6 Jul 2017

And Then A Speech...

So, we arrived home early afternoon and I turned on the TV, as you do, and found I was watching Trumpton making a speech. I wasn’t paying full attention but it seemed like the poor guy was speaking to himself in a soundproof box such was the lack of applause when he paused. Then the camera moved to the audience and it became obvious that the sound engineers were working their magic at dampening what appeared to be the crowds pretty enthusiastic responses. How sad is that then?

After the speech, a lady reporter said that the crowd had been mainly Trumpton supporters but many had been bussed in. This turn of phrase cleverly suggests that the audience was small and the organisers had swelled the numbers by bussing, possibly unwilling, folk in rather than suggesting many Trumpton supporter gladly travelled by bus to hear him speak. How sad is that then?

There was much talk about that very bad boy who’s carrier prospects could be going north. There’s a cleaver play on words in there by the way. He’s just shot off another missile test apparently.

This got me thinking. How weird is that then? Anyhoo, after spending countless millions on a rocket assisted bomb, designed to destroy whatever you aim it at, why would you call it a missile? If I was a ‘leader’ and got my military heads and boffins in a room and outlined what I wanted and, later, they came back and told me they’d pretty well perfected something and they were calling it a missile, I’d tell ‘em to get out as I didn’t ask for something that’d miss I wanted something that’d hit, right? Gimme wot I asked for; a missile? Wot good’s that then? I want a hitile.

How did that name ever get off the ground? How can you threaten someone by stating you’re going to fire something at ‘em called a ‘miss’ile?

Quote;  Ambrose Bierce.

"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography."

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