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NOTWITHSTANDING WHERE THE CURRENT BATMAN RELEASE, BY TITLE THE DARK KNIGHT, HAS A PG-13 RATING FOR what the motion-picture industry's ratings board calls "intense sequences of violence and some menace," to use the Consumer Advice Note therefor, certain specimens of Zealotry and True Belief in cultural conservatism @ its most pathetic are seeing parallels between the film's plot/storyline and the "law and order" mindset of His Fraudulency's Greater ur-RAHOWA on Terrorism for what may be perceived hagiographic intent--but in reality, is nothing short of pathetic.

Witness what CNN Headline News "stellar season" mouthpiece Glenn Beck had to say on his show the other night (thanks to Think Progress for the hat tip; emphasis in transcript supplied):

But Batman goes into another country and with a C-130 snatches a guy out, and then throws him back here into Gotham. So there's rendition. At one point the Morgan Freeman character says to Batman, wait a minute, hang on, you're eavesdropping on everyone in Gotham? And Batman says, yes, to stop this terrorist. Morgan Freeman says, I can't be a part of it. And yet Morgan Freeman does become a part of it, and they find the Joker. One of the ways they find the Joker is through eavesdropping. I mean the parallels here of what's going on is to me stunning.

In other words, to the cultural-conservative Weltanschauung, the use of violence in the name of Law and Order--especially so a sadisto, "blood-and-thunder" stylee thereof--is morally justifiable, so long as the ends justify the means. Never mind the clear and present danger of "copycat" incidents by the impressionable and easily-influenced, among them children and the mentally-unstable, with the likelihood that the film will be given credit for influencing such acts, deeds and exploits.

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MEANWHILE, IT MAY BE INTERESTING TO NOTE HOW SOME OTHER COUNTRIES VIEW THE DARK KNIGHT from the standpoint of film-review boards:

• In Canada, the Ontario Film Ratings Board has given The Dark Knight a 14A rating (under 14's require adult accompaiment) for what the OFRB calls "frightening scenes" and "violence;" for its part, the Régie du cinéma de Québec has given same (released in French as Le chevalier noir) 13 ans+ (for audiences 13 and upwards; younger audiences allowed with adult accompaiment) for "violence."
• Between Land's End and John O'Groats, The Dark Knight has a 12A certificate (audiences under 12 years must be accompanied by an adult), noting where the film "contains moderate violence and sustained threat."
• South Africa's Film and Publications Board (FPB) rates The Dark Knight 13-V (only for audiences 13 and up; violence).
• Australia's Classification Board has given The Dark Knight an M (mature) rating for "frequent action violence." (Down Under, an M-certificated film carries no legal age restriction, and is purely advisory.)
• New Zealand's Film and Video Labelling Body, for and on behalf of the Office of Film and Literature Classification, rates The Dark Knight M/V (Mature, for violent scenes); again, in New Zealand, an M rating is merely advisory, but parents are advised to use caution in the case of children under 16 years.

Take that, "culture warriors"!

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SERIOUSLY, THOUGH, WITH GAS PRICES THE WAY THEY ARE, PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO REALISE THAT THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES TO DRIVING as make more sensible use of fuels all alone.

Like bus travel.

And Amtrak, which is no doubt seeing capacity issues on a number of trains--not the least of which is the Empire Builder, currently the only train through Winona as serves Chicago, Milwaukee, the Twin Cities, Glacier National Park, Seattle and Portland. Even then, CHI-MKE-MSP traffic thereon is being stretched to the point where calls have been made by online communities to add another train as would operate only to the Twin Cities.

Best solution I can think of: Take one of the existing Hiawatha Service trains between Chicago and Milwaukee and extend same to the Twin Cities, with provision for a café car as would serve sandwiches, light meals and snacks along with the existing coach accomodation.

Otherwise, what stands in the way of breaking our bond-slavery to automotive dependency--arrogant delusions about "the defence of our antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity" as a "morally superior" society?

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SO MUCH FOR THE IDEA OF IMPEACHING HIS FRAUDULENCY AND SUCH AMONG HIS GREAT WITHIN for all manner of high and infamous crimes and misdemeanors, and as close to Indecision 2008 as it stands now:

Pakistani legislators are now taking up motions to proceed with the impeachment of State President Perez Musharaf--the same Musharaf which His Fraudulency once boasted of as a dear and trusted droog in the ur-RAHOWA Against Terrorism, know--for abuse of power to the point of imposing Emergency Powers under questionable pretexts following the assaination of Benazhir Bhutto late last year, essentially suspending elections in the process.

If our Pakistani brethren can proceed with such a motion, what would prevent our "morally superior" society from doing likewise?

Or how about having the Great Within simply tender their resignations within measurable distance, thereby preempting the likelihood of a clear and present Constitutional Crisis which the weird, unwholesome and even dangerous could seek to exploit.

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AS IF MICHAEL "LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER" SAVAGE WASN'T HAVING ENOUGH TROUBLE TRYING TO SPIN HIMSELF LOOSE from his rather tasteless and disingenous remarks dismissing autism and autism-spectrum disorders as a "fraud [and] racket" designed to maximise welfare benefits by trick or deception, he's trying to distract Kankerdom's attention by pandering to their crude, primitive and easily-influenced feelings of xenophobically racist and nativist "patriot love" in perhaps the crudest way known.

Witness these remarks on Mr. Savage's broadcast of the 4th, as transcribed faithfully by Media Matters for America (and, know, they are in context lest there be any whining and caterwauling about "misquotation" or "misinterpretation" on the part of Savage or his droogs of the worst sort):

Things are so bad in Europe that the Italians have put soldiers, military on their streets. Now, you have to understand what it means by "things are so bad." The illegal immigrants, mainly Muslims and Africans, are out of control. So they've done there what we need to do here. We need to get our troops out of Iraq and put them on the streets of America to protect us from the scourge of illegal immigrants who are running rampant across America, killing our police for sport, raping, murdering like a scythe across America while the liberal psychos are telling us they all come here to work.

The story says, "Soldiers on Italian streets--hundreds of soldiers have fanned across Italy to help police fight crime. The soldiers also guard detention centers, processing illegal immigrants blamed by the government for much of Italy's crime. But a group of immigrants used the deployment as an opportunity to protest and draw attention to their conditions and delays in asylum requests." They got the racket worked out pretty good, huh? First you break into a country, then you say "drop dead" if you don't give me citizenship. And then they spit in your face, then they beat up your police, and the police run away.

That's the country of Italy, the once-proud nation of Italy, the former Roman empire reduced to hiding behind the shuttered doors. And you're telling me you're going to Tuscany--yeah, drink your chianti, eat your mortadella, Schmi--Guido. Go eat your mortadella, Guido, tell me how wonderful Tuscany is. I hear these reports from people who come back. "Oh, I went to Tuscany, oh, I love Tuscany." You sat there like a fat drunk, you didn't know what was going on around you there. Go buy yourself a condo in Tuscany. You have no idea what's going on because like in this country, you don't want to know what's going on, you've got your head in the sand. When guys like me, the Paul Reveres of our time, have to take the whole burden on our own back. Go ahead, go stuff your face with mortadella and drink your chianti and think the world is fine because you become an old drunk in an undershirt--I'd like to say to them.

Why is it that the Italians called out the military? Why can't we call out the military and put 'em on the border with Mexico? Why can't we send the military into San Francisco to take control of the city before other innocent civilians are killed? Uh huh, why? You tell me why. You tell me why. San Jose, Dave, you're on The Savage Nation, go ahead, please, what's on your mind?

[...]

So there it is, Italy, they're calling out the military, they called them out already in the streets, but you didn't read that yet, huh? Didn't make it to your local comic book? The local comic books that nobody buys anymore called newspapers because they provide you nothing but trash, day and night? No truth, no reality, no stories -- you turn on the cable news, they're covering again a missing child. Not a missing country but a missing child, every day about a missing child but not a missing country, every day about a missing child but no missing country.

Every--about the rape of a woman, but not about the rape of the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty is crying, she's been raped and disheveled--raped and disheveled by illegal aliens, and our politicians do nothing except give themselves big fat checks and big fat jobs. The Statue of Liberty is disheveled and raped and she's crying, and she needs to be helped, but you turn on the cable news networks--missing children, rape, rape, missing children, missing children, rape, rape, missing children, rape, missing children, missing children, rape.

How about missing country and the rape of a nation? Why don't they cover the real story? Why don't they tell the rest of us to get ready for what's coming in this country? That we have to protect ourselves because everybody else is ducking and hiding? They're hiding under their desks in Washington, they're hiding under their desks in the state capitals, they're hiding under their desks in the city capitals. And we have to fend for ourself because the government is not protecting us, don't you get it?

So much for "the raping of the Statue of Liberty"--how about bringing in some "fairness and balance" with that immortal poem of Emma Lazarus @ the base of the aforementioned, entitled "The New Colossus," quoted in its entire:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land,
Here at our sea-wash'd, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbour which twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore;
Send these the homeless, tempest-tost to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Fox Prolefeed, eat your heart out....

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HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE ABOUT THE ALLUSION REFERENCED IN THE POEM JUST QUOTED: The "Colossus" referenced is the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World as stood just outside the harbour there (not astride it, as widely believed) for 56 years until it was toppled in an earthquake in 292 BCE, all 70 cubits (about 105'/32 metres) of its height.

And I bet you didn't know that the Colossus of Rhodes was actually a statue of the city's patron, the Greek sun god Helios.

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TALK ABOUT FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Alongside all manner of deep-fried foods "on the stick" @ the just-opened Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis is a walk-through model of the human colon sponsored by a local cancer-treatment centre to raise awareness among visitors of the dangers the colon can face from things like poor diet (especially such as is lacking in bulk) and irregular habits.

How many will wind up blowing lunch after seeing this graphic, yet "educational," display is anybody's guess.

Come to think of such, such might want to be brought on a tour across the rather arrogant, hubris-laden South, where "Southern Heritage" is the preferred excuse and bromide for politically-incorrect dietary habits (as in liberal doses of high-fat/sugar/sodium foods, not to mention the preferred "teatime" snack among "white trash" being a Moon Pie and an RC Cola).

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IF EVER THERE WAS A POSTER CHILD FOR THE ARROGANT DEFENCE OF MALE CHAUVINISM BEING EXCUSED AS ONE FOR G-D, COUNTRY AND FAMILY (not unlike apartheid South Africa in its Luscious Glory of hubris), it would have to be the pseudoreligious evangel John Hagee.

In evidence, consider the following video from Right Wing Watch:

(Come to think of it: How many among the Religiopolitical Right, and their pseudoreligious base, could be considered closet apologists of the apartheid regime and its arrogant delusions of "preserving white male honour"?)

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WITH A FORTNIGHT TO GO NOW BEFORE THE 2008 EDITION OF THE GREAT MINNESOTA GET-TOGETHER (OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE MINNESOTA STATE FAIR) THROWS OPEN its gates to the world, perhaps it was time to get you in the mood (so to speak) with the recipe for Swedish Egg Coffee, as served @ the Salem Lutheran Church Dining Hall since time immemorial (or so it seems among seasoned TGMnGT visitors)--especially suited for a large crowd:

• Bring one gallon of cold water to the boil in a tin splatterware pot.
• In the meantime, combine one egg, three pounds of ground coffee and enough water to just moisten the coffee (this will likely require some trial and error to get things just right).
• Once the water is boiled, add the coffee mixture and brew until well-boiled.
• Remove from the heat, filter and decant into an urn or Thermos bottle, and serve.

Now tell me if this isn't the sort of coffee even that coffee-swilling feline Garfield would love consistently....

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AND SPEAKING OF THE SALEM LUTHERAN CHURCH DINING HALL, they just so happen to be among the "last of a dying breed," as it were, @ TGMnGT--as in dining halls offering fairgoers a "just-like-home" meal as raises funds for church activities; high food, energy, concession and labour costs, not to mention changing tastes, have pretty much done in church dining halls over recent years.

Leaving only three such remaining for devotees of TGMnGT to consider among their dining options; in addition to that of Salem Lutheran, whose specialities are the aforementioned Swedish Egg Coffee and Swedish meatball platters, the only church dining halls still serving meals are the Epiphany Diner and that of Hamline United Methodist Church, whose speciality is baked ham loaf.

(If you'd like to consider your dining options for the Minnesota State Fair, then check out Fairborne's Fabulous Fair Food Finder on the TGMnGT website, which is a fully-searchable databank to help you find all the corn dog stands--and then some.) 

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AFTER THIS SUMMER SEEING LAKE DELTON IN THE WISCONSIN DELLS REGION AS NOTHING BUT LAKEBED thanks to its being drained in the wake of flooding on 9 June, much is being expected in the "water business" of the Wisconsin Dells/Lake Delton region for its return following remedial reconstruction over the fall and winter months.

Which will also include reconstruction of County Rd. A in the general vicinity of the channel carved out in said flooding, thereby draining Lake Delton in the process.

Meanwhile, before the serious work gets underway on Lake Delton's return to glory, as it were, let's just hope someone doesn't get any ideas in the vein of one Flink Touristberg; in the Johnny Test episode "Johnny and the Pork Ness Monster," an attempt to seek relief from a monster heatwave by way of an old rope swing in Pork Ness Lake (outside Porkbelly) turns into an encounter with the Pork Ness Monster--which Johnny's twin sisters, Mary and Susan, discover is nothing short of an audioanimatronic scam just to fleece the tourists.

(The giveaway: While diving to find cluedos, the twins find an underwater cavern with a sign reading "Monster Launching Station" and some railroad track.)

And which Johnny exposes even further by discovering remote-control consoles to control the "Pork Ness Monster" near a tacky-looking gift shop and excursion-boat dock cashing in on the phony "legend."

In any event, Flink Touristberg gets his desserts--even if Mary and Susan's diving suits, draped in weeds and mud, have them mistaken for "lake monsters" in science-fiction stylee.

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WELL, MAYBE NOT ON THE PART OF YOUR CORRESPONDENT; HOWEVER, TO THE MINDS OF CERTAIN ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS in Neoconservatism tending to Fascism, "real Americans" are getting sick and tired of Barak Obama's suggesting where motorists checking their tyre pressure would go a long way towards saving gas, for one.

Now it's emerged that the idea is nothing new: Back in 1990, President Bush peré was urging Americans to check tyre pressure as one way to save fuel brought upon by his Middle Eastern misadventures, and there were Public Service Announcements being broadcast to that effect.

Said advice not sitting well with the hard-wired specimens of Zealotry and True Belief in Neoconseratism, as witness remarks by Newt Gingrich on Fox Prolefeed (hat tip to Think Progress) when the issue of proper tyre pressure vis-a-vis saving fuel recently surfaced anew, dismissing such as (in his exact words) "ludicrous" and "Loony Tunes."

Your Correspondent, for his part, feels maintaining proper tyre pressure is but one step "right-thinking American" motorists can take to help save fuel; others I know of include:

• Having tyres checked for wear, and replacing such as show signs thereof;
• Having tyres rotated on a regular basis;
• Having alignment systems checked on a regular basis;
• Having regular tune-ups as recommended in the Owner's Manual, including oil and transmission-fluid changes @ recommended intervals, radiator/cooling system flushing and refills (distilled water isn't really necessary, unless the owner's manual specifically recommends it), and replacing oil and air filters as recommended;
• Reducing highway speeds to reasonable levels, e.g., 60 mph on open highways and 55 mph on urban freeways; and
• Avoiding wasteful acceleration, "jackrabbit" starts and distractions, especially unnecessary cell-phone use or text-messaging (which, in some states, is now illegal while driving).

(And, in the case of longer drives, maintaining mental alertness by making brief rest stops every 2-3 hours of driving to stretch the muscles and sip something refreshing--and non-alcoholic.)

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AS IF PEOPLE ARE STILL TALKING ABOUT THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG'S USING PARIS HILTON IN CAMPAIGN ADVERTISING, Ms. Hilton herself is taking a swipe herself with this online video from FunnyOrDie.com as is worth watching--and sharing.

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HARD TO SAY IF THE FOLLOWING NEWS WILL SCORE POINTS WITH HIS FRAUDULENCY'S GREAT WITHIN HOPING TO EXPAND THE UR-RAHOWA'S IRAQI FRONT into Iran to the point of backing down, especially as an "October Surprise" trick to benefit the McCain campaign:

Citing pressure from human-rights groups, Iran has announced that it has abolished the penalty of death by stoning, and will review the court sentences of those thus sentenced for such offences we "morally superior" Americans would dismiss as whimsical as possessing alcohol, "un-Islamic" dress or behaviours, "adultery" and suchlike.

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ADVICE FOR THE CSI CROWD IN RESPONSE TO RON SUSSKIND'S LATE CHARGES OF OUTRIGHT FORGERY BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR THE UR-RAHOWA IN IRAN, and said forgery being on the hands of His Fraudulency's Great Within all along:

With said Great Within spinning the story in unbelievable directions, may I suggest some forensic testing being conducted on the paper, ink, even stylee of handwriting used in the "memos" in question to conclusively confirm that forgery was involved.

Forgery of the Protocols of Zion stylee, come to think of it.

In due time, then, such should help connect the dots to the point of revealing that it was the Great Within and its "inside of the inside" as cooked up 9/11 for sinister and perverted ends and purposes.

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COINCIDENCE OF HISTORY AS MAY/MAY NOT BE ONE FOR RIP LI: The Unfortunate Events of 9/11/01 occured exactly 60 years to the day of Colonel Charles Lindbergh's infamous speech to an America First rally in Des Moines, blaming "effete British elites" for steering America all the closer to World War II, as would become the undoing of the "America First!" movement seeking to maintain American neutrality in the name of "our antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity."

And would, in the end, turn the tide towards America supporting the Allied cause in World War II, with the Pearl Harbor attacks being the catalyst.

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WOULD YOU HAVE THESE WEIRD AND UNWHOLESOME TYPES IN YOUR BACK YARD?

Though the item following (as translated from the original Yiddish) appeared in the Jewish gazetta Forward 75 years ago this week (and is thus featured in their "Looking Back" column), the message still has its freshness for our own time, what with home-grown extremists posing as much a threat of terrorism as foreign-based such (though the Great Within of His Fraudulency and their propaganda droogs doesn't want you and me knowing as much):

Although German government officials deny it, their supporters are still distributing significant amounts of pro-Nazi propaganda throughout the United States. It was recently discovered that a Nazi front group, the German-American Commercial League, had set up shop in the pretty little town of Suffern, N.J., where the group maintains a kind of summer resort in which, it was noticed, members walk around naked a lot and hold pro-Nazi rallies. It was also noticed that every car in their parking lot has a swastika emblem. They also occasionally march through the town in rows of six, singing Nazi songs and cursing Jews. Suffern's residents have had enough of this behavior and are taking measures to put a stop to it. The German-American Commercial League was not available for comment. Two things that are known are that the group claims 380,000 members in the United States and Canada and that its headquarters is at 12 West 77th Street in Manhattan.

"Hoe meer dinge verander ..." 

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Mr. Keith Rupert Murdoch
Fox News Channel
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

Dear Mr. Murdoch:

First, my apologies for invoking your sacred and yet profane full name for the purposes of this Open Letter.

In any event, I would like to address @ this time the interconnexion between what you would regard as "fair and balanced" journalism and these remarks as appeared in the founding editorial of your Britannic "red top" Sunday franchise, by name and stylee of News of the World, on 1 October 1843:

Our motto is truth. Our practice is the fearless advocacy of the truth.

Which you may regard as fine and well for a motto ... but in actual practice, regardless of where News Corporation hangs out its editorial or entertainment shingles throughout the known world, well-documented evidence reveals that your "fearless advocacy of the truth" is nothing but a farce.

As in countless press-council investigations of your newspapers in Australia and Great Britain for such issues as Invasion of Privacy, Pandering to Latent Prejudices, Sensationalism, Racism, Bigotry, Appeals to Xenophobic Nationalism, Naming of Children Involved in Notorious Criminal Cases, Misrepresentation, Use of Fraud or Trick in Procuring the News, Unnecessary Sexual Titillation (as in Page Three) and Causing Mental or Emotional Harm, among other issues.

As in showing reckless and utter disregard for Truth to the point where your gazettas in Great Britain especially have had to publish apologies and pay out substantial cash compensation when it emerged that celebrity reportage was false, misleading or inaccurate, or otherwise showed reckless and utter contempt or disregard for truth.

As in offering substantial sums of money for big-big stories without checking on the credibility of sources beforehand; there's always the likelihood that someone sending your news organisations news tips motivated by promise of big-big money may really be some class of an alcoholic, a drug addict, a sex fiend or maniac, a chronic and habitual debtor, a psychopathic or otherwise habitual liar and/or boaster, a known and notorious criminal on the run from John Law or otherwise wanting to settle an old score in the worst way possible.

As in fabricating or staging news stories out of whole cloth if and when considered necessary, and with reckless and utter disregard all the while for journalistic ethics, propriety and integrity--especially when such faking or manipulation of the news is overdone to the point of sensationalised or otherwise attracting unnecessary attention, let alone justified as one with "winning of hearts and minds."

As in failing to recognise the inherent consequences of your numerous "campaigns" backfiring upon you and your journalistic products (as witness several instances where your "For Sarah Campaign" in the News of the World led to vigilante marches against named pedophilia suspects as turned out to be harmless and blameless all along, or otherwise shared the same name to the point of confusion ensuing--I believe there was @ least one suicide ensuing).

As in failing to justify the unhealthy and unnecessary use of soft-core pornography in the Page Three stylee from time to time on Fox News Channel save for the sake of distractionary titillation on the part of an audience tending mostly to the poor, undereducated or homeschooled, lower-working-class (and unlikely to see much real job/career advancement opportunities) and marginalised of Society.

As in excusing the maintenance and perpetuation of xenophobic, nativist, narcisstic, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic and suchlike other tendencies and feelings, exploiting such among the same vulnerable audiences I just made note of, and expecting them to accept such as "healthy, nutritious and patriotic" all @ once, not to mention being necessary to the defence of American soverignty and soverign identity, as well as that of free-market capitalism with American characteristics.

As in showing nothing short of contempt for an audience who you regard as easily willing to accept what your media outlets regard as Truth without question or reservation, any challenges to such reportage to be looked upon as nothing less than "betrayal" as could harm "our antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity."

In any case:

What exactly will it take to see the errors of your ways in perverting the integrity and credibility of the Fourth Estate?

How many lawsuits charging Invasion of Privacy, Undue Emotional Harm and Distress, Defamation, Libel or Related Conspiracies, to take some plum examples as could cause your organisations serious trouble in the right circumstances?

How many investigations into the likelihood of Racketeering or otherwise being in the pay of weird and unwholesome elements, including hostile foreign regimes secretly holding substantial financial interests in News Corporation or its affiliates for the sake of peddling influence?

How many suicides, emotional breakdowns or alcoholic jags from the targeted?

How many court actions not unlike that which bankrupted Confidential magazine in 1957, notwithstanding their claiming that they "Tell the Facts and Name the Names"?

How many instances where it's been discovered that you're using subliminal messages for fraudulent or otherwise deceptive purposes?

What exactly will it take to realise Facts?

But don't come crying to me, or otherwise pontificate on what Nietzsche said about "that which does not kill us makes us stronger," let alone that Mickey Mouse about "the ends justifying the means," corrupt, weird and unwholesome though they be. You alone brought on your own problem.

And Another Thing:

Have you considered the possibility of your being an alcoholic, drug addict, sex maniac or even emotionally disturbed? Get some counselling.

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MEMO TO READERS: As per usual with these Open Letters, you are strongly urged to share these with your friends and e-mail circles, the better to ensure some serious pressure is applied and public outrage so maximised.

However, please avoid the use of "spam" in so doing; "spam" only makes these efforts ineffective.

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YOU MAY RECALL WHERE, YESTERDAY, IT WAS NOTED IN PASSING WHERE REV. FRED "WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH" PHELPS WAS MAKING A CIVIL RIGHTS CASE out of the fire therein on Saturday evening, causing some US$10,000 damage (which Rev. Phelps' spin machine exaggerateth by a factor of three) and claiming (if we are to believe this excuse for a hatemonger) that said fire was motivated by opposition to the Traditional Christian Teachings held dear by Westboro Baptist.

I, for one, would not accept that as reasonable grounds for a civil-rights enquiry; methinks, as I said, such is nothing but a distraction serving only to distract arson investigators "off the scent" of suspicion that the Phelps family set the whole thing up as a way to make quick money in the face of current and serious financial problems on their part.

Let alone the prospect of their assets being, in significant measure, "judgement-proof" by way of offshore banks and "pure trusts" serving only their own sefish desires--and claiming that the Greater Glory of G-d justifies such actions, along with the usual about "the ends justifying the means."

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"THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF G-D GO I" DEPARTMENT: UNICEF, the United Nations childrens' aid agency, has come out with a new report taking the developing economies of China and India to task for not doing enough to provide decent and adequate health care for children as their economies develop full-on, with obvious risks for worsening disparities between rich and poor.

Of particular note is where India is faulted for having 1.6 million infant deaths in 2006 for want of adequate medical care in especially poor or undeveloped areas; over the same period, China reported some 400,000 cases of infant deaths.

Still, though, one needs to consider where, in China's case, much of the socioeconomic throughput was diverted towards the Beijing Olympic Games and construction of related venues and infrastructure while many millions in rural areas remain in direst (and, perhaps, deliberate) poverty and ignorance socioeconomically.

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HAS CNN HEADLINE NEWS CRIME REPORTER NANCY GRACE BEEN TOO AGGRESSIVE IN "STATING HER CASE" on her nightly programme?

@ least one suspect's estate thinks so: A suspect in a rather infamous child-abduction case a few years back is suing Ms. Grace and CNN Headline News for aggravated emotional harm and distress through her stylee of questioning as caused the suspect to eventually take The Other Way Out.

Not bad for the same network as has conservative blatherskite Glenn Beck preceding Nancy Grace's show during "stellar season" (otherwise known as their prime-time selection), and yet Mr. Beck shares much the same appeal among the Lower Classes as Bill O'Reilly on Fox Prolefeed.

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IT LOOKS AS THOUGH THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG MAY HAVE THE LAST LAUGH WHEN IT COMES TO EQUATING DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL WANNABE BARACK OBAMA with heiress and "media distractionary" Paris Hilton in that rather laughable farce of a "winning of hearts and minds" TV ad:

Ms. Hilton's mother has taken John McCain's campaign team to task for what she sees as "improper exploitation" of her daughter's image and repute to the point of causing psychoemotional embarrassment and humiliation just to win over votes among trailer-park trash and suchlike others watching Fox Prolefeed to the point of dependency, (un)consciously (un)aware all along of Fox Prolefeed's unhealthy tendencies galore.

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AND DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THAT ESCALATOR IN JAPAN AS WOUND UP RUNNING BACKASSWARDS THANKS TO OVERCROWDING ON THE OVERNIGHT, with ten people injured in the process?

If you don't believe me, see the video for yourself:

(On the other hand, I wouldn't recommend this as one for Rip Li.)