Thanks to the eager eyes of one of my loyal readers, I have updated my previous posting. As many people will know, the Irish Minister for Justice is not, as I wrote earlier, Malcolm McDowell but, of course, Michael McDowell. Perhaps the unconscious change of forename is linked to memories of A Clockwork Orange, which […]

I caught Harold Pinter’s Nobel lecture on television today. All in all, a perplexing performance. It began promisingly with Pinter describing the origins, in a phrase and an image, of two of his great plays, The Homecoming and Old Times. Then, with a few perfunctory comments about the nature of lies in modern politics, he […]

I caught Oliver Hirschbiegel�s chilling film, Downfall last night on Channel 4�s latest offshoot, More4. If it weren�t for the fact that the picture was actually released in 2004, it would definitely be a contender for my picture of the year. What was disturbing about the movie was not so much the scenes of Berliners […]

With apologies to the Harper�s Index, here are some factoids that caught my eye during recent reading, online & offline, presented in the form of figures:8: Average age, in years, of cars in Germany (Source: �In Germany, a Puzzling Prescription for Economic Health,� New York Times )40,000,000,: Approximate population of France during the Second World […]

In the alternative reality presented in The Plot Against America, the relocation of America�s Jewish population�including the narrator�s family�under the Homestead 42 scheme is seen one of the final steps in cementing the Lindbergh Administration�s totalitarian tendencies. But this fictional act of state coercion pales in comparison with the real Executive Order 9066, which Roosevelt […]

As someone obliged to regard the artistic endeavours of my (oh so advanced) three-and-a-half year-old daughter with the frowning awe of a latter-day Clement Greenberg, I found this odd project weirdly compelling.Link via Boing BoingMore substantial posts on the way, I hope, including a very belated critique of what I consider to be some very […]

Review of The Constant Gardener now available here. Capsule review: Good, but could have been even better.

My interview with the unparalleled Camille Paglia is now available here.

After a (partially successful) 35-year effort to take the gun out of Irish politics, Bertie Ahern wants to remilitarize Irish public life. At the annual conference (Ardfheis) of his political party, Fianna F�il, Taoiseach Ahern announced that a military parade would be reintroduced to mark the anniversary of the Easter 1916 rising. According to the […]