Note - from June 24th 2009, this blog has migrated from Blogger to a self-hosted version. Click here to go straight there.
Two things:
- if the cinemas decide to distribute Jarhead in Australia, go see it. It gives a very good description of why grunts (in this case, US Marines - but it could be any grunt) are not 'heroes'... they're easily-manipulated near-psychotic (and more-than-a-little homoerotic) pillocks, many of whom are in the military as an alternative to a custodial sentence (about 30% of US enlistees are in this category). Anyone who has gone through any form of military training knows that the dumbest oxen in any Boot Camp are the ones who go to Infantry, and Marines aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer either. Military types will recognise all the barracks behaviour immediately - and as an antiwar statement, Jarhead is subtle but immensely powerful (it makes 'full Metal jacket' look lame-assed, which it was); and...
- notice that I've dispensed with all the links from the blog except for those to the free chart-based bits of RantPRO, and the two Google/Firefox 'bugs'. This is preparatory to providing 'cut-down' or delayed versions of some RantPRO items - for example a range of calendars (Economic, Reporting and IPO), and things like Breadth Analysis and Short Interest Analysis (the blog versions of these last two will be published with a one-week lag).
I note also (for those who are aware of my travails) that you can have all sorts of altercations with the ATO, but so long as you donate large enough slugs of dough to a political party you don't have to worry... you ca nend up on the RBA Board.
