Readers awaiting the announcement of my M XI of test cricketers should fret not. It will appear. And soon. In the meantime the estimable Norm has challenged me to a game of fantasy cricket. As he explains, the idea is that we shall each select a side, playground style and then see how the XIs
It’s August and there are still acres of newsprint and hours of newstime to be filled. Something has to be published or aired. And in any case everyone agrees that we need a new storyline, right? So what’s it to be? The obvious answer – and the one selected by thirsty hacks desperate for any
Apparently in 2002 the Pentagon commissioned a study (which I’ve not read yet) of imperial power entitled the “Military Advantage in History,” with a view to appreciating what the United States could learn from previous imperial adventures. Since the US is an imperial power, that’s not too daft a project. More on this later, perhaps.
The US Army is proposing to pay Arabic-speaking recruits bonuses of $150,000. James Joyner explains how this situation is largely one of the Army’s own-making, dating back more than a dozen years.
There’s no need for the Scottish football league to kick-off on Saturday. Cancel it. The season can’t* get better or more more amusing than this. *OK, it can. It would be too perfect, even too much to hope for, if Celtic were also turfed out of europe in their first match. Ah, sweet, sweet schadenfreude
Via Andrew, a fascinating collection of cartoon maps from the First World War. This one, by the Dutch artist Louis Raemaekers, is, for obvious reasons, my favourite:
So, as expected, Kevin Pietersen will captain England against South Africa at the Oval. A dubious gamble in my view, given the potential for the captaincy to adversely impact impair (thanks mystery commenter!) his batting, just as it did Michael Vaughan. Then again the selectors ensured that they had very few options, thanks to their
Ross Douthat makes an excellent suggestion: I think it would be an excellent discipline for pundits deeply invested in the ideal of the “independent” politician to attempt, at least once a year, a column praising a public figure for taking an independent, maverick position with which they disagree. Obviously this applies to the blogosphere as
Panorama tonight: The Olympic Games are special. The biggest show on earth – with an estimated global television audience of four billion people. But hosting the Games brings extreme attention and extreme scrutiny. Chinese Premier Wen Jibao promised that foreign media would be free to report on Chinese politics, economics and society in the build-up
Lord knows, there are times when the BBC is a frustrating service. And then there are times when one is thankful for the Beeb given the alternatives out there. Consider these screen grabs, taken at 11.35pm UK time this evening. (Click on each for a larger, clearer image if you like. The point is that
And art lovers… If you find yourself in the Scottish capital this week you might consider popping in to the Flaubert Gallery in Stockbridge where you will find an exhibition of my sister’s excellent paintings. The show runs until August 10th.
I read Polly Toynbee today and assumed it had to have been written by some pluck-faced intern charged with writing nonsense in the style of La Toynbee while she gets away from it all at her Tuscan villa. But apparently not. It is not a spoof or a parody. Anyway: Gordon is dead, long live
The test match at Edgbaston is bubbling up nicely. If they can snaffle Graham Smith’s wicket England will be favoured to mop up the South African tail and claim a victory that looked unlikely after their careless batting displays. Hurrahs for Paul Collingwood and, with the ball, Freddie Flintoff. UPDATE: OK, so that didn’t work
If you think John McCain has problems or you think George W Bush is unpopular, spare a thought for poor Gordon Brown. I can’t recall when I last saw a poll as brutal as today’s Daily Telegraph/Yougov survey. Look at this: 15%! To repeat, 15%! Hell, Brown’s plight is so severe that 42% of voters
Matt Yglesias alerts one to the latest nonsense in the Presidential campaign. This time the guilty party is the Wall Street Journal: “But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama’s skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and
At Passport Lucy Moore says this Paddy Ashdown speech on Bosnia’s future is ” a compelling call”. Maybe so. Ashdown argues: Bosnia’s predominantly Serb entity, Republika Srpska, Karadzic’s creation, has seen the vacuum where will and policy should be. Its premier, Milorad Dodik, is now aggressively reversing a decade of reforms. He has set up
Radley Balko, one of my favourite journalists, has a list of questions for Barack Obama that the candidate will never, obviously, be asked. These range over matters as varied as the drug war, the farm bill and school choive. The last one also made me smile: Your wife said that as president, “Barack Obama will…demand
Since Camilla Cavendish makes some points in her Times column today that are similar to some I made about David Miliband’s leadership challenge yesterday, I obviously think she’s written a fine, penetrating piece. As she says, In policy terms, it is the Conservatives who have so far seemed optimistic about the ability of people to
George W Bush wouldn’t have beaten Al gore or John Kerry without being able to rally evangelical Christians to the polls. Right now folk are concentrating on McCain’s foolish adverts casting Obama as the Paris Hilton of the campaign trail, but given Obama’s appeal to moderate voters it’s worth remembering that McCain’s bigger problem is
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