Hard News: Only in a relative sense
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How about forcing them to eat their own cars?
Which would have bonus of training a whole new generation of Guinness Book of Records beaters.
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I was going to watch Soylent Green tonight.
Never mind. Get 'The Crying Game' out instead.
And there I was thinking he was Lorne Green's brother.
I think PAS needs its own collary to Godwin's law - As a discussion thread grows longer, the probability of someone mentioning BSG approaches one.
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Lorne Green's brother
Nah, Soylent sounds Asian to me..
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Never mind. Get 'The Crying Game' out instead.
Rofflenui.
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Sorry, Giovanni, should have linked to imdb who at least do have alerts. We need more of them. Lerts, that is. </ref bad tee slogan that wasn't funny the first time>
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Lerts, that is.
Surely you know I was joking. But, in the spirit of anecdote and not without a spoiler alert for those who haven't seen Gladiator (and the content of the spoiler is as follows: it's unbelievably crap), I was out with friends one night when Gladiator was still in theatres and somebody said right, I'm off to see Gladiator, and somebody else said: "He dies". Not out of malice, you understand, she's a thoroughly lovely person. It just came out of her like that.
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someone mentioning BSG
Pffft. He'll always be the singer of 'Ringo' to me.
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Pffft. He'll always be the singer of 'Ringo' to me.
Not to mention the singer of... the Bonanza theme song! who knew there were words?
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and somebody else said: "He dies".
Same thing happened to me with Titanic, someone said (SPOILER ALERT) "It sinks!"
(Apologies, I shall probably trot that one out on a regular basis until the day I die.) It amuses me anyway.
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Sacha, thank you for the pointer to David Haywood's post. Most excellent!
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Same thing happened to me with Titanic, someone said (SPOILER ALERT) "It sinks!"
Careful, or I'll give away the ending of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Not to mention the singer of... the Bonanza theme song! who knew there were words?
Of course there were words: dam-daradam-daradam-daradam-dam-daam-daaaaam....
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the Bonanza theme song! who knew there were words?
Of course there were words...... but I always thought it was "dum-diddy-dum-diddy-dum-diddy-dum Bonanza! dum-diddy-dum-diddy-dum-dum-dum"
Not having heard it for 20 or more years, I see I wasn't that far off :)
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Doh! Giovanni beat me!
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Giovanni beat me!
It's not OK.
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It's not OK.
Even if you ask nicely...
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Even if you ask nicely...
A sadist is someone who is kind to masochists.
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The masochist says "yes! yes!"
The sadist says "No.No." -
thank you for the pointer to David Haywood's post
Well worth promoting I thought - brilliant work. Not linkwhoring if it's within the same megaplex? Plus, I hear Russell doesn't even believe in the concept..
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What, so now we play Six Degrees of Separation from Russell?
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Sorry, no real point intended - jst a play on words.
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Ah, I got that. Was making a wee jest in return about how Russell is the centre of our Russellverse.
It must be getting late...
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Well Iraq certainly doesn't stir passions at PAS like it used to does it? Hardly a post or two on the subject. That in of itself is a commentary on the subject.
You would have thought it would have been hard to obscure the success of the election (and why would you want to anyway?), but I guess you can always scratch around and dig up a negative to any piece of good news. Is Iraq going to be picture perfect anytime soon? No. But that is a truly ridiculous standard to judge it by at this point in its development. Is it better then it was under Hussein? Just a little bit.
A positive write up in of all places the Guardian. Progress must be truly undeniable!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/03/comment-iraq-elections
The NYT has a good article on the election
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/world/middleeast/03iraq.html?_r=1&ref=world
A positive take on Iraq from an Iraqi (pre election)
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
Mistakes were made and lives lost but the US is always blamed for 100% of that. But don't the terrorist bastards who blew themselves up, or sent people to blow themselves up in crowded marketplaces, or the countries that supported and enabled these bastards bear some responsibility for their actions and the death and mayhem they caused? Just a little bit? Maybe, perhaps?
Many of the still displaced Iraqis are former Baathists and their families, who gives a shit about them and why on earth would anyone anyway? They had it good at the expense of the rest of their countrymen for a long time, and now they are paying the price. If I was one of them I would stay out of the country also out of fear of the deserved revenge of fellow Iraqis. Plenty of them deserve a stretched neck, not sympathy.
And the bottom line is that there was a choice that had to be made in 2002, after 13 years of a failed sanctions regime, the UN oil for food fraud etc. Take the Hussein regime out, and have some version of what we have had over the last nearly 6 years, with lots of risks, but the possibility of a good payoff with a friendly regime that doesn't support terrorist groups or try to build WMDs, and an example of a better future for other countries in the region, or leave that terrible regime in place continuing to threaten its neighbors and brutalize its own people. The sanctions would have come off and Hussein would have been back in business building conventional forces and unconventional capabilities. Hussein himself said after he was captured that was his plan, so this is not speculation.
Hussein had well documented ties to many terrorist organizations, a demonstrated desire to have WMDs and use them, and a record of making rally bad decisions, like invading Iran & Kuwait, so pessimism about the future track of an Iraq still under Hussein’s cruel heel was the only reasonable view to take. The risk that Hussein would hand off something nasty to one of the many terrorist organizations with whom he had working associations with was real, especially in a post 9/11 world.
By now we would be almost certainly be watching a nuclear arms race between an idiot in Iraq and some nutters in Iran, located in the most strategic region in the world. If they ever went at each other with nukes, what a mess. Our modern economy is based on mobility and whether we like it or not we use oil for that (and that is not changing anytime soon). No oil, no economy. Think the current downturn is bad? Try oil at $500 a barrel, if you could get it. The great depression would look like a cake walk.
You can get all pissed off about it as much as you like, but that was the basic strategic situation and decision that had to be made in 2002. A choice between a difficult path or several potentially very bad outcomes.
At the end of the day, I am very glad that the position I took on the issue wouldn't have resulted in the continuation of one of the history's worst regimes. That would be a nasty piece of baggage to have to carry around, because the murder and misery caused by that regime prior to 2003, and likely to be caused post 2003 if it was still in power, is objectively so much worse than that incurred getting rid of it and setting up a more hopeful future for Iraq.
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Well Iraq certainly doesn't stir passions at PAS like it used to does it? Hardly a post or two on the subject. That in of itself is a commentary on the subject.
Students, you may pick up your pens and start the revisionism... now.
Mistakes were made and lives lost
Try not to mention the human cost except in the most general terms. Think Kissinger.
but the US is always blamed for 100% of that
Or if you do, try to be a moral relativist. Spread the blame around, deflect it from the people who were supposed to ensure the security of the people. Ah, that's better.
Many of the still displaced Iraqis are former Baathists and their families, who gives a shit about them and why on earth would anyone anyway?
Saying something unsubstantiated, wrong and that reveals that really deep down you're a tremendous piece of shit is entirely acceptable.
Try oil at $500 a barrel, if you could get it.
Extra points if you make it about us somehow, and the "pain at the pump".
By now we would be almost certainly be watching a nuclear arms race between an idiot in Iraq and some nutters in Iran, located in the most strategic region in the world. If they ever went at each other with nukes, what a mess.
And more extra points for hypothetical imponderals plucked out of your rear end.
At the end of the day, I am very glad that the position I took on the issue wouldn't have resulted in the continuation of one of the history's worst regimes.
Try to close with a phrase that supporters of the war can repeat to themselves at night. And... it's time. Put your pens down. Well done, people, I'm proud of you all. Next week's assignment is making Darth Vader the good guy in the second Star Wars movie.
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Imponderables, actually. But hey, the other day I misspelt the word "no", which is no mean feat. (I'm now printing T-shirts that read "Noe means noe").
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You're a real hardass Giovanni. Compared to his former 'hairy armpit' frothing, the Bumpkin Abroad has made great strides. Apart from a little Strangelovian wrist-gnawing he's almost house-trained. Maybe cut him a little slack, channelling Rush Limbaugh's infantile sewage into a semblance of adult English is hardly a fun pursuit.
A few localised touches might have helped, tho - e.g. "The great depression would look like a cake walk." - how about "The great depression would look like a police poultry-porn night in Palmerston North"?
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