Never trust a man with facial hair
I told some people that Jack van Tongeren had shaved off his moustache and then put on an identical fake moustache. Since it sounds hard to believe, and therefore those people were reluctant to believe me, I’m posting the source of the story.
It was in Nick Ley’s Strewth column in The Australian on 16 August 2004. Here’s the segment, with my emphasis:
They are very sneaky people, those Australian Nationalist Movement types. Take Jack van Tongeren, leader of the far-right group and someone readily recognised by the people of Perth due to his thick moustache, “giggle” style army hat and penchant for committing acts of thuggery against Asian shop-keepers. Appearing in court last week, van Tongeren was not only hatless but also sans the well known mo’, except for a few grey strands. But when he was spotted in St George’s Terrace the week before and promptly pounced on before he could hand himself in, his soup strainer was firmly in place. Did he shave it off while on remand, or did the fuzz remove it during his interrogation, as suggested by one former member of van Tongeren’s group? It seems neither is true — van Tongeren shaved before his arrest and donned a false mo’ as a disguise that looked remarkably like, well, himself. Friend Judith Lyons was equally mystified: “I don’t know why — why would you disguise yourself as yourself?” A good question.
It is a good question, but I think I have a plausible explanation.
When JVT went into hiding, he shaved his mo’ to disguise himself. Then, when he decided to hand himself in — and knowing the TV news would be watching — he wanted to look like himself so stuck on the fake bristles.
Plausible, but still weird.
At least we agree on something- Van Tongeren is a serious fruitcake; he is as representative of right politics as Andreas Baader is of the left- or is he a bit of a hero figure?
How very Duchamp .
One of these days you’ll learn how to code a link, Paul. I fixed it for you. And no, he’s not a hero figure. I’ll thank you not to make such stupid suggestions in future.
Anthony, you can always be relied on for insanely obscure cultural references. Nice one.
And here’s the kicker.
I’m happy with the silver in insanely obscure references in this comments thread
and cheers for the “philoshophy” comment over at BP PB, - the Kant-Pushy nexus in one easy typo Mish Moneypenny, I am in awe.
I don’t normally have any bother with code, thanks all the same Rob, except when bladdered.
Human’s are by far the weirdest animal in the animal kingdom. An alien anthropologist would be very interested in the bizarre behaviour of human kind.
Sorry to chip into your link argument but Rob your URL link in my comments went astray from my site, but don’t worry I fixed it, lol.
Anyway on other news I put link to your site from my blog, if you ever feel like adding a blog roll to your site please don’t forget me.
Don’t worry Chris, when I add a blogroll — and it’s been on my “to do” list for quite some time — you will be on it.
Andreas Baader?
What a fucking joke he was. Any left-winger with half a brain (which, I admit, rules a few out) sees Baader as a murdering, half-arsed, shit-for-brains embarassment.
Memo to the Baader-Meinhof gang - killing a 63 year old shipping worker will not bring down capitalism.
Then again, Baader was more Jim Jones than Che Guevara, so it begs the question - did he have any real interest in bringing down capitalism?
As for Ulrike Meinhof, she was a pathetic figure who threw away a promising career as a journo and editor through which she may have effected actual change and became nothing more or less than a patsy, a lacky, a spineless fucking gimp for a group whose level of political sophistication barely reached chanting “one two three four we declare a class war…”
Christ I hate the Rote Armee Fraktion (sic?). Wankers. Murdering wankers. Worse than the Red Brigades back in the old country.
Maybe it was a makeshift moustache merkin, because he might have regretted the look after he took the plunge of shaving it off, or maybe his lip was cold…
Yeah Jack is a nutjob, just like his mate Jim Saleam.