An "Obama Nation" Abomination

The US mainstream media has gone wild with indignation at "Obama Nation", a new book on the Democratic Nominee by Jerome R Corsi (co-author of the book that first launched the infamous "swiftboat" episode which arguably ruined John Kerry's 2004 bid for the presidency).

Corsi has been very open about the intended aim of his latest opus: convincing the American public that Obama is a dangerous socialist and committed radical who, like Kerry, should be kept safely away from the White House for the sake of everyone. Nice!

Predictably, said indignation has now propelled the book into the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list.

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

The US opens the door, Russia says thank you

It is of course unthinkable that Russia would've acted in such a blatantly gleeful manner during its invasion/aggression in Georgia were it not for the fact the the UN and the so-called "International Consensus" are pretty much defunct niceties nowadays.

The fallout from the Irak War has produced a wide spectrum of effects but my guess is that we are witnessing the most spectacular of them to day, the most blazé show of the "might is right" doctrine since the Bush administration re-invigorated the concept and gave it currency.

Of course, it could be reasonably argued that Russia would've acted the same way regardless of what happened in the past 5 years.

Time (and declassified archives) will tell.

RIP Mahmoud Darwish - National Poet, Universal Soul

Mahmoud Darwish is dead and this blog is now having the unfortunate look of an obituary column. Darwish was a supreme lyricist and a writer of great panache and vision. We used one of his most famous poems in a theatre play we produced back in April and it was easily one of the most powerful moments of the piece.

It's now time to address the question of who amongst the new generation of Arab poets can take on the mantle and move literature (and the art of the unsaid) forward. Things are hopeful and we will be watching this space.

Solzhenitsyn, no more.

Author of "The Gulag Archipelago" and iconic figure of 20th literature and politics Alexander Solzhenitsyn has passed away tonight. His brave stance against Soviet totalitarianism has generated as much fury in his homeland as has his later reconciliation with Putin's Russia done in the West. A gigantic monument on the intellectual landscape with a complex footprint to match.

RIP.