Monte Carlo

Depends on the teacher. I vividly remember history lessons at my London comprehensive school in the early 80's, the teacher was a raving, foaming at the mouth Trot. He couldn't help himself as taught the subject through an undiluted Marxist prism. He was also a kindly and decent enough man and a passionate teacher. I rather liked him but even then I felt at a visceral level he was utterly wrong. Now, he was never challenged by colleagues about what was, indutably, indoctrination. Mainly because, I suspect, the staff room was a bit like the Third International and it was the early 80's after all. Nowadays? Well, the hair-shirt Marxism of yore has been replaced by the Frankfurt variety and the teaching profession is now dominated by the politically-correct 'soft left'. But they are still culturally left-wing and I suspect the USA is similar. Maybe Hurlie will enlighten us. My kids are taught some appalling left-wing bollocks at school at quite a tender age. I am biding my time before I go to have a chat without coffee with the teachers, it might be a year or two yet. But I am pretty sure that there is an in-built left wing bias (I won't say liberal, because the pejorative connotations the word has developed do no justice to what liberalism really is) in schools. Now, that doesn't mean that I want my child to be brought up on a diet of little Englander, jingoistic BS. I want him to hear all the competing views, left, right and otherwise. What I don't want is the insipid, politically correct groupthink that seems to pass for educational theory and doctrine in modern schools. Like I said in my earlier post about the HUAC - teach the arguments and counter-arguments, let the kids make their own minds up and learn to critically evaluate information. Cheers MC

An interesting article from the ever-readable Christopher Meyer, ex-UK ambassador to Germany and the USA. Here he discusses the German attitude to the Euro in the late 90's, i.e. as an overtly political vehicle for closer integration. Helmut Kohl saw the internal contradictions and the threat to the German economy but was driven, like Adenauer before him, the banish the spectre of war (and selling this as a way for Germany to be top-dog nation within a united Europe without resorting to arms... dontcha love politicians). Now the whole thing is unravelling, I feel sorry for the German man in the street who has been let down by mealy-mouthed coalition governments and Euro-fantasists.

I would happily live for five hundred years if I could. I have no wish to die, I want to see the future in all it's hideous, mushroom-clouded horror.

^ Dammit, man, you're a genius!

Does this mean that they can grow me a new foot? My old one is giving me no end of grief.

Yeah, and now you can pay online you won't have to fill up a wheelbarrow with banknotes to pay for a loaf of bread

Let me do that for you - you can't have one currency and twenty-odd different monetary policies, just like you can't have an automobile moving in the same direction with twenty-odd steering wheels.

Moose, the German propensity to do this a couple of times every hundred years or so has caused Europe no end of trouble . Hopefully they'll stick to worrying about Germany from now on.

The culture wars in America over stuff like religion and abortion are quaint. They reaffirm the hegemony of capitalism - all the big arguments have been won. What's left, in the hinterlands of American politics, is this kulturkampf over education and civil partnerships. In really screwed-up societies people fight civil wars over big issues, not internet spats over little ones.

This is the beginning of the end --- already there is talk of the Northern European countries creating a twin-track currency (i.e. Germany and Benelux + Austria). The Northern European countries and economies are drastically different from the South, but the likes of Greece and Portugal were let in for reasons of political expediency. Now Chancellor Merkel has created a self-defeating turnip-ghost by banning short-selling, and speculators smell blood. Like I say, this is the beginning of the end. Why should hard-working, prudent Germans subsidise the openly corrupt and profligate Greek economic system? Answer = it shouldn't. Roll back the EU to the 1970s (i.e. the EEC) when free trade helped the struggling economies of the day. As a Briton I could be smug and say the devaluation of Sterling has been tough but it allowed us to rescue our economy, unlike those bound in the Euro. But a massive amount of our trade is with Europe so our fate is bound to theirs. The Euro was a folly. I wish economic apocalypse on no nation, but in the case of the Euro the political machinations of arrogant, economically illiterate old men looking to do deals is leaving a bitter legacy.

Why are you such a big fan of the EU living in, er, Australia? Unelected, unaccountable and unstoppable the EU isn't very popular with those of us living under it. As for the Euro, the current crisis was predicted ten years ago. When political dogma bashes economic reality then you get the mess we're in. I reiterate - the Euro was designed specifically as an integrationist tool. The EU was forged by men scarred by memories of WW2. It was a noble aspiration but has become a joke. In the UK we've had no popular vote on it since 1974 when we were asked if we should join a free trade agreement. The sooner it collapses, the better.

:: Yawns ::

All hail the spaghetti monster!

This is always a good one after a few beers. Re-make your favourite classic movie - you can change the setting if you like, you need to name which modern actor takes which role and anything else you like. You can also name and shame the worst re-makes... for example Sly Stallone's Get Carter is horrible and everybody involved should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves (you too, Sir Michael Caine). So is Nic Cage's The Wicker Man (winder what his re-make of Bad Lieutenant will be like?). We were talking about the Dirty Dozen and I got stuck. How many cool-as-a-cucumber, macho movie actors like Lee Marvin are there knocking about nowadays? Who would you get to reprise that role? I would take Russell Crowe personally, he has the right physicality and quiet arrogance. Anyhow, I open the floor to the rabble.

Which is a perfectly reasonable argument to make, as long as students are allowed to make the counter-argument too. The Un-American Activities Committee might have been unpleasant and left a nasty taste in the mouth, some of it's adherents might also have been pocket Torquemadas... but. But. Stalin's USSR was the evil empire incarnate, the dictatorship of convenience in WW2. America in the 1950's was wise to fear Soviet activities in the USA. And guess what? Nobody was put in prison camps. There was no American gulag. Some liberals had their glittering media careers screwed for a couple of years. Diddums.

Ha ha ha I love Stumbleupon. Some dude made a nuka-cola machine... linkie.

Thanks for all the replies which, as usual, have been very helpful to my decision-making. If I wanted a single-player action shooter, then, what would you guys suggest. I liked Crysis and Farcry... any others than would suit. I like MP / online but can't afford the time investment.

Ross, thanks for answering the question nobody asked

Guys, I'm a bit jealous of all this shooter-action. My question is this: On the PC what are your views on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and BF2: Bad Company? Will primarily play the single-player game but might try some online / co-op. Which one do you think is better, and why? Many thanks in advance, MC

No it isn't. Honestly.

Hopefully England will be knocked out early and the overpaid cretins can go home to count their Bentleys and mansions. Then I'll be able to go down the pub without being bothered by drunk, tattooed halfwits watching it on the telly.

I've never bought into the idea that an ex-military man is a better defence secretary than an able politician and administrator. The aforementioned John Reid, for example, was very popular at the MoD and clearly grasped the brief. That he couldn't squeeze an extra penny from Broon is another matter. Ashdown was a middle-ranking special forces officer in the 1960's. I have a great deal of respect for his service, but fail to see how this immediately makes him a better candidate than a solid, experienced centre-right professional like Liam Fox. Fox will fight the armed services' corner, maybe more than Ashdown. Ashdown has become too self-important and terribly establishment. I don't rate him as highly as others, and his historic animus to the tories isn't consistent with a role in a coalition imo.

Stuff I'm listening to this week: It's Not Me its You - As a grumpy middle-aged man I'm not meant to like Lily Allen but this little collection of bitchy, polished, catchy pop is quite good. This is War - Thirty Seconds to Mars. This is slightly emo power-rock for twentysomethings wearing eyeliner, right? It's also great driving music. I'm sure the band will be crestfallen that someone like me loves it as I motor around the M25 in the MonteWagen. Back to Black - Amy Winehouse. Forget the media tramp bullsh*t, this album is a classic and folks will be digging it in fifty years. Best track: Tears Dry on Their Own.

BTW the last book I read on Cassino was a bit revisionist on Clarke. It acknowledged his vanity and paranoia but insisted that he was a much better battlefield commander than previous military historians have given him credit for. Although I'm more of an armchair general than a professional military historian, I beg to differ. Sacrificing the Texan division for more column inches? Lastly, my post about Cassino being a Commonwealth affair ommitted the valiant and decisive Polish brigade, effusive apologies. My bad. Cheers MC

As a proud Texan I suspect Wrath of Dagon would agree too.