Bushism of the Day
From our UK edition
George W Bush's malapropisms aren't really terribly interesting anymore. (And, to be fair to the President, he's a much better speaker now than he was eight years ago.
Alex Massie
Monday
Photo of the Day | 3 March 2008
From our UK edition
Selkirk on the attack during Saturday's tough 8-0 victory at Falkirk in the Scottish Cup. The club's reward is a sixth round tie away to Haddington. (Away again!
Sunday
New look for 2008!
From our UK edition
Thought I'd try out a new look; let me know what you think. Good? Bad? Better? Worse?
The A Team
From our UK edition
It's late on a fiercely cold evening with the rain lashing and the wind howling down the Yarrow valley. Obviously, then, it's time for an exciting new Debatable Land series! Readers possessing elephantine memories may recall this post in which I confessed - nay, revelled! - in being a cricket geek. I'm not alone in this. Like a good number of other sensitive souls I often spend idle moments (of which, blessedly, there are many) selecting imaginary cricket XIs. Thus one can spend hours pondering the greatest West Indies XI of time or the finest selection of left-handed cricketers or, well, you get the idea. An old and favourite variety of this parlour game is to choose sides whose players all share a surname that begins with the same letter.
Will the real Dave Cameron please stand up?
From our UK edition
The British political and media classes are, naturally enough, obsessed with and fascinated by the American presidential election process. That leads to the temptation (always yielded to) of trying to find parallels betwene American politicians and their British counterparts (I also do this, obviously). Sometimes, however, this has comical consequences. Thus this morning, Benedict Brogan asks if David Cameron is a British Jimmy Carter even as Fraser Nelson wonders if he's actually a British Barack Obama. Now, in fairness both Brogan and Nelson are latching on to Cameron's efforts to "run against Westminster" and offer himself as an uncorrupted "agent of change".
Saturday
The Same Old Way
From our UK edition
It would be something of a stretch to compare Hillary Clinton to Napoleon Bonaparte and Barack Obama to the Duke of Wellington. Nonetheless, as this campaign has progressed and Hillary has struggled to find an effective counter to Obama's organisation and tenacity (to, er, say nothing of the hopes of millions of democrats who hope he can finally topple the tyrant, thus liberating a continent), one of the Iron Duke's famous lines from Waterloo seems to sum up the plodding uselessness of the Clinton campaign. To wit: They came on in the same old way and we sent them back in the same old way. I think this is the light in which to see Hillary's now-infamous (and somewhat unconvincing) "3am" ad: the last, desperate recourse of a failing campaign bereft of ideas, imagination or options.
Books do furnish the mind, but…
From our UK edition
Wise old man* says: In the forthcoming volume of his Smoking Diaries (not out till April, but I’ve been reading a proof copy) my old friend Simon Gray makes a brave admission. Well, he makes a number of these, but this particular one struck me. ‘I haven’t read him [Henry James] for years. I don’t believe I have the powers of concentration any more, at least for the late ones, The Golden Bowl, The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors.’ ‘Something in that’ was my immediate response, though actually I haven’t read The Ambassadors since I was 17, and persuaded myself, though frequently bored, that it was a masterpiece.
Another Lost World
From our UK edition
I'm not sure they make publishers like this anymore. Alas. As is so often the case we may count on the Daily Telegraph's exquisite obituaries page to provide the details. Sic transit gloria mundi and all the rest of it. Anthony Blond, who has died aged 79, was a gentleman publisher from an age when business was conducted in dusty garrets and promising authors were given small retainers to allow them to find their muse. Charismatic, daring and outrageous, Blond collected talents as diverse as Harold Robbins and Jean Genet, Spike Milligan and Graham Greene. He was the first to spot the potential of Jennifer Paterson (of the Two Fat Ladies), and was an early director of Private Eye, of whose bank account he was a guarantor.
Friday
Drudge Breaks Media Silence on Princes Mission
From our UK edition
A defence* of Royalty: Prince Harry in Afghanistan. Oddly stirring stuff, actually. Good for him and, amazingly, good for the MoD and the media for ensuring that the Prince's comrades were not endangered by his presence on the front line becoming a matter of public knowledge until now. UPDATE: Fraser says some of the most prominent British bloggers knew of Harry's deployment and kept the news to themselves too. This ain't a new media vs old media tussle, it's common sense and, in this instance, a certain courtesy to a young soldier who wants to serve his country without imperiling his comrades. Nothing significant is gained by "breaking" an agreed embargo on this sort of thing and nothing lost by honouring it until such point as it expires or, as in this case, becomes moot.
Lessons from the Tomb Raider
From our UK edition
It's easy, of course, to mock actors and pop stars and their worthy pretensions to saving the planet. But whatever else one may say of her, I think it's true that Angelina Jolie takes her role as a UNHCR "ambassador" more seriously than most. Anyway, she has an interesting and persuasive op-ed in the Washington Post today: My visit left me even more deeply convinced that we not only have a moral obligation to help displaced Iraqi families, but also a serious, long-term, national security interest in ending this crisis. Today's humanitarian crisis in Iraq -- and the potential consequences for our national security -- are great.
If a Little Sparrow beats its wings, does that mean tall buildings fall?
From our UK edition
On the other hand, some actors really are loopy to the tonsils. To wit, alas, the lovely Marion Cotillard, who is, it seems, a pretty keen conspiracy theorist: Marion Cotillard : J'ai tendance à être plutôt souvent de l'avis de la théorie du complot. Xavier de Moulins : Un peu parano ? M. C. : Pas parano, non c'est pas parano parce que je pense qu'on nous ment sur énormément de choses : Coluche, le 11 septembre. On peut voir sur internet tous les films du 11 septembre sur la théorie du complot. C'est passionnant, c'est addictif, même. X. de M. : Sur le 11 septembre par exemple, toi, qu'est-ce qui t'a le plus troublée, concrètement ? M. C.
Department of Counting
From our UK edition
Mike Crowley tracks Hillary's latest desperate cry for help: "Democrats, the majority of whom have favored Hillary in the primary contests held to date..." Mike wonders how she can claim this given that Obama has won more votes than Clinton so far: but of course caucus states don't count. Besides "primary" of course, the key word here is "Democrats" because obviously independents voting in Democratic primaries don't count either since, naturally, none of them are going to vote for Obama in November whereas they will all magically gravitate to the candidate they have already rejected. Especially since Hillary is* going to be up against a Republican whom independents famously dislike... *Yeah, theoretically...
Thursday
Department of Political Slogans and Charlatanry
From our UK edition
If you need a quick explanation for why Hillary Clinton is about to lose to Barack Obama, consider that her chief strategist is Mark Penn and that he boasts of this: I have won about 70 major elections around the world, including many presidents, and I devised the simple message for Tony Blair in his last successful campaign: ‘Forward, Not Back.’ That's why Mr Penn is paid the big bucks! (More than $4m from the Hillary campaign alone, IIRC). "Good Stuff, Not Bad Stuff!" But if he thinks this is why ACL Blair won the last election then he's even more deluded than the average bloated political consultant.
Tiger vs Roger?
From our UK edition
Ah, the great Tiger Woods vs Roger Federer debate continues. Muttblog suggests most scribblers taking part in this Slam-Fest plump for Woods as, comparatively speaking, the greater of the two. He highlights this Steve Sailor post which makes some salient points. The fact that each sport contains four majors each year allows for superficial but misleading comparisons. Take this Michael Wilbon column for instance: Excuse me, but Roger Federer's recent stretch of dominance, impressive by any historical standard for tennis, doesn't come close to Tiger's. Winning a tennis tournament requires beating six opponents, not the field. Tiger doesn't ever have the luxury of having another opponent take out, say, Mickelson and Sergio Garcia. It's up to Tiger alone.
Parliament of Fools
From our UK edition
Further to this and this, I see, thanks to Mr Worstall, that no fewer than 72 Members of Parliament have put their name to this Early Day Motion: EDM 982 FIDEL CASTRO 20.02.
Wednesday
Klansmen for Barack?
From our UK edition
Mike Crowley has a very droll piece in this week's TNR on how white supremacists seem a) resigned to a President Obama and b) relatively OK with that. It's a testament of sorts to Hillary Clinton that, by virtue of her cartoonish image as a leftist man-hating shrew, she manages to arouse more vitriol among white supremacists than a black man. Meanwhile, white racists absolutely despise John McCain for his support of George W. Bush's immigration reform plan, which they view as a dire threat to America's European-based culture. "I don't think Obama will be any more negative for the United States than Hillary or John McCain," explains [David] Duke.
Question of the Day | 27 February 2008
From our UK edition
If it's fine for Kosovo to declare its independence from Serbia, should it be OK for Montana to secede from the United States of America?
Tuesday
Not all roads lead to London
From our UK edition
Megan notes that there are now more than three million Britons living abroad and argues: I assume this has something to do with the fact that it is very easy for Britons to go to wealthy, English-speaking countries, and also that there's a relative lack of migration opportunities in Britain. If you're American or Australian, you can always pick up and try another city, but in Britain, you mostly move to London or you . . . move to London. This is an exaggeration, of course, but there's nothing like the ability to say, "You know what, things aren't going so well in Boston, so I'm moving to LA." If the economy, or the job opportunities are bad in London, they're probably bad everywhere else in the UK too.
A Country for Old Men?
From our UK edition
Looking at Americans' desire to elect a 72-year old John McCain president, David Harsanyi digs up the story of William Henry Harrison - the President who one may fairly say obeyed the First, Do No Harm principle. True, Harrison neglected to look after himself but his administration did less damage than any other in American history: At 68, William Henry Harrison was the country's second-oldest president. A war hero, "Granny Harrison," as his opponents called him, was a tough cat. After winning the presidency, he stood outside on a miserably frigid and damp Washington day to deliver the longest inaugural address — more than 8,400 words — in American history. He then joined the inaugural parade. Harrison, naturally, caught a cold, which led to pneumonia.
Fidel: Forever In Our Hearts…
From our UK edition
Commenting on this post about Fidel Castro's welcome retirement, a reader wrote, quoting part of my argument: "If conservatives – on both sides of the North Atlantic – were too ready to turn a blind eye to Pinochet's crimes, left-wingers have been equally credulous with regard to Castro's Cuban dictatorship." When Pinochet died, Jonah Goldberg and I had an email back-and-forth about this very claim. I dispute that the level of admiration for Castro on the left is anything approaching the right's support for Pinochet. Only among the most extreme, throwback lefties would you find a good word for man. Compare with Pinochet, who received so many kind words from conservative pundits upon his passing, and who maintained friendships with Thatcher, Reagan et. al.