The Off Topic Topic

[Sheilbh]

Probably one of the best political cartoons from the Economist:

Do people really fear a Fourth Reich or are Nazi remarks just there to shame Germans and derive a political advantage from that.

I think history casts a long shadow. Most of the time, if things are good, we're able to all rub along by a polite amnesia - especially the UK, we've never even tried atonement as Germany has, preferring to 'move on'. But if the relationship comes under stress then I think that willed amnesia is more difficult to sustain. In many ways it's lucky that of the bail out countries, most were neutral.

I think it would take sadly little pressure in, say, Anglo-Irish relations to bring back talk of the Black and Tans, or the feckless Irish.

And I think it's a universal truth that victims remember longer and more freshly than the 'victors'. I was recently reading a book about gay politics in the early (legal) days and it's astonishing how much these British and American people had the Holocaust in the back of their mind. There was always that fear and memory of what happened to liberated, Isherwood's Berlin.

[The Brain]

You think they point out the irrationality of something that doesn't exist? Non-rhetorical.

Zanza didn't ask if it exists or not.  He asked if it is sincere.

So you think it is an insincere fear but it's not about getting an advantage over Germany? But still irrational?

[Admiral Yi]

So you think it is an insincere fear but it's not about getting an advantage over Germany? But still irrational?

Your posts are taking on a distinctly Razzian tint.

[The Brain]

So you think it is an insincere fear but it's not about getting an advantage over Germany? But still irrational?

Your posts are taking on a distinctly Razzian tint.

Are you OK?

[Razgovory]

So you think it is an insincere fear but it's not about getting an advantage over Germany? But still irrational?

Your posts are taking on a distinctly Razzian tint.

Well that's good.

[Malthus]

My kid came up with an interesting quip.

We were talking about a trip we had taken with him when he was 3 years old, when he suddenly announced "history isn't what you have lived, it is what you have remembered".

Not bad, for a nine-year-old. 

[grumbler]

So you think it is an insincere fear but it's not about getting an advantage over Germany? But still irrational?

Your posts are taking on a distinctly Razzian tint.

This one was a bizarre mix of raz and the Yicratic Method. It confused me as well.  Your initial answer did not.

[alfred russel]

Larry the Cable Guy before he started putting on the act:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqm-vKWEkoU

LOL at those buying his redneck persona.

[Martinus]

Larry the Cable Guy before he started putting on the act:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqm-vKWEkoU

LOL at those buying his redneck persona.

Ugh, that's some bad hairdo/shirt/trousers/shoes combo.

[alfred russel]

Larry the Cable Guy before he started putting on the act:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqm-vKWEkoU

LOL at those buying his redneck persona.

Ugh, that's some bad hairdo/shirt/trousers/shoes combo.

In case Larry the Cable Guy hasn't made it to Poland, this is his act now (and he is one of the most successful US comics):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hX28XIIhSQ

[Ideologue]

My kid came up with an interesting quip.

We were talking about a trip we had taken with him when he was 3 years old, when he suddenly announced "history isn't what you have lived, it is what you have remembered".

Not bad, for a nine-year-old. 

Tell him to get back to his algebra problems.

[Malthus]

My kid came up with an interesting quip.

We were talking about a trip we had taken with him when he was 3 years old, when he suddenly announced "history isn't what you have lived, it is what you have remembered".

Not bad, for a nine-year-old. 

Tell him to get back to his algebra problems.

Heh, these days it is all about the long division.

He came up with another quip - he was looking through my colllection of Spagetti Westerns, having just read a volume of Greek mythology: "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Hestia, Cronos, and Hephaestus". 

[Eddie Teach]

Those are interesting choices.

[Malthus]

Those are interesting choices.

I asked him why he chose these gods in particular.

He said Hestia was the only Olympian god who was reliably nice and inoffensive, and stood for helping the family, which made her "the Good"; while lots of gods were "bad" from time to time, Cronos earned the title of "the Bad" because he ate his own kids, which was about as bad a thing as a 9 year old could even think of; and Hephaestus was famous for being ugly.

[Ideologue]

I thought it was crystal clear.  Your kid's smart.

Eli Wallach would be a pretty good Hephaestus.