Mexican Absolut Ad?

Should have been posted   5 votes - 62 %
Should not have been posted due to sensitivity of neigbours   0 votes - 0 %
-   2 votes - 25 %
It is reasonable to be slightly embarrassed at borrowing "The Grand Sophy"   1 vote - 12 %
You should not be embarrassed at borrowing "The Grand Sophy"   3 votes - 37 %
 
8 Total Votes
Doubts about political humour by Alan Crowe (4.00 / 1) #1 Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 02:04:49 PM EST
I try to explain one concern, lamenting that British voters today put much faith in satire. I see important areas of politics where satire cannot venture.

I also see satire as depending on shared, unspoken assumptions. Political progress depends on articulating the unspoken, so that it can be critiqued. This kills the joke. I don't see the serious work of politics as compatible with humour.

It might be much more damaging to today's politicians if we refused to laugh. Think about the prisons crisis. The government caused this by pushing for tougher sentencing but not building more places in anticipation of prisoners failing to leave on account of their longer sentences. The fundamental problem seems to be an unwillingness or an inability to do the appropriate arithmetic.

People in power don't do their sums! Ho ho! What if we refused to laugh?



What? No Woodiwiss? by Christopher Robin was Murdered (4.00 / 1) #2 Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 02:17:40 PM EST
I was certain you'd start your foray into bodice-rippers with Woodiwiss's The Flame and the Flower, one of the first romances to be published as a paperback original and widely held to be patient zero by those studying the spread of the modern paperback romance genre.



Mexican Absolut ad by ucblockhead (4.00 / 2) #3 Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 02:37:27 PM EST
Most of the whiners are ignorant of the history in question.
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ウセーバラケダ


We won that war fair and square by LinDze (2.00 / 0) #4 Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 11:24:43 PM EST
If they want Texas and the south west back Id say fine. As long as they repeal Cinco De Mayo and recognize the rightful rule of a suitable french(/spanish/british) puppet emporer.

Also, as I recall, the marines kicked some more mexican ass in the early 191Xs.

-Lin Dze
Arbeit Macht Frei
[ Parent ]

No problem. by Tonatiuh (2.00 / 0) #9 Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 07:35:28 AM EST
We will recognize a suitable Emperor and then we will execute it, as we did with the last one.

[ Parent ]

Tribalism in the middle east by jump the ladder (4.00 / 1) #5 Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 04:53:37 AM EST
The US uses "combat" anthropologists and I suspect that the Sunni awakening has a lot to do with this.



Glad to hear the next Iain Rankin is better by nebbish (4.00 / 1) #6 Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 05:29:11 AM EST
I think I might skip forward a bit in teh series though. At some point, I'm in no hurry to read any more at the moment.

Apologising or saying you were wrong on the internet REALLY throws people.

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It's political correctness gone mad!


Sorry about that. by Breaker (4.00 / 1) #8 Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 07:00:42 AM EST
NT


[ Parent ]

Argggghhhhh!!!! by nebbish (4.00 / 1) #11 Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 09:59:42 AM EST
*Runs away in confusion*

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It's political correctness gone mad!
[ Parent ]

Ooops! by Breaker (4.00 / 2) #12 Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 10:12:50 AM EST
I was wrong!


[ Parent ]

KJ Parker by Breaker (4.00 / 1) #7 Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 07:00:22 AM EST
Currently reading the first in the Engineer trilogy (Devices and Desires).  Good read so far.

If you really want a rollicking heroic fantasy, get Joe Abercrombie's "The Blade Itself".  He starts off in this first book as a good writer.  Then improves again in "Before They Are Hanged". By the time he gets around to "Last Argument Of Kings", he's on fire.  Very rare for me to read a set of books twice back to back.




The Blade Itself by TheophileEscargot (2.00 / 0) #13 Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 02:04:44 PM EST
Other people have recommended that too... might move onto it when I've finished the current batch.
--
"Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise." -- Bertrand Russell
[ Parent ]

In an Absolut World.... by Tonatiuh (4.00 / 1) #10 Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 07:37:48 AM EST
... we will get all of it!

And Canada also!

Ha, ha. ha! (where is my cat? I need to stroke her now).