Miracles Of Life

When he was a boy, the author of Empire of the Sun lived the fall of Shanghai in grisly and excruciating detail. Now he has described the horrors he could not write about earlier. The Spectator describes JG Ballard and his last book, Miracles of Life -

No one would be allowed to have J. G. Ballard’s career nowadays. When you consider the life of the average English novelist, what Cyril Connolly called the poverty of experience seems almost overwhelming, as the budding writer moves from school to university to a creative writing MA and on to the two-book contract. It is as thin a body of lived experience as the average Labour Cabinet minister possesses.

Reading J. G. Ballard’s autobiography, you sometimes need to pause to remind yourself just how young he was at the time of many of the atrocious events described. At the point where most English autobiographies are just beginning, as the subject leaves university, enough horror has been lived through by Ballard to supply a lifetime’s imaginative transformations.

. . . It is worth noting, too, that Ballard’s career would simply not happen in the same way now. His transformations of genre fiction were, in part, made possible by the existence of a market for genre short stories — science fiction magazines in the 1950s and 1960s published a remarkable number of stories by what now seem classic writers. Those have all disappeared today, and it’s hard not to think that the future of English literature will be poorer as a result. Many of the great masterpieces of the English short story are genre stories — by Conan Doyle, M. R. James and P. G. Wodehouse, for example — and one can’t imagine where they would be published now. Ballard is the last of this distinguished line.

This is a remarkable autobiography, treating events which most of us can barely imagine with tranquil dignity and exactness. It is, Ballard says, his last book; he is terminally ill with cancer, and it ends with a moving tribute to the doctor who has made this final work, with its highly un- Ballardian title, possible. It has been a great career, and despite the wildness and provocations of many of his books, Ballard has carried out Matthew Arnold’s imprecation to ‘see life steadily and see it whole’. This is an unforgettable farewell.

Not tolerating the intolerant

We had an email response to our post on the Archbishop's much criticized remarks on Sharia from Debbie Krongard -

"The response from the majority of the British to the Archbishop's inane statement is indeed encouraging. Unfortunately, however, much more than rhetoric is needed to stop the death by a thousand pricks that European culture and ultimately statehood is facing. While people are standing up
and saying no to the Archbishop, they are at the same time saying "yes" to recognition of polygamous marriage of Muslims via welfare benefits, to self-censorship with regard to things that offend Muslims (pigs, Muhammad cartoons, co-ed swimming in public baths, etc). Unless those same people and newspapers, etc. start standing up in every little fight against creeping Islamism, it won't matter how many times they yell "No!" - one day they and you will all look around and realize that you are powerless to fight back anymore. . .

We are facing the same thing here in the U.S., though thankfully to a much lesser degree. In Minneapolis some Muslims tried to get it accepted that they not pick up people with seeing eye dogs (because to their way of thinking the dogs are unclean) or to carrying alcohol (because that is forbidden by their religion). They were thankfully defeated in that attempt. Every single one of these attempts to IMPOSE Islamic standards on the Western world must be resisted. We welcome people of all faiths and all countries to the U.S. - but they must come accepting our rules, our laws and our traditions. We must not continue to tolerate the intolerant!"

Sun's low magnetic activity may portend an ice age - UPDATE

You read it here first on 31 January.

Subsequently the story has been picked up by Popular Mechanics
and by Investor’s Business Daily.

Their writers both found Ken Tapping, or perhaps our post, fascinating, but despite our almost unqualified admiration for Popular Mechanics, we would like to note that their statement that “Solar influence on climate is slight compared to the impact of man-made greenhouse gases, a National Academy of Sciences report concluded in 1995” is complete nonsense. The mini ice age known as the Maunder Minimum was caused by the Sun’s dimming and directly contradicts the NAS, as does Canada Space Agency project director Ken Tapping. Despite believing that mankind’s activities contribute to global warming, Ken explicitly told us that in his estimation, "The Sun’s activity contributes to at least 50% of the warming and cooling on Earth."

New New poll shows 74% of British people want say on EU treaty

A new Global Vision/ICM poll finds that 74% of those surveyed want their say on the EU Lisbon constitutional Treaty in a referendum.

Plus, when asked who should control specific policy areas, respondents were overwhelmingly against the European Union. This includes policy areas - such as trade and agriculture - where the EU already has exclusive competence to control policy, as well as those - Foreign Affairs and Defence - where the new Treaty envisages the EU playing an increasingly dictatorial role. Poll details here.

If you are British, advise your MP to vote against ratifying this stealth treaty which is illegal under the British Constitution. The Bill of Rights declares that Britain's sovereignty may NOT be given away to a foreign power.

A vision of hospitality - The Right Reverend Dr Michael Nazir-Ali

The Right Reverend Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, "has been placed under police protection following death threats made in the wake of his claims that Islamic extremists are creating 'no-go areas' for non-Muslims in Britain."

QED. The threats demonstrate his point.

A few days ago the bishop explained -

"The purpose of my article was to point out that the best way for welcoming and integrating newer arrivals in this country should have been a Christian vision of hospitality and not the secular policy of multiculturalism which has led to such disastrous consequences."

If we read the bishop correctly, his vision of hospitality would affirm that Britain is a country that welcomes people who respect British traditions of reason and the dignity and equality of all individuals, including women, under the law. Consequently people who prefer multiple wives, genital mutilation, and honour killings would not come to Britain, and if they did, they would change their primitive tribal practices to follow Britain’s traditions, since respecting the traditions of a host is the courtesy that a guest rightfully accords a host.

Grounded in Judaeo-Christian moral teachings, Britain's Common Law created a society marked by trust, incorruptible officals, competence, individual rights, scientific and artistic advances, and prosperity. The bishop is right to believe that trading this for a multiculturalism distinguished by its lack of culture and common sense has been a disaster.

To thine own template be true

The blog Churchill’s Parrot recently posted a provocative post on race and philosophy (and linked to this website's Liberty Timeline.) CP quotes James C. Bennett, author of The Anglosphere Challenge -

"Recent DNA evidence has shown that a substantial core of the British population has a genetic commonality going back over 13 millennia and a surprising cousinage to the pre-Indo-European Basque population of Europe. Throughout its history, Britain has seen waves of settlers arriving and intermingling with this ancient stock. Its daughter nations, and particularly America, have been enormously successful in maintaining the unique template of its society and culture while integrating waves of immigrants, both voluntary and involuntary, into that template. This strongly suggests that the unique strengths of Anglosphere society lie in the template rather than the materials it organizes.

Our common heritage is not racial, but philosophical - we share a template - The Freedom Network.

Defending freedom of speech in Canada - update

We described Canadian publisher Ezra Levant's battle to defend freedom of speech in Canada . Both he and writer Mark Steyn are under attack by the Canadian Islamic Congress for the "crime" of offending them with their published thoughts under Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Deborah Gyapong has just reported that Liberal MP Keith Martin has introduced a private member's motion to axe controversial subsection 13(1) from the Canadian Human Rights Act:

Martin supports hate crime legislation, but points out that freedom of speech is not a crime. "Thankfully, we have a country where we're allowed to speak our mind," he observed.

Or will, if 13 (1) is deleted from the Act.