It passes the obvious to say that the internet offers a host of political and news commentary of a character the mainstream media disdain.  Over the last year or so there has been some considerable debate about the uneasy relationship between the two.  MSM journalists don’t like to be attacked from the fringes, and surely take much gratification from net journalism that descends into shoddiness and irresponsibility.  I bet, though, they would kill for the freedom of speech we take for granted.  It’s their rotten luck they don’t have it - and we do.  It must be intensely annoying to have us freely deride them as bought and paid-for hacks.

But lest you start to feel too sorry for them, just remember the sins of ommission which characterised MSM reporting at the outset of the Paris riots or the post-Katrina looting.  And just take a moment to read this piece from the Toronto Star.

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“There were two contrasting worlds in the 1960s, the tiny elitist world of Brian Jones, with its sex, drugs and decadence, and the real world, Frank’s world, which was still very grey.  Frank [Thorogood] was very bitter, and jealous of the kids who were reaping the benefits of what he had helped to create.  He was one of the forgotten generation who had won the war and survived terrible things, in his case losing an eye.  And they’d done it though discipline and self-control.  Then along came the 1960s with this ‘Let it all hang out’ attitude.  It was like a red rag to a bull.”

Film-maker Stephen Woolley, quoted in the Sunday Telegraph on his directorial debut with “Stoned”.

The film, of course, investigates the circumstances in which the ex-Stone came to be lying face-down in his swimming pool at Cotchford Manor in Sussex on the night of July 3rd 1969.  It alleges murder and is in part based on a book alleging the same. 

However Jones’ death occurred, it was a sad and sordid end.  Vice or viciousness, it really doesn’t matter.  But, as Woolley’s words show, “Stoned” has a sub-text which is much more interesting.

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In rejecting their own ethnic traditions liberals are left with a major problem. What is to hold society together, if not a common ancestry, culture, religion and history?

Australian intellectuals are especially fond of “imagining” new forms of national identity which will unify society. The latest effort is called “Australia: Ideas for our Future”. The authors of this work believe that there is an Australian tradition of mateship, tolerance and a fair go for all around which a unifying Australian identity can be based.

The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, has criticised this approach to an Australian identity in an article in today’s Age newspaper (not yet online).

He is, firstly and understandably, disappointed that the proposed national identity is entirely secular. He sees this as further proof of the declining position of Christianity in Australia. In his own words, “Frankly, Jesus is slipping out of memory and imagination.”

He then points out the limitations of the proposed identity, in words which demonstrate a mixture of clarity and confusion:

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Probably over this weekend MR will be upgraded to the latest ExpressionEngine package.  This will include an Open Forum and a number of other useful tweaks to the system.  So if you find we are off-line for a while that will be why.

Then over the ensuing days we will be making some general design changes, including garnering our science material into a single resource available at the click of a button on the side-bar.  Again, some unavoidable but brief service interruptions will be occasioned.  Our apologies for that.  But we expect the end-result to be worth it.

Thanks, as ever, for your interest and your fantastic commenting support, and please stay with us to help develop the blog and all the arguments for majority rights.

The EE guys performed their mysterious deeds today, in fact.  We will now set about making the required design changes.

The Forum carries a risk, I agree.  But it also gives the blog an extra, somewhat democratic dimension.  I think it’s worth a try.  If the tone descends into personal abuse we’ll IP-ban the offenders, naturally.  But actually, the experience civility-wise has been remarkably good thusfar, and I’m hopeful that won’t change.

The government of Zimbabwe after starving its population by driving the Germanic farmers from their lands—farmers who had accepted Mugabe’s invitation to stay in Zimbabwe and build a more “integrated” nation—now is to “cede land to the Chinese” a “fast growing nation”, in an attempt to bolster agricultural production.

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Yesterday evening I took my daughter to Brighton College to see the inimitable and wholly entertaining Joanna MacGregor in concert.  The experience, both visceral and cerebral, left me pondering – and that, in turn, left me searching all today for a quiet moment in which to fix some of those thoughts.

A Joanna MacGregor concert is, within the small, refined world of classical piano performance, an event.  She brings to the platform so many conflicting qualities – thorough-going unconventionality, inner simplicity and warmth, a distinct impression of personal frailty, a quite awesome power when called upon, a high cerebral capacity, utterly eclectic tastes – one can only call her, in contemplation of the fusion of these things, an artist.  Quite probably, she is a unique artist.  Certainly, she is a unique individual.

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Michel Pajon, the socialist mayor of Noisy-le-Grand near Paris, has gone on state radio to denounce the appalling violence which has occurred in his town. He said,

“Women have been made to stop on the streets of my town. They were dragged from their cars by their hair, they were practically stoned and their cars were set ablaze…

“The situation is absolutely dramatic and unacceptable. This is a real scandal. I sound the alarm bell in my town. If the state is incapable of defending us, we will have no choice but to defend ourselves.

“My town has a psychiatric hospital which has been attacked with molotov cocktails. This is beyond comprehension. I have never seen anything like this in my entire life. I do not ask for the resignation of the Interior Minister [Nicolas Sarkozy]. I want him to do his job. At the moment he is not doing his job.

“Send in the army? I do not know, for a socialist to say that the army has to intervene is an inconceivable admission of defeat, but what I can say is that one cannot abandon the people like this. At some point we need to know whether this country still has a state.”

Women dragged from their cars by their hair and then “practically stoned”? Hospitals attacked with molotov cocktails? It sounds as if in some parts of France the situation on the ground has been much worse than the mainstream media is letting on.

The debate between Jared Taylor and Steve Sailer continues at VDARE. I was particularly impressed by the following fine words in Taylor’s latest article:

“Whites have a duty to their ancestors and an obligation to their children. Duty does not calculate the chances of success, as Mr. Sailer would have us do. Duty calls us to what is right.

“My children deserve a country in which they can be proud of their heritage, where their culture is taken for granted, where their history is not treated like a criminal record, where they can be confident their own children will walk in the ways of their ancestors.

“Indeed, all children deserve this—not just mine. This is why multi-culturalism and multi-racialism are frauds ... Every people should have the right to pursue its destiny, free from the unwanted embrace of others.”

Politics is an art, in which, amongst other things, we are called to put forward what is best in our own experience in order to inspire others to support our cause.

I think Taylor has achieved this in his reply to Steve Sailer. In doing so he is providing some sorely needed political leadership.