Guido has followed his crappy William Hague expose with the following:
A dangerous tactic has been chosen by the government, that has set noses sniffing in Westminster. If anyone is giving this story legs, it’s certainly not blogs…
Is he an imbecile or does he not know the old saying about stopping digging when already in a hole…
On Tony Blair’s TV interview he talked about Ed Balls as one who did not regard aspiration as a good thing at all. Further in his book he says:
The curse of Gordon was to make these people co-conspirators, not free-range thinkers. He and Ed Balls and others were like I had been back in the 1980s, until slowly the scales fell from my eyes and I realised it was more like a cult than a kirk… I’ve had some harsh things to say about Ed Balls – I thought he behaved badly at points, and was wrong on policy – but I also thought he was really able, and a talent that any political party should be grateful to have.
So Edward Balls, 44, is wrong on policy, a cult member, and badly behaved but great for the Labour party. Does that really make sense?
Guido Fawkes has, over the Hague/Myers issue, has shown the political blogosphere at its most pathetic. His feeble defence is that all he was doing was questioning whether taxpayer should be funding the salary of someone who might be having a relationship with his boss, and as evidence he alleged that they had once shared a hotel room. As a result a young man loses his job and the Foreign Secretary and his wife are forced to issue the most personal of statements, detailing miscarriages and a declaration on the state of their marriage. Iain Dale covers the issue really well here.
There is an amazing revelation from Tony Blair’s autobiography, A Journey: My Political Life – US link
The former prime minister’s memoir discloses that a “maddening” Mr Brown effectively blackmailed him while he was in No 10. He suspects the then chancellor of orchestrating the investigation into the cash-for-honours scandal. The pressure on Mr Blair to step aside became so great that he admits he may have become reliant on alcohol as he faced coup attempts from Mr Brown’s supporters. He discloses that he began drinking every day and needed the “support” that alcohol provided.
It is amazing that this horrific individual, Gordon Brown, became our Prime Minister for the next three years until being unceremoniously booted out by the public in the last election. A little more democracy would go a long way sometimes.
I have written about these two before but had to write again after listening to Tim Harford. Harford is the Financial Times’ Undercover Economist, and has looked at the furor over the Spirit Level’s statistical analysis. The original book, The Spirit Level – US link
Harford starts out by asking why some countries were excluded from the original book that disagreed with the evidence and the interviewee, Kate Pickett, has few answers – claiming “inadvertent errors” for example! Also he complains about the lack of multivariate analysis and the fact that the entire book, The Spirit Level – US link
I am reading Out Of America – US link
In Out Of America – US link
Thank God my nameless ancestor, brought across the ocean in chains and leg irons, made it out alive, he concludes. Thank God I am an American.
The conclusion is even more moving because of Richburg’s experiences of American University education during the Seventies – the height of the ”Black Studies” experiment. And especially so given the rise of Obama who came up through that, almost, separatist ethos.
Tyler Cowen has a great piece up about the art and practice of diplomacy. With this great quote:
” Diplomacy is the art of saying “Nice Doggie” until you can find a stick”
He goes on to discuss how diplomats either enjoy serving their country or they enjoy the ego rents of being a diplomat or both. It is a false feeling of power, borrowed power from one’s country of origin rather than from one’s personal achievements. For the spouse the required phoniness is even worse. The whole thing is worth a read.
I really want a ranch like George W’s. He has a 1,583 acre ranch in unincorporated McLennan County, Texas, located seven miles northwest of Crawford. The property was acquired by President George W. Bush in 1999 and was known as the Western White House during his Presidency. George W spends vacation time at the house where he has also entertained dignitaries from around the world.
The ranch gets its name from the Prairie Chapel School which was built nearby on land donated by mid-19th century German immigrant Heinrich Engelbrecht from Oppenwehe, Germany, who owned the land that now comprises the Bush ranch. Engelbrecht also donated land for the nearby Canaan Baptist Church AKA the “Prairie Chapel”. A prized souvenir from the ranch is a gray Under Armour athletic shirt emblazoned with a Texas star encircled by the words The President’s 100-Degree Club. In order to qualify a visitor must run 3 miles, or bike for 10, when the thermometer hits triple digits. When he was president, Bush used the ranch for vacations, meetings, and entertaining foreign dignitaries. In the less formal setting, dress code for meetings called for an open collar and no tie. Guests were typically treated to meals of Southwestern cuisine. When not holding meetings or briefings, Bush spent his time mountain biking, jogging, fishing, bird hunting, and clearing brush.
There has been a lot of debate over the last few days about Obama’s religious views. It turns out that some 20% of Americans think he is a Muslim. I am pretty sure that he is not a Muslim but I am equally sure that he is not a Christian either. Like most highly educated people he is somewhere on the Atheist/Agnostic spectrum. Joe Escalante on Ricochet puts it well:
Like people in the current poll, I forget the President is a Christian because he spends most of his time trying to make me think he’s anything but a Christian. Pro-abortion politics, needlessly mollifying Muslims, moving away from our allies in Israel: there’s an absence of pro-active Christian activity. According to everything I’ve been able to figure out, he didn’t profess any religion at all until the extremely political decision to join Rev. Wright’s church at age 28. Then he went there for 20 years or so and didn’t listen to what was being preached on the pulpit (according to him). Then he actually threw the guy under the bus, along with his grandmother, as soon as it was politically expedient. He’s the guy who was told “you have to go to church if you want to be president.” So he looked for the most politically advantageous place to go, didn’t go that much, and now that he’s President, he doesn’t even take his kids on Christmas.
This seems so obvious to me I am surprised that it is not common knowledge.