Day: July 24, 2007

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“An unfailing eye and ear for the ersatz and the kitsch”

In the new City Journal, Theodore Dalyrmple lays an unholy beatdown on Tony Blair’s decade as PM. I can’t do justice to its thoroughness, so give it a read.

It looks like there’s more fallout from having Terry Jones’ unfunny brother take over as PM: longtime VM reader and official pal Faiz K. is transferring from England to the U.S.! We’ll have to teach him all about REAL football, and why baseball isn’t as boring as it. . . oh, wait, it is.

Congrats on the impending move, Faiz! We’ll make Amurrricans of you and your family in short order!

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Good Night, Sweet Baba

 Mohammad Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan, died yesterday:

The deposed king took up residence in a villa on Via Cassia, a main thoroughfare leading north out of Rome. He played chess and took walks. He was sometimes seen sitting in a café sipping a cappuccino or browsing through titles in a second-hand bookstore.

I can only imagine the baristas and bookstore clerks muttering to one another: “Psst! It’s that guy again! The one who keeps saying he’s the king of the Afghans!”