Laura Bush on Burma: The Burmese I've met, they want our affection. As Kerry Howley, an old Burma hand herself, rightly asks, "Are they puppies?". She explains how the US has, alas, become useful for the Burmese junta and how all Mrs Bush's concern won't/can't change that.
Woo hoo! The Rugby World Cup is almost upon us. Once upon a time - ie, during the inaugural tournament in 1987 - this would have meant that those of us exiled in the United States had almost no chance of following the tournament live. So, three cheers for the internets and satellite television and all the other accoutrements of the global telecommunications revolution. The world is a smaller, better place. So why-oh-why-oh-why - and in the name of the wee man - are Versus showing games with a 24-48 hour delay? Seriously. The tournament kicks off with France vs Argentina on Friday, but it will be shown on Versus on Sunday. Have these people not heard of globalisation? That sort of tape delay* is close to being worse than not showing the games at all.
That wise owl Terry Teachout responds to the brouhaha over the revelation that Arthur Miller "deleted" his Downs-syndrome son from his life, by digging into his vast archive to retrieve the column he wrote when Gunter Grass's youthful service in the Waffen SS came to public attention. Mr Teachout reminds us of five important principles whose application is by no means confined to artists in trouble: 1. Judging the sins of the past by the standards of the present can be a shortcut to self-righteousness. Make sure you have all the facts--and that you understand their historical context--before passing sentence. 2. Don't lose your sense of proportion. 3.Remember the Golden Rule.
Matthew d'Ancona makes a pretty sweeping claim this morning. Sir Michael Caine is, he writes: almost certainly the Greatest Living Englishman. My first reaction was that this was pretty strong mustard. But then again, now that Bill Deedes has gone, who are the other contenders? Your nominations please... And if Sir Sean Connery can be labeled the Greatest Living Scotsman, perhaps it's appropriate that his old partner from The Man Who Would Be King be accorded the crown south of the border. In the light of recent developments in Scotland and England, readers are also invited to speculate, as wildly as possible, upon the potential political consequences and significance of this coupling. Be bold.
TAPPED's Dana Goldstein blogs about today's striking New York cabbies. They're not happy that they're being required to purchase "Passenger Information Monitors" - ie maps and GPS devices - that will make it more difficult for them to rip-off passengers. Goldstein thinks this a good idea but, standing shoulder to shoulder with the oppressed working class, then argues that the cabbies have a point after all: "...it should be the city's responsibility to provide the needed infrastructure." Does this mean Ms Goldstein thinks the city - ie, the taxpayer - should also purchase new cabs for drivers as and when their old ones fail their road test? Presumably so.
Ben Crair has a piece at TNR today headlined, The Iraq War is Responsible for Scottish Independence. Really. Well, up to a point Lord Copper. The "Really" is an unfortunate indication that this pudding may be a little over-egged. Few people would deny that discontent with the war played a part in the SNP's victory in this year's elections. But other factors were at least as, and probably more, important. Among them: 1. Alex Salmond's return from his Westminster exile. Salmond brings a heavyweight presence that trumped anything the SNP could put up in his absence; it trumped Jack McConnell's pretensions to statesman status too. You wouldn't feel embarrassed being represented by Salmond. Alas, the same could not be said of McConnell. 2.
It all depends where you are coming from I suppose. Tyler Cowen flags up this Observer survey of forgotten, under-rated or generally neglected novels. And we're immediately in an odd, odd place. Will Self selects Alasdair Gray's Lanark. Well, you can call Lanark many things but given that Anthony Burgess (albeit absurdly) said it was the best novel to come out of Scotland since Sir Walter Scott was in his pomp, under-rated hardly seems to be the most apt description. That's not the only odd Caledonian contribution however. Iain Rankin nominates James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Rankin claims only writers read it, yet - Burgess notwithstanding - it's frequently taken to be the finest novel ever written by a Scot.
Researchers confirm that rock'n'roll stars lead unhealthy lives and die young. Shockerooni!
The President of the United States of America: A moment later, press secretary Tony Snow stepped into the doorway to ask about the daily press briefing he was about to conduct. Bush offered some suggestions for how to defer questions about his Iraq strategy. "Good. Perfect. Sorry to interrupt," Snow said as he vacated the room. "It's okay," remarked Bush. "This is worthless, anyway." Then, in a sudden bellow: "I'd like an ice cream! Please! You want some ice cream, Robert?
No need for comment, is there? Mr. Bush has often said that will be for historians decide, but he said during his sessions with Mr. Draper that they would have to consult administration documents to get to the bottom of some important questions. Mr. Bush acknowledged one major failing of the early occupation of Iraq when he said of disbanding the Saddam Hussein-era military, “The policy was to keep the army intact; didn’t happen.” But when Mr. Draper pointed out that Mr. Bush’s former Iraq administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, had gone ahead and forced the army’s dissolution and then asked Mr. Bush how he reacted to that, Mr. Bush said, “Yeah, I can’t remember, I’m sure I said, ‘This is the policy, what happened?
Karl Rove is a remarkable man. On his last day in the White House, National Review Online publishes a piece in which Rove claims that history will judge Bush favourably if Iraq proves a success: History’s concern is with final outcomes, not the missteps or advances of the moment. History will render a favorable verdict if the outcome in the Middle East is similar to what America saw after World War II. OK. You'd expect that.
Iain McWhirter at The Guardian reminds one why Edinburgh is perhaps the world's best city every August: Now, here's a cultural success story of truly epic proportions. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe alone has sold 1.7m tickets this year - that's more than twice the number sold by the Manchester Commonwealth Games. It does this every year. And the official Edinburgh International Festival hasn't even finished yet, so its figures are still to come. The Edinburgh Book Festival has attracted 200,000 to its Charlotte Square tent city, which means that the Edinburgh culture-fest's final score will be well over 2 million... This is an astonishing achievement and gives the lie to those who claim that people aren't interested in drama, literature, music and physical theatre anymore...
Dispatches from the Drug Wars: Agents with a regional drug task force raided Leonard French’s home in southeastern New Mexico on Tuesday and seized several marijuana plants. But the wheelchair-bound man said he’s certified by the state Health Department to possess and smoke marijuana for medical reasons. The 44-year-old lost the use of his legs about 20 years ago as the result of a motorcycle crash and now suffers from chronic pain and muscle spasms. French allowed the agents into his home in Malaga, just north of the New Mexico-Texas border, because he said he believed he was doing nothing wrong. He had worked with his doctor and the state to get permission to have marijuana.
Another reason not to vote for Mitt Romney: he's a bloody jogger. No surprise there, I suppose. Anyway, despite that, this new Romney ad, is not without interest. Jason Zengerle observes that Romney is playing up his "competency candidate" credentials, pivoting away from his previous pandering to social and evangelical conservatives. And so he is, but doesn't this also reveal that Romney probably agrees that the Bush presidency has been, well, a disaster. After all, this ad boasts about Romney's proven record of turning around failing companies (and "rescuing" both the Salt Lake City Olympics and the state of Massachusetts). Why would you mention this if you didn't think America needed saving?
Each dot represents someone living in Manhattan who receives farming subsidies from the US government. The large dots indicate the home address of someone raking in more than $250,000 a year. Ah, such sweet lunacy!
Martin Samuel is in good form today. He doesn't much like MLS and, really, it's not difficult to agree with him. The LA Galaxy's recent 5-4 defeat at the New York Red Bulls was entertaining in the way that games featuring large quantities of comedy defending often are, but was notable not so much for the goals scored as for the real intensity and pace at which the game was played. Those vital qualities are normally lacking in MLS, giving most games (or at least those I've been to in DC) all the excitement of a pre-season training session.
Megan wonders why, ten years on, Princess Diana is back on the front pages. The simplest answer, natch, is grubby: she still sells. No British paper has been more Diana-obsessed this past decade than the once-great Daily Express, but despite the sardonic ribbing it receives from the rest of the British press corps every time it trots out another "Diana's Ghost seen at Highgrove" nonsense, it sells, I understand, an extra 30-40,000 copies. Something similar must be true in other countries; indeed some of the most fanatical Diana-adorers I've met have been American. Maybe many women still do secretly wish they could be a Princess.
Chris Orr decries Mickey Kaus's decrying of The Bourne Ultimatum as "anti-American". Chris is right to observe that the film's good guys are also American government officers and that Joan Allen's character says of water-boarding etc that "This isn't us" but ultimately (ha!) I can't quite agree with his conclusion. I thought it a rather searing indictment of the United States, albeit for rather different reasons. As my friends know I'm generally a pretty pro-America kind of chap. Some of my best friends are American, don't you know. Even so, there are limits. What The Bourne Ultimatum did capture was an arrogance that gives the United States a permanent right to do as it pleases anywhere in the world.
I have no interest whatsoever in health policy, but I am interested in education. Paul Krugman's column yesterday mocked one strand of conservative (libertarian actually) education thinking. So let's end this un-American system and make education what it should be -- a matter of individual responsibility and private enterprise. Oh, and we shouldn't have any government mandates that force children to get educated, either. As a Republican presidential candidate might say, the future of America's education system lies in free-market solutions, not socialist models. Isn't this a transparently ridiculous argument he suggested, before going on to say, well, that's what we currently have in health care.
David Freddoso wonders why it is that it always seems to be conservatives (Republicans) who are caught cottaging etc etc. But this is not a recent phenomenon, or one limited to the United States. Every British hack knows that Tory scandals are about sex while Labour ones are about money.