Heady heady and more goes right in here and more - Mark Steyn

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | October 8, 2006 | Mark Steyn

[Lurker]

I used to fence so I know my way around a rapier. But one thing mine never, ever did was swish.

Good evening to you as well.

L

[George W. Bush]

When Steyn says it he gets applause around here. When I said it last week it earned me a three day time out.

You used this same King George V quote last week? Or did you just express the same sentiment?

Like the pope quoting the dead Byzantine emperor, Steyn here is quoting a long-dead king from centuries ago. Neither the pope nor Steyn necessarily hold those opinions themselves.

[voletti]

tks for the ping.
Another gem from the genious, as usual.

[NCSteve]

(If the clerk's not there, you can have him paged.)

He declared Mark Foley's pants a federal disaster area.

Maybe not as subtle as usual, but still laugh-out-loud funny.

But then, his Shakespearean pedigree rides in to the rescue:

Foley's history; he's the first footnote in history to a page in history.

[daviddennis]

Just a thought (and I have not read your original posts):

When you're a comic genius, you can get away with a lot by smothering it with humor.

If you make people laugh, they tend to not take your outrageous statements seriously, and so you can get away with making them.

Steyn, of course, is of this class.

D

[Tax-chick]

Foley's history; he's the first footnote in history to a page in history.

ONZ, I completely missed that! BWAHAHAHAHA!

[hattend]

bttt

[ichabod1]

I think you would be wrong about the factionalizm of the early republic.

[ichabod1]

Not so many centuries:

World War I time frame

[ichabod1]

I usually include something like: "Not that I would eeever advocate violence but..."

[r9etb]

Hm. I was thinking that Steyn was trying way too hard with this one.

[George W. Bush]

Woh. I obviously don't keep track of dead royal parasites too well. Good find. But doesn't detract from the point I was trying to make about quoting the opinions of the long-dead to make a point and the difference between quoting someone and holding those opinions as one's own.

[Old Professer]

There is absolutely nothing mature about anything contemporary; potty this and potty that, open crotch is in, top hats are out.

[wita]

I have a great deal of difficulty visualizing the viscous personal attacks of today, in a population and time where such viscousness was not looked upon as seemly, or appropriate at any time, much less the evil glee at others misfortune.

[ichabod1]

I have a great deal of difficulty visualizing the viscous personal attacks of today, in a population and time where such viscousness was not looked upon as seemly, or appropriate at any time, much less the evil glee at others misfortune.

I think you'd be wrong about that too. Everything I've read and learned about the early Republic is that, given the lack of available libel lawyers, the media would say anything and everything they could dream up about public people. The internet of the day was the pamphlet -- you could get a bunch of fliers printed up about somebody you didn't like and pass'em out. Of course, you had to take the chance that the target would challenge you to a duel, so you could die, so that was a moderating factor. They say a dueling society is a polite society.

[AFreeBird]

Let me guess; you forgot the sarcasm tag?

[wita]

Interesting, I just answered a poster with the tagline, an armed society is a polite society, which is close to your posted dueling society. You are historically correct in your comments, I'm just unsure of how wide spread and how often the use of the press was made to advance the attack your neighbor concept.

[Watery Tart]

...King George V is said to have remarked, "Good God, I thought fellows like that shot themselves."

How can he do both at the same time? Write an article that makes perfect sense, and write it using all tagline material?

[carton253]

George V died this century. He led England through WWI, he was the father of King George VI, and grandfather to the current Queen Elizabeth.