Martin Meenagh blog

Procedural Shenanigans for Lawbores I should get out and do something. Before I do--two notes here. One is from Irishspy , who suggests that, were Hillary to be elected, Governor Spitzer could fill her Senate seat with Bill Clinton. It turns out that this would be legal in New York, and that the statute restricting family members being appointed to the Cabinet would not on the face of it apply to the Senate. There is some rather unseemly shoving going on at the minute. However, the Senate is capable of sitting in executive session. An argument could be made that foreign policy and defense are powers ultimately rooted in the Senate, not just the Presidency; and that the President has no power of appointment to executive positions without the advice and consent of the Senate. How would the Supreme Court deal with this? It's a lawyer's issue. The court of course deals only with what it chooses to deal with, and the election or appointment of senators is a matter of state law exce...

Who killed Bhutto and did she believe Bin Laden had been murdered? I like the Irish Times and the Times of India as newspapers. The English in them is rich, the analysis world-weary and direct and they're not obsessed with breathless reporting or adolescent values like the papers in Britain and the States. So here's The Times of India on US Presidential candidates and their reactions to the murder of Benazir Bhutto. Al-Qaeda/Taleban leaders who boasted of having groups of at least 60 suicide bombers stalking her have denied any responsibility and I have yet to see her killer identified anywhere. The scene has been hosed down, as is relatively normal, and the remains have been buried. So no one will ever really know what happened. A search of great intensity is going on for clues as to the identity of her killer though. The West Australian newspaper has a report on it here. Speculation is inevitable. If eye-witnesses who survived saw one man running and firing, and then the c...

Those Magnificent Australians Around fifty years ago, a group of young australians characterised by a fascination with art and a deep discontent with the sort of society Australia then was sailed for the west. Germaine Greer, Barry Humphries, Clive James and Robert Hughes were and are fascinating people, and examples of lives lived in art. They are very difficult to pigeonhole, mischievous in the proper sense, and so smart they offend everyone. So of course, whilst they are credited, they don't have the status they deserve. A similar thing happened to Anthony Burgess, a displaced British-Irish person who was also too clever by half. In any fair world, however, these four would be leading cultural figures. Take Humphries, for example. Lots of people know of him as Dame Edna Everage, and possibly also as Les Patterson and Barry McKenzie. These were satirical characters of genius. One of the funniest things I have ever read is Dame Edna's riposte to the pomposity of the US hispani...

I love Maps. Here's a map of the world in Orwell's 1984, and here's an interesting piece on currency and economic blocs by Anglo Noel that I discovered suggesting how it's coming about. I can't wholly agree. The world commodity boom is linking Africa to Asia and South America is escaping from American nmonopoly by embracing the euro, but it's good to be forced to see things differently.

I Wish Angela merkel was running for US President She's just the best leader in Europe right now, and a model of how women leaders work. She's much better than Hillary. Someone between Merkel and President McAleese is my idea of the perfect woman in politics, of the sort that should be allied to John F.Kennedy, Palmerston and Ernie Bevin in meenaghworld. Here's a raised tea cup to the memory of Mo Mowlam , who was a British equivalent. haha. Kennedy, Palmerston and Bevin. Two classy Irish shaggers and a christian thug from the trade unions. There's an insight into the Meenaghworld id, ego and superego.... I shouldn't use the German equivalent of leader, it'll upset people. But merkel is my idea of a fuhrerin. The picture is of Golda Meier , fourth Prime Minister and Iron lady of Israel. She was a babe when she was young in Milwaukee, don't you think?

Another counterfactual... Here's another one. There were various schemes around for the creation of a Jewish state at the turn of the twentieth century. The world Zionist congress debated accepting Britain's offer of 15,500 square kilometres in Uganda, for instance. The monster Stalin had his own 'socialist Zion' proposed near Mongolia, Birobidzhan. Einstein and Nehru had a dialogue that could even have resulted in a Jewish region in India (which one suspects may have been something to do with upsetting Jinnah and the Muslims). Nehru did this in private, however, and in public kept his distance because of Congress's complicated electoral base. The Indian Jewish community also used to be split between Baghdadis and others , and collapsed after eighty percent of the 26000 or so left Mumbai and Kolkata for the land of Israel in the mid-twentieth century. This of course illustrates another, albeit collateral point. The establishment of a national israel has removed lo...

What if Germany had won in 1915? The central disaster of the twentieth century, and the creator of almost all the troubles that followed it, was the Great War. The first world war derailed the development of clean, modern transport technologies in favour of aeroplanes and trucks built on modified gun assembly lines or after the spur of war, for instance. It radicalised a whole generation of young men to death and uniform. It broke five empires, but replaced them with unstable and shifting states, and it led directly to the temporary but bloody successes of the Nazis and the Soviets. It lit nationalism in big countries and destroyed the nexus of world markets and trade. Against that, what did it achieve? Four years of bloody fighting to stop the Second Reich from replaying Bismarck's defeat of France and the Russian Empire. The League of Nations was born from the rubble, and the limited freedom of small states like Ireland and those within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But these thin...

New Blogs I've just come across a nice piece on JFK and Bush from the quirky, interesting Signs of the Times . The usual health warnings apply--I don't agree with all the content necessarily, nor the politics, but I do like the style and the way she makes points. It's a civilised, humane and fun site. Have a noodle at this . And while I'm at it, someone called Henry See on the Ponerology blogspot has dug up this great quote on Rudy Giuliani's vision of freedom. Bit of an old fashioned sort of Italian, I think, though he isn't in a black shirt yet. From a different perspective, I've also found this interesting blog from a highly accomplished and successful gold trader, Catherine Austin Fitts that you might like. She has some nice links.

The Other Clash of Civilisations Lunatic forms of wahaabism have in recent years somewhat overshadowed the other clash of civilisations that is evident beneath the surface of the modern west. That is the clash between those whose cultural inheritance is broadly Calvinist, and those who derive any ethical sense or culture from Catholic forms. Let me explain. Calvinism as such probably dates from the Synod of Dort , and has been deeply influential in large parts of the English speaking world, and especially in the USA. It holds, as I understand it, five principal ideas. One is that man is depraved and that only the inexplicable grace of god explains the world. Salvation is known only to god, but evil exists. Jesus didn't die for bad people, and there are only a few saved. Even if one is not a Calvinist, some of the consequences of these ideas are clear. one is that the world is good or bad, and that the acts of the good must all be good. So the late American preachers Billy Graham an...

Sales Mystery Today is the second day in what is effectively a 'sales week' in the UK. UK residents are used to more holidays than Americans or Asians, though less than other Europeans. Traditionally, though most people are 'at work' between Christmas and the new year, many either don't turn up, develop a mystery illness, or turn up and do nothing. One sector where this is not possible is retail, however. My mother went out at 6 this morning and was at the homecare store where she has worked for years for eleven hours. I saw her off, as I was travelling back to London today, but was interested to hear how busy the day was . This fits with the picture from across the country. I was at St Pancras this morning at ten, and the underground was crazy then with shoppers. By all accounts, the provinces were much the same. My question is quite simple; where is all the money coming from for this? People are spending hundreds. House prices are beginning what I have no doubt w...

The Waziristan War returns Pakistan has recently been fighting a Waziristan war, and attempted a truce with the Taliban earlier in the year. The Taliban is a congeries of groups. The elements of the Pakistani inter-service intelligence who supported most of the Taliban groups, as a bulwark against Iranian, pro-Russian, or secular groups in alliance with the democrats of India or Pakistan, have been sidelined since 1999. Yet Musharraf has been unable to exercise full control of a highly efficient and semi-praetorian intelligence service. It is the ISI which used to have its capital at Rawalpindi. It is the ISI which people are never going to understand who are not part of it. It may be that, after the exposure of A.Q.Khan and his nuclear network, the Waziristan disaster, and the rise in instability, the men of the ISI will now move to protect their investment against Musarraf by elevating Nawaz Sharif. So--and this will upset a lot of people who read this blog--the safest and most stabl...

Pakistan Forty years ago, Robert Francis Kennedy began a presidential campaign that would kill him. He knew that there would be personal attacks upon him. He knew that he had considerable personal baggage that must have weighed on him every night and day. By all accounts, he suspected that his hard line with criminal and Cuban elements had led to the death of his brother, and, indirectly, the disasters that followed. he put himself in danger and he sought to lift and calm a troubled, tearing nation with his understanding of grief and hope. Benazir Bhutto was no Robert Kennedy. She returned when well justified allegations of theft and corruption had been lifted. Her personal party welcomed her back, and the 'democratic' elite which has been selling Pakistan out for years rubbed their hands. She had deeply unpleasant enemies in Al-Qaeda, whose response to the battering of the Taleban in Afghanistan is to shake its tendrils across the border. She had the sinister Intelligence serv...

And here is Cookstown, in tyrone, which my father left. It has a lovely mountain and one of the world's largest branches of the Friends of the Somme. 'nuff said.

From Donegal, at Lough Swilly, where my mother comes from. One of the most beautiful, heartbreaking places on earth.

Stagflation watch : Pakistan The world is currently awash in western currency because of either government borrowing, balance of payments deficits, or both. Agricultural and energy prices are soaring because of increased demand. This is good news for Africa, which is composed of very many commodity producers whose debt is denominated in western currencies. It is good news to a lesser extent for South America. It is bad news for us. Another group of people who are suffering, interestingly, are the Pakistani government. Fresh from compromising the admirable judicial traditions of that state, they are now suffering from the consequences of inflation in agricultural prices. This will matter in the forthcoming elections. The regular milky over-sweet tea drunk across the country is more and more expensive, because sugar and milk prices are rising way too fast. This is causing not a little discontent in the Punjab, according to the Chicago Tribune . Perhaps this is why the famous liars and th...

Vatican Crime Rate Soars Hello reader. I'm here in Northamptonshire's bubbling hills in my mum's empty house, with two little dogs and a computer for company. So I've been noodling around the internet. Partly, I have been prompted by a reading of John Allen's popular constitutional text on the government of the Vatican. It kept me up last night anyway--defining the difference between dicasteries and departments, the pope, the holy see, the vatican and the curia. Ah well. Anyway, it turns out that the Vatican has its own courts and that they can sentence people, albeit to Italian prisons. This is not surprising. Proportionately, crime is highest per head in the Vatican across almost all regions of Europe. It seems to be mostly pickpocketing and theft from the museums that concern the Cardinals, despite the best efforts of the two security services and the various papal Knights. It's like the Bronx in there. Without such a widespread use of guns or as many black p...

Can a Prime Minister be a Catholic?--A Skeleton argument for Christmas. Here's a legal issue, given the late Prime Minister's conversion to the Roman Catholic faith he and I now share. It was also an issue during the Blair years when the Leader of the Opposition, Ian Duncan Smith, was a Catholic, as was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy. The press and various constitutional boobies are suggesting that a PM just can't be a Catholic, and that that is one reason Mr Blair held off becoming one when PM. In the way of things in Britain, everyone is nodding sagely and saying this is correct. Let's look at the law. Remember, Britain has no written constitution, like Israel, New Zealand and (as far as I know) Tonga and Papua, though I stand to be corrected on those two. Observers point to the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act , which declares, at section 12 12. Offices withheld from Roman Catholics.Provided also, that nothing herein contained shall extend, or be ...

Christmas Book Final Suggestion You are now getting desperate if you have hit upon this website. Can I suggest a little counterfactual fun? This sort of history is periodically popular, and has a tendency towards conservatism. It usually involves asking 'what if' type questions that focus upon a battle or an individual, and so bring history down (as it sometimes comes) from the sweep of great social or economic forces or technologies to recognisable categories. It's also the case that counterfactualists posit that human nature doesn't really change, and often have a moral or ethical agenda attached to their fantasies about what didn't happen. This sort of thing probably happens in the minds of monkeys and apes too. The cleverer orangutans, I always thought, were those in the clearing sipping the coconut and bark juice mixer whilst the stupid ones were up a tree knocking the raw materials down at a safe distance. They must wonder about things at some point too. Have...

Vauxhall Bridge, a foggy 1 a.m. It is very possible in blogland to focus on the hopeless, or to work oneself into anger. However, I have been struck by the regression in this society. Last night, I was wandering down to have Christmas dinner with my best friend near Vauxhall. It wasn't just the fog around the bridge that turned streetlamps into dim constellations that made me think of the oddness of the late nineteenth century. There was a moment, from around 1850 to around 1960, I think, when British--English, but also British--society was historically very unusual. Perhaps because of Empire, war or poverty, the debt, drunkenness, promiscuity and violence with which London society had been traditionally associated at all levels was condemed and not celebrated; repressed would be the wrong word. Publicly, values associated with thrift, discipline and not a little misogyny came into play. As the twentieth century proceeded, the social discipline of total war and of state power was a...

Christmas Repeats Her Brittannic Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, pictured, has been at Saddam's Auntie's house in Basra. He has blogged about it here, though not about the cakes he had. He wants to see a Dad's Army in Iraq . And... oh, I can't go on parodying this PPE person. How about a piece on the back of seventeenth century wigs? I got my legal wig and gown from Ede and Ravenscroft on Chancery lane the other day, having won them in a moot at the Middle Temple, and they gave me a copy of Tomas Woodcock's Sartorial History gratis. It's full of interesting tidbits. For instance--the back of a periwig contained a curl which used to be known as a 'dildo' or 'pole-lock' (giving rise to the pungent British expression 'pillock' as a term for an unworldly or privileged person). It's detailed in Randle Holme's Academy of Armory, or Storehouse of Armory and Blazon as the third sort of periwick. You can waste some t...

Chad Vader Chad is a supermarket deputy manager who happens to be Darth's little brother. I have some affection for him. He is an internet hit, and the tales of his doings run to several series on the web. You can find them on youtube. Just as a flavour of things, here's Chad's blog from the Christmas special. Chad's lonely and wants a relationship because his till-girl has dumped him.

Nutter endorses Clinton He does. Mayor-elect Michael Nutter of Philadelphia. Here's the story. For my American readers, 'nutter' means 'loony' in Britain and Ireland. Our former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, recently intimated that the electorate expected anyone religious to be one. For my Canadian reader, 'loony' isn't the bird on your currency. It means neoconservative. Such a headline it is. A Nebach Schlumphnik who may turn out to be a very good Philadelphia mayor, I don't know, says he likes Mrs C after being strong armed by Bill Clinton. All well and good. It encouraged me, however, to go looking for Hillary's funding sources. How come is this? With just one little search, I find out that the 'liberal candidate' of the American media is the single largest Defense Industry donee. OK, says I, the war lords love her. Neil Clark said so ages ago when he noticed the figures before me after all. So I looked a little further. Hillary has m...

Silly Spider Man fight from 1967 Here's a very daft clip from the old sixties Spider-Man cartoon for no good reason. Spidey has been assaulted by an axis of evil. So he's protected himself, set them against each other and waited carefully. Silliness, obviously. He should have blown up Manhattan whilst missing the villains(with the help of a mini-superally from Monaco or Liechtenstein or somewhere), and if the citizens didn't like it they should just have remembered how he let Batman pound the Joker into the ground for four years before coming in at the end half a century before. Obviously. I'm off to bed.

Christmas Book Suggestion Numbers Three and Four. I have long been an admirer of Mike Davis' works on urban geography. They are written with the pace of thrillers, and expose the situation of cities and nature in the modern American west with penetrating intelligence. If like me you tend to mine books for anecdotes, his earlier work on the environment of California , which detailed what would happen in terms of floods and fires were development to continue as it did, and the winds to warm is brilliant. It's called Ecology of Fear . However, it's Davis' latest book to which I would direct you if like me you haven't bothered about the Christmas presents or are waiting to get paid. Planet of Slums is one of the most interesting and important books I have read this year. It details in clear prose and with simple facts how the attempt to force the global poor off of the land (as in England in the past) and into the workforces of the major cities has resulted in the cre...

The Soviet ZX Spectrum and the years of long ago You know when technology has become ubiquitous. People don't buy it as a main Christmas present except as the equivalent of socks, and museums grow up devoted to it. I can't help but think of that this yuletide as my mind drifts back to my lovely dad and his present to me, bought at great expense on his and my mum's part long ago one Christmas of a ZX spectrum 48k machine . I think the date must have been around Christmas 1985, the last of his life. I was thirteen years old. I still recall the smell and odd feel of the old ZX, marketed in the US of course in a different form as a timex machine. Corby at that time still contained relatively young people who remembered what life was like when a steelworks throbbed and belched its way off of the concrete centre. It was a Celtic and east European enclave, and the John Menzies in the town centre was a store more at home in Scotland than England. It competed with Tandys, and sat be...

Ron Paul has an airship. hahahahahahahahahaha. Now all he needs to do is offer it as a platform to debate Huckabee and Obama up and down the skies of the republic and my heart is theirs. The remaining candidates could be left on the ground with the lobbyists to push eclairs up each other. That is, after all, all they are good for. That and bombing people. Ah, America, I love you. Here's a raised cup of tea to the memory of the Natives and the slaves.

The True cost of the Iowa Caucuses An awful lot is being written about the true democracy being exhibited at the moment in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Admittedly, a lot of this is being written by political hacks who are being paid to hang around those States. Having experienced their people and generosity myself, I can't blame them. But there is a real price to the primary procedure that is currently, happily, derailing the Clinton, Romney, Giuliani and Thompson camps and which is promoting Huckabee, Obama and Paul to the fury of the mainstream media. The price is the danegeld being paid to the American agricultural industry. The $9 billion annual subsidy is damaging countries all round America and the USA itself. It dosn't go to mom and pop farms, most of which are mortgaged to the hilt. It goes to agribusinesses. I have a somewhat skewed image of farmers outside of England and Wales, I think. My grandfather was what should be described as a peasant farmer in Ire...

A Sophisticated Catholic Perspective on Religion, Evolution and Politics Courtesy of Salon.com, there's a great article on this topic to be found here .

A very funny, smart and beautiful comedienne whose work appears only on the web Hello Reader. It's yule time and yule love this pathetic attempt of mine to curry some small favour with Maria Bamford should she ever decide to stalk me. Well, you did, so it's not impossible. Anyway, unlike the current middle-class gurners being promoted by the BBC on account of being, well, essentially unfunny middle class gurners who probably know some Toby or Bruno, 'the Mighty Boosh' , she's great. She plays all the roles herself and is clearly very talented and she is very silly in a proper way....

Are we on the edge of a Solvency crisis? Here's a hat tip to a lovely piece by Anatole Kaletsky in today's London Times. Solvency is different from liquidity. If central banks thought that the present problem in Anglo-American housing and property markets was a lack of easy cash, they could do what they have done. They could offer loans to those institutions that lent money to homeowners at rates that were effectively lower than market rates, thus creating money, and disguise it by calling the loans 'auctions' until the economy picked up again when they could lower lending and withdraw cash. That isn't what they are scared of now. They are scared of panic, housing and equity collapses and a crash. They are thinking 'bankruptcies', and their actions in pumping in what seemed to me at the time at far too little credit last week into western economies have clearly not worked. The banks have become worried about something else. They're worried about a slum...