Skip to content

Index: Noted elsewhere

· Elitists, anarchists, progressives, and their views of ‘sclerotic’ democracy.

Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Principle plays a part in motivating elites who hoist the flag of social reform: the free-market ideal, they argue, is a source of misery when pursued too unrestrainedly. But Henry James pointed to another, suppressed motive.

Also filed in Chronicle & Notices, Politics & Culture | | Comments (0)

· Islam, Caesar and the simple problem in the Middle East.

Tuesday, 29 March 2011

There is a very simple problem in the Middle East: simple, that is, conceptually, not simple from the point of view of finding a practical solution to it. Islam has not found a doctrinal way of rendering unto Caesar those things which are Caesar’s.

Also filed in Chronicle & Notices, Politics & Culture | | Comments (0)

· Remember when there was a French Left? Neither does France.

Monday, 28 March 2011

If the French vote tracks a slow shift in the national electorate toward middle-class conservatism, the German vote appears to be shaped more by immediate dynamics.

Also filed in Chronicle & Notices, Politics & Culture | | Comments (0)

· Is ‘fear of failure’ a bad thing for students, teachers, or schools?

Friday, 25 March 2011

France’s decline in the international rankings has focused minds. A book by the Paris-based British academic Peter Gumbel published last year titled On achève bien les écoliers? (They shoot schoolchildren, don’t they?) sharpened attention further. In it he argued that the education system was systematically undermining children’s confidence.

Also filed in Chronicle & Notices, Psychology, Philosophy & Education | | Comments (0)

· ‘Victorian sex’: Not your great-great-grandfather’s oxymoron.

Thursday, 24 March 2011

All the protagonists are male, with the women reduced to mere quickly potted biographies. The book leaves the “new eroticism” as a masculine invention. It’s one tryst after another, one flagellation after the next.

Also filed in Books & Publishing, Chronicle & Notices, History & Travel | | Comments (0)

· The Tripoli school of driving: take the wheel or crash and burn.

Wednesday, 23 March 2011

Diplomatic sources told The Cable that the United States has communicated to its European partners that it wants to hand off command of the Libya war by the end of this week. But the White House hasn’t said whether it supports the French plan.

Also filed in Chronicle & Notices | | Comments (0)

· Civility: Truth plus respect plus offense equals offense?

Wednesday, 23 March 2011

In the type of censorship that Collini is concerned with, the power equation is typically reversed. When, in contemporary society, a particular view is labelled “offensive”, it is usually on the basis that the offended party is in some way at a disadvantage in relation to the person who has expressed the offending view.

Also filed in Chronicle & Notices, Politics & Culture | | Comments (0)

· How mystics enter into mystery.

Wednesday, 23 March 2011

We’ve become too analytical. Our approach is about law: Do good, avoid evil. But the mystic is one who, through prayer, enters into the mystery of God as love. Christian life is first of all a mystery, the mystery that the incredible, incomprehensible love of God is the source of all that we are.

Also filed in Chronicle & Notices, Psychology, Philosophy & Education | | Comments (0)

· Googling the phenakistoscope and other dead media.

Tuesday, 22 March 2011

If we can somehow convince the current digital media community-at-large that DEAD MEDIA is a worthwhile project, we believe that we may be able to compile a useful public-access net archive on this subject.

Also filed in Chronicle & Notices | | Comments (0)

· Event: How the light gets in Hay.

Monday, 21 March 2011

Among the 2011 guests will be Susan Greenfield, Colin Blakemore, Zygmunt Bauman, Bonnie Greer, Ted Honderich, Gideon Rachman, Rana Mitter, Mary Ann Sieghart, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Angie Hobbs, Polly Toynbee, Simon Armitage, Lauren Booth, Leela Ghandi, Tessa Jowell, Mary Midgley, Mary Warnock, Bryan Appleyard, David Aaronovitch and many more.

Also filed in Chronicle & Notices, Events, Psychology, Philosophy & Education | | Comments (0)

· William Shatner, boldly going right through the scenery.

Sunday, 20 March 2011

But just as “Kafkaesque” doesn’t just describe the condition of having too much paperwork to do, “Shatnerian” isn’t merely shorthand for hammy acting demarcated by a certain truncated enunciation. More than that, to be Shatnerian is to be dynamically, effervescently alive in a role.

Also filed in Broadcasting, Canadian Eccentricities, Chronicle & Notices, Film, Television, Video & Theatre | | Comments (0)

· How Benghazi looks from under Manhattan’s no-fly zone.

Sunday, 20 March 2011

We need to deal with longstanding allies like Jordan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia—which continue to resist democratic reforms—and to help the Egyptian people consolidate democracy and create jobs and economic opportunity. The most productive role for America in the Middle East today is diplomatic and economic, not military.

Also filed in Chronicle & Notices, Politics & Culture | | Comments (0)

· The life of a poet: Madras, 1931.

Sunday, 20 March 2011

So unlike John Morley or W. E. Henley, I thought, and so unobtrusive. I had seen ‘Triveni’ but today I was meeting its Editor, and it seemed a moment on which somebody’s destiny depended.

Also filed in Chronicle & Notices, History & Travel, Poetry & Fiction | | Comments (0)

· In Libya, the banality of state-sponsored show biz.

Saturday, 19 March 2011

But the clear, unstated strategic objective is regime change. It’s pretty obvious. And we’ve been here before.

Also filed in Broadcasting, Chronicle & Notices | | Comments (0)

· A ticking metaphor taped to an editor! Stand back. Way back.

Friday, 18 March 2011

So it appears that the only logical thing to do is to go on making Rolexes or Patek-Philippes or whatever while trying to adapt to the new era. Maybe you even make your watches more luxurious and expensive to distinguish them from cell phones, even as you do other things to cope with the cell phone challenge.

Also filed in Chronicle & Notices, The press | | Comments (0)
The Fortnightly Review