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madigaf

Listed below are comments made by madigaf between Saturday, 14th June 2008 and Thursday, 25th June 2009.

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Republicans' lack of leaders 12:13pm on 25 Jun 2009 The Limbaugh et al brigade will ensure that Palin or Gingrich feature prominently. At the expense of the probably more electable Charlie Crist
Riquelme - one of a dying breed 1:13pm on 06 Oct 2008 Agree wholeheartedly about your assessment of Riquelme's abilities. But I don not necessarily agree that he is one of a dying breed. Many of the top midfielders in the world in recent years have played in similar positions with a similar style to Riquelme. Scholes, Pirlo, Deco and Xavi all are sensational passers who are not blessed with devastating pace or power and seek to pass through teams. It should be noted that these players have had considerably more success in their careers than Riquelme, not because the latter is a dying breed, but because, unfortunately, and as you alluded to in the article, Riquelme is extremely inconsistent.

That said, I think the role of the playmaker is certainly not dead. As a Chelsea fan, I have been electrified by Decos start. I thought he would be eaten alive in the PL but his passing ability has brought a new dimension to the team
Monochrome thinking 10:34am on 14 Aug 2008 Justin...you are digging yourself into a whole here. Comparing one society unfavorably to another, without taking into consideration the myriad or cultural and contextual contingencies that make China and the US so raciaclly different, is an excellent starting point to start making highly dangerous essentialist claims about races. The explanation for a lot of Chinese ire about media coverage of the Olympics is rather simple. Some Chinese people are upset about the amount of negative coverage given to their country's attempt to hold a major event. They are not the only society who occasionally have juvenile reactions to politically motivated events. Remember the proposed boycott of French goods into the US? They changed the name of "French fries" to "Freedom fries" on the menu in the capitol building. Any viewer o the Bill O'Reilly show will also be familiar with the type of lunatic nationalism that can pervade in the US

I don't want to just pick on Americans. The british are well capable of engaging in similar kinds of sabre rattling. The daily express and mail for example. The point is that expressing claims like such and such a place is the greatest country in the world or is better than somewhere else, is a complete waste of time and does little but illustrate ignorant views. And as for your remarks about economics....well I'll allow statistics to talk for me. I'm sure you ca find China's growth figures somewhere....

I don't usually post this long. The reason I am doing so is to register my profound disappointment with your two blogs on this subject. Since the beginning of the primaries I have followed this blog attentively as I have found your views on the campaign to be fascinating. I event mentioned to friends how much I was looking forward to reading your book. But won't bother if it s going to be another lightweight exercise in Anglo-saxon posturing. There's already enough of this rubbish. We need to understand that cultural differences exist and ought to be respected. Not turn around a blow a rasberry at people for being different
Openness and staying power 4:02pm on 13 Aug 2008 re 274 - eddienix
re 265 Truthslinger

sorry if I wasn't clear enough. Of course, you are both quite right to say that America, as a society, deliberately targets immigrants in some way. I wasn't suggesting that What I was doing was expressing my distaste for the vitriolic language used by Justin in his article. America is not some racist xenophobic concentration camp...otherwise immigrants would not continue to go there. But neither is it a safe haven where all your dreams come true. And i think that presenting it as such has no place in journalism. Surely we can find a happy medium, rather than the simple toing and froing between extreme positions, and admit that American, as any country, can engender different experiences for different immigrants and different communities. My personal feeling on the issue is that aspects of the political establishment are not doing enough address the problem and are more content to score points off each other. I also believe having lived in America for a while (in response to your point gunslinger) that there was a somewhat negative view of immigrants particularly against the latino community. I'm not saying this is present all over the country, but I have to say, I was quite shocked by some of the attitudes I came across as I have not experienced this in Ireland. Maybe this is because it is not such a politically charged issue in Ireland.

Anyway..I have jus added this digression at the end to clarify my own experiences, but as a rule i completely agree with you both. America is certainly a better place to emmigrate to than a whole host of other countries we could care to mention. But less of the hyberbole from members of the jounalistic community
Openness and staying power 10:56am on 12 Aug 2008 What an extraordinary article. I have found your remarks on the run up to the general election fascinating Justin, but this is nonsense. American is no more welcoming to outsiders than any other Western country with large immigrant populations. The numbers of hard working eastern europeans that have settled in Ireland recently, a country with no prior history of immigration, is a prime example. Moreover, for millions of arrivals in the USA, they have been treated to sub-standard housing, poor welfare system, been shut out of the higher echelons of society, and been subjected to racism from many levels of society. Even the mot cursory glance at the ethnic distribution of wealth and resources in the Unite States demonstrates that the idea of an immigrant arriving to America to earn their fortune is an expertly constructed fallacy. The type of triumphalistic patriotism displayed in this piece is more suited to the Rush Limbaugh show than the bbc. "The marathon of human progress," the "magic openess of America"....these comments are nothing more than empty rhetoric that a journalist of your ability should never resort to. Not only are they exceptionally based and distorted comments, the are also simply untrue
Pietersen fails to complete rescue operation 9:02pm on 01 Aug 2008 Aggers has not gone made and started completely slated KP. If you read the article he says that KP did not finish the job he started. Which is correct. Oterwise is reaction wouldn't have been so frustrated. He KNEW he got himself out. For the second time in two tests. And aggers is also right to say that there is absolutely no way on gods earth that Ponting would have played that shot with the game balanced like this.

KP is still young. Few players have been as good as young. And he his learning. No sensible people are calling for him to be dropped. It just needs to be pointed to his attention that he cannot pla so recklessly all the time. Learning to control that aspect of his game will make him an even better player than he is now
Pietersen fails to complete rescue operation 8:46pm on 01 Aug 2008 Its all very well and good for ian bell to come in with 250 on the board and play his strokes but he can't make hard runs to save his life. Colly is made of iron. That was the toughest grittiest century I have seen for a long time. Thats why he is there. A good test team needs grafters as well as thoroughbreds. Can you imagine what the aussies would do to Shah (cc average of 38 for gods sake) or Bopara or, lord help us, Robert Key when batting with their backs firmly against the wall?

Its as true for cricket as it is with any other sport...wholesale changes should only be made when abolutely necessary. I believe that this panic mentality is creeping into all facets of English sport. I was hoping "boo boys" would stay watching football, but directed by the increasingly ridiculous british sports media, one lost test and eveyone looses the plot. Against the second best team in the world England have performed, on the balance of three tests, about par. So lets not panic and bring in a bunch of cricketers we already know aren't good enough
One year on... 12:44pm on 27 Jun 2008 Many British people are simply directed by the media. Yes Gordon Brown has made some bad mistakes but to suggest that he is responsible for the over-audaciousness of Hedge Funds in the US mortgage market is nonsense. Even the most skilled risk analysts, usually the most pessimistic of commentators, did not foresee how bad the credit crunch would be this time 12 months ago. The mistakes Brown has made are the 10p tax, the inheritance tax and most of all, the election dithering. Had he not allowed speculation to mount during conference season he would have won it. He made the cardinal sin by allowing Cameron, then a beleagured leader, and a far less talented one in every respect, to regain the stump with his, admittedly excellent oratory skills. This combined with mistakes and incredibly bad luck has allowed right wing newspapers to present a situation where Britain is supposedly in crisis. Within two years the credit crunch will be over. British people will then decide whether to trust the man who presided over its recovery (when in fact he will have done no such thing) or a lightweight Blair clone who within months will alienate vast portions of his traditional party base. For the record, I do not believe either Brown or Cameron are particularly good PMs. However, while one was an excellent minister (something that history and cooler heads will prove) the other is a posturing poster boy with little or no substance behind his fancy talk
Holland show the way forward 2:14pm on 14 Jun 2008 Gooner

I believe that a penalty ought to have been given against holland. Alan Shearer didn't. His comments were that the ball had hit Ooijer at speed and was trying to get his arms out of the way. Its a good point and makes it a marginal decision. I would have given it but I would not start talking about conspiracies. You're starting to sound like Wenger. Spain probably will take their chances better than France or Italy. I say probably because as good and all as Villa and Torres have been this season Villa has scored less than Ribery and Torres less than Toni. They are not poor players. However, Italy and France are def more solid at the back than Spain. If Holland can stick seven past two of the best defensive teams in the world they will be able to open spain up. As I said before should be a great game full of goals but I expect the dutch. This has been the best international tournament for a long time. Stop moaning about referees and conspiracies and enjoy it
Holland show the way forward 1:09pm on 14 Jun 2008 Happygooner

The officials explanation for the van nistelrooy goal was that Panucci was down injured on the far side and had not signalled to the referee. He was playing Ruud onside. It is within the laws of the game (however stupid) and within those laws the goal was legit. Your point about the French penalty is a good one. It wold have changed the game. However, given the balance of the chances and the success rate in concerting those chances the dutch deserved to win. They have now played the two world cup finalists of two years ago and scored seven goals against them...two teams that are lauded for their defensive solidity. Northern Irelan scored three goals against Spain in qualifying wheras Italy haven't conceded three goals in any game since 1987. The idea that because spain beat Russia that they will be too good for Holland is farcical. Puyol can barely move and Marchena is prone to lapses in concetration. Admittedly, the Dutch def is nt spectacular either. Should be a great game between two awesome teams but I expect the dutch to win it

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