Helen Thomas in Playboy.

Cartoon: Mike Skelton.

I am a relatively broad-minded guy and I have always liked Americans and understood that while in many ways they are a lot like us, they do have different tastes. I was however somewhat taken aback when I saw the headline above. The image that came to mind doesn’t bear too much thinking about; in fact I am trying to expunge it.

The initial instinct was, it can’t be true, but then it occurred to me that Hugh Heffner is well into his 80s and perhaps he thinks she is a bit of a babe, (Oh Hell there’s that image again, Brrrrrrrh.

It was somewhat amusing to think of being a fly on the wall when my mates, Ben, Bawb, Angry, Dondero, Pat Conlon and their ilk eagerly opened up their copies, and ….

Fortunately she was not the centerfold girl; it was an interview in which she expounded her views on foreign policy. As it happens she is something of a specialist on the Middle East, particularly Israel. Here are a couple of her gems:

"I went into self-imposed house arrest for two weeks…Every columnist and commentator jumped on me immediately as anti-Semitic. Nobody asked me to explain myself. Nobody said, 'What did you really mean?' (The Jews "can go home" to "Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else." seems to be a fairly clear statement with a fairly clear meaning.)

She explained her comment that Jews should go back to Poland and Germany meant "they should stay where they are because they're not being persecuted-not since World War II...If they were, we sure would hear about it." Thomas added that Jews "carry on the victimization. American people do not know that the Israeli lobbyists have intimidated them into believing that every Jew is a persecuted victim forever-while they are victimizing Palestinians."

When asked whether she believed there was a secret Jewish conspiracy at work in the US, Thomas stated that it is "not a secret. It's very open...Everybody is in the pocket of the Israeli lobbies, which are funded by wealthy supporters, including those from Hollywood. Same thing with the financial markets. There's total control."

I have not followed her career, but at 90 she seems to be increasingly cantankerous and intemperate which may be an age thing. I have to question whether it is even decent to have these interviews. There comes a point where a person is not in complete control of their faculties and to keep bringing it up is a little like picking on the handicapped. It is a little like interviews with Charlie Sheen.

Still; when I figure out Photoshop, I’ll be able to have some fun with this kind of post.