Politics: Onward from New Hampshire

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
Indeed. Which is why I responded as I did to Hank's explanation of his joke, which belies your post ("fyi, I was simply making, the obviously a little too obtuse, joke that girls can't go to school in Islam countries.") and why I reacted strongly when you posted in defense of that hil-A-ri-ous joke. Hank's and your claim that you were talking about AQ is further belied by the fact that AQ doesn't run any countries and doesn't set educational policy even in the three nations you selected as exemplars, for whatever reason.

I made the point that girls do indeed attend school both in Islamic, and even in Islamist countries such as Iran (which you chose to mention). You then helpfully point out that madrassa attendance by girls in three specified countries is low. Unless you're willing to concede that was a 100% irrelevant point, I don't see how making the Islam/Islamist distinction helps you in your "defense" of Hank's admittedly overgeneralized and factually incorrect joke.*

*Factually incorrect jokes are funny when it is clear to all that they're factually incorrect --- in most people's experience, frogs don't walk into bars and midgets don't have enormous dicks. I'm still not certain we're on the same page on this, which is a different and less funny kind of irony.

Blow me. I received an IM asking what the post meant. The IM'er thought that I was taking GGG's position that people staying home was cowardly.

Clearly it was a reference to AQ, "You are appeasing AQ if you keep your daughter out of school." Coupled with the earlier appeasement posts, and in context, it was clear.
Having received the IM, I post an explanation, quickly, and perhaps overbroad. For fucks sakes, we are 3 hours later than you. We've had wine with our dinner by the time you're looking at 5PM.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
. . . frogs don't walk into bars and midgets don't have enormous dicks.

We have different jokes here, I think.

Let's cut to the chase. The main point - the main area of celebration contained within my post to which you object - is the spectacle of people such as yourself jumping in to protect and defend the gender-treatment honor of a part of the world, and society, that has long treated half of its population abysmally. This amuses me to no end. I suspect that you would be one of the first to decry gender-biased hiring patterns here (as would I), and yet a society which veils and limits its women in so many ways, which punishes women for "crimes" uncommitable by men, which denies them employment except in certain approved manners, becomes, to you, something noble, and equal?

Let's just say, I suspect your motives. I don't think you believe this for a second. As I mentioned to Sam, I think you chose bedfellows based on ignoble criteria. Just as NOW suddenly about-faces and deems that a CEO can rightly have sex with a lowly underling female in the face of Clinton's actions, you defend Islam's record concerning women at a time when you decry an anti-Islamicist attitude in our actions. Call me cynical . . .

[The Larry Davis Experience]

Originally posted by bilmore
And you have it, of course.

(My main point is the one Club articulated - that unemployment right now is at a fairly "normal" level. Granted, any unemployment sucks, but we're never going to hit 0%, and the level we're at now isn't bad when you look at history. To call this an unemployment crisis is overblown hype.)

OK. I just think it's less overblown when you look at the raw job creation numbers and realize that it's far from normal to have this little job creation at this point in a recovery. In fact, it's unprecedented. And that is not just a problem for those folks in the unemployment line; it's creating a lot of uncertainty in the bond markets, reducing state and local government revenues, and causing a number of other problems that don't seem to get reported all that much but are still there.

I'm not anxious to rekindle the "how is the unemployment rate staying the same if we aren't creating jobs" debates of yore, though, so I'll leave it at that.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Blow me. I received an IM asking what the post meant. The IM'er thought that I was taking GGG's position that people staying home was cowardly.

I'm afraid you're not doing very well on reading comprehension.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
I'm afraid you're not doing very well on reading comprehension.

Oh, I should use shorter words. You didn't understand. I received an IM- you don't see those so you can't know if I understood it- see? Its hard to try and understand stuff sometimes! Sometimes thing are confusing, huh?

Like remember the time you bumped your head and suddenly saw everything upside down. The Professor tried to help by brewing an antidote made of keptibora berry extract, but the antidote caused you to see double. After consuming more juice, you saw four of everything. That must have been so hard for you!

Meanwhile, the island was invaded by three headhunters who slowly captured all of the other castaways. You sure saved the day by serving the headhunters lots and lots of keptibora berry extract, which caused them to see "hundreds" of castaways running toward them! Good job!

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by bilmore
What is debate then, if not the fun of hearing yourself talk? And maybe getting better at it, or even just getting some mental exercise?

It's not for everyone, and it sounds like you don't enjoy it.

Some of my favorite conversations here are one's where it doesn't all boil down to who thinks they've won an argument.

(My other favorite conversations, of course, are the ones where I make you look like a fool.)

But the balance has tipped toward riding at each other with jousts, hasn't it? I think this is due in part to the election year, in part to the fact that there are not a lot of fundamentally new driving issues right now.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Oh, I should use shorter words. You didn't understand. I received an IM- you don't see those so you can't know if I understood it- see? Its hard to try and understand stuff sometimes! Sometimes thing are confusing, huh?

Like remember the time you bumped your head and suddenly saw everything upside down. The Professor tried to help by brewing an antidote made of keptibora berry extract, but the antidote caused you to see double. After consuming more juice, you saw four of everything. That must have been so hard for you!

Meanwhile, the island was invaded by three headhunters who slowly captured all of the other castaways. You sure saved the day by serving the headhunters lots and lots of keptibora berry extract, which caused them to see "hundreds" of castaways running toward them! Good job!

You're needed on the Mom & Dad board - television recommendations are needed for toddlers.

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by bilmore
The main point - the main area of celebration contained within my post to which you object - is the spectacle of people such as yourself jumping in to protect and defend the gender-treatment honor of a part of the world, and society, that has long treated half of its population abysmally.

Not my fight, but no. What I saw was:

[Hank's joke]
[Atticus taking offense]
[Hank's explanation for premise of joke]
[Atticus explaining that the premise was simply wrong]
[You making fun of Atticus' "jumping in to protect" Islam[ist] countries, and in doing so also get something wrong -- because Atticus was pointing to school education, not madrassas.]

Waving your hands and saying that what you really meant is to poke fun at something that Atticus didn't really do in this case, but closely enough resembles what you think he often does, is fine, I suppose, as far as that goes.

But episodes like this should help you understand why people get annoyed when you whale away at slights, positions, and arguments that weren't even made.

This amuses me to no end.

Yes. We know.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Gattigap
Not my fight, but no. What I saw was:

[Hank's joke]
[Atticus taking offense]
[Hank's explanation for premise of joke]
[Atticus explaining that the premise was simply wrong]
[You making fun of Atticus' "jumping in to protect" Islam[ist] countries, and in doing so also get something wrong -- because Atticus was pointing to school education, not madrassas.]

Waving your hands and saying that what you really meant is to poke fun at something that Atticus didn't really do in this case, but closely enough resembles what you think he often does, is fine, I suppose, as far as that goes.

But episodes like this should help you understand why people get annoyed when you whale away at slights, positions, and arguments that weren't even made.

Fuck that. Prove a Kennedy didn't drown that poor woman.

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Fuck that. Prove a Kennedy didn't drown that poor woman.

Uh huh.

I'm glad you're here today, Hank. Don't forget, when the light flashes come back, take one of these. And remember that we all love you.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Fuck that. Prove a Kennedy didn't drown that poor woman.

Forgive my ignorance on this Chappaquidickiana -- I'm still haven't made it through the Warren Commission report, so the tiny part of my brain responsible for obsessing about the Kennedys is still stuck in the 60's, but I understand that some of you folks devote many more neurons to this stuff -- but didn't he plead guilty to some sort of criminal charge? And isn't that res judicata, or collateral estoppel, or something? Do you really need anything more?

[notcasesensitive]

Originally posted by Tyrone_Slothrop
Forgive my ignorance on this Chappaquidickiana -- I'm still haven't made it through the Warren Commission report, so the tiny part of my brain responsible for obsessing about the Kennedys is still stuck in the 60's, but I understand that some of you folks devote many more neurons to this stuff -- but didn't he plead guilty to some sort of criminal charge? And isn't that res judicata, or collateral estoppel, or something? Do you really need anything more?

Different woman. See Hank's post this morning.

Hank, everyone is so serious here. Come back to FB where you belong.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
But the balance has tipped toward riding at each other with jousts, hasn't it? I think this is due in part to the election year, in part to the fact that there are not a lot of fundamentally new driving issues right now.

Maybe, too, a lack of new blood. It's becoming all reruns. I'm reduced to poking fun, not at AG's posts, but at AG's persona. That's certainly less focused than I would rather see.

(My other favorite conversations, of course, are the ones where I make you look like a fool.)

This must be a singularly unsatisfying place for you to be, then.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Tyrone_Slothrop
Forgive my ignorance on this Chappaquidickiana -- I'm still haven't made it through the Warren Commission report, so the tiny part of my brain responsible for obsessing about the Kennedys is still stuck in the 60's, but I understand that some of you folks devote many more neurons to this stuff -- but didn't he plead guilty to some sort of criminal charge? And isn't that res judicata, or collateral estoppel, or something? Do you really need anything more?

Ty, I didn't Mary Jo, I meant the woman from my post this morning. I was trying to go light- because the dark voices in my head keep having me google "woman's rights" and various majority-Islamic countries, and then start to make a post about some of the horrors. Then I remember the old board and how it bad this sort of thing got (I was not one of the anti-Islam posters there), and I also know that half the shit on the net may be fabrication, so instead of posting the links, I delete. I'm doing my penance Ty, but I have to do something, and the "Drowned Lady" article, just seemed to a good vehicle.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by notcasesensitive
Hank, everyone is so serious here. Come back to FB where you belong.

Thurgreed said I broke it.......