joker123 2015 September » Jonathan Foreman

The Battle of Britain (Weekly Standard March 12, 2001)

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Is the Sun Setting on the United Kingdom? The Abolition of Britain – From Winston Churchill to Princess Diana, by Peter Hitchens A few years ago, I was hiking up to an observatory in Georgetown on the Malaysian island of Penang. On the steep, winding road to the top, I fell into conversation with a well-dressed [Read more…]

American soldiers really aren't spoilt, trigger-happy yokels (Daily Telegraph 25 July 2003)

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Whether the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein were self-inflicted or not, the military operation to capture them was immaculate. There were no American deaths, 10 minutes of warnings were given over loudspeakers, and it was the Iraqis who opened fire. So sensitive was the American approach, they even rang the bell of the house before [Read more…]

Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" Distorts History (Daily Telegraph 15 Jan 2003)

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Scorsese’s film portrays racist mass murderers as victims Martin Scorsese is rightly the most lauded living American film-maker – a beacon of integrity as well as a brilliant talent. But his bloody, visually gorgeous new epic, Gangs of New York, set in Civil War-era Manhattan, distorts history at least as egregiously as The Patriot, Braveheart or [Read more…]

"Gladiator" Review (NYPost May 5, 2000)

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Gladiator Kicks Butt MORE than just a welcome revival of the toga movie – a genre dead for more than 30 years, if you don’t count Bob Guccione’s gamy “Caligula” – “Gladiator” is an exhilarating, sweeping epic that begs to be seen on the largest possible screen. At times it’s surprisingly languorous for a modern actioner. [Read more…]

RIP Candida Royalle

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RIP Candida Royalle

So sad to hear of the death of my friend Candace Vadala, who under the name Candida Royalle (her website is here) was a pioneering maker of erotic films for women and a feminist fighter for free expression, having been a pornographic film actress in the 1970s. For the last few years she’d been working on [Read more…]

The Timothy Hunt Witch Hunt (Commentary Sept. 2015)

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What Really Happened in the Tim Hunt Affair and Why It Matters In 1983, the British biochemist Timothy Hunt discovered cyclins, a family of proteins that help regulate the life of cells. Eighteen years later, in 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Between June 8 and June 10 of this year, [Read more…]

Rwanda, Britain, and the Strange Case of General Karake (Politico Aug. 19, 2015)

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Rwanda, Britain, and the Strange Case of General Karake (Politico Aug. 19, 2015)

Why Does Europe Hound Rwanda – A self-reliant, tough, no-nonsense country is hard to patronize, perhaps? Supporters of Rwandan General Karenzi Karake celebrate after he was granted bail | Getty Travelers queuing at London’s Heathrow airport two months ago witnessed something peculiar: the very public arrest of Rwanda’s intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Karenzi Karake, as he was [Read more…]

Reparations for the Raj? Mr Tharoor, you must be joking! (Politico Aug 3, 2015)

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Reparations for the Raj? Mr Tharoor, you must be joking! (Politico Aug 3, 2015)

The controversial Indian politician Shashi Tharoor sparks a polemical debate at the Oxford Union LONDON — An Oxford Union debate in which a senior Indian legislator, Shashi Tharoor, made a very funny speech last week calling for Britain to make reparations to India for the sins of the Raj, ignited a social media firestorm that culminated [Read more…]

Elgin Debt Relief - A modest proposal to help Greece (Politico Jul.10, 2015)

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Elgin Debt Relief - A modest proposal to help Greece (Politico Jul.10, 2015)

Britain should help the Greeks out with the IMF; in return, Greece should relinquish the Marbles. Visitors look at the Parthenon Marbles, also known as the Elgin Marbles, at the British Museum in London | EPA There is  so much resentment and anger on both sides in the Greek debt crisis that you wish someone could [Read more…]