Brooklyn Nostalgia

Bipolar New York's always been caught between nostalgia and euphoria. Nothing illustrates this better than the changing of Coney Island. On the one side the movers and shakers (i.e. Bloomberg and his cronies) get all excited about the new development opportunities. On the other side New York's hippest get all maudlin about another remnant of faded Amerikana glory getting a corporate facelift. Kinetic Carnival ist a great blog following the development. And the Brooklyn Museum has a show called 'Goodbye Coney Island'.

New Hampshire and beyond

Everybody in Europe's super hyped up about Barack Oabama and Hillary Clinton. Which proves the short sighted reflexes of Europeans when it comes to America. First they're always rooting for Democrats no matter what, because the Democrats' domestic policy fit European mentality of solidarity and sharing. Mostly missing the point that it's foreign policy that matters to us. Neither Carter's maneuvering with the Sovjets nor Clinton's Balkan bullying have been particularily good for Europe.

Secondly they still see America through the eyes of Europe of the 50s and 60s, when the US was the global torchbearer of societal change. Somehow Europeans missed the massive backlash that's been going on since 1968. So Clinton and Obama are definitely European dream candidates, symbolizing progress and change. No matter that John Edwards might be the only electable Democrat, because he's Southern and the only Democrats coming to power since 68 have been Southerners. Partly because Southern liberalism is steeped in faith, not in leftist thinking.

Well and then there's the fact, mostly missed in Europe, that these are primaries. Nobody's winning anything yet. And the most likely Republican candidate - he's good. Really good (see video). He's reviving the silent majority. Right on!