Saturday Night Live has come under fire this weekend for having made the following joke: “Israel just announced it has now vaccinated half its population. I’m guessing it’s the Jewish half.” I can understand why some people think that any… Read More ›
Anti-Semitism
SELF-IDENTIFICATION
If what it is to be a woman, or Black, or Jewish, is just to publicly so self-identify, then all hell’s going to break loose. Some dirty ol’ man like me is going to saunter at will and unchallenged into… Read More ›
THE MEANING OF 6MWE
Until last Wednesday I was under the happy delusion that I was the most politically incorrect asshole on the planet. I now have to accept that I’ve been bested. For there, in the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, and… Read More ›
MY BOOK REPORT
I take it we’ve all heard of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. That it was an anti-Semitic forgery and yada yada yada. But how many of us had actually read it? I certainly hadn’t. Until last night…. Read More ›
PUSHBACK
There are no Italian restaurants in Italy. They’re just restaurants. Similarly, until the late Sixties there was no ‘conservative’ radio. There was just radio. The conservative media became ‘conservative’ only when the mainstream turned to the left. As a result,… Read More ›
THE HARMS RACE
According to John Stuart Mill, in a liberal democracy all is permitted save what is prohibited. And what can be prohibited must be demonstrably harmful. But what’s meant by harm? It can’t be just a setback of interests. Your opening… Read More ›
THE PLIGHT OF THE ANTI-SEMITIC SEMITE
Down the hall in the English Department, we have an otherwise highly respected colleague who believes, and I quote, that “Any criticism of the State of Israel is anti-Semitism.” I take this to mean that if the Israelis decided to… Read More ›
TRAVIS PATRON AND BERNIE FARBER
The application of Travis Patron’s newly minted Canadian National Party for tax-deductibility status, and the opposition to that status from Bernie Farber’s Canadian Anti-Hate Network, is the perfect test-case for just how far the rest of us are prepared to… Read More ›
AN OPEN LETTER TO MY AS-YET-UNINITIATED STUDENTS
Some university administrators, and a few of my colleagues, want to offer you a babysitting service, not for your children but for yourselves. And some of you got so used to it in high school that you want to be… Read More ›
CAUSE FOR CANONIZATION – PIUS XII AND THE CURA
Let’s start with a little Hohfeldian housekeeping. Arguably there’s no such thing as a duty to defend oneself from injury. But no one, save the most bone-headed pacifist, would deny one has a right to defend himself, to defend himself… Read More ›
