Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Sunday

Alex Massie

The McFarthest Spot

From our UK edition

From the Department of Getting Away From It All. How far away from a branch of McDonald's is it possible to get? What, in other words, is the McFarthest Spot? Weather Sealed offers this  map of the continental United States coloured by distance from a branch of the Golden Arches. As expected, McDonald’s cluster at the population centers and hug the highway grid.  East of the Mississippi, there’s wall-to-wall coverage, except for a handful of meager gaps centered on the Adirondacks, inland Maine, the Everglades, and outlying West Virginia.

Saturday

Alex Massie

Saturday Morning Country: Willie Nelson

From our UK edition

How is it possible that this series has, until this point, failed to include Willie Nelson? A mystery, folks, a mystery. Now Willie has some odd views and is perilously close to being a 9/11 Truther but, frankly, we don't hold that against him. The music's the thing and he's written enough and done enough to earn our forebearance. Plus, you know, there's something of a Texas shaman about old Willie. Which explains quite a lot, really. In truth I'd be lying if I said that Willie was or is one of my super-favourite country stars but there's no gainsaying his contribution to the Church of Country. The man has done more than just some service. Nonetheless, I think Nelson a better songwriter than performer so here he is performing the song that, via Patsy Cline, made him famous.

Friday

Alex Massie

The Persian Problem

From our UK edition

The news that Iran has a second, secret nuclear installation can hardly be considered a surprise. Nor, alas, is there anything surprising about Charles Krauthammer's reaction to Barack Obama's decision to make nuclear proliferation an issue at the UN General Assembly: What did he accomplish? Nothing. This is really quite surreal. As we speak, the Iranians are spinning thousands of centrifuges and developing uranium. The American delegate at IAEA announces that Iran already has enough uranium to construct a bomb. It's testing its missiles, flouting all U.N. resolutions, as are the North Koreans. And the response of America?

Alex Massie

The Boss Turns 60

From our UK edition

Somehow or other I missed the 60th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's birth this week. The Boss turned 60 on Wednesday and if that seems oddly perturbing then, I suppose, at least it's not as cor-blimey a thought as realising that Martin Amis celebrated his 60th birthday last month. Aye, the times are racing on right enough. So, by way of belated thanks, here's the great man performing Mansion on the Hill, from his wondrous trip along the darker roads of Americana, Nebraska.

Alex Massie

The Importance of Being Silvio

From our UK edition

President Barack Obama & First Lady Michelle Obama welcome Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to the G20 dinner on September 24, 2009 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Photo: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images. My latest piece for the Daily Beast takes a look at the grimly entertaining Silvio Berlusconi: Were you to be so unwise as to combine the political shamelessness of Mitt Romney, the personal morality of John Edwards, the ego of Rudy Giuliani, and performance art that is Sarah Palin's career on the national stage, you would create a monster that approximates, but still cannot quite match, Silvio Berlusconi.

Alex Massie

How Much is Georgia Worth?

From our UK edition

Vaclav Havel, Timothy Garton Ash, Bernard-Henri Levy and Adam Michnik are among those calling for the EU to take a stronger line with Russia on matters Georgia. They write: Looking at Europe today, it is abundantly clear that history has not come to an end and that it remains tragic. Twenty years after the emancipation of half of the continent, a new wall is being built in Europe - this time across the sovereign territory of Georgia. This presents a major challenge for the citizens, institutions and governments of Europe. Are we willing to accept that the borders of a small country can be unilaterally changed by force? Are we willing to tolerate the de facto annexation of foreign territories by a larger power?

Thursday

Alex Massie

Does Obama Like Tyrants More Than He Hates America?

From our UK edition

Let us accept that Barack Obama is going to disappoint many of us in many different ways. Let us further accept that this is only to be expected and that, yup, one of the awkward things about democracy is that sometimes the other mob wins. There is, however, no need to lose your mind when that happens. This must be what has happened to Michael Ledeen. There's no other charitable explanation for his latest outburst: I think that he rather likes tyrants and dislikes America. I think he'd like to be more powerful, I think he is trying to get control over as much of our lives as he can, so that he can put an end to the annoying tumult of our public life. As when he said (about health care) to the Congress, "Okay, you've talked enough, now it's time to do the right thing (my thing).

Alex Massie

Nanny Dave & Lowered Expectations

From our UK edition

Tom Clougherty makes a sadly good point: We can't rely on a Conservative government doing much to fight the nanny state. On the contrary, what we're promised is an army of local directors of public health, dedicated public health budgets, a bigger, stronger chief medical officer's department, a "holistic strategy to focus public health across departments", "a clear marketing plan to promote healthy living", and a brand spanking new QUANGO – the Public Health Commission – to oversee it all. There was even talk a while back about an 'NHS Health Miles Card', where people would get 'reward points' for losing weight, which they could then redeem against fresh vegetables, subsidized gym membership or even priority within other public services.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Obama Rejects Dr Pangloss. Unfortunately.

From our UK edition

From Barack Obama's speech to the United Nations today: Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges. If we are honest with ourselves, we need to admit that we are not living up to that responsibility. Consider the course that we are on if we fail to confront the status quo. Extremists sowing terror in pockets of the world. Protracted conflicts that grind on and on. Genocide and mass atrocities. More and more nations with nuclear weapons. Melting ice caps and ravaged populations. Persistent poverty and pandemic disease. I say this not to sow fear, but to state a fact: the magnitude of our challenges has yet to be met by the measure of our action. Is this true?

Alex Massie

PoliticsHome & Westminster Wisdom

From our UK edition

The kerfuffle over Lord Ashcroft's purchase* of a majority stake in PoliticsHome is not something, I suspect, that mch interests anyone beyond the Westminster village. That said, I think Hopi Sen has the best take on this midget-brouhaha: The result of these expert polls was usually a story like “Westminster insiders think Clegg needs to up his game” a day after something bad happened to Nick Clegg, or “Westminster insiders think Cameron is struggling to convince” a day after a poll comes out showing Cameron struggling to convince. Well great. Now we know MPs and journalists read the newspapers and watch TV. Now, you might think this is all just fine, but it’s not.

Alex Massie

All Aboard the Interconnected Super Highway Express.

From our UK edition

Conferences on a Decade of Devolution are ten a penny these days. But the latest at least offered the potential for some entertainment given that not only was Alex Salmond speaking but so too was his principle opponent: Jim Murphy. Many of those who remember Mr Murphy from his days at Strathclyde University and the National Union of Students take a not-on-your-life attitude when the question of praising Mr murphy arises. Yet there's been a grudging acknowledgement - even amongst nationalists of a certain age - that Mr Murphy's performance as Secretary of State has taken the fight to the SNP more effectively than any other Labour politician. True, you may say, this merely makes Mr Murphy Top Gerbil. Still...

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Vince Cable – Clever Chap; Hopeless Politician

From our UK edition

The other thing to be borne in mind about the Liberal Democrats - apart, that is, from the fact that they betray proper liberalism every day - is that they're hopeless at politics. Vince Cable's proposals on freezing public sector pay, reforming pensions and increasing the personal allowance are actually all very sensible. Good policies in fact! Worth talking about! So what does he do? Only ruin everything by proposing an absurd, back-of-a-napkin plan to tax large houses still further. (That the Lib Dems are, or used to be becauses, really, who can tell these days, in favour of replacing property taxes with a local income tax merely adds to the absurdity of the situation.) So, guess what gets the headlines? Surprisingly it's not the sensible ideas. This is elementary.

Alex Massie

The West Wing and Propaganda

From our UK edition

Hell thath no fury like a speech-writer with a book to peddle: When the sun rises over our capital city this morning, its denizens will awake to a truly novel tale: The aggrieved ex-staffer—wait for it!—disillusioned by Washington. The tome out today is by former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer, who describes the White House as "less like Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing and more like The Office." In Mr. Latimer's hands, it reads more like "The Princess Diaries," full of hurt feelings and high-schoolish drama. I give not a single hoot for Mr Latimer's sensitivities and his memoir may, if in an unlikely fashion, be most useful. Alas, that happier eventuality seems unlikely.

Alex Massie

Hyperbole Corner: Beatles Edition

From our UK edition

The New York Times actually paid someone to write this about a new video game: Luckily Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with the widows of George Harrison and John Lennon, seem to understand that the Beatles are not a museum piece, that the band and its message ought never be encased in amber. The Beatles: Rock Band is nothing less than a cultural watershed, one that may prove only slightly less influential than the band’s famous appearance on “The Ed Sullivan  Show” in 1964. By reinterpreting an essential symbol of one generation in the medium and technology of another, The Beatles: Rock Band provides a transformative entertainment experience. In that sense it may be the most important video game yet made.

Monday

Alex Massie

Wedding Crashers in Japan

From our UK edition

I don't pretend to understand Japan at all, but while this may seem rather funny, it's surely also terribly melancholy: Japanese couples, too busy for a normal social life, are increasingly turning to actors to play their friends on the most important days of their lives. Several agencies have sprung up offering actors to attend weddings or even funerals... Agencies such as Hagemashi Tai - which means "I want to cheer you up" - charge around £100 for each "guest". Other services such as giving a speech in praise of a bride or the groom cost extra. Increasingly busy and put upon, many Japanese surround themselves with only a very small circle of friends... When they marry, however, they are under pressure to match the number of their new partner's wedding guests.

Alex Massie

Lockerbie & the Scotland Act

From our UK edition

Could government ministers in London have stepped-in to prevent the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi? A report in Scotland on Sunday yesterday says yes they could: Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy could have overruled Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill and stopped the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi if the case was deemed to have breached "international obligations". Senior diplomats have insisted there was a "clear understanding" between the UK and the US that Megrahi would serve out his sentence in Scotland. The US Justice and State departments have also insisted they had been given assurances in the 1990s that Megrahi would remain imprisoned under Scottish jurisdiction. [...

Alex Massie

Could You Vote for the Liberal Democrats?

From our UK edition

Sometimes, you know, I wish I could. Then the Liberal Democrats come along to remind one how difficult it is to support them. But, in theory, could one vote for a truly liberal party? Of course one could. And would, if only one were so available. In Massie's Better Ordered Political Landscape the Liberal Democrats would, roughly speaking, be the equivalent of Germany's Free Democrats*. It's true that there are some liberals** in the Lib Dems - one thinks of the gang at Liberal Vision and other bloggers such as Charlotte Gore - but they're a minority within their own minority.

Saturday

Alex Massie

Irving Kristol & the Life and Times of Neoconservatism

From our UK edition

A few years ago, around the time that Bob Geldof was arguing that George W Bush had done much more for Africa than Bill Clinton ever did, I appeared on a BBC Radio Five show to try and explain this apparently mystifying, confusing, aspect of the Bush presidency. Well, it was mystifying to the BBC. Bush's faith, much mocked in Britain, explained part of it, I suggested, and so too did the American evangelical community's enthusiasm. "Ah" pounced our friend the presenter, "so it's all about the neoconservatives". It was at this point that I appreciated that the term neoconservative had lost all meaning and that, from now on, it would be little more useful than "fascist" or even, often, "communist".

Alex Massie

Saturday Morning Country: Lyle Lovett

From our UK edition

The Church of Country is a broad brotherhood (and sisterhood) and it's fair to say that Lyle Lovett, like many others, has sometimes left it to worship elsewhere. But, again, like others that sometimes stray, he's always welcome back for the Church of Country is a forgiving house that espouses tolerance, an open mind and equally generous hearts. Anyway, Lovett is always interesting. And often charming too. Consider his Hymn to Having It All If I Had A Boat  with its splendid refrain: If I had a boat, I'd go out on the ocean/ And if I had a pony, I'd ride him on my boat/And we could all together go out on the ocean/Me upon my pony on my boat. And here he is singing an old Delmore Brothers tune called More Pretty Girls Than One (which is, frankly, reassuring).

Alex Massie

The 50 Best Foods in the World

From our UK edition

As Ezra Klein says it would be remiss not to give this transparently link-whoring Observer list of The 50 Best Foods in the World and Where to Eat Them the attention it so desperately craves. And like Ezra I've only had two of them: the pastrami-on-rye at Katz's deli in New York and currywurst in Berlin's Prenzlauerberg. Each was good; each easily replicated elsewhere in their respective cities. Or at home, for that matter.  I don't eat fish, so I don't know about the Fish & Chips at the Wee Chippy in Anstruther. My favourite chips, however, are to be had at Leo Burdock's in Dublin.