It's been a "same old, same old" day at work...
...but a lot going on, news-wise!
It's twenty years since the abolition of the despised "Section 28" anti-gay legislation in the UK - yet here we are in 2023, and in a move more extreme that anything that nasty piece of legislation ever achieved, the paranoid fascists in Putin's benighted Russian despotate have decided that a non-existent "international LGBT public movement" is "an extremist organisation" to be banned. Dangerous lunacy, or a diversion from the failings of the war in Ukraine and the Russian economy? Or both?
There's been a slew of deaths - most notably, the controversial Nobel Peace Prize-winning centenarian statesman Henry Kissinger, whose legacy was either that it was his hard work that led to the end of the bitter Arab-Israeli wars in the 1970s and also paved the way for détente with the Eastern Bloc countries so easing the path out of the Cold War, or else it was his intervention that prolongued the horrors of the Vietnam War by authorising the bombing of then-communist-occupied Laos and Cambodia - a move that facilitated the rise of the genocidal Pol Pot regime - and the part he played in providing tacit support to the brutal dictatorships in Chile and Argentina enabled those dictators to "disappear" thousands of their own people and decimate the economies of their countries. You choose.
The deaths were also announced of former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer under both Blair and Brown Alistair Darling, the stalwart of the classic Scouse TV soap Brookside for 17 years "Jimmy Corkhill" aka Dean Sullivan, and...
...the man with the worst dentistry in pop history, founder-member and singer-songwriter of The Pogues Shane McGowan! Best-known, of course, for that perennial Xmas favourite Fairytale of New York (with the lovely Kirsty McColl), I've chosen this one instead by way of a tribute:
There's going to be a helluva party in Fabulon tonight when Shane reunites with Kirsty.
And, finally...
It's St Andrew's Day today! Have some Scottish shortbread.
Enjoy!
I've just popped over from Mitzi's, where I see you've announced the death of Sticky Vicky. A nation mourns.
ReplyDeleteWhat items in black are you "wearing" in tribute, dear Mistress? Jx
DeleteI love shortbread. I'm reminded why. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteJust the right balance between sweet and salt... Jx
DeleteDo not start me on the subject of Kissinger. DO NOT START ME.
ReplyDelete"Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize." - Tom Lehrer (again)
DeleteJx
This is a classic... and so true.
DeleteTom Lehrer, genius. And still alive, so he can dance on Kissinger's grave. Jx
DeleteI am with Mr.Lehrer and "Steve" on the subject of H.K.
ReplyDeleteI've heard some people laud Pogues, but they are not in my eclectic box o' goodies.
Now, mere mention of the K. man sends me out to the kitchen for some mouthwash. (A very potable Chardonnay..)
It's a little early here for Chardonnay, but clink, clink... Jx
Delete"There's going to be a helluva party in Fabulon tonight when Shane reunites with Kirsty." - I don't believe in all that after life stuff but that is a lovely and heart warming thought. As is Kilt Day -
ReplyDeleteLet the wind blow high
Let the wind blow low
Through the streets, in my kilt I'll go
All the lassies say hello
Donald, where's your troosers?
Even his widow wants Fairytale of New York to get to #1 at Xmas, by way of a tribute, so I imagine we'll be hearing a helluva lot more of Shane'n'Kirsty before the new year!
Delete"Is there anything worn under the kilt?"
"No, it's all in perfect working order." - Spike Milligan
Jx