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WaPo – IOC failing in its responsibility to the Olympics, by Sally Jenkins

As the Vancouver Games come to a close, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge will call them a success. But it’s the IOC — so incubated in blue blazers, five-star accommodations, and shellfish buffets — that requires real assessment. Exactly what [...]

Categories: Sports and Leisure

Der Spiegel – Christianity’s Modern-Day Martyrs

The rise of Islamic extremism is putting increasing pressure on Christians in Muslim countries, who are the victims of murder, violence and discrimination. Christians are now considered the most persecuted religious group around the world. Paradoxically, their greatest hope could come from moderate political Islam. By SPIEGEL staff.

One [...]

Categories: Geography and Foreign Affairs

A golden (get it?!) oldie from Mark Steyn, from New Criterion, September, 2007:

The same networks which offer drearily parochial coverage of the Olympics to the point where you’d barely know there were any other countries competing except as exotic background extras in a Team USA victory parade insist after the commercial break that [...]

Categories: Sports and Leisure

Mark Steyn – THE SEDUCTIONS OF DECLINE

I don’t even know where to begin quoting this (RC2, who is probably better at hiding her straight razors than I, quoted it fairly extensively – and thoughtfully! – here, and as testament to the resilience of her state of mind, she manages to wade through a similarly-themed VDH [...]

Categories: Geography and Foreign Affairs

I’ve had a busy day of sitting places reading stuff on my phone. So much read, but no time to sit at the computer and link to any of it properly… So here, RC2 has a HUGE post on pretty much everything Copenhagen (with videos!):

Wheat & Weeds – “I Tried To Tell Them….”

That’ll keep you [...]

Categories: Science and Nature

Here’s the president’s speech yesterday, taken apart piece by piece, analyzed, criticized, and put back together again:

Wheat & Weeds – Will The Norwegians Think Twice?

There, that was easy.

Categories: War and Peace

OC Register – Mark Steyn: A leader of the free world not to be feared

The tireless Anne Bayefsky reported this week that the administration’s latest response to Iran’s nuclear provocations is to “start shifting our focus to the track of pressure.” It’s a good thing the diplomatic cable is a mostly metaphorical concept [...]

Categories: Geography and Foreign Affairs

Stephen Harper’s in China and Conrad Black has some interesting advice for him, but first:

National Post – Conrad Black: Between empires

In China, as in other traditionally non-Western countries, such as Russia and Japan (largely westernized as they are), there is a tension between the nativists and the Western emulators. To the minimal extent [...]

Categories: History

Telegraph Blogs – Daniel Hannan: At midnight last night, the United Kingdom ceased to be a sovereign state

[A] European state. Take a quick dekko at the definition set out in Article One of the1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States: “The state as a person of international law should possess [...]

Categories: Geography and Foreign Affairs

Via Wheat & Weeds again:

Der Spiegel – Obama’s Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World Stage

Barack Obama looked tired on Thursday, as he stood in the Blue House in Seoul, the official residence of the South Korean president. He also seemed irritable and even slightly forlorn. The CNN cameras had already [...]

Categories: Geography and Foreign Affairs

National Post – David Akin: Now we know why Stephen Harper doesn’t like you, Indian media tells Canadian counterparts

Apparently, we — the Canadian media travelling with Prime Minister Stephen Harper this week — ruffled a few feathers during our three days here. Here is a review of our coverage written by Sarabjit Jagirdar [...]

Categories: Geography and Foreign Affairs

An email to Jonah Goldberg:

Dear Jonah I am 34 years old, born in the U.S., raised as a (nominal) Muslim in Iran, and returned back to the U.S. in 1990 (thank Goodness). I converted to Catholicism in 2002, and became a reservist in the Navy (through the Direct Commission Officer [...]

Categories: War and Peace

Telegraph – Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi in exile: ‘I can’t sit and say nothing as Iran suffers’

He is far from sure that the West, notably America, is taking notice. “If they are holding up signs in English on the streets of Tehran it is not to practise their language skills, it is obviously [...]

Categories: Geography and Foreign Affairs

Telegraph Blogs – Nile Gardiner: European liberals are in shock over Barack Obama’s failures

Obama remains in many ways a quintessentially European politician, a firm believer in big government, large-scale state intervention, social liberalism, supranational institutions, and the projection of soft power abroad. His political philosophy is frequently more attuned to Brussels or Strasbourg [...]

Categories: Politics

Telegraph Blogs – James Delingpole: Enough eloquent excuses, Dave: the only place for a Conservative Britain in Europe is out

[T]he European Constitution has stolen British sovereignty; it will make us poorer, more highly regulated, less democratically accountable and less free. You cannot run an effective Conservative government within a Socialist Europe. You can’t. [...]

Categories: Geography and Foreign Affairs