Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Monday

Alex Massie

Did you know Putin is really (another) Hitler?

From our UK edition

How about this for an opening sentence? The details of who did what to precipitate Russia's war against Georgia are not very important. Who, you ask, is this clown? None other than Robert Kagan, writing today in the Washington Post. His second sentence is also a doozy: Do you recall the precise details of the Sudeten Crisis that led to Nazi Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia? And how about this? Historians will come to view Aug. 8, 2008, as a turning point no less significant than Nov. 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell.

Alex Massie

Prime Hutton

From our UK edition

Lovely story told by Simon Hoggart in his Guardian column at the weekend: The death of Simon Gray lets me reprise a favourite story. He was a close friend of Harold Pinter, a great cricket lover. Once Pinter wrote a poem about his hero Len Hutton. It read, in its entirety "I saw Hutton in his prime / Another time, another time." He sent it to several of his friends. Soon afterwards Pinter and Gray were at the same dinner party and Pinter asked what he thought of the poem. "I don't know, Harold," said Gray. "I'm afraid I haven't finished it yet.

Sunday

Alex Massie

Department of (Terrible) Framing

From our UK edition

Film critic and cultural historian Neil Gabler has an interesting column on the Presidential race in today's Los Angeles Times. He concludes: It is axiomatic that the more powerful the theme a star embodies, the more powerful his or her stardom. Obama's theme is a potent one. Whether one buys into it or not, he promises to cross divides -- political, ideological, racial, geographic -- and to transcend the old politics of fear and hate that has commandeered recent elections. He believes that America can -- and should -- be the moral beacon for the world by returning to its core values. In analyzing his own appeal, Obama says he has become a symbol -- which, again, is exactly what all stars are. He is providing a really good, uplifting movie.

Alex Massie

Bush in Beijing

From our UK edition

Unsurprisingly folk are having fun with the photographs taken when George W Bush called upon the US women's beach volleyball team in Beijing. My complaint is rather different however. Consider this AFP photo: I imagine the cropping does the President few favours, but it's unfortunate that he should look rather like Grandpa Simpson. That's not the real crime however. What on earth is he wearing on his head? That sort of visor may be acceptable for a seven-year old playing mini-golf but it's out of bounds to anyone above the age of, I'd say, nine. The only thing that could make it worse - or more complete - would be if he were also wearing the ghastly shorts adult American men appear to think it seemly to sport in public. Thank heavens for small mercies, I suppose.

Alex Massie

More Trouble in the Caucasus

From our UK edition

Clumsy. Stupid. Counter-productive. Russian policy in Georgia has moved into a new phase. As I suggested yesterday, the Russians now seem determined to answer a Georgian miscalculation with one of their own. Yes, Russia is projecting "strength" by moving into indisputably Georgian territory, but at what cost? It may be that the Russians don't give a fig about what the West thinks, but in the longer run it seems that toppling Sakaashvili is an unnecessary over-reaction. Once the Georgians had offered their ceasefire (or been driven out of South Ossetia) a more prudent Russian response might have been to accept this. There's much to be said for quitting while you're ahead. Anyway, I agree with everything the estimable Mr Poulos writes here.

Saturday

Alex Massie

Hague’s Wisdom

From our UK edition

William Hague warns David Miliband not to challenge Gordon Brown and offers this priceless spot of advice: "People want normal politicians and David Miliband is more geeky, more like me... David Cameron could wear a baseball cap, whereas Miliband would find it harder to appear normal. I must have a word with him and give him some advice - don't try to be normal when you aren't. As I never want to be leader of my party again, I don't have to try to be normal any more.

Alex Massie

Opening Proceedings

From our UK edition

James Hamilton is quite right to suggest that there's no way London can compete with Beijing's spectacular and often beautiful (if also, as he says, "frenziedly gauche") opening ceremony. And he's correct to argue that we shouldn't try to. In any case, opening ceremonies tend towards the vulgar. When they are not bafflingly abstract they're unnecessarily, if revealingly, boastful. Hey, look at us! Hosting the games should be enough in and of itself, without any need for this rather naff sort of preening. Now admittedly an absence of preening is itself a form of preening. But there you have it.

Alex Massie

Trouble in the Caucasus, Day 2

From our UK edition

Edward Lucas concludes his op-ed in The Times on the Ossetian dilemma with this: The fighting should be a deafening wake-up call to the West. Our fatal mistake was made at the Nato summit in Bucharest in April, when Georgia's attempt to get a clear path to membership of the alliance was rebuffed. Mr Saakashvili warned us then that Russia would take advantage of any display of Western weakness or indecision. And it has. Indeed, as I suggested yesterday, Russia has taken advantage of "western weakness" by responding to a Georgian offensive. Given that Saakashvili has been bold enough to send his troops into South Ossetia even though his determination to join NATO was thwarted last year, one can only assume that he would have been even bolder had his country joined the alliance.

Friday

Alex Massie

The Temptations of the Leader Page

From our UK edition

In an editorial written, judging from its cadences, by Leon Wieseltier, welcoming the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, The New Republic argues that: Whatever one thinks of the war in Iraq, it is impossible to deny that it has had the effect of delegitimating "humanitarian intervention" for a new generation. This new diffidence must be resisted. It is what the mass murderers and the mass rapists are counting on. You cannot be against the genocide in Darfur and against the use of force to end it. Otherwise your opposition to the atrocity is purely gestural, and merely a display of your admiring sense of yourself. It makes no sense to be opposed to a problem and to its solution. There may be something to this.

Alex Massie

The Eeyore Olympics

From our UK edition

Well, the Olympics have finally arrived. James Fallows has been my go-to China blogger for some time. I heartily recommend his blog to you and suggest it will be well worth reading over the next couple of weeks. Not for its coverage of the games as such, but because he has a sympathetic humanist's appreciation of what the games mean to China and the Chinese people. I also think he is right when he argues, as has done repeatedly, that it is in everyone's interests that these are successful games. Of course, London is next. One of the remarkable things about modern Britain is the joyously jaundiced view many Britons have of the prospects for London 2012.

Alex Massie

Notice for Edinburgh Readers

From our UK edition

And art lovers... You still have time to pop into the Flaubert Gallery in Stockbridge (opposite The Baillie, an excellent location for a post-purchasing pint) where you will find an exhibition of my sister's excellent paintings. The show closes this weekend but there are still some fine pictures available for you to purchase... London-based readers should not fret however, as Claudia will be showing some of her work in the big smoke in October.

Alex Massie

Trouble in the Caucasus

From our UK edition

Far from Beijing, Russia and Georgia kick-off in South Ossetia. I suspect that this is going to prompt people to raise the whole "should Georgia join NATO" thing all over again. Now, perhaps putting Georgia on the road to NATO membership might have cooled tensions in the region. But the opposite seems more likely given Russia's likely reaction to what it would see as a provocation. And, frankly, it's a great relief that Germany, among others, stopped the move to make Georgia a member of the alliance,  given the potential for trouble if Russia and a member of the alliance start fighting one another. It's hard to argue that South Ossetia is worth the life of a single Coldstream Guardsman.

Alex Massie

National Enquirer (More or Less) Vindicated

From our UK edition

John Edwards admits affair with campaign staffer  -  but denies fathering her child - in an interview with ABC News. I remember when this was rumoured last year everyone of my Democratic friends admitted that they believed the story. It just seemed plausible. Doubtless, much of the mud about to be thrown at Edwards will point to the fact that his wife, Elizabeth, was fighting cancer since early 2007 when the disease, which had been in remission, returned. I imagine this is why - perhaps honestly! -  he continues to deny paternity since the child was born this year... Trouble is: his denials don't cut much mustard. Nor does claiming he was "99% honest". The recklessness of his run for the presidency knowing there was an affair that might one day be uncovered....

Thursday

Alex Massie

Playing Australia

From our UK edition

After the West Indian misfortune, in which my selection was, I'm afraid, bested by Norm's we move on to episode two of our series in which we select cricket teams, playground football style, from players who played at least some test cricket after 1945. This time I have first pick of country and player and, this being so, choose to play Australia. This being the case, it will not surprise you that with the first pick in the Australian draft, I select Sir Donald Bradman. Over to you Norm...

Alex Massie

Education Briefing

From our UK edition

The best political programme of the 1980s explains school choice - and the opposition to it. As always Yes, Minister and, subsequently, Yes, Prime Minister were on the money: Hat-tip: Cato.

Alex Massie

Australian Summary

From our UK edition

Having come-off second-best in our West Indies game, I'm duty bound to suggest (gently) that I've had the better of Norm in the Australian leg of the series. In large part, of course, this reflects the luxury of being able to select Don Bradman with the first pick, just as Norm benefitted from choosing Gary Sobers first last time. In each case the player picking first has been able to acquire two players for the price of one. That's quite an advantage. Having Bradman in my side permitted me to pick Keith Miller second, to provide balance, and my two favourite Aussie fast bowlers with my third and fourth selections. After that, the bonus was remembering that Bill O'Reilly was eligible for selection, thanks to a solitary test in 1946.

Alex Massie

In Suburbia

From our UK edition

Megan McArdle writes: Because I've always lived in cities, I don't even understand the utility of the big yards I see in the suburbs.  I get the purpose of a yard for children and dogs to play in, and summers on the patio.  But I don't get the point of the vast expanses of lawn that lie fallow in the more upscale suburbs.  They require vast upkeep for the benefit of . . . looking at green, empty space.  And the tradeoff seems to be a world where you can't get anywhere without driving and your neighbors are distant apparitions. Well, I've divided my life between the city and the countryside and I've never lived in suburbia. Nor can I imagine doing so (though of course children might change that calculation).

Alex Massie

The Belgian Example

From our UK edition

Whither Belgium? Again. Ian Buruma frets that the break-up of Belgium would be A Bad Thing. As is generally the case with such articles, concrete arguments for this proposition are notably absent. Thus, Buruma: So the fate of Belgium should interest all Europeans, especially those who wish the Union well. For what is happening in Belgium now could end up happening on a continental scale. Why, for example, should the prosperous Germans continue to have their tax money pooled to assist the Greeks or the Portuguese? It is difficult to sustain any democratic system, whether on a national or European scale, without a sense of solidarity. It helps if this is based on something deeper than shared interests: a language, a sense of common history, pride in cultural achievements.

Alex Massie

Simon Gray, RIP

From our UK edition

Sad news. Simon Gray, the playwright and memoirist, has died. Just last month I read the latest, and, I suppose, final installment of The Smoking Diaries, a wonderful, funny, poignant set of memoirs that I recommend without the slightest reservation. More importantly, sad because he was one of my father's oldest friends from Cambridge days way back when. Not many of them left. Booze and tobacco and all that. Telegraph obituary here. The Guardian's Michael Billington here. And a characteristically good Simon Hattenstone interview here. Understandably Gray rather disapproved of the notion that his memoirs may outlive his plays, but that's the nature of the respective genres. But I can't think of a better thing to read in what remains of this dismal summer than Simon Gray's diaries.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Paris Hilton’s Energy Policy

From our UK edition

Give her publicist a medal. Seriously. Did the entire campaign just jump the shark?See Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad and more funny videos on FunnyOrDie.comSee more funny videos at Funny or Die I think it may have.