The Iconoclast

by Theodore Dalrymple Anyone who has been to church in France will have noticed that the direction of the tide of evangelism has reversed. It used to be from France to Africa, but now it is from Africa to France. Many of the priests are African: they come to serve or convert the heathen who once ...Read More...

by Phyllis Chelser The great gravelly-voiced Bob Dylan, one of our nation’s premier troubadours and poet-singers, just released a new spoken song, accompanied by a piano and a piercing violin and it is one hell of a powerful and mournful elegy for America, beginning with the assassination of ...Read More...

There is a case to be made for draconian measures to reduce the overall number of infections and thus deaths, but putting the entire economy into abeyance and immuring the population rather than focusing on the vulnerable may cause more harm than good by Conrad Black The Canadian government’s ...Read More...

by Hugh Fitzgerald Here’s the latest unappetizing news from Iran: The organizer of the Iranian regime’s contest of caricatures trivializing the Nazi Holocaust has seized on a new theme — promoting the conspiracy theory that the US is behind the coronavirus pandemic. Masoud Shojaei-Tabatabaei ...Read More...

Albatross by Fleetwood Mac, written by Peter Green, one of the best guitarists of his generation.  The original line up from 1968. Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie.  Jeremy Spencer played with the band live during this period but wasn't involved in the recording of this piece. ...Read More...

by Hugh Fitzgerald Some 55 Palestinians in the West Bank are currently positive for coronavirus, and last Thursday [March 19] the first two cases were reported in the Gaza Strip — both Palestinians who returned to Gaza from Pakistan, via Egypt, and are now quarantined at Rafah. Prof. Eyal ...Read More...

Oh, where is Dr. Freud when one needs him? by Phyllis Chesler Who would ever have thought that anything could knock the pandemic of Jew hatred off the front pages? Well, the Chinese government has managed to do so. All day, every day, perhaps with the exception of some particularly malevolent ...Read More...

Which, if any, expert estimates should we take seriously? by Theodore Dalrymple I never listen to the radio, but back in 2008 I was in a taxi when I could hardly avoid doing so. A world-famous economist was being interviewed about the effects of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. ‘There might ...Read More...

Democratic Party bosses are sending an infirm and elderly mouse to bell a big, tawny, roaring cat. Anyone can see how it will end. by Conrad Black President Trump has met and passed his supreme test. This has left his Democratic opponents  desperately espousing gloom and demanding that the ...Read More...

by Hugh Fitzgerald Israel-haters have accused that country of, among other crimes, of deliberately creating and spreading the coronavirus, in order to harm Muslims. It does not matter that the coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan China, nor that the two countries most affected so far have been ...Read More...

by Michael Curtis It is more fitting to seek the truth of the matter rather than have imaginary conceptions. In the midst of the deepening coronavirus, Covid-19, crisis, which so far has caused more than 24,000 deaths, the truth about Russia policies and the intentions of President Vladimir ...Read More...

John McEnery as Mercutio in the 1968 film of Romeo and Juliet (very influential on my O-level studies).  The Queen Mab speech.      ...Read More...

by Adam Selene The plague struck London in 1665, devastating the city. Documented in a harrowing, yet highly readable account by Daniel Dafoe in his Journal of the Plague Year it includes lessons for “posterity.” The outbreak began when two men died of the plague in Long Acre, to the west ...Read More...

The president is already unlimbering the economic guns and starting to spike the dreams of those who hope that the economic consequences of the anti-coronavirus measures will lose the administration its reelection. by Conrad Black The political aspect of the coronavirus crisis is developing ...Read More...

by Phyllis Chelser Peach rose blossom on Hizkiyahu ha-Melekh Street, Jerusalem, photographed by Jaskow I have a friend who is a cantor, a composer, a singer, and a photographer of the most exquisite sights. She lives in Jerusalem and her name is Rahel Sharon Jaskow. She ought to have a dealer ...Read More...