Over the break, the pond did its usual thing of reading an actual held-in-hand, flip the pages book, in this case Jeffrey Toobin's American Heiress, concerning Patty Hearst, which - spoiler alert - had a killer last line about Hearst becoming her mother.
There's no point in the pond adding to the many reviews available online, except to note that it was an easy read, and a reminder of just how absurd left wing politics of the fundamentalist kind was in those days (Toobin's barbs about the Berkeley Barb are just a few of his many examples).
At the same time, the pond purchased a few actual held-in-hand, flip the pages newspapers of the Fairfaxian kind - the oath never to buy a reptile rag prevented the pond dipping into the lizard Oz, though as it took an hour round trip to reach a newsagency (for sale itself), the pond was sorely tempted.
The only experience that might be more bizarre is if a bearded, tatted hipster wandered into the pond, and offered the pond the chance to scratch a few grooves in an LP.
The Age was a fragile wisp of a thing - a fan set on 1 would have torn it apart - and the AFR's opinion pieces were largely reprints of imported pieces easily accessible on the full to overflowing intertubes... at least if all parts of the country had broadband.
It immediately set the pond to wondering yet again just how long tree-killer editions had left in them ...
It immediately set the pond to wondering yet again just how long tree-killer editions had left in them ...
The state of journalism is in a serious state, and it so happens that the pond's holiday reading came together today when looking at the lizard Oz ...
This story attracted the pond ...
Well there's not much difference between a crazed SLA freedom fighter, a delusional Daesh dude (yes Miranda the Devine, they hate being called that, why not join the onion muncher in using the name?) and someone determined to use guns to convert the world to a Judeo-Christian lifestyle ...
Besides, it was an EXCLUSIVE and the pond is always a sucker for an EXCLUSIVE ... especially when it's celebrating the drums of war and more troops on the ground ... because more troops on the ground always works out terribly well ... just ask Iraq ...
Okay, that looks unnerving and serious enough. Crazed former minor general beating the drums of war.
So it was on with the story ...
So it was on with the story ...
That's it? That's the EXCLUSIVE?
Recycling and regurgitating the essential elements of an opinion piece that could be found elsewhere on the front digital page?
See?
Is the cupboard now so bare that the only way forward for the reptiles is to do a beat-up with a cut and paste?
Well inevitably the pond had to embark on a compare and contrast between Kelly's EXCLUSIVE and Leahy's humble column.
Well inevitably the pond had to embark on a compare and contrast between Kelly's EXCLUSIVE and Leahy's humble column.
Now the pond couldn't expect Leahy to speak honestly and acknowledge that Flynn is one of the more barking mad parts of the forthcoming Trumpian administration, a man prone to conspiracy theories and silly tweets ...
Flynn deleted that one, but then there was pizzagate and a series of re-tweets, including a false Fox story claiming that Hillary Clinton had been identified as an "insider threat" and another featuring a claim that her campaign manager took part in occult rituals in which bodily fluids are consumed (and never no mind transubstantiation) and another about a United Nations one-world-government plot called Agenda 21. (Catch up with them at Politico here).
Nor would the pond expect Leahy to question the tiresome use of "Judeo-Christian" and the bizarre notion that the United States was founded on a term first espoused in its modern sense by British socialist George Orwell in 1939... suggesting that the War of Independence against King George III probably happened around 1938 ...
But it reminded the pond that there's a very good chance that in the next year or so, the United States is going to revert to the anarchy of the 1970s, at a time when the SLA (all eight or so of them) and others thought they could bring about a change of heart by bombing and killing people ...
It was this summary by Leahy of Flynn's deep thinking that flung the pond back into the 1970s and the world of Donald DeFreeze, who grandly called himself General Field Marshall Cinque:
It was this summary by Leahy of Flynn's deep thinking that flung the pond back into the 1970s and the world of Donald DeFreeze, who grandly called himself General Field Marshall Cinque:
That's it? A bit of pathetic jargon of the SWOT kind?
You might just as well scribble furiously "Death to the fascist inset that preys upon the life of the Judeo-Christian people", or this ...
The Symbionese Federation and The Symbionese Liberation Army is a united and federated grouping of members of different races and people and socialistic political parties of the oppressed people of The Fascist United States of America, who have under black and minority leadership formed and joined The Symbionese Federated Republic and have agreed to struggle together in behalf of all their people and races and political parties' interest in the gaining of Freedom and Self Determination and Independence for all their people and races. The Symbionese Federation is not a government, but rather it is a united and federated formation of members of different races and people and political parties who have agreed to struggle in a united front for the independence and self determination of each of their races and people and The Liquidation of the Common Enemy....
...The Symbionese Liberation Army is an army of the people, and is made up of members of all the people. The S.L.A. has no political power or political person over it that dictates who will fight and die if needed for the freedom of our people and children, but does not risk their life or fight too for our freedom, but rather the S.L.A. is both political and military in that in the S.L.A. the army officer, whether female or male is also the political officer and they both are the daughters and sons of the people and they both fight as well as speak for the freedom of our people and children. The Symbionese Federation and The Symbionese Liberation Army is made up of the aged, youth and women and men of all races and people. The name Symbionese is taken from the word symbiosis and we define its meaning as a body of dissimilar bodies and organisms living in deep and loving harmony and partnership in the best interest of all within the body. We of the Symbionese Federation and The S.L.A. define ourselves by this name because it states that we are no longer willing to allow the enemy of all our people and children to murder, oppress and exploit us nor define us by color and thereby maintain division among us, but rather have joined together under black and minority leadership in behalf of all our different races and people to build a better and new world for our children and people's future. We are a United Front and Federated Coalition of members from the Asian, Black, Brown, Indian, White, Women, Grey and Gay Liberation Movements. (at the Wayback Machine here).
You might just as well scribble furiously "Death to the fascist inset that preys upon the life of the Judeo-Christian people", or this ...
The Symbionese Federation and The Symbionese Liberation Army is a united and federated grouping of members of different races and people and socialistic political parties of the oppressed people of The Fascist United States of America, who have under black and minority leadership formed and joined The Symbionese Federated Republic and have agreed to struggle together in behalf of all their people and races and political parties' interest in the gaining of Freedom and Self Determination and Independence for all their people and races. The Symbionese Federation is not a government, but rather it is a united and federated formation of members of different races and people and political parties who have agreed to struggle in a united front for the independence and self determination of each of their races and people and The Liquidation of the Common Enemy....
...The Symbionese Liberation Army is an army of the people, and is made up of members of all the people. The S.L.A. has no political power or political person over it that dictates who will fight and die if needed for the freedom of our people and children, but does not risk their life or fight too for our freedom, but rather the S.L.A. is both political and military in that in the S.L.A. the army officer, whether female or male is also the political officer and they both are the daughters and sons of the people and they both fight as well as speak for the freedom of our people and children. The Symbionese Federation and The Symbionese Liberation Army is made up of the aged, youth and women and men of all races and people. The name Symbionese is taken from the word symbiosis and we define its meaning as a body of dissimilar bodies and organisms living in deep and loving harmony and partnership in the best interest of all within the body. We of the Symbionese Federation and The S.L.A. define ourselves by this name because it states that we are no longer willing to allow the enemy of all our people and children to murder, oppress and exploit us nor define us by color and thereby maintain division among us, but rather have joined together under black and minority leadership in behalf of all our different races and people to build a better and new world for our children and people's future. We are a United Front and Federated Coalition of members from the Asian, Black, Brown, Indian, White, Women, Grey and Gay Liberation Movements. (at the Wayback Machine here).
Yes, and the best way to implement that is to kill a black schools superintendent ...
Of course there's fair evidence that Flynn is more into the Jack Ripper role model ...
Ripper: Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war?
Mandrake: No. I don't think I do sir, no.
Ripper: He said war was to important to be left to the Generals. When he said that, fifty years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Islamic infiltration, Islamic indoctrination, Islamic subversion, and the international Daesh United Nations conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
But enough of the pond's favourite movie, we need to wrap up the last thoughts of Leahy:
Of course there's fair evidence that Flynn is more into the Jack Ripper role model ...
Ripper: Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war?
Mandrake: No. I don't think I do sir, no.
Ripper: He said war was to important to be left to the Generals. When he said that, fifty years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Islamic infiltration, Islamic indoctrination, Islamic subversion, and the international Daesh United Nations conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
But enough of the pond's favourite movie, we need to wrap up the last thoughts of Leahy:
Indeed, indeed. How about we put some boots on the ground in Indonesia, and perhaps join the slaughter in the Philippines?
Never mind, before Xmas, Pope offered a choice, and you can find more Pope here ...
Hi Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
Step 1: "Properly assess our environment and clearly define our enemy".
Not a great start if "He sees a larger enemy alliance that includes radical Muslim countries such as Iran and groups such as al-Qa'ida, the Taliban and Islamic State."
As a career 'Intelligence Officer' (an oxymoron if there ever was one) you would have thought he might have discovered that the Iranians are Shia and as such are considered apostate by Sunni groups such as AQ, the Taliban and IS.
There are thousands of Iranian troops in Syria actively fighting IS at this very moment. Hardly an alliance.
This muppet wants to put more boots on the ground (including Australian ones) in Syria but appears not to know who is fighting who. Delusional.
DiddyWrote
Or maybe the plan is just to "Kill them all and let (a Judeo-Christian) God sort them out".
Deletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnaud_Amalric
DW
About the SLA: "... the best way to implement that is to kill a black schools superintendent".
ReplyDeleteBut why remember such an inchoate, feckless buncha boobies as the SLA. Why wouldn't Americans much prefer to remember Andrew Kehoe, who, on May 18, 1927: "killed his wife and 43 other people (including 38 children), and injured 58 people by setting off bombs in the Bath School disaster."
And also: "He committed suicide near the school by detonating dynamite in his truck, causing an explosion which killed several other people and wounded more. He had earlier set off incendiary devices in his house and farm, destroying all the buildings, as well as killing two horses and other animals."
Now there's a heroic, patriotic American who would gladden the heart of General Flynn. And he wasn't even Islamic.
I suspect that at this very moment Polonius is writing the first draft of his opinion piece defending more American adventurism in the Middle East, calling on Turnbull to join in or defending his decision to do so, and making spurious or ad hominem attacks on critics of the action.
ReplyDelete