Quiet around here ...
Sorry for the prolonged silence readers. This is due to a number of factors, chief among them busyness, but also the marked decline and fall of Decency in the Obama era - it is much more difficult to prioritise the starting of big arguments with the Decent Left when one doesn't think that they're remotely capable of pushing the world any closer to war.
This isn't to say that Watching Aaro is wholly without point and I hope to have a few bits and pieces up over the next week in a more philosophical Aarological vein. But in general, expect posting to be significantly lighter in the immediate future.
By way of light relief, check this out. What is it with Ed Husain, and well-intentioned political adventures that always seem to end up with him suddenly realising that all of his new mates are a bunch of wild-eyed ideologues? Is he collecting material for a sequel to The Islamist? Either way, there's a sort of Zelig-like situation comedy in this.
This isn't to say that Watching Aaro is wholly without point and I hope to have a few bits and pieces up over the next week in a more philosophical Aarological vein. But in general, expect posting to be significantly lighter in the immediate future.
By way of light relief, check this out. What is it with Ed Husain, and well-intentioned political adventures that always seem to end up with him suddenly realising that all of his new mates are a bunch of wild-eyed ideologues? Is he collecting material for a sequel to The Islamist? Either way, there's a sort of Zelig-like situation comedy in this.
posted by The Rioja Kid at 11/02/2009 12:29:00 PM
21 Comments:
There you go, Chris. Bozo yourself.
Phil D'Bap
Also entertaining:
http://cambridgetab.co.uk/news/macshane-on-you/
http://heathlander.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/crazy-drunkard-slimy-hacks-and-paid-shill-attempt-to-defend-the-indefensible/
There Chris goes where exactly?
Bruschettaboy wrote:
"it is much more difficult to prioritise the starting of big arguments with the Decent Left when one doesn't think that they're remotely capable of pushing the world any closer to war"
Anonymous wrote:
"Isn't the truth that now Iraq is history, the main authors here find themselves agreeing with Aaro more often than not?"
Still no evidence for this suggestion.
I've always wondered what would happen if someone used the Decent Debating Technique in real life; there we go!
History tells us that there are peaks and troughs with Decency, and with Cohen now so firmly identifying with the right over pretty much everything there's little reason to follow him, though it is entertaining, especially his TV stuff which seems to have been written by someone who has never watched TV before in his life. and Geras is still good value, not least his beef with Conor Foley. This blog will have a lot to watch once the election campaigns get going too.
Aaro has been on good form recently, but he has always had bouts of good form. Being effectively 'in opposition' might help him a fair bit.
I'd like to know just how those who 'marched and blogged for democracy in Iran' see the Afghan elections. But no comment pieces seem to be forthcoming.
Isn't the truth that now Iraq is history, the main authors here find themselves agreeing with Aaro more often than not?"
Absolutely not, and this will be the subject of the "philosophical" post trailed herein.
I assume Unspeak has done this long ago, but the formulation "such-and-such is history" (basically meaning "bored now!") is a bit of a shocker, isn't it? Especially when it refers to a war that's STILL GOING ON.
not got the time but Aaro today is definitely worthy of a post... conflated with MacShane's two most recent media appearances it's quite interesting I tihnk.
The key moment for Decency will be when the Tories get in, or specifically when Michael Gove gets the Foreign Office job he covets (Hague will want to be reshuffled soon after the election - all those foreign commitments rather interfere with his domestic speaking engagements).
At the moment, Decency is hamstrung by the dual facts of Obama being in the White House and Brown/Miliband having pursued a relatively sensible and pragmatic foreign policy since the departure of Blair. But if Gove gets his hands on the levers of power, all bets are off.
What in practice do you think he would do? We don't have enough troops or ships to actually start making mischief in anywhere new, do we?
Apparently there's a town on google maps that 'doesn't exist' in the real world
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6474746/Mystery-of-Argleton-the-Google-town-that-only-exists-online.html
I note it is only a few miles from Alan NTM Johnson's base at Edge Hill university. Is it in fact a Decency Redoubt that google has stumbled upon?
Just back on topic for a second - Ed Husain is impressive in the speed with which he makes enemies, isn't he? I mean the moonbat right have all started briefing against him whenever possible, and his enthusiastic embrace of Decents who never really seemed to have even looked at his book means that he has alienated a lot of others as well - that's before we get onto his rifts with other Muslim bodies. I have a fair bit of time or him but it's depressing that he seemed not to notice or care that none of his prominent fans in the media had understood his book, in which British foreign policy plays a central part in radicalisation; and equally he seems not to have realised that the second he went off-message he'd be cast as an aextremist and an 'unserious'.
On Gove - I'm not sure we had enough resources to even go into Iraq but that didn't stop him. Though in practice I'm not sure how different tory foreign policy would actually be - i've spoken to diehard tory party loyalists about this and they can't actually explain any differences from Labour except for Europe which is not a subject they want to dwell on. There would probably be a good deal more pointless and unhelpful gestures like Cameron's trip to Georgia, but they're not stupid enough to start launching new wars elsewhere in the world.
I think the real difference is going to be located in domestic policy. if the Muslim population of Britain thought they had it rough under Nu Labour... I wasn't all that old when the tories were last in govt but one thing has stayed with me and that was their penchant (even stronger than the NuLab penchant) for pointless, unhelpful, often unlawful PR gimmicks about law and order. Sadly I think that Decency will be entirely on their side on this.
But yes - to agre with someone up there - the acid test will be in lection season. The Obama campaign brought the 'best' out of decents and this coming campaign is likely to do the same.
At some stage the Decents will have to say something about the Iraq Inquiry led by Sir John Chilcot.
Guano
"Ed Husain is impressive in the speed with which he makes enemies, isn't he?"
Oh, I don't know. He seemed depressingly slow in making an enemy of Mel P, compared to most people.
"At some stage the Decents will have to say something about the Iraq Inquiry led by Sir John Chilcot."
My money's on "Chilcot, Britain's Goldstone" at HP Sauce.
Cohen has outdone himself, today...
from the jonah-Goldberg-loving man who brought you 'Hitler was interested in organic food ergo the Green party are tehfascists', as well as (in a Standpoint piece ffs) 'Mock the Week shows us that at least 5% of the British population are tehnazis' - this is un-self-aware to say the least.
He also has the chutzpah to tag the post 'Cohen's Law'!
Oh, and take a look at McShane's latest performance, covered at Jews Sans Frontieres. It sounds a bit like Nick at the Orwell Awards.
Quilliam is still late on its accounts, by the way.
One of the principal problems with all the non-sequiturs and idea of 'objectively supporting Hamas' etc is that to an outsider it all looks very convoluted if not totally nonsensical; and if the kind of 'Ah, well you must be...' rhetoric beloved of HP Sauce is deployed outside of Decent circles (especially if alcohol is involved) it can look really, really bad as it seems to have done for MacShane in Cambridge.
It's truly depressing that he's considered an expert on racism (not to say he is always wring, just that he seems very one-eyed).
'objectively supporting Hamas'
All pretty ironic, since HP et al are all pimping the March For Iranian Democracy - Or, as it could be less charitably known if we wanted to break the Prime Directive...
For the first time in history, the Decent Left will march in support of a clerical fascist - Mir Hossein Moussavi, former Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran during its most repressive and violent phase. Why must the Decent Left declare solidarity with the former right-hand man of Ayatlollah Khomeini, and cheer for his declared aim of returning Iran to the purer medieval vision of his former boss? Surely it's possible to oppose both forms of Islamic fascism, while still supporting Iranian democracy?* This is a damning indictment of the derangement of the Decent Left, which has forgotten its principles and lost its moral compass etc. etc.
Of course, I'm aware that David T. et al aren't literally cheering for sharia law and reactionary theocracy. Just goes to show how easy this stuff is though, doesn't it?
*BTW, anyone here who actually believes the DL give a damn about Iranian democracy - rather than their own oddball politics - should stop and consider whether any of them would be out waving flags for Ahmadinejad's loony mates, had they lost the election in similarly dodgy circumstances.
They'd be defending the stitch-up to the death, and calling anyone who disagreed a Nazi.
How is the struggle for democracy in Honduras?
and in Afghanistan... are some stolen elections more stolen than others?
Post a Comment
<< Home