Ah the whiff of cordite and a hint of ancient religious bigotry …. Nice to see some fireworks tonight.
Guy Fawkes was framed.
Hey, don’t start that old rubbish again, mcm!
We’ll be burning an effigy in Seattle tonight if anyone wants to join us…
You refer, I assume, to the imminent US invasion of Fallujah.
As a lifelong lover of fireworks, public and private, I’ve always thought it odd that Americans use them to celebrate independence while the British celebrate an attempt to blow up Parliament.
Technically speaking the Brits celebrate the capture of the Catholic terrorists concerned:
“Please to remember
The fifth of November:
Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.
We know no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.”
There’s a dismal amount of sectarianism underneath the joy.
On November 4th 2004, Dr. Chris Bertram posted comments to the effect that what makes America great has been crushed due to its recent elections. What a bunch of out of touch, blathering snobbery. As if the elite Dr. Bertram has any clue about what has made America great – or why America still is great. His comments show he doesn’t have the foggiest.
The uppity doctor tosses out several buzz-phrases like: “the U.S. Constitution” ; “the struggle against slavery” ; “the United State’s lasting contribution to freedom, culture, and progress.” He deigns to profess his admiration for “the America”, which created these sorts of “marvelous things”. (He marvels at them because he does not fully comprehend them. Take for example his ridiculous suggestion that America invented “the struggle against slavery”.) But then Dr. Bertram feebly presumes to co-opt the American ‘objects’ of his admiration and declare them “defeated” simply because his preferred left wing ideology did not prevail in the American democracy of which he has no part. He supports his idiotic notion by fantasizing about the will of the citizenry of the original 13 American states! That’s right folks, the snooty Dr. Bertram, presumes to know how 18th century American pioneers would have voted in 2004. After all, the issues they faced are so very similar to that of modern America. Obviously property owning, white, males from the 18th century would have voted John Kerry for President. Just ask Dr. Chris Bertram sitting over there in his ivory tower… in England. He knows. Really, he does. Oh yeah, and he knows what makes America great too. As if.
What a pathetic tourist.
.
God forbid that there be anyone claiming to know what “property owning, white, males from the 18th century” would have wanted today’s Americans to do. And of course it would be even worse if such people, not that they exist, were in a position of power, like the Supreme Court. Or if Dubya wanted to put more of them there.
Yo, O’neil. Are you actually so stupid as to not realize that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor aren’t “males”? And has it escaped your haughty intellect that Justice Clarence Thomas isn’t “white”? Oh, right! “Such people”, as you termed them, don’t exist. But dimwits like you do.
Delightful, alfred, to see the sore winner in flight. Well done. Or are you dispaying your namesake Randy’s brilliant sense of humour?
No sectarianism in my bonfire night joy. I just like the pretty colours. Ahhhhhh. Oooooooo. Ahhhhhhh.
[ Alfred was trolling, so away his comments went. ]
Nov 5 is my birthday. Would that be a benefit or a libaility if I were to enter British politics?
Speaking of religious bigotry, I was amused to see one M Yglesias giving us the benefit of his thoughts on “the rules of civil discussion” in the comments thread to a post of Henry’s above.
“There’s a dismal amount of sectarianism underneath the joy.”
Yeah right - like we’re going to go all anti-Catholic after burning a bunch of clothes stuffed with newspaper.
sorry rs, I wasn’t suggesting that our current celebrations of Nov 5th are sectarian. I used to love it before it was banned in Australia as unsafe.
But there is a lot of contemporary English celebration - the most famous in Lewes - which has a general whiff of bigotry, and the history of Bonfire Night certainly is. I went to big English bonfires in the 1970’s where people chanted “Burn the Pope”.
À Gauche
Jeremy Alder
Amaravati
Anggarrgoon
Audhumlan Conspiracy
H.E. Baber
Philip Blosser
Paul Broderick
Matt Brown
Diana Buccafurni
Brandon Butler
Keith Burgess-Jackson
Certain Doubts
David Chalmers
Noam Chomsky
The Conservative Philosopher
Desert Landscapes
Denis Dutton
David Efird
Karl Elliott
David Estlund
Experimental Philosophy
Fake Barn County
Kai von Fintel
Russell Arben Fox
Garden of Forking Paths
Roger Gathman
Michael Green
Scott Hagaman
Helen Habermann
David Hildebrand
John Holbo
Christopher Grau
Jonathan Ichikawa
Tom Irish
Michelle Jenkins
Adam Kotsko
Barry Lam
Language Hat
Language Log
Christian Lee
Brian Leiter
Stephen Lenhart
Clayton Littlejohn
Roderick T. Long
Joshua Macy
Mad Grad
Jonathan Martin
Matthew McGrattan
Marc Moffett
Geoffrey Nunberg
Orange Philosophy
Philosophy Carnival
Philosophy, et cetera
Philosophy of Art
Douglas Portmore
Philosophy from the 617 (moribund)
Jeremy Pierce
Punishment Theory
Geoff Pynn
Timothy Quigley (moribund?)
Conor Roddy
Sappho's Breathing
Anders Schoubye
Wolfgang Schwartz
Scribo
Michael Sevel
Tom Stoneham (moribund)
Adam Swenson
Peter Suber
Eddie Thomas
Joe Ulatowski
Bruce Umbaugh
What is the name ...
Matt Weiner
Will Wilkinson
Jessica Wilson
Young Hegelian
Richard Zach
Psychology
Donyell Coleman
Deborah Frisch
Milt Rosenberg
Tom Stafford
Law
Ann Althouse
Stephen Bainbridge
Jack Balkin
Douglass A. Berman
Francesca Bignami
BlunkettWatch
Jack Bogdanski
Paul L. Caron
Conglomerate
Jeff Cooper
Disability Law
Displacement of Concepts
Wayne Eastman
Eric Fink
Victor Fleischer (on hiatus)
Peter Friedman
Michael Froomkin
Bernard Hibbitts
Walter Hutchens
InstaPundit
Andis Kaulins
Lawmeme
Edward Lee
Karl-Friedrich Lenz
Larry Lessig
Mirror of Justice
Eric Muller
Nathan Oman
Opinio Juris
John Palfrey
Ken Parish
Punishment Theory
Larry Ribstein
The Right Coast
D. Gordon Smith
Lawrence Solum
Peter Tillers
Transatlantic Assembly
Lawrence Velvel
David Wagner
Kim Weatherall
Yale Constitution Society
Tun Yin
History
Blogenspiel
Timothy Burke
Rebunk
Naomi Chana
Chapati Mystery
Cliopatria
Juan Cole
Cranky Professor
Greg Daly
James Davila
Sherman Dorn
Michael Drout
Frog in a Well
Frogs and Ravens
Early Modern Notes
Evan Garcia
George Mason History bloggers
Ghost in the Machine
Rebecca Goetz
Invisible Adjunct (inactive)
Jason Kuznicki
Konrad Mitchell Lawson
Danny Loss
Liberty and Power
Danny Loss
Ether MacAllum Stewart
Pam Mack
Heather Mathews
James Meadway
Medieval Studies
H.D. Miller
Caleb McDaniel
Marc Mulholland
Received Ideas
Renaissance Weblog
Nathaniel Robinson
Jacob Remes (moribund?)
Christopher Sheil
Red Ted
Time Travelling Is Easy
Brian Ulrich
Shana Worthen
Computers/media/communication
Lauren Andreacchi (moribund)
Eric Behrens
Joseph Bosco
Danah Boyd
David Brake
Collin Brooke
Maximilian Dornseif (moribund)
Jeff Erickson
Ed Felten
Lance Fortnow
Louise Ferguson
Anne Galloway
Jason Gallo
Josh Greenberg
Alex Halavais
Sariel Har-Peled
Tracy Kennedy
Tim Lambert
Liz Lawley
Michael O'Foghlu
Jose Luis Orihuela (moribund)
Alex Pang
Sebastian Paquet
Fernando Pereira
Pink Bunny of Battle
Ranting Professors
Jay Rosen
Ken Rufo
Douglas Rushkoff
Vika Safrin
Rob Schaap (Blogorrhoea)
Frank Schaap
Robert A. Stewart
Suresh Venkatasubramanian
Ray Trygstad
Jill Walker
Phil Windley
Siva Vaidahyanathan
Anthropology
Kerim Friedman
Alex Golub
Martijn de Koning
Nicholas Packwood
Geography
Stentor Danielson
Benjamin Heumann
Scott Whitlock
Education
Edward Bilodeau
Jenny D.
Richard Kahn
Progressive Teachers
Kelvin Thompson (defunct?)
Mark Byron
Business administration
Michael Watkins (moribund)
Literature, language, culture
Mike Arnzen
Brandon Barr
Michael Berube
The Blogora
Colin Brayton
John Bruce
Miriam Burstein
Chris Cagle
Jean Chu
Hans Coppens
Tyler Curtain
Cultural Revolution
Terry Dean
Joseph Duemer
Flaschenpost
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Jonathan Goodwin
Rachael Groner
Alison Hale
Household Opera
Dennis Jerz
Jason Jones
Miriam Jones
Matthew Kirschenbaum
Steven Krause
Lilliputian Lilith
Catherine Liu
John Lovas
Gerald Lucas
Making Contact
Barry Mauer
Erin O'Connor
Print Culture
Clancy Ratcliff
Matthias Rip
A.G. Rud
Amardeep Singh
Steve Shaviro
Thanks ... Zombie
Vera Tobin
Chuck Tryon
University Diaries
Classics
Michael Hendry
David Meadows
Religion
AKM Adam
Ryan Overbey
Telford Work (moribund)
Library Science
Norma Bruce
Music
Kyle Gann
ionarts
Tim Rutherford-Johnson
Greg Sandow
Scott Spiegelberg
Biology/Medicine
Pradeep Atluri
Bloviator
Anthony Cox
Susan Ferrari (moribund)
Amy Greenwood
La Di Da
John M. Lynch
Charles Murtaugh (moribund)
Paul Z. Myers
Respectful of Otters
Josh Rosenau
Universal Acid
Amity Wilczek (moribund)
Theodore Wong (moribund)
Physics/Applied Physics
Trish Amuntrud
Sean Carroll
Jacques Distler
Stephen Hsu
Irascible Professor
Andrew Jaffe
Michael Nielsen
Chad Orzel
String Coffee Table
Math/Statistics
Dead Parrots
Andrew Gelman
Christopher Genovese
Moment, Linger on
Jason Rosenhouse
Vlorbik
Peter Woit
Complex Systems
Petter Holme
Luis Rocha
Cosma Shalizi
Bill Tozier
Chemistry
"Keneth Miles"
Engineering
Zack Amjal
Chris Hall
University Administration
Frank Admissions (moribund?)
Architecture/Urban development
City Comforts (urban planning)
Unfolio
Panchromatica
Earth Sciences
Our Take
Who Knows?
Bitch Ph.D.
Just Tenured
Playing School
Professor Goose
This Academic Life
Other sources of information
Arts and Letters Daily
Boston Review
Imprints
Political Theory Daily Review
Science and Technology Daily Review