ninme

Posted by ninme at 3:30 pm 2 Comments

A Life Magazine article on Mussolini and Italian fascism (keep scrolling, it’s about half way down at page 31). Opening excerpt:

Fascism is the fightingest word in the world today. To free peoples, it means War and Tyranny. On these pages LIFE presents its less war-like aspects.

Americans think of Government as something outside themselves. They speak of Government and Business. In Italy there is no such distinction. A think called The State does not simply own and boss everything and everybody; it is everything and everybody, now and forever. The 44,000,000 Italians belong to it as to an army. In its fight for glory there is no difference between War and Peace.

(Whatever that means.)

Mussolini encourages “private initiative” and approves private property “within limits” -but his great slogan is: “Everything within the State- nothing without the State.”

Curtsy: Jonah Goldberg, who writes,

Sure doesn’t sound like a rightwing free market nirvana to me.

It’s interesting, scrolling through the magazine, all the Catholic stuff in this issue. First, there’s New Jersey’s first Archbishop, all the religious stuff about Mussolini, Ginger Rogers wearing a crucifix (which is just odd), even the “gothic church” behind the Mellon Institute and “ugly commercial buildings”.

And it speaks (on page 56) of China’s 400,000,000 souls. Either there was a serious accountancy error or the Chinese really been up to something despite Mao’s 40-60,000,000 dead and the one child policy.

And (this just makes me laugh), on page 58, Walter P. Chrystler Jr gets hitched:

The groom was happy to marry a pretty blonde girl, the bride looked happy to marry the eldest son of a great auto maker.

Man, in the late 30s, being a pretty blonde had some serious currency.

Posted by ninme at 12:01 pm 4 Comments

Telegraph – Social services ‘to take baby from teenager deemed too stupid to marry’
A mother-to-be, who was banned from marrying after social workers said she is not intelligent enough, is to have her baby taken away immediately after giving birth.

Kerry Robertson, 17, who has mild learning difficulties, has been told that she will not be allowed to bring up her own child, who she has already named Ben.

Last month Miss Robertson was prevented from marrying her fiancé Mark McDougall, 25, after council officials claimed that she “did not understand the implications of getting married”.

She has now been warned that she will only be allowed a few hours with her baby, which is due in January, before it is taken into foster care.

After hearing the news, Miss Robertson, of Dunfermline, Fife, who is 26 weeks pregnant, said: “I couldn’t believe it. I am so upset – I can’t stop crying.”

Mr McDougall, an artist, said he wants to take on full responsibility for his son but claims that he is powerless because he is not married to Miss Robertson.

He added: “Social Services are ruining our lives. As we are not married – because social workers would not let us marry – it seems I have no rights as a dad at all.

“Kerry’s gran is trying to apply for custody of Ben but social services have already told us it is unlikely she will be successful. We feel helpless.”

Various emphases mine. A little added joy:

Two days before the ceremony, two social workers visited their flat and told them that the marriage was illegal because of Miss Robertson’s learning difficulties.

The service and reception for 20 guests had to be called off despite the couple having already bought rings and a wedding dress. …

Mr McDougall added: “Despite arguing that we loved one another and didn’t want our baby to be born to unwed parents, they would not budge. It’s a nightmare.”

He claims that social services have exaggerated the extent of Miss Robertson’s learning difficulties and that she is hoping to go back to college to catch up academically.

So, she can’t have the baby, even though she only has “mild” learning disability. The father of the baby can’t have him either, because they’re not married (how old fashioned: to not be married is to not be a co-parent!) The grandmother can’t have him either, presumably because of her age although, if the girl is 17, one can imagine the woman wouldn’t be too far over 50. And foster care, given its myriad and unrivaled successes, has obviously been deemed the most healthy and best chance for the baby’s interests.

Bah.

Posted by ninme at 8:39 pm No Comments

Reuters – Modern man a wimp says anthropologist

Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 meters record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions.

Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood.

Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle.

These and other eye-catching claims are detailed in a book by Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister entitled “Manthropology” and provocatively sub-titled “The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male.”…

An analysis of the footsteps of one of the men, dubbed T8, shows he reached speeds of 37 kph on a soft, muddy lake edge. Bolt, by comparison, reached a top speed of 42 kph during his then world 100 meters record of 9.69 seconds at last year’s Beijing Olympics. …

“We can tell that T8 is accelerating toward the end of his tracks.”

McAllister said it was probable that any number of T8’s contemporaries could have run as fast.

“We have to remember too how incredibly rare these fossilizations are,” he said. “What are the odds that you would get the fastest runner in Australia at that particular time in that particular place in such a way that was going to be preserved?”

Skipping all sorts of interesting stuff…

“We are so inactive these days and have been since the industrial revolution really kicked into gear,” McAllister replied. “These people were much more robust than we were.

I think it’s important that an Australian anthropologist is telling us this. Curtsy: Aussie Brett McS. So, inevitably:

Posted by ninme at 9:02 pm No Comments

NRO – Debacle in Moscow
Obama’s foreign policy is amateurishness, wrapped in naïveté, inside credulity. By Charles Krauthammer

About the only thing more comical than Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize was the reaction of those who deemed the award “premature,” as if the brilliance of Obama’s foreign policy is so self-evident and its success so assured that if only the Norway Five had waited a few years, his Nobel worthiness would have been universally acknowledged.

To believe this, you have to be a dreamy adolescent (preferably Scandinavian and a member of the Socialist International) or an indiscriminate imbiber of White House talking points.

Heh.

Well, at nine months, let’s review.

What’s come from Obama holding his tongue while Iranian demonstrators were being shot and from his recognizing the legitimacy of a thug regime illegitimately returned to power in a fraudulent election? Iran cracks down even more mercilessly on the opposition and races ahead with its nuclear program.

What’s come from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton taking human rights off the table on a visit to China and from Obama’s shameful refusal to see the Dalai Lama (a postponement, we are told). China hasn’t moved an inch on North Korea, Iran, or human rights. Indeed, it’s pushing with Russia to dethrone the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

What’s come from the new-respect-for-Muslims Cairo speech and the unprecedented pressure on Israel for a total settlement freeze? “The settlement push backfired,” reports the Washington Post, and Arab-Israeli peace prospects have “arguably regressed.”

The list goes on and it gets better! That’s right, sanctions again, and the idea that things have “serious consequences”. But I suppose it’s enough to say that the White House is concerned, deeply concerned or gravely concerned about something and then send Hillary in to reach some new accommodation.

Posted by ninme at 8:48 pm No Comments

National Post – Steven Edwards: UN abuse investigator ignores abusers, investigates Canada

McDougall, a U.S. national, is visiting Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal in a 10-day tour that ends Oct. 23. The UN says she will meet with senior federal and provincial government officials, representatives of activist groups, community members, academics, and others working to promote “equality and non-discrimination.”

“This mission will enable me to talk directly to people in minority communities about their issues and the challenges facing them,” McDougall said ahead of her visit.

“It will also allow me to learn about the positive experiences of Canada as a vibrant and richly multicultural society.”

Brace yourselves for criticism. McDougall’s visit to France resulted in a report that said there was “serious discrimination … targeted at those ‘visible’ minorities of immigrant heritage.” She accused Greece of living in the past by having a “historical understanding” of minorities, created in part by “the dissolution of empires.” For Hungary, she advised that “Roma issues require urgent and focused attention.”

But of Ethiopia, a country torn apart by ethnic strife, McDougall’s observations begin with praise for its “comprehensive foundation for rights, freedoms and equality.”

Oh man. It’s genius. Surely one of these days they’ll admit that the whole organization is all just a send up and they’ve been waiting all these years for someone to figure it out.

I mean… This is Canada.

Posted by ninme at 8:36 am 1 Comment

The Times – In the cathedral I saw a sign. God help us
The message I received from Saint Therese… and who it was about, by Matthew Parris

At the front of the cathedral, among the departing pilgrims, was a man apparently alone.

It was Tony Blair. He half-acknowledged me, and walked away. Blimey. Can these relics help a man become president of Europe? This was no photo-opportunity: our former Prime Minister and warrior for Western values had not expected to see a journalist — his expression betrayed that.

So he really means it. Means it not just about God, but the God to whom Catholics think they have access. I didn’t know whether to be impressed, or horrified.

Hehe.

The full article reminds me rather of RC2’s descriptions of being converted in Rome. I think the line goes something like if you can be a Catholic in Rome you can be a Catholic anywhere.

Posted by ninme at 2:01 pm No Comments

Telegraph Blogs – Jean Sarkozy could be the next Alexander the Great

But this focus on age is very narrow-minded. Since when was there an age limit for people to be capable of doing important jobs?

Take Alexander the Great. He took the throne of Macedon when he was 19 years old and created quite an empire in his 20s. Or Cleopatra, who was 18 when she became the last great Pharaoh. Mozart wrote Andante in C at five. Keats wrote Endymion in his early 20s. And let’s not forget Orson Welles, who at the age of 26 directed Citizen Kane, perhaps the best film ever made.

The fact that Jean Sarkozy has served as local councillor in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine for two years suggests he’s not just going for the job for laughs. And he’s no Wayne Rooney: he’s studying law at the Sorbonne.

Also, he is, I’m afraid to report, married and expecting to become a father in December. One can hardly imagine him necking shots of Aftershock down the pub on a Friday before falling into a kebab shop, like the bulk of British youth.

There is such a thing as a born leader. We shouldn’t try and stifle them with hackneyed, jealous arguments.

Well how about that!

Posted by ninme at 8:43 am 2 Comments

I’m going to skip all the good bits of this, so it’ll look like I really don’t like San Francisco, but I do. It’s shiny and beautiful and I love that people there are happy going to a park and just sitting in the sunshine. This attitude (very strong up here) that one has to be doing something all the time drives me up the wall. All these farmers markets and hikes in the mountains and little microfestivals all seem so forced, like people are going through the motions just so they can say how involved they are in life, or something. I can’t really articulate it but it really gets up my nose.

Anyway back to San Francisco, I think it’s really amazing to watch old movies that take place there, up through about the Dirty Harry period. Nothing’s changed. The well-heeled people still live in the same Victorian mansions and the same shiny department stores still surround the same bright sunny parks. But now you’ve got homeless people screaming at you in cafes as they come out of the toilet and dirty stinky people smoking who knows what on every grassy roadside verge.

Of course, the difference is that San Francisco is the type of place that gets movies filmed in it, not just in Vancouver. But moving onto the selectively-quoted article:

Alex Payne – So You’re Moving to San Francisco

There are far more fundamental problems with the city than the tech industry bubble. Perhaps the most visceral is that, for a first world city, San Francisco is dirty. No, filthy. No, disgusting. Whenever I travel outside of San Francisco, I’m amazed at what a disastrous anomaly it is. Sidewalks are routinely covered in broken glass, trash, old food, and human excrement. The smell of urine is not uncommon, nor is the sight of homeless persons in varying states of dishevelment. I frequented tough neighborhoods in DC and Baltimore – then the murder capital of the nation – and only in San Francisco have I been actively threatened on the street.

He should check out Seattle. Or maybe we don’t count as a first world city.

What sickens me most about San Francisco is not its dirt, or its large homeless population, or its questionable safety, but that locals and the city government seem to accept these circumstances. Hipsters boast of how disgusting and unsafe their Mission living situations are, as if choosing to live amongst squalor when you have the means not to do so makes you a better person. The wealthy seclude themselves in the Marina, Russian Hill, and Pacific Heights, and lobby against public transportation that would bring undesirables to their pristine neighborhoods. Aging hippies in the Haight argue about marijuana legalization and anti-war referendums when men and women are dying – visibly dying – on the streets of the Tenderloin. It’s as if all parties don’t occupy the same city, see the same shameful sights on the street, and bear the same responsibilities to taxes and charity that might help address these deep-seated and difficult problems.

Month after month, San Franciscans gather for festivals and parades: Pride, the Folsom Street Faire, LoveFest, Bay to Breakers, and so forth. The privileged fill the streets, dressed in gaudy costumes, embracing any excuse to celebrate their sexuality, their liberal views, their comfort with alternative approaches to life and social structures. Were San Francisco taking care of its own, creating an environment in which everyone had access to the same comforts and opportunities, I would encourage such celebrations every week. But, as liberal and libertarian as I am, I think there’s something disturbing and solipsistic and fundamentally broken about a place that seems to value a different way of life over better quality of life.

Emphases his. And that, I think, is very true. It’s a problem we’ve got up here, too, but it seems rather desperate, as Seattle throws together a random bunch of freaks, strips them naked (or just gets them really stoned) and marches them past a statue of Lenin mostly so they can say to their Californian counterparts how they’re special too. As for the quality of life, it’s great. They just move to Bellevue.

…And thus does the urban sprawl ever expand…

Posted by ninme at 8:15 am No Comments

The San Francisco Examiner – National Editorial: No, you can’t see the health care bill

When then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama promised not to sign major legislation until it had been posted on the Internet for public reading at least five days, trusting voters took him at his word.

Now they know better.

Hah!

All that is available to those worried about a massive government takeover of our health care system is a 262-page description of the bill’s provisions. Bill descriptions mean nothing and bind nobody.

And this is new:

Technically, Senate and House rules require that all bills be read in their entirety three times before debate begins, with a 24-hour and one-week respite between readings to allow elected representatives to digest what’s in the bills before voting on them. But rules are made to be suspended, as frequently happens on Capitol Hill. Indeed, earlier this year, hardly any member of Congress read the 1,100-page stimulus bill because copies of the bill only became available barely 13 hours before the final vote.

Amazing. How do they get away with that? With the amount of hysteria over the slightest twinge of procedural deviations…

So, seriously. I wonder if your average man on the street notices this sort of thing, or if it’s just a bunch of bloggers frothing about everything already anyway. I mean, I’d like to think that people notice when they’ve been lied to, but most of the time I think they really don’t.

Curtsy: RC2’s Twitter.

Posted by ninme at 9:54 pm No Comments

The Guardian – Guardian gagged from reporting parliament

The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.

Today’s published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.

The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.

The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations.

The Guardian has vowed urgently to go to court to overturn the gag on its reporting.

More:

The Times – Analysis: Trafigura order cast sinister spectre

The principle that Parliament, as the embodiment of the people, is master of its own proceedings has been long established. It is a precious and indispensable, part of democracy. The principle was established in article 9 of the Bill of Rights (1688) which provides: “That the freedome of speech and debates or proceedings in Parlyament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parlyament.”

In his definitive Commentaries on English Law (1765), the jurist Sir William Blackstone noted that the whole of the law and custom of Parliament is based on the maxim that any matters of Parliamentary business “ought to be examined, discussed and adjudged in that House to which it relates, and not elsewhere”.

This hallowed principle has been repeated through the centuries and is a golden thread running through the law of democracy.

So last night I saw that Guardian story at some point very late at night, and when I was up in the very wee hours saw all my British Twitterers were hashing the hell out of #Trafigura, and by the morning/lunchtime in the UK, voilà! Trafigura’s law firm had withdrawn its opposition to the Guardian reporting on the question.

I had intended to nobly dive into the retweeting but was bleary-eyed enough to think I’ll get at it in the morning. Proper morning. But by that point Twitter had already vanquished another enemy. These battles are getting faster and faster…

Posted by ninme at 3:53 pm No Comments

Guess who it is again! China!

The Times – China tightens grip on Africa with $4.4bn lifeline for Guinea junta

While the rest of the world recoiled in horror at recent events in Guinea, where at least 150 pro-democracy supporters were killed and dozens of women publicly raped by government soldiers, China has sensed an opportunity to steal another march on Western competitors in Africa.

China is preparing to throw the junta in Guinea a lifeline in the form of a multibillion-pound oil and mineral deal, financed largely by soft loans. Such policies have already served China well with rogue and discredited regimes from Angola to Sudan. The move comes as the European Union, spurred on by France, the former colonial power, and the African Union are considering sanctions against Guinea if its young military leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, continues to renege on a deal to stand down in favour of free elections. …

China’s policy of not linking trade, aid and investment to political reform or human rights issues has paid huge dividends so far. In less than a decade it has created a footprint across the entire continent and secured a willing provider of much needed raw materials to power its economic growth.

There is now barely a country on the continent that does not have a sizeable Chinese presence. Copper-rich Zambia and the Congolese province of Katanga now boast the fastest-growing Chinatowns in the world. Sudan, for years out of bounds to Western companies because of its links to terrorism, now pumps 600,000 barrels of oil a day from its Red Sea port into Chinese ships. In return it received weapons that it used against rebellious black Africans in Darfur. …

There is only one condition: any money provided must be used to pay Chinese companies and buy Chinese goods that flood the continent’s bustling street markets. Stalls now overflow with cheap plastic sandals, underwear, artificial flowers and cut-price motorbikes and tools.

Ordinary Africans are far less enthusiastic than the governing elites. Rights activists accuse the Chinese of cutting corners, exploiting corrupt local officials and ignoring health, safety and environmental concerns.

And just in case you weren’t feeling frustrated enough:

At the weekend President Kagame of Rwanda, whose Government has frequently been accused of supporting atrocities in neighbouring Congo, praised Chinese investment for helping Africa to develop. “The Chinese bring what Africa needs: investment and money for governments and companies,” he told the German Handelsblatt newspaper in an interview. “I would prefer the Western world to invest in Africa rather than hand out development aid.”

Yay!

Oh and here’s another one:

The Times – ‘Micheal Jackson’ women in Tanzania search for Chinese husbands

“They love our women, especially the ones with big bottoms. I don’t know why they have that reputation for racism. That’s certainly not the case here.” Others say that the Chinese are using their women as mules to carry ivory from poached elephants and rhinos out of the country and drugs on the way back again.

In July, a Dar es Salaam businesswoman with connections to Chinese traders was detained at the international airport for allegedly trying to smuggle elephant tusks and carvings made from ivory in a suitcase destined for the Far East.

Yay! They’re even using their African links to deplete endangered species that they couldn’t otherwise deplete at home! At least they’re getting around the deficit of millions of missing women after the past couple decades of One Child policy.

Posted by ninme at 10:02 am 5 Comments

The Sunday Times – Cleverness is no more. This is a dumb Britain, by Jeremy Clarkson

Forty years ago, my dad came into my bedroom and made me get up.

I was nine and sleepy. I was snuggly and warm. I wanted to stay under the covers. But he was insistent. “There is something on television you need to see,” he said. And I remember the next bit vividly: “It’s going to be important.”

So downstairs I went and there, in black and white, were some men talking, while nearby, various sheep fell out of trees. I laughed so much, my teddy bear’s arm came off. And so it was that at the age of nine, I became Monty Python’s first and youngest fan.

So, he goes on to explain how, if you want to get any Python jokes, you have to know Thomas Hardy, you have to know what Descartes said, you have to actually know things generally, whereas nowadays liking Python makes you a “public-school toff” and people “wear their stupidity like a badge of honour”. But I’ll skip that bit and get right to:

It’s also true that today no one ever gets rich by overestimating the intelligence of their audience. Today you make a show assuming the viewers know how to breathe and that’s about it. It’s therefore an inescapable fact that in 2009 Monty Python would not be commissioned.

The only example of intelligent sketch-show comedy in Britain today is Harry & Paul. And what’s happened to that? Well, it’s been shunted from BBC1 to BBC2. And you get the impression it’ll be gone completely unless they stop using Jonathan Miller as a butt for their wit. Today you are not allowed to know about Jonathan Miller because if you do, you are a snob.

That’s why my Monty Python appreciation society is so small and secret. Members speak every morning, each giving one another a word or phrase that has to be placed in context by six that evening. Last month I was given one word: “because”. And I got it. It’s from the Four Yorkshiremen. “We were happy … Because we were poor.”

The Pythons were laughing at that idea then. We’re not laughing any more.

Jeremy’s actually making a very good and serious point! And isn’t it a sad one?

Posted by ninme at 9:51 am 1 Comment

The Sunday Times – Barack Obama’s Nobel peace prize is snub to Bill Clinton

That’s what I said!

The former Democratic president is widely held to be overdue for the prize. He helped to promote peace in Northern Ireland and devoted more time to achieving a Middle East deal than any other president, although the effort was unsuccessful.

Since leaving the White House he has created the Clinton Global Initiative to combat problems from Aids to global warming, worked hard on good causes and is the United Nations special envoy to Haiti.

In August he flew to North Korea, held talks with its leader, Kim Jong-il, and secured the release of two jailed American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

Yet the Nobel committee has overlooked him despite having given the prize to three other Democratic politicians — President Jimmy Carter (in 2002), Al Gore (Clinton’s vice-president, in 2007) and now Obama.

While Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, congratulated her boss personally, the usual garrulous Bill Clinton was silent. In Washington the speculation is that the politically correct Nobel committee cannot forgive him his affair with Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern.

Oh ho! I thought the Europeans were all totally chill with political peccadiloes?

Posted by ninme at 2:40 pm No Comments

Daily Cagle – Live Blog: Cartoonists Respond to Obama’s Nobel Prize Win

This one makes it all worth while: