an evening with the Bee Lady

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 05:38:47 GMT

Hi there, Last week I went to a social gathering which included a talk by a lady beekeeper, a flamboyant soul with layers of bright red and light blond hair which ensured that our attention never wandered far. In fact, there was no danger of that since bees, as most people at least vaguely intuit, are among the most fascinating of creatures. Their social organisation is simply mind-boggling as is their adaptation to circumstances (think of the worker bees that fetch water in hot weather and the others who fan the hive to keep it cool) and the food they produce for winter has delighted that plunderer, man, from time immemorial. As always, when you look closely at nature, the question arises: could the highly complex and in many ways beautiful “society” of the hive be simply the product of blind evolutionary forces? Are bees, along with apes and humans, ultimately just matter in motion, just physics? How can that view of nature, apparently adopted by most of today’s evolutionists, account for consciousness (don't bees have it?) reason (a bit of that too?) and moral sense (just us, I think)? This, horribly simplified, is the subject of a book reviewed for us this week by David Gallagher. And before anyone groans, “Not another book from the creationists,” take note that the author, Thomas Nagel, a leading Anglo-American philosopher, is an atheist. Of course we humans often take leave of our moral sense, reason and awareness to conform to the ethic of the hive (surplus queens have to be eliminated) when confronted with a person who seems useless to us. At least, that is what is happening with babies diagnosed prenatally with Down syndrome. As Mary O’Neill Le Rumeur wrote in her piece yesterday for World Down Syndrome Day, over 90 percent of these unborn children are aborted, with the encouragement of the health authorities. At the same time we get articles like this terrific one in an Australian paper that testify to the richness a child with Down can bring into a family. (I think the most charming faces I have ever seen have been like the ones with that article. Do have a look.) Also in this issue: Chilean epidemiologist Elard Koch explains why his country and Ireland have among the best maternity outcomes in the world; Barbara Ray introduces an important new US report on the effects of delayed marriage; Laura Cotta Ramosino reviews the movie Oz the Great and Powerful; and George Friedman wonders whether Obama can repair Us-Israel relations. You may be aware -- I hope so -- that we have a campaign running to up our number of Facebook fans to 5000 by the end of the month. Only a week to go and we are sitting on 2999! I did hope it would roll over while I wrote this newsletter but… Can you please give your FB friends a heads-up if you haven’t already? Thanks. And cheers, Read more...

Morris West’s crystal ball

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:10:18 GMT

Hi there, About six or seven thousand journalists from all over the world have been in Rome covering the election of Pope Francis and his installation ceremony, which takes place today. What a pity that Morris West isn’t there to pontificate about the irrelevance of the Catholic Church. He died in 1999, but back in the 60s, he was a best-selling novelist, arguably the most famous (not the best) that Australia has ever produced. He wrote 25 or 30 books, with his special patch being a Church which he could neither love nor leave. But I must admit that some features of his international best-sellers were almost clairvoyant. First there was The Shoes of the Fisherman, in 1963, about a Slavic cardinal who becomes Pope (like Karol Wojtyla). Then there was The Clowns of God, in 1981, about a Pope who abdicates (like Joseph Ratzinger) so that he can wander around preaching a different gospel (not like B16). Then there was Lazarus, in 1990, about a foul-tempered and tyrannical Pope who gets all touchy-feely and updates the Church after a near-death experience on the operating table (ditto). Finally, Eminence, his last completed novel, in 1998. This is the story of a cardinal from Argentina with an Italian background, who was tortured in the Dirty War, had a love child with the woman who nurses him back to health, and no longer believes in God. His fellow cardinals admire his sincerity in ‘fessing up to all this, and elect him anyway. But he declines and a Jesuit from Milan becomes Pope instead. So, in a way, Morris West did predict the election of an Argentinian Jesuit. Nowadays West’s potboilers feel awkward and dated. Whenever he wrote about the Catholic Church, which was often to the point of obsession, his central theme was that it would collapse unless it changed its repressive views on sex. Well, recent Popes didn’t take West’s advice but, judging from recent scenes of young people in St Peter’s Square chanting “Fran-ces-co! Fran-ces-co!”, the Church is not collapsing. Instead it seems to be on the verge of a new springtime. Morris West was a public relations apparatchik for the Sexual Revolution. It’s also a pity that he didn’t live long enough to take responsibility for the fall-out. That is something that MercatorNet is trying to do from time to time. This past week, when both Republic Ron Portman and Democrat Hillary Clinton have both endorsed same-sex marriage, we are running two articles on it. Carolyn Moynihan asks why can’t she marry her sister and Robert Reilly deals with the infertility argument. Also, in this week’s newsletter is a review by Jennifer Roback Morse of a stunning book on how the sexual revolution has affected demographic trends. And finally, Margaret Somerville critiques the case for a commercial market in blood. Cheers, Read more...

A good choice of name

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:02:49 GMT

Hi there, Yesterday I got a text from a nephew saying, “Pope Francis - Good choice of name.” Not because he is great fan of Francis of Assisi or popes (in fact he tends to give religion a wide berth) but because that is his son’s name. “Yeah,” I replied, giving him an opportunity I knew he would grasp, “a lot to live up to.” “Yep,” he returned, “I don’t know how the pope will manage.” Actually, from all accounts Jorge Mario Bergoglio has managed extremely well to live up to his high calling so far and he inspires confidence in his ability to live up the superhuman demands of the papacy as well. He may have told his brother cardinals, “May God forgive you for what you have done,” but I think the church, if not the world in general, will be thanking them as time goes on. And if the Latin Americans are happy, that’s an awfully good start. Anyway, in our house last night we drank a toast to the Pope from Argentina. Caroline Farrow, a UK Catholic, is also enthusiastic. She predicts, “Pope Francis will be a pope of the people, leading the way forward by example in prayer and in a lifestyle of simple humility.” Michael Cook sees him as a pope who can begin to roll back the kind of secular humanism that wants to banish religion from the public square. (Michael wasn’t very successful with his predictions about papal names a couple of weeks ago, but I think he is really onto something here.) In our other articles: Adam MacLeod and Andrew Beckwith look at new rules about gender for Massachusetts public schools which suggest that, if redefining marriage hasn’t made the sky fall in, cracks are certainly appearing in the firmament over that state; George Friedman explores the interesting hypothesis that there is method in North Korea’s madness; and my Q&A with Judi Vankevich, The Manners Lady, reveals a woman who is on a mission to civilise the world by mak\ing manners fun. Happy reading, Read more...

Reviving the Bible

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:35:40 GMT

Hi there, I am a big fan of Russell Crowe, as he breathed new life into the South Sydney Rabbitohs, my rugby league team. However, I have my doubts about his latest film project. He did an excellent job skippering a warship in Master and Commander, but an ark in Noah? This is just one of several Biblical epics in production. Steven Spielberg is reworking the Exodus story into a sort of Moses/Braveheart. Will Smith is reputedly the lead in a story about Cain and Abel with vampires. Brad Pitt is being lined up for a sympathetic portrayal of Pontius Pilate without vampires. The Dutch director of Basic Instinct and Robocop, Paul Verhoeven, is working on a film about Jesus of Nazareth. After 20 years or research, he has discovered that the traditional Gospel story is all wrong. And much to my amazement, according to Hollywood scuttlebutt, a leading scriptwriter is hawking a film based on John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. Good luck to him! The Bible revival is being tailored to contemporary viewers. Noah turns into an eco-warrior who chastises his neighbours about destroying the environment and after the deluge suffers from “survivor’s guilt”. He has visions, too, of beings who sound more like six-armed Hindu gods than Biblical angels. Suffering from a drought of creativity, Hollywood producers are resorting to tried-and-true plots. Having used up most of the comic book heroes, they are starting to plunder the Bible. I wonder if this is a straw in the wind. Sure, combining Greenpeace and Noah is bizarre, but perhaps it is a post-modern flag fluttering over the perennial vitality of our Judaeo-Christian heritage. What do you think? Speaking of which, Vincenzina Santoro reminds us that 2013 marks the 1700th anniversary of the legalization of Christianity. And in other articles in the links below, Karl D. Stephan reflects on the perennial appeal of music. Mishka Gora analyses a repressive abortion law in the Australian state of Tasmania. Robert Reilly contends that the Greeks would not have voted for gay marriage. And, finally, I reflect upon the sad case of the Scottish Cardinal who decided not to attend the conclave to elect the Pope. Read more...

Marvellous summer, bad drought

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 05:31:00 GMT

Hi there, Apologies to the folks in the northern hemisphere who are still emerging from winter’s chills and spills, but I have to boast a little about the marvellous summer we have been enjoying in New Zealand. It seems that we have had non-stop sunshine for at least the last two months and no rain to speak of since well before Christmas. This is extremely unusual for Auckland, which sits on a skinny bit of land between two oceans and is usually rained upon at regular intervals with the effect, in summer, of creating a sauna bath atmosphere. But no, it’s blue skies day after day and bumper crowds at the beach. There hasn’t been a summer like it for 60 years. There is a downside, however. Much of the country is now officially in drought. I flew over some of it the other day and got a birds-eye, sobering view of the brown pasture lands, broken here and there by green irrigated patches. The news each night now shows us the parched earth close up and lean cattle being sold off -- for what, I am not sure. The tomatoes are loving it but the price of other vegetables along with dairy items is going through the roof. Farmers are worried. The economy is taking a big hit. Perhaps there’s a lesson in this about climate change. There is certainly a lesson about nature having the upper hand when it comes to the bedrock of our lives: the source of our basic foods and even the stability of the ground beneath our feet -- we have recently marked the second anniversary of the Christchurch earthquake. I do wish we could apply these lessons more broadly, though: we have a same-sex marriage bill in our parliament that wants to give human nature a poke in the eye… We have articles up today on the unemployment crisis in Europe (George Friedman), the use of drone strikes against militants who threaten US interests (Cora Currier of ProPublica, and Sheila Liaugminas has an update on this too), the neuroscientists who want to conquer the human brain (Denyse O’Leary) and, on a more harmonious note, the new bells being installed in Notre Dame Cathedral as part of the 850th anniversary celebrations of that most famous of churches (Mary O’Neill Le Rumeur). Imagine that, 850 years! I can’t close without mentioning something else old and wonderful -- the Swallows and Amazons books that feature on the Reading Matters blog. After umpteen years I can’t remember any of the stories but I know I loved those books once. It would be great to read them again. Cheers, Read more...

Have yourself a very Daiso Christmas

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:17:05 GMT

Hi there, I have seen the future of retailing and it works! A Daiso store recently opened around the corner from the MercatorNet office. This Japanese brand offers 10,000 items, each with exactly the same price tag, $2.80. The 10,000 items all seem to be made in China and packaged in Japan. This turns shopping into retail bungee-jumping, as you will often not be sure what your purchase is and you can never read the instructions. But, you know, it’s only $2.80. The cashiers look rather bored, as all they have to do is learn the 28-times table. Of the 10,000 products, I estimate that 8,000 are items promoting tidiness. The Japanese must the tidiest nation on earth. There are trays and shelves and bags and holders and cases and bottles and racks and bins and packages – all for $2.80 each. They are all arrayed so carefully that you feel as though you should have removed your shoes at the door and donned white gloves before touching the merchandise. While I don’t wish to sound like a publicist (I am not being paid for this) I have become a Daiso Diehard. I did all my Christmas shopping there, with very good results for the pocketbook. If you need some retail therapy, check it out! Anyhow, this week, we have posted three articles. I have discovered that Australia has a home-grown polyamory movement – an interesting development in view of the push for same-sex marriage. William E. Carroll explains why it is impossible for a machine to become human. And Laura Cotta Ramosino reviews the latest film version of Anna Karenina. Cheers, Read more...

Thank you, Emeritus Holy Father!

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:23:19 GMT

This week, as our latest articles and the world's media show, belongs in a special way to Benedict XVI, now Pope Emeritus, or Emeritus Bishop of Rome or whatever title is settled upon. We have his moving and optimistic parting address (text and video) on the front page. Soon, if not already, he will be rising to his first full day without the burdens of office that he has borne, not only as Pope but before that for more than two decades as head of the Vatican's doctrinal congregation and before that as a bishop and before that as an overworked professor... I hope he rested well. That he rests well, and continues to be able to give the world the fruit of his deep faith and scholarship. We have had a few tributes to Benedict already on MercatorNet and today have another from Monique David in Canada, whose sentiments countless Catholics will share. Sheila Liaugminas is one -- see her blog -- and I have a personal debt I want to acknowledge. If I hadn't read The Ratzinger Report (a book-length interview with the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on the state of the Catholic Church published in 1985) it might have taken me a lot longer than it did to leave the ranks of what are politely known as "cafeteria Catholics" (select your favourite dishes, leave the rest...) and get a grip on my faith. It's possible I might have missed the boat altogether and ended up clicking the "Like" button on Richard Dawkins articles. Thank you, Emeritus Holy Father! Mention of Dawkins leads me to Michael Cook's irreverent contribution to the feverish speculation about which cardinal will be chosen as the next Pope. Bookies apparently give the English atheist better odds than Silvio Berlusconi or Tony Blair -- odds, however, that do look a little, er, contrived. In other articles law professor Dwight Duncan looks back on the career of Ronald Dworkin, “a public intellectual of bracingly liberal views" (New York Times) who has gone to meet his maker, and Brendan Malone looks at the Oscars, finding that they got the best picture and best actor right, but totally goofed on best foreign film. Cheers, Read more...

Honesty in Kansas City

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:42:55 GMT

Hi there, There were some very nice moments in the Academy Awards the other day: Ben Affleck thanking his wife and Daniel Day-Lewis affectionately joking about Steven Spielberg. But the most eloquent words in the media this week came from a homeless man in Kansas City. Billy Ray Harris lives beneath a bridge by night and rattles a tin cup by day. Earlier this month a young woman accidentally dropped her diamond-studded engagement ring into the cup along with some small change. Mr Harris found it, looked at it like Gollum and heard “that little devil on my shoulder saying, 'Keep the money'." But he waited until the woman returned, frantic with worry. “I kept it for you,” he said. Finders keepers, losers weepers? No, Sir. "My grandfather was a reverend,” Mr Harris told the media. “He raised me from the time I was six months old and, thank the good Lord, it's a blessing, but I do still have some character." The news spread like lightning and US$150,000 has poured in for Mr Harris from all over the world through the GiveForward website. Honesty and gratitude are qualities that money can’t buy. Or are they? I have reviewed Michael Sandel’s recent book, What Money Can’t Buy: the moral limits of markets, in this week’s MercatorNet. He makes a convincing argument that market fundamentalism is eroding the areas of life which are immune to the law of supply and demand. In other articles, Carolyn Moynihan and Clare Cannon have put together a list of books to lift your spirits (to which I have appended a list of gloomy books in case you get carried away). Karl D. Stephan discusses what makes work valuable and Mary O'Neill Le Rumeur reviews the first feature film from Saudi Arabia directed by a woman. Cheers, Read more...

A message from Belgium

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:51:57 GMT

Hi there, It’s mid-afternoon in Auckland and oppressively hot. As the local saying goes, I’d rather be sailing. Which reminds me of an email I got early this week -- from Belgium, but fortunately in English; Flemish really does look daunting. Paul d’Hoine writes that he lives in Leuven (Louvain) in the Mechelsestraat, the same street in which the famous Gerardus Mercator lived for almost 20 years back in the 16th century. Paul is a great admirer of the long-deceased native of Flanders and says that, for those so disposed, “you can feel his spirit here”. You will, of course, recognise Mercator as the eponymous hero of our website. (I have been dying to use that expression and this seems like a good opportunity.) What you may not know or remember is what Gerardus Mercator is famous for. As a spot on our website explains, he was a cartographer and invented the map of the world known as the Mercator projection -- which I won’t attempt to describe here since it’s on the website -- to assist navigation. Hence the relevance of all this to my original thoughts of the sea. When Michael Cook was setting up the website eight years ago he hit upon the idea of borrowing the name of Mercator for its symbolic value: Mercator's life and work are metaphors for what we aspire to: craftsmanship, setting accurate courses, opening up new worlds and venturing upon stormy, uncharted seas. His maps were accurate in the center and distorted at either side -- a good image of Mercatornet’s editorial policy of balance and accuracy. The “net” bit had to be added because someone else had recently used the name. Paul d’Hoine really likes our interpretation of Gerardus Mercator’s work, has signed up with us and says he will take a closer look at our site. He has named his boat after the mapmaker and is planning “a world trip to honour the man and to serve good causes that will be on my path.” Personally, I could never be that keen on sailing! But, good luck, Paul, thanks for reminding us about our namesake, and if you make it to Sydney or Auckland, look us up. Our lead story today is a MercatorNet scoop -- Michael Cook gives the first account in English (outside Lebanon) of a bombshell report on Lebanese demography. If you have the impression that Christians are disappearing from the only Arab country where they had a substantial presence, read this story. In other articles: Jennifer Thieme shows how conservatism is incompatible with same-sex marriage; Vincenzina Santoro explains the importance of emigrant workers to relieving family poverty back home (there’s a gorgeous video with it that will make you weep…); George Friedman writes about the “charm” and the danger of drone warfare; and Rafaelle Chiarulli reviews an action movie that doesn’t quite live up to its brand name. Among the bloggers, Sheila Liaugminas is keeping a sharp eye on the US press and its coverage of the papal transition; Family Edge looks at why South Korea's elderly are feeling abandoned; and Jennifer Minicus on Reading Matters highly recommends a book for young people called The Stamp Collector. Happy reading, Read more...

On meteors

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:41:25 GMT

One of the most heartening bits of news in recent weeks accompanied the explosion of a meteor over the Chelyabinsk Oblast in south central Russia. As it lit up the sky, it exploded with the force of 30 atomic bombs, shattering windows for miles around. Fragments of the meteor scattered far and wide, landing in snow drifts and ponds. Not so long ago, before 1989, Soviet authorities would have denied that it ever happened, then that if it did happen, there had been no damage, and then if there had been any damage, it had been immediately repaired by heroic Red Army troops. Instead, there were newspaper reports of school children scattering throughout the area looking for meteor fragments to sell to seedy men in black leather jackets who would onsell them to celebrities like Steven Spielberg. Eight-year-old Sasha Zarezina told the New York Times, “I will sell it for 100 million Euros.” We tend to think that the world is always getting worse and forget that the most oppressive political system ever invented has vanished like the meteor’s contrail. The Russian people are free (more or less) to be entrepreneurs. They can talk to the media. They can search for and sell meteorite fragments to whomever they want instead of surrendering them to the government. The world has definitely changed for the better. So far this week, we have posted four articles. Australian academic Tama Leaver suggests that privacy may be a relic of the past, as industry finds ways to track us through social media. Anthony Esolen uses a Philadelphia controversy over the Boy Scouts to reflect upon the “blessings” of the welfare state. I have drafted a list of melancholy movies, if you are guilty of being too frivolous lately. And Carolyn Moynihan delivers a broadside at the media for being voyeurs of the turbulent relationship which ended in the murder of Oscar Pistorius’s girlfriend. Enjoy! Read more...

Just what the doctor ordered

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 08:08:49 GMT

Hi there, Something called the Reading Agency in Britain has come up with a novel idea for helping people suffering from anxiety, depression and related mental health problems. It has drawn up a list of 30 books which have been assessed as “effective” in helping people with relationship problems, sleep problems, social phobias, stress, binge eating, bulimia nervosa and other disorders which might land them in the doctor’s surgery. The idea is that these people can discreetly approach their friendly local librarian who will recommend an appropriate book to read instead of going to the doctor -- an expensive and possibly embarrassing step which they might well find they can do without if the book or books recommended work their magic. GPs support the scheme and librarians are no doubt thrilled to have more to do than show people how to looks things up on the computer. Approved titles range from the very boring Overcoming Relationship Problems (for the people having trouble getting to sleep) to feel-good old favourites such as Cider With Rosie (this is Britain, remember), Chicken Soup for the Soul, Goodnight Mr Tom and To Kill A Mockingbird. There’s a very sound instinct behind the latter “mood-boosting” selection, it seems to us at MercatorNet. Laughter, as the old saying goes, is the best medicine. With this in mind we have been working on our own lists of “just what the doctor ordered” books and films. Today Michael Cook introduces a selection of cheerful films -- not necessarily laugh-out-loud material but films that can “bring joy into your life”. There will be more cheer and some gloom and doom to follow -- the latter as a reminder that, even when things seem bad, they could always be worse… Your nominations in both categories are welcome. In addition today we some St Valentine’s Day good advice from Caitlin Seery of the Love and Fidelity student network; Izzy Kalman explains why someone like Christopher Dorner, a model 21st century character from many points of view, could turn into a murderous avenger; Karl Stephan tells the largely unknown story of the Navajo men who worked for two decades in a uranium mine in New Mexico unaware of the dangers of radiation; and I look at the mixed (up) world health agenda of Bill and Melinda Gates. Please check the blogs and remember especially to sign up for Harambee. We would like to make it so famous that Bill Gates gets to know about it. Cheers, Read more...

The season of abdications

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 07:01:40 GMT

Hi there, Always expect the unexpected. Abdication is not a tag which we ever used much on MercatorNet. Now, in two weeks, two heads of state have announced that they are stepping down – Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Benedict XVI, of the Holy See. The Pope’s resignation came out of the blue even for the most obsessive Vaticanologist. After all, no Pope had resigned for almost 600 years – and then only under duress. Benedict XVI was the first to retire of his own free will, without external pressure of any kind. Since this was the lead story in nearly every paper in the world, we have also splashed on the news. Fr Robert Gahl Jr, an American theologian, reports straight from Rome. Alex Perrottet, a New Zealand journalist who met the Pope during World Youth Day in Sydney, adds his reminiscences. And I have written an analysis of Benedict’s legacy to the Church he led for eight years. That’s not all, of course. Raffaele Chiarulli reviews The Last Stand, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to the big screen. And from France Mary O'Neill Le Rumeur describes the impact of a stirring speech against same-sex marriage. Enjoy. Read more...

The king in the carpark

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:20:24 GMT

Hi there, It’s almost certainly him. Archaeologists leading the hunt for the long lost remains of the English king, Richard III, confirmed early this week that the bones found in a shallow grave in a ruined church under a Leicester carpark are his, as far as science and genealogy and history can ascertain. For me, the location has a special resonance as, around the time that the excited academics were making their announcement, I and three friends were wandering from floor to floor in a parking building adjoining a cinema and shopping complex in suburban Auckland looking for the car we had arrived in three and a half hours earlier to see Les Miserables. (The film was great, by the way.) Exiting to the mall and trying to retrace our steps only made us more thoroughly disoriented. There are few things more dismal and offensive to reason than being lost in a nearly empty carpark, but I have found it remarkably easy to do and I suppose others have as well. I daresay that in another 500 years it will be common for archaeologists to find in the ruins of these devilishly confusing buildings the skeletons of exhausted customers who gave up their search in despair. But back to Richard III. I suppose there are some people who couldn’t care less about whether Richard III Plantagenet gets properly buried in a cathedral, or whether he really was the villainous usurper who contrived the deaths of the Two Little Princes who stood in his way to the throne, as he is generally believed to be, but Angela Shanahan is not one of them. A history enthusiast, she is fascinated by the resolution of this “cold case” and has some interesting reflections in her article on the way contemporary science aids historians in the search for truth, and both of them in helping us understand our identity. Still in England, Peter Smith writes about this week’s vote (not final) in the House of Commons on a same-sex marriage bill and the rift it has caused among Conservative MPs. (Honestly, the kings of old might have done some Very Bad Things but they have nothing on today’s politicians.) Moving across the Atlantic, Dale O’Leary backgrounds developments in the related field of gender theory. In other new articles Brendan Malone reviews the controversial film Zero Dark Thirty -- about the Osama bin Laden assassination last year, and Nathaniel Peters reviews a book about the just war principle. We have new posts on our Africa blog Harambee (please read and subscribe) Conjugality, Family Edge, Reading Matters and Demography. Happy reading! Read more...

All aboard!

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:10:10 GMT

Hi there, Carolyn Moynihan and I recently resolved to run more articles which put a smile on the dial, a spring in the step, a song on the lips, etc. But smiley-face journalism is hard work. The best-read articles on MercatorNet, or any other magazine, make readers boil with rage. Righteous wrath has few rivals as a propellant for reaching lift-off velocity into the blogosphere. Anyhow, my resolution didn’t survive a train trip to work yesterday. As anyone who went to the Sydney Olympics knows, the rail system here is a marvel, almost Swiss in its efficiency. As anyone who stayed on afterwards knows, standards have dropped ever since. After a coffee with a friend at Wynyard, I found confusion on the platform. A recorded voice on the PA system helpfully informed the crowds that services would be interrupted next Sunday for track maintenance. The voice did not venture an opinion on the current interruption. Finally we were directed to take a train to North Sydney (across Sydney Harbour, past the Opera House, for non-Sydneysiders) where we would catch a bus. We waited about half an hour on the Bridge while the train inched forward to North Sydney. There we rushed up to the buses. We collided with three thousand other work-bound commuters waiting on a narrow footpath. And no buses. A few harried railway workers were making hoarse and unintelligible announcements and gesticulating to the right. We shuffled along, hoping for the best. After half an hour or so, a bus did arrive. I was nearly the last one to board. At last I was on my way. I overheard the driver telling a passenger that his last trip, normally 10 minutes, had taken an hour and a half. All of us standing in the aisle looked at each other and rolled our eyes. Then came an announcement. The trains were rolling. Passengers were moving. The ones who missed the bus, that is. Not us. We were stuck in a colossal traffic jam. Have you ever watched this scenario unfold in the movies? Breathlessly boarding the last train from the doomed city, the fleeing hero and his girl escape the savage avengers. While they halt in a mountain pass, the camera shifts to the city – the cavalry has arrived; the city is safe. The camera shifts back to the train -- engulfed by an avalanche; the hero and his gal are kaput. Ah, fate! But let me don my smiley-face. With the exception of a well-groomed young woman who let fly with a few choice expletives, no one complained. No one at all. Half of the stranded passengers were updating Facebook or listening to music. The other half was zoning out, staring zombie-like into space. It was still inspiring to see how heroically Sydneysiders behave under adversity. They can cope with First World Problems with the best of them. Or was it that none of them really wanted to get to work? Anyhow, not to worry. I did get here eventually. So far this week we have posted three stories, none of them of the smiley-face variety, I’m afraid, but all quite informative. Carolyn Moynihan summarises the finding of a major report on family breakdown and religious belief. From Belgium, Tom Mortier has written a moving account of the euthanasia death of his mother – which should be required reading for the politicians who want euthanasia in Tasmania, as I explain in my article. Happy reading, Read more...

Harambee - our new Africa blog

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:01:52 GMT

Hi there, There is a story about Africa that is all too familiar for anyone who reads international news: the sorry tale of a still largely “dark continent” with horrendous poverty caused by out-of-control population growth and attended by high infant and maternal mortality, all stoked by political corruption and tribal and religious wars… You know how it goes. And while there are germs of truth in it, this story is also warped by myopic westerners with their own crabbed agendas for the world. But there is another story about Africa, an optimistic story, and I am delighted to inform you that this week MercatorNet has launched a blog dedicated to telling it. The blog is called Harambee, which means “pulling together” and it’s edited by Eugene Ohu a Nigerian freelance journalist with a colourful CV. I can’t do better than quote him on the vision behind this venture: Africa has more than one story. When we get to know it well and completely, we surprisingly discover a continent that is big, joyful, generous, enthusiastic and optimistic. It is today the darling of many foreign investors, and the world's superpowers are competing to lay first claim to it, not now as lords as in times past, but with a desire to be first to be regarded Africa's friends. So much has it grown in many facets, economy included, that it portends hope for many peoples. A one-word Ibo proverb “Nkoli” loosely translates to “tell your own story”. Harambee blog sets out to contribute local brush strokes to build the real story about Africa told by Africans themselves. There is much hope Africa can offer the rest of the world; from its love of life and family, to the heroic examples of people who have withstood great odds with a smile on their lips, and great stories of innovation achieved with limited resources. I urge you to read Harambee and comment and -- especially if you are one the hundreds of Africans who frequent our website -- seize the opportunity to send in your own news and reflections. This is your chance to sound off about the Africa you know and love. One of those “heroic examples” that Eugene talks about is the subject of a post on the blog today. Margaret Ogola, who died last year of cancer after an all to short life packed with service to her family, to Kenya and to the world at large, is one of MercatorNet’s heroines. She has had a fourth book published posthumously this week which is reviewed on our front page by Tom Odhiambo. My appetite has been whetted and I am hoping to get hold of it, perhaps electronically. Just a quick mention of other new articles now: there’s my piece on Queen Beatrix stepping down from the Dutch throne; Densye O’Leary finds that the principle of subsidiarity could have stopped a spat over cats going to court (sorry, cats seems to have a way of insinuating themselves into my newsletters); Karl Stephan says universities have work harder to stop cheating; and George Friedman writes on North Korea -- there doesn’t seem to be much else one can do about that strange and sad place. The blogs are humming again -- a special mention for Tiger Print and Katie Hinderer’s post on the weird and not very wonderful world of New Adult books. (“New Adult” seems to be a term for high school girls. How odd.) Happy reading, Read more...

Whatever are you thinking about?

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 04:56:11 GMT

Hi there, Being an editor is not such a big deal. You do have to drink lots of coffee and get to work before noon, but otherwise, most tasks are not very onerous – stuff like surfing the internet and thinking up puns for headlines. But there is a serious side. In the never-ending war for better communication, editors must defend the English language against jargon, bureaucratese, woolly and wilful ambiguities, verbal flatulence, run-on sentences, needless repetition and the vampire bats of boredom and cliché. Against these enemies, any editor worth his salt has taken a solemn oath to pursue them, come what may, into their foetid burrows and do them to death. On the positive side, editors are honour-bound to showcase the robust beauty of English. One of these is what grammarians call preposition stranding – moving prepositions away from their object. This is a quirk which non-native speakers are not good at and which generations of English teachers have looked down upon. Winston Churchill, a master of muscular English idiom and a Nobel prize-winner in Literature, despised such narrow-minded prescriptivism. An over-zealous editor once blue-pencilled his text and he scribbled indignantly in the margin "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put." Touché. Now that we are dabbling in French, I gather that preposition stranding has spread to Québec, where people are wont to say things like: j'avais pas personne a parler avec (I had no one to talk to). Which brings me to the question of the maximum number of prepositions one can end a sentence with. Even the hardy Québécois are not game to add more than one on. The most I have seen in English is seven. A boy complains to his father: "What did you bring that book that I don't want to be read to out of up from under for?" Any other nominations? So far this week, we have posted five articles. Meg McDonnell wonders when some Millennials are going to wake up to the big lie about reproductive freedom. Robert Reilly has some harsh words for the new US policy on using women as frontline combat troops. Izzy Kalman reviews a documentary about workplace bullying and Andrea Valagussa reviews a powerful drama from Canada about a primary school teacher. Finally, John G. West explains why C.S. Lewis was sceptical of the overweening ambitions of some scientists. Cheers, Read more...

In praise of cats

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 04:56:10 GMT

Hi there, We have added several stories at this end of the week, making it a bumper one. Margaret Somerville made a special effort to view and review a much acclaimed French film about euthanasia, Amour, and has come up with a sensitive but ethically searching assessment. Michael Cook’s piece takes us to Belgium and the lessons to be drawn from a real euthanasia case -- the 45-year-old identical twins Marc and Eddy Verbessem whom doctors agreed to kill because the brothers were going blind. Andrea Mrozek, writing about the two-parent family and educational achievement, gives us a taste of the fascinating new report on patterns of family life around the world (more of this to come); Peter Smith reviews a book by New York Times columnist Ross Douthat on the state of religion in America; and Matt Hardy writes about the Algerian hostage rescue mission. But look, what you really want to read about is cats. I know, because top of the New York Times most emailed list today is the story of Holly, a 4-year-old tortoiseshell who got lost at Daytona Beach, Florida, and found her way back 200 miles to her fond owners in West Palm Beach. This is not the most amazing return-of-the-cat story ever reported (Murka, the Russian tortoiseshell, is said to have travelled 325 miles, and Howie, the Australian Persian, a mind-blowing 1000 miles) but it is a pretty impressive one, and I would not be surprised (I haven’t looked) if Holly has her own Youtube channel by now and has been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. She deserves every minute of her fame. My tribute to Holly is not inspired by wholly frivolous motives; I feel I owe it to the species because sometime before Christmas I made an invidious comparison between donkeys and cats, implying that the latter were rather self-centred creatures. A couple of readers pulled me up for this thoughtless jibe at the domestic moggie, pointing out (1) that one cannot compare a predator with a herbivore and beast of burden. (2) To speak of a cat being in love with itself is a horrid anthropomorphism. (3) “When a cat adores you, it's a high honour” (which is also an anthropo-whatsit but a much nicer one). (4) Well, I’ll have to quote this one: Just to let you know that not all cats are self -centred. My cat, Mr Ginge is stretched out beside my computer as I type this email, purring in harmony with the ever-present whoosh of the lap-top. He is certainly not one that hangs around only at meal time. Mr Ginge would have been 'on duty' at the manger in Bethlehem… Finally, I have to admit, indeed assert, that I am a cat lover and have seldom been without one around the house. They do add a touch of serenity as they snooze in their favourite corners, and of mystery, provoking wonder at what is going on inside their tiny brains as they stare at you. Even animal behaviourists can’t work them out: they have no idea how Holly and Murka and co. navigate those long distances. Thank goodness there is something still to marvel at. Cheers, Read more...

Obama gets it together

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:13:09 GMT

Hi there, There’s lots going on this week – Martin Luther King Day, the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Australian Open… But of course the Inauguration was unmissable. I was looking forward to another splendid performance from one of the great orators of our age. In the years leading up to 2008 Barack Obama rescued American rhetoric from the swamps of cliché. He turned turns of phrase into weapons. He soared. He inspired. But he was most eloquent when he attempted to persuade – which is, after all, what rhetoric is all about. He used to mull over an issue with his listeners, examine both positions fairly, and – with a sigh of regret at differing with his antagonists – take his stand. His best speeches were reasoned arguments. This year’s inaugural address was different. There was no persuasion, no acknowledgement of legitimate differences. It was a professor’s victory dance over the carcases of his opponents. What struck me was the glitter of hollow rhetorical gestures – repetition, echoing the founding fathers and Martin Luther King, alliteration, homely vignettes… But the magic was gone. It was a store-bought speech, not one baked at home. Obama could have been another Abraham Lincoln. Instead he might end up as Edward Everett, the seasoned orator who spoke for two hours at Gettysburg and is forgotten. Two themes stood out for me. It was impossible to miss the President’s insistence that “you didn’t build that”, in the much parodied words of his campaign gaffe. But it wasn’t a gaffe at all. It was his conviction. America ought to be a collectivist society in which “Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people”. Together. It’s an ambiguous word. It can be invoked by heroic leaders – and by bullies. It’s an ominous start for a President whose second-term agenda includes removing conscientious objection from healthcare. Mr Obama also insisted that gay rights are a fundamental part of American freedom, “for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal, as well.” (I have read this phrase over and over and I still can’t understand it, a sure sign of his failing rhetorical skill.) He underscored this by selecting Richard Blanco, a Hispanic gay poet, to recite a poem composed for the occasion. As a poem “One Today” is not bad. As the anthem of Obama’s America it is superb. It closes with the lines, “of one country -- all of us --/facing the stars / hope -- a new constellation /waiting for us to map it, / waiting for us to name it -- together”. Together. That word again. Is togetherness really what Americans want from their Commander-in-chief? It will be an interesting four more years. As I said, it is a packed week and we have published twice as many articles as we normally do. Margaret Somerville and Paul Russell each tackle euthanasia. James S. Cole and Jennifer Roback Morse both examine aspects of the same-sex marriage debate. G. Tracy Mehan looks at Roe v. Wade (more on this later in the week). Finally Alma Acevedo makes some tart observations on people who send texts during tragic moments in Les Misérables. Even though this made me feel quite guilty, we still published it, which, I feel, is a stirring testimony to our broad-minded editorial policy. Happy reading! Read more...

Melancholy rock carvings in Sydney

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 06:15:28 GMT

Hi there, I have just returned from holidays and I am happy to report that I am feeling refreshed, energetic, and ready for lots of improvements in MercatorNet this year. My idea of a good holiday activity is a hot and sweaty bushwalk culminating in the discovery of an Aboriginal rock carving. The hot and sweaty part is too easy lately. Right now it is 44.8º Celsius outside the office – that’s 113º Fahrenheit for US readers. A few days ago, the average temperature for the whole country (ie, the whole continent) was 40ºC (104ºF). Bushfires happen when it gets this hot. The word “apocalyptic” is getting a stiff workout in the evening news lately. But when you see TV footage of incandescent skies, treetops exploding into balls of flame, towering walls of fire racing through the bush, and houses collapsing into ashes in minutes, the anchors can be forgiven for the poverty of their vocabulary. It really does look like the world is about to end. It was on one of those days that I foolishly chose to visit Cattai National Park. The rangers had blocked the road and expelled the campers to prevent fires. So we walked in. A hundred metres from the entrance was a sign pointing to an “Aboriginal site”. Sure enough, half-hidden off the main track a life-size rock carving of a kangaroo had been etched onto a bare patch of sandstone. I always find sites like this eerie. Between 200 and 5,000 years ago, a group of Dharug people gathered near the Hawkesbury River and celebrated a complex and time-consuming ritual. But after 1788 the tribe was all but obliterated by smallpox epidemics, violence and alcohol and with it died the secret of their kangaroo carving. Who were they? Who sent this mysterious message from a lost culture? We’ll never know. Only that men and women lived here for thousands of generations, turning land into landscape, animals into art, dreaming the same dreams as we do about love and family and the hereafter. And vanished. Utterly. Except for these enduring works of art. A pity that most Sydneysiders are ignorant of the treasures of their sunburnt country. Since there was no newsletter earlier in the week, we have accumulated ten articles. Lorna Tilly, an Australian archaeologist working in Vietnam, describes how much care hunter-gatherers put into caring for disabled comrades. Disability is also the theme of James M. Thunder, who comments on the euthanasia of deaf and blind twins ain Belgium. Raffaele Chiarulli reviews an Oscar nominee, The Master, a thinly veiled portrait of the founder of Scientology. Francis Phillips reviews a touching book drawn from a cache of love letters written from Stalin’s gulag. Margaret Somerville and William West both take up the cause of prison reform. George Friedman and Denis MacShane ponder the dangers of radical Islam. From London, Peter Smith writes that religious freedom has taken a hit in British courts. Finally, a world exclusive: an interview with Timothy Reckart, the 26-year-old director of an Oscar-nominated animated film. It has a strong pro-marriage message! I hope that he wins when the awards are announced at the end of February. Cheers, Read more...

A well-stocked larder

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 02:28:39 GMT

Hi there, Thanks to our one-newsletter-per-week holiday regime we have a rather large meal to set before you today -- with a variety almost rivalling Bilbo Baggins well-stocked larder (the opening scene of The Hobbit is, like the rest of the movie, marvellous in its detail; if they would just go a bit easier on the sound…). Because I’m about to rush off again for a week, I want just to highlight two articles in particular. One is the interview with Reynaldo Rivera of InterMedia, a MercatorNet partner, about his intriguing study of young Spaniards and Italians, their life online and attitudes to bullying. This is positive research that comes with an educational programme which I am sure we are going to hear more about. The other big story is the study by Elard Koch and colleagues of abortion and maternal mortality in Mexico. I am acquainted with several Mexicans, and can vouch for the fact that their country is a lot more complex and interesting than certain ideologues would have you believe. Among the latter is the Alan Guttmacher Institute which, you will hardly be surprised to hear, has over-estimated illegal abortions in Mexico at probably 10 times their actual rate. Read the interview and get a hold on the facts! Michael Cook (who is supposed to be on holiday) has written a terrific piece on utilitarianism and its outworking in an officially recognised BDSM club at Harvard. We have two book reviews -- Zac Alstin has enjoyed reading an important new biography of Chesterton and Francis Phillips thought a work on Lady Astor was also quite good fun. There’s a film review too: Laura Cotta Ramosina, a new reviewer, takes a look at Life of Pi. George Friedman has some penetrating comment on the crisis of the American middle class; and Maureen Condic counters the claim that science has nothing to tell us about the human rights of the “fetus”. In the blogs, Sheila Liaugminas has an excellent suggestion for a New Year’s resolution; Family Edge has a very positive story about prisoners, and Tiger Print has some more ideas on this topic. Happy reading, Read more...

The Art Deco Capital of the World

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 02:50:32 GMT

Hi there, Happy New Year! The days since I signed off before Christmas have flown, filled with visiting, celebrations religious and secular, reading (one-and-a-half books, so not bad), a half-hearted and fruitless attempt at bargain hunting in summer sales, and the fulfilment of one New Year Resolution: a thorough clean and polish of my ageing Toyota Corolla, which now positively beams at me as I approach it. About other resolutions, still being firmed up, I shall remain silent for now. Our road trip to Napier (not in my car!) was relatively uneventful. The nearest we came to having an adventure was the discovery, two-thirds of the way home, that my sister had left her handbag 50 kms back at a cousin’s place. There are few things worse than having to double back on a journey when you heart is set on getting to the end, so it was fortunate that -- as we ascertained by mobile phone (wonderful inventions) -- someone would be following us with it to Auckland the next day. The journey itself took us south-east through rich farmland, a volcanic region -- including Lake Taupo and the Huka Falls (source of the Waikato River, NZ’s longest) -- steep hills and valleys, and forests native and exotic, to Hawke’s Bay, named by Captain Cook after a British admiral (of course). Napier is a small city with a bustling port and the proud boast of being the Art Deco Capital of the world, no less. After an earthquake levelled the town centre in 1931 it was rebuilt in the Deco style and the surviving buildings of that era were declared a World heritage Site by the UN in 2007. There is a wonderful long beach promenade but the beach itself is rather daunting with a pebbly and steeply shelving shore. To top off its attractions, the region has one of the best (warmest and driest) climates in the country. No wonder practically everyone I spoke to was from somewhere else. One native who spoke to me was a cheerful lady who leads Art Deco tours of the city; unfortunately I had just put a chocolate with a toffee centre in my mouth and could only smile and nod in reply. MercatorNet has not been entirely dormant over the past two weeks. Michael Cook has re-run some of our most popular articles from 2012 and posted Robert Reilly’s analysis of what’s happening in Egypt, as well as a review of some of the best films of 2012. Since I have seen only one of these movies -- The Separation -- I am pleased that there are others worth watching. Next up for me is The Hobbit (having re-read the book in preparation) which Ronan Wright has reviewed for us. There is much food for thought in the articles by James Cole on “gay marriage” cases before the Supreme Court, Lis Howell on the Jimmy Savile scandal, and George Friedman on the most important decision facing Europe. At the top of the list sits a lovely piece by Alma Acevedo on the tradition which made the coming Feast of the Epiphany el gran dia, the greatest day of the year after Christmas during her childhood. Happy feast and happy reading, Read more...

Christmas in Connecticut

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 13:12:01 GMT

Hi there, I must confess that I am not feeling as festive as I should in the days before Christmas. Too many neglected chores; those unwrapped and unpurchased presents; embarrassment at unsent Christmas cards. Misery loves company, so feel free to post comments below with your own woeful tales from the Xmas Rush. However, a weightier reason is that the day of the Massacre of the Innocents came early this year. The senseless deaths of 28 people in Connecticut amidst decorations and fairy lights tempts you to cancel Christmas. But when you think about it, Herod’s murderous soldiers are just as much a part of the Christmas story as the shepherds. The mediaevals had a keen sense of that. The haunting Coventry Carol, which comes from a 16th century mystery play, represents the mothers of Bethlehem keening for their slaughtered children. The 19th century English poet Christina Rosetti, who wrote some of the most moving religious poetry in the language, has a marvellous poem which begins: They scarcely waked before they slept, They scarcely wept before they laughed; They drank indeed death's bitter draught, But all its bitterest dregs were kept And drained by Mothers while they wept. Sorry about that. It is nearly Christmas and I am being self-indulgent. But the point she makes is that the austere joy of Christianity is always mingled with suffering. That is one of its mysteries and its strengths. Even in the midst of agonized questioning and pain there is meaning for a Christian heart. Surely that explains the instinctively religious response of Americans to the tragedy. As President Obama said in his remarkable address at the prayer vigil, “God has called them all home. For those of us who remain, let us find the strength to carry on, and make our country worthy of their memory.” Some announcements: MercatorNet is on light duties until about January 20. Stories will be posted after the New Year, and emails will be answered, but there will be no newsletter for a while. We conclude the year with five new stories. Two of them, by myself and Tim Lee, our Comments Editor, deal with the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. A third, by Melinda Selmys, is sure to prove controversial. She questions the wisdom of “gay conversion” therapy. MercatorNet is not in the business of advocating a particular solution to the problem of homosexuality. Melinda has a unique perspective which is worth pondering. Finally, Clare Cannon and Harley Sims have some suggestions for holiday reading (and gifts) and Peter Smith critiques the Conservative government’s proposals for same-sex marriage in the UK. A very happy Christmas and New Year to all our readers, and especially to our editors and contributors who have worked so hard with Carolyn and myself to support the cause of human dignity. Cheers, Michael Cook Read more...

Holidays, trips and journeys

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:51:00 GMT

Hi there, In the middle of next week my Christmas holiday begins -- hooray! I am sure that is a sentiment shared by many readers. Here’s another sentiment, however, that you might find a bit shocking: “Ah, the holidays. The perfect time of year to be with the one you love the most: yourself.” Shameless -- is it not? -- if the writer really meant it, and, coming as it does from that journal of the Manhattan set, the New York Times, one cannot be quite sure. Still, it was the introduction to a travel article about the growing trend for individuals to join a tour and take their chances for camaraderie with whomever they meet, so we cannot take it too seriously. Even complete egotists need other people from time to time, if only to remind them why they prefer their own company. I have to admit that when left alone on a long trip -- and all trips out of New Zealand tend to be long -- I do revel in the chance to read a book. You can read a whole book between Auckland and Europe. Reading a whole book or three is one of my aims for the coming couple of weeks, although I will be visiting family in a distant town over Christmas and communing with them a lot of the time. I am rather looking forward to the longish road trip with my sister and the chance to have a good look at the countryside in its full summer glory. The first Christmas would have been a completely different sort of event, of course, without the necessity of a very inconvenient journey -- but who would want it any other way? I believe Pope Benedict has questioned the presence of animals in the “stable” where Jesus was born (I have not reached that part of his new book on the infancy narratives yet) but admits that no Nativity scene would be complete without them. The donkey, at least, must have been somewhere nearby. I have a soft spot for donkeys -- they strike me as animals that, unlike cats for example, are definitely not in love with themselves. Enough of these ruminations. Leading the new articles on the front page is one by Luis Tellez of the Witherspoon Institute which I highly recommend, especially to anyone sensitive to the shadow cast by same-sex marriage campaigns over this Christmas. It will perk you up. My piece looks at the push to get the morning after pill into the hands of young teens without a special visit to the doctor or even, possibly, talking to their own parents. Michael Cook writes about scientists who are haunted by the idea of genetic degeneracy. Barbara Kay describes what happens when a Catholic school runs up against absolute relativism in the Quebec education system. And engineer Karl Stephan shed lights light on the problem of nominalism -- first cousin to relativism, it seems. Merry Christmas! Read more...

Hoax call leads to tragedy

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:08:30 GMT

Hi there, The Australian and British media have been riveted by a goofball prank phone call that went terribly wrong. Sydney DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian had the bright idea of ringing the London hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge (aka Kate Middleton), was being treated for severe morning sickness. It was 5.30pm in the afternoon, the receptionist had gone home and nurse Jacintha Saldanha took the call. The DJs pretended to be Prince Charles and the Queen and asked to speak with the duchess. Jacintha naively put the call through to another nurse, who answered their queries. It was all great fun for the media at the expense of gullible hospital staff. Until three days later, Jacintha, married, with two teenage children, committed suicide. This tragedy couldn’t have come at a worse time for the media in Britain or Australia, where governments are thinking of taming journalists with more regulation. So the DJs have been very apologetic. But as a leading Australian public relations expert pointed out, the pain – while no doubt genuine – comes straight from a crisis management playbook. One of his seven steps to claw back lost credibility is a familiar but cynical strategem: “Recontextualise your behaviour — make it seem normal and own the middle ground”. Perhaps that’s why the air-headed DJs kept repeating lines like, “These are prank calls. They’ve been around for as long as radio’s existed and they’re done by every radio station.” The implication is that they did nothing wrong because everyone else does it --the same excuse that most white-collar criminals use. This shame without contrition is unlikely to convince people that the media is too responsible to require regulation. What Mel and Michael ought to do is say the W-word: “I was wrong. I was unethical. I lied. I’ll never do it again.” But don’t hold your breath. We’ve posted three articles today. Max Coltheart expresses scepticism over the fad for brain scans in education. I have written a piece on a UN ban on female genital mutilation, a challenging topic if there ever was one. And Jacqueline Laing writes from London about the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway – a protocol for dealing with dying patients. It is very relevant to the bitter American debate over Obamacare. Cheers, Read more...

Royal baby joy

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 06:26:54 GMT

Hi there, The most cheerful news of the week has to be the announcement that a royal baby is on the way in Britain, and MercatorNet joins in congratulating the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on this beautiful development in their marriage. The fact that Kate is so sick takes the edge off the jubilation, at least for her, and one hopes very much that whatever remedies are available work for her. Probably the best cure would be complete isolation from the British media for several months and some restful private life with her husband and extended family. This, as articles we published earlier in the week highlighted, is a big ask for some of the nosiest paparazzi in the world but it would certainly say much for the sincerity of their esteem for the royal couple. A couple of our bloggers have posted thoughts on the royal baby. Sheila Liaugminas makes the pertinent observation that William and Kate are not just going to have a baby -- they already have one. Kate is less than 12 weeks pregnant and already the bookies are speculating on the baby’s sex, height, hair colour, name… This is not just a “potential baby” as children of that gestation are sometimes considered -- it is practically grown up and on the throne! On Demography, Shannon Roberts, who gave birth to her first child very recently, thinks it’s a shame that Kate had to tell the world so early. She writes: “Of all people, William and Kate I’m sure would have appreciated more time to get their heads around the pregnancy and to be sure that it will go to term. However, hopefully all goes well for Kate and she gives birth to another healthy royal baby around July next year!” Amen to that. Royal pregnancy joy contrasts strongly with the situation in Canada where there is no legal protection whatsoever for the unborn child. Margaret Somerville in her article tackles the difficult question of what can be done in this situation when political reality rules out making all abortion illegal. Her suggestion deserves careful consideration -- and courteous comment (please). In other new articles: Shawn Murphy reviews an important new book for those engaged in the marriage debate; George Friedman examines possible scenarios in Egypt; and Harley Sims, on the 75th anniversary of the first publication of The Hobbit, has written a lovely appreciation of that story and other gifts of Tolkien’s imaginative genius. I look forward to enjoying a bit more of that in my holiday reading. Cheers, Read more...

Back from conference leave

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 13:38:08 GMT

Hi there, While Carolyn, assisted by William West, were slaving over hot keyboards (thanks very much!), I went on a jaunt to Rome and London. The technical name for this is a conference. Mine was sponsored by Intermedia, an international clearinghouse for innovative media projects, which asked me to give a presentation on MercatorNet. I came away with a few good ideas which we may be rolling out in the next few months. The powwow was held in a conference centre outside of Rome in the village of Castel Gandolfo. This is an incredibly picturesque spot perched on the rim of a volcanic lake. The mediaeval popes built a summer residence there and named it after the wizard in The Lord of the Rings. Or so it appears, although I admit to being insufficiently versed in Italian to read the explanatory placards. Which brings me to the problem with Europe. Not the Eurozone crisis, but something even more intractable and sad, Europe’s isolation. Admittedly, Europeans do have a lot of impressive ruins and murky paintings with beautiful gilded frames and such-like, but they are so dismally distant from the centre of things. It takes them nearly 24 hours to fly to Sydney. It would be so much better if at least some of the unused bits – the ones which are haunted by Rome’s quadrillion cats, for instance – could be exported. There is quite a bit of room Down Under. It could be done, you know. London Bridge is now in Arizona. I don’t wish to paint too dark a picture of a continent which has given so much to the world but there is also the issue of linguistic isolation. I actually encountered large numbers of people who don’t speak English. I tackled this in two ways. My favourite was to speak slowly and loudly. The other, which I found more challenging, is to speak the lingo. The lingua franca of the Intermedia conference was Spanish, of which I know a few words, mostly pleasantries about the weather and the whereabouts of certain facilities. To my consternation, I could hear my own Spanish sentences collapsing into a jumble of wrong tenses and moods and genders. My conversations invariably commenced with interlocutors listening with benevolent condescension, but swiftly changing to fidgety bafflement. Then they started speaking fluent English. Wouldn’t it be better if all these talented people just spoke English from birth? This system works quite well in Australia. One continent, one language; more efficiency, less stress. I recommend it. Back to the business end of things, we have a forum on the Leveson Inquiry. For anyone interested in the future of the media, this is a must. Iver Gaber gives an overview of the landmark report; Michael Kirke reflects on media standards in Ireland; and I examine Leveson’s views on privacy. That’s not all, of course. Francisco Tatad, a former Senator in the Philippines, exposes the scandalous machinations of overseas NGOs in the local push for population control. And Meg McDonnell wonders whether Obama won because he wedded younger women to the welfare state. Cheers, Read more...

The Hobbit: a much anticipated premiere

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 08:28:34 GMT

Hi there, Tremendous excitement in the New Zealand capital this week: the first of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films had its premiere in Wellington, with a plane-load of the cast and other visitors in attendance. Tens of thousands of fans turned out in the balmy, early summer afternoon to greet them, many in full Middle-earth drag and sporting large furry feet or elfish ears or wizard hats and beards. Stars of the movie repaid their devotion with a generous number of signatures, while Andy Serkis (Gollum) ran the entire length of the 600 metre red carpet and back high-fiving fans along the way, and gave TV viewers a thrill with a sound-bite in his “preciousss” voice. It was a scene of pure happiness, and a joy to behold because, honestly, there are a lot of things people go wild over that are far less worthy of adulation than a Peter Jackson version of a Tolkien story. The books, which I only discovered for myself a decade ago, are marvellous works of imagination, utterly absorbing and at a certain level utterly real -- but, best of all, inspired by a worldview that is noble and optimistic. As for the movies, I’d be less than patriotic if I thought they were less than wonderful. After all, with one significant wideshot of the New Zealand landscape about every 10 minutes (according to one preview) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has to be a boon for our tourism industry. And now for the serious stuff over the past week. A momentous vote in the UN in favour of Palestinian statehood has grabbed the headlines today and leads in an article by UK contributor, Peter Smith, on the necessity of the two-state solution to Palestinian-Israeli conflict and practical steps towards it aimed at improving life for the people of Gaza as soon as possible. George Friedman also mentions Gaza but focuses more on the independence movement in Catalonia -- something that, in line with resurgent nationalism elsewhere, is “moving from the realm of the preposterous to that of the almost conceivable,” he says. A fascinating study relating to divorce and ageing by Teresa Cooney and Christine Proulx of the University of Missouri is the subject of the article “Till death do us part”. Denyse O’Leary reviews a book tracking the suppression of free speech in universities in name of equality; interestingly, the atheist author was shocked to discover how badly Christian groups are treated on campuses. Jenet Erickson points out that men don’t mother (no matter what the “genderless parenting” enthusiasts say); Seamus Grimes reports on a trip to Kenya and finds that even at the World Bank they are far from worried about its population growth. And Mary Cooney, with the help of friends -- moms all of them-- comes up with a spirited riposte to a New York Times article that “priced” the raising of a child at nearly $2m! Happy reading, Read more...

Making a meal of Thanksgiving

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 04:33:16 GMT

Hi there, I am writing this as America turns off the lights on Thanksgiving Day. It seems to me that folks there are lucky to have a big family celebration in addition to Christmas -- which in my country carries pretty well all the symbolic weight that is spread over two feasts in the US. Sheila Liaugminas and Katie Hinderer (Tiger Print) have both written beautiful posts on their respective blogs (highly recommended reading) listing small and great things that they give thanks for. One of Katie’s is “The architecture of Chicago” where she travels to her new day job, having moved recently from Boston to the Midwest. Thanks, Katie, and our other bloggers, who all have day jobs, for keeping all the balls in the air. Gratitude is an endearing and very civilising habit which helps you to notice more and more things in people and all around them that are good and admirable. I suspect it is the key, or one of them, to correcting the besetting sin of the 21st century, namely, approaching creation as something just to be used and exploited rather than, in the first instance, as something to be received, admired, understood -- and give thanks for. This is an idea (not original) I’m working on. Some people find reasons to be grateful in rather unlikely events. A volcanic eruption is not everyone’s idea of a blessing, but when one of New Zealand’s active volcanoes rumbled and spouted a plume of thick grey smoke from a vent on Wednesday -- terrifying a group of schoolchildren nearby -- the local tourist industry was thrilled to bits. “Fantastic for business,” said one tour guide. “People love being near it, they come to gawk at a truly active volcano…” Current affairs, unfortunately, seldom deliver unmixed blessings. In our new articles this week, Constance Kong hopes for the best but prepares for more of the same under China’s new Politburo; Bradley Miller describes the negative impact of same-sex marriage on human rights and the institution of marriage after 10 years; Michael Kirke writes from Ireland about opportunistic furore over the country’s abortion law following the death of a woman who was miscarrying; and my piece looks at the implications of the large Latino vote for Obama. Ronan Wright reviews a movie about the 1979 Iran-US hostage crisis. On a positive note, William West reviews a new book that offers many facts and reflections that could be useful for those who are trying to turn the tide against the abortion of disabled babies. Final word: if you missed the newsletter on Tuesday it’s because there wasn’t one. I should have warned you last Friday. And there won’t be one next Tuesday either while Michael Cook is still away. After that, back to normal -- until Christmas. Oh yes, one more thing: thanks to all who read, like, comment, pass on, and variously support MercatorNet. We do appreciate you. Read more...

Reading for the politically disenfranchised

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:20:30 GMT

Hi there, We publish many original articles in MercatorNet that I consider must-reads, but today’s leading article from our partner site The Public Discourse (a power-house of scholarly comment on today’s burning issues) is one out of the bag. It is actually a book review written by Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Philadelphia, before the recent US elections. He acknowledges that elections are “tough times” for today’s serious Catholics -- or any committed Christian -- who may feel, as the US Catholic Bishops collectively stated, “politically disenfranchised, sensing that no party and few candidates fully share our comprehensive commitment to human life and dignity.” And that’s a feeling not confined to America. Yet the Archbishop offers no counsel of despair. Rather, he draws from the book, The Unintended Reformation by Notre Dame historian Brad S. Gregory, a compelling diagnosis of exactly what ails our Western societies (a world where meaning is self-invented and meaninglessness is the public philosophy) and prescribes a remedy that is within everyone’s reach. And don’t be fooled by the title into thinking that it was all the Protestant reformers’ fault. The book clearly gives no quarter to the Catholics who have brought the faith into disrepute over the centuries. This is one I am definitely going to read -- on my Kindle. (I’ll just check the exchange rate first…) Also in today’s list: Margaret Somerville looks at the deeper questions raised by a massive corruption scandal in Quebec; Martin Cullen, a Sydney intensive care specialist, regrets the way euthanasia talk is putting up barriers between doctors and patients’ families, and Paul Cullen objects to efforts to change the terms of the euthanasia debate; and George Friedman explains how the global strategic situation gives the United States some much-needed breathing space. Good reading, Read more...

On sacred cows

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 12:28:41 GMT

Hi there, I am told on good authority that sacred cows make the best hamburger -- and this week’s articles support this hypothesis. The first of these, by Thomas Coy, asks why the health risks of gay sex are being ignored, while the health risks of smoking are publicised far and wide. It’s a provocative article full of intriguing statistics. Then Walter Schumm analyses a controversial study by sociologist Mark Regnerus. You may recall that Dr Regnerus nearly lost his job earlier this year because he had the temerity to find that gay parenting often resulted in poor outcomes for adults. Dr Schumm doesn’t whitewash the study, but he finds that pro-gay researchers use the same methodology. Finally, I have responded to the news that Australia is going to have a royal commission into child sex abuse. Perhaps this will clear the air and vindicate the efforts of the Catholic Church to clear the decks and start afresh. I shall be taking holidays so you will only receive the Friday newsletter for the next two weeks. Carolyn Moynihan will be at the helm. Please send your news tips and suggestions to her. Cheers, Read more...

Forward? No, back!

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 05:21:39 GMT

We have mentioned before in this newsletter the wonderful British website World Wide Words, run by Michael Quinion. It is a treasury of information on the evolution of the English language since goodness knows when, and it recently drew my attention to a very useful neologism: Looking back If you have a secret yearning for the good old days and a general distaste for our contemporary culture, you may be a retrophile. Retrophiles yearn for the simplicity of earlier times, without all those complicated electronics that seem to be taking us over, when people were polite to one another and strangers didn’t call you by your first name and when films had plots rather than just sequences of computer-generated mayhem. The condition is called retrophilia. I had a bad attack of retrophilia this week as the US election results came in, homesick for the days before anyone thought of anything as simultaneously ridiculous and sinister as same-sex marriage, let alone persuaded people who are quite sane in other ways to vote for it. Whether or not anything else changes in the US over the next four years, the advance of this “cause” now looks assured. I write from New Zealand where President Obama has been invoked as the inspiration for a redefinition of marriage bill now in our parliament. Forward! Says the US Commander in Chief. No, Back! I say. Back to sanity. Back to basics. Back to the moment before we got so carried away with our own cleverness that we imagined we could reinvent human nature… As I said, it’s a bad attack, but here’s something on the real way forward from an American I admire a lot -- Helen Alvare, a professor of law and founder of a movement giving a voice to women who do not see free morning after pills as a human right. She wrote yesterday: Well, I guess I see it this way... We cannot fool ourselves for a minute that the main work we have to do is anything but cultural -- at the level of ideas and practices. We will continue to press our cause before every branch of government, of course, but each of us, working in our spheres of influence, will likely do our most important work where we live. One of the women on WSFT wrote me yesterday saying that she was worried that if the Republicans won, we would fool ourselves (again) that politics could save us. It is clear as can be at this moment (again) that it will do nothing of the kind...if anything, our government is growing more and more secular in the manner of the secularism one sees in various European nations. To finish the week we have a couple of articles that are not about the elections. Harley Sims reviews a book by the (gay) American literary critic Bruce Bawer on victimology in higher education, and Francis Phillips writes a moving and uplifting account of her last hours with her brother Johnny. May he rest in peace. Good reading, Read more...

The race which stops the nation

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 04:57:40 GMT

Hi there, As usual, in the office sweep I picked the horse with the longest odds in this afternoon’s Melbourne Cup. I don’t know why this always happens to me. Tac de Boistron was a French six-year-old whose career best was getting beaten by a short head in Paris. A week ago, he finished 6th out of 7 in Geelong. His odds in The Cup were 100 to 1. Well, only three horses ever won The Cup at 100 to 1 and the last of those was in 1940. As I said before, it always happens to me. However, the gala race on Tuesday, 6 November 2012, is taking place in the USA. The odds are much shorter on Mitt Romney, but the bookies are still favouring Barack Obama by a short head. We’ll see what happens in a few hours’ time. MercatorNet is dignitarian, not liberal or conservative, and certainly not Democrat or Republican. We don’t like taking sides in partisan politics. But today’s election will have an impact on human dignity which will ripple throughout the world. So we have to take a stand. All of the issues raised in this campaign affect human dignity in some way or other. Health care, management of the economy and foreign affairs are particularly important. But the bedrock of society is the family. An Administration which fails to support the institution of the family stumbles at the first hurdle. President Obama’s track record on this is dismal. He began his term by unequivocally backing abortion rights and he has ended it with a strong endorsement of gay marriage. The appointments he makes to the Supreme Court will extend these attitudes far beyond his second term. Whatever Mitt Romney’s other shortcomings, he and his running mate Paul Ryan are committed to defending the rights of the unborn and of the traditional family. They deserve the support of MercatorNet readers who are voting today. Later this week, we will post an election special, with analysis from our contributors. Keep an eye on your in-box. Cheers, Read more...

The youth vote

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 09:30:49 GMT

Last weekend I was chatting with a young relative who has just turned 16 and asked him whether he felt ready to vote - not just on which political party should govern New Zealand but on whether the country should be, say, a republic rather than a constitutional monarchy with, currently, Queen Elizabeth at the top. The question was prompted by a move in Scotland to extend the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds at the country's independence referendum in 2014, and I was secretly sceptical. "Well, no," said the 16-year-old, "because I don't know anything about it. But I could get the information and study it and then I suppose I could vote on it." Thinking about it further, I believe he could cast a considered vote, because he would be discussing it thoroughly with his parents and at school. If there were a conflict between the two -- home and school -- or even between mum and dad, I am not sure which view would win, but I am pretty sure the outcome would be determined by personal influence rather than "information". On a critical issue such as changing the form of government most of us would be consulting wiser heads than our own. So I am inclined to agree with Shawn Murphy, writing on the Scottish referendum question, that giving these younger teenagers the vote could encourage them to become thoughtful and responsible citizens. My big hesitation comes from thinking about other issues and who would influence them most. Take the question of same-sex marriage, or euthanasia. With parental influences you take your chances, but when it comes to schools, the dice seem loaded towards liberal views. A popular teacher, peer pressure, media campaigns -- young people just beginning to assert their independence of parental views are more susceptible to these things. On balance, under present circumstances, I think maybe not. What do you think? In other articles today: Zac Alstin ponders a crisis in the Australian parliament over "misogyny" and informs us on an important point of grammar; Scott Yenor shows how some people are three steps ahead of where we think radical opinion is on marriage; Francis Phillips reviews a book by a major British writer who rediscovered the Christian faith after 20 years of atheism; Alma Acevedo asks whether skill at rhetoric should determine one's vote; and George Friedman questions the familiar election year trope concerning "deep divisions" in US society. Our Hurricane Sandy piece by Ed Blakely looks at the political opportunities nature has handed to both presidential candidates. Our concern, however, is for all those whose cities, neighbourhoods, homes and lives have been devastated by the storm. Above is a remarkable picture from the Wall Street Journal that Reading Matters editor Jennifer Minicus, who lives in New Jersey, sent us today - showing a shrine of Our Lady intact among storm wreckage. May she speed the recovery! All the best, Read more...

Can Christianity bounce back?

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 05:57:44 GMT

Hi there, The number one most-emailed article in the New York Times at the moment is Thomas Friedman’s “Why I am pro-life”. Friedman is a regular columnist and Pulitzer-winning author. He is opinionated, clever and insightful, but also a supporter of abortion rights, so I was intrigued by the headline. “Respect for the sanctity of life, if you believe that it begins at conception, cannot end at birth,” he thunders. What about gun control? What about biodiversity? What about free breakfasts in underprivileged schools? I detected a link here to this week’s focus on the theme of “Can Christianity bounce back?” For 2000 years Christianity has provided a framework for moral argument. In recent years, however, this has been dismantled in some countries and is looking rather shabby in others. This is unfortunate because without clear ideas on ethics, people get their priorities quite muddled. Friedman is a classic example. He claims that the most pro-life politician in America is Michael Bloomberg. Why? Because the New York mayor has banned smoking in bars and parks and giant sugary drinks, all of which are killers. I am no expert on public health, but it seems a tad inconsistent to be pro-choice about the lives of babies and anti-choice about cigarettes and Fanta. Perhaps Friedman sees something in Bloomberg’s moral rectitude that I don’t. More likely he is just very confused. Clarifying moral priorities is one good reason why we all have a stake in the revival of a vigorous and intellectually robust Christianity. Benedict XVI sees this clearly. He has just concluded a gathering of the world’s Catholic bishops in Rome for a pow-wow about re-Christianising the West. He is optimistic and so are our contributors. Edward Pentin reviews the legacy of the landmark Second Vatican Council; yours truly has written about alternative visions of salvation; and we interviewed Mike Aquilina about the first Christianisation, back in the first 400 years of the Christian era. I almost forgot – Happy Halloween for those Americans who are not shuttered inside, waiting for Hurricane Sandy to finish his destructive work. To mark the occasion, I have speculated a bit about the bioethics of zombie euthanasia. Cheers, Read more...