November 10, 2001
"Harry Potter and the Libertarian Subtext"
The Natalie Solent philosophical analysis hit-squad has come up with the following observations indicating a not-so-secret libertarian agenda in the recently released film.
1. Hagrid does not wear a motorbike helmet for his flying bike.
2. Dumbledore arranges an informal adoption for Harry rather than putting him in care. Admittedly, it is not the happiest placement - but we libertarians all know that perfection is not an option.
3. Hogwarts is a fee paying school, and does not follow the National Curriculum.
4. There is no indication that Harry pays inheritance tax on his holdings in Gringotts.
5. The goblins in Gringotts do not monitor large cash withdrawals, or in any way conform to regulations to prevent money laundering.
6. Gringotts Bank - Not An Equal Opportunity Employer. But since everybody seems happy, that's OK. We do not need state-enforced quotas.
7. Hogwarts pupils are entitled to free association. It is their own business if they sort themselves into groups of like-minded individuals. Although superficially it seems that the decision of the Sorting Hat is coercive, it is clear that the sortee does not have to go into Slytherin if he or she doesn't want to.
8. Nobody is troubled by Political Correctness when pointing out the high proportion of sociopaths in Slytherin house.
9. But, that said, isn't it inspiring that certain elements within Slytherin are doing their part to fight the common enemy?
10. The Health and Safety Executive have obviously never crossed the Hogwarts threshold. Among the violations of safety legislation are improperly secured moving staircases, flying broomsticks under the control of minors and dangerous wands in the hands of minors.
11. The sport of Quidditch is a wonderful example of the voluntary assumption of risk.
12. And, since Hogwarts is not bankrupted by ambulance-chasers or insurance claims either, it looks as though contract dominates tort in the magical world.
13. The troll is seen off by the unorganised militia, as are other baddies. You do not see Harry banged up for murder or violation of the troll's civil rights.
LATE ADDITION: How could I have left out this one? Fluffy does not even have one muzzle between his three heads. A shocking violation of the Dangerous Dogs Act.
More worryingly, the portrayal of Dursley's fumblings with a shotgun gives a very negative impression of the armed citizen. And we'll have to see from future films and books whether the house-elves gain their own liberation by non-coercive means or are re-ghettoized by taking the false route of Ministry of Magic pupillage and parasitism.
Take a breather from all this war
to remind yourself that peaceful interaction is normal interaction. Read Walter Willliams in Jewish World Review on Adam Smith, and why laissez faire is the friend of the consumer rather than of Big Business.Warning! You may get a little flickering box saying you have a message. Do not click it unless you like having your time wasted.
Nice to see the traditional Canada
reemerging, given that Canada has recently been better known for PC restrictions on freedom of speech. Here's part of an article from Mark Steyn in the Telegraph:"LAST week in Montreal, it was hard to buy a poppy. Three Canadian provinces had sold out by the Monday, and by the time you read this the rest of the Royal Canadian Legion's entire stock of 14.8 million will likely be gone. That's not bad for a population that barely touches 30 million and includes large numbers of terrorist cells plus the students at Concordia University who openly celebrated the attacks on the World Trade Centre. Evidently, the public has made a connection between September 11 and November 11, though no one seems quite sure what it is: a general expression of solidarity with the victims? Or a renewed respect for the men who gave their lives so we could get fat and complacent and read celebrity features about Britney?"
November 09, 2001
"The smack of firm government"
is the characteristic final sentence of this horrible Indy leading article on smacking that, as is so common nowadays, seeks to reduce the once majestic law of the land to a signalling device for government initiatives. "No one suggests," it says "that a smack on the wrist in frustration" would land you in court. No doubt a few years ago they would have patronisingly laughed at the idea of a market trader ending up in court for selling bananas in pounds and ounces.
I took a trip
to the Zimbabwe government website to see what they had to say about charging the editor of the Daily News with fraud in a bid to keep criticism of Comrade Mugabe down for a little while longer. But it hadn't been updated since March 2000. Would the last educated person to leave Zimbabwe please turn out the lights?
Results of the peace process
in Northern Ireland: Sinn Fein have overtaken the SDLP on the Nationalist side, and I predict that the DUP will soon overtake the OUP. Most reporters seem to think that the Alliance pretending to be Unionists in order to get Trimble reelected as First Minister was a jolly party prank. Trick it was, harmless it was not. Voters have a way of punishing those who despise them.
November 08, 2001
We Are All Guilty
says ex-president Zipper Problem in a recent speech. Bits and bobs of PC history alternate with a sort of reverse manifest destiny doctrine. You know, the Force was out to get America because of the First Crusade, that sort of stuff. To be absolutely fair the passage near the end about the learned immaturity of people living in dictatorships had some truth in it. You're slipping up, Bill.
Also I note that the hapless McLeish has done the decent thing. Now, be honest. Did you know who he was yesterday?
Local News
Jenny Oliveira, of the Dunmow Broadcast and Recorder, is the byline
for a charming story of the survival of quaint English customs.
"Residents on a Dunmow estate defied a Guy Fawkes bonfire ban -and
burned an effigy of a district councillor.
People living at Newton Green kept up the 60-year-old tradition of
lighting a bonfire on the green on Monday despite an attempt by
Uttlesford District Council to ban the event."
The article also mentions "a notice which Newton Green resident
Martin Early had been displaying in his front garden.
It read: "The law is on our side. A common law was passed by
Parliament in 1605 stating that people should be allowed to light a
bonfire to celebrate the bringing to justice of Guy Fawkes." It seems
the notice was burned along with the guy, but since the bonfire was
held by Mr Early's own side, I assume that was just because it was
flammable and handy.
The accompanying picture shows children of Newton Green with the guy,
dressed as a district councillor. (Although I have to say that,
unless, Dunmow district councillors are in the habit of wearing green
plastic bags on their heads, it didn't look much like one.)
Does anyone, anyone at all, like the latest proposals for the House of Lords?
No. Didn't think so. Bye.
Hamas: Anthrax should be put in US water supply
Atallah Abu Al-Subh, a columnist for the Hamas weekly Al-Risala based in
Gaza, writes open letters to prominent figures, ideologies, and events.
His most recent letter, No. 163, was titled "To Anthrax":
"The truth is that I wondered how to begin! Should I greet you [i.e.
anthrax], or should I curse you? Should I hold my tongue?... I will begin
by saying: Oh Anthrax, despite your wretchedness, you have sown horror in
the heart of the lady of arrogance, of tyranny, of boastfulness! Your
gentle touch has made the US's life rough and pointless...
"You have entered the most fortified of places; [you have entered] the
White House and they left it like horrified mice ... The Pentagon was a
monster before you entered its corridors... And behold, it now transpires
that its men are of paper and its commanders are of cardboard, and they
hasten to flee as soon as they see - only see - chalk dust!
"Nevertheless, you have found your way to only eight American breasts so
far ... May you continue to advance, to permeate, and to spread. If I may
give you a word of advice, enter the air ... the water faucets from which
they drink, and the pens with which they draft their traps and
conspiracies against the wretched peoples."
(The Middle East Media Research Institute translated the above op-ed piece
which originally appeared in Al-Risala)
Note from me: any time you see the name of the above institute, better known by the acronym MEMRI, pay attention.
November 07, 2001
Belated egoboo
suffuses merrily through my veins as I discover, only five months late, that I was featured as new talent to watch in "Content Exchange." Egoboo, for those who don't go to SF conventions, is short for "ego boost". I wouldn't need my ego boosting so much if my citation had responded in a flood of eager enquiries from editors. Or any enquiries at all, for that matter.
Blair-worship in America.
Nice line from Damian Whitworth in the Times today: "What is remarkable about the lauding of Blair in the US press is how universal it has been. Even he might be embarrassed about the lavishness of the praise. (OK, probably not.)"
You got a problem, bud? I like sewing.
In actual fact those words were the first thing that popped into my head when desperate to fill the wee box so I could have a real blog of my own. Now I find that I really do have some sewing comments. So, all you multi-millionaire investment managers out there, hearken to my words. Sell Sylko. Sell Coats. Sell all your no doubt vast holdings in thread manufacturers. Because (how art the mighty fallen) the once-humungous dress fabrics and haberdashery department in John Lewis's has now become a mere annexe camping next to men's clothes on the first floor. I blame capitalism myself. I do, I really do. Clothes are so cheap nowadays that it is actually cheaper to buy them ready made by industrious orientals than buy the fabric and sew it yourself.Talking of John Lewis, did you hear that it was surrounded by armed police the other day? Someone told them that Summer Bed Linen was on the second floor.
$! $! $! FULL HOUSE!
or whatever they say when slot machines show all three little bunches of grapes. Today, for the first time since 1983 I broadly agreed with all three Guardian columnists. Here is Polly Toynbee being perfectly reasonable about the war, bar a few silly flights about solar power and patents; and then we have Simon Hoggart on Scottish sophistry and Matthew Engel on bureacratic time wasting in Maryland.
November 06, 2001
Poppy power
I used to get all misty eyed about the BBC world service, all echoes of WWII resistance fighters crouched around a crystal set waiting for those magical chimes of Big Ben... Fat lot of respect for their own heritage their soi-disant successors at BBC World TV channel show, though you can be sure they'll trade on it like mad if ever the question of a budget cut comes up. Ironically I shall quote the still-pretty-good internet service BBC News 24 for the story:"The BBC said poppies were inappropriate for its world channel, but insisted it was still committed to events remembering those lost in the wars.
A statement said: "BBC World presenters have not worn poppies in the 10-year history of the channel.
"Presenters on other BBC channels in the UK have always worn poppies and will continue to do so."
It said all guests on BBC World were allowed to wear poppies and apologised to Evening Standard war correspondent Robert Fox, who was asked to remove his poppy before being interviewed.
They said the request made to Mr Fox was a mistake. "
Now, would it hurt to have a five minute item every year saying, "you may have noticed these Poppy things, viewers. This is why some of us wear them on the week of November 11..."? Exporting and explaining British culture. If we must forgo our tax money to pay these guys, couldn't they do a little bit of the job they are paid for?
And while I'm at it, what business does BBC World have making some rule about whether their staff wear poppies or not? Dress codes, sure, but didn't EDS have to give up the no-beards rule?
November 05, 2001
I still can't believe it
About the WTC, I mean. Surely, please God, it was a special effect. Here is a strange, poignant story about some people who really didn't believe it. I had this story second hand, but only second hand, not fifth hand.
Some British officers from all three military services started a residential course on September 10. Subject: international affairs, with special reference to terrorism. One day into the course, up comes this amazing scenario spewing all over the video screen suspended above the conference hall. They all thought it was an exercise. For hours. Who can blame them? The army is always doing things like that, dropping the candidate for promotion into some imaginary crisis and demanding "now what are you going to do?"
How did the moment of truth come, I wonder? One man's eyes finally met another's and someone said, "Oh my God, this is for real."