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| Taqiyya ... err ... Tayyip Erdoğan's pride: Five brave defender of democracy risking their lives against a heavily armed terrorist. |
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| See the joy in this brave civil policeman's face? |
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| And here another police hero defending democracy against a "Terror-Lady in Red" |
Okay, that's Turkey. Of course, such things could not happen in the most wonderful of all democracies in this universe and those yet to discover, could they?
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| Oops. Isn't that Lt John Pike defending the USA against a whole bunch of terrorists? |
I get the feeling as if only recently there was a man saying: "When I see a policeman with a club beating a man on the ground, I don't have to ask whose side I'm on."
Now, Lt. Pike and his brave Turkish comrades – they all definitely being beacons of intelligence – will teach this George Orwell, once they have caught him, I bet.
At least, John Pike was fired, on August 2012, by a newly appointed police chief. Let's see if the Turkish democracy will lay off the cop who sprayed the Lady-in-Red.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope so...
I know that quite a few people in the US and UK think that the NSA total information awareness debacle is something of a tempest in a teapot. What's troublesome to me about it is that absolutely anyone can be targeted as a subversive. What was that other old saying? First, they came for the Jews but I wasn't..
ReplyDeleteGood post, Sean.
Claude,
ReplyDeleteas for Pike: This 'little Hitler' will certainly have found an employer delighted to have found someone meeting his requirement profile.
As for the "little Hitler" who sprayed the Lady in Red: Hope dies last, but it will die I suppose.
Susan,
thank you.
It is a tragedy that those who would never risk their arse – politicians and their masters – will always find enough human beings (sic!) to execute their will. Our mother uses to call them "the little Hitlers" – intellectual and moral scum that enjoys at least once to be superior – by burning books, gas Jews, . . .
And afterwards to say: 'I did but my duty.'
Thinking of that – who knows? – I could easily fit in this category sometimes lets me shudder.
Did you ever happen to read Edgar Hilsenrath's The Nazi and the Barber?
As for the US: Decade by decade their politicians and corporations have been doing their best to increase my disgust.
In other words:
I thought there could be not worse a President than this debicile puppet of Cheney et al.; then Obama managed to get elected.
You're right. Just as an example, it was scary in the US to witness the transformation of previously low key security guards into semi-paramilitary forces at hospitals and shopping malls after being given new instructions post 9/11. Most people there don't understand the US has continued to be operated under the same state of national emergency that was declared in the aftermath of that event.. renewed by Obama every September since. That's just my way of saying in brief that I don't like him either. The last president I did like was Carter..
ReplyDeleteI haven't read The Nazi and the Barber, but now I've read a few of the very positive reviews it received. Hilsenrath appears to be a very sensitive and intelligent author. What I have read just recently are two books by Solzhenitsyn - The Cancer Ward and A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. My husband has almost finished The First Circle and has told me much about it but I'm not sure I'll read that too - at least not yet. Solzhenitsyn is also in danger of being forgotten as a writer but should be much more widely read for his deep understanding of humanity's potential for 'going along to get along' tendencies. There are some very frightening things in process now; the only real difference with similar situations in times past is the scope.
Ah, Susan, I do vividly remember that almost no member of Congress knew what s/he voted for when letting pass the so-called Patriot Act.
ReplyDeleteAs for Carter / Reagan: I found interesting that the hostages in Tehran Embassy got released after (!) Reagan [Johnny Carson: "After all the clowns a real actor in the White House, after all"] had won the election – a deal as part of what later became known as the Iran-Contra-Affair?
As for Solzhenitsyn: I read both books in the early 70s, and afterwards The Gulag Archipelago.
As we are at it: Did you you happen to read
Lev Kopelev's "To be Preserved Forever"?
Uff, enough stuff for tonight, hm? I ought not to keep you from drawing / painting. :)
It's a little too late for me to be drawing now but I have read the wiki and shared parts with Jer who was interested to discover the basis of the Rubin character. He's planning to read the abridged Gulag soon. I think it would be too much for me - as would 'To Be Preserved Forever'.
ReplyDeleteIt's really too bad that the jerks who initiate all this chaos never read these books; come to think of it, nor do most people.
Thank you Sean....
ReplyDeleteSusan,
ReplyDeleteI fear reading books like these would not (necessarily) prevent a jerk from acting like a jerk.
Erkan,
you are welcome, my friend.