"They are war criminals and should be hung."
Nick Gillespie | March 24, 2005, 11:13am
That's the latest inane nattering from the ultimate Cold War casualty, chess great Bobby Fischer, who the Free World still owes a solid to for kicking Boris Spassky's rotten commie ass in a contest that was every bit as important and central to freedom's flourishing as the 1972 Men's Olympic basketball final and all those Van Cliburn piano competitions.
Hell, even Gorbachev got a Pizza Hut deal out of communism's fall. Fischer just went insane. As some may recall, Bobby F was last heard from waxing anti-Semitic after 9/11 (hey Ward Churchill, you might want to lift some of his material).
Now Fischer has been released from a Japanese jail and is heading to Reykjavik--the site of his triumph those many years ago--with Iceland's ambassador to Japan (and his fiance) on his arm. (Yes, odd.)
Reports the CBC:
"This was not an arrest," said Fisher. "It was a kidnapping cooked up by [U.S. President George W.] Bush and [Japanese President Junichiro] Koizumi."
"They are war criminals and should be hung."
In more bizarre behaviour, Fischer pretended he was going to urinate on a wall, called Japan's government "gangsters" and said the U.S. was "Jew-controlled."
Fischer was in jail because of an extradition order to the U.S. for having played a '92 chess match in Yugoslavia in violation of sanctions then in effect (which does sound like bullshit, though somehow I doubt Jews had much to do with it).
Whole thing here.
Rick Barton | March 24, 2005, 10:26pm | #
Nick:
"...chess great Bobby Fischer, who the Free World still owes a solid (thank you) to for kicking Boris Spassky's rotten commie ass."
Absolutely! And we cheered him on as he dealt a savage blow to the myth of the "superior Soviet man". Soviet chess and the state schools which nurtured it were used by the Commie propaganda front.
Bobby's success increased the popularity of chess in this country dramatically. Fischer even changed the way we played chess. Emulating his aggressive style became in vogue as did the popularity of the Sicilian defense, his almost certain response to e4. The common notation which recorded the start of a Sicilian defense back then was: P-K4 P-QB4
Before I go any further, for those who are interested, I can't say enough good things about:
Bobby Fischer Goes To War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time by David Edmonds and John Eidinow:
http://tinyurl.com/5z3a3
I went to a talk by Eidinow here in Denver before I read the volume. He was very strong. (To use a chess idiom) ;)
There's some comfort in the notion that Bobby's extreme quirkiness, which in now manifesting itself in the ugliness of anti-Jewish racism, may indeed be attributable to a mental illness afflicting him. (What would Thomas Szasz say?)
BTW, John Eidinow claims that Fischer, despite all, has always maintained perfectly amicable relations with chess players who are Jewish.
"Fischer was in jail because of an extradition order to the U.S. for having played a '92 chess match in Yugoslavia in violation of sanctions then in effect (which does sound like bullshit, though somehow I doubt Jews had much to do with it)."
No matter the disgust one registers at his racism, which goes so deep that it includes his promotion of the Protocols forgery, it's outrage that should greet this ridiculous injustice that our government has visited upon Fischer. This BS is so out of left field, and so dated, that it may be due to some with influence with or within our government who are offended by Bobby's racist blathering.
