Hunters

Despite opposition and outrage from conservatives, a permit to kill a rhino, one of only three permits issued yearly by Namibia, has been won at auction by a Texan for the princely sum of $350000. One of the arguments against the auction is that it might encourage other Americans who have that sort of money to pay up and kill. The current winner says that the money will go towards conservation (conservation of who I wonder) and that by killing an old bull passed his prime, one that would be likely to attack younger ones still in the sexual circuit, that also goes towards conservation. He could be right of course. What do I know abut the sex-life of the rhino? How does one know when one has passed his prime anyway? With the amount of poaching that seems to increase year by year I would have thought even three kills three too many. You would have thought with the advent of Viagra the horn worth $60000 a piece would have become obsolete, especially as its magical qualities are a myth anyway. The white rhino, of which only four remain in the entire world, is protected 24/7 by armed guards. Soon, guard or no guard, the rhino will pass into history like the unicorn. Oh, yes, didn’t you know? Once upon a time there were unicorns. Any child will tell you that and the Bible mentions them four times so there must have been. Probably left behind when Noah put up the “No Vacancies” sign or didn’t realise they hadn’t turned up.

Why is the swastika still with us and all the paraphernalia of pseudo mystic masculinity, the ubermensch, white supremacy that goes with far right thinking?? Why is so much still published and why the continued fascination on the life of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party who were nothing but a bunch of malformed, some physically, some mentally or emotionally, thieving thugs?  YouTube has any number of films, videos, showing every aspect of this period including not only the horrors of all out war but the obscene horrors of what the Nazis perpetrated, not only to the Jews, homosexuals and Gypsies in the concentration camps but wherever they were the conqueror. Is it merely the desire to have or to show superiority where none exists? Is it a matter of jealousy? With the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin it was necessary to clean up the city, removing anti-Semitism signs before foreign visitors arrived and Hitler was non too pleased when the supreme athlete, Jesse Owens, turned out to be a black American, and racism, it might be obvious to say it, still seems to be the basis of the neo-Nazi mentality, especially in America. Here in Greece our neo-Nazis, the party known as Golden Dawn are also racist but for them it is anybody who isn’t Greek. It follows the same old pattern of a pseudo-military aspect and discipline with flags showing their party symbol – not quite a swastika but it doesn’t take too much imagination to know what it means, intimidation and brutality. Stall holders of obvious foreign origin have been beaten up and their stalls destroyed. In America, a Neo-Nazi by the name of Craig Cobb, evidently from a wealthy background tried to take over the sleepy town of Leith, North Dakota, where he had been taking over properties to be distributed to his followers. He apparently expected residents to bow to the new order. He was wrong. In November, Cobb and a henchman swaggered through the town carrying shotguns and shouting obscenities. Alarmed locals called police. Both men are now in custody each facing terrorism charges and lengthy prison sentences. Nothing to be ashamed of, Mr. Cobb, you are merely following in your mentor’s footsteps though it would seem his padded cell was a bit more padded than  is usual.