Everything has an end. Only the sausage has two

Today marks thirty years of German reunification. Where have the years gone?

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/10/02/german-reunification-30-anniverary-gorbachev-thatcher-mitterand/

Top weekend

The Marxism conference is an annual fixture on the radical left's calendar in Australia. It's a pity that they always choose to hold this conference over the Easter weekend. Presumably they won't be spending the weekend reflecting on the death and resurrection of Jesus, or taking short family holidays.

From its website, I see that the conference theme is "Tear Down the Walls." The irony of this appears to be lost on the conference organisers. History shows that far from tearing down walls, Marxism usually builds them. This year is also the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a despised symbol of Communist oppression and tyranny.

It's in the script

Today is Margaret Thatcher Day. Named for the former British Prime Minister, it is commemorated in the Falkland Islands. Until today, I had no idea that this holiday existed. It commemorates the 1982 Falklands War, which was one of the defining events of the Thatcher years.

Pictured at left is a front page headline from The Sun, evocative of the patriotic, gung-ho fervour for the war that was whipped up by British tabloid newspapers.

There was an element of this in the 1997 James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies, in which the villain, Elliot Carver, a global media tycoon, attempted to start a war between China and Britain to further his business interests. I dare say this was intentional. That's certainly the first thing I thought of when I watched this scene in the film. In the customary Bond film scene in which the villain explains his evil plot to James Bond, he shows him this headline from one of his own newspapers.

When Carver dies aboard his stealth boat at the end of the movie, M and Moneypenny put out a cover story saying that he was missing at sea, presumed drowned. It's left up to the audience to work out for themselves whether or not this was based on actual events. More astute viewers should have no trouble making these connections.

False hope

Amongst many significant events in world history, today is the anniversary of the death of former British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940). He readily springs to mind whenever a politician or any other public figure suggests that giving into the territorial demands of power hungry tyrants is a good idea, just like he did with his ill-fated 1938 peace agreement with Adolf Hitler. Apparently, war and armed conflict can be avoided by sitting down with militaristic leaders over cups of herbal tea, and giving them the chance to talk through their grievances. Then, as now, appeasement doesn't work.

Not so happy anniversary

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, brutally crushing the Prague Spring. That's what socialism looks like. As if a reminder was needed.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/08/eyewitness_to_the_soviet_invasion_of_czechoslovakia.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/world/europe/prague-spring-communism.html

Piece in our thyme

The source of this image is unknown. It is a picture of former British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940), whose entire career was overshadowed by his ill-fated September 1938 peace agreement with Nazi Germany. A year later, Germany invaded Poland, and Britain declared war on Germany. The Second World War broke out. The agreement turned out to be not worth the paper it was written on, not entirely unlike this picture caption.