“It’s in the App!”

December 16, 2023 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | LIFE, PETER'S WRITING, Ulalume |

Travelling north, the beautiful North, Our brains in summer remission, An epidemic of uselessness Fully met with our bullish permission. At a nice public house on the river We selected some seats, unreserved Within a cool room, away from the throng, Baking outside as deserved. The inside bar was deserted A sign told us to order by App; Our humour had died, neither Q-code we spied Nor a manner of bridging the gap. From a neighbouring table we borrowed a card Displaying the requisite code, But after twelve minutes no answer there came We thought about hitting the road. Ultimately,…

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Black Mischief

Reflections on the Rainbow Nation, South Africa ‘You know,’ he added reflectively, ‘we’ve got a much easier job now than we should have had fifty years ago. If we’d had to modernize a country then it would have meant constitutional monarchy, bi-cameral legislature, proportional representation, women’s suffrage, independent judicature, freedom of the Press, referendums . . .’ ‘What is all that?’ asked the Emperor. ‘Just a few ideas that have ceased to be modern.’  (Evelyn Waugh, Black Mischief, (1932), p. 128). South Africa’s once diamondiferous soil was always leavened with blood, running down the anthill to the lowest point of Kimberley’s…

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Bandt Musik

"Google it, mate"

Leader of the Australian Greens, Mr. Adam Bandt, is on record as wanting – a Treaty; A Republic (for which he called on the day QEII died); eliminating coal and gas as sources of energy; wiping student debt and funding free education for all; a cheap housing construction orgy; tenure for all; an end to all forms of discrimination (including the good ones), and defenestrating the Australian flag. So here’s our Song for Adam (with apologies to Stuart and Marco): [For Michelle] “Well I’m standing here looking at you What do I see? I’m looking straight through It’s so sad,…

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And Justice For Some

June 24, 2023 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | LIFE, POLITICS, Ulalume |

When one does a crime We expect one will do time: But today it all depends On who are your true friends. A lass who thought that Pell Belonged in deepest Hell Tried to justify this thought All the way to the High Court. The judges boxed her ears And conviction disappears, But confronted with bent cops She did not pull out the stops. In the Land of the Free, It clearly pays to be A member of the Club Who won’t even have to scrub A charge from his good name; There’s none to lay the blame. You can…

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F.B.I. – Following Barack’s Instructions

May 29, 2023 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | American Politics, POLITICS, Ulalume |

The Durham Report drops (12 May 2023) On 6 May, 2016, George Papadopoulos, an unpaid foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign for the Presidency, indulged in bar talk with some Australian diplomats in London, to the effect that Russian operatives had supplied dirt on Hilary Clinton, to the Trump campaign. As if one couldn’t find enough Clinton dirt on one’s own. The diplomats passed that info to the Obama Administration, and Barry’s goons went to work immediately. All the odious apparatus of the Deep Swamp State went into overdrive, and as Durham concludes (in his truly stunning, and likely…

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