Quick Oscar** thought: no American actor or actress won an Oscar this year. The four acting awards went to: Tilda Swinton (Scotland), Javier Bardem (Spain) Daniel Day-Lewis (England/Ireland) and Marion Cotillard (France). Have the Americans ever been shut out like this before? Does it mean anything beyond the fact that the Oscars are an increasingly
Amazing: MI6’s former chief has denied that the intelligence service murdered Diana, Princess of Wales.
New Hillary attack! “If speeches could create jobs, we wouldn’t be facing a recession.” And as the old saw has it: “If ifs and ans were pots and pans, there’d be no call for tinkers.” Also: Does this mean Hillary Clinton thinks speeches should be able to create jobs? Or does she just regret the
Former Bush speechwriter David Frum publishes an entertaining provocation here: Sen. Barack Obama’s admirers sometimes compare him to John F. Kennedy, sometimes to Ronald Reagan, sometimes to Abraham Lincoln. (That is, when they are not comparing him to Jesus Christ.) But is not the most apposite analogy … William Jennings Bryan*? Like Obama, Bryan was
Being envious of friends in Washington who are twittering about what would seem to be a rather splendid lunar eclipse tonight I signed up to Twitter. Needless to say I have scarcely any idea as to how it is supposed to work or what it is for. The FAQ were not entirely encouraging: But… what
Marc Ambinder has quotes from what the Clinton campaign is billing as a “major contrast” speech she will give in Ohio tonight (I assume this is being leaked in an attempt to divert attention away from what seems likely to be a big win for Obama in Wisconsin tonight). Anyway, among the “highlights”: …Tonight, I
Another splendid obituary from The Daily Telegraph that offers a splendid view of a rather different, if also gruesome, world than with which most of us are familiar. Funny too, of course, in the way in which the sadnesses of ghastly people often can be. (I also liked the understatement here: “Like his father, however,
The morning after the night before: a friend emails, noting Obama’s humping great triumph in Joe McCarthy’s old state, Wisconsin and quips: Can you imagine if you were a rabid 1950s era McCarthy-ite and somehow you saw today’s Washington Post front page – a black man is the front runner to be the next President
Ah Philadelphia, the city where they booed Santa Claus. And, if these lads are anything to go by, also the city where Major League Soccer should put its next team. In a word: quality: These are the Sons of Ben. They are the hardcore supporters of Philadelphia’s Major League Soccer team. Possibly their best chant
I’d actually thought Castro’s retirement would prompt more of this sort of nonsense. I guess we’re still waiting for Seumas Milne to pipe up in The Guardian. Still, the palm for the most idiotic thing I’ve seen goes to Chris Bertram: …And, of course, Castro ran a dictatorship that has, since 1959, committed its fair
James Forsyth comes up with an(other) excellent reason for hoping Hillary loses: it will be bad for Gordon Brown. Key point: the British political class are obsessed with the US elections and in most people’s minds Hillary Clinton is the Gordon Brown candidate. The failure of her campaign would lead to a slew of articles
I think this is an advertisement for some kind of high-falutin’ weather forecaster. HEAD OF HORIZON SCANNING CENTRE The Foresight Programme London base – Competitive salary The Government Office for Science, led by the Government Chief Scientific Adviser is located in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. Within this office
Salmond says it’s game on! ALEX Salmond would start legal moves to bring Berwick back under Scottish control if the town’s residents voted to leave England in a referendum, it emerged yesterday. A spokesman for the First Minister said borders were “fluid” and there were precedents from around the world of towns changing hands from
Edinburgh, Friday February 15th, 5.30pm.
The always excellent fitba blog More than Mind Games has a great story about football in the fog here, but it’s not as good as this one, that became the basis for a Radio Scotland play five or six years ago: IT IS not, on the face of it, a perfect scenario for radio. A
Barack Obama – like John Edwards before him – and, I dare say, the majority of Democrats hates (or pretends to hate lobbyists). To listen to Democrats talk you might be think that lobbyists are (with nasty trade with foreigners of course) the greatest threat to the future well-being of the United States. And indeed
So The Chicago Sun-Times is to start running signed editorials. TAPPED’s Dana Goldstein thinks this is a “good move” and wonders why more newspapers don’t do this. I imagine she’s in favour of this on the usual grounds of “transparency” and “accountability”. But it’s still a silly notion. Clearly, Ms Goldstein can’t have written many
Blimey. James Poulos has been kind enough to nominate this blog for inclusion in some pantheon of excellence. It’s my duty, apparently, to continue the chain letter of blog love by nominating further reading you might enjoy. That being so, feast yourself upon these:Mr Eugenides: Vituperative spluttering from an enraged Scottish Tory perspective. Opera Chic:
James Forsyth says it is “deeply comic” for Martin McGuiness to complain: “I am not a fan of East-Enders or Coronation Street but my wife and my children, particularly the girls, watch the programme. I am appalled at the drunkenness that is quite clear for everybody to see and all of that before the 9
Should readers be in Edinburgh at any point in the next two weeks, you can pop along to the Dundas Street Gallery where my little sister and two of her artist friends are holding an exhibition of their work. If you’re not in Edinburgh, you can view some of Claudia’s work here and here as