Two weeks behind...

I know I am, but the FT Magazine (23 Apr) contains so much good stuff, it has to be read.
John Lloyd, "Lies from on high", not online, so a brief extract on 'efforts by the commentariat to show the political class [especially Blair] as lying liars'.  'These books are themselves a particular kind of mispresentation.' By their standards, Churchill's speech in June 1940 was "worthless".  'Gorbachev was a greater man than he knew, doing a greater task than he comprehended. At least as he was doing it: and to do it, he needed guile, hypocrisy, bullshit and plain lies...'

John Lloyd again - "United we understand"     (link here), on Iraqi Trade Unions.

Ian Buruma, "On the offensive"  (link here): Citing the views of Moshik Temkin, 'the accused professors [at Columbia University] may often be wrong about Israel, however their accusers do not aim to promote “fairness”, but to “shut down debate, particularly about the occupation”... It is easier in Tel Aviv to discuss the politics of Israel and Palestine than it is in New York.'

Tim Harford, "Odd Numbers" (link here),  on Steven Levitt, 'puncturing a much-cherished set of myths about why crime fell in the US in the 1990s. It wasn't the economy or "zero tolerance" crime policies, said Levitt. It was because the likely criminals of the 1990s had been aborted in the 1970s, after the Supreme Court's Roe v Wade decision legalised abortion across the US'.

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I heard about this interesting weblog via a mention on the BBC's Broadcasting House (Sunday, 1 May) - "Big Pharaoh". A sample here. Comment here.