Football, fairy stories and
flim-flam. This latest offering from the Discworld series, where nothing is as it seems to be, is a riotously funny look at the national pastime of football.
Others said that was just Putin
flim-flam meant to scare the world and help bolster gas prices by rhetoric.
(See "Florida
Flim-Flam," July/August 2008 Church & State.)
Even after all of these years of
flim-flam and false predictions regarding Iraq, I still find it amusing that so many pundits have declared that the war is no longer a major issue in America, or at least in the 2008 political campaign.
Ordinary Europeans should not be fooled by the
flim-flam. The very existence of decoupling arguments is a warning they should be concerned about the continuing robustness of Europe's economy.
the initial contact is vaguely reminiscent of being pledged to a secret fraternity." He added that this was "strictly
flim-flam."
The book then turns to perpetual motion
flim-flam men.
For some reason, local media go right along with this
flim-flam approach, accepting absurd won-lost records as if they were important and glorifying players and coaches as if they deserved the compliments.
Flim-flam and the practice of law are, as we all know, not strangers.
A real-life
flim-flam film man imbued with shameless showmanship and an unethical streak is rescued from obscurity in the awkwardly rifled "Hunt Angels," a captivating oddball semi-docu from Down Under.
The notion that government services are wasteful and unnecessary--the neoliberal idolatry that the market can take care of everything that needs to be taken care of--got exposed for the
flim-flam that it is.
Teenagers may question authority, but they have no tolerance for condescension and
flim-flam. Happily, Hippler does not give them any: "Above all, the hardest teaching to accept (for it is the principal of all the other teachings) is that our society cannot survive without openly honoring Jesus Christ as the King of Nations, and following the directions of His Catholic Church" (134).
'So don't listen to all that
flim-flam, fakery and flannel from the Tories that they will provide tax cuts, and cut pounds 35bn from public expenditure, and protect front-line services by the magic expedient of waste cutting.
It comes on the heels of rampant deception at the investment banks, brazen cooking of the corporate books, and
flim-flam that passed for market valuation in the dot-com boom.
It might also insist that all its policies met the last point, while viewing the rest as
flim-flam.