Body Bags for Stock Market Points

Carl Hiassen is one of my favourite authors - his hilarious books are all set in Florida and each one features an odd, quirky, comical set of characters and cleverly interwoven plots. At least one lame movie has come out of his work - "Striptease", with Demi Moore - but you can hardly hold Hiassen responsible because Hollywood just doesn't seem to get it. Pick up "Stormy Weather" (set in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, among the plotlines is a series of incidents arising from the fact an "exotic animal compound" gets levelled and the animals escape. "Why did Fifi stop that incessant yapping outside, Harold? Go have a look ...") or "Native Tongue". You'll soon become addicted to Hiassen's outrageous sense of humour. Who else has one of his villains dispatched by having the poor fellow accidentally fall into a tank with an amorous (and somewhat near-sighted) dolphin?

But Hiassen is also a wonderfully lucid and stylish newspaper columnist with the Miami Herald, and in this column he connects some pretty ugly dots. It gives credence to what a lot of us suspected all along - that the Bush Administration has been more than willing to trade brave young soldiers' lives in exchange for a little extra profit for its pals.

Some of my American friends get uncomfortable around this kind of discussion - as if there is an implied criticism of the soldiers who died, as if it somehow makes their deaths less noble. It doesn't, to me. I'm a military brat, and I know there is nothing so noble as serving your country in a cause you believe to be just. When your leaders betray you, it is their nobility that is called into question.

Comments

[al]

Actually, Big Trouble was written by Dave Barry. You seem to have mixed up your Miami Herald columnists on that one :) All the same, that book was much funnier than the movie, and could have had 'Elmore Leonard' on the front and I wouldn't have batted an eyelash.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246464/

[Nils Ling]

Right you are ... I did mix up my columnists, both of whom I think are terrific. And yeah, Dave Barry's "Big Trouble" is very much Elmore Leonard-ish ... as, I might add, are Hiassen's. Mea Culpa on the mistake, but don't let that deter you from reading both authors ...

[Anita]

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