tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14457232127152238.post1044001226599354230..comments2023-11-03T00:06:36.875+11:00Comments on Bunyipitude: The Butchers' BoyBunyiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14668398379654771814noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14457232127152238.post-54153738632093374202012-01-01T06:39:27.708+11:002012-01-01T06:39:27.708+11:00As long as the left fill the majority of the story...As long as the left fill the majority of the story-telling positions in our world, they will continue to ridicule and misrepresent figures like Reagan, Thatcher, Bush, Howard, and Rumsfeld - the last one mercilessly satirised while being an astute and valuable adviser to several presidents. <br />Movies and Bob Ellis commentaries are just bits of "get even" fluff, but they will sway the opinions of, or impressions on, those minds impervious to genuine history.<br />BlogstropAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14457232127152238.post-292036463131068742011-12-31T17:29:27.882+11:002011-12-31T17:29:27.882+11:00Never thought that I'd have a kind word for Th...Never thought that I'd have a kind word for Theroux but I 'd say that he's nailed itAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14457232127152238.post-89004741869790147872011-12-31T15:18:39.375+11:002011-12-31T15:18:39.375+11:00Too right Prof. I have lived through 'the Tro...Too right Prof. I have lived through 'the Troubles' on both sides of the border. Quaint name for a very ugly time. I'm frequently asked 'what is was like', 'why..' etc. Without fail my answers only serve the listeners' political leanings and favourite prejudices. Whatever I said only suited their own complacent thinking. Without fail. <br /><br />You'd have to be an exceptional 'hard man' or just plain 'thick' to survive the Falls Road, Sandy Row (both in Belfast) or even Finglas (in Dublin) for even a few minutes. What I've always thought odd is that any outsider would voluntarily buy into this generations-old vicious fight. There's no 'good and bad' when you are on the end of a beating or knee capping, just plain fight or flight. Whose tribe you are with counts as protection of sorts. Anything shy of fulsome support was treated with suspicion and could easily result with a bullet in the back of the head. <br /><br />One of my favourite lines to stem the curious and political voyeurs is the one about the Jewish man who hailed a black taxi* in Belfast. He realises too late he's being driven into a nasty part of town and in panic he declares his jewishness to which the reply was "welI, well, I must be luckiest arab in the whole of Belfast". <br /><br />*It's well known that black taxis were front businesses for the paramilitaries to launder money sourced from illegal extortions and the like. They were also used as a grisly cartage service for the Shankill butchers and others.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14457232127152238.post-88828944936456627252011-12-31T13:25:47.374+11:002011-12-31T13:25:47.374+11:00And is that a slur against Saddam Hussein, I detec...And is that a slur against Saddam Hussein, I detect in the Prophet's demented jabberings? Did not his Labor buddies and henchmen attempt to raise party funds from the socialist Baathist regime when it was headed by the very tyrant himself? Bob now biting the dead hand from which Labor was once wont to feed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14457232127152238.post-62480246879183996342011-12-31T13:20:50.766+11:002011-12-31T13:20:50.766+11:00Nice post Prof. The lionising of Sands et al of th...Nice post Prof. The lionising of Sands et al of the IRA, like the romanticising of the Basque cretins of ETA and the hilarious attempts to lend Subcomandante Marcos of wherever in Mexico a kind of chic cachet are a fascinating study of lefty numptiness. I wonder what stops folks like Ellis lionising the Sicilian mafia? I can't see much diff between what the IRA does and what the Mafia does. It's all violence and blackmail for no benefit.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com