Month: May 2023

The Risible Case For Reparations

The irony of non-slaves seeking to profit from ancestral slavery via those who were never slave owners is difficult to ignore.

Norma Lacks a Flame

Sonya Yoncheva lacked that flame in crucial moments, though comparative listening across performances suggests that Maurizio Benini’s pedestrian conducting may well have been the culprit.

Erdoğan vs Atatürk: A Conflict of Values

A generation of Turks, craving modernization and disappointed in the current government, associate their dreams and desires for a democratic Turkey with the name of Atatürk.

Housing Loans Hardest To Get Since 2011

According to the data and predictions of economists, the worst of the inflation spike may have passed but interest rates will still go up in the coming months and banks will be hawkish, imposing the tightest requirements for lending since 2011.

Nationalism and Freedom: Thirty Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Nationalism and Freedom: Thirty Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall

“Who are we, what holds us together, and how do we stay together so as to bear our burdens as a community? For conservatism is about national identity.”
— Sir Roger Scruton

Brussels Backs Forced Buyouts of Dutch Farmers

Brussels Backs Forced Buyouts of Dutch Farmers

Dutch journalist Eva Vlaardingerbroek has compared the government’s decision to holding a “knife to the farmers’ throats,” with officials still considering the use of mandatory purchase orders on up to 3,000 farms.

May 2, 2023
Ireland Set To Pass Far-Reaching Hate Speech Laws

Ireland Set To Pass Far-Reaching Hate Speech Laws

Barely covered by Irish media, news about the bill soon reached the likes of Twitter’s Elon Musk and Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, who promptly slammed it.

Austrian Authorities Side With Climate Protesters Over Disrupted Citizens

Austrian Authorities Side With Climate Protesters Over Disrupted Citizens

The ongoing dispute raises difficult questions over the tension between the right of individuals to protest and the level of acceptable disruption for those trying to go about their lives.

May 2, 2023
Queen Elizabeth and Christian Monarchy, Part II: Restoration of the Christian Ideal

Queen Elizabeth and Christian Monarchy, Part II: Restoration of the Christian Ideal

One reason why we forget that the ideal of monarchy expressed in the British coronation rite was once the ideal of all Europe. The ideal has survived no-where else.

May 2, 2023
Centrist Bill To Abolish Pension Reform?

Centrist Bill To Abolish Pension Reform?

The LIOT group announced its intention to propose a new bill to repeal the pension reform. They will focus specifically on the repeal of Article 7—the one that pushes back the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 years.

Positive EU Asylum Decisions Up 40%; Germany Takes in Most 

Positive EU Asylum Decisions Up 40%; Germany Takes in Most 

Accounting for 41% of all positive decisions made by EU member states, Germany by far registered the highest number of asylum requests granted in 2022.

May 2, 2023
Unprecedented Archaeological Find From Spain’s Tartessian Culture

Unprecedented Archaeological Find From Spain’s Tartessian Culture

Tartessians are generally thought to have been aniconic, abstaining from making anthropomorphic depictions of gods, but this discovery may challenge that theory.

French Senate Rejects European Regulation On Parenthood

French Senate Rejects European Regulation On Parenthood

If a third of the member states join the French challenge on the grounds of non-compliance with the principle of subsidiarity, the draft will have to be re-examined.

Pope Francis Celebrates Mass in Front of Tens of Thousands in Budapest 

Pope Francis Celebrates Mass in Front of Tens of Thousands in Budapest 

The pontiff prayed for peace to come to Ukraine and “a future of hope, not war; a future full of cradles, not tombs; a world of brothers and sisters, not walls.”

May 2, 2023
The Portuguese Right Unites Against Lula’s Visit

The Portuguese Right Unites Against Lula’s Visit

Chega managed to host the largest demonstration ever against a foreign head of state—and, in another first, secured unity among disparate factions of the Portuguese Right, which usually compete rather than cooperate.

Ten Years of Gay Marriage: How the French Right Gave Up the Fight

Ten Years of Gay Marriage: How the French Right Gave Up the Fight

The abandonment of the fight against gay marriage by the political class on the Right tells us a lot about one of the favourite weapons of progressivism: creating the appearance of an ineluctable process.