-
Oct 31, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Ian Williams |Edward Howell |Freddy Gray |Francis Young
The Chinese Communist party (CCP) is spooked by Halloween. In Shanghai, police have rounded up people gathering in costumes that included a Donald Trump with bandaged right ear, Spiderman, Deadpool and Batman. A man dressed as Buddha was also shown being escorted away in videos posted on Chinese social media, but quickly deleted by online censors.
-
Oct 27, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Charles Lipson |Arieh Kovler |fairiesBy Francis Young |Francis Young
It’s easy to summarize the two sides’ closing arguments. For Kamala Harris, the closing argument is “Trump is really, really bad.” Asked to expand, it is “Trump will end abortion rights” and “Trump is a fascist.” For Trump, the argument is, “Things were great when I was president, and I will make them great again.” Asked to expand, it is “I will be better than Washington and Lincoln.
-
Oct 27, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Arieh Kovler |Charles Lipson |fairiesBy Francis Young |Francis Young
In Christian countries, it’s typical to put things off until “after Christmas” when the new year begins. In Israel, the equivalent is “after the festivals.” The Jewish fall festivals begin with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year followed by Yom Kippur and the eight-day festival of Tabernacles, Sukkot.
-
Oct 26, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Francis Young |fairiesBy Francis Young |Douglas Murray |Suzi Feay
Among the many options available for Halloween costumes and decorations these days, from witches to zombies, from mummies to serial killers, there is one traditional Halloween character you are unlikely to see: fairies. But in Irish and Scottish folklore, which provides the basis for modern Halloween traditions, fairies were central to this festival.
-
Oct 23, 2024 | 
spectator.com.au | Francis Young
Among the many options available for Halloween costumes and decorations these days, from witches to zombies, from mummies to serial killers, there is one traditional Halloween character you are unlikely to see: fairies. But in Irish and Scottish folklore, which provides the basis for modern Halloween traditions, fairies were central to this festival.
-
Oct 23, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Francis Young
When I was in London recently, I arranged to meet some old university friends at the pub. Now in our late 50s, we’re getting quite decrepit. Hair – if we have any left – is grey or greying; waistlines are expanding. We talked about our deteriorating vision and hearing, high blood pressure, dodgy knees. None
-
Oct 19, 2024 | 
thecritic.co.uk | Francis Young
Insofar as popular memory preserves any sense of a domestic politics in Britain during the Second World War, it is a mere prequel to Labour’s crushing victory in the 1945 election. According to this narrative, the wartime National Government — regardless of its cross-party composition — was pursuing an essentially ‘Labour’ programme of popular mobilisation for a ‘People’s War’, leading ultimately to the greatest social transformation in Britain’s history.
-
Oct 19, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Ryan M. Spaeder |fairiesBy Francis Young |Francis Young |Douglas Murray
To this day, the exact origin of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 is unknown. It may be easy to blame poor old Mrs. O’Leary, though the conspiracy-minded out there speculate that the blaze might have been a deliberately planned event orchestrated by powerful interests to reshape the city for profit and control.
-
Oct 19, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Andrew Sullivan |fairiesBy Francis Young |Francis Young |Douglas Murray
Washington, DCNot since South Park Elementary’s election campaign between a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich has an election bedeviled me as much as this one. On the one hand, the choice is disarmingly simple. One of the candidates is obviously mentally unhinged, delusional, malignant and contemptuous of the rule of law. One of the candidates hasn’t just broken norms. He has broken the norm, the indispensable norm for the continuation of the republic: accepting the results of an election.
-
Sep 26, 2024 | 
firstthings.com | Francis Young
While the “Catholic novel” is a recognized subgenre—associated above all, in the twentieth century, with Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene—there is no agreement on what exactly makes a novel Catholic. But it is clear that the Catholic novel is not simply a novel written by an author who happens to be Catholic; nor is it merely a didactic exercise, intended to present the Catholic faith under the guise of a novel.
