Martin Meenagh blog

"Obama's Decision to Seek Approval First Lengthens Suspense of Attack"-- New York Times, 29 August/1 September 2013 I. MANY ingenious lovely things are gone That seemed sheer miracle to the multitude, protected from the circle of the moon That pitches common things about. There stood Amid the ornamental bronze and stone An ancient image made of olive wood -- And gone are Phidias' famous ivories And all the golden grasshoppers and bees. We too had many pretty toys when young: A law indifferent to blame or praise, To bribe or threat; habits that made old wrong Melt down, as it were wax in the sun's rays; Public opinion ripening for so long We thought it would outlive all future days. O what fine thought we had because we thought That the worst rogues and rascals had died out. All teeth were drawn, all ancient tricks unlearned, And a great army but a showy thing; What matter that no cannon had been turned Into a ploughshare? Parliament and king Thought that unl...

‘ Crime ’ is a by its nature a limiting word. Republican Rome preferred terms that amounted to an infraction of dignity, or a ‘delict’—a sin. For a while, Romans didn’t even have a law of murder, so much as a socialised process of bounty, vendetta or forgiveness by the heads of families that seems in the modern world to have transferred to some Islamic communities. By contrast, The Greeks—such a sweeping term-- viewed that which offended conscience as a crime. Hence one reading of the word amnesia to mean ‘forgetfulness of sin’. In addition, since authorities from time immemorial have sought to ground their legitimacy in the appearance of natural things, defeating crime can in a way be presented as upholding nature against chaos and disorder. Law and order and, if you like, anti-entropic. This is why it is Kings and Authorities and self-constituted servants of Order and system-builders who like the idea of crime, since it follows that there are criminals from whom the ruled a...

There's a lovely scene in the 1927/8 film Flying Elephants in which Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (not yet then a couple) are getting married to their respective on-screen spouses. It's in volume 17 of my Laurel and Hardy Collection on the 'Swiss Miss' edition and very funny.  The women in it are beautiful in a Maggie Gyllenhall-type way, which is to say that Maggie Gyllenhall has a kind of American beauty which appears to have been around for over a century. The conceit is that the film, which features flying elephants and various other implausible, anachronistic or absurd ideas, is a depiction of the Stone Age. Society, in the form of the King Ferdinand of the Cave People speaking through some scratches on a stone, decides that all males between 13 and 99 must be married to a female ("anyone's will do") within a standard terrestrial day. So the males go looking, attempt to club a few co-respondents whilst getting clubbed and so on, and hilarity ensues....

As promised yesterday, I've had a lie down and some tea, and am now ready to return to an absurdly premature gaming of the 2016 presidential election in the United States. The logical thing to do seems to be to stick to my list of possible contenders, and up today is the category 'partisan hacks', both redeemed and unreformed. There are obvious candidates, from the beginning of the republic, who fall into this classification; people who were characterised by shady party manoeuvres, ambition, and organisation, rather than any consistent line or initial charisma, and funnily enough they're not all lawyers. The historical bookends would be George Clinton and John Kerry, I guess, and in between we could place the likes of Aaron Burr, Millard Fillmore, Rutherford Hayes, Stephen Douglas, Samuel Tilden, James Blaine, John Nance Garner, Alf Landon, Hubert Humphrey and Gerald Ford, inter alia (I've left out the running mates to cut things down). Some of these people, like...

We are now around two years from the 'overt' beginning of the 2016 presidential nomination races, and the 'invisible primary' made up of the search for gravitas and the support of influential party figures and donors is looming. The 2016 race is open, the incumbent can't run again, and, though the economy looks to me as though it could still teeter over at any moment, a collapse into war or depression won't favour either side. Let's begin by discounting some known unknowns. Firstly, Obamacare is not going to be decisive, because it's messy and maimed, but where it works it may well depress premiums and put money into pockets, whereas where it doesn't, people are against it anyway. Secondly, even with a possible Republican House in 2014, it also seems unlikely that the President will be impeached, resign or be assassinated; he has bought off the CIA, not challenged wall street, his Vice-president isn't really papabile for the national securit...

" “ Brothers and Sisters, good evening. You know that the charge of the conclave was to give a bishop of Rome.  It would seem that my brothers went to the end of the world to choose him ,” --Pope Francis, March 13 2013 In most cases, it takes some time for the things that will define a papacy to become clear. The longer the tenure, the more complicated the legacy. We bring ourselves to the construction of it, as Twain noted when he wrote that history was fluid prejudice. Thus, for instance, the magnificent semi-public display of defiance of death and illness put on by the Blessed John Paul II may in time come to be entwined, as it clearly was in Pope Benedict's mind, with a period of drift which seriously endangered the Church; and, similarly, the resignation of Benedict, which instant pundits wrote was a consequence of Curia corruption and obstructionism combined with a worry about drift, might come to be seen as a staging post on the road to a reunification with the Orthod...

1 kings 19: 11-13:  11  And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the  Lord . And, behold, the  Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the  Lord ; but the  Lord  was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the  Lord  was not in the earthquake: 12  And after the earthquake a fire; but the  Lord  was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. 13  And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? I'm going to lose friends for saying this and it breaks my heart to do it, but I cannot for the life of me see the point of denying marriage to loving couples on any basis of natural order or logical consistency in faith.  Mine is a church of addicts, pr...

4am on a Summer morning of one of the coldest years I have known, and I can't sleep. Another academic year ends; a year without my mother, without that strong, fierce mad drama of her defiance, draws on. Friends get on with their lives, some of choice, some of necessity, and I get ready to move from this memorable flat. I cannot sleep and can't not think. I remember sitting in an hotel looking out over Istanbul two Christmases ago and being unable to sleep, throwing Yeats into the night; perhaps that would help. I need some mind that if the cannon sound From every quarter of the world can stay wound in minds pondering as mummies of the mummy cloth are wound Because I have a marvellous thing to say A certain marvellous thing None but the living mock Though not for sober ear It may be that all hear Should laugh and weep an hour upon the clock Except that I have no marvellous thing to say. The mummy cloth thing just makes me think of silliness anyway; a Daily Mail ...