Worth reading:
“Michael Froomkin”:http://www.discourse.net/archives/2004/01/florida_taliban_3.html on a story that should be getting a lot more play; how a Florida Judicial Nominating Commission has been asking potential judges whether they’re “God-fearing.”
“Brad DeLong”:http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2004_archives/000065.html on Seabiscuit versus Elmo the Banana Slug.
“Mrs. Tilton”:http://fistfulofeuros.net/archives/000261.php on long-haired wastrels and the end of conscription in Germany.
“Chris Brooke”:http://fistfulofeuros.net/archives/000251.php on British Conservative party deviationism.
“Ken MacLeod”:http://kenmacleod.blogspot.com/2004_01_01_kenmacleod_archive.html#107396002535502694 on Marxist sectarianism. Ken namechecks the British and Irish Communist Organization, a defunct grouplet that I’ve always been fond of for their ability to argue themselves from one position to its radical opposite (viz. from a 32 county solution to the Northern Ireland problem, to advocating the region’s full integration into the UK).
{ 4 comments }
Marc Mulholland 01.20.04 at 9:40 am
The BICO position on Ireland is more consistent than it appears. They argue that devolution established an abnormal situation in which the communities were seperated from the ‘real’ party politics characteristic of a sovereign state. Rather than concentrate on national politics, primarily about the economy and welfare and thus tending to create broad left / right alliances cutting across sectarian lines, Northern Ireland politics was left with the divisive small change of identity politics. Stormont cannot impact on the realities of social and economic power, but it does concentrate the mind on zero-sum conflict over the national question. The problem is to absorb both communities into a functional democratic polity. Britain shows no willingness to permit this, so BICO now believes that a sovereign united Ireland is the most likely long-term route out of the impasse.
One might disagree, but I think it is theoretically consistant.
The Guardian carried a good article along these lines by an independent councillor, Mark Langhammer, at the weekend:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,2763,1125791,00.html
For the current incarnation of BICO, see:
http://www.atholbooks.org/index.shtml
Henry Farrell 01.20.04 at 10:18 pm
Probably didn’t express myself as well as I might have; what I meant to say was that I admired them precisely for their willingness to work from a consistent set of assumptions, and see where it took them, even if the destination wasn’t the one that they might have initially chosen.
politics 02.19.04 at 8:00 am
Hello
dating 02.20.04 at 10:49 pm
but although I can hear music to set them airfare to, it’s nothing solid, or it isn’t fully credit card Right. That’s weird for me
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