Archive for August, 2009

Israel Sees Secret Holocaust Plans

Published August 27, 2009 Israel 2 Comments
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On an official visit to Germany, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu received an unusual gift.  This gift was a set of plans for the Nazi Holocaust.  (It was not an “official gift”, but rather one from a private citizen, a newspaper publisher.  The official gift was an iPod loaded with the speeches of Angela Merkel.)

The documents, “which include architects’ drawings of rooms including one marked ‘Gaskammer’, or gas chamber…”, gave Netanyahu a welcome opportunity to remind the world that the next round of the Holocaust is being prepared right now in Teheran.  Continue reading ‘Israel Sees Secret Holocaust Plans’

Fouad Ajami explains Obama

Published August 24, 2009 Obama 1 Comment
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Fouad Ajami, writing in the Wall Street Journal, gives a breathtaking summary of the Obama presidency so far.  His overview: “a political economy of redistribution and a foreign policy of American penance.”

He compares Obama with Reagan; in both elections, Americans were losing faith in their country.  Reagan embodied and re-asserted that faith, while Obama promised to fix America and make it worthy of our faith.

This is an excellent analysis.  Read it.  Now!

Rene Girard, scapegoats, and the next Holocaust

Published August 15, 2009 religion 2 Comments
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One of the most original thinkers of our time, Rene Girard, has an excellent article in First Things (one of the most important publications of our time), entitled “On War andApocalypse“.

He reviews his theory of mimetic rivalry and scapegoating, and then offers some related reflections on modern Islamism.  It is most thought-provoking, as RG often is.  And this is clearer than much of his writing (he is, after all, a Frenchman.)  Continue reading ‘Rene Girard, scapegoats, and the next Holocaust’

Leszek Kolakowski, 1927-2009

Published August 7, 2009 philosophy Leave a Comment
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by Mister Moleman’s philosophical friend John Doolittle

One of the greatest of modern thinkers passed away last month.  Leszek Kolakowski was rightly known for his searing critique of Communism, embodied in his magisterial 1978 survey, the 3-volume Main Currents of Marxism.  The 20th century had crushed his every favorable illusion about Communism (as it did for virtually every other Pole).  He exposed the ugly philosophical reality of Marxism as thoroughly as Alexander Solzhenitsyn exposed its hideous physical reality.  With Main Currents and Gulag Archipelago on a bookshelf, and only The Black Book of Communism between them, no library really needs another volume on the subject. Continue reading ‘Leszek Kolakowski, 1927-2009′