Band of Five Brothers
From our UK edition
Tee hee. Slate skewers Mitt Romney. How can people vote for this phoney? (Sorry about the irritating ad prefacing the spot.
Alex Massie
Wednesday
Tuesday
Fred Thompson’s message to the world: your dead don’t count
From our UK edition
Many years ago now, I had occasion to change trains at Pisa en route to Perugia and it was there, I think, that I first became aware of the Ugly American phenomenon. The station was pretty quiet as I recall, or rather it would have been had the air not been filled with the screeching complaints of a well-upholstered middle-aged American lady, dressed in the standard issue kit for European expeditions: too tight t-shirt, loose shorts, white socks and sneakers, complaining loudly about the station masters' reluctance or inability to confirm that the reservation she held for her party was valid or not. So far so normal. This was Italy. The trains run on time because the timetables are generous and so on.
A Facebook Agony Uncle Emerges…
From our UK edition
What's the appropriate way to deal with a "Will you be my Facebook Friend?" request from someone you don't know? How many damn friends should you have anyway? The estimable Reihan Salam tells you what you need to know about these and other social networking dilemmas..
Fat Bastard Actually Accurate Characterisation of the Modern Scot
From our UK edition
Oh great. Who knows, perhaps this is even true. I blame Glaswegians. Obesity levels in Scotland are the second highest in the developed world behind the USA, new statistics have revealed. The figures were published as the Scottish Government announced plans to remove sweets and fizzy drinks from schools. Under new rules, the amount of chips served in school meals will also be cut and more fruit and vegetables provided. Children's Minister Adam Ingram said he wanted to change young people's habits. The figures , released by ISD Scotland, the statistical wing of the NHS, said the "obesity epidemic" in Scotland must be addressed and outlines the extent of the "major public health problem".
A local post for local people
From our UK edition
Ezra Klein looks at lifestyle amenities of the sort that bright young white folks like to have in their city and observes that Portland and Seattle score better on this than Washington DC. So far so good. Then he adds: DC, by contrast, has a lot of white people working in it, but is actually only 39% white, and has a city government that does not derive primary political support from transient white voters. So the character of the city actually does more to represent its inhabitants. Which seems rational. Moreover, the white people there basically have to be there. You don't move to DC because it's awesome, you move because it's where your work is. So there's little need to construct an affirmative agenda to attract residents.
Calling a spade by its proper name
From our UK edition
James Fallows is right: it's Burma, not Myanmar. The generals can call their country whatever they like; we're under no obligation to follow their lead. Equally, it's Bombay not Mumbai, Madras not Chennai etc etc. Do you plan to visit Venezia or Munchen? Of course you don't, so Venice and Munich it is.
Gordon Brown’s Best of British
From our UK edition
Earlier this year I wrote a piece for TNR's website suggesting that Gordon Brown's Scottishness might become a problem for him. Well, with Labour riding high in the polls and talk of an autumn election running rife you might think that this was overblown nonsense. Maybe so. But don't take my word for it, have a gander at the speech Brown gave to the Labour party conference yesterday. For all the talk of change and renewal and driving the country forward, by far and away the most notable element of Brown's speech was the way he wrapped himself in the Union Flag. He mentioned "Britain", "British" or "the British people" no fewer than 75 times in his speech.
Monday
Nude Polish Women Party
From our UK edition
Let's hear it for the Polish Women's Party: "We are beautiful, nude, proud. We are true and sincere, body and soul. This is not pornography, there is nothing to see in terms of sex, our faces are intelligent, concerned, proud. We do not have our mouths open nor our eyes closed... All that interests us is the future, the position of women in society. We will open the archives of the former secret communist agents, we will make known their corrupt affairs," says party president Manuela Gretkowska. Indeed.
Columbia’s Persian problem
From our UK edition
I would not have invited Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia University today, but now that the invitation has been made it should go ahead. In general, however, I agree entirely with Daniel Larison: Manifestly, the man’s views are very often ridiculous, and he is a ranting demagogue, an Iranian Huey Long with less common sense. He is, however, a shrewd political operator who knows how play the angles. To give him a forum is to play into his hands and to treat him as the world leader that he would like to pretend to be. It flatters his ego, builds up his reputation around the world and strengthens his hand at home.
Way of the World: Off yer bike edition…
From our UK edition
Yes, it's from the doom-peddlers at The Daily Mail, but still... A police force has banned hundreds of its officers from riding bicycles for safety reasons. Greater Manchester Police has stopped 300 fully-fledged officers and PCSOs from patrolling on their mountain bikes. The patrols are popular with the public because they allow officers to chase criminals down narrow lanes and through parks and because they act as a visible deterrent. But police chiefs say they fear the officers do not have enough training to handle road conditions across Greater Manchester.
Ahmadinejad and Irving
From our UK edition
Reasons why jailing David Irving for "Holocaust Denial" was a bad idea, cont.: It allows Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to say that clearly there must be something to this point of view if "researchers" can be imprisoned for pursuing research from a "different perspective". And, of course, implicitly he's arguing that despite all your fancy, high-falutin' talk, you in the west are no better than the rest of us. You censor too. Tend to the beam in your own eye before looking to the mote in mine etc etc.
Department of Problem Solving
From our UK edition
Ahmadinejad at Columbia: A) Question: why do you execute homosexuals? B) Ahmadinejad answers that, well, the US has capitol punishment too... C) The President then boasts of the efficiency of Iranian government policy: "We don't have homosexuals in Iran like in your country". UPDATE: CSPAN caller now: "Get some research on this so we can implement it in America...
Save our hyphens!
From our UK edition
The OED is giving in to the Americans and the internet, abandoning the hyphen. Some 16,000 words in the new edition of the shorter OED have lost their hyphens. Examples of words that now look wrong: Formerly hyphenated words split in two: fig leaf, hobby horse, ice cream, pin money, pot belly, test tube, water bed Formerly hyphenated words unified in one: bumblebee, chickpea, crybaby, leapfrog, logjam, lowlife, pigeonhole, touchline, waterborne Kevin Drum asks: "Ice cream" used to be hyphenated? Really? Was this a British thing? Even the New Yorker isn't pretentious enough to hyphenate "ice-cream," is it? Well, maybe it is a British thing. But what's pretentious about a hyphen?
Gore’s Imperative…
From our UK edition
Christopher Hitchens cranks up the Will Al Gore Run? motor for another outing: On Oct. 12, we shall hear again from Oslo, and I will be very surprised indeed if the peace prize is not awarded to Albert Gore Jr. (Don't ask what a campaign against global warming has done for "peace"; that would be like asking what Mother Teresa or Henry Kissinger had ever done to reduce global conflict. The impression is the main thing.) So, and if I am right, the former vice president will then complete a year in which An Inconvenient Truth has been awarded an Oscar and he has authored a best seller. Roll it round your tongue again: an Oscar, a best seller, and a Nobel Prize in the space of 12 months or so. Not bad. And meanwhile, the field of Democratic candidates looks—how shall one put it?
Saturday
A September Surprise?
From our UK edition
A snap election in Britain? Iain Dale sees the latest good poll for Gordon Brown and reports that the Tories think it might happen: I understand that CCHQ [Conservative Central office HQ] is on full election alert, with preparations for an announcement by Gordon Brown on Monday. Yes, you read that right. Monday.
Thursday
Journalism 101 | 20 September 2007
From our UK edition
Paul Krugman complains that the scale of Democratic triumphs is deliberately under-played by the American media. Conspiracy! In fact, it’s quite strange how the magnitude of the Democratic victory has been downplayed. After the 1994 election, the cover of Time showed a charging elephant, and the headline read “GOP stampede.” Indeed, the GOP had won an impressive victory: in House races, Republicans had a 7 percentage point lead in the two-party vote. In 2006, Time’s cover was much more subdued; two overlapping circles, and the headline “The center is the new place to be.” You might assume that this was because the Democrats barely eked out a victory. In fact, Democrats had an 8.5 percentage point lead, substantially bigger than the GOP win in 1994.
VORP over arabists? Not so much. Or, more proof that games played and RBIs are junk stats.
From our UK edition
Words just about fail me. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the latest Great Moment in Public Diplomacy: "Sports is a universal language... Everybody knows that if you can play baseball like Cal Ripken then you're going to... have the world at your feet... So he's going to go out and I'll bet he'll find people who want to be Cal Ripken in Pakistan and people who want to be Cal Ripken in Guatemala and people who want to be Cal Ripken in Europe... That's the wonderful thing about sports: it really transcends culture and it transcends identity." It's obvious, isn't it, that you would send a retired baseball star to cricket-playing muslim countries to preach the merits of blue collar American-ness and hard work and being an "Iron Man" and all the rest of it.
You’re so vain, I bet you think this world is about you…
From our UK edition
I'll have more to say on Rudy Giuliani's trip to London in due course, but first this: Rudy Giuliani was on the trans-Atlantic campaign trail Wednesday, schmoozing with conservative idol Margaret Thatcher and bragging about his international credentials. "I'm probably one of the four or five best known Americans in the world," If nothing else, Rudy's egomania ought to be sufficient to disqualify him from the Presidency. For what it's worth I'd be amazed if Giuliani were named by many people around the world if they were asked to list five Americans. Even Rudy conceded that Bill and Hillary Clinton would beat him. So too, I suspect, would George W Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then you'd be looking at people such as Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears, Madonna etc etc.
Wednesday
George W Bush as HRH Prince Philip?
From our UK edition
Once upon a time this sort of stuff could be considered admirably human. Even mildly endearing. It's a measure of how Mr Bush's stock has fallen that these days it seems like the usual, if on this occasion trivial, blundering incompetence. From the Washington Post today: "I respect Prime Minister Badawi [of Malaysia], admire his leadership," Bush said. "When his wife died, I tried to call him early just to let him know I cared about him." "He has remarried," one of the journalists told him. "Has he?" Bush asked. "Good. I'll congratulate him. Thanks for giving me that heads-up. Don't put that in the article that you had to tell me that. You can put it in there if you want. I'll be glad to -- I'm going to congratulate him. That's neat.
Bounders in clubland
From our UK edition
I have been remiss, gentle reader, in failing to post another corker from The Daily Telegraph's obituary pages. Lord Michael Pratt, who has died aged 61, will be remembered as one of the last Wodehouseian figures to inhabit London's clubland and as a much travelled author who pined for the days of Empire; he will also be remembered as an unabashed snob and social interloper on a grand scale. Pratt would arrive at country houses announcing that he was en route to another castle or (even larger) stately home, and was intending to stay for only one night. Quite often the "night" would turn into weeks, and sometimes months.