Saturday Morning Country: Lucinda Williams & Willie Nelson
From our UK edition
Hands-up if you think Willie Nelson and Lucinda Williams are a good combination? That's most of you, eh? Good.
Alex Massie
Saturday
Friday
CNN Fail
From our UK edition
Via Chris Bodenner. Plenty of folk seem surprised by the fact that, apparently or at least according to one poll, 18% of Americans think Barack Obama is a muslim. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!). Since at least 10% of the population can be relied upon to believe any old nonsense I'm not sure that this is quite so impressive or troubling a finding as many people seem to think. Rather more people, for instance, think that the sun revolves around the earth or, I dare say, that Elvis is still alive. More importantly, however, it permits one to mock cable news.
Thursday
Faisal Abdul Rauf’s TED Talk
From our UK edition
Jeffrey Goldberg reports on a speech Faisal Abdul Rauf gave at a memorial service for Daniel Pearl. It's worth reading. Secondly, here's the Imam giving a TED talk last year on the religious backdrop of compassion. Not really my kind of thing but perhaps it is yours. I must say that he doesn't come across as a dangerous radical but that doubtless makes the disguise all the more cunning. Now, sure, some opponents won't be swayed by any of this but there must be some for whom it does matter. Right?
The Flowers of the Forest
From our UK edition
Back when the Iraq war was new and innocent and still pretty popular I recall a Scotsman headline announcing that, with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards entering the city, there was now the sound of Bagpipes in Basra. There was something thrilling, something tribal too, about this. Regardless of the arguments about the war, the skirl of the pipes summoned and honoured the ghosts (real and imagined) of warriors past. One of those warriors was Piper Bill Millin and he is dead now.
A Question of Provocation at Ground Zero? Lessons from The Satanic Verses
From our UK edition
Despite what some readers and commenters seem to think, I don't believe that all opponents of the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" (which, as one wag put it, is neither at Ground Zero nor any more a mosque than a Vegas casino is a cathedral because it contains a wedding chapel) are bigots or that all opposition to it is necessarily rooted in prejudice. Indeed initially I viewed the proposal with some measure of scepticism. But as the debate has rumbled on and as I've thought about it some more I'm increasingly convinced that the arguments against it, however well-meaning, are flawed and flimsy. One of the recurring arguments against the plan is that, however well-intentioned its backers may be, it represents an unfortunate and unnecessary "provocation".
Wednesday
Jobs You Don’t Want: Russian Fortune Teller
From our UK edition
Two weeks old, but I've only just seen this and it's sufficiently splendid - and a new if also awful twist on an old fortune teller joke - to share with you just in case you didn't see it either: A man was jailed by a Kemerovo region court on Thursday for assaulting a Gypsy fortune teller who predicted that he would be jailed, the Investigative Committee said. Gennady Osipovich tried to kill the unidentified female fortune teller, who told him she saw a “state-owned house” — a Russian euphemism for jail — in his future, the committee said in a statement on its web site. The woman managed to escape, but Osipovich stabbed to death two unidentified witnesses of the assault, which took place in October. He was sentenced to 22 years in a maximum-security prison.
Tuesday
The Tories Need A Good Labour Party. And Vice-Versa.
From our UK edition
A terrific Five Books discussion about conservatism, liberalism and libertarianism with Cato's Brink Lindsey in which BL quotes a few essential lines from JS Mill: ‘In politics, again, it is almost a commonplace, that a party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life; until the one or the other shall have so enlarged its mental grasp as to be a party equally of order and of progress, knowing and distinguishing what is fit to be preserved from what ought to be swept away. Each of these modes of thinking derives its utility from the deficiencies of the other; but it is in a great measure the opposition of the other that keeps each within the limits of reason and sanity.
The Terrible Threat Posed by Cowboy Barbers
From our UK edition
Matt Yglesias has a splendid post bemoaning the utterly unecessary regulation of barber shops and hairdressers in Washington. His commenters think he's being silly and that hairdressers should be regulated. James Joyner and Kevin Drum also bring their clippers to the fight. Unsurprisingly, this regulation in DC produces regulatory capture. In fact, in regulating hair Washington is a little like Iran... Matt's critics say that anyone using sharp objects or chemicals such as peroxide needs to be regulated and inspected. This, my friends, is a reminder that the American mania for credentialism (cf journalism) frequently travels well into the realm of the absurd. Happily, this sceptered isle is a freer place entirely. No surprise then that the British Hairdressing Council is not happy.
A Man You Can Vote For
From our UK edition
Over-promising, as Barack Obama might tell you, is dangerous. Candidates everywhere could learn about expectations management from this chap in the Philippines...
Darling’s Revenge on Brown and Balls
From our UK edition
Not many Labour minister enhanced their reputations during the Last Days but, at least as far as the non-payroll vote was concerned, Alistair Darling was a rare exception. He seems to think so too, if today's Donald Dewar Lecture at the Edinburgh Book Festival is any indication. Some extracts from his address: "Labour lost because we failed to persuade the country that we had a plan for the future. What is important now for our party is we take stock and be honest about what went wrong. "We rather lost our way. Rather than recognising that the public were rightly concerned about the level of borrowing, we got sidetracked into a debate about investment over cuts.
Monday
The Deplorable Newt Gingrich
From our UK edition
Whither American conservatism? Well, there's the path trod by Reihan Salam, Josh Barro and Ross Douthat, each of whom have produced sane and humane pieces on the Burlington Coat Factory Community Center otherwise known as the "Ground Zero Mosque" or you can hitch your wagon to Newt Gingrich's caravan and cheer when this self-styled man of ideas splutters: “Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the holocaust museum in Washington,” This is at least admirably clear and eliminates any requirement one may feel to give Gingrich the benefit of the doubt. He doesn't even have the excuse that any of his family were murdered at the World Trade Center. (Though as Matt Zeitlin says a stupid and ugly thought remains stupid and ugly even when delivered by a 9/11 relative.
Mid-Term Myth-Making
From our UK edition
Not long until Labor Day and the semi-official kick-off for the mid-term elections. Which also means that the papers will be stuffed with predictions that the losses in the mid-terms show that Obama is doomed and so on. Whether one cares for the President or not, this is simply not the case. Happily Norm Ornstein and Alan Abramowitz have launched a pre-emptive strike against some of the plausible-but-false notions that we can expect to see plenty of for the rest of the year. Specifically: 1. Mid-terms don't predict future election results. 2. Anti-incumbency is vastly over-rated. 90% of incumbents will win. 3. The President's "message" is not going to have much of an impact. 4. It's not always all about the economy, though this year it might be. 5.
Blair Donates Book-Lucre to British Legion
From our UK edition
Smart man, Tony Blair: Former Prime Minister Tony Blair is to donate the profits from his memoirs to a sports centre for badly injured soldiers. A spokesman said Mr Blair would hand over the reported £4.6m advance payment plus all royalties to honour "their courage and sacrifice". The Royal British Legion will receive the money, Mr Blair's office has confirmed. Not that this will be popular with other politicians who may find themselves pressed to make comparable gestures when it comes to the proceeds - if there be any - of their own memoirs. How about it, Gordon*? Needless to say, there'll be plenty of folk ready to interpret this move as proof positive that there's no bottom to Blair's cynicism. And who knows, perhaps they'd be right? Right? Or perhaps (even!
Sunday
We Invented the Passing Game, You Know…
From our UK edition
Good to see that Craig Levein, the new Scotland manager, has a sophisticated grasp of football tactics. As this note left in the dressing room last week demonstrates: Final score? Sweden 3 Scotland 0.
Saturday
Preach It, Mr President
From our UK edition
According to Sarah Palin, it's now the "9/11 Mosque" because, you know, of course it's planned as a tribute to al-Qaeda and of course it's perfectly reasonable to suppose that all muslims are really just the same and we know what that means don't we? Of course we do... So, these were probably Barack Obama's best words in god knows how long: Recently, attention has been focused on the construction of mosques in certain communities – particularly in New York. Now, we must all recognize and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of lower Manhattan. The 9/11 attacks were a deeply traumatic event for our country. The pain and suffering experienced by those who lost loved ones is unimaginable. So I understand the emotions that this issue engenders.
Saturday Morning Country: Emmylou Harris
From our UK edition
You can never have too much Emmylou and her appearance, backed by the brilliant Hot Band, on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 is a joy from start to finish. Here she is with Making Believe - a Jimmy Work song that had previously been a hit for the great Kitty Wells too.
Friday
Hackwatch
From our UK edition
Tom Scott - who I'm pretty sure I saw taking part in BBC4's spiffing quiz show Only Connect - has been waging a mini-guerilla war against mediocre journalism. He explains his mission here and this is the kind of sticker he's taken to leaving in copies of spare newspapers he finds on the Tube... Plenty more here. You might need an entire sheet just for a single edition of some of our magnificent papers...
Blairism Eclipsed
From our UK edition
Danny Finkelstein's typically excellent column (£) this week argued that Blairism is dead and buried in the Labour party, not least because none of Blair's followers remain in any position of authority in the party. Blair, he suggests, was a one-off and the party leadership contest has been, if not a sprint, then a trundle to the left. I think there's a good deal to that. Indeed, it's startling how Blair has been excised from the party's memory. Startling, but not, perhaps, entirely surprising. Faced with a centrist government, it's easy to see why the Labour party has shifted to the left, if only because a) a smaller parliamentary party is ever more dependent upon its Scottish and London strongholds and b) it needs to distance itself from the government.
The Terrorist Fetus Plot that Threatens America
From our UK edition
Sure, if you were running a terrorist network you might think it worthwhile to smuggle pregnant women into the United States to ensure that their offspring, thanks to the 14th Amendment, could have American passports and be sent back to the US 20 years down the line to carry out their terrorist mission. But you might also think there are easier ways of recruiting...
The Fall and Rise of the Brownites
From our UK edition
At Labour Uncut, Dan Hodges has written a very good, very interesting piece on the demise of the Brownites and how, when the end came, Brown was compelled to rely upon Peter Mandelson and Alistair Campbell to scramble a strategy by which Labour might miraculously cling to power. As Hodges portrays it: As the battlements yielded, what of his own praetorian guard? Where were his champions, his own retinue of advisors? The collapse of the Brownite inner-circle, as a political event distinct from the fall of Brown himself, is one of the strange untold stories of the Labour government. If, as is generally perceived, Gordon was one of the two pillars of New Labour, then those around him were fundamental to New Labour’s success.