Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Tuesday

Alex Massie

What Happened to American Acting*?

Quick Oscar** thought: no American actor or actress won an Oscar this year. The four acting awards went to: Tilda Swinton (Scotland), Javier Bardem (Spain) Daniel Day-Lewis (England/Ireland) and Marion Cotillard (France). Have the Americans ever been shut out like this before? Does it mean anything beyond the fact that the Oscars are an increasingly international event (as, indeed, the Academy becomes an increasingly international event)? Perhaps it's just a small sample size and perhaps it doesn't mean anything at all, but it seems like a pleasing development to me. Still: how long before the Democratic presidential contenders deplore the outsourcing of American acting jobs to foreigners and call for quotas on a) foreigners working in Hollywood, b) foreigners winning Oscars?

Thursday

Alex Massie

Canute for President!

New Hillary attack! "If speeches could create jobs, we wouldn't be facing a recession." And as the old saw has it: "If ifs and ans were pots and pans, there'd be no call for tinkers." Also: Does this mean Hillary Clinton thinks speeches should be able to create jobs? Or does she just regret the fact that hers can't? Would a mute President be best? (Well, yes, probably.) (Granted, Obama is no better. He and Clinton both seem to be of the view that poor old King Canute's sycophants were right - the monarch really can turn back the waves. The oft-maligned Canute knew better of course and organised his famous demonstration to show the limits of his power.

Alex Massie

Obama as William Jennings Bryan?

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum publishes an entertaining provocation here: Sen. Barack Obama's admirers sometimes compare him to John F. Kennedy, sometimes to Ronald Reagan, sometimes to Abraham Lincoln. (That is, when they are not comparing him to Jesus Christ.) But is not the most apposite analogy ... William Jennings Bryan*? Like Obama, Bryan was a charismatic young political (just 36 at the time of his first presidential run!)  with a thin political record. Yet on the strength of one legendary speech at a Democratic national convention, he was clutched to heart by the party's left wing and made the repository of its grandest hopes on a whole range of so-called progressive causes. Fun! And perhaps unfair!

Alex Massie

Twittering…

Being envious of friends in Washington who are twittering about what would seem to be a rather splendid lunar eclipse tonight I signed up to Twitter. Needless to say I have scarcely any idea as to how it is supposed to work or what it is for. The FAQ were not entirely encouraging: But... what is the point? As it turns out, your best friend is probably interested in knowing if you're "loving the new Radiohead album." And yes, your Mom may want to know if you're "skipping breakfast in favor of a latte."  You might want to know if your significant other "feels like taking a roadtrip." Find out what your friends are doing; keep each other abreast of your quotidian rituals. None of this seems terribly likely. But, as ever, I am prepared to bow to the wisdom of the crowd.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Is this Hillary’s “best” shot? Get Me Rewrite…

Marc Ambinder has quotes from what the Clinton campaign is billing as a "major contrast" speech she will give in Ohio tonight (I assume this is being leaked in an attempt to divert attention away from what seems likely to be a big win for Obama in Wisconsin tonight). Anyway, among the "highlights": …Tonight, I want to talk about the choice you have in this election – and why that choice matters…. …This election is not about me or my opponent.  It’s about you.  Your lives, your dreams, your future. Right now, too many people are struggling. Working the day shift, the night shift, trying to get by without health care, just one paycheck away from losing their homes.

Alex Massie

Where the Wild Things Roam

Another splendid obituary from The Daily Telegraph that offers a splendid view of a rather different, if also gruesome, world than with which most of us are familiar. Funny too, of course, in the way in which the sadnesses of ghastly people often can be. (I also liked the understatement here: "Like his father, however, Alec Wildenstein could become somewhat disagreeable when things did not go his way.

Alex Massie

The Mills of History Keep Grinding

The morning after the night before: a friend emails, noting Obama's humping great triumph in Joe McCarthy's old state, Wisconsin and quips: Can you imagine if you were a rabid 1950s era McCarthy-ite and somehow you saw today's Washington Post front page - a black man is the front runner to be the next President and Castro made it all the way to 2008?

Alex Massie

No Place for Brotherly Love (And Rightly So)

Ah Philadelphia, the city where they booed Santa Claus. And, if these lads are anything to go by, also the city where Major League Soccer should put its next team. In a word: quality: These are the Sons of Ben. They are the hardcore supporters of Philadelphia's Major League Soccer team. Possibly their best chant is: "We've won as many cups as you, Metro, Metro. We've won as many cups as you, and we don't have a team." Philadelphia doesn't have an MLS team yet. As the DC United fan website screaming-eagles.com puts it, the Sons of Ben have "banded together to twist the Field of Dreams mantra from 'Build it and they will come' to 'They're already here, just build it'.

Alex Massie

Semper Fidelis For Shame

I'd actually thought Castro's retirement would prompt more of this sort of nonsense. I guess we're still waiting for Seumas Milne to pipe up in The Guardian. Still, the palm for the most idiotic thing I've seen goes to Chris Bertram: ...And, of course, Castro ran a dictatorship that has, since 1959, committed its fair share of crimes, repressions, denials of democratic rights etc. Still, I’m reminded of A.J.P. Taylor writing somewhere or other (reference please, dear readers?) that what the capitalists and their lackeys really really hated about Soviet Russia was not its tyrannical nature but the fact that there was a whole chunk of the earth’s surface where they were no longer able to operate. Ditto Cuba, for a much smaller chunk.

Alex Massie

Gordon’s Hillary Problem?

James Forsyth comes up with an(other) excellent reason for hoping Hillary loses: it will be bad for Gordon Brown. Key point: the British political class are obsessed with the US elections and in most people’s minds Hillary Clinton is the Gordon Brown candidate. The failure of her campaign would lead to a slew of articles about how Gordon shares Hillary’s shortcomings. True. Brown might complain that he's not really a Clintonite. Fair enough. Unfortunately, of course, his closest American strategist and confidante is, er, Bob Shrum - who now has an excellent chance of losing elections on each side of the Atlantic. As James suggests, the parallels between Gordon and Hillary are, well, very entertaining: a) Sense of entitlement.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

A Very 21st Century Racket

I think this is an advertisement for some kind of high-falutin' weather forecaster. HEAD OF HORIZON SCANNING CENTRE   The Foresight Programme   London base - Competitive salary The Government Office for Science, led by the Government Chief   Scientific Adviser is located in the Department for Innovation, Universities   and Skills. Within this office the Foresight Programme strengthens   strategic policy making by embedding an evidence-based futures approach across government. Horizon Scanning (HS) is the systematic examination of potential threats,   opportunities and likely developments, including but not restricted   to those at the margins of current thinking and planning.

Alex Massie

Berwick Irridenta!

Salmond says it's game on! ALEX Salmond would start legal moves to bring Berwick back under Scottish control if the town's residents voted to leave England in a referendum, it emerged yesterday. A spokesman for the First Minister said borders were "fluid" and there were precedents from around the world of towns changing hands from one government to another. He was responding to the results of a new poll of residents in Berwick-upon-Tweed which found a clear majority in favour of becoming part of Scotland... A spokesman for Mr Salmond said: "If there was an official referendum, there is no administration, no matter what party is in charge, who would not take Berwick back. It would be foolhardy for Westminster to ignore the wishes of the people.

Alex Massie

A Great New Year’s Day at Easter Road*

The always excellent fitba blog More than Mind Games has a great story about football in the fog here, but it's not as good as this one, that became the basis for a Radio Scotland play five or six years ago: IT IS not, on the face of it, a perfect scenario for radio. A football match so shrouded in fog that the commentator can't see the game. Players who can't see as far as their bootlaces. Conditions so bad that many are not aware that the action is over for 10 minutes after the final whistle. But throw in the Second World War, a need to keep the Nazis misinformed and the Edinburgh derby, and you have the perfect recipe for a rip-roaring play.

Alex Massie

If you build it, they will need to come (and lobby)

Barack Obama - like John Edwards before him - and, I dare say, the majority of Democrats hates (or pretends to hate lobbyists). To listen to Democrats talk you might be think that lobbyists are (with nasty trade with foreigners of course) the greatest threat to the future well-being of the United States. And indeed there is something discreditable about the lobbying explosion in Washington in recent years. Still, however regrettable elements of the lobbying industry may be it seems pretty clear to me that removing or curtailing the right to petition your government would be a pretty severe infringement upon a pretty fundamental liberty.

Monday

Alex Massie

Media Spotlight on Kamloops Blogs? It Ain’t Nothin’ But a Zen Thing

So The Chicago Sun-Times is to start running signed editorials. TAPPED's Dana Goldstein thinks this is a "good move" and wonders why more newspapers don't do this. I imagine she's in favour of this on the usual grounds of "transparency" and "accountability". But it's still a silly notion. Clearly, Ms Goldstein can't have written many newspaper editorials. If she had, she would know that it's rather unfair to make individual leader writers put their names to editorials they've written but do not necessarily agree with. This is not, despite what you may think, a rare phenomenon. Even when one is fortunate enough to write a leader relatively free from interference it's rare for it to express the editorial writer's own opinions. Then again, it's not supposed to.

Saturday

Alex Massie

Meme time!

Blimey. James Poulos has been kind enough to nominate this blog for inclusion in some pantheon of excellence. It's my duty, apparently, to continue the chain letter of blog love by nominating further reading you might enjoy. That being so, feast yourself upon these:Mr Eugenides: Vituperative spluttering from an enraged Scottish Tory perspective. Opera Chic: Smart and sassy take on operatic shenanigans. Especially in Italy. Mgoblog: Everything you need to know about Michigan football. And lots that you didn't know you needed to know. French Politics: Exactly what it says on the tin - Art Goldhammer's invaluable primer. Better than what you read in the (English-language) newspapers. Toby Harnden: The Telegraph's man in Washington offers a British view of the US campaign trail.

Friday

Alex Massie

McGuinness’s less than surprising attitude to booze

James Forsyth says it is "deeply comic" for Martin McGuiness to complain: “I am not a fan of East-Enders or Coronation Street but my wife and my children, particularly the girls, watch the programme. I am appalled at the drunkenness that is quite clear for everybody to see and all of that before the 9 o’clock watershed when children as young as 8, 9, 10 and 11 are watching. Now I regard that as irresponsible broadcasting and I think something should be done about it.” Now of course, James is right to point out that Mr McGuiness's role in murdering countless civilians scarcely gives him the clout to act, in James' words, "a moral arbiter". Perhaps so. But I couldn't help recalling all the hard-faced Republicans I used to meet at debates in Dublin.

Alex Massie

Family plugging

Should readers be in Edinburgh at any point in the next two weeks, you can pop along to the Dundas Street Gallery where my little sister and two of her artist friends are holding an exhibition of their work. If you're not in Edinburgh, you can view some of Claudia's work here and here as well as being able to contact her through her website should you be interested in buying/commissioning a painting. You might even be able to take advantage of a modest discount by mentioning this blog's role in referring you to her work...