A candidate's health, energy politics, and Danielle Smith

The Reading List for 21 Oct 22

Look, mate, my hundred soldiers are surrounded by a thousand NVA regulars. We need artillery support. We’re not here to f’ck spiders.

A couple of weeks ago, there was an Easter egg in one column and title that mentioned the sex lives of eight-legged land creatures.

Here’s the answer: If you look in the URL for that column you will see the original title. “Spider F*cking.” When I had finished it, the title fit but I switched it to the title of an episode - “Deceive. Obfuscate. Inveigle” - of the 90‘s science fiction show X-files. Then I rewrote the piece to fit the new approach to a comment on the lightweight stuff that dominated politics that week.

For anyone who is wondering, the original title for that column came from an Australian expression that means we are not here to fool around. Get down to work. We are serious. We mean business. We are not here to f*ck spiders.

The line turns up in a recent Australian movie about the battle at Long Tan over 24 hours in the late summer of 1966 during Australia’s commitment alongside the United States to support the Republic of Vietnam against the Vietnamese communists. Danger Close is worth your time.

The original version of the column contrasted that attitude with the pointless dog and pony show at the Colonial Building complete with an unnecessary and empty throne speech and the announcement of Andy Bucks.

If serious people are not interested in spider f*cking then by God the local politicians are here to prove how superficial they can be. Doesn’t matter the party. They are *all* alike. There are a handful of serious politicians but the parties and the folks running them seem to have an unnatural interest in arachnids and canines.

This week’s list of things you might want to read is the usual assortment of odds and sods, at least some of which should be interesting to people with an interest in politics and history beyond Newfoundland and Labrador.

Heads Up

Monday: The Premier and Conflict of Interest

Wednesday: The politics of interest