"Here in the US we have had to contend for a decade and a half with the peculiar phenomenon of Clinton Derangement Syndrome--a pervasive, almost obsessive hatred of Bill & Hillary Clinton that seems to have infected large numbers of people toward the right side of the political spectrum (and not only them). That's not to deny that people might have good reasons to disagree with either or both of the Clintons, or even dislike them. But in a great many cases the intensity of this hatred is not just irrational but, I must confess, inexplicable. Of course, the fact that CDS is irrational and often outright delusional (here is one especially ludicrous recent example) does not prevent it from beng a significant social fact that has had a real impact on US politics and may do so again.Read the rest.
Over in Great Britain, the equivalent phenomenon among wide swathes of the intelligentsia and sectors of the educated middle classes more generally is Blair Derangement Syndrome."
Solidarity with democratic revolutions worldwide | South London subcultural arcana | unearthing political confusionism | triangulating two-state, one-state and no-state solutions | critical diaspora culture | anti-antisemitism | Sylvia Pankhurst, Hannah Arendt, Bayard Rustin and W.E.B. Du Bois | dub, grime, country, soul and blue.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Blair Derangement Syndrome - An example from A.C. Grayling
Lots of good stuff
Thursday, December 20, 2007
John Pilger on my dartboard
Lily Allen is allowed down - she’s not in the same league as this disgrace of a person.
Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism Cosmopolitan Reflections
G2 SOAS, 7.00pm
Followed by a reception
Speakers
Les Back, Professor of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London
Anthony Julius, Visiting Professor of Literature, Birkbeck, University of London
Jon Pike, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Open University
David Hirsh, Lecturer in Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London
Chaired by Charles Small, Director of YIISA and editor of the Working Paper series
Responses to:
Working Paper #1, Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA)
Tickets are strictly limited. Email Hirsh.WorkingPaper@googlemail.com.
Co-hosted with the Unit for Global Justice by the Centre for Jewish Studies at SOAS and YIISA.
Rush, Hillary and Mitt
Well, maybe he is not stupider than many others, but when you have his media power you can say stupid things very loudly, and without contradiction. And be read and heard by millions.
Rush Limbaugh is a moron.
Of all the things I have against Hillary Clinton, the fact that she is an aging woman is not one of them.
Actually, Limbaugh may in fact be correct in his premise. But he should use his power to elevate the conversation, not to make it even more stupid.
Why are Rush Limbaugh, Karl Lagerfeld and Liza Minelli alive, while Townes van Zandt, Eva Cassidy and Gram Parsons are not?
There is no God, this should be obvious. We're on our own.
j.
PS: Isn't Mitt Romney FABULOUS looking?
Critical Secularism: A Reintroduction for Perilous Times
An essay by Aamir Mufti on Edward Said's "secular criticism". Interesting.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Ike Turner
Ike Turner was obviously not a nice human being, but what a musician! Jeff Weintraub has a perfectly pitched post about him, and MISB has four fantastic mp3s by Ike and Tina Turner. (I knew Nina Simone’s version of “Funkier Than A Mosquita's Tweeter” but didn’t know the Ike & Tina version).
Bob's beats genre keywords: soul, black music
Bob's beats artist keywords: Ike Turner, Nina Simone
Monday, December 17, 2007
Did you hear the one about the Archbishop, the Muslim and the Good Samaritan?
Saturday, December 15, 2007
The best music of 2007
Here is part I of the official Bob From Brockley best albums of 2007. To be completely honest, there's only some of them I've heard all the way through - lots are ones I've heard bits of on the radio or via sundry downloads and streams. I'm planning to buy a bunch of them when I have time off work over the winterval.
Honourable mentions: Buddy Flett Mississippi Hill, Budos Band The Budos Band II, CéU CéU, Chromatics In the City, The Cinematic Orchestra Ma Fleur, James Blood Ulmer Bad Blood In The City: The Piety Street Sessions (for the song “Katrina”), The Harlem Experiment (see here), Keren Ann Keren Ann (great version of “Hallelujah”), Levon Helm Dirt Farmer (Favourite track: False Hearted Lover Blues. Bob links: Richard Manuel, Three Burials), Mary Chapin Carpenter The Calling, Radio Scotvoid Fae Ecosse, Spanish Harlem Orchestra United We Swing.
Bob's beats genre keywords: jazz, country music, hip hop, rock, soul, electronica,
Bob's beats artist keywords: Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, Sharon Jones, Levon Helm
Thursday, December 13, 2007
The lobby with REAL power
More from Noga.
How many social anarchists does it take to change a lightbulb?
Angela Carter/Sarf London
Great Angela Carter quote. Any of my US/elsewhere readers wonder what my neighbourhood (or my manor, as we like to say) is like, read it!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
ignoblus, for the moment
I came across ignoblus on newsvine, but couldn't quite get newsvine (just like I can't quite get LiveJournal). I liked his posts there, and so am glad he is now in my part of the world wide web. Read ignoblus on: double bind antisemitism, the Martin Amis affair, and hate speech on newsvine.
Mini Me

A huge thank you to Lewisham Kate for creating this charming image of Bob From Brockley. Uncannily accurate. Here are the rest of the Lewisham bloggers.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Reading Arendt in Caracas


One click away I got to this nice piece: Reading Arendt in Caracas.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Don Byron Spins the Dreidel (via Mickey Katz)





los amigos de durutti: Don Byron Spins the Dreidel (via Mickey Katz)
We've touched on Don Byron and Mickey Katz before here at BobFromBrockley. Here, from DJ Durutti, for Hannukah, are some tracks to listen to.
Images from: Nextbook, Hebrew School, Man of Constant Leisure.
Bob's beats genre keyword: jazz, klezmer
Bob's beats artist keyword: Don Byron, Mickey Katz
See also: Harold Stern Jewish cowboy, Theo Bikel, Irving Fields, Lionel Bart, Pearl Williams.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Thursday, December 06, 2007
On moral equivalence
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Booze for Jews, South London
An evening full of light, latkas and laughter with Bromley Reform Synagogue's ‘Southwark Triangle Group’. It will give Jews living in south east London the chance to meet informally to socialise, light Chanukah candles and sing Ma’oz Tsur.
Anyone is welcome whether you’re single, in a Jewish couple, have a non-Jewish partner or have a genuine interest in Judaism. The more the merrier!
For more details contact Harriet Posner at the.posners@yahoo.co.uk
A group of 20 and 30-somethings from Bromley Reform Synagogue have taken it upon themselves to flout the recent ‘lighting-up’ legislation and are arranging a Chanukah candle lighting and socialising evening on Thursday 6th December. It will be the only time you will be able to legitimately light up in a pub this winter.
The evening is the first of its kind arranged by the ‘Southwark Triangle Group’ from Bromley Reform Synagogue. It is aptly named Chanukah Booze for Jews and will take place from 8pm – 10.30pm on Thursday 6th December at the Honor Oak pub, 1 St. German’s Road, SE23. It will give Jews living in south east London the chance to meet informally to socialise, light Chanukah candles and sing Mo’az Tsur.
One of the organisers, Harriet Posner, says, “The event came about as a result of a local night out when we heard about the number of Jews in their 20s and 30s that reportedly live in the Southwark Triangle (Lewisham, Southwark and Lambeth). We thought Chanukah would be a perfect excuse to meet and get together with some fellow South-London Jews outside the usual synagogue setting, regardless of which borough they live in. Who knows, it could be the start of a Jewish social calendar to rival that of our North London neighbours!”
Rabbi Tony Hammond will be attending the event, not only to answer any questions about the Synagogue, but also help with distributing (and eating) valuable chocolate Chanukah gelt. Rabbi Hammond says, “I’m delighted that there are so many Jews in the surrounding area. I’m looking forward to having an informal setting in which to celebrate one of our traditions and to meet some of the local younger members of the Jewish community.”
We’d like to encourage everyone to join us for what we hope will be an evening full of light, latkas and laughter. Anyone is welcome whether you’re single, in a Jewish couple, have a non-Jewish partner or have a genuine interest in Judaism. The more the merrier at Chanukah Booze for Jews!
Meanwhile, the newly formed London Jewish Humanists Group is organising a humanist Hanukkah Seder, this Saturday (8 December 2007) 19:30 - 23:00 at Dizengoff Israeli Kosher Restaurant Golders Green. Phone 07921816101 for more information.
A black Jewish family from South London have been forced to delay their aliyah because of unexplained stonewalling by the Israeli authorities.
Carl and Maleka Levy — Reform converts to Judaism from Rastafarianism — had been set to begin a new life with their five daughters in Ashkelon three months ago.
On a Hanukah tip (that's a word I really can't spell!), if you want to download some seasonal mp3s, how about: a dreidelicious podcast featuring The Klezmatics, Tom Lehrer and plenty more; Shirim's klezmer nutcracker suite, Woody Guthrie (and some Christmas stuff); Yo La Tengo; Nashville Pussy (not a family-friendly link to click!)*; Brigid Kaelin's "jewgrass" music; and some Ladino hip hop from last year.
*Evidently so family-un-friendly I failed to hyperlink, now rectified.
On attacking Iran (reposted, with the links this time), plus Lewisham blogger stuff
publicansdecoy (who I failed to meet at the Lewisham bloggers meet-up last week, which I couldn't make) on the allegedly imminent US attack on Iran. Good stuff.
Also, go vote in the Arsehole of the Year contest.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Cosmopolitanism or nationalism?
Hirsh, drawing on thinkers like Robert Fine, Hannah Arendt, Hal Draper and Isaac Deutscher, talks of his analysis as a cosmopolitan one, "a framework for doing social theory which disrupts a methodologically nationalist tendency to view the division of the world into nations as being rather more fixed than it is."Fine, he writes, describes the appeal of cosmopolitanism as having to do with the idea that "human beings can belong anywhere, humanity has shared predicaments and … we find our community with others in exploring how these predicaments can be faced in common."
That's certainly a position I would endorse.
Jogo sent me this extaordinary piece on that paranoid delusional megalomaniac George Galloway, calling the police because two journalists who went to see him turned out to be agents of ZOG, the Zionist Entity (that's how he saw it). Listen to the audio clip.
Gorgeous George sets out his vision for what counts as just and understandable suicide bombing (settlers, soldiers) and what counts as unjust (pizza joints). He sees Hamas as a perfectly legitimate national liberation movement. Etc etc.
The thing I want to draw your attention to is in these passages:
Galloway explained Osama bin Laden is a terrorist since the al-Qaida chieftain, whom Galloway claimed was "armed and financed by the U.S." in the 1970s and 1980s, is a "pan-Islamic, nihilistic leader leading a nihilistic organization which seeks to bring about the collapse of national states and re-emergence of the caliphate."
Galloway stated Hamas, by contrast, is not a terror group:
"[Hamas] wants to liberate their country, which has been illegally occupied, and to reassemble their nation, which has been scattered to the four winds. That's an entirely legitimate goal," he said.
I have commented before on Galloway's racial nationalist worldview: a vision of a world divided into nation-states, each ruled by a fuhrer figure like, say, Hugo Chavez or George Galloway. This illustrates it perfectly: national(ist) movements good/global movements bad.
Galloway's nationalist methodology is of course just a slightly more extreme version of the nationally-minded "anti-imperialism" of much of the post-Cold War left: an internationalism which is not cosmopolitan but rather "inter-nationalist".
Within the Marxist left, this sort of "inter-nationalism" gets its authority from Lenin's belief in national self-determination as a fundamental right of nation-states (against Rosa Luxembourg's cosmopolitan view). There were a couple of steps from Lenin's views to Stalin's dogmatic, simplistic version of it, and then another couple of steps to Stalin's WWII embrace of Greater Russian nationalism and increasingly paranoid post-WWII obsession with the scourge of rootless cosmopolitanism. Increasingly, since the end of the Cold War, the "anti-imperialist" worldview has become even more theoretically impoverished, and able to embrace all and any reactionary movement that manages to portray itself as anti-imperialist, whether that is Milosovic's Serbian nationalism, Chavez's authoritarian nationalism or, as in this case, the theocratic-fascist Hamas.
This embrace of the nation-state as the ground for "resistance" to globalized capital, and the consequent demonisation of the figure of the cosmopolitan, serves as a common rallying point for the rococco left, Third Worldists, conservative European anti-Americans (like Jacques Chirac and Rowan Williams), and the far right . Galloway, in all the incoherence of his politics, exemplifies this convergence.
Bonus links: Judeosphere: Galloway's definition of terrorism, Revolutionary Times: Anti-imperialism and Third Worldism, Judeosphere: The anti-imperialism of fools, Flesh is Grass: Mousawi at A World Without War.
Tuesday miscellany: the Israel lobby, conspiracy theories and the left-right convergence
1. Jan Langehein of Jungle World spells out the Anti-German position for English readers in Shift magazine. Shift, now on issue 1, seems like an interesting venture, with a critical take on the "liberal hardcore" who hi-jacked the climate camp and the use of the anti-G8 movement by the far right. Looks like a similar kind of project to Three-Way Fight. [Actually, having just posted this, I notice that the Rob Augman piece on the G8 movement is the one I linked to a different version of, via Three-Way Fight, back in August.]
2. Frank Furedi on Walt and Mearsheimer: Is Israel the organ-grinder?
I have always loathed Furedi, as I've loathed all his fellow ex-RCPers, but I find myself agreeing with him a lot these days. However, after posting this, I read this by Will and thought twice about leaving it up...
Also, remaining on the theme of Israel lobby conspiracy theories, I was a bit disturbed to read Labour councillor Bob Piper, generally a sensible chap, indulge in this sort of bullshit.
Another Hugo Chavez post
Two items sent in by Jogo:
1. The Useful Idiots don't care about Los Caracas Nine.And here is Matt Zeitlin: Chavez and history
But you might ... if you read this.
2. The Nation has lately been cautious in its writing about Chavez because they cannot quite figure out how to spin him in a truly progressive direction. Certainly you will read nothing in The Nation today anything like this fawning, triumphant shit written a year ago (from "The Land of Chavismo") by Chesa Boudin, the clone-son of homicidal maniac Kathy Boudin, herself the spawn of commie-lawyer Leonard Boudin. A veritable dynasty of wickedness.
And here are two more, Terry Glavin and Bald-Headed Geek, via Contentious Centrist.
Three for the blogroll
I also realise that I haven't yet added The Bald-Headed Geek to my link list, which I've been meaning to do for a while. I will do.
I also notice I have made Splintered Sunrise's blogroll, another link I will happliy reciprocate.
It pleases me to be linked to by bloggers from such a range of positions on the political spectrum!
Monday, December 03, 2007
London songs
A couple of Sarf London ones, including Catford's own Spike Milligan, Dick Emery's "Bermondsey" and a dreadful version of Lambeth Walk.
P.S. More from Transpontine.
Friday, November 30, 2007
The ABC of "anti-imperialism"?
When an imperialist country is threatening to attack a less powerful country, anti-imperialists everywhere must focus all their energies on preventing the imperialist country from starting a war by aiming all their political firepower on the imperialist country. This is to recognise the difference in their respective capacities to exploit and oppress people around the world. This is particularly true if you happen to be living in either an imperialist country or a nation that supports an imperialist power. To criticise both the imperialist country and the country they are threatening equally is to re-enforce the inbuilt inequality in the situation and thus to favour the imperialist power. It is always in the interests of anti-imperialists to see the imperialist power defeated. Any defeat for any imperialist power is a blow against imperialism in general.I couldn't disagree with this position more. If my daughter gets beaten up every day on the playground by a large, violent bully, and then one day the bully is beaten up by a larger kid, I am not tempted to rush to the defence of the bully. (In this case, of course, the position of my daughter is occupied by the citizens of Iran, not least the women of Iran and the working class of Iran.) Unconditional support for regional imperial powers like Iran or for fascist rackets like Hizbollah is a dangerous, reactionary, stupid policy.
Thus the defeat of the Israeli Army (IDF) by Hezbollah last year should be seen as a victory for anti-imperialism regardless of any criticisms you may have of Hezbollah. Many of us gave Hezbollah unconditional, but not uncritical, support.
The ridiculous Leninist "unconditional but not uncritical support" formula should have been thrown away long ago. It is a prime example of the bankruptcy of the movement that calls itself "anti-imperialist".
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Blake day

P.s. More from Jams and Neil.
The demise of Respect as literary effort
Version 2: Splintered Sunrise, in the style of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
George Orwell: state tout or anti-Stalinist hero?
As a Histomatist post inspired the original post, you might care to visit these two other posts there: Deutscher on the importance of class struggle (as we've been talking about Isaac Deutscher here too [talking of bad spelling...]) and a notice about the forthcoming Black Jacobins Conference, as I put CLR James and Orwell in very similar places in my mental filing cabinet. (The Deutcher thing leads on to this piece by Mike Davis, who also cropped up in this post.)
Monday, November 26, 2007
Rowan Williams on good and bad imperialism
America seems so intrinsically involved in everything. The Archbishop recognises that: “We have only one global hegemonic power at the moment.” But, he propounds, “It is not accumulating territory; it is trying to accumulate influence and control. That’s not working.” Far from seeing this positively, he describes it as “the worst of all worlds,” saying, “it is one thing to take over a territory and then pour energy and resources into administering it and normalising it. Rightly or wrongly that’s what the British Empire did – in India for example. It is another thing to go in on the assumption that a quick burst of violent action will somehow clear the decks and that you can move on and other people will put things back together –Iraq for example.”His whole interview (in the glossy Muslim "lifestyle" magazine Emel) is worth reading in full (here it is, found via Ekklesia), because the comment on American power and British imperlism is only one small part in an actually fairly far-ranging and thoughtful discussion.
Not suprisingly, though, I am going to focus on the controversial bit.
In particular, the positive depiction of British imperialism is outrageous. The balance sheet of the British empire is incredibly poor. Starting with the plantations in Ireland and mass appropriations of land from Irish farmers, condemning them to generations of poverty, moving on to the role of the Empire in the slave trade (3.5 million African slaves to the Americas, a third of all slaves transported across the Atlantic).
And in India, Williams' model, there was the privatised and unaccountable system of plundering India's wealth under the East India Company, which makes Halliburton and Blackwater and the private contractors in Iraq look like charities. The East India Company habitually used torture against Indian people and forced farmers to convert from subsistence crops to cash crops for export, resulting in horrific starvation. They destroted Indian industry by flooding the market with cheap goods, the market being rigged by a system of duties and subsidies. And this was nothing compared to the thirty or forty million peasants who died in the British-induced famines that Mike Davis describes in his grim highly recommmended Late Victorian Holocausts.
As for the British Empire and Iraq...Well, it was off course the British who, rather than diligently and thoughtfully "pouring energy and resources into administering it and normalising it", Britain invented it out of thin air, combining three Ottoman provinces that had little in common with each other culturally or linguistically. Britain proceded to pump oil and wealth out of the country, through the Turkish Petroleum Company. More seriously, Britain bombed Kurdish and Arab uprisings. (Churchill famously advocated using chemical weapons against the "uncivilised" Kurdish tribes.) [More here.]
So what allows someone of Williams' intellectual stature to be so stupid? I don't have enough knowledge of or interest in the Archbishop to comment (Martin's very good post here gives some explanations). The fact is, Williams is not alone. An insanity has gripped Western elite opinion, rendering it unable to see with any proportion, unable to make moral judgements. America, Israel and Blair are magnified into the worst possible monsters; all other crimes are relatavised away; all good things America does are literally invisible and unthinkable for these people. As Martin points out,
Needless to say, the archbishop had little to say about America's role in liberating Kuwait from Saddam, protecting the Muslims of Bosnia and Kosovo, or rescuing Afghanistan from the repressive grip of the Taliban.Williams is blind to the inter-imperialist rivalries that mean that America as a "global hegemon" is in active competition with other powers, not least China, Russia and Europe, who severely curtail America's ability to act on the global stage.
This worldview speaks a radical language ("global hegemon"). It is endemic amongst people who like to think of themselves as liberal or even radical. But it is essentially conservative. The Archbishop's idiotic nostalgia for the terrorist regime that was the British Empire is intimately related to his anti-Americanism. As with the likes of Chirac, this is the politics of reaction, not the politics of emancipation. Hence its easy alliances with Islamic theocrats and other reactionary forces.
P.S. Was I wrong to use the word terrorist in the last paragraph? Possibly. See comments at Snoopy's blog.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Cosmopolitan intent: two appeals

2. Sam Harris is publicising the launch of the Ayaan Hirsi Ali Security Trust, to protect this brave woman. More here. (Via Snarkmithy. Read more on Hirsi Ali at Greater Surbiton.)
What's in a name: Islam, Islamism, Jihadism
- Criticism of Islam is not racist: Martin In The Margins defends his fellow Martin, Amis, from the savaging of Guardianista Ronan Bennet.
- Pickled Politics and Scoop both discuss the questions of terminology raised by Timothy Garton Ash re "Jihadism".
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Today's blog is brought to you by the letter B
*The Balkan Anarchist blog has an extensive discussion about the Serbo-Croat language and its dialects. Great for anybody with an interest in languages and the Slavic ones in particular. Entitled 'Divanimo naski' (Don't ask me to translate-but the article is in English). Much of this was way over Molly's head as the only Slavic language that she has a "travelling acquaintance" with is Czech, with a smattering of Russian and Ukrainian. Still, a very informed presentation.*Balkan Baby has an article entitled (take a deep breath) 'I Wanted Freedom. Bound and Restricted, I Tried to Give You Up, But I'm Addicted'. Whatever it may sound like it's all about the situation in Kosovo and well worth reading.*Janet Biehl's blog continues the presentation of her graphic novel about the life of Murray Bookchin with an aside into the politics of the 1930s ala Stalin's machinations.*Bill Bumpus continues to present the latest news about the IWW, along with an ever fresh selection of general labour news. Great site to help you keep up with things wobbly.*The Blork Blog has an interesting piece about the new Airbus A380 airplane and its overstated claims to "green credentials". A great piece of myth-busting.*The Blue Voice has an useful links reference to Joschka Fisher's (the ex-leader of the German Greens) more recent writings.*Bob From Brockley reprints a piece from Venezuelan anarchists critical of the Chavez regime. The title is 'Hallucinating the Bolivarian Revolution'.*Butt Darling has a report from the recent No-Borders camp on the US-Mexico border entitled 'Lost Patrol'. Find out what went down down there.That's it for now. See you at the C.
Meanwhile, Jim Jay asks you to vote for the people's choice of best green blogs of 2007. From my manor, Green Ladywell is a contender.
Does the left learn?
Transmontanus has a post about a similar issue, prompted by Zizek's recent LRB essay. He (Terry) responds to Hoare's fairwell to the left thus:
Fighting words, so fair play to him, but to be really fair you'd have to concede that there is a "Left" that is anti-capitalist but is still capable of facing the facts Hoare demands we face. For starters, you could read "Against the Anti-Globalization Critiques" or this treatise, "Regional War in the Mid-East Calls for Class Struggle and Solidarity with Israel." Even the "anti-war" movement has clear thinkers: here's an anti-war movement I can really get behind.
The Contentious Centrist has given us links to places she has commented lately, including the above-mentioned post. These are very worth reading.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Who should decide who makes a good Jew?
I still have to make up my mind about this, because I share Hirsh's distaste for the parade of progressive secular Jews (Klugs, Roses, Finks and so on) denouncing the views of most Jews while "speaking as a Jew".
P.S. Isaac Deutscher's "Non-Jewish Jew" essay is the licence the Klug-Roses use, and some day I may get around to writing up my critique of Deutscher.
P.P.S. I have terrible trouble spelling Deutscher's name, just as most people seem to have terrible trouble with David Hirsh's!
P.P.S. This relates, of course, to the whole Independent Jewish Voices debate, on which read Keith Kahn-Harris at Liberal Conspiracy. (Keith previously featured here - read the comment from the Contentious One.)
Chavez: a shimmering model?
Personally, I think Hari is right to be sympathetic towards the Bolivarian revolution; he is right to highlight the positive dimension's of Chavez's rule; he is right to emphasize the forces of reaction arrayed against Hugo. But I think Hari does not give Chavez enough credit for his authoritarian actions. By describing the drift into dictatorship as reaction to his enemies' actions ("is there a danger Chavez will play into the hands of his critics, and become dictatorial after all?"). Hari underestimates Chavez's own megalomania and power-lust.
Finally, the notion of Venezuela as a "shimmering model of pro-poor democratic development" is pure hyperbole, and undermines Hari's claims to be an authoritative commentator on the subject.
Monday miscellany
- Jim refuses to compare "spoiled, middle-class brat" Amy Winehouse with the sublime Ella Fitzgerald.
The left that doesn't learn:
- Mitchell Cohen's "Anti-Semitism and the Left that Doesn’t Learn", in the fall issue of Dissent, prompts a fantastic post by Snarksmithy on Stalinism and anti-Zionism, as well as a post at Judeosphere on Tony Judt's intellectual dishonesty.
Who are the Paulistas?
- Sultan Knish dishes the dirt on the "Jews for Ron Paul" scamsters. Meanwhile, Roland takes apart the "leftists for Ron Paul" nutjobs.
The heroic resistance targets women:
- Jim nails the gynophobic barbarity of the Iraqi insurgents.
A beacon to the world:
- Peggy Noonan: Being a "beacon to the world" is more challenging than it sounds. I've got a soft spot for Noonan. She was an advisor on The West Wing, and I always picture the wonderful CJ when I imagine Ms Noonan. This is a great Thanksgiving piece, that illustrates her smooth prose style and thoughtful approach.
- Ron Silver, at Pajamas Media, claims the phrase "revolutionary liberal". Worth exploring? (Found via Roland.)
Another round-up:
- Hocemo Li Na Kafu? obviously read the same blogs as me, but comment more intelligently.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Hallucinating the Bolivarian revolution
In this part of the Caribbean we don’t suffer ‘deja vú’ for the CNT-FAI of 1936 nor do we allow ourselves to be confused by the re-semantization of demagoguery. Last year 402 prisoners, coming from the popular classes, died violently in the prisons of the ‘Bolivarian Revolution’. More than 60 leaders of trade union and neighbourhood groups were in court because of their participation in strikes, blockades and demonstrations to demand their rights. As Bakunin said, the people will not feel better to see that the club with which they’re beaten with bears their own name. We, the libertarian creoles, have assumed the attitudes of any consistent anarchist: to confront power and stand side by side with the oppressed, gathering together means and ends, constructing free spaces and refusing to be either victim or tyrant. We leave the ‘tactical alliances’ and ‘critical support’, the smokescreens and mirrors to the politicians, of whom there are so many in Venezuela today, fattening their egos and bank accounts, hallucinating a 21st Century socialism that is both military and imperialist by nature, with its epicentre in Caracas.
Read the whole thing at Divergences.
Theo Bikel




Read this lovely appreciation of Theodore Bikel at Meretz USA.
Images here from: Bikel.com, Hippocampus Music, History Co-op, Dick Rosmini.
Bob's beats genre keywords: folk
See also: Molly Picon, Majer Bogdanski
If it's not the striking postal workers, it's the Jewish lobby
More at Finkelstein's blog on Gordon Brown and the BNP: 1, 2, 3.
More on Walt and Mearsheimer at Engage, Boycotted British Academic, Judeosphere, Jeff Weintraub.
The politics of assimilation
Keith Kahn-Harris' wise words on the Chief Rabbi's attack on multiculturalism.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Atzmon: A Spinoza for our times?
P.S. As Will noted in the comment, I originally posted this as "Gilad Atzmon: A Spinoza for our times". I've changed it to "Gilad Atzmon: A Spinoza for our times?" Crucial difference!
P.P.S. A good Atzmon post at Judeosphere.
Rednecks
Read this thoughtful post about one of the greatest songwriters of our time. For me, the post resonates with the recent kerfuffle over Ann Coulter's supposedly (but actually not at all) anti-semitic talkshow comments, which so upset the liberal intellegentsia.
Follow the link to his post on Aaron Neville's version of Randy Newman's greatest song, "Lousiana 1927". (Both versions put in an appearance on my Katrina anniversary post, which has mp3 links if you don't know the song, but I haven't checked if they're still working.)
Bob's beats artist keywords: Aaron Neville, Randy Newman
Lineages of the American anti-Stalinist left

Previous: Bayard Rustin; Orwell's legacy; Wikipedia & the anti-Stalinist left; Seymour Martin Lipset; Leo Strauss; Social democratic New York.
More reading
- Anti-Semitism and the Left that Doesn't Learn (online)
- Avishai Margalit on Sectarianism (podcast)
- What's Wrong with Academic Boycotts? Martha Nussbaum, Mohammed Abed, and Murray Hausknecht
- The 'New' France: M. Cohen, P. Askenazy, F. Gaspard, N. Green, and J.B. Soufron
- Exit or No Exit? M. Walzer, J. B. Elshtain, S. Hashmi, and G. Powers Debate the Iraq Withdrawal (online)
- What European Islamophobia and anti-Semitism have in common--and what they don't.
- The Insanity of Bush Hatred: Our politics suffer when passions overcome reason and vitriol becomes virtue.
A couple more on Chavez

Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Chomsky on Chavez
>Now Molly has to admit that she doesn't like Noam Chomsky very much. This dates back to a six month exchange in the early 90s when Molly learned exactly what Chomsky was all about in terms of the 'Third World'... All that being said, as one of the few anarchists on earth who has actually had real experience about what Chomsky is like, I have to commend him in his comments in his 78th year about Venezuela. Watching Chomsky over the decades I expected nothing more than cheerleading for Chavez and the usual childish leftist excuse for everything the dictator-to-be wants to do while blaming everything up to Chavez' hemorrhoids on the machinations of the USA. To say the least I was pleasantly surprised by a recent interview with Chomsky on Z-Net.* Yeah, some of the interview was actually quite bizarre, shading into Chomsky's view of the discontent in America today as a "pre-revolutionary" situation. That's fine. Noam hasn't had more than a "street passing" connection with ordinary Americans for almost 40 years, and his opinions are not exactly the best informed in the world. Mostly he's chummy with his academic and leftist friends and very few other people.Read the rest here.
*16 November: I changed the link to Venezuelaanalysis, where ZNet got the interview, to deny the appalling ZNet any google juice. You can also read the interview at Divergences.
Previous: The President and the supermodel; Pilger & Chomsky on Cambodia; Chavez versus real socialists; The new Stalinism; Saluting dictators; Chavez v Pat Robertson; The Hitch and Cambodia; What's wrong with Chomsky?
Monday, November 12, 2007
Today indexed
- Marko Attila Hoare on the left (blog links)
- Incognito on Ron Paul and Hugo Chavez (blog links)
- Jewish (mostly -ish) music: Missy E mashup (mp3 link)
- Remembrance Sunday post (slightlier meatier)
- Deconstructing Che (image)
- Praise for Ahmenijad (Jogo opinion snippet)
- The Scorpions (Yugoslav war/New Cross [London] event announcement)
- Obama & the Christianists (recommended Jogo guest post, lightly edited)
- Jewish cowboys (mp3 links - link added)
The left?
Hugo Chavez/Ron Paul
Today's Jewish music track
Previous: Jewish cowboys etc; Yiddish Beatles; Yael Naim and the Harlem Experiment; Yiddish metal, JAP-hop, etc; Hebrew indie, Jewish exotica, etc; Hava Nagila with Harry Dean Stanton; Hybrid musics; Bagels and Bongos.
Remembrance Sunday
Listening to some of the ritual from the centotaph on Sunday, though, I found myself getting angry at what seemed largely to be a celebration of the British royal family, as one after another member of that dyfunctional family was paraded before us, their subjects. (The day before, I had a conversation with Comrade Transpontine about Orwell's famous likening of England to a "family with the wrong members in charge.") I wish that I had - as in most years - just given myself a couple of minutes of private reflection.
Richard listened to the whole ceremony, and reacted very differently; maybe I should have kept the radio on.
A range of perspectives from the Contentious One, Dave Osler, Pickled Politics, Eugene P, Flesh is Grass. Featured link: Aftermath.
P.S. I missed this from Jim.
Last year's post (also linking to Dave Osler's piece), complete with soundtrack, here.
Related: Remembering 7/7, St.George's Day, Walthamstow anarchist honour the war dead.
Deconstructing Che
Praise for Ahmenijad
From Breitbart.com this morning:
The hardline president also said that Iran "could not care less" about UN Security Council resolutions aimed at halting Tehran's nuclear drive.I salute Mahmoud.
Unlike 95% of American people, he has used the expression correctly: "COULD NOT CARE LESS." Most people say "I could care less," which is completely wrong, and the opposite of what they mean.
Bloggers with an appreciation for the finer things of life will note my observation with pleasure.
But lead-sinker, psychically depressed, doomsaying, corpse-channeling, Spectacle-obsessed bloggers might not.
The Scorpions: A Home Movie - snuff films from the war in Yugoslavia
The Scorpions: a Home Movie
3.00 pm Wednesday 21 November 2007 Small Hall, Richard Hoggart Building,
Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW
In the summer of 1995, 8000 men and boys were murdered in and around Srebrenica region by Serbian forces. These forces included the Scorpions, a Serbian paramilitary unit active in Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo. The Scorpions filmed their activities, including the murder of six Bosnian Muslim civilians. This footage (and related evidence) was subsequently used in the war crimes trials of the Scorpions unit in The Hague and Serbia.
The Scorpions: A Home Movie uses this footage, together with statements of former members and materials recorded by the unit itself in the course of its campaigns, to explore the functioning of a typical paramilitary unit in the Balkan wars - and in other contemporary wars - and to cast light on the personal, intimate aspect of these crimes.
The first UK screening of the documentary (50 mins) will be followed by a presentation and a Q & A session by leading human rights lawyer, Natasa Kandic, Executive Director, Humanitarian Law Centre, Belgrade and producer of The Scorpions, and the acclaimed film-maker and director of the documentary, Lazar Stojanovic.
No tickets are needed to attend this event, but please reserve a place by contacting Jane Offerman (j.offerman@gold.ac.uk), as we anticipate high demand for places. Please note that this film contains scenes of violence and killing, and is unsuitable for young audiences. Adults may also find it distressing.
This event is supported by the Humanitarian Law Centre (http://www.hlc-rdc.org), in partnership with Manchester Aid to Kosovo and its Fragile State - Art from Kosovo outreach and education programme (http://www.makonline.org), and the Global Justice Unit, Goldsmiths (http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/just-change).
For further information about this event, please go to: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/just-change/news-events.php