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"CHILDREN ARE HAVING CHILDREN" (Dave is 'worried')

Oh the Wisdom of Dave! He hasn't realised we are ALL children? He should do, he attends the Westminster Playschool.

Hello Dave! What happened with those two kids was a NATURAL event. Meanwhile, vast numbers of women are eschewing motherhood for Mammon and then, in a panic, using 'third class material' to build new Britons. You wanna get worried Dave? WORRY ABOUT THAT! The other is very small beer.

SORRY NN. THE ABOVE WAS A SLIP. TAKE IT DOWN ALONG WITH THIS. NOTHING TO DO WITH CULTURE IS IT! BUT THEN . . .

President Obama is an interesting chap, however, I do not care if your panel thinks they know what book(s) he may or may not like.

I am fed up with the constant barrage of stories about President Obama that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ force feed us, why not look at politicians closer to home?, why not the EU commisioner, the French President, the German Chancellor?, not everybody is a supporter of Obama and this is all becoming tedious.

#3; I agree. There was a time once when the Review was worth a watch, if only for Martha's cute red military jacket, but now it's a bit of a parody of the original; bring back Tom Paulin, Iain Rankin and Bonnie Greer and have a conversation with them on whatever you like; it would be better value than anything else. And the red military jacket, too, please.

"which book did Barack Obama say that along with the Bible, was essential reading for his Oval Office? No, it's not by G.K.Galbraith or Alan Greenspan. It's by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Her biography of Abraham Lincoln"

But is there really any point appealing to these days? Does Newsnight Review really care if for what some would like to be the case rather than what is, and if not, can we really expect any better than what's going on today? We can all say we see no differences, the really hard part is to say when one can when others can't.

"See our present condition---the country engaged in war! Our White men cutting one another's throats! And then consider what we know to be the truth. But for your race among us there could not be war, although many men engaged on either side do not care for you one way or another. Why should the people of your race be colonized, and where? Why should they leave this country? This is, perhaps, the first question for proper consideration. You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated."

Spoken at the White House to a group of black community leaders, August 14th, 1862, from COLLECTED WORKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Vol. 5, page 371.

#5; I'd ask you to read Carmine Rutigui's commentaries on the "Shadow of the Walrus" in order for you to gain more insight into the context of your quote.

kashibeyaz (#6) Did you read the title link and the others?

You could say that Obama is going for the big tent option, a bit like Martha Carney's keck's...

LINCOLN CALLED ABRAHAM (#5 title link)

Well there's an ah-HA moment! Lincoln: all things to all men and Barack Obama strongly identifies with him.

It is well documented that some people play out their life as a character who has their name. The FEELof Obama (Stepford Husband) is that he is 'in character' as Barack Obama, with a subtext of Abraham Lincoln. From JJ's link, it looks as if Abraham Lincoln might well have been playing Abraham Lincoln.

Then there is Tony . . .

All the world's a stage.

#9 best read the book, barriesingleton; like they said, it's been out for a few years, took ten years to write and just might contain a bit more rounded view than the partial links that you and The Significant Other favour; then again, you're only really following gimpy Uncle Joey's advice - advice which must be followed at all times, nicht?

What is it with Michael Gove and his strange hand movement?Does he not know that in Turkey he would be arrested for those gestures? I do hope it wasn't too noisy in the studio when they deflated the other two.

Compare that with Paulin, Rankin and Greer; nuff said.

PRIGGY BOY (#10)

Hi Kashi - feel free to call me Barrie. I just can't stand to watch Gove (PB) so I have never got past the pout.

I have several books on the go right now! I'll just stick to my usual feckless, half-informed, 'brass-sounding'. Das freut mir - aber.

Paulin Rankin Greer are no match for Sue Grabbit & Runn. See you in court.

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Last night's Review was a low, a real low - Martha is always great but the GUESTS - how glib can you get! Please let us have a six month moratorium on the obama word - it's beginning to annoy me as much as 'rollercoaster'. It would be nice to see more of Bonnie and THE OTHER GREER too. No one else seems able to take the discussion anywhere. Also, would you please hunt around for people who know some little thing about painting when you intend to discuss exhibitions. You are insulting us - the panels you send to exhibitions might as well have been playing blindman's buff.

I like Martha Kearney as Newsnight Review presenter. She's friendly, relaxed and lets the three guests speak in the very limited time available to them. She knows how to chair, to which there is a knack and rules, to help debate.

I don't think that lack of US satire about immediate post-election Obama matters as much right now, as British news media's much longer period of fawning US coverage, and this past year especially in which I'd include the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ blitz of programmes about or by Alistair Cooke, Simon Schama, Stephen Fry, and the 'Empire of Liberty' radio series on US history. Each one a series, some shown on two ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ TV channels, and then each repeated within only weeks. I keenly watched or listened to a fair few but just as happily missed a fair few, aware it was a clumsy PR campaign.

Of significance for us was what Tristram Hunt squeezed out as a closing aside, that Friday was the 350th anniversary of the execution of Charles I. He, too, in his comments on 'England People Very Nice' spotted the play as part of a "state-sanctioned narrative", making him the night's most acute commentator. The National is having trouble selling tickets for it, I see.

That she was "the butt of many satirists" puts it kindly. Most people hated Thatcher. It'll be good to see Lindsay Duncan portray her in the forthcoming drama about her last days in office. Patricia Hodge and Andrea Riseborough have set the standard, so here's hoping.