As Father Ted once put it, “fascists are men who wear black and run round telling people what to do. Priests are…. well… more drink!” And so it is with Imperial officers here.
Taking the Sith
Okay, I think I’ve worked out the last of my Star Wars issues. It has taken a good couple of days, and a great deal of sneaking around the rubbish bins of Skywalker Ranch rooting around for discarded hard-drives and, when that failed, long hours of communion with The Force. Finally, though, Class Worrier is happy to host the first review of The Revenge of the Sith, based almost entirely on information received directly from midi-chlorians. Their verdict: better than you’d expected.
The Star Wars Saga – an all-purpose post-colonial review
It began, as the best stories do, half way through .. a battle against Empire… 1970s….liberation struggle… a new hope… New International Economic Order… Wizardry… Nelson Mandela… Jedi Nationalism… Dark Father, idiot, it’s Dark Father… Good droid, bad droid.. AT-AT is anagram of Tata: Coincidence? … the slug and the princess … Ewoks: Muppetry of the penis… Indigenous peoples as soft toys… Mark Hamill scarcely believable as human, let alone Jedi…. Vast pots of LucasCash.. And so after two decades… Trade disputes, taxes… World Trade Organization… thinly-veiled-racial-stereotypes… Culture Wars…Urban fantasy: “The Entire Planet’s a City”.. Who mops up on Coruscant? … Republic Complacency.. Democratic party… Imperial overstretch… Iraq… Jedi as terrorist… death in childbirth… what a wookie…Emperor… Karl Rove … Grima Wormtongue … no redeeming value… can’t wait for episode seven.
Self portrait machine
Following in the footsteps of the Brooke brothers, I thought I’d give the South Park self-portrait machine a go. Feel my wrath and tremble. 
Galileo Galileo
Now that Kurt Waldheim has been named Pope, the world can get back to business. And business is what my mate Ignacio Chapela’s getting back at (great link, no?), having filed suit against the Regents at the University of California at Berkeley.
Timeless observations on Christianity, civilisation, and bread in the US
Who said this, and when?
“..time has passed, and in that time the Christian world has revealed itself as morally bankrupt and politically unstable. The Tunisians were quite right in 1956 – and it was a very significant moment in Western (and African) history – when they countered the French justification for remaining in North Africa with the question “Are the French ready for self-government?” Again, the terms “civilized” and “Christian” begin to have a very strange ring, particularly in the ears of those who have been judged to be neither civilized nor Christian, when a Christian nation surrenders to a foul and violent orgy, as Germany did during the Third Reich.”
Continue reading “Timeless observations on Christianity, civilisation, and bread in the US”
Lunacy
Today is a day of parts. Thanks to Hal Berstram I have discovered that Robert Kilroy-Silk’s odious “Veritas” party is actually a cover for sick Marmite-related S&M activities. Thanks to the BBC, I have discovered this splendid picture,
showing participants negotiating a hurdle at the Porcine Olympics. And from the good folk at the New Economics Foundation in London, I am pleased to share a call for jokes concerning the new President of the World Bank, in a new Wolfowit campaign.
The Turtle Does The UK Election
The incisive Hal Bertram, longtime friend of the Turtle, has now found an online, and hopefully not too temporary, home in the bosom of the People’s Beast. Your one stop shop for pointed and healthy cynicism – the Turtle’s Election Blog – is now open for business.
Rome from Home
Bit late, this, but that’s because I’ve been in Texas, where I managed to pick up a remarkable insult from Jagdish Bhagwati: “That Patel Fellow! You know, it’s an oxymoron. You can’t be a Gujarati and be a marxist.” Anyway, enough about me. As I say, a bit late, but nonetheless an important bit of popery here and a fine new blog, the Chronicles of Ryan, here.
ParasiteWatch
[Another delayed posting] Since the last posting here on Class Worrier, two presidents have been selected. With profound clairvoyance, Mugabe got the two thirds majority he thought he would in Zimbabwe, while Wolfowitz passed, unhindered, into a comfy chair on K Street. George Monbiot, incidentally, seems to agree with the Worrier on the utility of Wolf-2 for those opposed to the Bank. Clever boy.