Cows with guns

One of the boys' favorite flash movies right now is "Cows with guns".

Chorus:-

We will fight for bovine freedom
And hold our large heads high.
We will run free with the buffalo
Or die!

Well, it makes a change from "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny", I suppose.

Viewing prejudice

Bryan Appleyard, writing in the Sunday Times, explains why he's stopped watching BBC television news:-

The corporation is suffused with soft left and hard anti-American prejudices that seep into almost all the news coverage. By the time one gets to Newsnight and sees Gavin Esler treating any old hoodlum or crook with extravagant respect before turning to sneer at some decent American congressman, one can find oneself indulging in that awful, crazed habit of shouting at the TV.

Ancient wisdom

Yield and overcome;
Bend and be straight;
Empty and be full;
Wear out and be new;
Have little and gain;
Have much and be confused.

Lao Tzu

Euston calling

I haven't had time to comment on the Euston Manifesto and I don't really have time today to deal with it at any length, except to say that I regard it as a welcome development.

There is much in the Manifesto that I agree with wholeheartedly and little that I find even mildly contentious, so I ought really to say that not only do I welcome it but also that I broadly support it.

On a personal note, I was very happy to see that it included this rejection of anti-Americanism:-

6) Opposing anti-Americanism.We reject without qualification the anti-Americanism now infecting so much left-liberal (and some conservative) thinking. This is not a case of seeing the US as a model society. We are aware of its problems and failings. But these are shared in some degree with all of the developed world. The United States of America is a great country and nation. It is the home of a strong democracy with a noble tradition behind it and lasting constitutional and social achievements to its name. Its peoples have produced a vibrant culture that is the pleasure, the source-book and the envy of millions. That US foreign policy has often opposed progressive movements and governments and supported regressive and authoritarian ones does not justify generalized prejudice against either the country or its people.

I have noted before that, in certain circles, anti-Americanism has become a prerequisite for social inclusion. I am grateful that the authors of the Manifesto have chosen to publicly repudiate such bigotry.

Small Town Scribbles addresses the issue at length and traces the recent resurgence of anti-Americanism to 9/11 and its aftermath:-

Cast your mind back to the days that followed the September 11th attacks. At first people in the West, I believe, did really feel for America. It was an odd feeling. We are not used to pitying America. But it didn't last. Anti-Americanism was like a virus lying dormant. Very quickly a whole swathe of people came down with it. The press got it first. It started with a certain snideness, a suggestion that America was over-reacting to the attacks, that they were an overly sentimental nation. Sniffy op ed pieces appeared using minimalising terms such as America having got a "bloody nose," callous letters were printed moaning about the amount of coverage the attacks received, or dismissing three thousand deaths because at sometime somewhere else an even greater number were dying of something else.

Before you knew it the virus had mutated and was affecting others you'd have thought were immune to it. Everyday conversations were had about the possibilities of the attacks being a set-up to frame Osama Bin Laden, there was talk of America getting a taste of its own medicine or deserving nothing less than what it got. Whispers of Jewish conspiracies. Eyes rolling at any suggestion that there was a real enemy here. America soon became the bad guy again. Much relief.

And where was all of this coming from, this desperate need to demonise America? Was it coming from all those angry Muslims I keep reading about who apparently carry so much hatred for the country? Nope. Not from my experience. It came from white liberals.

And just to put things in perspective let's play it the other way around. Can you imagine any of the above happening in relation to any other country? Is the Guardian going to print a letter from someone moaning about the media marking the first anniversary of the London attacks in July this year? As it did about the marking of the first anniversary of the American terrorist attacks? Did any columnist call the Madrid attacks a "graze on Spain's knee"? Has anyone said yet the bombings in Bali are insignificant because more people died in the Tsunami?

Read it all.

Bad news

I just got a call from my sister to tell me my mother died last night. I won't be posting for a while.

Angry white voters

In Sunday's Telegraph, Margaret Hodge, employment minister and Labour MP for Barking, says 8 out of 10 white people in her constituency are threatening to vote for the British National Party in next month's local elections.

"They can't get a home for their children, they see black and ethnic minority communities moving in and they are angry," said Mrs Hodge, the employment minister. "When I knock on doors I say to people, 'are you tempted to vote BNP?' and many, many, many - eight out of 10 of the white families - say 'yes'. That's something we have never seen before, in all my years. Even when people voted BNP, they used to be ashamed to vote BNP. Now they are not." Mrs Hodge said the pace of ethnic change in her area had frightened people. "What has happened in Barking and Dagenham is the most rapid transformation of a community we have ever witnessed.

Margaret Hodge isn't the only one who's worried. Jon Cruddas, Dagenham's Labour MP, outlined the scale of the problem in the current issue of Renewal.

Many working class people feel disenfranchised by the Labour government: disproportionately they don’t vote; and many are developing a relationship with the BNP. It is possible that the BNP is on the verge of a political breakthrough. Over the last couple of years its support and membership has risen dramatically. It has 21 councillors, it polled 808,000 votes in the European elections and would have secured several MEPs and London Assembly members were it not for UKIP. At the last general election the BNP saved its deposit in 34 constituencies and has made inroads within some of Labour’s traditional working class communities. In London the BNP polled 4.9 per cent in the Assembly elections (Joseph Rowntree Trust, 2005). In seven wards in the Borough of Barking and Dagenham they polled over 20 per cent. Five council by-elections have taken place over the last 18 months – the BNP has won one and come second in the other four – with an average vote of 35 per cent. At the general election in the Barking constituency they collected 4,916 votes – 16.9 per cent; in Dagenham the figure was 2,870 votes – 9.3 per cent.

Those are worrying numbers and it's not just Labour MPs who should be concerned.

A failure of nerve

From Gilbert Murray's "Five Stages of Greek Religion"

Any one who turns from the great writers of classical Athens, say Sophocles or Aristotle, to those of the Christian era must be conscious of a great difference in tone. There is a change in the whole relation of the writer to the world about him. The new quality is not specifically Christian: it is just as marked in the Gnostics and Mithras worshippers as in the Gospels and the Apocalypse, in Julian and Plotinus as in Gregory and Jerome. It is hard to describe. It is a rise of asceticism, of mysticism, in a sense, of pessimism; a loss of self-confidence, of hope in this life and of faith in normal human effort; a despair of patient inquiry, a cry for infallible revelation; an indifference to the welfare of the state, a conversion of the soul to God. It is an atmosphere in which the aim of the good man is not so much to live justly, to help the society to which he belongs and enjoy the esteem of his fellow creatures; but rather, by means of a burning faith, by contempt for the world and its standards, by ecstasy, suffering, and martyrdom, to be granted pardon for his unspeakable unworthiness, his immeasurable sins. There is an intensifying of certain spiritual emotions; an increase of sensitiveness, a failure of nerve.

Something fishy

Underwater Times reports that scientists in Norway have dscovered a fish that can hold its breath under water. No, really.

The researchers have found that this extraordinary fish can change the structure of its gills to avoid becoming anoxic. In addition its blood has a much higher affinity for oxygen than any other vertebrate, and it makes tranquilizers and produces alcohol when oxygen supplies are limited. These mechanisms allow the fish to survive for days or even months without oxygen depending on the temperature, whilst still maintaining physical activity.

Alcohol and tranquilizers?!

View from Baghdad

Salam Pax sets out Iraq's conundrum:

To achieve a level of security that would allow the coalition forces to go home without leaving a big mess behind them we need money, this money will only come from oil exports and to achieve that level of oil production we need big foreign investment in the maintenance of oil fields but that investment won't come unless the security situation improves.

And that's not going to happen anytime soon.

On a personal note

(I need to get something off my chest. So excuse me while a share a personal narrative.)

My sister, Trish, still lives in the house we mostly grew up in. It’s been the family home since 1922: my grandparents moved in a few months after it was built. My mother was brought up there and, when my parents separated, she brought us to England to live with Nanny and Granpa.

Six years ago, Trish was rummaging through some old papers when she came across a bundle of letters my father had written after we’d left the States. She was shocked when she found them, distraught when she read them and shattered by the truths they pointed to.

Trish and I have since learnt that a lot of the things we’d been told when we were growing up simply weren’t true. In particular, I learnt that I’d been lied to every time I’d asked “Where’s Daddy?” and “Why isn’t Daddy here?” I can remember asking those questions a lot after we came to England. But no one ever told me the truth. And the lies they told weren’t comforting fibs.

“Where’s Daddy?” - “Nobody knows.”
“Why isn’t he here?” – “Ask him that.”
“Why isn’t Daddy here?” - “What! Do you think he cares about you?”

And the big lie, the one that wrapped up all the others in a tight conspiracy, is the lie about how we came to be in England in the first place. No one ever told us the truth about that. We had to find it out for ourselves. And when we did, it broke us.

Does it matter what happened over forty years ago? It does when you’ve been lied to about it your whole life. It matters very much: because trust matters, because respect matters and because truth matters. And, most importantly, because I was taught that those things matter by people who lied to me for years.

The truth is my sister and I were abducted.

How do you come to terms with something like that? I really don’t know. But I'm fed up of suffering in silence.

Legal redress

Right, that's it! The next person who shouts "Yankee go home" at me is going to be in serious trouble.

Modern Britain

The BBC reports that police in Greater Manchester are prosecuting a 10 year-old boy for racist remarks he is alleged to have made in the playground.

Climate of opinion

Philip Stott takes a look at the scientific consensus on apocalytpic climate change that obtained in the 1970s. Remember "global cooling": the idea that a new Ice Age was on the way?

'Global cooling' and 'global warming' represent classic examples of how Barthesian myths, and potentially dangerous grand narratives, gain ascendancy, depending on the political priorities of the age, always, of course, aided and abetted by an uncritical media and apocalyptic journalism of the type espoused by The Independent.

Read the whole thing.

Shakespeare trouble

Bristol theatre company "Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory" is in severe financial difficulties following poor ticket sales for its recent production of Titus Andronicus.

According to Andrew Hilton, the company's artistic director, SATTF is facing bankruptcy and will be unable to complete the current run of Love's Labours Lost unless audience numbers improve. In the meantime, the company has launched a public appeal for donations in an attempt to stave off collapse.

In an interview with the BBC, Hilton seemed surprised that the company had failed to attract an audience for Titus Andronicus.

"Theatre is such a fickle business, but it's hard to know what has happened.

I suppose we've become something of a local institution, and so rather than people coming to see both plays in a season as they did when we were a 'novelty', they are picking one or the other.

What we hope to make people understand is that we are not a tap they can turn on and off - either they want us here or they don't, and if they want us here, then they have to attend.

We don't get public funding, so there is no-one else around to pick up the bill - there is no margin for error."

With all due respect to Andrew Hilton, who is a talented and imaginative director, I don't think it's surprising that nobody was really interested in seeing Titus Andronicus. It's not one of Shakespeare's better known plays (this was its first Bristol production since 1978), it's not easily accessible to modern audiences and (compared to Shakespeare's other works) it's just not that good a play. In other words, finding an audience for Titus Andronicus was always going to be a difficult proposition.

So why, when there was "no margin for error", did SATTF decide to bet the company's future on a revival of Titus Andronicus?

I don't know, but I'd guess that Hilton's view of SATTF as a "local institution" might have something to do with it. This idea of theatre as "institution" tends to foster a mentality that derides the need for audience research, marketing and promotion. For the theatre-as-institution crowd, such things are largely unnecessary - "stage it and they will come" they say, adding (sotto voce) "if they know what's good for them".

To my mind, what Andrew Hilton (and others at SATTF) need to understand is that audiences "are not a tap they can turn on and off" - if they want an audience, they need to be prepared to entertain. Titus Andronicus was a turn off.

I hope SATTF can get back on track - they've done some excellent work in the past and I'm looking forward to seeing their production of "Love's Labours Lost". But it sounds like I better hurry.

If it's Tuesday...

... this must be Portland.

Michael Totten is back from his travels.

Illegal aliens

Gene at Harry’s Place contributes to the debate in the US over illegal immigration – specifically what to do with the estimated 11-12 million illegals that have already found their way in.

On a practical level, there is no way to deport every illegal immigrant and hermetically seal the 2,000-mile border with Mexico.

Agreed.

No matter how they came to the US, law-abiding and employed immigrants should have the chance to become American citizens.

Nice idea in principle - but in practice, it risks making illegal immigration a valid route to citizenship. Some kind of amnesty makes a lot more sense than mass deportation (both practically and morally) but it doesn’t solve the problem.

Of course in the sort of world for which those of us on the Left ought to be striving, the huge gap between rich and poor countries which is the main cause of immigration would not exist. But that world may be some distance in the future.

And, in the meantime?

Do illegal immigrants depress the wages of US workers at the low end of the economic scale? Probably. They are of course easier to exploit because, for obvious reasons, it's harder for them to complain about being denied the minimum wage (as pathetically low as that is), overtime pay, etc. Giving them legal status would at least compel employers to meet minimum federal and state standards on wages and hours.

Illegal immigrants are indeed easier to exploit, but simply giving them "legal" status won't put an end to illegal and exploitative employment practices.

If the US had been able to effectively “compel employers to meet minimum federal and state standards” the problem wouldn’t have arisen in the first place. Given the failure to enforce existing labor regulations, it seems fanciful to assume that a change in legislation will necessarily have the effect of improving workers’ conditions generally.

The effect of an amnesty for undocumented workers and the offer of a route to citizenship will put those workers who benefit from it in the same competitive position as the rest of the US labor force. In other words, it will still be profitable for businesses to employ people who are willing to work illegally.

The US has porous borders and a poor record of enforcing employment laws in the sectors that employ migrant workers. An amnesty (involving a guest worker program and a path to citizenship) may be the right thing to do, but it won’t stop illegal immigration and it won’t stop the use of cheap, illegal labor.

Fruit cakes and loonies

ITN News reports:-

David Cameron has lashed out at the UK Independence Party (Ukip) labelling them "fruit cakes, loonies and closet racists".

Ukip leaders immediately demanded Mr Cameron issue a full apology after the remarks were made during a live radio phone-in, saying they did not mind being branded "fruit cakes and loonies" but rejected being called racists.

Erm..., ok.

Agitpop

Glenn Reynolds at commentisfree links to this pop video of "The Right Brothers" performing "Bush Was Right".

Somehow, I don't think it'll catch on.

Space juice

From ABC News:

Astronomers say they have spotted a cloud of alcohol in deep space that measures 463 billion kilometres across, a finding that could shed light on how giant stars are formed from primordial gas.

The God question

In my experience, when people ask if you believe in God, what they really want to know is whether or not you believe in the same god they do. Of course, if it's an atheist asking the question, they're probably just setting you up - if you say "yes", they'll take it as an invitation to tell you how ignorant you are.

So, by and large, I don't take the question seriously - I really can't see the sense in it - though I appreciate some people do.

Sam Harris (author of “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”) clearly does take the question seriously. And, in "An Atheist Manifesto" he sets out his stall.

One of the greatest challenges facing civilization in the 21st century is for human beings to learn to speak about their deepest personal concerns--about ethics, spiritual experience and the inevitability of human suffering--in ways that are not flagrantly irrational. Nothing stands in the way of this project more than the respect we accord religious faith. Incompatible religious doctrines have balkanized our world into separate moral communities--Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, etc.--and these divisions have become a continuous source of human conflict. Indeed, religion is as much a living spring of violence today as it was at any time in the past.

So, what's the solution? For Harris, it seems, the answer lies in some grand public inquisition:-

[T]he 260 million Americans (87% of the population) who claim to never doubt the existence of God should be obliged to present evidence for his existence and, indeed, for his benevolence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day.

If this is meant to be a serious suggestion then I'm wrong to call it blustering rhetoric, but the idea of putting God on trial for Human Rights abuse is neither original nor realistic, and it seems unnecessarily confrontational. But far be it from me to get in the way when Harris is in full swing.

Only the atheist recognizes the boundless narcissism and self-deceit of the saved. Only the atheist realizes how morally objectionable it is for survivors of a catastrophe to believe themselves spared by a loving God while this same God drowned infants in their cribs. Because he refuses to cloak the reality of the world’s suffering in a cloying fantasy of eternal life, the atheist feels in his bones just how precious life is--and, indeed, how unfortunate it is that millions of human beings suffer the most harrowing abridgements of their happiness for no good reason at all.

To which I would add: Only a certain type of atheist imagines that it's helpful to liken religious believers to deluded narcissists, sectarian bigots and brainwashed morons. In other words, the Atheist Manifesto does little to advance the dialogue that Harris believes is so desparately important. His Manifesto is a confused diatribe that holds religion to be the root of all evil in the world - this is "obvious" to Harris, which is presumably why he makes no attempt to substantiate the charge. Instead, he simply raises Atheism aloft as the one, true way.

Atheism is nothing more than a commitment to the most basic standard of intellectual honesty: One’s convictions should be proportional to one’s evidence. Pretending to be certain when one isn’t--indeed, pretending to be certain about propositions for which no evidence is even conceivable--is both an intellectual and a moral failing. Only the atheist has realized this. The atheist is simply a person who has perceived the lies of religion and refused to make them his own.

So, according to Harris, atheists are right and everyone else is an intellectual and moral failure. And he's saying religions are divisive!? Yeesh! I hate to think what he'd make of Grapefruitism.

(Hat tip: Ophelia Benson at Notes and Comments)

Rocket torpedo

Zoe Brain has the lowdown on that new "super torpedo" the Iranians have been showing off recently. Apparently, it's a version of the Russian Shkvall underwater rocket - an ingenious device, to be sure, but not one that greatly increases the threat to US naval forces in the area.

A modest proposal

In her opinion piece in today's Times, Caitlin Moran sets forth her ideas on gender issues and abortion in India.

Moran believes that sexism is the result of women being undervalued by society. She also believes that "market forces can be the resolution of many cultural problems". Combining these two untethered thoughts, she proceeds to claim that sexism can be combatted by limiting the supply of women. In India, she suggests, the answer lies in greatly increasing the number of abortions.

Sex-selection abortions — illegal, and often dangerous — are still a massive fact of Indian culture. Because of the dowry tradition, a baby girl is viewed as an economic burden. Additionally, her economic worth is lost after marriage, as she then becomes part of her husband’s family.

Campaigners claim that the first step towards raising the status of women in India will be the eradication of sex-selection abortion, which the Indian Medical Association estimates might run as high as five million terminations a year.

Personally, I disagree. I think the best way to raise the status of women in India would be to legalise sex-selection abortion, and allow as many of them as are requested.

Is she serious?

Thankless tasks

Yesterday, the Times published a letter from a number of academics in support of Frank Ellis the suspended Leeds university lecturer.

Sunny at Pickled Politics took a look at the backgrounds of those involved - he didn't come away with a good impression: "I knew that arguing for his freedom of speech would put me on the side of racists, but it doesn’t matter."

He's right - it doesn't matter, but it is irksome.

Ratting and reratting

Talking of Fools' Day jokes, neo-neocon almost had me with this one:-

Yes, it's official: neo-neocon is returning to her roots and becoming a liberal Democrat once more. I'm not sure what to rename the blog: perhaps "neo-exneocon?"

But I'm not going to worry about nomenclature at this point. In fact, I'm not going to worry about anything. I'm going to stick my head in the sand and put my fingers in my ears (although that might be difficult to do simultaneously) and I will Whistle a Happy Tune, as long as I don't get sand in my mouth.

Thankfullly, normal sevice has now been resumed.

National Service

When I first came across this story on Saturday, I thought it was a Fools' Day joke - sadly, not.

David Lammy (Labour MP and Minister for Culture) wants to reintroduce some form of compulsory national service for Britain's youth.

[W]e need to focus on youth, broadening the attachments that young people can form through exposure to a more diverse range of experiences and encounters. This is partly about education, but there are also many opportunities beyond the school gates.

For example, we should seize the emerging cross-party consensus to create a national service scheme for young people, building a new institution to provide fulfilling, customised experiences for every young person.

Is Lammy just bigging up one of his pet ideas or is there really a growing consensus on this?

Weekend reading

Kenan Malik: multiculturalism and the road to terror.

Amartya Sen: Why religious identity isn't destiny.

Susan Blackmore: Waking from the Meme Dream.

Ralph Ellis: Imagery of the self and narcissism.

Amazon meander

Several months ago, I ordered a copy of "Voice and the Actor" from Amazon UK. A few weeks later, I got an e-mail from Amazon telling me my order had been delayed and I should expect delivery to take 4-6 weeks. Several weeks after that, I got another e-mail telling me there'd been a further delay - delivery would take another 4-6 weeks.

At that point, I mailed Amazon to tell them the only reason I wasn't cancelling my order was because I wanted to see just how bad their service levels could get. (I was real polite, too). A while after, they mailed to say they'd cancelled my order.

Last time I looked, Amazon.co.uk were still offering the book for sale: "usually dispatched within 24 hours". I guess they just didn't want my custom.

Today, I found a copy of "Voice and the Actor" in a local charity shop. It cost me £1. Of course, I had to ask. "Oh, yes," she said, "we've had that one on the shelf a good while now. Months, I expect."