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Nov. 3rd, 2015
De mortuis, my ass
Nov. 3rd, 2015 05:16 amAhmed Chalabi, who lied us into the Iraq disaster, flushed from the bowl of history.
It’s a plot
Nov. 3rd, 2015 06:24 amFred Thompson’s death is reminding people that he was the one who asked the question that revealed Nixon’s secret tapes. I loved conspiracy theories even before Illuminatus!, and that’s one of the two things I still wonder about:
1. I still suspect that when James McCord botched the Watergate break-in, letting the burglars get caught, he was acting as a loyal CIA operative.
2. Thompson’s question came from a staffer interview with Alexander Butterfield, which to me reads like this:
Staffer: Blablabla
Butterfield: That comes from the secret taping system.
Staffer: Yes, but blablaba.
Butterfield: OMG, I accidentally revealed the existence of the secret taping system that you’re not supposed to know about!
Staffer: Oh! What about the secret taping system?
1. I still suspect that when James McCord botched the Watergate break-in, letting the burglars get caught, he was acting as a loyal CIA operative.
2. Thompson’s question came from a staffer interview with Alexander Butterfield, which to me reads like this:
Staffer: Blablabla
Butterfield: That comes from the secret taping system.
Staffer: Yes, but blablaba.
Butterfield: OMG, I accidentally revealed the existence of the secret taping system that you’re not supposed to know about!
Staffer: Oh! What about the secret taping system?
New clichés
Nov. 3rd, 2015 07:09 amHow about some “evils of the modern world” art that doesn’t focus on smartphones and fat people?
Thanx to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
andrewducker
Thanx to
andrewduckerI must admit that I like Real People Fic. I appreciate Guy Gavriel Kay’s argument about respecting the privacy of those who’ve gone even centuries before, but I wallow in scabrous imaginings about the unlibelable dead. James Ellroy’s American Tabloid is a particular fave. (Come to think of it I’d favor a Koch/cruz D/s, though I wouldn’t actually read it.)
A few years ago Thomas Mallon wrote a book with the irresistible title of Watergate: A Novel, which it lived up to. With a few truly fictional characters and some inspired conjectures about nonfictional ones, he told a delightful tale. He even managed to make Pat Nixon interesting.
Now he’s back, with Finale: A Novel of the Reagan Years, and he’s done it again. A fine selection of viewpoint characters, including the deposed Nixon, the promising young journalist Christopher Hitchens, and the First Lady’s astrologer (in fulfillment of the prophecy in Stranger in a Strange Land), tell us a fascinating story.
A few years ago Thomas Mallon wrote a book with the irresistible title of Watergate: A Novel, which it lived up to. With a few truly fictional characters and some inspired conjectures about nonfictional ones, he told a delightful tale. He even managed to make Pat Nixon interesting.
Now he’s back, with Finale: A Novel of the Reagan Years, and he’s done it again. A fine selection of viewpoint characters, including the deposed Nixon, the promising young journalist Christopher Hitchens, and the First Lady’s astrologer (in fulfillment of the prophecy in Stranger in a Strange Land), tell us a fascinating story.