News and Views from around the World
Decriminalisation made Vancouver
the fentanyl capital of the world
Vancouver, Canada, once topped the charts of the world's "most desirable places to live".But a landmark experiment to decriminalise the possession of certain drugs in public — including fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, and ecstasy — has allowed an opioid crisis to take hold that surpasses even the epidemic in the United States.
Opioid overdoses have become the leading cause of death for people aged 10–59 in British Columbia, and now account for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural diseases combined.
Last year, the province recorded 2,511 drug-related overdoses, 87 per cent of them down to fentanyl. The death rate in Vancouver itself now stands at 56 per 100,000 people — nearly three times the national average. And in the Downtown Eastside, the rate is nearly 30 times higher than the rest of the country.
Excerpt from Sarah Green and Simon Townsley, The Daily Telegraph (UK), July 9, 2024.
The West should deal with China
on the basis of 'strict reciprocity'
There is a way to prevent China from destroying us from within. It's called "strict reciprocity".
China has an embassy and five consulates in the U.S., while we only have an embassy and four consulates in China. Strict reciprocity means that we close down China's consulate in Houston.
China's huge complement of embassy and consulate personnel, not to mention its large contingent of U.S.-based "journalists", far outnumber the number of Americans serving in comparable positions in China.
America often hires local. China never does.
If we have 25 Americans in our Shenyang consulate, reciprocity means that China will be limited to 25 Chinese in their Chicago consulate. And so on.
Excerpt from by Steven W. Mosher, New York Post, September 8, 2024.
Why the CIA no longer works, and how to fix it
The people in charge of the U.S. government, including those who run the CIA, have done their best to turn the CIA into just another federal agency.
Recruiters no longer search for intangibles or focus on the key psychological traits critical to success in the world of spying. They look at academic degrees, existing levels of language proficiency, and increasingly at things like skin colour and sexual orientation.
We have buried operations under endless layers of middle management. Case officers in the field may spend days just trying to complete the requisite paperwork for a single asset meeting. Every moment they are sitting behind a desk is a moment they are not out meeting sources, recruiting new sources, or learning the environment around them.
In Washington, the management ranks are increasingly filled with individuals who seldom travel far from Langley and have never demonstrated that they can accomplish anything on the street. They have laughed at the boss's jokes. They have demonstrated their fealty to the prevailing groupthink. They have moved paper, attended meetings, and climbed the corporate ladder. But in large measure, they have no idea how to run an op or recruit a source.
Excerpt from Charles S. Faddis, Imprimis (Hillsdale College, Michigan), October 2023.
What to expect from a
Kamala Harris presidency
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz reside in the farthest fringes of leftist policies and politics and are abortion and gender ideology fanatics.
A Harris-Walz presidency would be noteworthy not simply for the extremity of their abortion and gender policies, but also for the fanatical zealousness with which they pursue them. With no close contender, theirs would be the most anti-life, anti-woman, and anti-family presidency in the history of the country.
Unborn and unwanted newborn children would be exterminated. Women would be reduced to objects for the sexual satisfaction of men. Women-only spaces would be eradicated. And parents would lose authority over the medical care of their own children.
Excerpt from Kenneth Craycraft, First Things (New York), August 21, 2024.
NHS staff told to ask men if they
are pregnant before X-rays
The radiation from X-ray, CT and MRI scans, as well as cancer treatments, can be dangerous to unborn babies, but forms designed to be inclusive have caused confusion and anger among patients and pose a risk to their safety, according to staff of Britain's National Health Service.
Radiographers told this publication the measures had left men storming out of appointments and women in tears because of "invasive" fertility questions. They say patients are being asked to fill out pregnancy forms stating their sex at birth, preferred name and pronouns, and read "ridiculous" statements about people who are born with variations in sex characteristics.
Campaigners said the practice was "humiliating" for patients and called on NHS trusts to "return to common sense".
They also said the forms were "indoctrinating" children by asking under-18s their preferred names and pronouns, with parents "furious" about it.
Excerpt from Michael Searles, The Sunday Telegraph (UK), August 11, 2024.
Secret of Israel's exceptional fertility
The abundance of children is one of the most striking features of modern Israeli society. For better and for worse, there are unattended children everywhere here: running through the streets, singing together on buses, and rioting through any store that dares to sell toys or candy.
This presence undoubtedly contributes to the prevailing sense of total chaos that reigns over every Israeli park and mall, but it is also, I suspect, the reason for the undeniable feeling of vibrancy that characterises Israeli society in general.
While Israel's pro-family policies probably positively influence Israel's exceptional birthrate, there is good reason to think that public policy is merely one among a constellation of even more significant factors that encourage Israeli couples to have children.
The choice to have children is an affirmation of the national story they have collectively inherited and spent much of their lives celebrating. In this way, shared memory leads to shared identity across time and produces, in turn, genuine excitement about and investment in the future — an excitement and investment expressed, concretely, in the decision to have children.
The enduring source of the Children of Israel's exceptional, future-oriented natalism is their intense, equally exceptional rootedness in their shared past.
Excerpt from Daniel Kane, Public Discourse (USA), September 8, 2024.
