Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Dick Cheney’s energy task force is transparent by comparison

Interesting article by Elaine Sciolino in today's New York Times on the brouhaha over the proposed expansion of Champagne's AOC, increasing the number of communes legally permitted to grow grapes to be made into champagne. The reason? Increased demand for the bubbles around the world. As I say, it's a good piece. But I would wager that the guts of the real story lurk in these two paragraphs (emphasis added): For the most part, the 40 proposed communes fill in holes in existing Champagne areas, much of it near the Champagne centers of Reims and Épernay, rather than extending the perimeter. For reasons that have yet to be explained, Germaine and Orbais-l’Abbaye, two of the villages in the Marne region that currently enjoy Champagne-growing status, would be thrown out.

Alex Massie

Shakespeare: Fascist! Virgil: Fascist! Ovid: Un-Roman! Marlowe: Government Goon!

I suppose one should probably read Jonah Goldberg's book Liberal Fascism before criticising it. On the other hand, why do the dreary work when Spencer Ackerman's prepared to highlight the juicy bits for one? For instance, Spencer draws my attention to this: Indeed, it is my argument that during World War I, America became a fascist country, albeit temporarily. The first appearance of modern totalitarianism in the Western world wasn't in Italy or Germany but in the United States of America.

Alex Massie

Just here for the job: Question of the Day

Part of Megan McArdle's response to Kerry Howley's excellent guest-worker article: But mostly, I worry about having a large number of people in the country who are, definitionally, not planning to stay here. There's something corrosive about transience: witness the way college students treat their neighborhoods. (And don't tell me they're young; they're prime guest-worker age.) Civic bonds can withstand culture clash, but I'm not sure they can withstand pockets of people who are just there for the job. To what extent - if any - does life in Washington DC support Megan's theory? What lessons, if any, might be extrapolated from Washington's experience with what amounts to a sort-of-kind-of guest worker programme? Discuss.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

A Boy From the County Hell

Shane McGowan celebrates his 50th birthday today. Who would have thought it? Comfort and joy all round. This must rank as one of the most unlikely anniversaries imaginable. As the great man says himself: "Smoking, drinking, partying - that's why I've stayed alive as long as I have." That's the spirit lads. Give it a lash. Happy birthday Shane... And a merry Christmas to all of you out there, wherever you may be.

Monday

Alex Massie

Whither the American dramatist?

The New York Times' Ben Brantley says this was a year in which drama reasserted itself on (and off) Broadway. If so then that's a splendid thing. It's notable, though, that just two American plays make his list of the top ten* dramas to have played in New York this past year. No fewer than seven are the work of British and Irish playwrights (with only two of the productions Brantley hails being revivals of, respectively, Pinter and Sherriff).

Alex Massie

Moustaches of the Hindu Kush

Christmas in Helmand Province, Afghanistan can't be the bonniest gig on the planet. Hence this contest amongst the Royal Marines of 40 Commando: who can grow the spiffiest moustache. Best, however, is Major Alex Murray's reminder that this takes us back to the days of the great Harry Flashman: "Generations of our forefathers have been marching around these hills with the most splendid array of facial hair," he says. "We found throughout history, the upper lip has been stiffened with a good moustache. "Some aspects of warfare are timeless, and in this case the requirement for impressive facial hair is as important today as it was for our forefathers working on the North West Frontier. "Generations of British marines have operated in places like Afghanistan over the last two centuries.

Alex Massie

Christmas Quote of the Year

More from Helmand province where Sergeant Kraig Whalley of the Royal Military Police says: "We were thinking of challenging the Taliban to a game of football on Christmas Day, but I'm not sure they'd get the joke.

Alex Massie

The Wearisome Unbearableness of Manohla Dargis

Oh dear. The New York Times' Manohla Dargis (who apparently find the idea of being asked to name and write about her favourite movies of the year an intolerable imposition that reminds her of the Judeo-Christian patriarchy that has made her existence so frightfully ghastly) then further indulges herself with this hackneyed spot of hand-wringing: Enthusiastic reviews, intelligent filmmaking, even hot sex are no longer automatically enough to persuade a distributor to jump. The problem is that the art-house audience that supported the French New Wave filmmakers to whom “Reprise” owes an obvious debt can no longer be counted on to fill theater seats. Or maybe it’s overwhelmed.

Sunday

Alex Massie

Lock up your daughters: the libertarian carnival is in town

Good lord. further evidence that, despite improvements in recent years, Washington still has work to do. Today's WaPo runs a piece noting that the free minds and free markets crowd at Reason are insidiously recruiting innocent young Washingtonians to the libertarian cult by, yup, throwing a couple of parties a month. The horror! To wit: Four minutes into Reason magazine's monthly bash at the Big Hunt lounge, and every Libertarian-as-Bacchus fantasy you've entertained plays out before your widening eyes. Nick Gillespie, the leather-jacketed, Mama-said-you're-dangerous editor of the political rag peers at you intently. "What do you need?" he asks. "Do you need a drink? A cigarette?" Favourite bit, however? This: Last month the staff launched Reason.

Friday

Alex Massie

Riders on the Sleigh

This is the best Christmas song I've seen in years. It's obviously even better if, like me, you went through a teenage phase of listening to nothing but The Doors...

Alex Massie

Der Burgomeister

I guess Rudy Giuliani won't be getting many Christmas cards from the fine folk at The American Conservative. Read their comprehensive anti-Rudy package here. Read my own anti-Rudy contribution to a previous issue of TAC here.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Cigarettes aren’t merely sublime; they’re useful

Now that Hollywood has decreed that smoking in movies is as bad - and in fact perhaps worse - than gratuitous sex and violence, it's not a great surprise that folk are reminiscing about the role smoking has played in the movies. This Slate sideshow doesn't break much new ground - and, lamentably, declares smoking "deplorable - but it's worth watching for the super video clips from the Golden Age of Gold Leaf. It's worth mentioning, however, in rather more detail than the slideshow does just why smoking and the cinema became inextricably linked.

Alex Massie

Can we outlaw genes instead?

While we're talking about smoking, this study points out something that, intuitively, I've long considered obvious: Heart attacks among cigarette smokers may have less to do with tobacco than genetics. A common defect in a gene controlling cholesterol metabolism boosts smokers’ risk of an early heart attack, according to a new study. The findings also show that smokers without the defect normally have heart attacks no sooner than their non-smoking peers.

Alex Massie

Taking the Reductio ad Hitlerum to absurd lengths?

A shocking teaser from Arts & Letters Daily: Hitler, Stalin...and Abdul Qadeer? Who is he and why might anyone want to talk about him in such monstrous company?... more» Quite. I was, as you might imagine, taken aback. I always liked and admired this man who, more than anyone else, kept the flame alive through the dark days when a hyperpower destroyed everything in its path, forcing the argument that There Was No Alternative to their way of doing things...

Alex Massie

This will definitely hasten regime change in Havana

And while we're on the subject of cricket, here's the latest madness from the United States: Cuba have been blocked from playing in their first ever international cricket tournament because of a US embargo. Cuba had been invited to take part in the Stanford 20/20 tournament, which features 20 Caribbean teams. But the competition is backed by US businessman Allen Stanford, who by law must ask permission to engage in commercial activity with Cuba. Texan billionaire Stanford said on Tuesday that his application had been denied by the US government. "We have been anxious to include the entire Caribbean in the Stanford 20/20 Cricket Tournament and I am extremely disappointed that Cuba will not be able to play," he said in a statement.

Alex Massie

World Finally Prepared for the Giant Rat of Sumatra

At last! I really can't express quite how tickled I am by this news: Researchers in a remote jungle in Indonesia have discovered a giant rat and a tiny possum that are apparently new to science, underscoring the stunning biodiversity of the Southeast Asian nation, scientists said Monday. Original warning here.

Alex Massie

The Worst People in Europe?

My favourite comment of the year was left in response to Ross Douthat's reply to this post of mine: This has to be the most useless post of the year. Why do conservatives like scottish independence? because they are as malevolent as the SNP. I mean, I like Slovakia, but breaking up Yugoslavia was, well, not the best thing in the world.Fairness demands I acknowledge that once his geography had been corrected, the same commenter rephrased his point thus:NDM, quite correct about my Slovakia/Slovenia mixup.  Up there with Mauritius and Mauritania. However, to judge the disaster that was the breakup of Yugoslavia by observing the Slovenia has done well -- and it has -- is disingenuous. Somebody always comes up on top in these struggles.

Alex Massie

Coming to America

Since Andrew has already posted about this, everyone will have learnt about this poor Icelandic woman's horrific story by now. But just in case you haven't, here's her awful story. Her crime? She remained in the United States for three weeks after her tourist visa expired in 1995. Silly girl, you may say. You may even think it grounds for denying her entry into the US now. But perhaps you might care to draw the line at this: During the last twenty-four hours I have probably experienced the greatest humiliation to which I have ever been subjected. During these last twenty-four hours I have been handcuffed and chained, denied the chance to sleep, been without food and drink and been confined to a place without anyone knowing my whereabouts, imprisoned.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Huckabee: total loon

David Corn reads a book Mike Huckabee wrote in 1998 so you don't have to: It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations—from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia. It saddens me, I guess, that I missed the public - and institutional! - endorsement of necrophilia.