Mick Hartley

Happy Hollow

March 28, 1901. "Happy Hollow -- Hot Springs, Arkansas." With a range of attractions, including "Gypsy Camp" fortune tellers, "Edison's Latest Productions", and "Captain Bogardus Shooting School and Gallery". 

[Photo: Shorpy/Detroit Photographic Company]

Bombing hospitals

Here's how it works: the UN supplies the GPS coordinates of hospitals in rebel-held Syria, and the Russians and government forces then go and bomb them.

For months, as part of its deconfliction program for the Syrian war, the United Nations has been sharing the GPS coordinates of health care facilities in rebel-held territory with the Russian government. The aim was to ensure Russia and its Syrian allies do not hit them by mistake.

The system is not working. Indeed, it seems to be achieving the opposite of its ostensible goal. During the Syrian government’s recent offensive in Idlib, as many as 46 civilian facilities were reportedly attacked. The Syrian American Medical Society, a local partner of the U.N. in Idlib, reported that at least 14 medical facilities that were attacked in Idlib were on the U.N.’s list. The Russian and the Syrian governments, in other words, knew exactly where the facilities were when they bombed them.

See also, surgeon David Nott - The most dangerous place to be in Idlib is a hospital.

Committed to promoting diversity and inclusion across the sport of cricket

The saga of trans cricketer Maxine Blythin  - mentioned here a couple of days back - continues to develop. From the Times today (£):

The transgender cricketer who has been playing for Kent this season in women’s county cricket says that she intends to play “as high a level as possible”, raising the possibility of international honours.

Maxine Blythin helped Kent win the County One-Day Championship, finishing as the competition’s 11th leading runscorer. She was recommended for the county after representing the women’s team at her club, St Lawrence & Highland Court. Since returning from county cricket she has made four centuries and averages 123....

Blythin’s emergence comes at an important time for women’s cricket in the UK. From next year, when the new 100-ball tournament launches for men and women, a cohort of female players will earn a full-time living, creating a viable career option almost overnight. Blythin indicated to The Times that she would try to win a place on one of the teams, anticipating that it would be a “fantastic tournament to be involved with”.

Blythin’s progress through women’s cricket has been strongly encouraged by the ECB, whose policy on trans cricketers allows for any person who identifies as a woman to play club or county cricket, without the need for medical gender reassignment.

This so-called “social” policy goes against the recommendation of the ICC, cricket’s international governing body, which suggests that national-level policies should match its own policy, which — like many other sports — is much more strict.

Under ICC regulations — with which Blythin would need to comply should she want to play international cricket — transgender women must prove that their testosterone levels have been below 10 nmol/L for more than 12 months before their debut. This policy reflects the stance of the International Olympic Committee. To comply, transgender women usually take testosterone-blocking drugs.

The testosterone level is a red herring - as though this is all about how much of a particular hormone an individual has. The point is, of course, that Maxine has a male body, with all the advantages that that brings in sport. A batting average of 123 suggests how well she's making use of that fact.

And there's the usual smug justification from officials:

Simon Storey, the chief executive of Kent Cricket, said: “[We] are committed to promoting diversity and inclusion across the sport of cricket.”

This happy pursuit of diversity and inclusion means that women cricketers get thrown under the bus, but hey, that's a small price to pay.

Pink News, meanwhile, are outraged that anyone should question Maxine's pursuit of dominance in the woman's game:

A rising star of women’s cricket has become the target of an anti-trans campaign group.

Maxine Blythin has wowed cricket fans in her first season for Kent Women’s Cricket, hitting four centuries and amassing a batting average of 124.

Her position on the team has led to anti-trans abuse from the group Fair Play for Women, who have misgendered her and questioned the validity of her place on the team.

Anti-trans abuse? They -  Fair Play for Women - simply questioned her right to play women's cricket, noting quite correctly that it was demonstrably unfair. Women use lighter smaller cricket balls, with boundaries set closer. The difference between male and female is enshrined in the rules set by the English Cricket Board. So no abuse - just pointing out the obvious. But to say that Maxine has a male body is to commit the crime of misgendering, for which there can be no forgiveness.

[See also, Ophelia B.]

Kegelbahnen

Old German bowling alleys, photographed by Robert Götzfried:

"When I was a kid in the early 1980s, it was a common thing to go 'Kegeln' with my parents and their friends. These places are usually located in the basement of traditional German restaurants. The old ones used to smoke cigarettes and drink beer or wine while the kids were allowed to have lemonade as a special treat. This is what quality time looked like back then.

"Kegeln is pretty similar to bowling but with only nine pins, smaller balls, and shorter lanes. It used to be a big thing in Germany in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. These days this sport is not en vogue anymore and it seems that mostly older people go these 'Kegelbahnen'. Due to that more and more get knocked down and they seem to disappear forever.

"That’s why I've been trying to find the most exciting bowling alleys and 'Kegelbahnen' in Southern Germany in the last couple of years to keep the memory of these golden days alive."

[Photos © Robert Götzfried]

Doing for bowling alleys what Bernd and Hilla Becher did for industrial buildings. But with added colour and symmetry. 

Pink rose

At the Hill Garden, Hampstead:

Making obscene racial comments

That's when you criticise halal slaughter:

A student was disqualified from her GCSE exam after she was accused of making “obscene racial comments” by criticising  halal meat.

Abigail Ward, 16, a strict vegetarian, wrote during a Religious Studies exam in June that she found the idea of halal meat "absolutely disgusting".

The exam board OCR later disqualified Miss Ward from the exam, accusing her of making "obscene racial comments".

The decision was only overturned when her school, Gildredge House in Eastbourne, appealed the decision, insisting Miss Ward had been expressing her distaste for halal butchers and was not making any comment about Muslims.  

The school added that no other comments made in the paper could be construed as racist.

The exam board upheld the appeal and later apologised for the “upset and stress” they caused Miss Ward, the Telegraph reported.

It also accepted that the board's original letter "describing the frequency and severity of the comments" was "inaccurate". 

Miss Ward’s mother Layla, a 36-year-old nurse, said she believed the misunderstanding was probably down to an “over-zealous, over-righteous” examiner.

A prison that suffocates Muslims

Iraqi scholar Dr. Abdul Jabbar Al-Rifaee has noticed that the Islamic world's contribution to modern science has not been significant, to say the least. It has, in truth, been pretty much non-existent. "What our culture refers to as loyalty to its heritage is, in fact, a prison that suffocates Muslims."

I think he might be on to something.

Transphobia accusations against feminists

More on the successes of the increasingly loud and intransigent trans lobby, from the Sunday Times (£) - Professors bullied into silence as students cry transphobia: 

More than a dozen academics, including several leading feminist professors, fear their freedom of speech is being silenced by students complaining they are transphobic.

They include Selina Todd, a professor of modern history at Oxford, and Kate Newey, professor of theatre history at Exeter. Rosa Freedman, professor of law conflict and global development, is believed to be under scrutiny at Reading University, and Kathleen Stock, professor of philosophy, has faced several formal complaints organised by students at Sussex. Some of the women, along with other academics, say questioning of transgender policies is being censored on campus.

Typical LGBT policies adopted by universities include the use of gender-neutral pronouns such as them/they and “ey” and “zie” as well as support for gender-neutral lavatories and changing rooms for those transitioning. Some universities also support the idea that people should be able to self-identify as male or female.

Todd, vice-principal of St Hilda’s College, Oxford, initially faced a complaint backed by a Facebook petition about comments she had made on social media. That grievance was dismissed by the university. Now, however, she has been told by students she will face a campaign in the autumn for her to be sacked.

“It is intimidating and isolating,” Todd said. “The view of these activists is that anyone who feels themselves to be a woman should be allowed to call themselves such. Questioning that desire is seen as hate speech that could be harmful. To me that is censorship.”

Stock says she has faced several “formal complaints against me organised by students, using public student Facebook groups to co-ordinate activity”. Now she is compiling cases of other academics who have had to defend themselves to their employers.

“I know of at least a dozen cases of students complaining to university managers about lecturers’ alleged ‘transphobia,’” she said. “In the face of this, it is tempting to many to just keep their heads down — including me. Yet this is a disaster. We desperately need scrutiny of emerging social, legal, medical, and sports policies in this area.”

And the latest example of precisely why this is a problem:

There is a new star in the Kent women’s cricket team — its first transgender player is opening after one season.

Maxine Blythin, who is more than 6ft tall and under England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) rules can self-identify as a woman, has a batting average of 124 this season and has hit four centuries already....

Fair Play for Women has said the policy is unfair, especially at a time when the game is improving opportunities for female players. A £20m semi-professional competition for women starts next year.

“Letting males who self-ID as women play in women’s competitions is demonstrably unfair,” the campaign group tweeted last week. “The ECB *knows* males have a performance advantage over females. This is [why] it lets women use lighter & smaller cricket balls & why boundaries are set closer.”

A batting average of 124?? That's quite some statistic. Never mind, the ECB are pleased with themselves:

“We are proud that this model promotes an inclusive environment for all participants in domestic and recreational cricket.”

Well, all participants apart from the women, who have to compete against a biologically male athlete. But who cares about them?

Anxious that Mr Johnson does it for them

Persuasive from Matthew Parris in the Times (£), on Corbyn's strategy as a no-deal Brexit approaches. 

Imagine for a moment that as Labour leader, and for fierce ideological reasons, you wanted Britain out but were realistic enough to know that the short to middle-term consequences would prove unpopular with voters. What wish would you be asking your fairy godmother to grant? That a Tory did the irreversible deed, surely, leaving you to build socialism on the ruins of what the Tories leave behind. And Mr Johnson is about to oblige.

So I place the Corbyn gang where I think their interests should place them: keen for the hardest possible Brexit to happen, , and tiptoeing sometimes awkwardly between wanting to appear opposed to Tory plans and secretly trying not to trip him. 

A propaganda arm of a dictatorial party

News from our friends on the left. George Galloway, for instance:

China’s state broadcaster has turned to the former Respect MP George Galloway and a former left-wing aide to Ken Livingstone as it tries to justify the heavy force used by police against pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong....

In an interview this week, Mr Galloway, 65, defended the authorities’ response in trying to bring the unrest under control. He told CGTN: “These people should know that Hong Kong is China. No country, absolutely no country, will allow an existential threat to emerge on its territory, to its own sovereignty, without responding in a way that brings the situation under control.”

John Ross, a pro-Corbyn, Trotskyist academic who advised Mr Livingstone as mayor of London, has also appeared on CGTN to blame Britain for the clashes in Hong Kong. “If you find out who profits from the situation, normally you find out who’s causing it,” Mr Ross, a senior fellow at Renmin University of China, said. “In this case it’s certainly a combination of the United States and Britain which is benefiting.” ...

CGTN English is available on Sky and Freesat in Britain. The broadcaster is hiring hundreds of journalists, including former BBC staff, for a European hub in Chiswick, west London, despite being under investigation by Ofcom, the media regulator, for broadcasting forced confessions of prisoners.

Peter Humphrey, a former Reuters journalist whose forced confession complaint led to the Ofcom inquiry, said: “This is not an independent commercial broadcaster. It is simply a propaganda arm of a dictatorial party.”

All par for the course from Galloway, who also has a show on RT, the Russian propaganda outfit.

Any tyrant will do as long as they're anti-Western. And as long as they pay well, of course.

Florida sunrise

A stormy morning in Sanibel, Florida:

[Photo: J. David Ake / AP]

Take the 'A' Train

The Delta Rhythm Boys, in a Soundie from 1941, with the Billy Strayhorn classic:

The song became a signature tune for the Duke Ellington orchestra:

The title refers to the then-new A subway service that runs through New York City, going at that time from eastern Brooklyn, on the Fulton Street Line opened in 1936, up into Harlem and northern Manhattan, using the Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan opened in 1932.

"Take the 'A' Train" was composed in 1939, after Ellington offered Strayhorn a job in his organization and gave him money to travel from Pittsburgh to New York City. Ellington wrote directions for Strayhorn to get to his house by subway, directions that began, "Take the A Train". Strayhorn was a great fan of Fletcher Henderson's arrangements. "One day, I was thinking about his style, the way he wrote for trumpets, trombones and saxophones, and I thought I would try something like that," Strayhorn recalled in Stanley Dance's The World Of Duke Ellington.

Although Strayhorn said he wrote lyrics for it, the recorded first lyrics were composed by, or for, the Delta Rhythm Boys.

The bass singer, Lee Gaines, has been credited with the lyrics.

The Delta Rhythm Boys made their name with their 1941 version of Glenn Miller's I Dreamt I Dwelt In Harlem (another great old Soundie), but are probably best remembered for Dry Bones.

The way you see them

American photographer Elliott Erwitt -  born Elio Romano Erwitz to Russian Jewish émigrés in Paris - is now 91.

“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place…. I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them."

He's been a member of Magnum since 1954.

New York City, 2000 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Prado Museum, Madrid, 1995 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Birmingham, England, 1991 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Paris, 1989 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Thanksgiving Day Parade, New York, 1988 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Bratsk, Siberia, 1967 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Brighton, 1966 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

New Hampshire, 1958 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 1957 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Guanajuato, Mexico, 1957 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Colorado, 1955 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Las Vegas, 1954 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Wyoming, 1954 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Fort Dix, New Jersey, 1951 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

London, 1966 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Eric Ambler, London, 1952 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Shreveport, Louisiana, 1962 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

New York, 1974 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Three men in Tutus, New York City, 1980s © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

New York City, 1953 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos

Erwitt previously, Pittsburgh in 1950.

Theo-terrorism

Paul Cliteur's book Theoterrorism v. Freedom of Speech: From Incident to Precedent, from Amsterdam University Press, is unlikely to trouble the best seller charts, with an RRP of £89.00. Which is a pity:

'Paul Cliteur has written an important book. It's a disturbing and enlightening read. Disturbing because it unveils how Western democracies since the mid 80s have reacted with confusion and disorientation when freedom of expression has been under attack. Enlightening because Cliteur brilliantly deconstructs the cognitive dissonance among politicians, intellectuals and the media and provides us with the analytical tools to understand what's at stake. Cliteur lays bare the logic and consequences of our muted and incoherent response to threats of violence in the name of God. A book about freedom and safety for all of us.' - Flemming Rose, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, Washington D.C.

Rumy Hasan reviews the book at Quillette, and reminds us of the grim litany of those at the time of the Rushdie Affair who chose to attack Rushdie for his novel rather than the Ayatollah Khomeini for his fatwa. As well as philosophers like Charles Taylor and Michael Dummett, there were writers like John Berger, Roald Dahl, John Le Carré - all weighing in on the side of theocracy. Though there were dissenters who were clear-eyed about what was happening:

The day after the Iranian fatwa suborning the murder of Rushdie, the author Anthony Burgess took a principled, exceptional stance and showed great prescience by declaring:

The Ayatollah Khomeini is probably within his self-elected rights in calling for the assassination of Salman Rushdie or anyone else for that matter, on his own holy ground. To order outraged sons of the prophet to kill him and the directors of Penguin Books on British soil is tantamount to a jihad. It is a declaration of war on citizens of a free country and as such, it is a political act. It has to be countered by an equally forthright, if less murderous, declaration of defiance.

Sadly....it is appeasement rather than defiance that has characterised the position of most mainstream politicians, artists, and thinkers when confronted with violent threats. More than that, there has doubtless been much self-censorship when it comes to criticism or mockery of Islam, especially after the Charlie Hebdo murders in 2015, and....it is surely fear that has been the decisive factor in this timidity.

Cliteur concludes his book by asserting that liberal democracies have no idea what has happened to them—under the guidance of identity politics, they have been distracted by senseless discussions of respect, dialogue, civility, turning the other cheek, inclusiveness, and avoiding hurting the religious sensibilities of so-called vulnerable minorities. A lamentable consequence is that Islamists have been allowed to sap the fibre of liberal societies.

Ideologically militant factions

An interesting article from Saudi academic Najat Al Saeed, which shows how the more pragmatic Arab thinkers in the Gulf are getting increasingly tired of the ideological extremism espoused by the current Palestinian leadership. Is It Time For The Arab Gulf States To Support Alternative Palestinian Parties?

This repeated rejection of solutions on account of following an “all or nothing” policy, despite all the defeats and losses, leads us to analyze the ideologies of the Palestinian factions, which we find are divided into two camps: one is dominated by Arab nationalism and also includes leftist and communist ideologies, the other by political Islam, such as that espoused by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The factions that belong to the Arab nationalist and leftist camp are: Fatah, Force 17 (Palestine), Tanzim (Palestine), Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The factions that belong to the Political Islam camp are Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine.

We find that both camps are revolutionary and are not consistent with the pragmatic approach of the Arab Gulf States, which tends to be more focused on development and peace-building.  [...]

In fact, we can see that these ideologically militant factions, whether nationalist or Islamist, are not interested in the establishment of a state or the liberation of a homeland, striving instead only for those who support their ideologies and interests. This might explain the hatred towards the Arab Gulf States despite the billions of dollars in financial aid given to the Palestinian cause and the lack of any diplomatic relations with Israel.  

In contrast, countries with diplomatic ties with Israel such as Turkey or regimes that have given the Palestinian issue only empty words and used it to their advantage, such as the mullahs in Iran and the Ba’athist nationalist regime of Saddam Hussein or Bashar al-Assad, have received praise from Palestinian factions and their followers.

The only Arab Gulf state that has understood this game is Qatar, or, more precisely, the ideological Hammadin regime that serves those factions and supports their path. Qatar supports Hamas not to help them liberate Palestine, but to promulgate the ideology of political Islam especially that of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ideology is more important to Hamas than patriotism.

There is widespread disbelief among many Khaleejis [citizens of the Arab Gulf States] that Qatar, which maintains ties with Israel both openly and secretly and which helps Israel construct settlements, receives nothing but praise from Palestinian factions, while the rest of the Arab Gulf States boycott Israel but are insulted and hated no matter what. Understanding the importance of ideology in Palestinian politics helps explain this.

It is clear that the Arab Gulf States cannot continue to support the Palestinians under this corrupt leadership and with these ideological factions. There must be alternative Palestinian parties that include businessmen and practitioners whose vision is compatible with the Arab Gulf States’ pragmatic vision of state-building.  

For more on Qatar and its support for Islamic extremism, see Is Qatar the new Saudi Arabia?