MISCELLANEOUS

• The great Scottish thinker mentioned in the post about voting was Alexander Tytler (1747-1813) Professor of Universal History at Edinburgh. It was he who first observed that Democracies always perish from an inherent lack of fiscal restraint caused by the democratic principle itself. Once voters realize they can enrich themselves by voting for economic redistribution, the end is inevitable. My thanks for this to, Vivian Linacre who wrote to the Salisbury Review about this.

• Ulrich Muhe died of stomach cancer in July. He was the gifted actor who portrayed a Stasi officer in this years best foreign film, Das Leben der Anderen. (The Lives of Others) He looked like a more mature Kevin Spacey and deserves to be remembered.

• I saw The Kingdom of Heaven on cabal last night. It was better than I thought it would be. Ridley Scott does his usual big screen action adventure routine in this one. Still, all the usual Hollywood agitprop making for a juvenile story line. Noble Muslims, craven Catholic churchmen, the evils of the class system and a Jerusalem looking more like a city in the Lord of the Rings than the middle east, all added for the benefit of those who can't understand or stomach actual history. It brings to mind Fellini's quip that the people of our remote past are so different from us mentally that historical films should be shot as science fiction. That's how he shot Satyricon.