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…]
The Battle of Britain (Weekly Standard March 12, 2001)
Essays/Book Reviews, Old Articles/Archive
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Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" Distorts History (Daily Telegraph 15 Jan 2003)
Film/History, Old Articles/Archive
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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)
Old Articles/Archive
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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
Blog
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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…]
Reparations for the Raj? Mr Tharoor, you must be joking! (Politico Aug 3, 2015)
Comment/OpEd, Film/History, Latest Articles, South Asia
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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)
Culture/Manners
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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…]
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…]