tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-128032522009-07-19T17:25:55.529Z(incorporating "World of Decency")Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.comBlogger903125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-60861931621281165532009-07-17T20:25:00.002Z2009-07-17T20:56:31.331Z

Well, really. (NB to the Guardian website's credit it published a response by Abbas Barzegar at 13:30 today.)Even for Martin, it's a weird article. Some of his background reading is impressive: he's certainly done more than the average hack, even if his references lean toward the literary - that is the prettily expressed - rather than the historical. Why, for example, bring Ted Hughes into this?

Chardonnay Chaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275819795032251978noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-65150853006887204002009-07-11T14:59:00.002Z2009-07-11T15:11:03.083Z

As longtime readers know, the officially endorsed media organisation of Aaronovitch Watch is Resonance FM, home to Decent science show "Little Atoms" (interesting interview with Kathryn Olmsted about conspiracy theories here). We also like the BBC and the Guardian.The officially unendorsed media organisation of AW, however, is "Press TV", the Iranian government's world service. A surprising

Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.com53tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-12568956846937091272009-07-05T09:17:00.002Z2009-07-05T09:30:50.895Z

Oh well. After my last post (immediately below, so no link), Nick is rather good and it's the CiF comments which are outrageous.See Jack Straw, rightly, is refusing to let an unrepentent thief go. (Life imprisonment for theft; let's just cut off their hands as well, then!) If the young Ronnie Biggs hadn't decided to become a thief rather than work for a living then the elderly Ronnie Biggs

Chardonnay Chaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275819795032251978noreply@blogger.com56tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-12210470732477026132009-07-03T15:00:00.002Z2009-07-03T15:23:35.375Z

Actually, it's Alan 'The Minister' Johnson. Some days CIF comments are hardly better than Harry's Place, but then they go and do this. Wonderful. It's like a glorious summer day or a British player in the Wimbledon semis.ID cards look to me like being a good bet for Aaro next Tuesday. I'm hoping that Aaro writes something on ID, because he has a word count to reach (800?) which is a few more than

Chardonnay Chaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275819795032251978noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-24292479905466177752009-07-02T08:22:00.002Z2009-07-02T08:26:04.634Z

Gary Brecher aka The War Nerd, reviews a decent neocon thriller. It seems that the Islington dinner parties of Nick's imagination have their Manhattan counterparts:And just in case you were in any doubt that they really are the forces of evil, there’s a long scene at a snooty Manhattan dinner party where the reader meets Johnson’s lefty boss, Josephine Parker von Hildebrand. Josephine is just

Captain Cabernetnoreply@blogger.com63tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-85211642784033508602009-06-27T20:29:00.002Z2009-06-27T21:42:03.714Z

Whew. Readers deserve to know that I nearly wrote a post last night concerning the current issue of Standpoint. Nick Cohen was not listed among the contributors. However, he seems to have become one of Standpoint's bloggers, so he hasn't fallen off that perch yet.The thing about Nick, he doesn't seem to get out much, so complaining about Radio 4's Today programme has become a staple. Entirely

Chardonnay Chaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275819795032251978noreply@blogger.com55tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-67519850719375741152009-06-24T11:36:00.003Z2009-06-24T11:38:59.972Z

Actually they're almost certainly all about Internet distribution these days, plus modern shopping centres are notoriously closed retail environments that for the most part no longer allow any sort of public activity like selling political newspapers. But nonetheless, AW is plugged in Socialist Worker today, thanks to comments section regular Mr Kitty's review of "Voodoo Histories", which is

Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.com43tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-58120240253965432192009-06-24T06:28:00.002Z2009-06-24T06:53:44.095Z

Longtime readers will recall how annoyed and appalled I was that Voodoo Histories (£17.99! in all good bookshops, somewhat cheaper on Amazon, Alan Beattie's "False Economy" is probably a better read for the money) didn't deal with the Iraq War, and specifically didn't deal with how it fits into Dave's worldview about government dodgy-dealing, general non-existence of. Here we get the Happy

Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-69839797026551605542009-06-23T16:46:00.005Z2009-06-23T17:06:24.127Z

Thanks very much to BenSix in the comments, for the heads up on Dave's appearance at the Editorial Intelligence blogging debate thing, in which he gives us a shout-out! Big up yourself Dave man!One of the other comments DA makes is that his main problem with the blogosphere is not so much the criticism it makes of the commentariat as the fact that, to quote "in one single comment thread at Guido

Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-82260137033398540052009-06-19T20:34:00.002Z2009-06-19T21:04:45.697Z

Really just an excuse to link to Dave Noon of Lawyers, Guns And Money:As if to affirm its utter worthlessness, the Post follows up the canning of Dan Froomkin by publishing a stream of effluent from Paul Wolfowitz, who seems to believe that Obama's ability to shape events in Iran is roughly on par with the Reagan administration's ability to shape events in the Philippines 23 years ago. Never

Chardonnay Chaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275819795032251978noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-34771009225575192009-06-14T19:10:00.001Z2009-06-14T19:15:13.286Z

The Encyclopedia of Decency calls it a day:Well, that gap in the market is now closed, and in the end it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the horrible personality flaws of Decency's chief players, the woeful failure of the political causes they spun for and the military bloodbaths they wanted.Harry's Place has long since been called out for the nasty, wingnut toilet that it is,

rioja kidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11445081280366862323noreply@blogger.com83tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-29684372651974548442009-06-14T08:47:00.002Z2009-06-14T08:51:48.373Z

A sinister, behind-the-scenes cabal involving Al Qaeda, American Nazis, Gilad Atzmon, the SWP, and "literary ladies in their floral dresses", is bent on promoting sinister conspiracy theories. Or something like that, anyway.

Captain Cabernetnoreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-37188009639763698532009-06-12T09:15:00.003Z2009-06-12T14:41:27.113Z

Thanks very much to Dan Hind for sorting out for us this review of Aaro's book by Robin Ramsay. Robin is cited in the index to "Voodoo Histories" and mildly slagged off in the concluding chapter for suggesting that there are sensible and silly versions of conspiracy theories, although I am not sure why as Aaro's argument became incoherent at this point.Aaronovitch Watch endorses the following

Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-74955530760888605852009-06-10T07:13:00.001Z2009-06-10T07:14:39.771Z

Conor Foley on UTV News:I have worked in a dozen or so war zones and I am constantly struck by the total divergence between how the situations get debated in British politics and what I see with my own eyes. I am not a huge fan of George Orwell, but one thing he got right is that the liberal-left intelligentsia simply does not understand what war, with all its attendant horrors and hypocrisies,

Captain Cabernetnoreply@blogger.com46tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-65768592166092978182009-06-02T20:25:00.002Z2009-06-02T20:41:11.878Z

Aaro today. In some ways such a perfect David Aaronovitch piece that it might have been written by a sub. In others - well, the subs among you may be offended by that suggestion.People don't yet know what needs to be done, because they don't know what is wrong, because they don't really yet understand how things have changed, because they don't get it. Except me. And now, you.Read the whole thing

Chardonnay Chaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275819795032251978noreply@blogger.com77tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-80129815394313554632009-05-31T08:57:00.002Z2009-05-31T09:33:39.650Z

There's a bit of fun over at Harry's Place: our man was on the radio - and we missed him! Little Atoms with David Aaronovitch - Tonight 19.00 on Resonance 104.4FM. (Only it's not tonight any more.)As readers know, David Aaronovitch actually reads Harry's Place and posts comments there. This is his first:I wonder whether Ari's first comment isn't the single stupidest entry on this blog, even

Chardonnay Chaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275819795032251978noreply@blogger.com54tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-91645697206804204842009-05-21T07:18:00.002Z2009-05-21T07:39:04.465Z

Aaro remains very, very disappointed in us. We've let him down, we've let ourselves down, we've let the whole school down, by our irresponsibility. We must try to work harder and take more of an interest in politics. No not that kind of politics, Bloggs Major, the proper kind that gets covered by the Times. How dare we vote for independents etc.But in the process, a really shoddy piece of

Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.com66tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-86865600005578055382009-05-18T09:37:00.001Z2009-05-18T09:38:40.768Z

We are nothing if not completists. Serve it at your next dinner party.

Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-33281832999603991952009-05-15T13:41:00.001Z2009-05-15T13:41:45.460Z

... and it's actually quite a good book. I think readers ought to be aware that, which might not have come over from my preview and snap reaction, this is definitely not an unstructured rant like "What's Left?" or a cuttings job like "Waiting for the Etonians". It is actually a proper book. Aaro is a good writer and he has clearly done a lot of research on it over the last three years - I am

Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.com50tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-39177076895713745652009-05-11T14:35:00.004Z2009-05-12T15:04:39.631Z

So far I note ...Citations, per my bet with PPhil in comments below: I would score it a win to me. The original bet was two out of three of Peter Dale Scott, Paul Thompson and Robin Ramsay. Of these, only Ramsay is mentioned, in a reasonably material discussion of his views. ("Little Atoms" said in the same comments that Peter Dale Scott appeared in the bibliography of the prepublication

Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.com89tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-16073920817047184862009-05-06T20:25:00.003Z2009-05-06T20:33:01.411Z

Doop de doop, reading the Times ..."Of course, while these precise alliances are unprecedented, our history is rich with examples of conflicts provoking realignments. While Peter objects to the fellow-travelling of churchgoing neocons with muscular liberals, he skips lightly over the 1930s alliance between the old Imperialist Churchill and the trade unionists who opposed appeasement"reading the

Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-68282435146550368222009-05-05T23:19:00.002Z2009-05-05T23:51:22.467Z

Thanks very much to Michael Rosen in the comments for reminding me that I hadn't actually done a post about the Aaronovitch/Atzmon (with a little bit of Nick Cohen) dust-up, I just thought I had. We knew from Aaro's write-up that it was a bit of a debacle for Decent Dave, but I at least had suspected that Gilad A and his fans were rather building their part in our comments section in portraying

Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-57277517901259647712009-05-05T16:26:00.002Z2009-05-05T16:33:24.786Z

Our man strikes more or less exactly the right note with respect to the whole "God, for or against" debate, demonstrating that the problem with Richrd Dawkins' "we should treat the god-botherers with naked contempt! contempt I say!" thesis is not so much the actual reasoning, as the fact that Dawkins' own personality has been shaped, and not in a good way, by the fact that the last time he

Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-77163183449302130572009-04-30T22:22:00.002Z2009-04-30T23:30:07.387Z

Something is going on in Nick Cohen's world, and if I knew what it was, well, any cunning foxes who are professors of cunning at Oxford University should look out!I think our Nick may have written the perfect column. It's complete nonsense from start to finish. It doesn't get a fact right. And yet it's quite plausible.One of the things Nick has mastered is vagueness. When exactly was 'early on'

Chardonnay Chaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01275819795032251978noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12803252.post-2914810535357844062009-04-30T08:16:00.003Z2009-04-30T08:25:21.051Z

Of massive interest to our readers I think, the Making Sense of Darfur blog is having a book event on Mahmood Mamdani's book "Saviors and Survivors", which is a pretty excoriating attack on the "Save Darfur" movement in the USA, for possessing all the characteristics that we have identified over here as constitutive of Decency. I am particularly taken with this essay by Alex de Waal. The MSOD

Bruschettaboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06462814606739183471noreply@blogger.com3