|
 8:46 AM, Apr 8, 2013 • By WILLIAM KRISTOLAnd now the last of them is gone. Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Pope John Paul II—three who won the Cold War and, it isn't too much to say, saved the West (at least for a while!)—are no longer with us. Their examples remain.
They knew what they believed but also knew they had to justify their beliefs, and that one could adjust prudently to circumstances without yielding on principle. They stood firm when in power, and they took risks to get there, challenging the conventional wisdom and the respective establishments of their nations or institutions. They were conservative but not nostalgic, and would counsel us today against excessive nostalgia for their deeds and their days. They would rather, I suspect, urge that we act in their spirit—what one might call a spirit of unapologetic but reformist conservatism.
Whittaker Chambers wrote at the end of his last letter to Bill Buckley, “Each age finds its own language for an eternal meaning.” So each age has to find its own leaders for an eternal task—the defense and renewal of civilization. The death of Margaret Thatcher is a healthy reminder to students of politics of the difficulty, the gravity, and also the nobility of this task.
Mar 25, 2013, Vol. 18, No. 27 • By THE SCRAPBOOKGood news for a change from Phnom Penh: Ieng Sary, brother-in-law of and cofounder with Pol Pot of Cambodia’s murderous Khmer Rouge movement, died last week. Or perhaps it wasn’t really good news. His heart (who knew he had one?) gave out before the Cambodian-U.N. tribunal had a chance to finish its proceedings and convict him of mass murder.
Read more... Mar 25, 2013, Vol. 18, No. 27 • By THE SCRAPBOOKGood news for a change from Phnom Penh: Ieng Sary, brother-in-law of and cofounder with Pol Pot of Cambodia’s murderous Khmer Rouge movement, died last week. Or perhaps it wasn’t really good news. His heart (who knew he had one?) gave out before the Cambodian-U.N. tribunal had a chance to finish its proceedings and convict him of mass murder.
Read more... Why the Bolshevik Revolution wasn't 'strangled in its cradle.'Feb 4, 2013, Vol. 18, No. 20 • By ANDREW STUTTAFORDWhen everything changes, what should be done?
Over 30 years after Ayatollah Khomeini lit the Islamic fire, the West is still fumbling its way to a proper response. Imagine, then, the challenge posed by the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. A key partner in the Allied war against Germany had just been hijacked by a fanatical cult intent on remaking the world, and the world had no clue what to do in reply.
Read more... Why the Bolshevik Revolution wasn't 'strangled in its cradle.'Feb 4, 2013, Vol. 18, No. 20 • By ANDREW STUTTAFORDWhen everything changes, what should be done?
Over 30 years after Ayatollah Khomeini lit the Islamic fire, the West is still fumbling its way to a proper response. Imagine, then, the challenge posed by the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. A key partner in the Allied war against Germany had just been hijacked by a fanatical cult intent on remaking the world, and the world had no clue what to do in reply.
Read more... Oct 15, 2012, Vol. 18, No. 05 • By THE SCRAPBOOKIn noting the death last week in London of Eric Hobsbawm, The Scrapbook observed its usual doctrine of de mortuis nil nisi bonum.
Read more... Beijing is flooding the region with investment. Should America be worried?10:00 AM, Jun 18, 2012 • By JAIME DAREMBLUMChina’s interest in South America is easily explained: The Asian giant has a voracious appetite for commodities and raw materials, including Argentine soybeans, Brazilian iron ore, Chilean and Peruvian metals, Ecuadorean and Venezuelan oil, and Uruguayan beef. Therefore, Beijing has expanded trade ties with governments across the resource-rich continent, from Caracas to Montevideo.
Read more... 4:42 PM, Jun 12, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPERToday's the twenty-five year anniversary of Ronald Reagan's powerful Brandenburg Gate address in Berlin, Germany. Watch here:
Read more... 12:05 PM, Dec 18, 2011 • By MICHAEL WARRENFormer Czech president Václav Havel died Sunday morning in his home in the northern part of the Czech Republic. Havel was the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic, serving in the latter office from 1993 to 2003. But Havel will be best remembered as the leader and soul of Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution in 1989.
Read more... The dark side of Chinese state capitalism.Oct 24, 2011, Vol. 17, No. 06 • By YING MA
Read more... The ongoing persecution of Christians in China.May 23, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 34 • By MEGHAN CLYNECommunist China has earned praise in the past few years for a perceived thaw in its strict opposition to religious observance—particularly Christianity. A visitor to China will see Christian churches out in the open; a printing facility in Nanjing is the largest Bible publisher in the world. There is the appearance, at least, of a faith that is free and tolerated.
Read more...
|
|
Facebook
Twitter
