Ah, the tabloids… Bless them. Just when you think no newspaper can keep a healthier stable of high horses than the New York Times, Fleet Street reminds one that humbug and sanctimony are both alive and well in London. Gordon Brown just made his life more difficult. If he does renege upon Labour’s promise to
James Poulos asks an excellent question, perfect for parlour-game speculation: Yesterday or the day before I was hanging out in the grad lounge with a sane Americanist who was scrolling through a polling compilation of Our Presidents Ranked By The Experts. Blithely I asked after the top ten Commanders-in-Chief, knowing damn well why I asked
Merit pay, eh? Normally I’m all for hopping on the teachers-unions-are-spawn-of-the-devil bandwagon. But they’re right to think that performance-related pay, or at least any form of it likely to be introduced by bureaucrats, is likely to be a disaster for exactly the same reason as most government-mandated teaching requirements offer exactly the wrong incentives. Neill
John Derbyshire on fetishisation and Islamophobia (which does, of course exist, even if it is much less widespread than muslim “community leaders” would have you believe): Speaking of which, I have been voted off the New English Review site for being insufficiently Islamophobic. Fair enough. NER has now settled down as a definitely and strongly
James Fallows’ blog is normally a treat. But in the midst of slapping Congress for the supposed foolishness and self-indulgence of the Armenian genocide resolution he writes this (emphasis added): Why not go all the way? How about a resolution condemning China for the millions who suffered in the Cultural Revolution and the tens of
Matt Yglesias writes: People often note that there appears to be a more vigorous debate over Israel’s approach to the Israeli-Arab conflict in the mainstream Israeli press than there is in the mainstream American press. This is, however, the kind of judgment that it’s hard for a casual American observer to
Amidst suggestions that Nancy Pelosi will in fact put the Armenian Genocide resolution in her pocket, it’s been quite something to see so many self-styled liberals shake their heads and mutter that, you know, while we feel for the poor Armenians – and please, don’t for a moment doubt the seriousness of our compassion –
Foreign Policy’s Blake Hounshell deplores knee-jerk contrarianism and lists 10 Contrarian Arguments He Never Wants to Hear. Among them: Let Them Eat Cake: How a Delicious Dessert Could Save the World’s Poor. This seems unfair. Marie Antoinette’s famous advice was, if memory serves, given out of compassion and understanding, not aristocratic contempt for the urban
Reading this post from James Poulos left me wondering: What would happen if a US state decided to leave the Union? Would they be permitted to do so? How would you go about seceding anyway? Would it be legal to do so? What would be the consequences? Bonus questions: Which state would be most likely
Via Marc Ambinder, here’s what the new Politics of Hope* has to say for itself: *Of course Hillary Clinton really is the candidate favoured by much of the Democratic establishment. But that’s at least partly because, for better or worse, she’s something of a known quantity. Beyond platitudes and an apparently limitless belief in the
Via the admirable Mr E, I find Matthew Parris offering some sound advice to the Tories. Parris, one of the most urbane journalists working in London, found himself making an argument he didn’t, on reflection, quite believe: Here was the wise argument: “David Cameron and his Conservative colleagues were entitled to their half-hour of fun
Rugby World Cup blogging: well, that was a disappointing weekend wasn’t it? For the second tournament in a row both semi-finals went the way I didn’t want them so. Such is life. So England vs South Africa it is. Both semi-finals demonstrated that it is easier to win games form a defensive posture than was
“For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”
So, yes, the bloody New York Yankees came a cropper. Smirk all you like. They remain my American League peeps. It is, as I explain, all Dubya’s fault. Give me death before you give me more Boston gloating…
Video of yesterday’s assault on Gordon Brown. A friend emails: By god, Cameron destroyed Brown. Michael Howard on the Newnight panel astutely pointed out that Blair would have made a self-deprecating remark that would have admitted the charge, but defused the pressure. It is so true. Remember Blair’s remark about Cherie and the allegation that
I’d been quietly, if feebly, sympathetic towards some of the realpolitik concerns about the forthcoming Congressional vote on recognising the Armenian genocide. Then the Washington Post came out fighting. Apparently the resolution is “Worse than Irrelevant” The Post chuntered that Congressman Adam Schiff, the driving force behind the resolution thanks to the vociferous lobbying of
A friend emails me some more George W Bush-New York Yankee parallels: Blowing 3-0 lead [in the 2004 ALDS] = Squandering of good will after 9/11 Signings of Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright = Nominations of Bernie Kerik and Harriet Miers A-Rod in October = “Heckuva Job Brownie” during Katrina Mike Mussina degrading from 6
Stephen Fry has a blog? Ye gods, whatever next? That said, he may not have quite mastered either the brevity or the frequency elements of the gig. Still, absorbing stuff. Or something. Certainly it ain’t your average celeb-blog. What may be the world’s longest post on Smartphones ever written by a Cambridge Footlight, concludes: As
The House of Commons returned today with the first Prime Minister’s Questions since the party conference season. And, as expected, it was a corker. Sometimes the Punch and Judy show remains great entertainment – and provides a telling snapshot of the respective health of the major combatants. This was one of those occasions. The first
Tyler Cowen takes a look at Paul Krugman’s book and says Krugman isn’t prepared to think broadly on the question of why conservatism triumphed in the 1980s: Conservatism rose in the 1980s in large part because the mid to late 1970s were such an economic mess and because American had lost so much relative status