Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Monday

Alex Massie

But Sometimes Change is Real

From our UK edition

Matt Yglesias correctly suggests that these photos are the Obamas attempt to reduce the "National Cuteness Deficit." But there's something else too: besides being charming, it's striking how these photographs of Malia and Sasha preparing for their first day at a new school are both so very ordinary and yet also a reminder of howit really is momentous thing that this is the next First Family of the United States of America. The ordinary reveals and, in a sense, reinforces the extraordinary... NB: Close examination reveals that the President-elect is not in fact making a somewhat dismissive gesture to his daughter. Three fingers, not two.

Sunday

Alex Massie

Mr Webb Returns To Washington

From our UK edition

There were all manner of reasons for Barack Obama to pick someone other than Jim Webb as his running-mate (though there was a case to be made for Webb too). But, via Ross Douthat, here's a reminder of why Webb is, as he might put it himself, a serious politician: This spring, Webb (D-Va.) plans to introduce legislation on a long-standing passion of his: reforming the U.S. prison system. Jails teem with young black men who later struggle to rejoin society, he says. Drug addicts and the mentally ill take up cells that would be better used for violent criminals. And politicians have failed to address this costly problem for fear of being labeled "soft on crime." It is a gamble for Webb, a fiery and cerebral Democrat from a staunchly law-and-order state.

Alex Massie

Obituary of the Day

From our UK edition

Some New Year cheer, courtesy of the Daily Telegraph's obituaries column. The deceased, in this instance, is Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck, one of Britain's largest landowners who, had she not been born on the distaff side, would have been the Duke of Portland. Anyway... Her grandfather, the 6th Duke, a younger half-brother of the Countess of Strathmore (mother of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother), had not been in direct line for the dukedom. He succeeded his eccentric second cousin, who had a horror of being seen and so supervised the digging of a network of underground passages and rooms at Welbeck – these included a tunnel 1¼ miles long, and wide enough for two carriages to pass.

Alex Massie

Mr Pennyfeather finds a new job

From our UK edition

You probably heard about the new school in Sheffield that won't call itself a school because that word has "negative connotations". Watercliffe Meadow will instead call itself a "place of learning". Seriously. It's all very Decline and Fall : "We class schools, you see, into four five grades: Leading School, First-rate School, Good School, School and Place of Learning. Frankly," said Mr Levy, "Place of Learning is pretty bad...

Alex Massie

Further Adventures in Live-Blogging

From our UK edition

We were here for the primary debates last year. We covered Obama vs Clinton. We live-blogged the Presidential debates and we dared not miss Biden vs Palin. But all of that was but a warm-up for the main event tonight. Yup, taking live-blog absurdity to new heights, we'll be live-blogging the final of the World Darts Championship tonight. Obama vs McCain was small beer compared to the feast of drama afforded by Phil "The Power" Taylor's epic confrontation with Raymond "Barney Rubble" van Barneveld. So join us, from around 7.30pm UK-time (2.30pm EST) as we enjoy some terrific tungsten action tonight...

Alex Massie

Halls of Fame

From our UK edition

In general, I suppose I don't have too much against the idea of a cricket Hall of Fame though given that we've managed to get along fine without one for centuries there doesn't seem any pressing need for one. But if you are going to have such a Hall, then for god's sake include the right people. Via Patrick Kidd, I see that the ICC's new venture has found room for an initial class of 55 inductees that, bewilderingly, fails to include Victor Trumper. While it's fine to ignore players who only retired in the last ten or so years the lack of recognition of chaps from the Golden Age (no Jessop, Fry or Ranji) to say nothing of the 19th century makes the whole enterprise look rather silly.

Alex Massie

Good News* from Somalia

From our UK edition

For once. Also, for once, good news for a newspaper. Colin Freeman, the Sunday Telegraph's chief foreign correspondent has been freed 40 days after he and his photographer, Jose Cendon, were kidnapped by Somali pirates. BBC report here; brief piece by Colin here. *Granted, if you're actually Somali the news is, generally speaking, probably as lousy as ever.

Saturday

Alex Massie

And so to 2009…

From our UK edition

Back then and not before time. Or, rather, back rather sooner from a holiday hiatus than was the case last year. Anyway, I hope you all had a splendid Christmas and New Year. Matters were quietly entertaining here. Christmas in the Borders and then Hogmanay at my sister's place in Perthshire. All very agreeable, capped off with a trip yesterday to see the oldest living organism in Europe, beneath whose branches young Pontius Pilate once scampered as a lad. Notionally, at least, if also possibly implausibly. Meanwhile, before blogging recommences with a vengeance, a special shout-out to the mystery person who sent me Clotilde Dusoulier's splendid Parisian cookbook Chocolate and Zucchini Many thanks! I guess I now owe you supper... That's that then. Let's have at 2009...

Alex Massie

Transatlantic Differences

From our UK edition

There are times when it's good to be away from the hurly-burly of American politics. Doubly so when the subject of gay marriage comes up. Here, for instance, is a story it is hard to imagine happening in the United States: Nick Herbert, the Conservative party's Shadow Justice secretary has apparently become the second member of David Cameron's Shadow Cabinet, to enter into a civil partnership. It's hard to imagine too many senior gay Republicans feeling comfortable doing this, let alone doing so with the blessing of the party's leader and their constituency assosciation. Then again, gay marriage in Britain has, generally speaking, been decoupled from religion. (Of course, some would say that everything else in Britain has been, so why not marriage too).

Monday

Alex Massie

The Continuing Hiatus

From our UK edition

If my RSS feed is anything to go by, American bloggers are much keener about blogging between Christmas and Hogmanay than are their British counterparts. Good for them, I dare say. I'll be back after the New Year holidays. That is, next Monday or something.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Merry Christmas

From our UK edition

So, here it is again. Well, here's wishing all friends and readers out there a most jolly Christmas. May it be all you dare hope it could be. Blogging to resume here in three or four days time.

Monday

Alex Massie

The Kennedy Difference

From our UK edition

John Judis: I think it would have made most sense for Barack Obama to have appointed Caroline Kennedy a delegate to the United Nations in the manner of Shirley Temple Black or William F. Buckley. But I am not going berserk as my colleagues seem to be over the prospect that she will be appointed senator. The reason has to do, I suspect, with my understanding of political dynasties. There is a difference between the Kennedy dynasty and, say, the Biden, Clinton, or Bush dynasties. And the difference is that many Americans feel they owe the Kennedy family something for their service. Can this really be true?

Alex Massie

Whither the Drug War?

From our UK edition

Mike Crowley asks whether Barack Obama will offer any "substantial" change to America's drug policy. There's an easy, short answer to that: No. At least, during the campaign Obama offered little reason to hope that he'd adopt a saner drugs policy. Now, true, that was just the campaign, but his website suggested that there'd be little fresh thinking on, say, Plan Colombia and, of course, Joe Biden was the inspiration for the first "Drugs Tsar" in the first place. More to the point, ending the "War on Drugs" would use up valuable political capital that Obama most probably has better, more urgent uses for. Still, to be fair, he hasn't disappointed us on this, yet and so, for the time being at least, hope breathes...

Sunday

Friday

Alex Massie

The Kennedy Gall

From our UK edition

Andrew suggests that Caroline Kennedy is, in most important respects, less qualified to be Senator from New York than Sarah Palin was to be Vice-President of the United States. There's something in that, for sure, and Caroline's sense of entitlement is nauseating. Still, Andrew writes: The model now, of course, is similar - finding a way to get elected without actually exposing your inadequacies. This seems harsh. After all, that's what everyone standing for election hopes to achieve. At least, that's true of the more self-aware breed of pol; some of them, I dare say, don't think they have any inadequacies that could possible be exposed...

Alex Massie

Cricket Fans Reluctant to Embrace “Modern” Game; Insist Old Ways Best.

From our UK edition

As a member of the English cricket team's supporters club (vital for snaring Ashes tickets next summer) I was pleased to receive this email from the ECB today: ‘Tests are best’ say fans – We received a fantastic nearly 3,000 responses to the recent online TwelfthMan survey where, amongst many other things, you indicated that although you love the razzmatazz and big-hitting of the Twenty20 game, Test cricket still gets the majority vote – a staggering 94% of you in fact. Full survey results will be with you in the new year. Thanks to all who took part as it really does help us at ECB understand the game from the fans point of view. This, obviously, is encouraging even if it's also a survey of some of the most committed cricket fans.

Alex Massie

The Cruiser Goes Down

From our UK edition

Conor Cruise O'Brien's death, at 91, comes as a jolt. By the end, the Cruiser was something of a reactionary (his hostility to nationalism had led him to embrace Bob Macartney's UK Unionist Party) but that shouldn't detract from his achievements as a historian (especially his books on Parnell and Burke), journalist and public intellectual. Most of all, however, his death reminds one of how completely Ireland has changed in the past 20 years. The Cruiser's battles with Charlie Haughey (he was right about Haughey years before the full extent of the former Taoiseach's crookedness became widely apparent) and his fulminations on the national question have a certain antiquated feel now that the issue has, for the time being at least, been settled.

Alex Massie

Rick Warren Goes to Washington

From our UK edition

Well, you wouldn't expect Christopher Hitchens to be impressed by Barack Obamas decision to ask Rick Warren to give the invocation at the new President's inauguration, would you? Sure enough, he's not pleased: A president may by all means use his office to gain re-election, to shore up his existing base, or to attract a new one. But the day of his inauguration is not one of the days on which he should be doing that. It is an event that belongs principally to the voters and to their descendants, who are called to see that a long tradition of peaceful transition is cheerfully upheld, even in those years when the outcome is disputed. I would myself say that it doesn't need a clerical invocation at all, since, to borrow Lincoln's observation about Gettysburg, it has already been consecrated.

Alex Massie

Tartan Blogging

From our UK edition

A reader notices an absence of blogging on the subject and asks: "What's happening in Scotland?" Answer: Bugger all.

Alex Massie

Alternative Titles

From our UK edition

As mentioned in this post on the best newspaper corrections of the year, the Guardian acknowledged that Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude not, as the paper suggested, One Hundred Years of Solicitude. A shame, really, since this latter would seem a more entertaining, lively read. In that spirit, readers are invited to suggest similarly altered titles for novels or movies that would be more amusing, more interesting or simply more suggestive than those chosen by the artists themselves.