Politics
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Atomic quote
The nightmare of all art, as well as of all politics, is generalities. You cannot generalize. You’ve got to keep things as specific to the minute, as down to the wire, as possible. –Peter Sellars in Alex Ross’s “Countdown” (from The New Yorker), on Dr. Atomic, the new opera about physicist Robert Oppenheimer and the…
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Politics ain’t beanbag
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Here in the UK, the Government has been criticised for “climbing down” in its presentation of a new bill to curb smoking in pubs: instead of an outright ban, it will allow smoking in private clubs and in pubs where “food” is not served (where the definition of “food” isn’t quite settled). Whether you think…
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Katrina and the BBC
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The Observer also reports on the supposed anti-US bias of the BBC‘s Katrina reporting, citing a second-hand report from the always fair and balanced tycoon Rupert Murdoch on a conversation with Tony Blair. The PM supposedly referred to the BBC’s coverage as “gloating” and “full of hatred of America”. Even Bill Clinton seemed to echo…
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Still at war?
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On the same day the cops are crawling all over London (and Oxford, actually), the US State Department is warning expats like me “to maintain a high level of vigilance, take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness, and exercise caution in public places or while using public transportation. U.S. citizens are also advised to…
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Bush endorses crackpots
I apologize in advance that this is going to be one of those instances of the blogosphere acting as an echo chamber, but I must at least comment on President George W Bush’s latest statements that the so-called ideas of the crackpot crypto-creationist Intelligent Design community should be taught alongside evolution in American schools. Let…
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Weekend notes: Live 8
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Live 8: Normally I would be cynical, or at least pessimistic of the prospect of change, but then Geldof, after showing a film of the poverty-stricken children of Ethiopia in the 80s, brought out one of the starving infants we had just seen, Birhan Woldu, grown up into a beautiful, healthy and well-educated twenty-four-year-old. My…
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Sense of irony
Nancy Ellman’s review of A Changed Man by Francine Prose opens with this charming summation of American culture: American sentimentality may once have seemed endearing, but now we know it’s just another instrument of evil. Every aspect of American culture has begun to stink of the grave. The pizzas and hamburgers: this is how world…
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Deep Throat
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I’m just the right age that Watergate was the formative political experience of my life: I don’t really remember anything before it (except for a few hazy memories) and everything since has been tainted by it. Watergate, along with the debacle end of the Vietnam war (which I also remember, albeit mostly because they pre-empted…
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Crackpots
The Smithsonian is taking money from crackpot creationists (there is no other kind of creationist) to let them screen a movie propounding their crackpot (I am trying to make a point here) views. In their report on this, The New York Times manages the relatively nuanced “Although Charles Darwin’s theory is widely viewed as having…
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Update: Academic Union – Israeli boycotts revoked
Update — AUT – Israeli boycotts revoked: AUT’s special council … voted to revoke all existing boycotts of Israeli institutions. AUT council has decided to base its policy on providing practical solidarity to Palestinian and Israeli trade unionists and academics, by agreeing a motion committing the union to having a full review of international policy,…