BLOGS
It’s all in the way you tell them…
According to the Adam Smith Institute’s blog, this was recently voted the funniest joke in Belgium: Why do ducks have webbed feet? To stamp out fires. Why do elephants have… Continue reading
0 CommentsExceptions don’t prove the rule
Marty Peretz writes: Torture is a repugnant practice, and especially so if it becomes a habit. It may have become that, although I don’t know. No one outside the alleged… Continue reading
1 CommentDes Moines Register Debate: Random Thoughts
A plea: could Presidential candidates please cease using the term "bully pulpit" as though it meant anything other than "terrific" or "splendid". Also: could someone please rid us of both… Continue reading
0 CommentsThe little white rose of Scotland which smells sharp and sweet and breaks the heart
As part of its rather odd Call Yourself British campaign The Daily Telegraph has sent the novelist Andrew O’Hagan to tour the country and take its temperature. There’ll be plenty… Continue reading
8 CommentsTrouble At Mill
My friend Toby Harnden finds John Edwards doing his best Monty Python in Iowa: Remember the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch, which ended with Eric Idle describing how during his childhood he… Continue reading
0 CommentsForaging the answer for fat folk
The always estimable Kerry Howley draws attention to another lovely House of Lords moment: Baroness Gardner of Parkes: My Lords, I speak as a member of the All-Party Group on… Continue reading
0 CommentsBelfast on the Euphrates?
Matt Yglesias sees walls going up in Baghdad and wonders if the US Army is using Northern Ireland as its template: I believe this technique comes to the US Army’s… Continue reading
0 CommentsScotland, oh,Scotland
Well, that’s that. So close to glory, yet so far. If ever anyone asks you to explain the quintessence of the Scottish footballing experience you need merely point them towards… Continue reading
5 CommentsAssassination of JFK also a mystery…
Good grief. The Washington Post reports: Still looking for that last-minute Christmas gift for White House press secretary Dana Perino? May we recommend a gift certificate for the forthcoming book… Continue reading
0 CommentsHe’s Also Every Bit As White, Asian, Latino…
Former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young (who is black) was campaigning for Hillary Clinton today. He seems, however, to have gone off-message: He also joked that author Toni Morrison may have… Continue reading
1 CommentO tempora, o mores!
More Paddington Bear blogging: Paddington, the bear from Peru, will be arrested and interrogated over his immigration status in a book marking his 50th birthday.Paddington Here and Now, due to… Continue reading
0 CommentsBut how can you be sure?
Mitt Romney, leader of men, sage of our time: "I believe, of course, that there are thousands of people who are not of faith who are moral." [Hat-tip: Mr Larison,… Continue reading
2 CommentsThe Fall of France? (Again?)
So, unsurprisingly, Time Magazine’s cover story (international edition) on The Death of French Culture is making waves on the eastern side of the Atlantic (once upon a time, Time might… Continue reading
4 CommentsComparative advantage: fight writing edition
So, the New York Times has not even mentioned tonight’s Hatton-Mayweather fight, far less run a piece on it. Not even in a Sport in Brief column. Doubtless some people… Continue reading
0 CommentsA Blue Moon Over Vegas Tonight
No-one seems to know quite how many Britons have flown 7,000 miles to be in Las Vegas this weekend, but most estimates suggest it’s at least 15,000 and possibly as… Continue reading
1 CommentThe Way We Live Now…
Christmas relationships, courtesy of DCist: A Christmas tree lot on Wisconsin Avenue at about 9 p.m.: A busy, attractive, professional, unmarried couple in their early 30s who are clearly still… Continue reading
0 CommentsNothing Except World Leadership…
More Romney, I’m afraid. But this is less about him than it concerns a general American trend. Daniel Larison has already touched on how Romney seems to share Fred Thompson’s… Continue reading
3 CommentsIf you only see one documentary this year…
Public Service Announcement: the news that the CIA has taken to destroying videotape of its interrogations depresses but does not surprise. It also reminds me that you really ought to… Continue reading
0 CommentsYou mean you still like rugby here?
Rugby blogging: Warren Gatland has coached in the English premiership, the Super 14 and been Ireland’s coach. And he’s still surprised that people in Wales think being Welsh coach is… Continue reading
0 CommentsD.I.V.O.R.C.E British style.
Scotland is already a semi-detached member of the Union and the question, it now seems, is whether the delegation/repatriation of further powers to Holyrood results in a Scotland that is… Continue reading
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