Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Thursday, September 2, 2010

From Proximity to Direct a la Dr. Seuss

By John Ballard



Via a Lisa Goldman tweet...



Ami Kaufman is an Israeli journalist and news editor who grew up in both Israel and the US. He has served as a chief night editor for Haaretz and as correspondent on Israeli affairs for RAM FM. Now a chief night editor for the prominent Israeli financial daily Calcalist, Ami lives in Bat Yam with his wife and two daughters. In his spare time he blogs at Half & Half.



Catobamama-217x300[1]
Our first interlude -

I remember,
I do!

Concluded with hope for
Tribe One and Tribe Two


The two showed that when they are willing,

They�re able

To even approach the negotiating table

But Oy!
Look what happened!
(Hold on to your socks)
They failed!
They trashed those proximity talks!




Wow, no one saw that come!

How could they?

Who knew?

I really had high hopes for those,

Didn�t you?


You smile and you sneer

You make light of this chasm?

How dare you?

What nerve,
to display such sarcasm!


Since then

Since that failure you knew to envision

The Tribes have returned to a track of collision


Tribe Two tried to send out a boat to its mates

A Gaza-bound convoy

With goods stocked in crates


But Tribe One got word of it lickety split

�You will not break my siege!
I will not stand for it!�


Tribe One sent some soldiers,

The best it could find

To board that flotilla

To go change their mind


But alas,

The �peace activists� on the bateau

They greeted those soldiers

With quite a fierce blow


One with a rod,
and one with a dagger

Those surefooted soldiers

Soon started to stagger


It didn�t end well

Though the soldiers were skilled

The blood of 9 fighters from
Tribe Two was spilled


The outrage was fierce

And the world turned irate
�What�s wrong with Tribe One?

Can�t they ever think straight?�


The pressure got tighter

Tribe One felt its grip

So it eased its infarction surrounding the Strip


Since then it�s been quiet

There�s been much less drama

But someone�s been busy -

A cat named Obama!


�I�m tired of this nonsense,
with all due respect,

Forget the �proximity� -

Let�s go �direct��!


The cat tipped his hat

And said �Stop the artillery!�

And just then he ushered in
Clinton, the Hillary


The Hillary,

She had a wan look on her face

Like she�d bite anyone
who dared get on her case


�Now listen!�

She screamed

But it sounded quite shrill

(One wonders if this is the tone saved for Bill�)


�Next Thursday we�re meeting

With Hosni and King,

and you�d better come with what I told you to bring!�


She just kept on yelling

It�s all she could do

But she sure sent a chill up
Tribe One and Tribe Two


They RSVP�d
with a no-brainer �yes!�

�If they want us to talk,
we should do so,

We guess�


But now I must sadly,
proceed to unveil:

Tribe One and Tribe Two
think these talks are to fail.


So here we have come

With Tribe One and Tribe Two

With the Cat in the Hat
and the Hillary, too


Will they talk?

Will they speak?

Will they negotiate?

Are Tribe One and Tribe Two to step up to the plate?


(Stay tuned after the failure of the talks, for my next best-seller:

One Talks,

Two Talks,

Three Talks,

Blood!)


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