Prometheus regrets his actions?
Why is Greece aflame? Mr Eugenides explains it all.
Alex Massie
Tuesday
Private Idaho
World Gone Mad: the Senate Ethics Committee is going to investigate Senator Larry Craig's "incident" in a Minneapolis airport bathroom. For crying out loud, what earthly business is it of theirs? I find it mystifying that poor Senator Craig was even arrested. So what if he propositioned someone? What's that to you or me? And why is it worse or more "lewd" that he should do so in a men's bathroom than were he to try and pick up a buxom young blond in a nightclub? When did asking for sex become illegal? (Having sex in a public lavatory, absent the owner's consent, is of course a different matter.) What next, undercover cops in college bars? Sure, it's August and maybe Senator Craig is a hypocrite and a liar (though of course he says he isn't).
Declare victory and just go home?
According to a new Zogby poll, 11% of Americans think the US has already won in Iraq. This confirms my long-held view that a non-trivial percentage of the population can be persuaded of absolutely anything. Other findings include: Asked which of the 2008 presidential candidates would best handle the war in Iraq, Rudy Giuliani topped the list with 14% support, followed by Fred Thompson (11%), Hillary Clinton (10%), Barack Obama (9%), John McCain and Joe Biden (7%), John Edwards (5%), and Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich at 4%. But overall, more Americans said they were unsure (15%) than supported any single candidate to best handle the war.
Monday
How to be a pundit
Memo to New York Times/Guardian* columnists: it would be a public service were you to follow the great Myles na Gopaleen's example: Not the least of my duties is keeping an eye on the Editor of this newspaper and rebutting, for the benefit of our simpler readers, the various heresies propounded in his leading articles. Saturday's article was agreat shock to me... And again: Today, undismayed by many a reverse, I take up the cudgels on behalf of the Irish nation against the historic enemy of the Irish nation - the Editor of The Irish Times... *Actually all papers could benefit from a dose of mutiny in the ranks.
Sunday
World peace might be too complicated…
This is just fantastic.
Friday
You watchin’ me?
In the spirit of Not Reading Books, it's time to move on to Not Watching Movies. Megan kicks matters off by confessing that, despite loving Marlon Brando, she's never actually seen On the Waterfront. Not a bad contender. For my part, I've never actually seen Gone With the Wind. Or, even more oddly, Taxi Driver. What about you? What are the biggest gaps in your movie watching lives?
How Sarko seduced France
I'm rather looking forward to reading Yasmina Reza's account of her year on the campaign trail with Nicolas Sarkozy, Dawn, Evening or Night. It looks as though it could be the political book of the year. If Elaine Sciolino's article is at all accurate, Sarko comes across as a man who, above all, is alive (a welcome change after the stagnant corruption of the Chirac years. There's wit too: Even before his victory, Sarkozy is drunk with bravado. Emerging from lunch in London with then-Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, Sarkozy announces to his aides: "Tony and I have just made a decision. We're going to conquer Europe.
Of course it’s our fault…
Oh please. Marty Peretz thinks Labour MPs should spend less time talking about Palestine and more time contemplating Zimbabwe: The Brits bear responsibility. Zimbabwe was once Rhodesia, a crown colony, and it still a member if the Commonwealth. At the first elections after independence, London tilted towards Robert Mugabe against Bishop Muzorewa, tilted heavily. And it is the British-backed winner who is the genocidalist. The notion - implicit here - that Mugabe is some sort of British creation is not, as best I can recall, one supported by the events.
Wednesday
Department of Modern Life
Clive Davis returns from holiday: As we came in to land, we put our watches back to March to take account of the weather. Then we faced the interminable midnight wait at passport control as members of the secret service sifted the terrorists and arms smugglers from among the long line of tired families clutching their holiday souvenirs. Then we tried to make our way to the long-stay car park, unaware that the shuttle buses had been temporarily moved to a different part of the airport. (No one seems to have bothered putting up a sign announcing this inside the terminal.) Ninety minutes after our flight touched down, we finally set off on the M11. It could have been worse, Clive concludes. He could have landed at Heathrow rather than Stansted.
Monday
I will roll my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help…
Jesus Wept Department. A viewer's question during this morning's ABC Democratic candidates' forum: My question is to understand each candidate's view of a personal God. Do they believe that through the power of prayer disasters like Hurricane Katrina or the Minnesota bridge collapse could have been prevented or lessened? Gotta love that "lessened" don't you, as though the questioner suddenly doubted their own understanding of their personal god's powers of intercession? Charity demands that I observe that the candidates all gave respectable answers to this nonsense. Video here (you may have to endure a 30 second ad).
Today’s menace to society: smoking in cars
Will Saletan has a reasonable column today pointing out just how absurd the War on Smoking has become. Saletan hits some of the right notes, observing, for instance, that alcohol has greater social costs than tobacco etc etc. Fair enough. But this is a lost - or at least doomed - battle. You want to see the future? Well, according to this Newsday story there's currently a bill coming before New York City Council that would prohibit smoking in cars if anyone under the age of 18 was present. Never mind the fact that (even in NYC traffic) cars come equipped with a remarkably efficient ventilation system - windows - rendering the alleged problems of "exposing" children to second-hand smoke entirely irrelevant - the more pressing concern here is privacy.
Secretary of State for Scotland delivers message to Scotland: sod off
Interesting, though unsurprising, interview in today's Scotsman. Des Browne, the Secretary of State for Scotland, tells the paper's political editor Hamish Macdonell that there's no need for any talk about new powers for Holyrood. Move along now, please. Nothing to see here. Mr Browne delivers the standard Labour ministerial line: we'll have a consultation and "listen" to all views but our mind is made up. So what's the point? Score this as another victory for Alex Salmond. Wendy Alexander, the likely new leader of the Scottish Labour party, is understood to want a review of the devolution "settlement". It would be a surprise if she were not. She is a creature of the Scottish parliament, not Westminster. Like any bureaucracy or legislature, Holyrood has a natural desire for growth.
The herring question: fishing for Britain’s future
Following on from this post on Des Browne's interview with The Scotsman today, the Secretary of State for Scotland (who is also the Secretary of State for Defence, though you might think that ought to be a full-time job) also had this to say: Mr Browne also dealt a blow to the aspirations of the SNP Executive, which has started negotiations with Westminster in an attempt to get Scottish ministers to lead for the UK in European fishing talks. Mr Browne said the UK government would not agree to such a change. He said: "As far as fisheries is concerned, Scotland has a voice in the fisheries negotiations annually, but they are UK negotiations. It's the United Kingdom which is a member of the European Union and Alex Salmond knows that.
Monday Trivia!
Yeah, so it's been a long time since I posted any trivia questions. Rather than wait for the weekend, here's something to distract your attention on a Monday afternoon. As always, no googling, no prizes - it's just for fun. Email me your answers or leave them in the comments: 1. Can you connect a once busy arrival point with a writer who began with less than nothing but became a poster-boy for a generation and a boy who picked it up and ran? 2. Why might a Washington Wizard, an Anglo-Irish essayist, and a man first encountered at Twelve Oaks all have been eligible to join the Ganymede club? 3. She was a darling in song, he was an actor who wasn't perfect, while he disdained the cuckoo clock: why would they be in the same family as a civil servant? 4.
The Atlantic blogosphere expands
Y'all read her anyway (you do, don't you?), but just in case you're still searching for her here you could perhaps use a gentle reminder that the wondrous Megan McArdle is the latest member of The Atlantic's all-star blogging line-up and her new blog is up and running today. Shorter Megan: things not so great in the financial world, but not as bad as the Yankees' pitching. Longer Megan: worth your reading in its entireity. So go read!
Sunday
Quote for the day
Via Samizdata, this from Barry Goldwater: I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed'' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible.
Tattoos would be cheaper…
Hmmm. Just how would this work, Rudy? EVERY foreigner in America, including British visitors, would be required to carry an ID card bearing photograph and fingerprints under plans drawn up by Rudolph Giuliani, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. Giuliani is hoping to cement his status as the Republican favourite by promising to enforce immigration and border controls, drawing on expertise in combating crime from his time as mayor of New York. He announced last week that all foreigners, including holiday-makers, would be obliged to carry a “tamper-proof” biometric card, which could be issued at ports of entry. “If you don’t have that card, you get thrown out of the country,” Giuliani said.
Dept of What a Country!
Via Tyler Cowen, your fun fact for the day: Where do most tigers live? In the United States it turns out. There are 4,000 tigers residing in captivity in Texas alone, where private ownership of tigers is legal. The number of tigers left in the wild is perhaps no more than 5,100-7,500.
Friday
BASEBALL/POLITICS: You Must Not Read the Sports Pages Too Often
Via Kevin Drum, I see that, in one of his regular plangent calls for a better press corps, Brad DeLong has highlighted an extraordinary suggestion from one of his readers. Namely that: I repeat my previous suggestion for the "baseball test." A reporter should not be assigned to cover subject X unless he has as good an understanding of X as a baseball writer is expected to have of baseball. I assume that Professor DeLong's reader does not intend reducing the quality of political coverage in this country but it seems unavoidable that this is indeed what he is proposing. I mean, has this chap ever read Bill Plaschke? Or Murray Chass? Both these men are members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (though typically, being stuffed shirts, they decline to cast Hall of Fame ballots).
Beckham begins earning his salary (on the pitch)
If you thought David Beckham would be a one day story and then quickly ignored in the US you might want to consider that notice of his first goal for the Los Angeles Galaxy was considered the most important "Breaking News" for a full hour on ESPN last night.