Bill Muehlenberg's Culture Watch
Gimme a little respect
February 4, 2010
In something straight out of a George Orwell novel, the Victorian government has recently appointed an MP to become ‘Minister for Respect’. With all due respect – pun intended – this has to be a national first, perhaps a world first.
Read more...Advertising abortion truthfully
January 30, 2010
If the MSM can push along social agendas by its use of imagery, it can do the same by not using certain images. When was the last time you saw a graphic image of the “product of abortion” in the MSM?
Read more...Tony Abbott and media hysteria
January 30, 2010
It is perfectly predictable: have a politician from the conservative side of politics make a quite sensible remark about family issues, and the secular left goes absolutely ballistic.
Read more...Kids gone wild
January 19, 2010
“Rather than being accused, suspected bullies are merely spoken to and encouraged to think of ways to help a bullied student cope.” Well, that should certainly make the bullies think twice, shouldn’t it?
Read more...Thought Police and Big Brother
January 6, 2010
Even by French standards, this proposed new law is really quite bizarre. A bill may soon be passed by the French parliament in which “psychological violence” will be made a crime. Really folks, I am not making this up.
Read more...Scaring Our Kids to Death (To Save the Planet)
December 9, 2009
The four-minute opening video at the Copenhagen Summit was a propaganda piece which would have made Goebbels proud. Entitled “Please Help the World,” it has all the hallmarks of a Hollywood end-of-the-world blockbuster. Loaded with emotional hysteria, moving imagery, and screaming children, it is indoctrination at its finest.
Read more...Working Toward Religious Freedom in Islam
November 23, 2009
Religious freedom is not exactly a hallmark of Muslim-majority countries. One of the most disconcerting features of Islam is the way “apostates” are treated. In Islam those who choose to leave the faith are regarded as traitors, and death is often the penalty.
Read more...Worshipping at the Altar of Tolerance
November 12, 2009
As people more and more reject the notion of absolute truth and universal morality, they do not remain without belief.
Read more...Rethinking Foreign Aid
October 19, 2009
What happens when economists from the developing world start to denounce much of what passes for Western overseas aid? That is exactly what one young woman from Zambia has done. Dambisa Moyo is an economist who has just penned an important new book on the subject.
Read more...Whither the Liberal Party?
October 12, 2009
Menzies was no saint, but he seemed to have a bit of vision, principle, and a set of core values. If the modern Liberals want to get back into power, they will need leaders with similar traits. Otherwise they may languish on the sidelines for some time to come.
Read more...Rethinking the Crusades
October 11, 2009
Dispelling the many myths about the Crusades takes guts, and someone with the right intellectual and academic qualifications. Rodney Stark is certainly the man for the job: he has become one of our finest writers on the sociology and history of religion, and is unafraid to go against the tide.
Read more...Islam and Polygamy
October 5, 2009
I have been utterly amazed to discover that a major newspaper recently carried an opinion piece by a Muslim spokesman advocating polygamy in Australia. The Melbourne Age evidently thought it was quite alright to actually run with this nonsense, presumably because it was being pushed by a Muslim.
Read more...Why This Unholy Alliance?
September 21, 2009
One of the great unresolved questions of recent history is why so many members of the Western left have become so besotted with and apologetic for ruthless totalitarian regimes. Whether the Soviet Union, Cuba, or Islamist Iran, there have always been Western leftists who have idolised these brutal regimes and preferred them to their own countries in the free and prosperous West.
Read more...Western Immigration and Global Jihad
August 31, 2009
There is always a moral asymmetry between the free West and its enemies. The West is meant to play by the rules, and it usually does. It seeks to conduct it affairs within a moral framework, and certain things are simply off limits. But the enemies of freedom and democracy know no such compunctions.
Read more...Forget the Kids, We’re Gonna Save the Planet
August 30, 2009
The truth is, there is a population crisis. But it is not over-population that we should be worried about, but under-population. Yet the alarmists continue to spin their tunes, urging us to reduce the number of children we have, if not remain childless altogether.
Read more...Punished For Speaking the Truth
August 3, 2009
There is one thing that can be counted on with absolute certainly in this relativistic world: there is a protected species which no one even dares to cross, certainly not in the mainstream media. This group can now get away with anything, and the MSM refuses to offer a contrary point of view.
Read more...How PC is Putting Us All at Risk
July 25, 2009
Political Correctness is certainly annoying, foolish and a pain in the neck. However, it can also be quite dangerous, especially when it is applied to issues of national security, policing and justice. In the attempt of our elites to make sure we do not offend anyone, ordinary citizens can find themselves in positions of real danger.
Read more...Reflections on the Revolution in France
July 20, 2009
Bastille Day, the French national holiday, was observed for the 220th time just recently in France. What happened on July 14, 1789 was to leave a lasting legacy on not only that nation but the world as well. How one views that legacy depends in part on where one stands on the political and ideological spectrum.
Read more...Rethinking Darwin
July 13, 2009
With this year being a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth, and the 150th anniversary of his Origin of the Species, there has been much hagiography produced about Darwin. It seems many biographies are trying to paint Darwin as a secular saint. A brand new biography is willing to ask hard question about his life and teachings.
Read more...In Europe its Lobsters In, Babies Out
July 13, 2009
What do you call a continent which cares more about the rights and wellbeing of crabs, lobsters, and even the common octopus, than it does about unborn babies? Just in case you cannot come up with anything, let me suggest a few possibilities: deranged, degenerate, despicable and delirious. And just to keep the alliteration going: dumb, really dumb.
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