What's done is done.

Munching my way through a slice of toast and marmalade with a background noise of the Today Program on the radio. It was Bishop Tom Butler's turn to speak on Thought For The Day and I wasn't paying much attention. I heard mention of the 1190 massacre of the Jews in the city of York. The Bishop then went on to talk about a proposal by the Spanish government to make amends for the expulsion of the Sephardic Jews some five hundred years ago. Apparently decendents of these Jewish victims of the inquisition may be offered Spanish citizenship. Having practised on the Jews the devoutly Catholic Isabella and Ferdinand proceeded to get rid of the larger Muslim population. Would the decendents of expelled Muslims also be entitled to a Spanish passport? Like much else in life there would of course be an EU dimension to all of this. I spread marmalade on another slice and poured coffee. I always have misgivings about historical hand wringing. Apologising for past injustices that happened generations ago always seems a bit pointless somehow. I mean how far back do you go? Roman Empire? Norman Conquest? Far better surely to try and do the right thing now. Anyway, as I say, I was only half listening. Suddenly the Bishop had my full attention. Did I hear him mention Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean? That some Sephardic Jews took revenge on the Spanish crown by looting the Spanish Main and sailing under both the skull and crossbones and the Star of David? Was the Bish having a bit of an ecclesiastical wind up? I know that Tom Butler is fond of a drink but surely he wasn't pissed at quarter to eight in the morning? Not a bit of it. It's all true. There is even a book. Bound to be at least one website devoted to Jewish Pirates. A whole new field of anoraky enquiry opens up. If only Harriet Harman had nailed the NCCL colours to the mast of the Jewish Pirate Appreciation Society rather than to that of the Paedophile Information Exchange how much easier would her life be today. But like I say, what's done is done.

Yarmouk. Is this all there is?

The philosopher John Gray maintains that much human misery has resulted from the mistaken belief in the perfectibility of humankind. I tend to agree and when people tell me that anarchist ideas are impractical and will always fall foul of "human nature",  rather than argue the toss about the nature of humanity, I prefer to suggest that if we are as malevolent as they think then that is all the more reason to have a system that holds in check the greed and ambition of some individuals. I have no idea what humanity is capable of achieving. I do know that the unchecked lust for wealth and power has combined with modern firepower to give us a world where grief and misery fill the days of so many. I also know that  it is not possible to watch and listen to Lyse Doucet's moving report from the Yarmouk refugee camp without thinking that surely we can do better than this.

Kiev shows the power of the masses but what now?

It is almost impossible at this distance to make any meaningful comments about the fast moving situation in Ukraine. It looks as though the masses on the streets of Kiev have driven Yanukovych from power but it remains to be seen what will follow today's interlude of comparative calm. I see little point, however tempting it might be, in trawling the internet or the Ukrainian diaspora for traces of a political current that mirrors our own opinions; but that of course is exactly what the left in Western Europe will be doing. For myself, the one beacon of hope beyond all of the nationalism and religious fervour that we are witnessing on our TV screens, is the example of a courageous and determined population who decided to take matters into their own hands. As has been shown by so very many revolutionary situations, up to and including the  Arab Spring, from here on things can move in quite unexpected directions.  All we can do is wish the people well and urge them to remember that oldest of political lessons - never trust a politician. No Gods. No Masters.

Atos protest could do with Wu Ming.

Triton Square is a unwelcoming canyon hidden between some of the Euston Road's more hostile office blocks. It's a fitting location for the UK HQ of the hated work capacity assessors Atos. Today has seen a national day of protest against the company who have been the scourge of the disabled, the mentally ill and the lost souls of the employment market. I don't know what happened in other locations but the Triton Square turnout can't have exceeded three dozen and will hardly have Atos bosses shaking in their boots.
Back home I switched the radio on and was just in time to catch Radio4's Europe's Troublemakers. Today's episode featured the Italian literary collective and political pranksters, Wu Ming. Cheered me up no end.

On the Brussels Beat.

What is it with Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho? Not content with constantly slagging off the Arsenal he is now telling the Jocks that an independent Scotland will not be able to join the EU.
I think I got that right.

How skiffle inadvertently told the truth about the Wild West.

Popular culture frequently distorts history, and usually presents a sanitised version of the past that fits in with the "national story" of the status quo. If you relied on the Hollywood and pulp fiction version of the American West you could be forgiven for thinking that the frontier was a peculiarly white undertaking. When I was a kid  Western films, comics and novels influenced  how we viewed "adventure" and also helped form our ideas of what it meant to be a "hero" and in this world of hard riding, fast drawing action a black face very rarely appeared.

More recently this version of the past has been challenged and we now know that as many as a quarter of old time cowboys were black. In the first half of the twentieth century the cowboy was seen as the epitome of the decency and honest self-reliance that was central to the American Dream. To admit that this square jawed hero was just as likely black would question the right to treat Afro-Americans as second class citizens so the black cowboy was airbrushed from frontier history.

At the same time that pop culture portrayed the western hero as exclusively white the black male was shown to be generally decent but dim, downtrodden and subservient. The reality was that even in the worst years of Jim Crow many blacks refused to toe the line and lived a dangerous, marginal, renegade life. There were black outlaws as well as black cowboys.

Meanwhile, in the wild east of Leyton I was graduating from practising fast draws with my Gat air pistol and starting to take an interest in music and leaning provocatively against the jukebox in the local cafe. Lonnie Donegan was popularising an up tempo version of American folk and few of us had a clue what he was singing about or about the roots of the music. Railroad Bill was a favourite and if the identity of Railroad Bill remained a mystery the idea of, "A 38 pistol on a 45 frame" sounded unbearably cool. It would be years later before I discovered that the Railroad Bill referred to was one of those black gunfighters who's very existence was denied by books and film.

University fears spaghetti monster may offend the faithful.

Humanism can be a bit worthy and po-faced at times so it's good to see some light hearted baiting of the god-botherers. Less amused are the apparatchiks at SouthBank University who have banned this poster by the uni Atheist Society. These days universities seem incredibly concerned about causing offence to followers of any crackpot medieval superstition and the authorities in every second rate college of knowledge consider themselves to be arbiters of taste. Is this in any way connected to the huge sums of money that universities make from foreign students not to mention the endowments from rich but religious parts of the world? Perhaps these academic bureaucrats should have a re-read of their old course notes on The Enlightenment. But what do I know?