ninme

(Okay, so I just made a few little changes… Let’s see if this is any better…)

RCP - John Edwards: Losing Ugly, by Charles Krauthammer

Edwards has made much of his renunciation of his Iraq War vote. But he has not stopped there. His entire campaign has been an orgy of regret and renunciation. [...]

Categories: Politics

(Okay, let’s do this thing… Fingers crossed…)

BBC - New Bond film title is confirmed

The next James Bond film is to be called Quantum of Solace, producers have confirmed. … Craig said the cryptic title referenced how Bond’s heart had been broken at the end of Casino Royale. [...]

Categories: Entertainment

Peter’s taking me off Small Orange tonight and moving me to Media Temple (lord, how boring), and because only by starting at the bottom can we build ourselves up, this blog is going to go to one of the templates. The code isn’t nearly as elegant as he’d like it to be, mostly because it’s [...]

Categories: Uncategorized

See if I can get this saved inside a window of server-uppedness…

The Times - Enough Clinton Incorporated The ageing pitbull sinking his teeth into Barack Obama needs to be restrained, by Gerard Baker

In her sharply insightful book, For Love of Politics, Sally Bedell Smith dissects the Clinton relationship, and says it is less like [...]

Categories: Politics

Sunday Mail - Princess Mary takes up royal duty in Denmark’s Home Guard

Categories: War and Peace

Hmm:

Telegraph Blogs - Holy Smokes - Romney believes Jesus visited America

Mormonism is the only religion whose major claims (solemnly discussed in Mormon academic journals that have all the credibility of Star Trek fanzines) have been officially declared to be untrue by the Smithsonian Institution.

Now, I’m not saying anything about Mormonism. I personally don’t [...]

Categories: Politics

Reuters - Dutch to ban burqas in schools and government offices

The Dutch government is set to impose a ban on the Muslim burqa in schools and government offices, media reported on Wednesday, in a retreat from the previous cabinet’s plan for a general ban.

and

BBC - Dog leash goths ‘hounded off bus’

A [...]

Categories: People and Current Events

The Times - Force in Virtue or in Song Forty years from Jagger, the case of Amy Winehouse demands different words

Almost 41 years ago, Mick Jagger was arrested, tried and sentenced to imprisonment for the illegal possession of four amphetamines without a prescription. While he was on bail awaiting his appeal, this newspaper took [...]

Categories: Entertainment

The Telegraph is excerpting Damian Thompson’s new book Counterknowledge (available in this country, but out of stock on Amazon with no date listed for new shipments):

Telegraph - Lies, damn lies and ‘counterknowledge’, by Damian Thompson

and

Telegraph - How Da Vinci Code tapped pseudo-fact hunger, by Damian Thompson

I liked this, from the first:

In the 21st [...]

Categories: Science and Nature

So, while I’m on the subject of movies, and can access my servers for long enough to do this for the first time since Sunday, I should do my take on Cloverfield.

Bubblehead gave it “3 Uncomfortably Vivid 9/11 Reminders out of five,” but I thought it was damned near perfect. Given what it is, that [...]

Categories: Entertainment

Nominations! And I’m feeling pretty good about this year.

Best Picture: I’ve seen one of them (No Country for Old Men), really want to see another two (Atonement, Juno), and likely will see one of those (Juno) this weekend! Not bad!

Best Director: Seen one of them (No Country), want to see another one (Juno). Again, not [...]

Categories: Entertainment

Guardian - Violence fear over Islam film

The Dutch government is bracing itself for violent protests following the scheduled broadcast this week of a provocative anti-Muslim film by a radical right-wing politician [that would be Geert Wilders, the dude with the hair] who has threatened to broadcast images of the Koran being torn up [...]

Categories: People and Current Events

An amusing number.

The Times - To Save France Sarkozy should make the most of Attali’s liberal vision

All political leaders love to order up sweeping state-of-the-nation reports, which they laud to the heavens and consign discreetly to the pending tray. The mission Nicolas Sarkozy gave last August to Jacques Attali, France’s ever-fashionable economic guru, was [...]

Categories: Politics

This is fascinating:

The Times - No contest for Mr Unpopular LA Notebook: the man who made squillions from the property crisis is not a well-liked man here, by Chris Ayres

In case you’ve never heard of Greene, here are the facts: he is a 53-year-old real-estate investor who lives in a 40,000 sq ft Beverly [...]

Categories: Business & Media

NY Sun - Menace to the Times, by Mark Steyn

My columnar confrere Clifford May connected it to a notorious anniversary: Seventy-five years ago, in February 1933, the Oxford Union passed a famous resolution, by an overwhelming margin, that “this House would under no circumstances fight for its King and country.” The Union was [...]

Categories: War and Peace