DUFF & NONSENSE!

And as I am in remembering mode ...

66 years ago today, I, as a child evacuee, 'slept soundly in my bed because rough men stood ready to do violence on my behalf' - I trust Orwell will forgive my personal paraphrase.  In fact, during that night as I dreamed my childhood dreams, those 'rough men' from the British and American airborne forces were tumbling from their aircraft over a darkened and occupied France, and as dawn inched above the horizon the greatest armada in the history of the world stood ready to disgorge its cargo of civilian-soldiers across the exposed beaches of Normandy.  I stress the word 'civilian' because these were not, on the whole, battle-hardened warriors who had devoted their working lives to the business of war, but clerks and plumbers and farmers and shop-assistants called, more or less reluctantly, to the colours to fight - well, to fight what, exactly?  I suspect that a small minority understood the subtleties of the geo-political struggle of which they were a part but most, I guess, simply accepted that an amorphous menace simply had to be dealt with.  None of that would have been in their minds as their landing craft bashed and crashed through the swell and the dread moment approached when the ramp would splash down and they would have to face the bullet-swept beaches.  The First World War had its poets to express in words the maelstrom of emotions that war invokes.  For the Second World War we must turn to the most unlikely of sources for unforgettable imagery - Hollywood!  The first 25 minutes of Steven Spielberg's film Saving Private Ryan is the very greatest monument to all the men who faced - and those who fell - during those horrific early moments on the beaches in Normandy.

No need to dwell on it for too long - and I trust I have avoided undue sentimentality - but still, worth just a moment to pause and to remember and to inwardly salute.

Remember him?

Well, yes, I do remember him - on a very occasional basis, I must confess.  And indeed, how could one ever forget that iconic image of the little man clutching his briefcase or shopping and facing off a line of tanks in Peking 21 years ago today?  Who was he?  Where is he today?  We would like to think that he stands for all Mankind in facing up to tyranny but the fact is - he doesn't.  The vast majority of us would simply lack the sheer nerve that was needed.  He was a one-off, gifted with cool, phlegmatic courage of the highest order. But whilst everyone, rightly, remembers him, I also remember the tank commander, a man who self-evidentally retained his humanity in a moment of great tension and hostility and paused his monstrous machine until the incident was over.  Two very remarkable men.

My thanks to Publius at Breitbart for the tip.

"Waving not drowning"

Yes, I confess, I stole my headline from David Blackburn at The Coffee House who reports the story that the Maldive Islands, far from sinking below the waves, are in fact growing!  I seem to remember the publicity-devouring president of the Maldives creating a song and dance at sundry HAF (Hot Air Fanatic) meetings to the effect that for the Maldives the end of the world was nigh, so that leaves him looking like the undoubted prat that he is but better still, the useless idiots who wept with him in his plight look even more stupid than normal.

Alas, whilst I have much to say, given the rain-soaked 10 days I spent in France during which I festered quietly, the 'Memsahib' has issued a list of outstanding jobs which have built up in our absence and which, she assures me with the sweetest of smiles, had better be sorted by next week or else!  (What was that?  Oh, yes, dear, right away dear, just coming . . .)

Bonjour, mes amis, j'ai retournee!

Yes, indeed, like Gen. MacArthur, I have returned, er, well, not exactly like him because even I couldn't quite reach those heights of bluff and bluster, but anyway, I am back from my perilous trip to France.  You might wonder exactly what risk I could possibly run 'just over there' which is because you have forgotten the wine - the meat - the wine - the fish - the wine - the pate - the wine - les deserts - more wine, and so on.  However, with typical British pluck I downed it all and damn the consequences - and God bless the man who invented elasticated waist-bands.  Talking of God, He can cut his own bloody grass in the village churchyard from now on!  Everyday, I mean absolutely everyday, we had rain and it was so cold we had a log fire going most evenings.  If anyone mentions global warming to me they are likely to get a fire-lighter shoved where the sun don't shine!  Only this morning did I awake to a real 'Tory blue' sky without a single cloud - such a consolation as we drove to the airport - grrrrrh!

Landing back here in this 'sceptic Isle' I was greeted by the headlines in the Memsahib's newspaper of choice that some nutter had gone on the rampage and gunned down 12 people.  'Only in America',  I thought, until I read the details and saw that it had occurred here in England!  A tad depressing but when I reached home and switched on my trusty computer, I saw a headline on Drudge that cheered me up:

Obama Weekly Approval Average Dips to New Low of 46%

Go git'im, Sarah baby, he's a one shot wonder!