Not with a bang.

 

But with a whimper.

 

All over...

 

Bar the shouting.

 

I feel...

 

Nothing.

 

I should feel something, anything.

 

But I don't.

 

What is wrong with me?

 

I know...

 

I'm useless, worthless, old and discarded.

 

Once the best of me has been ripped from me...

 

The rest shall be strewn before the winds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Riding roughshod everywhere, U.S. imperialism has made itself the enemy of the people of the world and has increasingly isolated itself. The atom bombs and hydrogen bombs in the hands of the U.S. imperialists will never cow those who refuse to be enslaved. The raging tide of the people of the world against the U.S. aggressors is irresistible. Their struggle against U.S. imperialism and its lackeys will assuredly win still greater victories.

"Statement Supporting the Panamanian People's Just Patriotic Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism" (January 12, 1964), People of the World, Unite and Defeat the U.S. Aggressors and All Their Lackeys, 2nd ed., pp. 9-10.

My shoulder's killing me.

 

I am damned if I know what I've done to it.

 

It just aches.

 

That sort of slow, dull ache like a little man with a hammer keeps tapping it....

 

That kind of ache.

 

Maybe we're going to get some rain?

 

Every time the barometer drops, it aches.

 

A reminder of things past...

 

Wonderful, that.

 

One more set of lessons tomorrow...

 

Then payday Monday.

 

I'll take a few weeks to gather myself together...

 

Then get another job.

 

In the meanwhilst...

 

ARGH.

 

Ow, ow, ow.

 

So there's this guy Walsh, do you understand? He's tired of screwin' his wife... So his friend says to him, "Hey, why don't you do it like the Chinese do?" So he says, "How do the Chinese do it?" And the guy says, "Well, the Chinese, first they screw a little bit, then they stop, then they go and read a little Confucius, come back, screw a little bit more, then they stop again, go and they screw a little bit... then they go back and they screw a little bit more and then they go out and they contemplate the moon or something like that. Makes it more exciting." So now, the guy goes home and he starts screwin' his own wife, see. So he screws her for a little bit and then he stops, and he goes out of the room and reads Life Magazine. Then he goes back in, he starts screwin' again. He says, "Excuse me for a minute, honey." He goes out and he smokes a cigarette. Now his wife is gettin' sore as hell. He comes back in the room, he starts screwin' again. He gets up to start to leave again to go look at the moon. She looks at him and says, "Hey, whats the matter with ya. You're screwin' just like a Chinaman!"

Anyone who sees only the bright side but not the difficulties cannot fight effectively for the accomplishment of the Party's tasks.

"On Coalition Government" (April 24, 1945), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 314.

It's another one of those really nice days in Tianjin.

 

The only problem with that is that I have to go to soddin' work.

 

The penultimate time.

 

Saturday's the last day of the company.

 

Which sucks a very large amount of arse.

 

Means I'll have to find another job.

 

I hate trying to find jobs.

 

But I'll take a couple of weeks downtime first.

 

I might have earned it...

 

Who knows, who knows.

 

I seem to be watching an inordinate amount of Kenny Everett lately...

 

Is that a good or bad thing?

 

I don't know, that's why I'm asking you!

 

As from 12 o'clock all rizla's will be free. To discourage their use, there will be a 25p-per-pound levy on panties. This will exclude thongs. Marijuana will be available on the NHS to treat chronic diseases such as ichy scrot. Furthermore I am a bell end...

All the guiding principles of military operations grow out of the one basic principles: to strive to the utmost to preserve one's own strength and destroy that of the enemy.... How then do we justify the encouragement of heroic sacrifice in war? Every war exacts a price, sometimes an extremely high one. Is this not in contradiction with "preserving oneself"? In fact, there is no contradiction at all; to put it more exactly, sacrifice and self-preservation are both opposite and complementary to each other. For such sacrifice is essential not only for destroying the enemy but also for preserving oneself - partial and temporary "non-preservation" (sacrifice, or paying the price) is necessary for the sake of general and permanent preservation. From this basic principle stems the series of principles guiding military operations, all of which - from the principles of shooting (taking cover to preserve oneself, and making full use of fire-power to destroy the enemy) to the principles of strategy - are permeated with the spirit of this basic principle. All technical principles and all principles concerning tactics, campaigns and strategy represent applications of this basic principle. The principle of preserving oneself and destroying the enemy is the basis of all military principles.

"Problems of Strategy in Guerrilla War Against Japan" (May 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II, pp. 81-82.

So why, when I read the morning news bulletins, do I feel like the World's come to an end?

 

It's all doom and fuckin' gloom, that's for sure.

 

Reading them, you'd think that the sun had become a cinder, the seas dried up, and the Earth had swallowed the people...

 

It's enough to drive a man to drink.

 

Well, in my case, it's enough to get the limo to pull up to the fridge, have a lass hand me an open can...

 

Might as well stick a straw in it, just to save time.

 

I mean, really, is there no good news out there?

 

Has nothing happened that might lift one's spirits...

 

Even just a little?

 

It's so bloody frustrating here...

 

Just being so out of the loop.

 

It's not like I've got any great news to report, either.

 

Oh, bugger it....

 

Not prostate, you idiot, probate!

A proper measure of democracy should be put into effect in the army, chiefly by abolishing the feudal practice of bullying and beating and by having officers and men share weal and woe. Once this is done, unity will be achieved between officers and men, the combat effectiveness of the army will be greatly increased, and there will be no doubt of our ability to sustain the long, cruel war.

"On Protracted War" (May 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 186.

Ah, welcome to my hovel, please, do come in...

 

Pull up an area of chair not smothered in shite, ok?

 

I know, place looks like a damn bomb fell on it....

 

Maybe it should.

 

I think China's trying to find democracy through the credit card...

 

Spend, spend, spend.

 

And then there's the savings bubble that's out there...

 

Driving up house prices...

 

Out of real people's reach.

 

I keep getting a hiding over that, too....

 

Eh, what's a lad to do.

 

In the meanwhilst, there's life in Singapore...

 

Might as well be on Mars.

 

Barley soup for breakfast...

 

Fizzy barley soup, anyone?

 

Lovely and cold...

 

Just right for me.

 

Everything you see belongs to me, to one degree or another. The beggars and newsboys and quick thieves here in Paradise, the sailor dives and gin mills and blind tigers on the waterfront, the anglers and amusers, the she-hes and the Chinks. Everybody owes, everybody pays. Because that's how you stand up against the rising of the tide.

Man’s reflections on the forms of social life, and consequently, also, his scientific analysis of those forms, take a course directly opposite to that of their actual historical development. He begins, post festum, with the results of the process of development ready to hand before him.

Marx, Capital, Volume I, Chapter One (1867)

I've recently found out that a contract in China's just a piece of toilet paper...

 

People wipe their arse on them.

 

And that the people you think are your friends...

 

Lie to your face.

 

They're deceivers of the first order.

 

I don't ask much.

 

I just ask that people honour contracts.

 

Wasn't the People's Republic Of China built on a platform of honesty?

 

Law, order, democracy?

 

I'm sure It was....

 

So where is it?

 

 

Off to work.

 

This is the last lesson with my beginners...

 

Then I slap 'em with the test on Thursday.

 

Hell, I'm gettin' too short for this shit.

 

Seems to me I'm a single digit midget...

 

I'm so short, I can't see over the top of my boots.

 

But, damn it all, instead of leaving me here with the gear...

 

L.T.'s got me pulling a couple of last patrols out there in the boonies....

 

Don't worry.

 

I showed 'em at the Night Market that I've still got what it takes.

 

Shot out all 18 balloons at a roadside shooting range to win a big Spongebob.

 

And that was with a damn dipshit plastic fantastic 6mm which needed to be hand cocked for every shot...

 

Any idea what I can do with a rather more powerful version?

 

Well, me and Walt Kowalski might think about that later.

 

Right now, time to go to work...

 

Mount up, get yer shit together...

 

Time to hump these fuckin' boonies one more time.

 

Relax, zipperhead. I'm not gonna shoot you. I'd look down too, if I was you. You know, I knew you were a dipshit the first time I ever saw you. Then I thought you were worse with women than stealing cars... Toad.

Production by the army for its own support has not only improved the army's living conditions and lightened the burden on the people, thereby making it possible further to expand the army. In addition, it has had many immediate side effects. They are as follows: (1) Improved relations between officers and men. Officers and men work together in production and become like brothers. (2) Better attitude to labour.... since the army began to produce for its own support, the attitude to labour has improved and loafer ways have been overcome. (3) Strengthened discipline. Far from weakening discipline in battle and in army life, labour discipline in production actually strengthens it. (4) Improved relations between the army and the people. Once an armed force begins to "keep house" for itself, encroachments upon the property of the people seldom or never occur. As the army and the people exchange labour and help each other in production, the friendship between them is strengthened. (5) Less grumbling in the army about the government and improved relations between the two. (6) An impetus to the great production campaign of the people. Once the army engages in production, the need for government and other organizations to do likewise becomes more obvious, and they do so more energetically; also, the need for a universal campaign of the whole people to increase production naturally becomes more obvious, and this too is carried on more energetically.

"On Production by the Army for Its Own Support and on the Importance of the Great Movements for Rectification and for Production" (April 27, 1945), Selected Works, Vol. III, pp. 327-28.