Post #167,172
8/2/04 3:59:57 PM
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How about, "Intentionally bitterly sarcastic"?
To deny the indirect purchaser, who in this case is the ultimate purchaser, the right to seek relief from unlawful conduct, would essentially remove the word consumer from the Consumer Protection Act - [link|http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=1246&Page=1&pagePos=20|Nebraska Supreme Court]
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Post #167,180
8/2/04 5:00:11 PM
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Sarcasm can be applied to something bearable.
I just cannot be sarcastic about megadeath. Holocoast, Rwanda, Gulag, Hiroshima... Deadly serious. I see where the authors want me to be, but I can't go there. Just my personal problems, I guess.
--
"...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated."
-- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"
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Post #167,181
8/2/04 5:08:56 PM
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then you will love "Fail Safe"
I also recommend:
"On the Beach" - still a powerful film all these years later.
"Testament", 1980 or so, when Reagan began his nuke sabre rattling. Could be the best post-nukewar movie ever.
NOTE - "Fail Safe" was remade with TV stars - DON'T RUIN THE EXPERIENCE WITH THIS TURKEY! The film is by Sidney Lumet and stars Henry Fonda as the President. The remake is horrible and pointless.
"The Bedford Incident" is a good nuke-showdown-at-sea movie. There was another starring Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington, forgot the name.
Of all these, "Testament" is the most chilling, "Fail Safe" the most suspenseful, "On the Beach" the saddest and most illustrative of the pointlessness of it all.
-drl
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Post #167,193
8/2/04 6:41:21 PM
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Then you'll utterly fail to get Tom Lehrer + much else
Perhaps you don't grok (or agree with?) the difficulty of expressing extreme-loathing for a particular [idea, process, activity] when .. it's already in practice, usually undiscussed.. and acceptable to many - or is just Not Thought About much [?]
It's more difficult to parody the Absurd, when there are many people already doing that - a contributing reason why there is so little Good 'humour' to be seen in current Corp Meeja in the US, IMO. First, it's hard to conceive an effective lampoon, parody re what we are already inured to; second - the 100% ad-oriented don't-offend-Anyone filter of bizness-think:
Guarantees the broadcast of only the most innocuous pabulum and a near-0 chance of effectively excoriating the Unconscionable (it has become The Norm).
Fail Safe, Strangelove - in their time - portrayed Starkly: the febrile mindset behind MAD [STILL Our Operative Nuke-plan in '04] as no previous films had even dared attempt: The one via humour + the irreplaceable Peter Sellers; the Fonda one by perfectly logical prose and a realistic scenario as might have occurred Any Day, then. Both took more than creativity - took Guts.
No academic treatise assessing nuke risks to all the planet could have held a candle to the effectiveness of this pair of films, in portraying "The Reality". (Not that it changed anything in the group-think that creates such suicidal weapons = STILL)
Today -- it is only less-likely that ICBMs will fly - it is Equally Possible, such as we Are and Remain: ostriches ever seeking new sand to hide head in, from unpleasant nutzo stuff we allow to persist.
These two films Deserve 'this much ink' IMhO. Especially! given - the obv intention of This Admin to mix-in the new nukes on order as -merely- 'Conventional Munitions\ufffd' for our next scheduled series --> small Warz-for-Democracy cha cha cha
What could be more contemporaneous than: these two films?
Ashton
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Post #167,303
8/3/04 3:27:02 PM
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Clarification
I actually enjoyed the bit where Air Force chief held forth a discourse on 10 million deaths, and the Good Doctor's suggestions of bomb shelter for saving American Race (what a misnomer). I do get sarcasm. I just think that the ending was horribly out of tune (out of taste) with the rest of the movie.
--
"...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated."
-- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"
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Post #167,317
8/3/04 4:32:27 PM
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Interesting bit of trivia.
Slim Pickens was under the impression that the film he was filming was a SERIOUS film, not a comedy. This makes his character (T.J. "King" Kong) even more bizzare.
WANTED: Precognitive Telepath for adventuring Partnership. You know where to apply.
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Post #167,359
8/3/04 6:48:39 PM
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Learn something new..
No.? Shit.? Well That instantly evokes - -
"I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And, for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down'." -- Bob Newhart via Rick Moen
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Post #167,206
8/2/04 9:20:53 PM
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And how 'bout that Jonathan Swift guy?
I mean, like, "A Modest Proposal"—putting up helpless little Irish babies for retail sale as comestibles?—eeeeuuww! Some people may think that cannibalism is funny, but I don't. There are things you just don't joke about.
FWIW, I regard Strangelove as one of the greats. I suspect that your own appreciation was hampered both by the cultural once-remove and, much more, by the forty years of dense history separating your viewing it for the first time in 2004 from the audiences at its original release.
cordially,
Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
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Post #167,301
8/3/04 3:15:39 PM
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Would you be as enthusiastic if "the proposal" was
actually implemented, or seriously considered?
--
"...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated."
-- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"
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Post #167,361
8/3/04 6:54:38 PM
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Umm imagining from that direction..
Taking an allegory for a literal-What-If? has another name - such things are done regularly from a 'Fundamentalist' mindset. Joshua done commanded the Sun not to move.. Oh Yes, I. Read. That. cha cha cha
Surely.. You! jest -?-
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Post #167,405
8/3/04 10:50:19 PM
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My problem exactly
Except the other way around. When allegory is taken literally, it's fundamentalism. When litearl (impending, in my case, or past, as in pwisal's nice animation) horror is taken allegorically - that's crassness.
--
"...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated."
-- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"
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Post #167,416
8/4/04 1:09:00 AM
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Hmmm.. OK, I see your point.
Yes, there's a danger within the tiny-brained folk [think Columbine?], a tendency to extrapolate Murica's fav media / Nintendo Ha-Ha violence into some New principle needing Fulfillment.
I know of only one remedy to that; one cannot make words (pix) 'safe' for people; one only can attempt to breed sane people who are inherently 'safe' from easy manipulation by abstract symbols. (We don't do that very well; clearly others do better.)
Map/territory problem? Creeping dumbth can only worsen the situation, I'd guess.
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Post #167,392
8/3/04 9:46:11 PM
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you have a fundie in the white house
a nation who devours the after days series about xians and the last days. You have ashcroft in the justice department worrying that adults might see sex without benefits of marriage on video. It wouldnt take much to crank it up. One rogue nuke on the west coast, buttons pressed and some gleaming logic from silos behind the Urals do a detect from logic built in 1962 and launch. thanx, bill
"delayed incessantly by people whose prevalent qualification was an excess of free-time" Philip Atkinson questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
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Post #167,417
8/4/04 1:12:23 AM
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Prec\ufffdsamente, amigo: that is exactly the connection and
damn good Boxlish to boot :-)
Brevity Award: 3 Repo adrenal glands and a piece of tail.
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Post #167,230
8/3/04 2:44:42 AM
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Oh dear.
You'll hate [link|http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v143/scrooger/images/lollercaust.gif|this], then.
(SFW, if you don't mind your boss thinking you're a weirdo)
Peter [link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire] [link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal] [link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
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Post #167,232
8/3/04 4:14:11 AM
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LOL!
-- Chris Altmann
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Post #167,302
8/3/04 3:17:52 PM
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I was going to say
"fuck you". Then again, nobody pretends it's serious art. Just wierd amusement of the sick.
--
"...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated."
-- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"
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