Appropros of Nothing

For a long time, I've heard of the legendary British newspaper, The Daily Mail.

It was a horrible newspaper when Lewis was around, apparently, manufacturing all sorts of false controversies and making apparently conservative but idiotic claims.

The tradition has supposedly carried on today; certainly they have a yearly tradition of printing headlines CHRISTMAS OUTLAWED IN BRITAIN on the basis of a single small town's ruling from many years ago.

But really, I thought, how bad can it be? I mean, if something stays in business that long, it can't be as idiotic as it's made out to be.

Today I was proved wrong.


Not unexpectedly, they posted a news article about the exchange of gifts between Obama and Brown. Apparently Obama carried on the great tradition of giving cheap gifts to the British PM, by offering him 25 classic American films. (On the plus side, this allegedly included ET: The Extra Terrestrial, so it's a good group of classic American films. This is a great relief. If you don't like ET, as everyone knows, you are either a Communist or a Terrorist. Or possibly a Nazi.)

Or so the Daily Mail claims. Normally, I'd believe them on such a factual and provable assertion, but today I'm inclined not to. They go on to show their equally encyclopedic knowledge of Great American Film Quotations:

"And he will hope that at a General Election the British public do not shun his imploration for another term in office by thinking at the ballot box of the famous line from another of the movies, Casblanca: 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.'"

He should also hope, methinks, that Obama doesn't lead an evil reign of terror and quote from Raiders of the Lost Ark when speaking to Gordon: "Luke, I am your father."