Charles Johnson changes his mind \ Oliver Kamm on the Swiss minaret ban

'Little Green Footballs' used to be a hateful blog, responsible for some of the worst anti-Muslim and, especially, anti-Palestinian bigotry in the blogosphere. Interesting, then, to note that the man behind the blog has renounced right-wing politics altogether, criticising right-wing "anti-Islamic bigotry", and going as far as to condemn the Swiss ban on minarets.

Charles Johnson, the man behind LGF, is still fairly right wing, but the whole Republican party seems to be moving so far to the right, and embracing so many idiotic notions (President Palin?), that no remotely sensible person could possibly contemplate supporting them.

Elsewhere, I see that Oliver Kamm has written a short piece on the Swiss referendum, which he calls another manifestation of a Europe wide protest against 'the supposedly alien influence spread by Muslim populations'. More importantly, Kamm contrasts the actions of the far right activists who spread anti-Muslim bigotry, and who see themselves as defenders of European democracy, with "the secularist and liberal defence of the principles of a pluralist society", which condemns the Islamic extremists while upholding the right of individuals to follow the religion of their choice.

As Kamm suggests, in banning the construction of minarets the Swiss have attacked the rights of individual Muslims, and in doing so have damaged their own democracy - the very thing they claim to defend.

The biggest in the world!

Our homes are bigger than yours:

"You go back 20 or 30 years ago and the average house was, you know, sort of two or three bedrooms, three bedrooms at most," he said.

"Now it is at least four bedrooms, possibly even and five and it is a lounge, dining room, home entertainment room. Certainly we are putting more and more rooms in our ever-growing houses."

... Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the average floor area of a new home has hit a record high of 214.6 square metres in the past financial year.

There is something outrageous about the size of Australian homes, particularly in the outer suburban areas. In times gone by, a large backyard was part of the 'Australian dream', but these days houses are so large they take up nearly the whole block of land, and there's no room for a yard at all.

Algis Valiunas on Norman Mailer

I haven't read Norman Mailer's books, but I enjoyed this piece in Commentary all the same. Valiunas, who clearly despises Mailer and sees him as a symbol of liberal excess, has written the kind of piece you regularly find in Commentary, but this one is especially nasty and amusing.

Valiunas on Mailer:

One is torn between wishing that his memory would disappear immediately and wanting his remains to hang at the crossroads as a lasting reminder to others.

School Uniforms

Back in my debating days (now ten years gone) I often found that students were required to debate the issue of whether school uniforms should be compulsory. It's not an issue I think much about, but this article on the topic caught my eye.

Here's an excerpt:

In Long Beach, which is part of the Los Angeles metro area, the U.S. Department of Education found that school crime decreased 36 percent, sexual offenses fell 74 percent and fights between students dropped 51 percent after the policy went into effect. Is correlation, as the scientists say, causation?

About 14 percent of all public schools mandate their students wear school uniforms. While there's been some uncertainty and controversy regarding these uniform policies, the often bland outfits have made some schools safer, toned down excessive gang aggression and set a "business-like" tone for academic study. They've also eliminated the need for students to one-up each other with fashionable clothing (easing the strain on poorer families), easily identified trespassers on school property and helped foster community identity and school spirit.

Le Corbusier sucks

Just of late, I've heard nothing nice said about Le Corbusier. He built this chapel (which an architect recently told me was disappointing in person) which I like from the pictures I've seen, but his 'philosophy' of architecture is unquestionably responsible for certain social ills.

This article on Le Corbusier is by Theodore Dalrymple, so you already know what's coming. But it's good stuff all the same if you take an interest in modernist architecture's sometimes totalitarian aesthetic.

Roman Painting

Painting in the ancient world has long fascinated me, perhaps because there is little information on this important but mysterious subject.

Here we have interesting little piece from Tom Lubbock in The Independent's art section, on a Roman Painting: Still life with peaches, by an anonymous painter in Herculaneum some time in the first century A.D. As the author describes, the painters in this part of the Roman world were skilled, but they were not the masters we've read about in ancient works. Room decoration in Pompeii and Herculaneum was, as my books on the ruined cities inform me, rather different in tone to what we appreciate today, and I often imagine there must have been a claustrophobic effect, with all those bright competing images of temples, mythological figures, landscapes and the odd still life covering the walls. The whole effect is not, to be honest, aesthetically pleasing, and I struggle to imagine that this was the high point of Roman painting. It couldn't have been, surely...

The question remains then; is it possible to judge the Roman painting by the few works that remain in Pompeii and Herculaneum? Probably not, but these works, likely to be vastly inferior copies of earlier, perhaps Greek, masterworks, are the only and best guide to the forgotten and obscure world which lay behind them.

If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao...

Maoist rebels in India have blown up a railway track, leading to the derailment of a passenger train in the eastern state of Jharkhand, police say.

At least two people were killed and 47 others injured in the incident, which happened near Ghaghra station.

Rebels are fighting for communist rule in a number of Indian states. They have a presence in more than 223 of India's 600-odd districts across 20 states.

More than 6,000 people have died during the rebels' 20-year fight.

"Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoist insurgency as the single largest threat to the country.