Yearly Archives: 2005

Different from Kipling, how?

Posted on November 15, 2005 by acb

There is a long plug/interview with Robert Kaplan in the Atlantic Monthly online (not sure if it’s paywalled) which fills me with a soft despair. Here’s why: Instead of the oppressive colonial domination that characterized other empires, Kaplan describes America … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in War | Comments Off

The Wall Street Journal comes out for torture

Posted on November 14, 2005 by acb

The Wall Street Journal has come out for torture in its leader on Saturday: “Yet according to many Bush Administration critics, the aggressive and stressful questioning techniques used successfully against the likes of KSM put the U.S. on a slippery … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Showing the instruments

Posted on November 13, 2005 by acb

Call me sentimental but I would like to believe that if Mr Bush and Mr Cheney had actually run for office on a programme of legalising torture, they might have lost the 2000 election. Possibly they had no strong opinions … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in War | 1 Comment

Sex and slavery

Posted on November 11, 2005 by acb

There was a glorious story in an Australian-owned tabloid about two teachers meeting in Queensland, where brothels have just been legalised. One of them had gone as a customer; the other was working there in her spare time. I don’t … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | Comments Off

A Phlegmagogue for the Elaphure

Posted on November 6, 2005 by acb

I’ve been dithering about what to put in this slot. In a linkier and shorter place I would simply put the two delightful words I found while cheating at the FT crossword yesterday — elaphure and phlegmagogue. An elaphure is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blather | 7 Comments

Serendipity

Posted on November 4, 2005 by acb

The next entry on this blog will be the thousandth. I’m not sure how I should commemorate this milestone — perhaps proclaim a year of Jubilee? — but in the meantime, here’s a twelve sting guitar and a curiously shaped … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Pictures | 2 Comments

Greedy Thieves

Posted on November 4, 2005 by acb

Silly company names are the postal service equivalent of spam filters. Just as I always give the Independent’s City Road postcode on forms which want to know mine when it’s none of their business — and the fax machine’s number … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Net stories | Comments Off

Sane, devout Americans wanted

Posted on November 3, 2005 by acb

Next month. I’m making an Analysis programme for Radio Four on the way that Americans tend to believe that history must have an architect or at least a meaning. This seemed more interesting to everyone that yet another go-around on … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism | 7 Comments

I wish I could crawl back …

Posted on November 3, 2005 by acb

Whn I was seven I spoke pretty fluent Serbo-Croat, and could read it reasonably well. We used to have a beautiful communist encyclopaedia called Svjet Oko Naš though I don’t know what happened to it after my parents moved house. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Travel notes | Comments Off

Digital Wrong management

Posted on November 1, 2005 by acb

qB commented a few posts back that no one need worry about copy protection on music CDs because it was laughably easy to uninstall. Not if you play Sony CDs on Windows, it isn’t. An astonishingly unpleasant story, found through … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in nördig | 2 Comments

Yearly Archives: 2005

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