World

As Time’s Michael Scherer writes, McCain’s decision to portray Obama as nothing more than a flashy celebrity better known for being famous than for any great achievement is, well, strange. Here’s McCain strategist Steve Schmidt: “It’s beyond dispute that he has become the biggest celebrity in the world,” [McCain Campaign head Steve] Schmidt said of Obama. “The question we are posing to the American people is this: Is he ready to lead? . . . Do the American people want to elect the world’s biggest celebrity or do they want to elect an American hero, somebody who is a leader, somebody who has the right ideas to deal in a

I suppose it must irritate liberals that the press has picked up on the conservative claim – or meme – that Barack Obama is, even by the lofty standards of Presidential candidates, rather more pleased with himself than is seemly. Here, for instance, the Washington Post’s sketch-writer (actually, he’s America’s only sketch-writer) Dana Millbank today: The 5:20 TBA turned out to be his adoration session with lawmakers in the Cannon Caucus Room, where even committee chairmen arrived early, as if for the State of the Union. Capitol Police cleared the halls — just as they do for the actual president. The Secret Service hustled him in through a side door

The one fact that screams out of the proposed murder law shake-up, is that it’s great news for girls. Reform is overdue — there hasn’t been any change in the law for 50 years — but the picture that emerges from all the crunchy details is especially cheering for chicks. That centuries-old defence of ‘provocation’ will be binned, which puts paid to the classic male excuse: “But she cheated on me!” And however sympathetic a judge, neither ‘constant nagging’ nor ‘she flirted with other blokes’ will cut any ice. There are, on the other hand, about 30 women killers every year who claim that ongoing domestic brutality drove them to

It’s possible I have posted this before, but William Hague’s riff on Tony Blair becoming “President of Europe” also bears another viewing:

Matthew Lynn says coffee is the pure brew of capitalism — as the credit crunch bites, no wonder the world’s most ubiquitous coffee-house chain is heading for trouble In Christopher Guest’s witty canine mockumentary Best In Show, there is a line of dialogue that tells you everything you need to know about the world’s biggest coffee chain. ‘We met at Starbucks,’ says a woman character of her current romance. ‘Not the same Starbucks, but we saw each other at different Starbucks across the street from each other.’ Not many companies are so instantly recognisable that their brand names can be dropped straight into a movie without introduction. Nor are there

Lloyd Evans joins the dissident movement in a ritual exercise near the Chinese Embassy. He is unsettled to find himself understanding why China’s rulers get so paranoid about them Bong. Up go our hands. Bong. Down come our hands. Bong. We bend our knees. Bong. We crouch down slowly. Bong. We sweep our hands around our feet. Bong. We pass our hands behind our shoulder blades. Bong. We straighten up. Bong. We make hollow fists. Bong. We release the energy. Bong. Up go our hands again. Bong. And down come our hands. And so on. It was a sunny morning in Regent’s Park and I’d joined a circle of Falun

So, Barack Obama travels to the middle east and europe next week on a trip designed to burnish his statesman credentials. Among the events planned: a major open-air speech in Berlin, possibly at the Brandenburg Gate. The good folks at The Corner see this as an own goal. To wit, Peter Kirsanow: Here in flyover country the reaction to Obama’s trip (except for the understandable stops in Iraq) is just as likely to be ” What country does he want to be president of?” It’s true some Americans like to be liked. But lots of Americans also are skeptical of candidates who look like they’re trying to pass John Kerry’s “global

David Frum: At a dinner last night, some friends were discussing about what Obama should have said about that New Yorker cover. One suggested that Obama ought to have said “It’s hilarious” – that at least would have put an end to the talk he has no sense of humor. There may be something in that, though really questions as to whether or not Obama has enough of a sense of humour really does seem classic silly season stuff. (See Maureen Dowd today for more of this). Still, for what little it’s worth, I think Obama’s best response would have been to say he loved it and ask if he

Apparently the US government’s “terrorist watch-list” now runs to more than a million names. How useful can it be then? Let’s see, shall we? The Justice Department’s former top criminal prosecutor says the government’s terror watch list likely has caused thousands of innocent Americans to be questioned, searched or otherwise hassled. Former Assistant Attorney General Jim Robinson would know: he’s one of them. Robinson joined another mistaken-identity American and the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday to urge eliminating the list that’s supposed to identify suspected terrorists. “It’s a pain in the neck, and significantly interferes with my travel arrangements,” said Robinson, the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division

Via Isaac Chotiner, I see The Times’ movie critics have compiled a list of the “Top 20” movie endings of all time. Isaac is more enamoured than I am of the list, which concludes thusly: 5.Chinatown 4. E.T. 3. Casablanca 2. Butch Cassidy 1. Carrie Well, fine. But what about, in no particular order: The Lavender Hill Mob, The Great Escape, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Brief Encounter and, last, but by no means least, the brilliant ending to the best (British) movie of them all, The Third Man. It don’t get better than this: UPDATE: Andrew Stuttaford agrees with me.

I am puzzled. Puzzled that is, by the British attitude towards America’s gun culture. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s (in my view) common sense ruling that the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual, rather than a collective, right to bear arms, British commentators responded by, well, by throwing their hands up in the air and, yup, wondering at them there crazy Yanks. Thus Bryan Appleyard: I no longer try to understand the American acceptance of well over 30,000 gun-related deaths a year.  No other country comes close – though it should be noted that over half are suicides, in other countries people may just kill themselves in different ways

Colour me unmoved. I notice that, so far at any rate, all the contributors at The Corner are too busy hailing the former Senator’s service and lauding his fervent anti-communism to note that these convictions led him to embrace some, shall we say, distasteful allies? From a British point of view, Helms’ most significant, or at any rate telling, moment may have been his embrace of the Argentine military junta after it invaded the Falkland Islands. Helms believed that Washington should support Galtieri’s vile regime since to do otherwise would “destroy the coalition we must have if we are to prevent a Communist takeover of Central America.” It’s always good

To all my Canadian pals – and especially those far from their native heath – here’s some video for you to enjoy.

The situation in Zimbabwe is intolerable: on that all decent people can agree. Robert Mugabe has turned the breadbasket of Africa into a wasteland. He has set his militia, his army and his police to beat, rape and kill his own people. He respects neither the results of any democratic ballot nor the norms of human decency. Neither pregnant women nor children are exempted from the brutality of his thugs. The conclusion that something must be done is obvious. The question of what, precisely, is much trickier. The reports coming out of Zimbabwe have been so awful and the world’s response so feeble that there is an increasing clamour for

Good news from Washington: a common-sense interpretation of the Second Amendment prevails at the Supreme Court: WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history. The court’s 5-4 ruling strikes down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. More later, I imagine. It will be interesting to see how Obama responds to this, especially given his ambitions to conquer the Mountain West states where, shall we say, support for gun rights is strong. Most european reaction will, I suspect, have