Top Search Keywords

Yeah, I’ll get to the reviews when I get a minute, but for now:

TOP SEARCH KEYWORDS THAT BROUGHT PEOPLE TO FLANNELCRAT’S WEBLOG:

demotivational bulimia,

What!?

red haired male freckled ukulele player,

Who!?

airship pirates,

Okay, fair point, quite a bit of that … 

“if you want to see tomorrow” “doctor who”,

And that is pretty nice …. 

scewer cutlass

What! Pirates, maybe?

New Years High Resolutions

New Year, new American President and the edge of a new decade.

Also, birthday greetings to my two favourite recent twenty-one year olds, even if only one of them reads this blog.

Recently Read:

The Boys: Volume 1 – The Name of the Game;

Written by Garth Ennis of Preacher fame, and illustrated by the artist of Transmetropolitan, The Boys endeavours to be just as thematically and visually offensive as those two combined, a Herculean task emminently fulfilled.

Essentially, we have the world-of-superheroes theme, and this is a situation with which not all are satisfied.

The eponymous Boys are the CIA’s group of hired thugs to keep the supes in line with a brand of justice that is entirely revenge. Is it justified? Well, of the group of five, the first volume reveals that one of the group’s boys had a love-of-his-life girlfriend inertially liquiefied when the supe ‘A-Train’ knocked an enemy into her at mach 3. Insult to injury, A-Train stretched briefly, regaling the horrified crowd with how he used the old ‘run-on-water’ trick to fox his enemy, before taking off at high speed with a cry of ‘Nobody Can Stop The A-Train!’

This is Wee Hugh who witnesses both the horrific, instantaneous destruction of his girlfriend and the cavalier attitude of the supes to the situation. Visually based on Simon Pegg (and this is in the days before Shaun of the Dead fame), Hugh is approached by Butcher, who is setting up his team again after a time of unspecified activity. Butcher’s reason?

Apparently Butcher’s wife, another of the love-of-your-life variety, was taken in a physical fashion against her will by an unnamed, but hinted-at, supe, she never told him about it, and he only read about it in her diary afterwards. The ‘afterwards’ being after the super-foetus tears its way out of her womb, kills her, burns a few scars into Butcher’s arm with its instinctive laser vision, and is beaten to death by Butcher with the nightstand lamp.

Thankfully, there is no flashback for this sequence.

The hinted at supe? No less than Homelander, the Superman exspy (a tv trope term for alternate world opposite number) of this universe’s Seven, a parody of the Justice League, from the ‘Big Three’ to the Other Four who are a little disgruntled about their smaller cut of the toy sales. The newest of the four is Starlight, the Christian corn-belt addition to the team after the shadowy, as-yet-undeveloped of Lamplighter ( The Green Lantern alternate, apparently). Hugh’s opposite number protaganist in this story, she has a very naive ideal of heroes such as the Seven, which is a graphically ended as Hugh’s was.

Of course, they meet, not knowing who the other is, when both are questioning their new allegiances, and, in giving each other fairly non-descript descriptions of their new jobs, encourage each to continue. But of course.

Much is set up in this volume, from the universe-direct (all superpowers are born from exposure to a drug called the V Compound, developed by Nazi scientists [surprise!], all other backstories are fictional, and all American superheroes seem to be funded by the super-corporation Voight-American), to the universe-implied ( an open shot of New York in this world’s 2006 shows the Twin Towers to be standing and the Brooklyn Bridge to be destroyed), in a a way rich with promise.

I will not say The Boys is not for the faint of heart. It isn’t, of course, but it isn’t for the stout of heart either. The writer and artist to shock your eyes with every splash shot. On a scale of one to horror, its a solid Elfen Lied. And, as my one reader hasn’t seen Elfen Lied, its the assault of Sally Jupiter in Watchmen, in graphic detail, every few pages. The two-parter is not called “The Cherry” for nothing. You can stand this stuff and still feel that Ennis is being perverse for the sake of being perverse and put it aside. This is entirely legitimate. Personally I feel he is not, but seriously, this is not a book to be read without that understanding.

As this extends to the characters: The Heroes aren’t the good guys. The Boys aren’t the good guys. Its a drag-down, bare-knuckle fight in a Saturday night alley in which no side is the plucky underdog facing the Empire. Hughie and Starlight, are the two you might sympathise with at this point, these fish-out-of-water being our eyes, but as Butcher says to the question of ‘maybe there are good supers’, ‘F**k ’em’.

Powers: Volume 1 – Who Killed Retro Girl;

Brian Michael Bendis writes Powers, another city-of-supers, with the additional Watchmen trope of it-all-begins-with-the-murder-of-superhero. This time however, it is actually the cops investigating the crime and catching the criminal. The story plays fairly interestingly with most tropes: the we-can’t-give-superman-CPR becomes we can’t autopsy Retrogirl. Coming the other way are typical cop tropes: imagine a hostage situation with a guy wearing a jet pack. On the other hand, this seemed almost allegorical – for instance, we eventually find out Retrogirl was killed with mortal means while under the influence of a homebuilt power-drainer (of which the cops many in their detention and interview cells), and yet nobody thought to put Retrogirl under one of these while she was under the knife. Similarly, the police seem to get on ok with the superheroes, and yet nobody called them in on the jet pack case.

I wouldn’t nitpick so, nor does it take me out of the story, but these are noticeably constructed situations for plot progress and theme development. Whether it is a worthy mystery drama yet is indeterminate.

The art style nearly turned me off early on also. Essentially, it looks about the same quality at first glance as the comics that accompanied Heroes online – not bad by any means, but not as developed as many of its contemporaries. A seeming explanation comes out of the mouth babes when a young girl, Calista, notes that the backgrounds in cartoons are well drawn, but not the background characters – these are flat. It comes home when you see the first hero arrayed in shadow and light rather beautifully, while detective is illustrated like he’s the guy who is almost, but not quite, looks like Wally in Where’s Wally. These aren’t the heroes – nor the other guys ( the Mystery Men, if you will) –  these are the other other guys; the police, whose job it was all along.

As a book, Powers stands a little thick; the comics, the script for the first issue, the character gallery, the character sketch gallery, etc. I’m all in favour for extra features, but it seems a little heavy. The second story, an at-the-end mini-issue seems to draw a line between two points that this is going to be the ‘law and order’ criminal intent kind of show – mostly psych/story backed up backgrounded evidence, with the twist and turns until the villain, in the presence of their lawyer and against his advice confesses to the crime, in detail, with flow charts. I’m not pimping CSI here as the villains of CSI do the same thing, just with forwarded evidence and several backgrounded stories. I’m not-not pimping these shows either, nor am I not pimping Powers, as much as it may seem like that – I love them all, these cops, but these are cop shows with certain conceits of resources, time, coincidence and monologuing.

I am coming down a little on Powers, true. It has the Prophetic Waif-child, the police chief who is Getting Pressure from above, the backstory-through-headlines motif, the New Partner and the Grumpy Old Partner who has hardbitten issues. Particularly, it has the implication of an immortal hero inexplicably losing his powers, who can’t remember anything from the turn of the century. When they did this in act 3 of Hancock, it dropped a brick on my foot for that show and I hope that is not the case for Powers. The superhero with gaps in his memory isn’t the worst trope afterall: Frost in Planetary, or V from V for Vendetta make good use of this – but it can go horribly wrong.

All in all, worth a read at least, but I’ve yet to see if its a sustained by.

On Horizon:

Five more graphic novels on order ( substantial book vouchers received)

Wishlist:

Kurt Busiek’s Astro City is not, alas, not on the list of the above read or horizon books. Can’t get it here, and it sounds awesome. Must pursue.

Dance, Revenant, Dance

 Shocking Space Revelation for Revenant : (Dr Who Spoilers)

David Tennant is to stand down as Doctor Who, after becoming one of the most popular Time Lords in the history of the BBC science fiction show.

Tennant stepped into the Tardis in 2005, and will leave the role after four special episodes are broadcast next year.

 

Ce n’est pas le Medicin?!?

He made the announcement after winning the outstanding drama performance prize at the National Television Awards.

“When Doctor Who returns in 2010 it won’t be with me,” he said.

Cry, Pansy, Cry

“Now don’t make me cry,” he added. “I love this part, and I love this show so much that if I don’t take a deep breath and move on now I never will, and you’ll be wheeling me out of the Tardis in my bath chair.”

‘I’ll miss it’

 I won’t miss you. With the rifle.

Just kidding. Hope the new doctor to be just as cool. Up to eleven, eh? They better give him a good send off. Nothing less than the resurrected Master in a Christmas special.Whoever could be next? Younger still? Toddler Doctor? Baby Einstein Doctor? Zygote Doctor? Doctor-the-glint-in-the-milkman’s-eye?

Feeling so blue....

Yes, I know I’m not even supposed to be here today.

Find the full article at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7698539.stm

The Didly Hollows

Tengen - reasons to be cheerful

Anime: Seen:

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya:

Haruhi (during class introductions): I’m Haruhi Suzumiya, from East Junior High. First off, I’m not interested in ordinary people. But, if any of you are aliens, time-travelers, or espers, please come see me. That is all!

-*-

Haruhi: Say… have you ever realized how insignificant your existence is on this planet?

Kyon: <Mentally> What are you talking about?

Haruhi: I have. It’s something I’ll never forget. During elementary school, when I was in the sixth grade, the whole family went to watch a baseball game at the stadium. I wasn’t particularly interested in baseball… but I was shocked once we got there. There were people everywhere I looked. The ones on the other side of the stadium looked like squirming grains of rice all packed together. I wondered if every last person in Japan had gathered in this place. And so… I asked my dad. “Exactly how many people were in the stadium?” His answer was that a sold-out game meant around fifty thousand people. After the game, the path to the station was flooded with people. The sight stunned me. So many humans around me… yet they only made up a fraction of the people in Japan. Once I got home, I got a calculator and did the math. We learned that the Japanese population was a hundred million or so in social studies. Divide fifty thousand into that… and you only get one two-thousandth. I was stunned again. Not only was I just one little person in that sea of people in that stadium… but that sea of people was merely a drop in the ocean. I had thought myself to be a special person up until that point. I enjoyed being with my family, and most of all, I thought that my class in my school had the most interesting people in the world. But that was when I realized it wasn’t like that. The things that happened in what I believed to be the most enjoyable class in the world could be found happening in any school in Japan. Everyone in Japan would find them to be ordinary occurrences. Once I realized this… I suddenly found that my surroundings were beginning to lose their color. Brush my teeth and go to sleep at night. Wake up and eat breakfast in the morning. People do these things everywhere. When I realized that everyone did all these things on a daily basis… everything started to feel so boring. And if there were so many people in the world, there had to be someone living an interesting life that wasn’t ordinary. I was sure of it. Why wasn’t that person me? That’s all I could think about… until I graduated from elementary school. And in the process, I realized something. Nothing fun will happen if you sit around waiting. So I figured I would change myself in middle school. Let the world know that I wasn’t a girl content with sitting around and waiting. And I conducted myself accordingly. But in the end… nothing ever happened. Before I knew it, I was in high school. I thought something would have changed.

[A train approaches, rushes by]

Kyon: <Mentally> The train gave me time to decide if I should make a witty comment or quote some philosophical anecdote to fill up the silence.

Kyon: …I see.

Kyon: <Mentally> My inability to say anything else… made me feel a  bit melancholic

-*-

Cowboy Bebop:

Faye: You know the first rule in combat? [empties sub-machine gun through closed door] …shoot them before they shoot you.

-*-

Spike: There once was a tiger striped cat. This cat died a million deaths, revived and lived a million lives, and he was owned by various people who he didn’t really care for. The cat wasn’t afraid to die. One day the cat became a stray cat, which meant he was free. He met a white female cat, and the two of them spent their days together happily. Well, years passed, and the white cat grew weak and died of old age. The tiger striped cat cried a million times, and then died too. Except this time, he didn’t come back to life.

Jet: Yeah. That’s a good story.

Spike: I hate that story.

Jet: Huh?

Spike: I never liked cats, Jet. You know that.

Jet Oh yeah.

-*-

Chobits:

Chitose Hibiya: Your daddy told me that anything he thinks is small and hopelessly adorable is “Chobi” to him. That’s why you two are his “Chobits.” Another thing … my Ichiro told me that the word “Chobits” … is special to him …because it’s made up of the letters in my name – Chitose Hibiya. And that’s why they’re my children.” 

-*-

Ghost in the Shell: (Movies, Show and Movie based on the Show)

Major Motoko Kusanagi:

• When I float weightless back to the surface, I’m imagining I’m becoming someone else. It’s probably the decompression.

 

• There are countless ingredients that make up the human body and mind, like all the components that make up me as an individual with my own personality. Sure, I have a face and voice to distinguish myself from others, but my thoughts and memories are unique only to me, and I carry a sense of my own destiny. Each of those things are just a small part of it. I collect information to use in my own way. All of that blends to create a mixture that forms me and gives rise to my conscience.I feel confined, only free to expand myself within boundaries.
• As revenge for the fact that two of my men were killed, I even set it up so he would shoot his own son – through a door.
• Puppet Master: Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.
• Major Motoko Kusanagi/Puppet Master:
• And where does the newborn go from here? The net is vast and infinite.
• Batou: When I die, since I’m a real skeptic, I’m gonna gripe to the lord and make sure I get back my original investment when I’m reincarnated …

Still Watching:

Death Note:

Light: Why did you choose me?

Ryuk: (laughs) Don’t flatter yourself. All I did was drop the notebook, that’s all. You thought I chose you? Cuz’ you’re so smart or something? It just happened to land somewhere around here and you just happened to pick it up. That’s why I wrote the instructions in English-it’s the most popular languge in your world.

Light: Then why did you drop it?! Don’t tell me it was by mistake after you went and wrote all those instructions.

Ryuk: Why did I drop it? Because I was bored, that’s why.

-*-

Light: Even a fool is going to notice that somebody is bumping off the bad guys. I’m going to make the world know I’m here…that somebody is passing righteous judgement on them! And then nobody will commit crimes anymore. The world will start to become a better place. And while people who obviously deserve to be punished are dying of heart attacks…I’ll gradually be killing off immoral people and people who harass others, through illness and accidents. Even that will eventually be noticed by the idiot masses. They’ll realize they’ll die if they don’t change their ways…I’ll make this a world inhabited only by people I decide are good! Ryuk: You do something like that, the only one left with a bad personality will be you… Light: What are you talking about, Ryuk? I’m a serious, straight-A student…a model teenager and I..will reign over a new world!

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:

Simon: That is Tengen Toppa! That is Gurren Lagann! MY DRILL IS THE DRILL THAT WILL PIERCE THE HEAVENS!!!

Kamina: Believe in yourself. Not the Simon who believes in me. Not the Kamina who believes in you. Have faith in the Simon…that believes in YOU.

-*-

Next Week: Actual details. This week: My sinuses are trying to kill me. Kamikaze nostrils – what can I say? Where is that drill ; I’m going to take the buggers and boogers with me . . .

Don't eat my brain sinuses. Please. What large nostrils you have grandma. . .

Philosopher’s Scone

Finished Rookie – only a few on field deaths for the Krakens, and only one being devoured entirely by an alien race. Its a new direction for Sigler and I enjoyed it. Besides, Nocturnal is up and I’ve yet to listen to Infection which are, according to Sigler ‘topping Infection’ as his exponentially more violent story, which is always good to hear. Besides, his short stories are ust a click away.

The Olympics are just finishing up and I find myself watching things if they’re on in the background: windsurfing, ping-pong, triathlon, marksmanship, showjumping, women’s volleyball semi-finals, women’s volleyball finals, baton pass, etc.

Yeah, the Cuban volleyball team was overturned by the US in the semifinals in an astounding 3-0 victory of of a possible 5 matches. This is all the more astounding given that this is the score that the Cubans beat the US in the group matches, so the Us must have really brought things together, in the interim, with their Chinese coach, and then went on to defeat the Chinese team.

This obsession isn’t as perverted as it sounds, as volleyball and handball were the few sports I had some mediocre talent at in Phys Ed (less running around and so forth), and I can’t really sympathise with the men’s volleyball, being held on sand for some reason.

A mixture of coverage really: united in coverage on China, it varies on its accomplishments in hosting the games and its gaps in human rights violations. Like any culture, increased notoriety for a time is both a plus and a minus, just like its increased space program, and its patient national buying up of American national debt bonds. China is fast becoming the world power Firefly trumps it to be, even if there are no Asian people on that show/film.

Accomplishment, as the space race proved, is something to mark an important culture. It’ll be interesting to see how many burgeoning new space programs skip the Moon altogether and make a bid for the next step on Mars – a hamster, a chimp, whatever. This will bring up the issue of colony and conquest probably. I say probably, because I won’t live to see it of course, but after reading a lot of quite terrifying post nuke policies now available from the various circa 1950 defense departments, its strange how many contingencies are pre-planned.

There may be minerals, but it’ll be time out of mind until its economical and necessary to ship them back. There won’t be fossil fuels, but maybe there’ll be those WMDs.

Of course cultures than our own can appreciate moon travel. Why, its a well known fact that the first governmental-extraterrestial contact was in 1969 with the Venusians. Oh yes. While Aldrin and Armstrong were moonside, alien beings contacted Michael Collins (not to be mistaken with the other Michael Collins) and set up inter-species relations with him. Not with Armstrong or Aldrin of course – the Venusians are notorious for not respecting someone who would willing take the first step into alien territory.

And thats why Armstrong and Aldrin get Simpsons cameos and you never hear about Collins. Probably running Area 51. Yeah, thats it. No doubt he had something to do the robot Larry Hagman, the subterranean Gecko-folk and the many Vin Diesel clones we see these days.

THE END.

The Subtle Life

THIS WEEK: The Wishlist AND What I actually ordered

“These in part taught me what graphic novels could be, along with Kingdom Come, Frank Miller’s Dark Knight and Moore’s own League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series. But more on those respective stories later.”

As Dougal’s Rabbit graph once displayed on Father Ted, dreams and reality are far far apart., and one must live the subtle life between them *ANGST WARNING*

The Wishlist:

1. Superman Red Son – Mark Millar

> An Elseworlds tarradiddle of the DC Universe.

To explain: I am very anal retentive about my reading; I like my stories to have a beginning, middle and an end. Oh, by no means does a character or plot arch have to be confined to one text without sequel, but I do like any one issue/episode/book/film to have some sort of ending in an of itself, even if if it is predicated upon its conclusion in a sequel.

As such, I’ve never really been au fait with reading the mainstream comics, with thousands of issues, hundreds of the different writers and artists, and many, many reboots of continuity. Brief archs are ok, but overall it somewhat goes over my head.

Therefore, I like characters (when reading illustrated texts) that are one shots; that have that unity of action where they can be killed, or maimed, or crazed, or finished, without seeing it changed back next week. I want that capacity of the development of a multi-million dollar property like Superman, Batman, etc., and the security of a one-shot’s conclusion.

Also, I find its much, much cheaper.

DC’s Elseworlds is therefore my dream come true: Steampunk Batman, Green Lantern Batman, Vampire Batman, Superman but raised as Batman, Supergirl as Superman . . . even a series based on the films of 1920’s German Expressionist Cinema.

Red Son is one such series – Baby Superman lands in Stalin’s Russia rather than Kennedy’s America. Tipping those international scales, the impact is interesting as it is shocking. I’d read about, heard it recommended, and it seems like a good way to start an Elseworlds adventure.

*Successfully Ordered!

2. Hellboy Vol 1: Seed of Destruction – Mike Mignola

This essentially is the first Hellboy film’s basis in the comic. With the Golden Army imminent, and the awesome of the first movie, I thought I’d read up on it. The first film was by no means a strict adaptation, but apparently Mignola approves del Toro’s work so I think I can give it a try.

My particular attractions here are: Overtones of Lovecraft, John Constantine, Rasputin, alternate history and evil fish frog people in the british aristocracy. I’ve seen the artwork before, and it does indeed seem to be artwork, so hopefully it fufils on the whole, as the showgirl said to the vicar.

*Successfully Ordered!

And here is where it all goes wrong . . .

3. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen : The Black Dossier – Alan Moore

As my glomping on this series in earlier rants should indicate, I do love a little Alan Moore in general and The L of EG in specific.  The Black Dossier isn’t necessarily a strict succession to the first two volumes, but also a way to showcase the Black Dossier of the title, which recounts various league adventures of the past to the present day, with that usual omnivorous mix of fact, fiction and myth that Moore has so mae his own in this series. A Tijuana Bible, a Wodehouse style adventure with the Elder Gods, Woolf’s Orlando recounting his/her 3,000 year history . . . . ‘ Tis the stuff of book nerd dreams. There was 12 pages of this type of stuff at the end of Vol. 2, and it just made my mouth water for more.

Alas, however, its not available for retail here.

You see, the first 2 volumes heavily referenced works by authors whose copyright had expired – H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, etc. However, the Black Dossier uses much more recent and copyright relevant authors like George Orewell, Virginia Woolf, H.P. Lovecraft and so on. As such, while available in America, its not available here in Europe.

*NOT Successfully Ordered!

4. Eagle: The Making of an Asian American Presidency.

A fascinating, short manga series about an Asian American senator’s fictional run for the American Presidency against what appears to be Bill Clinton. Apparently its a smart, political take on this concept, with West Wing style views of the next President’s campaign and reign.

Not that I wouldn’t want Bill Clinton to win an American Presidency again, or Hillary to win the next one: I’d prefer either Clintons to either of the George Bushes. I say this as someone who has no residency or vote in America nor much care for its affairs except for the Big Red Button. In this capacity Ifear the Bushes: People who believe God tells them what to do, believe they are right with God, act in his name and fear none but him, these are the people that can willfully bring about Armageddeon. No, I want the man whose screwing around and wants to put off Judgement Day as long as possible, or the woman sufficiently patient to stick by her husband in the face of national scandal to stay with her own political aims.

All props to Obama of course. Only one American personality of sufficient weight could decide between an African American President and a female president, and Oprah did make her choice wisely.

Alas, it too is not available here.

This however is just the slow process of manga filtering in to the Irish market. Perhaps, one day, I will fulfil my dream of humming Turning Japanese while reading an American-Political drama.

*NOT Successfully Ordered!

5. Emma – Kaoru Mori

Emma is a manga set in Victorian England. Not Steampunk England, not Victorian style Future-England, not dancing robot-pretend Victorian England. Why therefore is it a manga? Thats right – Emma is a maid. In love with the son of a rising trade family, hopelessly so due to there ambitions for his marital opportunities, Mori has crafted a heartwarming plot in a setting of intricate detail to the period.

As those of you who picked on my Jane Austen comments may guess, I likes my Victorian England marriage plots and to see one presented so unusually in format is so very interesting to me. That, and I like maids. Not in a weird, whips and leashes type way, but more maids with guns, nurses with knives, catgirlswith three-inch steel claws and bunnygirls with so much articulated kick in that bent back leg to separate ribs. I like juxtaposition of formats and themes, characters and situations, and the sound of a Victorian manga maid makes me feel theres a social revolution I’m missing somewhere.

Alas, it is of indeterminate status. Published by CMX manga here, unlike Eagle its far more likely to be avaialable, but seems to exist on an eerie orderable but not necessarily receivable netherworld on my retailer’s order list.

*NOT Successfully Ordered?

Next Week: The Dark Knight review you all deserve. Briefly: AWESOME! More on that story later.

Lisbon Treaty

Dear Sirs, Madams and as yet undecideds.

On the matter of the upcoming vote on legislation I have little opinion, partially because the writing of it seems designed for the purposes of obsfucation, and partially because if the track record for such legislation seems to be ask until we say yes, but mostly because it is legislation.

As such, the same legislation that can pour money into urban development can buy CCTV cameras on the streets, can buy new textbooks or install gait-recognition monitors in schools. Allocations of budget, delegation to the legislation’s host countries and the eventual sheer management means little, if any, of its original intent, if there is such a thing, will be lost as regards to Ireland.

Not say that this legislation won’t have a great deal of effect on Ireland, but drawing the actual impact from the legislation currently proposed is somewhat problematic. Each host country, despite homogenisation promises, will interpret that enaction very differently. Thus, I’d advise the keeping of an eye on one’s governments, rather than the poor legislation. The policies the host government doesn’t want and aren’t important for Europe to push will be backburnered, those the government would like to do but need a lightning rod to administrate, there will be Europe.

This will vary; I somehow doubt Ireland will be called upon to submit its 1980s airforce and that destroyer bought from Britain when the Royal Navy scrapped it. While the Centrals will be the ones to called in on such instances, we might useful in Peacekeeper bodycounts. On the other hand, nobody will pry Norway away from its oil.

Not that this will be bad particularly; the government does need lightning rods to administrate in  a manner that will mean things we don’t want but do need . Similarly, there are things Ireland needs to do ( carbon emissions, I’m looking at you) which Europe wants to put through but the government doesn’t. ( i do apologise for words like ‘do’ or ‘want’ being in used in relation to politics, where they bear little, if any, relation with reality.)

So, I would remind everyone to vote, or to spoil their vote (if they choose to) rather than not voting at all, both in the upcoming treaty referendum and in the eventual general election, and I would put the second over the first. Don’t say the treaty is ‘bad’, like its a puppy that wet the carpet. It is its administrators you should keep an eye on, both locally and continentally. This should be particularly interesting with the recent loss of Blair and Aherne, and the upcoming acephalation of the American presidency.

If in doubt, vote Brewster – NONE OF THE ABOVE!

-The ‘Crat.