Panglossian Notes

Short fictitious conversation with Lieutenant-General Sir Graeme Lamb

Regarding some of his quotes in the article "Troops fear defeat at home", by Kim Sengupta, The Independent, November 30, 2009.

Lieutenant-General Sir Graeme Lamb

:

"We hear people saying the fight isn't worth it. Does that mean all the sacrifices which have been made, the deaths and the injuries have been for nothing?"

Pangloss:

"Yes!"

Lieutenant-General Sir Graeme Lamb:

Most of the force are quite stoical; they are just disappointed that their endeavours – what they are trying to do with great courage – are not, it seems, being properly recognised by some back home. It is a pity that they are working so hard to deliver success, not for themselves but the Afghan people, yet there are voices back home who say they are failing.

Pangloss:

Let me understand, you are British forces but your role is to work for the Afghan people? Catch a plane home tomorrow your loyalties seem a trifle skewed.

Lieutenant-General Sir Graeme Lamb:

"Things are getting better: the Taliban are suffering badly, but this is not about killing people – it's about establishing security and getting people to talk.

Pangloss:

You really are confusing me and I hope it is not on purpose. But if you mean what you say, "it is not about killing people", why do you keep doing it?

Lieutenant-General Sir Graeme Lamb:

"We do think that the tectonic plates are shifting, but there is a time gap before this becomes apparent. It is always the darkest before daybreak. But give us a bit more time, and we shall begin to see the results by the spring."

Pangloss:

"Tectonic plates are shifting?"

"Are you a geophysicist sir? Do you know of John Tuzo Wilson?"

"No, no don't answer either question. I'm now toying with you."

"I do appreciate the hopeful metaphor you cleverly insert before begging for another friedman unit. It should provide some courage to those who have been wondering what as really been going on over here since ... . How long has it been now, sir? Never mind, as I said, a nice quint touch and always good when pleading."

"But one last question."

"The spring you referred to is the coming one, correct?"

"Oops, where did the General go? I do need an answer to my last question"

Mr. Fish, Mr. Fish, MR. FISK

thank you. Can you pleze stop showin us the world through your strange eyes, boy. It's troublin to the young-ins when thar thinkin of the future:

And, Mr. Fish, though we like the impressionistic image of B illy J efferson  Clinton in repose, such a lovely as.....  hole  ...  sorry, sorry,  members -- cough, cough, cough ... . Mr. Fish we think showing, thunder thighs, Hillary in the print dress of a real woman is over stepping good taste, particularly as you seem to be implying she is high kicking over the graves of so many of those arrabs that have got themselves killed:

Technorati Tags: Assholes, Silly plain & simple

Arctic dreaming, again!

I was out last night with a group of Northerners some of whom I'd not seen for 9 years, I could hardly believe it, as we took up where we may have left off a decade, almost, before.

Talk from them was kids, new ones, some there, nice to see what pops out from particular unions, eh & old Arctic adventures.

A favourite: me with hypothermia in a qamutik wrapped in a caribou hide and a now prominent federal minister holding me as I shivered chit-chatting to me about Gjoa and its inuit as we raced back towards Iqaluit.

I survived, it seems, and it has made amongst some who know me an interesting Arctic story - the idiot who didn't dress properly and almost clownishly died on a sunny Saturday's tubing.

Some, for me, disturbing aspects came up, kids from Gjoa don't necessarily speak Inuktitut (ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ) fluently. I was afraid to ask if they read and wrote syllabics. Jeez. Syllabics each sign a sound I could say. It was my way into the language. I knew people I thought were inuit because of the way they spoke English to me who've told me over beers at the Legion, Geoffrey I'm like you a qallunaat. In these strange cases, English was the second language with Inuktitut being the first - kids of teachers in remote communities. For the lack of a better way of describing their English it was words I knew but with an Inuktitut cadence, very confusing

I spoke with one kid who said her family found it easier to speak English to her. I've heard that one before. The French mother of my son would say it, thankfully he didn't lose his real mother's tongue and has added since German and Mandarin. The latter he took up as a kid of 10 through China's sort of Goethe Institute program at a local high school. Strange kid now an interesting adult who still let's me chit-chat with him. Nice, I think.

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe catch a cartoon by the toe?

Harper's is using this Mr. Fisk cartoon this week on their blog:

I'd have used either one or the other of the two below (you have to click on them to read the fine print, eh):

I've been on a bummer for awhile so here is a kitschy "This American Life" to save myself, eh, I hope:

Medium Cool (see second clip below) from a 21st Century Chicago perspective - jeeze wasn't Medium Cool done in Chicago what the f... :

Oh shit It maybe worst then I thought. Back to drinking JD.

Of course it is likely that I'm old and have missed the joke of the This American Life cartoon - which is, of course ironic sort of, eh.

Technorati Tags: Christ, what's up, eh!

Today's hilarity, from Russia TV a critical look at the political Kingdom of NYC

A former totalitarian state's TV has a look at democracy NYC style, conclusion, voting doesn't count, money does count. A perverse twist on C. B. Macpherson's The Real World of Democracy or just a variation  of the road to totalitarianism? Pretty funny when you think, also, of the new legitimate ruler of Afghanistan. Who can lecture who again? It's getting difficult to keep the various flip-flops, faux pas, hypocrisies in some kind of logical order, eh. But as long as the rulers aren't torturing me yet it is vastly amusing, I think.

Technorati Tags: Curious