Of all the student papers I've ever received, my favorite is the one that began: "As Karl Marx wrote in his famous book, Selected Writings of Karl Marx, . . . "It's the little touches that make teaching worthwhile. — Joseph Bottum (@JosephBottum) January 8, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The Telegraph headline – Transgender players to be banned from women’s hockey. What they mean, of course, is that men will be banned from women's hockey. By phrasing it like that they're playing right into the hands of the trans lobby, who'll portray this as yet more anti-trans prejudice. Transgender players will be banned from…

Back to the "Islamophobia" debate. From the Times: The definition of Islamophobia adopted by the Labour Party put “grooming gangs” in inverted commas and suggested that using the term in relation to Muslims was racist. The wording was contained in a report by an all-party parliamentary group (APPG) of MPs co-chaired by Wes Streeting, now…

Iran is down but not out, while Turkey and Sunni Islam are resurgent. Much of these developments are thanks to Israeli campaigns – notably the remarkable success of their effective destruction of Hezbollah as a force in the region. What prospects, then for the year ahead? Jonathan Spyer in the JC: With the inauguration of…

Islamic logic from US Shiite scholar Ahmad Qazwin. At MEMRI TV: Dearborn Heights Shiite scholar Ahmad Qazwini said at a December 13, 2024 Friday sermon at the Islamic Institute of America that it is impossible for a Muslim to lose against a Zionist on the battlefield, because the Muslim will either kill the Zionist and…

Charlie Hebdo editor-in-chief Gérard Biard, interviewed at Spiked: Because Charlie Hebdo is an atheist newspaper, we also defend secularism, which means the right to criticise and to mock religious dogmas and religious representatives, and having the right to blaspheme. The right to blaspheme is a right that has existed since the French Revolution. During the French Revolution,…

Another NHS case where a woman has to fight for somewhere to change in privacy, away from men. From the Times: A nurse suspended after she complained about a trans woman in a female changing room has beaten an attempt to gag reporting of her employment tribunal. The health worker claims her experiences amounted to…

Liitle joy at the Friday sermon in Yasuj, Iran for the (segregated) audience, as Imam Nassir Hosseini describes a Syria taken over by foreigners: "one half of Syria is occupied by the Turks, and the other half by the Zionists". The Zionist regime "attacked some of the places there with nuclear bombs". From MEMRI TV:…

It's ten years on from the Charlie Hebdo killings, and it doesn't make for an inspiring tale of lessons learned. Two Islamists, outraged by the magazine's printing of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, stormed into the Hebdo offices on 7th January 2014 and slaughtered twelve people, including eight members of the editorial staff. It was…

Russell Lee, February 1937. "Posey County, Indiana. Havoc wrought on farmland, highways, roads, farm buildings, equipment, homes by 1937 flood. Automobile after the flood on Mackey Ferry Road near Mount Vernon." [Photo: Shorpy/Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration]