Very obscure punk music? By all means.
10:46:47 PM    

The Unitarian Jihad. Extremism in defence of moderation is no vice.
10:37:09 PM    

A fantastic multi-lingual edition of Catullus.
7:29:20 PM    

I had a good pint while I was out today - Hepworth's Pullman Ale, brewed in Horsham. I looked on the internet for more information on the brewery and found this interesting article on the fate on brewing in Horsham. If reading it makes you want to support a local Sussex brewer, I can recommend Harveys of Lewes.
6:29:47 PM    

So, that Terri Schiavo memo that was obviously a fake, er, wasn't a fake. But it was, umm, not completely accurately presented, or something.

Is there a moral equivalence between bloggers who get it wrong, and 'big media' who get it wrong? Metafilter discusses.
8:14:57 PM    

If you want an illustration of the way things are today (TM), you can't do better than to walk into Waterstones Piccadilly. I went in there at lunchtime looking for a book about Papal elections (this one), and I couldn't find a copy on the shelves. This was not because they had sold out through demand.

What was on the shelves, by the hundreds and on a special half-price offer? The bloody Da Vinci Code, of course.
11:38:10 PM    

I've just finished listening to "Dawn to Decadence" - an audiobook of Jacques Barzun's magnum opus. With reservations, I would recommend it.

The best parts of the book come at the start. Mr Barzun clearly has a comprehensive knowledge and deep understanding for a broad range of European culture, from Charlemagne to Goethe and beyond. The detail and anecdotes set out in that section will contain something new for everyone.

My reservations surround the last part of the book. Mr Barzun, in turning to what he sees as modern 'decadence', is much less convincing. I am very Whiggish in my beliefs, but Mr Barzun's last few chapters have a strongly Blimpish or Burkeian air, detailing time after time the way in which some modern innovation (including the welfare state and human rights) is facile, futile, and wrong. The mostly unspoken subtext is that the old ways were the better, or an echo of Kingsley Amis's comment on university expansion - "more will mean worse".

Individually, Mr Barzun's opinions are not necessarily wrong, and the use of 'decadence' in the title is perhaps warning enough. But the absence of any positive elements of the modern world, and the relentless tabulation of present evils, makes the final section of the book too much of a Jeremiad for my taste.
12:27:36 AM    

The Brighton Argus reports that road safety campaigners were surprised when people polled by West Sussex County Council rejected a proposed 20mph speed limit outside schools.

The stunned outrage of the campaigners is amusing to read. "I can only assume that they aren't parents, or have never lost a child", one democratically-minded campaigner says. Or perhaps they just, you know, disagree with you.
7:50:36 PM