Marc Ambinder says Obama’s foreign policy speech today demonstrates just how the campaign believes it is going to challenge the way Washington does these things. The headline announcement may beObama’s desire for a nuclear-free world which is, yes, something that has been gaining traction in foreign policy circles for some time and also the sort
This post reminded me of a terrific piece Sarah Lyall (one of the NYT’s under-appreciated stars) wrote for Slate a couple of years ago. She made the mistake of attending the British Press Awards dinner. The Pulitzers these are not. Most papers crow about their own successes while failing to even report the existence of
David Cameron has just given a remarkable speech to the Tory party conference in Blackpool. A week ago it looked as though the Tories were done and Project Cameron an embarrassing fiasco. Now, after a successful conference, Cameron may have wrong-footed Labour himself. In other words, these remain febrile times. Cameron’s task was to demonstrate
One other thing about David Cameron’s speech: there was quite a lot in it that mainstream Democrats in the United States would have had little problem endorsing – the environment, the anxiety many people feel about a fast-changing world, the breaking of the military covenant etc etc. Then again, the Tories have little desire to
Credit where credit’s due, Labour’s attitude towards gambling has been vastly more sensible than one had any right to expect. The Economist reports: New laws which came into force in Britain at the beginning of September allow the creation of licensed internet casinos where people can gamble on games such as poker and blackjack. Until
Intro of the Day: A convent in Italy is being shut down after a fight between its last three remaining nuns. So badly did relations deteriorate between the sisters of Santa Clara in Bari that the Mother Superior ended up in hospital with scratches to her face. Read the rest here.
There’s a delightful piece by Howard Jacobsen in the latest edition of The New Republic in which the author mourns the sad decline of table tennis. I don’t know why the magazine hasn’t promoted it more. The problem, you see, is the sponge bat. It has changed everything, and not, you will be unsurprised to
John F Kennedy, Nikita Kruschev, Fidel Castro, Lord Beaverbrook, Oswald Moseley, Claus von Bulow, Norman Mailer, J Paul Getty, Randolph Churchill, Henry Luce, Gore Vidal, the Beatles and Napoleon Bonaparte… Just some of the names appearing in this Daily Telegraph obituary of a remarkable and entertaining (yet oddly melancholy) life: Lady Jeanne Campbell , who
David Cameron gives his crucial speech to the Tory party conference tomorrow – a speech that will go some way towards deciding whether he has a real shot at becoming the next British Prime Minister. Despite the rotten polls and the talk of a snap election next month I’m unconvinced (albeit from a distance) that
A friend emails to ask for ideas he can pitch to an editor for a populist column designed to appeal to – and shock and outrage! – middle America. Ideally, he says, you’d want some example or combination of: 1. Kids endangered somehow2. Taxpayer money wasted3. Fat cats bilking the little guy4. Government out of
Grist and Outside magazines have been running a series of interviews with the Presidential candidates on environmental issues. So far they’ve done all the Democrats but just McCain and Mike Huckabee from the GOP side of the aisle. Presumably the others will make time for this interview too? Anyway, there’s plenty of interesting stuff. But,
Like everyone else, I gotta love this Saturday Night Live response to Mahmoud “No gays in Iran” Ahmadinejad. Hat-tip: GFR
Just received an email from Washington National Opera touting their new production of Don Giovanni in which they claim that it’s “widely regarded as the greatest opera ever composed”. Is this true? I suppose it could be, but as with novels it had never occurred to me that there was a clear or obvious “Number
It’s a question I’ve asked before, but it’s worth revisiting: if school choice is a nefarious right-wing plot to keep poor people poor and uneducated why is it that Sweden – Sweden! – has a nationwide school voucher programme that is supported by all political parties? Now clearly this doesn’t in and of itself demonstrate
If you haven’t been tempted to use Amazon.com’s new MP3 download service may I point out that Clemens Krauss’s 1953 Ring Cycle is currently available for $13.98. That’s $13.98 for the entire cycle. That’s insane and almost enough to make me think we live in a pretty dandy world.
When I saw that The Atlantic had a feature on “The Greatest Sports Book Ever Written” in its October edition I thought, well, that’s nice but I daresay they really mean “The Greatest Sports Book Ever Written That Isn’t About Cricket.” Be wary of your assumptions. turns out I underestimated the Atlantic’s taste and perspicacity.
Radley Balko has some questions he’d like to ask the Presidential candidates. I particularly liked: Do you think an atheist could be president? Do you think an atheist should be? Assuming you generally agreed with an atheist on more issues than the alternative candidates in a given election, would you vote for one? and America
I hadn’t paid any attention to the women’s World Cup until the US manager Greg Ryan decided it was a sensible notion to switch goalkeepers before yesterday’s semi-final against Brazil, dropping first choice Hope Solo (great name!) and recalling the 36 year old Briana Scurry. Off-hand I can’t think of any comparable goalie switch. When
This is why people hate politicians. Just when you start thinking that it might not be terrible if Hillary Clinton becomes the next President of the United States you, hear stuff like this. Sure, it’s trivial in one sense but it tells us more about her than the details of whatever health care plan she’s
Danny Finkelstein notices what I should have noticed. Curses. Anyway, the Hand of Shrum was all over the Great Clunking Fist’s speech to the Labour party conference: How could I have missed this? The heavy influence of Bob Shrum on Gordon Brown’s speech. How could I have missed it? First of all there are plenty