Worrying news for Greece and for other countries looking for major bail-outs. Treat all sides fairly! Or else the lawsuits start. But what if treating all sides fairly just isn’t possible? A mess. But much more than a mere mess. A mess that changes the rules: Reuters’ Felix Salmon, who […]
If you shoot a pellet at an oncoming train it won’t make any perceptible difference to the train’s speed. Obviously. But what if you shoot tens of thousands of pellets? How to work out how many might in fact stop the train quite quickly? Luckily we have the answer. And […]
Mark Steyn never seems to lack material on which to base his beyond magnificent rants. Try this new one on the impact of Hurricane sandy and what it shows about modern America: A few weeks ago, I chanced to be in St. Pierre and Miquelon, a French colony of 6,000 people […]
Over at a newer smarter Business & Politics is my take on the Denis MacShane story: … As the US election saga limps to its end, those of us who favour the victory by Mitt Romney do not find it hard to point to staggering examples of corruption and abuse […]
We went to visit this wonderful place in Cornwall today. It’s a treasure of civilisation, a natural space – part garden, part deliberately created exotic forest with plants from all round the world – that was taken to fine heights by the Victorian family who owned it but then slumped into chaos […]
Here is a handy summary of the evolution of young women talking about their ‘first time’ on political ads, thereby linking voting to, er, sex. From Australia to Putin to Obama. How the Obama campaign can have thought that this ad helps their cause defeats me. Unless, that is, young […]
I was so moved by the thrilling experience of trying to cross the road in Hanoi that I sent the Commentator a piece comparing and contrasting socialism (and socialists) in Vietnam and here. If you have never been to Hanoi or indeed Asia before, nothing can prepare you and your […]
Back from the crazy dynamism of Hanoi to the somewhat less than crazy dynamism of rural Oxfordshire. While pulling together some pictures for a presentation next week on Moral Dilemmas in Diplomacy, I rummaged around in the Internet for images of the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics. I was the British […]
My short piece remonstrating with Guardian literary critic Nicholas Lezard on the fact that he writes at length in critical terms about Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged while admitting he hasn’t read it has prompted a businesslike reply from Mr Lezard himself: Dear Mr Crawford, I am, indeed, a literary critic. […]
Another sizzling interview with Camille Paglia, who proclaims on her latest book and life in general: I don’t like reality shows and have never watched them, but I’m addicted to “Real Housewives” because it’s authentic old-time soap opera reborn! But beyond that, the shows are all about glamour — make […]
