Billy Bragg on the Death of Margaret Thatcher

Yesterday on his Facebook page and his official web site the unapologetic left-wing folk/rock English singer Bill Bragg who was getting ready for a concert in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, issued a statement of the death of long-time conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, also known as 'The Iron Lady.'

Bragg was heavily critical of Thatcher and in 1985, he released a powerful ballad "Between the Wars" about what he perceived to be her neglect of the working class and a useful war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands.

Here is Bragg's statement:

"This is not a time for celebration. The death of Margaret Thatcher is nothing more than a salient reminder of how Britain got into the mess that we are in today. Of why ordinary working people are no longer able to earn enough form one job to support a family; of why there is a shortage of descent affordable housing; of why domestic growth is driven by credit; not by real incomes; of why tax-payers are forced to top up wages; of why a spiteful government seeks to penalise the poor for an extra bedroom; of why Rupert Murdoch became so powerful; of why cynicism and greed became the hallmarks of our society.

Raising the glass to the death of an infirm old lady changes none of this. The only real antidote to cynicism is activism. Don't celebrate---organise."

Bragg comes to America with concert dates that include a concert at the Eagle Theatre in Iowa City, Iowa, on April 15th.

The American right-wing Republican political figure Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, who ran unsuccessfully for president last year was quite different in his remarks regarding Thatcher, who was called the 'Demir Leydi' in Turkey.

Gingrich tweeted yesterday that: "Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul and Ronald Reagan changed history. The world would be a different place without them."

SIDEBAR: On a personal date, I was very saddened to hear about the death of American filmmaker Les Blank who died at age 77 after a bout with cancer at his home near San Francisco. His landmark films included "Burden of Dreams" (1982) about eccentric German film director Werner Herzog and his grand efforts to put the epic film "Fitzcarraldo" with the late Klaus Kinski. I had the change to meet Blank in person and talk to him over the years. As one person said on his Facebook page today: "An artist may die, but his art never does."

http://www.billybragg.co.uk

http://www.twitter.com/newtgingrich

http://www.lesblank.com

Quote of the Week- Jules Verne

Today's quote is our third one this month from famous French people in honor of Bastille Day, which was one week ago today. It comes from the author Jules Verne
(1828-1905), who is best-known for his novel "Around the World in 80 Days."


Since I love cats, this quip is a vintage one to me:

"I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through."

SIDEBAR: We are saddened to hear of the departure of progressive talk-show and fellow Turkish-American Cenk Uygur (we were both also born in March of 1970, and we are both liberals) from MSNBC. Since I only have basic cable, I only got to see his show "MSNBC Live," which aired at 6:00 p.m., a few times.

Uygur told sources that the network brass approached him in April to tone down his rhetoric. Amazingly enough, his replacement appears to be the uber-controversial Rev. Al Sharpton. Uygur is expected to be a guest on Keith Olbermann's new show on Current-TV. Olbermann left MSNBC for similar reasons. This comes at a time when MSNBC's rival Fox News has been reeling from the scandal involving their owner Rupert Murdhoch who is embattled with a phone-hacking scandal at one of his English newspapers.

Ironically, we found out that one of the country's leading conservative activists and Armenian-American (our rival ethnic group) Mark Krikorian, who is an anti-immigration advocate was the editor of "The Winchester Star" in Winchester, Va., a few short years before I worked as a reported at "The Shenandoah Valley-Herald," a newspaper owned by the same company in Woodstock, Va.

I imagine given our ethnic and political differences, Krikorian would probably not have gotten along too well.......to put it mildly!

Quote of the Moment- Jay McInerney

Today, we continue our series of quotes from famous people from New England with a quip by Jay McInerney (b.1955, Hartford, Conn.) who is best-known for his break-through novel "Bright Ligths, Big City," a contemporary literary classic which was published when he was only 29 years old in 1984. The film became the basis for a Michael J. Fox movie of the same name is 1988, which wasn't successful partly because Fox was miscast as Robert Redford has been for the 1974 film version of "The Great Gatsby."

Other McInerney novels include "The Story of My Life" (1988) and "The Good Life"
(2006). "The Story of Life" is noteable because it features the character of Alison Poole, who is based on Rielle Hunter, the John Edwards mistress who once dated McInerney.

McInerney is also a contemporary of fellow novelist Bret Easton Ellis ("Less Than Zero," "American Psycho") and Tama Janowitz ("Slaves of New York"), who happens to be an alumnus of Hollins University, which is one of my two collegiate alma maters.

While researching this, we learned that McInerney is now on his fourth marriage, and he is a wine columnist for "The Wall Street Journal," which is having a very bad week due to Rupert Murdoch phone-hacking scandal.

Here is the quote from McInerney; we imagine it is in reference to "The Good Life" which is about the effects of 9/11 on America, ironically the Twin Towers were on the cover of "Bright Ligths, Big City":

"I've always written about the larger social events of the moment. It just seemed like I had to confront this one."

Things We Learned from Twitter- Arianna's Take on Rupert Murdoch

With only 14 characters to spare, it may seem hard to take a good shot at a political nemesis, but that is what the liberal Arianna Huffington, founder of "The Huffington Post" did on Twitter earlier tonight.

In her tweet, Huffington said the following: Now trending on Twitter: names of Harry Potter villains and NOTW villains.

NOTW stands for "News of the World;" it is the now-infamous Rupert Murdoch newspaper in England which completely closed down due to a major phone-hacking scandal. The breech of public trust is being felt here in the United States as well as Les Hinton, who was the managing editor of "The Wall Street Journal" until this morning abruptly resigned. Hinton had previously overseen the NOTW.

SIDEBAR: It seems to be a problem with all Mediterranean countries (I prefer the Turkish term Ak Deniz, which means White Sea, which is much easier to spell than Mediterranean), irregardless if the country is westernized and an EU member, like Italy or Greece, or a Muslim country like Turkey, my late father's homeland, Tunisia or Egypt, or even Israel.

All of these countries seem to be male-dominated countries which greatly emphasize machismoism. One might be inclined to think France, the country of sophisticated intellectualism and a high regard for the arts, might be a noteable exception.

But, in an interview with the NPR show "The World" today, Elaine Sciolino, a Paris correspondent for "The New York Times," said that is not the case at all.

Sciolino, who was just written a book called "La Seduction," said that sexual harrassment is a major problem in France. And, she faults the country's tradition of chivalry, which could well date back to the days of Rene Descartes (a French philosopher who lived in the early 17th century) as part of the problem. Sciolino said men think prefusely flirting is always ok, and women are not sure how to stand up and say 'noi means noi,' well that wasn't exactly the way she put it!

Special Quote of the Day- Marcel Proust

First of all, we want to wish everyone in France a Happy Bastille Day. Secondly, we want to arbitrarily mention Rupert Murdoch, Casey Anthony and fringe right-wing nutcase Michele Bachmann so we can use three trending topics and increase our hit count for the day.

We'd also love to make fun of the Mormon missionary from Utah who made the very unwise decision to climb a concrete wall to pose with a pair of lions at the Guatemala City Zoo (I've actually been there), but since the lions attacked the 20-year-old missionary and he is hurting (to put it mildly), we will alas have to play nice.

Oh, we almost forgot to talk about Harry Potter! Is there anyone out there who is actually going to dress like a wizard for a midnight screening tonight?

They are showing a midnight screening premiere for the latest installment of the eight film series at the Grandin Theatre in my hometown of Roanoke, Va., tonight.

For Bastille Day, we are going to quote the great novelist/essayist Marcel Proust
(1871-1922), who is frequently quoted in "Zippy the Pinhead" comic strips:

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."