Smugscreen

A picture's worth a thousand words, so they say. And by some happy coincidence that's the amount of words that Loius Deguara wrote in his Times column on Friday. For the statistic fanatics out there, not one of them was health. No, it was all about comparing today, as he explained in bewildering Rumsfeldian style:

It is said that comparisons are odious. And the obverse, contrasts probably more so. On the other hand, drawing comparisons and contrasts is one of the solid ways of arriving at the truth. On a philosophical level one may question the concept of truth, since absolute truth is hard to arrive at and what we call truth is somewhat relative.

No prizes for guessing that he was comparing the PN and MLP's respective records in government, which is a bit rich considering the Labour Party has been in power for only two years for the last twenty years. But when you're as smug as Louis Deguara, you don't let a little thing like that stop you from crowing incessantly. Which is why I propose that he should be locked into a padded room and be made to listen to this ridiculous speech by Stefan Buontempo on January 18 (from 46:12), who has just resumed parliamentary duties after completing a successful panto tour around Malta. Those unwilling to listen to the whole thing, though I advise it, should jump to 54:40 for the best bit:

"Kieku saru il-progetti, konnha nkunu, mhux l-aqwa fid-dinja!!! Le, l-aqwa fil-pjaneta, nahseb!!"

Il-Alla Madonna, what is going on in that place? Not content with a performance that rivals Lino Banfi acting camp, he proceeds to offer some patronising remarks about the limited critical faculties of the elderly (1:01:20):

"Jaqbu in-Net, jghidhu 'kemm qed jghamel il-gvern'. Ma jkunux jafu x'qed jigri bl-ezatt"

But if for Buontempo the old are just stupid, Deguara is sick and tired of their greed. He conveys a bizarre image of wrinklies literally pouncing on a tray of pastizzi (04:53), which is how he justifies taking their prescription medicine away from them.
Luckily enough for him they'll be dead soon, and it was fitting that a few minutes later exchanges had turned to the building of incinerators at the Addolorata Cemetery. After the ribaldry occasioned by prostitution, today the representatives of the Maltese people had a good laugh at death, burning corpses and eternal damnation (26:20).
And finally, Michael Asiak returns to his least favourite subject, sexual rights, which he describes as antipatiku (03:05:20). I say he returns, though it was in fact word for word reprisal of what he wrote in The Times the other day.
Another day of Maltese democracy in action.