Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Wednesday

Alex Massie

The Age of Obama

WASHINGTON - FEBRUARY 24: U.S. President Barack Obama addresses a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress February 24, 2009 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. And so it begins. The contrast between Barack Obama last night and George W Bush was striking. Not merely in terms of the content of their speeches, but in their demeanour: whereas Bush seemed a shrunken figure in his final years, dwarfed by the enormity of the challenges of the Presidency and by the scale of his own blunders, Obama, armed with the confidence of victory and unburdened by the oppressive turn of events, seemed to fit his surroundings more comfortably than his predecessor ever managed - save for those first few months after 9/11.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

David Frum’s Warning

David Frum gets it: A federal bank takeover is a bad thing obviously. I wonder though if we conservatives understand clearly enough why it is a bad thing. It’s not because we are living through an enactment of the early chapters of Atlas Shrugged. It’s because the banks are collapsing. Obama, Pelosi, et al are big-spending, high-taxing liberals. They are not socialists. They are no more eager to own these banks than the first President Bush was to own the savings and loan industry – in both cases, federal ownership was a final recourse after a terrible failure. And it was on our watch, not Obama’s, that this failure began. Our refusal to take notice of this obvious fact may excite the Republican faithful.

Alex Massie

Salmond’s Confederacy?

Alex Salmond has been in Washington, where he snagged an audience with Hillary Clinton and delivered a speech at Georgetown University. Hamish Macdonnell explains: In a speech on Monday he took the time to praise Abraham Lincoln. This is what he said: "A man whose spirit and example will light America’s path for centuries to come. And a man whose name evokes, in the minds of your friends worldwide, the very highest image of America." It did not take long, however, for Labour spin doctors to point out that Lincoln was, of course, the one man who did more to keep the Union in America together, even going to war and winning that war to prevent part of the country from separating and becoming independent. This part of Lincoln's legacy was strangely absent from Mr Salmond's address.

Monday

Alex Massie

A Night at the Oscars

Oscar commentary is outsourced to the always-splendid Peter Suderman: The half-calculated, half-panicked seesawing between self-important Art and anxious populism means that the Oscars aren’t really an indicator of quality anymore, but rather an indicator of Oscarness. Oscarness does, admittedly, overlap with quality (see last year’s awards), but it is not the same thing. Undoubtedly, the biggest triumph for Oscarness this year was Sean Penn’s Best Actor win for his portrayal of Harvey Milk. It’s part political statement, part Hollywood politics, and part bias toward the self-important and showy.

Sunday

Alex Massie

No Scottish Referendum?

It's not been a great couple of weeks for Alex Salmond, has it? First there was the budget hullabaloo, then the SNP was compelled to abandon (at least for the time being) its plans to replace the council tax with a local income tax and now the leaders of the opposition parties have each confirmed that they will vote against the nationalists' referendum bill. As matters stand, then, there will be no independence referendum next year. The Tories, Lib Dems and Labour all say it would be "inappropriate" to have an independence debate in the midst of an economic downturn. Well perhaps it would and perhaps it would be a mighty distraction from more pressing matters.

Alex Massie

A Very British Diarist

Chris Mullin is a good egg and, what's more has a pawky sense of humour. So I imagine his diaries, serialised in the Mail on Sunday this week, will be entertaining stuff. What strikes one above all - apart from the digs at Gordon Brown's expense - is the sheer and ghastly tedium of being a government minister. It's almost enough to make one think they deserve their generous expense accounts and lavish pension. Almost, I say. But then the government reminds you of the extent of its ghastliness.

Saturday

Alex Massie

Gordon Brown, Lawrence Oates and Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee is always worth reading. Her latest column is no exception. For all that one might disagree with her, indeed even be infuriated by her, there's always something useful to be gleaned from her columns. Still, there's a kind of panicked resignation about this latest one and an implied acceptance that Labour are doomed. The only thing that can save them? Massive increases in spending and government debt apparently. Well it's an idea... I confess that, rather mean-spiritedly, my favourite bit was this: In the dream scenario, Brown ascends the world stage to head a beefed-up IMF, but few imagine the man who wanted it so much can confess he wasn't leadership material after all. A Captain Oates walk to save the party he loves is an unlikely act for a man who admits no mistakes.

Alex Massie

Ecstasy vs Peanuts

Here's a question for you: Imagine you are seated at a table with two bowls in front of you. One contains peanuts, the other tablets of the illegal recreational drug MDMA (ecstasy). A stranger joins you, and you have to decide whether to give them a peanut or a pill. Which is safest? So asks the New Scientist in its latest editorial. I think you know the answer, don't you? You should give them ecstasy, of course. A much larger percentage of people suffer a fatal acute reaction to peanuts than to MDMA. Now it's true that some research suggests there may be some ill-effects* associated with ecstasy use; but it's also the case that even these effects are, so far, so marginal as to have, in general terms, no meaningful impact upon users' ability to remain functional members of society.

Friday

Alex Massie

Obama and Israel

Melanie Phillips makes a pretty remarkable claim at the end of this post: The fact is that Israel faces the nightmare scenario that it now stands alone -- and against America. Whether through naivety, ideology or rank malice, there is now a fifth columnist in the White House, undermining the cause of the free world. The vast majority of Americans who staunchly support Israel's struggle to exist in the face of genocidal attack, and understand only too well its role as the front line of defence for the free world, need to become aware of what is being done in their name. As polemic, this is fine stuff. But as analysis I confess I find it somewhat exaggerated.

Alex Massie

The Doctor is Out

The Economist's Democracy in America blog raises a good point: whatever happened to Howard Dean? That is, why does the former chairman of the DNC receive so little credit for the party's resurrection? And why is he not being considered to be Secretary for Health and Human Services, given that, as governor of Vermont, he did assemble a track record on healthcare reform? Dean's eclipse is partly a matter of personality clashes: he has feuded with both Rahm Emanuel and David Plouffe. Certainly Dean has an abrasive, even arrogant, side to his character that hasn't helped him; nor has he ever really been trusted by the party's establishment. And yet Obama owes Dean more than is sometimes recognised.

Alex Massie

Shumble and Corker in Spain

Mind you, it's not just the Irish police who are confused by foreign languages. A reader emails this piece of Fleet Street entertainment: That reminds me of XXX's story chasing a British felon somewhere on the Spanish Costas. He got an interview with a doctor who slagged off the guy on the run but the chap refused to give his name. The Sun newsdesk insisted they have a name, so our intrepid hack went back to the guy's office and took down the name on the door... Imagine the surprise and embarrassment the next day when Spanish speakers phoned The Sun to ask why they were quoting a doctor called Back Later... Scoop, you see, is not a work of fiction.

Alex Massie

Annals of Policing

Not much gets past the Garda Siochana... HE WAS one of Ireland’s most reckless drivers, a serial offender who crossed the country wantonly piling up dozens of speeding fines and parking tickets while somehow managing to elude the law. So effective was his modus operandi of giving a different address each time he was caught that by June 2007 there were more than 50 separate entries under his name, Prawo Jazdy, in the Garda Pulse system. And still not a single conviction. In the end, the vital clue to his identity lay not with Interpol or the fingerprint database but in the pages of a Polish-English dictionary. Prawo jazdy means driving licence.

Alex Massie

Hillaryland takes on the world

Mike Crowley has a characteristically interesting piece on Hillary Clinton's State Department, asking the question: "Huge expectations, big egos, turf wars: Is Clinton's State Department just like her campaign?" Even allowing for the fact that this may be a marginally premature question there's some good stuff in there. Old habits die hard however, and there's always the temptation to view anything Clintonian in the most sceptical, conspiracy-fuelled light. Remember: just because it's fun doesn't mean it can't be true! Premise: Hillary Clinton still has ambitions to be President of the United States. Traditional Clintonian intrigue demands that all her actions, no matter how sweetly reasonable they may seem, be viewed in the context of this fact.

Alex Massie

Lessons from a great Antiguan Drama

Test match cricket is something else, isn't it? Patrick Kidd has a splendid line making the point that test cricket is terrific because it is "a game in which it is much more exciting when something almost happens than when it happens all the time." Granted, cricket's detractors might cite this as evidence to support their prejudices, but who cares about them? Kidd is right. This was a great test match, conjured from the most unlikely circumstances. Full credit to the groundstaff at the ARG and, of course, to both teams who produced a match that vindicated the idea and reality of test cricket even as one of its greatest enemies - Sir Allen Stanford - was being pursued by the FBI. If you believe in karma, this makes sense, doesn't it?

Thursday

Alex Massie

The Davis Agenda

I suspect Peter is right and that David Davis's remarks about "the Davis agenda" will raise a few eyebrows. But I find them encouraging. There's an obvious upside to Davis returning to the front bench at some point since, despite the Tory parties advantageous position in the polls, the party could do with the extra muscle Davis would bring. From the point of view of civil liberties, however, there's something to be said for Davis prowling the back benches, keeping an eye on a Tory party that may well find it too easy to slide away from the civil libertarian agenda once it's in power. Davis, then, has an important role as a watchdog and chivvier-in-chief, holding the party to its promises...

Alex Massie

Blue Dog Democrats and RINOs

Ezra Klein asks why the Democratic party doesn't treat "unreliable" Democrats quite as badly* as the GOP hunts down "Republicans in Name Only" such as Arlen Specter.  There are few consequences to being a Blue Dog Democrat. Labor doesn't come into your district and fund a challenger who attacks your votes to cut entitlement spending. Business interests are more likely to donate to your campaign. You have a badge of independence from party which is useful both when dealing with the media and when dealing with voters. Your vote matters more because it's less reliable. And the Democratic Party infrastructure itself is fundamentally sympathetic to your plight: Democrats from marginal districts, they agree, have to be a bit more conservative. And we have to protect them. Numbers matter.

Alex Massie

World Gone Mad: French Division

Things you never thought you would see: the French government advising against wine consumption... In the midst of the winter gloom, President Sarkozy's administration  has chosen this moment to tell its people to stop drinking wine. You are hearing right. The Ministry of Health has issued rules for reducing the risk of cancer and one of the main ones is never drink alcohol.  "The consumption of alcohol, and especially wine, is discouraged," say guidelines that are drawn from the findings of the National Cancer Institute (INCA). A single glass of wine per day will raise your chance of contracting cancer by up to 168 percent, it says. A you might expect, the wine industry is not happy...

Alex Massie

Stanford Calamity? Only for Antigua, not for cricket

There's some good stuff in Michael Henderson's column on the so-called Stanford debacle* today, even if he indulges himself with a rather rosy,soft-focus view of cricket's past. The ideal of the village green bathed in evening sunlight with the vicar standing as umpire and children playing by the boundary and all that is a powerful, enduring image for sure but this English arcadia is only one thread running through the game's history. A history that has been tougher, more scandalous and, often, meaner, than Henderson's cosy view would have one believe. That's to say, the sport's history is well-stocked with cads and frauds and bounders and Allen Stanford is but the latest of them.

Wednesday