World

This is obviously John Rentoul bait but, though one loves the eccentricities of the House of Lords, it remains the case that the US House of Representatives can bring the crazy like no other legislature on earth. Behold, people, Representative Hank Johnson (D) whom the good people of Georgia’s Fourth Congressional District have seen fit to send to Washington. He is concerned, you see, that Guam  may capsize. I am informed that this is not an April Fool. You need to watch the whole thing:

Well, as Pete says there were few fireworks during the finance debate. Then again, why would one expect there to be? By and large the three gentlemen agree with one another more than they disagree. When that’s the case you probably shouldn’t expect a proper tear-up. Their arguments were, by and large, about the route not the destination. Sure, there’s the occasional difference of emphasis and sometimes of timing too but let’s not pretend that there isn’t quite some degree of consensus. I suppose you could consider the creation of that consensus a Labour achievement but it’s not one the party can really boast about. Curiously, however, it is almost

Granted there was something about George W Bush that sent plenty of otherwise reasonably normal people a little nuts too and perhaps the nature of politics and technology today is such that this kind of crazy is inevitable regardless of who wins elections. But what, in the name of god, has Obama done to merit this kind of stuff from Glenn Reynolds? Possibly Obama just hates Israel and hates Jews. That’s plausible — certainly nothing in his actions suggests otherwise, really. OK! I guess that White House seder is proof of how deep the conspiracy runs? Evidently the administration is protesting too much. Only a White House riddled with anti-semites

At first he was coy. ‘Yes my brother,’ Salim the dealer smirked. ‘How many kilos you want?’ It had taken us only a day to find a man in Tanzania who would sell us ivory tusks from poached elephants. We met Salim in a Dar es Salaam hamburger joint and the whole exchange was ridiculously easy. I asked him: ‘How many kilos have you got?’ ‘I have 50, 100, 200 kilo. How much you want?’ ‘How about 200 kilos?’ I challenged. Salim licked his lips. At Tanzanian prices, this was worth $24,000. On the international black market, it could fetch $200,000. That meant dozens of dead elephants. This week CITES

Here’s Tony Blair, speaking at AIPAC yesterday: We should be clear also. 
Iran must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons capability.
 They must know that we will do whatever it takes to stop them getting it.  The danger is if they suspect for a moment we might allow such a thing. Emphasis added. This doesn’t really differ from long-established US policy except that the Americans tend to be a little less vocal when it comes to pledging military action. Then again, they’d be the ones having to take the decision to attack and they, not Blair, would be the ones who’d have to deal with the consequences. Doubtless Blair

As David says, Philip Blond has charmed David Brooks (who, in turn, has not impressed Matt Welch). I wasn’t terribly impressed with Blond last November and am not sure I’ve really changed my mind. Anyway, that post can be found here. Bottom line: Sometimes, if I understand him correctly (not as simple a task as it ought to be), it seems as if Blond wants to take us back to the 1930s – at home and at work. I think he’d like everyone to live in small towns or, preferably, villages too. Now there was much that was good about the 1930s but time, and society, moves on and it’s

American readers may (or may not!) be comforted to know that the newspaper responsible for this masterpiece (written, I’m pleased to see, by Andrew Malone) is one of the two most powerful papers in the country. Even by the Daily Mail’s lofty standards, this is a classic, and I’m indebted to John Rentoul for bringing it to my attention. As is his wont he concludes that the answer is – as tends to be case with any headline that ends in a question mark – ‘No’. But surely this shows a sad lack of imagination upon his part? Then again, I’m also pleased to see that Mr Malone was able

But if you want to see something that really is antithetical to the idea of the American Idea then this, from Glenn Greenwald, should dp the job nicely: [T]he bill recently introduced by Joe Lieberman and John McCain — the so-called “Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention and Prosecution Act” — now has 9 co-sponsors, including the newly elected Scott Brown.  It’s probably the single most extremist, tyrannical and dangerous bill introduced in the Senate in the last several decades, far beyond the horrific, habeas-abolishing Military Commissions Act.  It literally empowers the President to imprison anyone he wants in his sole discretion by simply decreeing them a Terrorist suspect — including American citizens

I enjoyed Ross Douthat’s column this week in which he contemplates the inadequacies of Hollywood’s response to the Iraq war. (Hey – at least Hollywood has responded: has the British film industry? There haven’t been too many British stories told, as opposed to Britishers telling American stories. Which is a little different.) The narrative of the Iraq invasion, properly told, resembles a story out of Shakespeare. You had a nation reeling from a terrorist attack and hungry for a response that would be righteous, bold and comprehensive. You had an inexperienced president trying to tackle a problem that his predecessors (one of them his own father) had left to fester