On Sunday, as I was sitting in my summer cabin in Vermont, completely absorbed in a New York Times story about John Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter, I began reading a paragraph whose message shot through me like a sudden bolt of electrical current. The story centered on Ms. Hunter's refusal to take a DNA test to determine the paternity of her 5-month-old daughter, but that was not what startled me. It was this: "Ms. Hunter was born in Fort Lauderdale. Fla., in 1964 as Lisa Druck and moved to New York City in her 20s, becoming part of a Manhattan social scene that included the writer Jay McInerney "
Here, I jumped up and blurted loudly to my wife, Judy: "Good God! John Edwards was having sex with the daughter of the guy who taught Tommy Burns how to kill horses by electrocuting them!"
That single line in the newspaper brought back vivid memories of one of the most fascinating stories I ever worked on, a tale that led me to trooping through show-horse barns, talking sotto voce to lawyers and FBI agents, going out of my way to meet sources, including Burns, in various hidden caves, coves and coffee booths.
Indeed, in 1992, back in the days when I was an investigative reporter for Sports Illustrated, I spent weeks digging into reports that slowly evolved into one of the biggest, most gruesome stories in sports, a scandalous tale about a large group of rich and prominent horse owners -- millionaires, many of them -- who were then being pursued by federal and state law enforcement officials for conspiring to kill high-priced show horses to collect on their life insurance premiums. The story, called "Blood Money," centered on the career of Tommy "The Sandman" Burns, an otherwise cherubic 30-year-old drifter who had spent the last 10 years of his life traveling from barns to stables to horse shows and killing one expensive show horse after another.
The story was written by William Nack, and in the third paragraph, he wrote: "Burns' preferred method of killing horses was electrocution. It had been so ever since the day in 1982 when, he says, the late James Druck, an Ocala, Florida, attorney who represented insurance companies, paid him to kill the brilliant show-jumper Henry the Hawk, on whose life Druck had taken out a $150,000 life insurance policy."
Henry the Hawk was owned and shown by Druck's daughter, Lisa Druck -- who has just now emerged as the femme fatale in the sordid John Edwards affair. She had changed her name to Rielle Hunter years ago. She had had her share of love affairs over the years, including one with best-selling author McInerney, who did a roman à clef on Lisa's journey titled "Story of My Life," in which the character patterned after her, Alison Poole, was described by McInerney in a 2005 magazine story as "an ostensibly jaded, cocaine-addled, sexually voracious 20-year-old who was, shall we say, inspired by Lisa."
In fact, Lisa Druck was in the back of a pickup truck with her then-boyfriend, Louis Whelen, when Burns slipped into Henry the Hawk's barn with a handbag filled with his deadly equipment.
So it was her father, James, a criminally minded lawyer and conniver, who started Tommy Burns on the way to his grisly career as a horse killer. Nack and I met Burns at a hamburger joint housed on a bridge spanning I-294 in northern Illinois in the early fall of 1992, as we were winding up the reporting on the story. By then, Tommy was singing his executioner's song to a grand jury, which ultimately would indict 36 people for their role in conspiring to kill horses -- 35 of whom would be convicted of their crimes, mostly insurance fraud. It was there, by the way, that Nack and I found out that Burns had been unaware he had been given a chilling nickname, "The Sandman," in the corridors of the show-horse circuit where he did most of his work, and whispers followed him like little clouds of shed-row dust.
As one prominent West Virginia horsewoman told me, "When Tommy arrived at a show, they would say The Sandman was around. They knew a horse would be put to sleep." "You had no idea they called you The Sandman?" Nack asked Burns at the Burger King. "No idea," he said. "It suits you, Tommy," Nack said. He nodded.
This was near the beginning of what turned out to be one of the eeriest interviews I'd ever been a part of, and Nack one day agreed that it sure beat anything he'd ever worked on with me over the years at SI, from the Mike Tyson rape trial in Indianapolis to that 2003 story about why Thoroughbred racehorses were breaking down at such an alarming rate -- a story that spotted a trend that has grown increasingly relevant in the era of Barbaro and Eight Belles.
What made the Burger King interview with Tommy so memorable was the fact that Burns looked like anything but a killer. He might have been the third-base coach on a Little League team, wearing his hat backward, with a pleasant, easygoing personality and a smile that shined with innocence. He appeared enormously contrite as he sat in front of us, so sorry that he already had killed some 50 horses in his life, so sorry that he'd ever become a serial killer of horses -- Doctor Death with an athletic satchel, The Sandman with his bag of deadly wires.
I had spoken to Tommy before, in private, but this was the first time Nack had ever heard the name James Druck, the first time he'd ever heard of Lisa Druck, the first time he'd ever talked to a guy who killed horses for a living.
"So can we go over it for Bill?" I asked. "How did it all start with the wires?"
Burns spoke quietly, dispassionately, about his work. He told us about the time he had been hired to kill another horse in Florida, a sporty-looking chestnut jumper named Streetwise, by breaking its hind leg with a crowbar, but that he then got so unnerved by the prospect of killing a horse in that way -- by causing a bone-crushing injury that would force a vet to put him down with a lethal injection -- that he got drunk on gin and tonics in a Gainesville, Fla., bar, gurgling in his cups to an associate, Harlow Arlie, "I don't want to break his leg. I'm not into that."
So Arlie did it for him -- for half of the $5,000 hit fee -- as The Sandman held the horse in a rain-slick, brightly lighted parking lot outside the city. Arlie came up behind him and whacked the horse hard on the back leg. After hearing Tommy tell that story, Nack says, he can still see the picture of that scene in his mind today -- the horse falling down and clambering to his feet, trying to run and limping away, the rain coming down and the horse slipping off into the dark.
No, Tommy said, he really hated destroying a horse that way.
What he much preferred, he said, was electrocution. It was Lisa's father who taught him how to do that. James Druck owned Eagle Crest Farm, in the celebrated Thoroughbred horse-breeding area of Ocala, and he was a horseman (so-called) and a lawyer who specialized in equine insurance matters.
Henry the Hawk was a terrific jumper for whom Druck had paid $150,000 two years before. Lisa Druck owned the horse, and she had competed on his back in shows all over Florida. When Jim Druck got strapped for cash, he tried to sell the horse; but the top offer was only $125,000 and the horse was insured for $150,000. You do the math; Druck did. So he talked Burns into killing the horse and showed him how to do it, revealing himself to be a man of some experience in this venal backwash of animal husbandry. Druck then bought Burns all the paraphernalia he needed, from the clips to wires.
He taught Burns how to rig the wires: how to cut a high-powered orange extension cord down the middle into two separate strands of wire; how to attach two alligator clips to the bare ends of the wires; and even how to clip the jerry-built apparatus to the unsuspecting animal -- one clip to an ear, the second to its rectum. All that was left to do, Tommy told us, was plug the wire into a standard wall socket and keep back.
"You better get out of the way," Burns told us. "They go down immediately. One horse dropped so fast in the stall, he must have broken his neck when he hit the floor. It's a sick thing, I know, but it was quick and it was painless. They didn't suffer."
Death by such a means leaves no visible trace, and insurance companies in those days attributed most of these deaths to colic.
After Burns finished his work with Henry the Hawk, he packed up his wires in the satchel and left the barn. From the pickup, Lisa and her boyfriend saw Burns stealing away and chased after him, but The Sandman managed to escape. When the two returned to the barn, they found Henry lying dead in his stall. Lisa confronted her father about the killing of Henry, and he never denied orchestrating the grisly affair for the money. McInerney related this episode from Lisa's -- err, Alison Poole's -- life, in his roman à clef.
When Burns spilled all the bitter and refried beans about his life as a horse killer -- he squealed on his greedy clients only after he was caught and they refused to help defend him -- it simply grew and grew into the biggest scandal in the history of equestrian sports, for many of the outlaws were prominent names on the highly competitive Grand Prix show-jumping circuit and in the clubby world around it.
I knew that James Druck had died of lung cancer in 1990, eight years after he had Tommy Burns kill Henry the Hawk, and I knew that Burns had done six months of hard time in a nasty county jail. (My wife and I visited him.) I also know that Burns has since become a model citizen, has done well in the auto-parts business, owns a horse farm only a mile from the barn where he killed his first horse and spends a lot of time on his 38-foot powerboat, skimming the waterways with that unpleasant past receding behind him. I'd often wondered what happened to Lisa Druck.
I was a lawyer before I went straight and became an investigative journalist, but there was one thing my law practice did teach me. Not to sound judgmental, but where some people go, trouble seems to follow, and in wrapping his arms around Lisa Druck, John Edwards found more than his share.
Lester Munson, a Chicago lawyer and journalist who reports on investigative and legal issues in the sports industry, is a senior writer for ESPN.com. William Nack was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated for nearly 25 years and covered stories in a variety of sports and on a range of subjects.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/15/2008 08:48 ||
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#1
I've heard of waking up with a dead horse in bed with you, but I never heard of anyone bedding a girl who had her horse whacked before.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/15/2008 9:44 Comments ||
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#2
Absolutely Overboard! A long-time Ocala resident, the late James Druck, Rielle Hunter's Lisa Jo Druck 's father, was a lawyer who worked mostly for insurance companies.
#3
On Sunday, as I was sitting in my summer cabin in Vermont, completely absorbed in a New York Times story about John Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter . . .
Despite recent slide in oil prices, profit-challenged airlines will likely have to keep raising fares, adding fees and cutting service.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Jet setters, get ready for more fare hikes and fewer flights.
Industry experts say that embattled airlines, despite a recent downturn in oil prices, are likely to keep raising ticket prices, adding fees and reducing service.
"Once a bell gets rung, it's hard to un-ring it," said Rick Seaney, chief executive of the air travel information site Farecompare.com.
The airline industry is scrambling to offset the pain from sky-high fuel costs. The Air Transport Association, the industry trade group, expects fuel costs to soar nearly 50% this year to $61.2 billion, from $41.2 billion in 2007.
The continued upward climb of prices will come despite a recent plunge in oil prices of more than $30 a barrel after hitting a peak of $147.27 on July 11.
Some industry watchers believe that the airlines need double-digit fare increases to become profitable. Carriers are likely to also boost their revenue with new fees for once-free services and items, such as checked baggage and non-alcoholic drinks, or with cost-saving measures like laying off staff and eliminating the least fuel-efficient flights.
William Greene, airline analyst for Morgan Stanley, believes that the recent downturn in oil prices is the "tipping point" that will save the airline industry. He said a continued plunge in oil prices could return the industry to profitability by 2009.
"The recent oil price move, if sustained, is a game-changing event for the industry," said Greene, in an analyst note published on Aug. 11. On Friday, oil prices were trading below $113 a barrel.
Raising air fares - again
Still, the hard-hit airline industry will have to continue to raise fares to offset the fuel costs. When asked how much fares are going to increase, estimates vary widely. In fact, analysts have different opinions as to how much they've already gone up.
The ATA says the price of a domestic ticket increased 7% in the first half of 2008, compared to the same period last year. David Castelveter, spokesman for the industry group, would not discuss possible future fare hikes.
Michael Derchin, an airline analyst with FTN Midwest Securities, agrees with the ATA number and believes that airfares will increase by another 8.5% to 9.5% after Labor Day. He said airlines will cut back on the number of lower-cost tickets.
"I don't see it as raising the fares," said Derchin. "I see it as the airlines restricting the availability of the lowest fares, and forcing people to pay the higher fares that are already in place."
In this way, the analyst expects the average airfare to go up by another 8% in 2009.
Derchin said airlines have to charge more "for this industry to make money," but added that's it too late for most of the carriers to make a profit this year. "It's not easy to increase [fares] by double-digit levels in a weak economy," he said.
But other analysts say that air fares have increased much more dramatically this year and will continue to do so.
Seaney of Farecompare.com said the ATA's numbers are misleading. When comparing the cheapest air fares available, he said that during the 12-month span ending this summer, fares increased year-to-date by 20% between major cities, by 30% between mid-size cities and by 40% between smaller cities.
Seaney said he expects airlines to raise fares even more this year, by between 8% and 30%.
"I believe there will be between 4 and 10 successful airfare hikes the rest of this year, depending on the price of oil," said Seaney, noting that each hike would drive up the fares by 2% or 3%.
Harlan Platt, a finance professor at Northeastern University's College of Business Administration in Boston, said airlines have increased fares by 20% to 25% year-to-date and need to raise them by another 20% "in order to be profitable."
Ray Neidl, airline analyst for Calyon Securities, said that airlines need to achieve the "20-20 rule" in order to be profitable. That means carriers will need to increase fares by 20% while cutting capacity by 20%.
"They are almost there now," said Neidl, meaning that most of the "20-20 rule" has already been applied.
But that won't stop airlines from continuing to ramp up fares, said Neidl, who estimates another industrywide hike of 10% to 15% by the end of the year.
Okay, I'll bite, when will the COMMIE OWG GOSFLOT GLOB-BUREAU TAKE OVER FROM THE FASCIST = "LIMITED COMMUNIST/TOTALITARIAN" GLOBAL/WORLD GRUPPEN OF LES AERO = AEROSPACE KOMPANIES???
As the age of cheap oil comes to a close, it's springtime for gloomy futurists. Visions of a brutish world marked by violent squabbles over dwindling reserves, of junkyards littered with abandoned cars, of suburban slums overrun by weeds, of the collapse of industrial agriculture--none of this sounds as outlandish as it once did. Still, most of these horror stories are likely overstated: Energy experts tend to agree that, with a little ingenuity and a generous helping of political will, we could transition away from fossil fuels without being forced to give up our modern lifestyles.
But there's one big exception--an area where a post-carbon world really could mean a radical shift in the way we live. That's the world of commercial flight.
Early signs of an aviation apocalypse are already upon us. As oil prices flirt with $130 per barrel and the dollar struggles, airlines are paying nearly 80 percent more for fuel than they did a year ago. Twenty-five airlines have gone belly-up this year--three to four times the usual yearly rate. Major carriers like American, Northwest, and United, still reeling from the industry downturn after September 11, go barely a month without announcing layoffs and capacity cuts.
And it gets worse from there. Despite recent fluctuations, a growing number of economists are bracing for oil to hit or surpass $200 per barrel in a few years, and most industry analysts agree with Douglas Runte, of RBS Greenwich Capital, who told The Wall Street Journal in June, "Many airline business models cease to work at $135-a-barrel oil prices." After all, most airlines barely figured out how to be profitable in a world of low fuel costs. Jeff Rubin, chief economist of Canadian investment bank CIBC World Markets, has predicted that gasoline will hit $7 per gallon by 2010, forcing some 10 million cars in the United States off the road. If that happens, he told me, "You're going to see an even bigger exit in the airline industry."
As if one plague wasn't enough, the threat of climate change could mean further doom for airlines. In Great Britain, green groups are lobbying hard in favor of aviation fuel taxes and against a proposed third runway at Heathrow Airport, wewhile activist groups, like one called Plane Stupid, have taken to unfurling banners from atop Westminster Palace and elsewhere with slogans like WE FLY, WE DIE. They argue that, at a time when greenhouse gases are pushing global temperature to perilous levels, flying--one of the most energy-intensive forms of travel around--is a luxury the planet simply can't afford. (While aviation currently accounts for just 3 percent of man-made carbondioxide emissions, it's one of the fastest-growing sources, and the true climate impact of flight is around 2.7 times that of carbon dioxide alone, thanks to the added warming effects of nitrogen-oxide emissions and jet contrails.)
As a result of this advocacy, a social stigma against flying is slowly spreading across Europe. While air travel isn't covered by the Kyoto Protocol, the next round of climate-treaty talks will likely address the issue, and the EU has recently announced that it will bring aviation into its emissions-trading regime--forcing airlines to pay for 15 percent of their carbon use starting in 2012. "That's the real deal," says Bill Swelbar, a research engineer at MIT's International Center for Air Transportation. "When you look at some of the taxes and fees being discussed in Europe, we might as well bankrupt our industry today." John Whitelegg, a transportation expert at York University's Stockholm Environment Institute, estimates that requiring airlines to pay the full environmental costs of flight could raise fares as much as five-fold.
#5
The concept of jet setting for the rich will return but aviation won't go away, not by a longshot.
Perhaps customer service will also return. Lastly maybe the unions and high paid executives will go away and they can run the places at a profit for a chance.
#6
Yep, air travel restricted to teh rich and frivolous, as it used to be.
And apropos of almost nothing. My favourite scene from a 1930s movie set in a transatlantic plane, is where they go onto the plane's outside deck for a smoke.
#7
Don't see commercial air travel ending, but agree that in the short term there will be shift in the demographics; and with customer service on a par with Greyhound, rail is looking better. AMTRAK is slammed with getting equipment back on line; buying private cars, pulling old equipment from mothballs and junkyards becasue the shops cannot keep up. Out here in WA, the BNSF has very visible track upgrades in work and are working to make the line between Seattle and Vancouver, BC dual track throughout. and not just for freight.
look for heavy lift aircraft to become more common ( Boeing Skyhook) at the expense of speed.
#8
Or we can convert all the coal to kerosene we want at 1/2 the current cost of oil. Better yet, the end product is usable as is for jet fuel. Or we can keep reelecting the current crop of crooks and luddites to congress and complain in the dark.
Posted by: ed ||
08/15/2008 16:33 Comments ||
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#9
Albermarle, I believe that movie was WC Fields in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. Very funny.
#10
Warming effects of jet contrails? I just saw a NOVA program about "global dimming" - the phenomenon of clouds and particulate pollution causing "dimming" i.e. less sunlight reaching the surface, causing surface cooling, which counter-acts global warming. Jet contrails were said to be one of the causes of dimming. These people need to get their story straight.
#13
IIRC DEFENSE NEWS > the USAF-DOD SPACE PLANE is prepping for its first flight???
As a reminder, the USA = US-ALLIES? desires to begin the DE FACTO EXPLORATION + COLONIZATION OF DEEP SPACE, STARTING OF COURSE WID OUR OWN SOLAR SYSTEM. This means ADVANCED ENGINES = TECHS,
includ Advanced super-Materials, Advanced Integration, + MULTI-REGION/CONTINENTAL GOVTS SUPPOR.
AND A MADONNA FAN FROM GUAM SHALL LEAD/POINT THE WAY - JUST GOTTA STOP PAULA "DELILAH/BATHSHEBA" ABDUL FROM PERENNIALLY KICKING HER DADDY'S FAVOR COCONUTS!
I am more worried about an ice age than a tropical swamp in Greenland.
Posted by: James Carville ||
08/15/2008 18:56 Comments ||
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#15
Heard the other day that airlines are cutting 60 million seats in the fall. That should make travel very screwed up as far as trying to get somewhere.
#16
UH4645, c'mon, don't confuse them with the facts. They're saving Gaia, dammit, from all these gawdawful lower class people taking a holiday! Can't have that! Uppity peasants!
(Here's a link to what UH is talking about if anyone is interested.)
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields ||
08/15/2008 19:52 Comments ||
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#17
Airships are making a big return right now. The technology is much better than it was a hundred years ago, and airships can do a lot of things that aircraft, trains and trucks have a hard time doing.
For the military, they can maintain surveillance over a huge area 24/7. They can provide a super high bandwidth, high speed communications service like a dedicated satellite. They can provide continual AWACS style air control. And they could do all three things at once.
They also have amazing cargo lift potential, perhaps four or five times what the largest aircraft can carry. And they can land it on the top of a mountain without an airstrip. Imagine dropping an armored outpost on the top of a commanding mountain. It could neutralize a hundred square miles of enemy territory.
#1
Let's see. 6,000+ years of recorded history, 50 recorded years of peace. Yep, I'd say perpetual war is in our past. And based on our past, I'd say it's in the future too!
Was this tard paid money to write that article? There was NOTHING inciteful in there. Any (non-revisionist) historian knows that the military starts fighting the next war with the tools and techniques they used in the last war.
Furthermore, to quote Tolkien "Those who do not have swords can still die upon them". It only takes one side to start a war. Everything I know about Islam screams that we will be at war until we wipe it out or we all convert.
#2
IIRC the Guinness Book of Record used to have an entry to the effect that since recorded history [approximately 2000 BC on] there's only been about 200 years of peace throughout the world. That implies that war is constant, peace is exceptional.
#3
When Europeans entered Africa and the Americas, they found permanent tribal wars of attrition. We have to include those conflicts. I don't think the world has ever had universal peace. Notwithstanding their less than belligerent periods, Muslims are under koranic ordenance to work to a world where "allah alone" is worshipped. Peace is impossible in that context.
#4
ION GUARDIAN > HUMAN BRAIN IS THE BATTLEFIELD OF THE FUTURE [Multi/Full Spectrum Mind/Brain Warfare]. Mind Offense versus Mind Defense, Psychic versus Psychic, War = Non-War = Other-Than-War???
X-MEN'S MAGNETO VS, XAVIER VS WARLOCK VS APOCALYPSE VS. URANUS/URANIUS VS......@???
Prob safe to add SEX in the equation, i.e. GENETIC WARFARE.
D *** NG IT, MYSTIQUE VS. STORM VS. THE WHITE QUEEN VS...............................@
Today is the 14th of August, 2008. Its a special day, we got independence from the English-Hindu alliance on this day, exactly 61 years ago. But Im not going to write about this day, I am going to write about today.
I woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, sent some Happy Independence Day SMS to a few people, and changed the picture and status message on my facebook profile to reflect my patriotic feelings. I went to my classes as usual, but at 5:30 pm in the evening, the Pakistan Student Society of my university had organized an Independence Day get-together for the Pakistani students of my university.
I reached the venue sharp on time, and about half an hour later, about ten of the thirty five odd Pakistani students were present. The rest were either not in the university at that time or were in their classes. Besides the Pakistani students, a few students from Indian Occupied Kashmir were also there to celebrate the Pakistani Independence Day.
After wishing each other Happy Independence, we had some refreshments and a discussion about the socio-economic and political situation of Pakistan ensued. After a while, a Kashmiri student whom we had invited arrived, and as soon as he arrived he exclaimed, Do you know what is going on in Kashmir? The Indian army is killing people, they are targeting the youth. The situation has not been this bad since decades, people are out on the streets in the thousands and scores have been killed by the Indian army. We told him to sit down and tell us what is going on in detail. He said that he had just talked to his father who lives in Srinagar, and he told him that the situation is very bad. There are dead bodies everywhere, the Indian army is killing everyone, they are even stopping ambulances and killing the injured. I knew that this was not like the other stories which I hear from people. I could see the tears in his eyes, I could feel the pain in his voice, this was a real story.
And suddenly, a thought crossed my mind, a thought due to which I could no longer swallow the food which I was eating. These Kashmiris were here today to celebrate our independence day with us, to show their love and gratitude to us and our nation. And here we are, doing absolutely nothing at a time when the brothers and sisters of these very Kashmiris are being ruthlessly killed by the Indian army. At that particular moment, I realized, we are a dead nation.
We are physically alive, but spiritually dead. We are willing to ransack the whole country when a corrupt politician like Benazir dies, or when someone slaps Ghulam Arbab, but we are sound asleep when our brothers and sisters in Kashmir are being killed, even at this very moment. We can gather in the thousands to hear a traitors phone call from London, but when our Kashmiri brethren cry for help, all their calls go unanswered. We love to express our dissatisfaction when the prices of wheat or tomatoes go up, but when the Kashmiris have no wheat or tomatoes to eat at all, who cares.
We are a dead nation, a nation which is not independent even after 61 years of independence. A nation with a mammoth human capital and natural resources, but no will and sincerity at all. This is not Quaid-e-Azams Pakistan, this is not what Allama Iqbal dreamt of. This is not the Pakistan for which Leopold Weiss left his native Ukraine. This is not the Pakistan for the Muslims. This is the Pakistan of Musharraf, Zardari, Altaf Hussein, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir (yes, she still haunts Pakistan from her grave). This is the Pakistan of the Generals, the politicians, the fuedals and the elite. This is a nation of personality worshipers, a nation of zombies whose minds are controlled by the corrupt puppets of the west.
Our nation has lost the spirit which it was created in. Is this is the outcome of the sacrifice of a million human lives?
I am confused, I do not know whether to celebrate my countrys so called independence or to mourn the death of my brothers and sisters. I do not have the courage to look into the eyes of the Kashmiris, I feel ashamed, because me and my nation have let them down. We taught them how to dream, but never worked for its realization. We helped them when it suited our interest, and ditched them when they needed us most. We talked big, but did little. And I am forced to say this with utmost regret, and I have to say this even though it pains my heart, that the blood of the tribals who died in Kashmir in 1948, the Pakistani soldiers who died in 1965 and Kargil, the blood of the average Pakistani who volunteered to help his Kashmiri brethren, and most importantly the blood of the thousands of Kashmiris who have been killed, has gone to waste.
Good going my countrymen, keep watching those bollywood movies, keep listening to the Indian songs, keep watching their TV shows and dramas. Allow their movies to be shown on our national airlines, remove the visa restrictions for them, increase trade. Its a matter of time before you become indianized, or maybe you already have. Your love for Shahrukh Khan and Ayeshwaria Rai is very touching, only if you had the same love for an average Kashmiri.
Before I end this emotional speech of mine which must be irritating many ears, I would like to clarify one thing. I am not writing to create awareness amongst my countrymen. I am not writing to wake up my nation. How can I? You can wake up someone from his sleep, but you cannot wake up someone from his grave.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/15/2008 08:39 ||
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#1
Its a matter of time before you become indianized, or maybe you already have.
#4
"These Kashmiris were here today to celebrate our independence day with us, to show their love and gratitude to us and our nation. And here we are, doing absolutely nothing at a time when the brothers and sisters of these very Kashmiris are being ruthlessly killed by the Indian army."
Note that "these Kashmiris" are also doing absolutely nothing -- except spreading some tall tales to fan the flames of nationalism on independence day.
"I knew that this was not like the other stories which I hear from people."
Yes, this storyteller has a vivid imagination.
Those days are long gone, McZ. The British soldiers and administrators who had the brains and balls to give India the most honest government it has ever had are long since gone and they don't produce people like that in Britain anymore. Even if they did, they couldn't spare them for India; they would be too badly needed in Britain sorting out their own collapsing society.
There were giants in the land once though. I'd give a lot to hear what John Nicolson or Colin Campbell had to say about the state of modern British society...
#9
A lack of violence does not indicate spiritual death. It is more the willingness to have endless strife until you get your way, that is spiritual death. He mourns that the Indians are killing his people, but doesn't reflect for a moment that this is because his people have killed Indians, and first. The Indians are fighting back against the senseless violence of his people.
He knows that his nation's leaders are corrupt. But he does not explain the source of their corruption, be it tyranny or Islam.
He doesn't even note that his country isn't even a real country, because large sections of it are enclaves of barbarian tribes, where the government does not rule.
His house is not a home, it is a sty. And until he and his countrymen clean up the pig swill they wallow in, they cannot blame others for the muck that covers them.
#10
FOX NEWS AM > MUSHARAFF RESIGNATION? CONTROVERSY > FOX Reporter claims that whomever succeeds MUSHARAFF AS PAKI PRESIDENT WILL HAVE HIS PRESIDENTIAL POWERS SERIOUSLY [Legally/
Constitutionally]RESTRICTED, AND LIKELY WON'T BE ABLE TO FREELY COLLUDE WID THE USA AS AT PRESENT.
PAKISTAN = POST-DUBYA USA = FUTURE USSA, versus UNITED SOCIALIST REPUBLICS ala "OIL STORM" [OWG Global SSR]???
Last week I demonstrated the perils of instant punditry when I poured scorn over the prospects of impeachment. My concern was whether this move was for real. Putting ashes into my mouth, and sackcloth over my head, I apologise for that display of not totally unjustified cynicism. After all, we have been bitten so many times before that some shyness was not entirely out of place. But enough of that, this thing is for real, and no better Independence Day gift could have come for what remains a sorely-tried nation.
The Greeks thought that how one lived ones life was important. But perhaps more important was how one faced adversity and the inevitability of death. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was a man with great qualities and deep flaws. But he achieved near-immortality in the manner he faced death, not flinching, not afraid, not begging for mercy. He was never more the Laird of Larkana than in his death cell in Rawalpindi Jail, since demolished. On the site of the old jail now stands, with our unerring sense of aesthetics, a McDonalds takeaway.
Through its tumultuous history this country has endured and suffered two civilian despots, Ghulam Muhammad and Iskander Mirza, and four military usurpers Ayub, Yahya, Zia and the one now desperately hanging on to what remains of his former glory. Barring Pervez Musharraf who is still around but has reached the end of his line, all these so-called strongmen had to relinquish power unceremoniously. They made grand entrances on to the political stage. They just did not know how to time their exits or how to leave the stage with a semblance of dignity.
Pervez Musharraf is going. This is the writing on the wall, the skies, the message emblazoned across the stars. There is no miracle which can keep him for much longer (and this is only a matter of days) as president. But he is shutting his eyes to reality because he doesnt want to go, because he is afraid of the unknown and what may lie in store for him.
For years he has bragged about being a commando. What commando and what courage is he talking about? There are no redoubtable deeds of valour credited to him in the army. He did lead a military operation, Kargil, but we know what a disaster that was. Although if the full story of Kargil was known how Musharraf and the commanders involved in that operation, Javed Hasan, Aziz and Mahmood were responsible for sacrificing in vain the lives of some of our bravest soldiers and officers the cry would go up for dragging him and his associates in that ill-fated adventure before an avenging tribunal.
That one attempt at strategic command was a catastrophe. His rule has also been one endless tale of disaster which makes him a failure both in war and peace.
Our armys soldiers and young officers have done it proud. But its chiefs, especially those who went on to seize power, have disgraced it, Musharraf being no exception. But now he is compounding his own misery by not leaving when any remaining shred of dignity should tell him that he was best served by walking off the stage with as much calm as he can muster. He was never cut out for greatness but by delaying his exit he is proving the smallness of which his detractors have always accused him.
Yes, there are other problems the country faces. The economic situation is grim as is the outlook on our western frontier. The government needs to get down to serious business. But Musharraf is an encumbrance, a remembrance of things past, an irrelevance crying to be removed. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were no problems for the French Revolution once they had been deposed from power. Czar Nicholas II was no problem for the Bolsheviks once they had seized power. But they were symbols of a dying era and the logic of those two revolutions dictated that they be done away with.
God knows the fire of no revolution burns in Pakistan. But we are at some kind of a turning point and Musharraf is the outstanding symbol of what went wrong with Pakistan, and the wrong choices the government made, during the past eight years. He must go.
The message to Field Marshal (self-appointed) Ayub Khan in March 1969 that his time was up and the national interest was best served by his departure was conveyed by the then judge advocate-general of the army. In his book of recollections Arshad Sami, then Ayubs ADC, says that before going in to see the embattled field marshal, the judge advocate-general called for a double whiskey (Black Dog, as we are told). This was most unusual. Visitors to the president, if they felt like quenching their thirst, asked for a whiskey large or small on their way out, not on their way in. What is more, the judge advocate-general called for a second whiskey and only after thus working up some Dutch courage for himself did he walk in to the president and deliver his ominous message.
In Dec 1971 General Yahya Khan was in no mood to quit even after the Eastern Command had surrendered to the Indian army and East Pakistan had become Bangladesh. But a cabal of senior officers, led by Lt-Gen Gul Hasan, put it gently to him that he had better hand over power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
In Aug 1988 Gen Zias summons came from Heaven, the instrument of Heaven if we are to follow the line taken by Mohammad Hanif in his at-times hilarious A Case of Exploding Mangoes a box of mangoes put on his C-130 as it took off from Bahawalpur where he had gone to witness a tank exercise. In a Vanity Fair article not long after Zias death it was said that the person who had persuaded Zia not to miss the tank exercise was his former military secretary, and then commander first armoured division, Major-General Mahmud Durrani. Innocent souls might have been forgiven for thinking that Durrani was past his active service days. But Musharraf appointed him as our man in Washington. After he was supplanted there by Haqqani snake-in-the-grass to his friends he is now national security adviser to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. (Which makes one wonder what Gilani thinks of tank exercises.)
Musharraf has needed no judge advocate-general to tell him that his time was up. The entire nation has given him this message, never more loud and clear than on Feb 18. But he has refused to go thereby only piling up more indignities and humiliation for himself.
What was the point of insisting that the song show held for some years on the eve of Independence Day should be held in the presidency? What was he trying to prove? In the event it only rubbed in his reduced circumstances, for attendance by government high-ups was poor and why blame them because who wants to be at a funeral parlour which is what Musharrafs surroundings look like these days?
Forget about doing the nation a favour. Musharraf should do himself a last favour by looking up the meaning of the word dignity. If he has any left, he should go within the next few days. Let the country then move ahead and grapple with the many problems lying on its plate.
We need someone good to replace him, someone who can restore respect to the presidency. I suggested a couple of weeks back that Sardar Attaullah Mengal would be a great choice as president. It would heal Balochistans bitter wounds, bring Balochistan into the mainstream of national life, strengthen the federation and send out a strong signal that as a nation we are capable of bold actions.
To Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif goes the credit of the impeachment decision. Let them be guided similarly when it comes to choosing the name of the next president. And let them not delay the issue of restoring the deposed judges. That would complete the first stage of the democratic revolution for which the people voted on Feb 18. It would then be up to the nation and its leaders for making what they will of the next stages.
Tailpiece: What a fine decision by Dr Fehmida Mirza, the National Assembly speaker, to have the national anthem played in the National Assembly on Aug 13 and to ask MNAs to wear the national flag on their lapels. One of the good things to have happened since Feb is her election as speaker. She is doing an outstanding job and is proving an able custodian of the House.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/15/2008 07:56 ||
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#1
I kind of think Musharraf is not alone... like maybe it's a nation of pretenders?
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Posted by: Perfesser ||
08/15/2008 15:09 <A HREF="comments.php?D=2008-08-15&ID=247246&HC=4">Comments</A> ||
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<td><a name="852057"></a>#4
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