"He may be a Son-of-a-Bitch, but he's our Son-of-a-Bitch."

[Carl Robinson]

Not too Off-Topic and kinda' relevant with this week's brew over what Philippines President Duterte said before the ASEAN Confab in Laos and widely interpreted as aimed at Obama.  (See my yesterday post on an alternative view based on a bi-lingual interpretation of his actual words & context.)   

In any case, the episode's reminded me of the famous & enduring quote above and who said it when & first?   Was that LBJ or Nixon talking about Nguyen van Thieu?  Or Mobutu, the Shah of Iran and any number of Latin & Central American dictators?  The last wide use of the quote was as long-time Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos was going down in 1986 -- and attributed to a CIA Director.  

The problem now, of course, is that almost no one is "our" son-of-a-bitch or bastard anymore anywhere in the world.  And Duterte's certainly made it quite clear that he is no one's son-of-a-bitch.   

Just for fun, I've looked up the etymology of the expression -- and it does way back, some say to Shakespeare.  But it was first used in modern times by Harry Truman referring to one of the Somoza dictators in Nicaragua.  

Of several references googled, this looks like the best.

http://www.metafilter.com/21543/Our-Bastards-Somoza .

Best regards & cheers,

Carl