High culture and education do not, in themselves, improve peoples' behaviour. They enable bad people to be bad more effectively. (View Post)

Back in 1989, far too many took the view about Salman Rushdie, that you can't criticise a major religion and not expect retaliation. That informs a lot of rections. (View Post)

That, too, is a very thoughtful response. (View Post)

The Thirty Years War was bracketed by the Time of Troubles in Russia, and The Deluge in Poland/Lithuania, which cost millions of lives. Add in the violence in the British Isles, and the wars between … (View Post)

At the same time, we get the blame for permitting Jews to emigrate there. (View Post)