Usa

Wednesday

Philip Hensher

Stars bright and dim

Much great American writing is regional in a way that British or French writing never has been. Most of the best writing coming from the States inhabits a place which apparently feels no pressure from the great metropolitan centres — Annie Proulx on the Texas panhandle, Cormac McCarthy on the Mexican border territories, Jane Smiley on the Midwest. Even when a great city is in the vicinity, as in Anne Tyler’s or David Simon’s very different considerations of Baltimore, we feel a specific regional flavour emerging; John Cheever’s fictions of elegant suburban life have a distinctly north-eastern flavour which evidently still weighs heavily with writers of that particular region. It

Monday

Alex Massie

The Terrible Exchange Rate Gap…

Larry Kudlow, who normally sees brilliance in every aspect of the Bush administration’s record, now sees only disaster. Here he is at The Corner: If Sen. John McCain wants to run as a candidate of change, and if he’s truly interested in distancing himself from President Bush, he should reverse the declining fortunes of the Bush wartime dollar. America’s prestige is on the line… The falling U.S. greenback has become a symbol of American decline… Folks are making fun of the dollar. Our enemies around the world are pointing to the unreliable dollar as evidence of American weakness. It’s as though the administration’s neglect of the dollar is “peso-izing” or

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Fred Thompson’s message to the world: your dead don’t count

Many years ago now, I had occasion to change trains at Pisa en route to Perugia and it was there, I think, that I first became aware of the Ugly American phenomenon. The station was pretty quiet as I recall, or rather it would have been had the air not been filled with the screeching complaints of a well-upholstered middle-aged American lady, dressed in the standard issue kit for European expeditions: too tight t-shirt, loose shorts, white socks and sneakers, complaining loudly about the station masters’ reluctance or inability to confirm that the reservation she held for her party was valid or not. So far so normal. This was Italy.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Fat Bastard Actually Accurate Characterisation of the Modern Scot

Oh great. Who knows, perhaps this is even true. I blame Glaswegians. Obesity levels in Scotland are the second highest in the developed world behind the USA, new statistics have revealed. The figures were published as the Scottish Government announced plans to  remove sweets and fizzy drinks from schools. Under new rules, the amount of chips served in school meals will also be cut and more fruit and vegetables provided. Children’s Minister Adam Ingram said he wanted to change young people’s habits. The figures , released by ISD Scotland, the statistical wing of the NHS, said the “obesity epidemic” in Scotland must be addressed and outlines the extent of the

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Dishonesty and ignorance at any cost

Daniel Larison as already done yeoman work dismantling elements of David Gelernter’s appalling piece in The Weekly Standard. But more needs to be done and, that being the case, let’s have at it in this and a number of posts to follow. Gelertner’s piece, cheerily headlined “Defeat at Any Price” makes the case, natch, that Democrats and liberals in the United States want to see America defeated in Iraq. Of course, they’re devilishly clever and never actually come out and say this (Gelertner declines to buttress his case with any quotations from Messrs Clinton, Obama, Edwards et al that would support his claim that they believe “America would be better

Monday

Alex Massie

The George and Gordon Show Begins Its Run

UPDATE: Welcome TNR Plank people. Nice to see y’all again… Gordon Brown’s approach to the United States has followed the traditional “Good cop, Bad Cop” approach. Having let his subordinates off the leash to disparage  US foreign policy and hint that Washington should no longer be able to count on whole-hearted British support, Brown today played the role of the reassuring and conciliatory policeman who just wants to be your friend. The Prime Minister’s visit to Camp David followed criticism of the US from Brown’s protege Douglas Alexander and Mark Malloch Brown, formerly head of the UN Development Programme and newly installed at the foreign office. Though the White House

Friday

Alex Massie

From the annals of the “Special Relationship”…

This is how a “No Spin” government works. Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development and Gordon Brown’s long-time Mini-Me, comes to Washington to bravely speak truth to power. Choosing a suitably establishment venue such as the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr Alexander tells the United States that: “In the 20th century a country’s might was too often measured in what they could destroy. In the 21st century strength should be measured by what we can build together. And so we must form new alliances, based on common values, ones not just to protect us from the world, but ones which reach out to the world.” And: “We need