Is US Now On Slippery Slope To Tyranny?

Number 347 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No is asked by Thomas Sowell at Investors.com. For good measure, he opens his diatribe, conforming to Godwin’s Law, with a reference to Adolf Hitler, and manages to throw in Lenin’s “useful idiots” in the third paragraph.
It continues with another favourite multiple cliché of [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 22 June 2010 at 11:08 am

The “Questions to Which the Answer is No” Awards

Grateful to King of Welsh Noir (his real name), for the suggestion that the world-famous series should hold the QTWTAIN awards. I have been back through the archive and am now ready to announce the results.
1. The best ever Question to Which the Answer is No was asked by the Daily Mail on 6 February [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 21 June 2010 at 1:45 pm

Are these the top 100 books of all time?

How frustrating. I thought I could win a game of Humiliation, after Joshua Peck drew my attention to a 2002 list of the best books in the world. Clare Nomad asked:
Are these the top 100 books of all time?
Which is, of course, number 345 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No. [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 21 June 2010 at 11:08 am

Was the US Team the Victim of Anti-Americanism?

Number 343 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No is asked by Jesse Zwick at The New Republic. Who wonders about the “fateful call” in the 86th minute. Was it “offsides”? (That will be number 344.)
Thank you to Alan Beattie, originator of Beattie’s Law.

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 19 June 2010 at 9:59 am

Tony Blair To Become BP Chairman?

An interesting question posed by Neil Collins on Reuters BreakingViews. Number 342 in my series.

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 17 June 2010 at 1:28 pm

Will Facebook kill school reunions?

And straight on to the next one. The above was the subject line of a piece of “email spam”, by which I think he means a press release, received by a fellow journalist. He says the answer is “Who cares?” but I say it’s number 341 in my series.
Mind you, it’s given me an idea. [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 15 June 2010 at 10:17 pm

Did Cameron tell Green to let the ball in deliberately?

Top conspiracy theory of the week spotted by Paul Waugh on Clive Soley’s blog. The Labour peer asks:
I’m no football expert and I’m not paranoid but does anyone else think that Cameron told Robert Green to let the ball in deliberately so that the US didn’t feel totally trashed and oiled up by the Brits?
That’s [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 15 June 2010 at 10:06 pm

Has Christian Democracy reached a dead end in Europe?

Number 339 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No* is asked by Jan-Werner Mueller at The Guardian.

*Older entries in the series are here.

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 11 June 2010 at 2:25 pm

Are Bush and Blair above the law?

Number 336 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No is asked by Al-Jazeera English TV channel. If you want to hear a pointless shouting match between Hassan Issa, a Egyptian “former diplomat”, who is under the mistaken impression that 1 million Iraqis have died as a consequence of the 2003 invasion [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 7 June 2010 at 3:07 pm

Did Whitehall go on a pre-election spending spree?

And number 335 in my series is asked by Alex Barker at the Financial Times. It is actually a rewording of a question asked by The Guardian's The Incredibly Secretive Police State Was Hiding Important Stuff From Us Unit, stuff which has now been published and of which we cannot make head or tail:
We're [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 4 June 2010 at 11:49 pm