Martin Meenagh blog

An Oldie But Goldie Along with 2007's warnings about global recession and the digital money/derivative crisis, 2009's global cooling outlook, 2011's questioning of the Libya War and 2008's suspicion of the Iran agenda--and anything else which you read on here that has turned out to be true--I thought that I would give this post, from January 31 2008, another little outing. We are preparing to scuttle in Afghanistan, and the consequence will be comparably disgaceful to the Belgians in Congo in '60-62, or to what happened in Indochina after '72. God help those whose minds and lives awoke only to face the Taliban's whip and bullet, or the boot of some loony savage with a gun fighting a war that began either thirty seven or three thousand years ago depending on your point of view. These stupid wars of choice must stop. We must adopt a new grand strategy in the arcs of instability, against terror, militant Islam, peak oil, and peak food. Barack Obama seems lately...

A Little Summer Video

Mark Shea on Politics I'm in conductor mood at the minute--buses, not orchestras--and would direct you to a seat near the great Mark Shea , who is a Catholic person. So are a billion others, of course (including myself), but Mr Shea points out in the American context how hard it is to be Catholic and political. No one can excommunicate themself, of course, and everyone is to a certain extent a bad catholic--but what gives when the choice is between narcissists and randroids with anger issues like Santorum or Gingrich, as representatives of the 'torture' side, or sundry abortionists and God-hating pagans and Satanists on the other? The debate plays out here between liberals who think they are Tories and liberals who think that they are socialists when, in fact, they both seem like nothing so much as a crusade against decency, commonsense and the Western tradition. Give me fifty-eighters like Habermas and the Pope over soixante-huitards anyday, frankly. I'm sick to the ba...

Ron Paul Returns--Sans Airship The late great Ron Paul (along with Marcus Aurelius Biden) has returned to us and is once again running for chief shoveller in Mr Bullet's debt factory. In pursuit of this aim, he's been quoting the bible, and in particular the cost-conscious armchair republicanism of Yahweh in 1 Samuel 8 (God eventually rolls over, unusually). I do like this passage, and thought that I would put it up; So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who asked him for a king. 11 And he said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. 12 He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. 14 And he will tak...

The Gaiety of Nations " Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin . That would be belittling for Margaret. Palin is nuts"--Thatcher aide. Parse this statement.

Album number 990 Over on facebook, I have been counting down the '1001 albums' to expand my tastes and give myself a bit of a daily rest. Today's was Miles Davis' 1957 'Birth of the Cool', which is just about perfect. Of all the tracks on a wet Putney morning, to the birdsong of which I awoke at four thirty from a nightmare, this is beautiful, outstanding, the best; Moon Dreams Enjoy.

Football Fans I have no knowledge of football. This is, as far as I can tell, no bar to having an opinion on it, and anyway, this is my blog. Why is it that football fans have neither a share nor a say in their clubs? If they had, could they federate to elect the FA, cap salaries, and make soccer work for them and not Rupert Murdoch? And, if not, why don't football companies stop pretending that they have any local connections, follow the example of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and take themselves off somewhere with either a lot of space or a contempt for planning laws. Asia perhaps? Shanghai United has a nice sound to it. Then I could get a nice flat in Chelsea, and Fulham Broadway would stop being the Constantinople Coliseum on a bad day every other week.

Referism: A Dream of New England Discontent with the virtual representation present in Her Britannic Majesty's Parliament is not new. Here's Anthony Henry MP to his constituents in 1734, responding to comments about his vote on taxes (I found it in Denis Healey's great old book, My Secret Planet , and have referred to it many times before); Gentlemen, I have received your letter about the excise and I am surprised at your insolence and writing to me at all. You know, as I know that I bought this constituency. You know, and I know, that I am now determined to sell it, and you know, what you think I don't know, that you are looking out for another buyer, and I know what you certainly don't know, that I have found another constituency to buy. About what you said about the excise: may God's curse light upon you all, and may it make your homes as open and as free to the excise officers as your wives and daughters have always been to me while I have represented your r...