It’s good to see that not every sector of the economy is knee-capped by the “credit crunch”. So hurrah for NHS Lothian who are advertising this exciting opportunity: Job Title: Health Promotion Specialist: Physical Activity (Walking, City of Edinburgh) Band 5: £20,225 – £26,123 per annum Fixed Term – 3 Year Contract Ref: CO/AL/094 An
Ross Douthat has a very interesting, honest post about torture here. (With subsequent posts here and here.) As if by magic, National Review appears with an editorial defending the Bush administration’s approach to interrogation here. I don’t find it especially persuasive, and doubt you will too. Conor Friedersdorf has more too. Amidst the debate on
Gordon Brown may be a son of the Manse, but it’s the Archbishop of Canterbury, of all people, who has picked up a presbyterian cudgel with which to whack the Prime Minister. To wit: The Archbishop of Canterbury criticised the government’s fiscal stimulus package on Thursday, likening it to “an addict returning to a drug.”
Adapt and change or die is the mantra of the day. And not just in economics neither. Here, for instance, is the Australian rugby coach Ewen McKenzie, currently in charge at Stade Francais, arguing that the experimental rules used this season in the southern hemisphere be adopted in europe too: “I understand the debate, change
Iain Martin asked a good question today: Despite being at or near the top of his profession for two decades, the PM has no track record in fronting election campaigns. There are so few images of his public electioneering because he has done very little of it. Curiously, amid the speculation about the possibility of
So Caroline Kennedy is kind enough to explain why she thinks she should be appointed the next Senator from New York: “I come at this as a mother, as a lawyer, as an author as an education advocate and from a family that really has spent generations in public service,” she began, in response to
Ah, it’s that time of year again! Yup, the splendid blog Regret the Error rounds up the most entertaining newspaper corrections of the year. Some of my favourites: The Daily Mail was among the newspapers to report that David Gest contracted herpes from Liza Minnelli on their wedding night. Not so! In articles published on
Ouch! The paradox of this scene was that the Obama campaign’s communications strategy was predicated in part on an aggressive indifference to this insider set. Staff members were encouraged to ignore new Web sites like The Page, written by Time’s Mark Halperin, and Politico, both of which had gained instant cachet among the Washington smarty-pants
Nice work, Reuters: Man who snatched wig will have toupee Hat-tip: Radley Balko.
Now that we’re getting used to the idea of President Barack Hussein Obama, it’s easy to forget just how quick he’s risen to the summit of American politics. The other day I came across a pack of playing cards that I picked up at CPAC in 2006; produced by Human Events, it’s titled “The 52
Dick Cheney in an interview with ABC News: CHENEY: On the question of so-called torture, we don’t do torture. We never have. It’s not something that this administration subscribes to. Again, we proceeded very cautiously. We checked. We had the Justice Department issue the requisite opinions in order to know where the bright lines were
One of the odder characteristics of a certain strain of British right-wing thinking is the terror that British Prime Ministers might ever disagree with the American president. It’s almost as if there’s a fear that if Britain takes an different view then Washington will chuck us overboard and find a new european friend with whom
Joe Klein on the self-styled Worlds’ Greatest Deliberative Body: The point is, that the Blagojevich fiasco and now the Kennedy play have turned the selection of new Senators into a skeevy travesty. The best way to change the story would be go in the exact opposite direction–go completely high-minded. He suggests some worthy folk, but
Actually, as Megan explains, the lesson of Bernie Madoff’s scam is that there really aren’t any lessons that can be drawn. As she puts it, “Everyone just screwed up”. That leaves us in the unsatisfying position of having no-one, apart from the remarkable Mr Madoff, of course, to blame. Sometimes stuff really does just happen
Turns out there is a list of approved hipster baby-names. (I assume there’s a comparable British list somewhere?) James Poulos lists his favourites but unfairly targets Magnus for opprobrium. Nothing wrong with Magnus, it being a fine, sturdy old Norse-Scots name. On the other hand, it probably sounds daft in Americaland. Anyway, the best hipster
Are Weimaraners the most beautiful, elegant, coquettish breed of dog?
Joe Klein has been to Afghanistan, so that puts him one up on me. Still, having spent some time pointing out the (widely-acknowledged) complexity of the situation in Afghanistan, Klein concludes his piece with this sweeping pronouncement: The first step toward resolving the war in Afghanistan is to lay down the law in both Islamabad
I think I’ve mentioned before that President George W Bush was said to find the British press corps lack of respect for his office somewhat grating. Unlike our American counterparts, British journalists declined to stand to attention when Mr Bush strode into the East Room or sauntered out into the Rose Garden for yet another
The last word, I think, on the Great Shoe Attack: [Hat-tip: Toby’s commenters.]
Via Megan McArdle, I see that the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press are taking a novel approach to the malaise that’s crippling newspapers across America (and Britain): make it much more difficult for people to buy your product. At first you may think that this is so counter-intuitive that it must be brilliant.