Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Belfast on the Euphrates?

From our UK edition

Matt Yglesias sees walls going up in Baghdad and wonders if the US Army is using Northern Ireland as its template: I believe this technique comes to the US Army's counterinsurgency theorists via Belfast, where I believe they have been effective in helping the British maintain a degree of order. To some extent, this brings us back to the question of strategy. If tactics employed in Northern Ireland can be made to work in Iraq (and maybe they can) even though Iraq has ten times as many people as Northern Ireland does and even though Iraqis don't speak English and even though the sectarian violence in Iraq is undergirded by concrete fighting over valuable resources, then does this really seem like a wise strategic undertaking? It doesn't seem that way to me.

Alex Massie

Foraging the answer for fat folk

From our UK edition

The always estimable Kerry Howley draws attention to another lovely House of Lords moment: Baroness Gardner of Parkes: My Lords, I speak as a member of the All-Party Group on Obesity. Why is it that in central London you can hardly find a thinly-sliced or medium-sliced loaf of bread to buy, and any sandwich you buy in any supermarket is now made with thick bread? While the House of Lords continues to use medium-sliced—and very nice—bread in its sandwiches, even the House of Commons has moved to thick bread. Surely at a time when we want to reduce people's consumption, there should be more pressure from the Food Standards Agency, or one of the many departments the Minister speaks about, to take us back to normal-sized bread instead of these super-sized sandwiches.

Alex Massie

Trouble At Mill

From our UK edition

My friend Toby Harnden finds John Edwards doing his best Monty Python in Iowa: Remember the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch, which ended with Eric Idle describing how during his childhood he had to "drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah"? Edwards can top that. Well, almost. "I grew up in a family where my grandmother walked to work at the mill every day wearing her apron,” he said. “My grandfather, who was partially paralysed, hauled rolls of cloth using one arm.

Alex Massie

The little white rose of Scotland which smells sharp and sweet and breaks the heart

From our UK edition

As part of its rather odd Call Yourself British campaign The Daily Telegraph has sent the novelist Andrew O'Hagan to tour the country and take its temperature. There'll be plenty to say about this over the next few days. But, beginning in Edinburgh, O'Hagan writes: Despite the work of centuries, an intellectual Enlightenment, an Industrial Revolution, the formation and decline of Empire, and two world wars, Scotland still feels nervous of its relationship with England, the same nervousness that Defoe objected to and hoped might     have come to an end as he walked up the High Street in the 1720s. But to make that journey today is to fall into step with the revival of an old song: when will the Union be over?

Monday

Alex Massie

He’s Also Every Bit As White, Asian, Latino…

From our UK edition

Former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young (who is black) was campaigning for Hillary Clinton today. He seems, however, to have gone off-message: He also joked that author Toni Morrison may have been on to something when she referred to former President Bill Clinton as the "first black president." "Bill is every bit as black as Barack," he said. "He has probably gone out with more black women than Barack.

Alex Massie

Assassination of JFK also a mystery…

From our UK edition

Good grief. The Washington Post reports: Still looking for that last-minute Christmas gift for White House press secretary Dana Perino? May we recommend a gift certificate for the forthcoming book on the Cuban Missile Crisis by our colleague Michael Dobbs, "One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War," due out next summer? Appearing on National Public Radio's light-hearted quiz show "Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me," which aired over the weekend, Perino got into the spirit of things and told a story about herself that she had previously shared only in private: During a White House briefing, a reporter referred to the Cuban Missile Crisis -- and she didn't know what it was. "I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . .

Saturday

Alex Massie

A Blue Moon Over Vegas Tonight

From our UK edition

No-one seems to know quite how many Britons have flown 7,000 miles to be in Las Vegas this weekend, but most estimates suggest it's at least 15,000 and possibly as many as 25,000. Since no more than 4,000 of them can actually have tickets for Saturday's fight between Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather this is an invasion army of impressive proportions. But then the British - and especially the English - have always loved their fighters and their fights and Ricky Hatton today enjoys the sort of celebrity once known by the great prize-fighters of the nineteenth century.  If a spot of foreign travel can be thrown in then all to the good.

Alex Massie

Comparative advantage: fight writing edition

From our UK edition

So, the New York Times has not even mentioned tonight's Hatton-Mayweather fight, far less run a piece on it. Not even in a Sport in Brief column. Doubtless some people will argue that this confirms boxing's eclipse; I'd suggest it's evidence of the New York Times' irrelevance. Sure, I'd also say that the Times is failing the average, casual sports fan (but then its sports section does that on a daily basis anyway, so why be surprised?) but that's a question for the Times not me. But it's not really a problem: Google News aggregates all the fight news you could hope for, including views from more than a dozen specialist boxing sites.

Alex Massie

The Fall of France? (Again?)

From our UK edition

So, unsurprisingly, Time Magazine's cover story (international edition) on The Death of French Culture is making waves on the eastern side of the Atlantic (once upon a time, Time might have devoted space to French culture in its US edition: that it wouldn't dream of doing so now tells us as much about the United States as it does about France). Given that all countries enjoy introspection - what's the subject of any attempt at writing the fabled Great American Novel, if not America herself? - it's not shocking that Le Figaro should devote three pages to responding to Don Morrison's silly, exaggerated article. Silly and exaggerrated and irritating, I mean.

Alex Massie

But how can you be sure?

From our UK edition

Mitt Romney, leader of men, sage of our time: "I believe, of course, that there are thousands of people who are not of faith who are moral." [Hat-tip: Mr Larison, who also points out that a) Roger Cohen has a confused view of history and b) sub-editors at the New York Times know no better.

Alex Massie

O tempora, o mores! | 8 December 2007

From our UK edition

More Paddington Bear blogging: Paddington, the bear from Peru, will be arrested and interrogated over his immigration status in a book marking his 50th birthday.Paddington Here and Now, due to be published in June 2008, is set around the bear's home at 32 Windsor Gardens, Notting Hill, west London. It will mark the 50th anniversary of his debut in A Bear Called Paddington. In other Paddington news, he's not forsaking marmalade at all. Whew!

Friday

Alex Massie

Religious politicians: kooks or not?

From our UK edition

Rod Dreher asks: I agree that it was stupid that Romney should have had to have given that speech, but American political culture really left him little choice. As silly as that may seem -- as silly as it is -- is Britain really better off? This, from Jeff Jacoby's column on Romney today: It was on Sunday that the Romney campaign announced the forthcoming speech, saying the candidate would discuss how his "own faith would inform his presidency if he were elected." On the same day in Britain, as it happened, the BBC broadcast an interview with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said that his Christian faith had been "hugely important" to him during his 10 years in power - but that he had felt constrained to keep it a secret for fear of being thought a crackpot.

Alex Massie

Changes in Murdochland

From our UK edition

The BBC's excellent Nick Robinson speculates that Rupert Murdoch's decision to hand control of his european interests to his son James is more bad news for Gordon Brown: the man formerly known as Britain's most powerful tycoon was personally, if not always politically, sympathetic to the prime minister. Rupert Murdoch admires Gordon Brown's personal morality and his commitment to hard work. What's more, initially at least, Murdoch Senior was not taken with David Cameron. Not so the man we will now have to get used to calling Britain's most powerful media tycoon. James Murdoch does not share his father's admiration for Brown or scepticism about Cameron. What impact will this have?

Alex Massie

D.I.V.O.R.C.E British style.

From our UK edition

Scotland is already a semi-detached member of the Union and the question, it now seems, is whether the delegation/repatriation of further powers to Holyrood results in a Scotland that is 75% detached from the rest of the UK, or one that decides for whatever constitutes independence these days. Regardless of what the country decides, the momentum towards having to make that sort of decision seems all but irresistible (I'd add that logic adds its weight to the process too, but that's a different matter).

Alex Massie

You mean you still like rugby here?

From our UK edition

Rugby blogging: Warren Gatland has coached in the English premiership, the Super 14 and been Ireland's coach. And he's still surprised that people in Wales think being Welsh coach is a big deal? New Wales coach Warren Gatland says he has been surprised by the level of media interest his first week in charge has attracted. The 44-year-old revealed the scrutiny has been far greater than anything he has ever experienced in his native New Zealand, another hot-bed of rugby. "I suppose I'll just have to come to terms with the level of interest and media interest in the game," he said. This is odd. The intense pressure that comes with coaching the Taffs is one reason plenty of sane people would be leery of taking the job.

Alex Massie

If you only see one documentary this year…

From our UK edition

Public Service Announcement: the news that the CIA has taken to destroying videotape of its interrogations depresses but does not surprise. It also reminds me that you really ought to see Alex Gibney's new documentary Taxi to the Dark Side when it is released in January. It's a dispiriting, devastating indictment of the Bush administration's detention and torture policies that have done so much* to destroy the United States' reputation around the world (as well as, of course, increasing the dangers faced by captured US servicemen). Anyway, loony tunes conservatives will be able to ask why the Academy Hates America whe the movie is, as I'd bet it will be, nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar. Steve Clemons hosted a screening earlier this week and has more here.

Alex Massie

Nothing Except World Leadership…

From our UK edition

More Romney, I'm afraid. But this is less about him than it concerns a general American trend. Daniel Larison has already touched on how Romney seems to share Fred Thompson's odd belief in the uniquely generous nature of American military sacrifice. This reminds me that I'd meant to comment upon this passage from Romney's speech: "Americans acknowledge that liberty is a gift of God, not an indulgence of government. No people in the history of the world have sacrificed as much for liberty. The lives of hundreds of thousands of America's sons and daughters were laid down during the last century to preserve freedom, for us and for freedom loving people throughout the world.

Alex Massie

The Way We Live Now…

From our UK edition

Christmas relationships, courtesy of DCist: A Christmas tree lot on Wisconsin Avenue at about 9 p.m.: A busy, attractive, professional, unmarried couple in their early 30s who are clearly still in their work clothes. Guy to tree-seller: "We'll take this wreath." Tree-seller to couple: "Don't you want a Christmas tree?" Couple awkwardly look at each other. Girl: "We can't commit to that right now." Picture of old-time DC tree-sellers from here.

Thursday

Alex Massie

GOPolycephaly

From our UK edition

I'm not quite sure why this hasn't received more attention, but didn't Mike Huckabee just propose an alliance with Rudy Giuliani to take down Mitt Romney? Seems like it to me. Let's go to the Youtube Debate transcript: I am Joseph. I am from Dallas, Texas, and how you answer this question will tell us everything we need to know about you. Do you believe every word of this book [the King James version of the Bible]? Specifically, this book that I am holding in my hand, do you believe this book? Cooper: I think we've got a question. Mayor Giuliani? Huckabee: Do I need to help you out, Mayor, on this one? (Laughter) (Applause) Giuliani: Wait a second, you're the minister. You're going to help me out on this one. Huckabee: I'm trying to help you out. Giuliani: OK.