Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Sarko and Carla vs Barack and Michelle

From our UK edition

Art Goldhammer looks at the Democratic convention in Denver and lets loose his imagination... I got to thinking about what would have happened had a comparable scene been staged in France. Just try to imagine Carla Bruni rattling on about her first meeting with Sarkozy at a posh Parisian dinner party. And the family vetting? Would she have brought "Nick" home to meet her sister Valeria, an actress rather than a basketball coach like Michelle's brother, and would Valeria have offered an opinion on Nick's prowess as a persuasive public speaker? And how about the kids? Might Jean Sarkozy have motored on stage aboard his scooter, patted Carla on the rump, and asked an image of "daddy" on the television screen what city he was in?

Alex Massie

Did you know McCain was once a POW?

From our UK edition

Is John McCain pretending to be a) Rudy Giuliani or b) John Kerry? Either way, this irrelevant invocation of his POW status threatens, if it continues to be used in this fashion, to make him appear ridiculous. It's as bad as Giuliani's "9/11 will produce a better postal service/farm bill/trade agreement/" or Kerry's grim gawd-help-us "I'm a klutz and I'm reporting for duty" schtick. From his latest appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno: LENO: Welcome back, Sen. McCain, for one million dollars, how many houses do you have? (Jay laughs, McCain squirms and chuckles) MCCAIN: You know, could I just mention to you, Jay, and a moment of seriousness.

Alex Massie

From Gin Lane to Faliraki

From our UK edition

Ah, Sarah Lyall. Bless her. The New York Times' London correspondent has an entertainingly gruesome piece on the lagered-up misbehaviour of Brits on tour. No-one who has spent any time on Cyprus or the Costa del Sol will need reminding of the horrors that await the unwary or innocent traveller who stumbles upon the modern British tourist in his - and, indeed, her - natural element. It is, as you would expect from Ms Lyall, well done and, in places, appeallingly, well, dry: But they [Brits in Greece] said that the lurid stories are media exaggerations. “I’ve never seen anyone get stabbed the whole time I’ve been here,” said Chris Robinson, 21, speaking outside the Loft bar, which had a special deal: four drinks and two shots for $8.

Alex Massie

Annals of Modern Life

From our UK edition

It had to happen: peanut butter now comes with a warning that, yup, it contains actual peanuts. On the other hand, perhaps this isn't as absurd as it may seem. Or, to put it another way, it's good to see that peanut butter is, well, peanut butter and not something made using ersatz-peanut-like substances. That this is reassuring is, of course, also depressing.

Alex Massie

“Ping pong is coming home”

From our UK edition

Whatever one thinks of Boris Johnson, the new Mayor of London, I think one can say that his speech in Beijing accepting the Olympic flag as it is passed from Beijing to London provided a splendid antidote to the totalitarian efficiency that seems to have rather weighed down these games. By contrast, there is every reason to suppose that London may be an agreeably and entertainingly shambolic affair. How could it be otherwise when Boris is the man notionally in charge of it all? Watch this and be delighted/appalled/tickled pink:I've previously suggested that the opening ceremony needs only the Band of the Grenadier Guards. Nothing more, nothing less.

Monday

Alex Massie

Olympic Dreams of Nonsense

From our UK edition

Victor Davis Hanson: If the Olympics were a referendum on comparative ideologies, then I suggest radical Islam is about through. Only a pedant, of course, would point out that the Olympics could be no such referendum. Never mind.

Saturday

Alex Massie

Department of Roots

From our UK edition

I meant to blog about this earlier, but Toby Harnden's Telegraph magazine piece on Obama in Hawaii is well worth reading. There is, for example, this: In late January, on his campaign plane as we flew from Kansas after the El Dorado visit, I asked the senator about the wanderlust in his family that he had chosen to reject. ‘Part of me settling in Chicago and marrying Michelle was a conscious decision to root myself,’ he told me. ‘There’s a glamour, there’s a romance to that kind of life and there’s a part of that still in me. But there’s a curse to it as well. You need a frame for the canvas, because too much freedom’s not freedom.’ He laughed and added, ‘I’m waxing too poetic here.

Alex Massie

Hold Your Hour and Have Another*

From our UK edition

James Poulos is absolutely correct: the Vice-Presidency is a job best filled by the best second-rate politician available. Remember, second-rate does not mean bad. I sort of had half a sneaky hope that Biden might actually somehow fluke his way to the nomination itself, but that's largely because since I don't expect to agree with any of the candidates on most of the issues** that matter most to me there's something to be said for supporting the fella most likely to provide quality entertainment. In the Democratic race that was, by a mile, Biden. He's the sort of man I've met many a time in Irish pubs. Biden will tell you, at some length for sure, all about his plans for the future, how he's on the cusp of greatness just waiting for that last piece to fall neatly into place.

Friday

Alex Massie

Scotland, Britain and Beijing

From our UK edition

My old cobber, Iain Martin, wrote an interesting column for the Telegraph yesterday arguing that the success of the British Olympic team in Beijing demonstrates that there's life in the old Union yet. There may be something to that. At least there may be right now, this week, this month. Certainly, he is right to argue that: Too often of late, Unionists have made their case in cold and exclusively economic terms, as though this were simply a matter of totting up various columns of pounds, shillings and pence, until a definitive answer on the constitution is arrived at. It is not always just the "economy, stupid". Indeed so.

Alex Massie

The One-Term Pledge?

From our UK edition

Peggy Noonan thinks McCain should pledge to serve just a single term: I still think a one-term pledge could win it for him, because it would allow America to punt. It would make the 2008 choice seem less fateful. People don't mind the chance to defer a choice when they're not at all sure about the product. It would give bitter Democrats a chance to regroup, and it would give those who like Obama but consider him a little half-baked to vote against him guiltlessly while he becomes fully baked. (Imagine the Q&A when Sen. Obama announces his second presidential run in 2011: "Well, Brian, I think, looking back, there is something to be said for the idea that I will be a better president now than frankly I would have been four years ago.

Alex Massie

This Post Will Self-Destruct

From our UK edition

Sometime today or sometime tomorrow Barack Obama will put a grateful planet out of its misery and let us know the identity of his running-mate. After Bayh and Kaine surges, the punditocracy is embracing Joe Biden today. And I'd say Obama could do a lot worse. But, working on the time-honoured premise that losing betting slips are discarded and soon forgotten, while winning tickets are framed and presented as evidence of an uncanny perspicacity, let me take a punt and back a long-shot contender to sneak up and emerge the winner of the 2008 Veepstakes... Montana governor Brian Schweitzer. Unlikely? Perhaps. But there's no great pundit penalty for being wrong about the Veepstakes... Obviously this post will be deleted as soon as Obama picks someone else...

Alex Massie

Way Down in the Hole | 22 August 2008

From our UK edition

As a wise man* told me, "art imitates life which then imitates art": The Baltimore Sun reports: Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, known for her role on HBO's "The Wire," was released from jail after being picked up on a warrant for refusing to cooperate with prosecutors handling a murder case in which she is a witness. *Thanks, reader JT.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Sport and the arts

From our UK edition

A reader asks Megan if she supports government spending on the arts and sport. She has a pithy answer: "No". And of course I have some sympathy for her point of view. In an ideal world this might indeed seem like frippery and even in the world we endure it can often be a transfer from poor to rich. In other words, in the UK, lottery funding for Olympic rowing or the Royal Opera House is to some extent a tax on the poor and/or the gullible for the benefit of the already better-off-than-most.

Alex Massie

Department of Flag-Waving

From our UK edition

I suspect that this sort of polling is really meaningless. But, still, it's enough to make one despair. Ben Smith reports that a poll: commissioned by the Democratic-leaning True Patriot Network, found that 74% of Americans say McCain is patriotic, and that just 56% say the same of Obama. Of course, when they say "patriotic" I suspect they really mean "nationalist", even if it's the case that many Americans don't actually see the difference between the terms. One scarce dare think upon what grounds these voters deny the "patriotism" (in the true sense of the term) of either candidate, nor why this love of country must, apparently,  be something to be affirmed rather than merely presumed...

Alex Massie

Cricket Writing

From our UK edition

the London papers, Mike Atherton at the Times, Selvey at the Guardian, Angus Fraser at the Independent and Derek Pringle at the Telegraph. Atherton is new to the post but shows signs of becoming, as one might expect frankly, an excellent addition to the press box. There is nothing wrong, per se, with former test cricketers moving into the press box. After all, it has long been the case that former players have found fresh and comfortable berths in the press corps.

Alex Massie

Chinaphobia

From our UK edition

Good god. Did you know that the United States should be prepared to fight against Russia and China? It may not surprise you that the Weekly Standard fears that the supposedly pusillanimous response to the Russo-Georgian stramash can only encourage China to invade Taiwan. The underlying tensions in the Taiwan Strait bear important similarities to those in the Caucasus. Just as authoritarian Russia objects to a democratic, pro-American Georgia, so too authoritarian China sees a democratic, pro-American Taiwan as a gaping wound on its periphery. The main cause of tensions is domestic politics. An authoritarian China, like authoritarian Russia, needs fervent nationalism to retain its shaky legitimacy. The "sacred goal" of reunifying the motherland serves that purpose well.

Alex Massie

Hey, Britannia!

From our UK edition

I'm glad to see that Tim Worstall has found some good news! Sounds like things are all well and good in Britannia's realm: Britons lack "national purpose" according to a study which found that most people prefer to spend their Bank Holiday watching television or surfing the internet rather than celebrating the country's heritage. Excellent, there's nothing more repellent than a "national purpose". Quite so. Though, how can anyone be surprised by this? Mind you, in other patriot games, the extent to which Britons have developed an unhealthy fascination with the Olympic medal table now that we're actually winning some events is mildly distasteful. There's a slightly boorish boastfulness to it all that is somewhat unbecoming. Sort of stuff one associates with foreigners, frankly.

Alex Massie

No escape for Brown

From our UK edition

Hamid Karzai, wag: Gordon Brown had to suffer the indignity of a joke about his leadership from Afghan president Hamid Karzai during a press conference in Kabul.Mr Karzai, who faces numerous challenges to his own leadership, made the quip as reporters pressed the British Prime Minister over his relationship with David Miliband.“Cabinet ministers plotting is nothing new. We have it in Afghanistan - although not my foreign minister,” Mr Karzai remarked. Brown of course also pledged to continue the futile drug war. We've been in Afghanistan for six years now. To what end? Or, to put it another way, what will we achieve in ten years that we couldn't in six?