Terry Jones: Nice one, George

[Briar]

Nice one, George
Those of us who support Armageddon have naturally been greatly cheered by way the US president has embraced our cause.

Terry Jones

Those of us who have long been supporters of Armageddon have naturally been greatly cheered by way the president of the United States has been embracing our cause. Our desire to bring chaos, death and destruction to a greater swathe of humanity has, in the past, often been frustrated by peacemakers and do-gooders of all shades of the political spectrum.

For too long, our aspirations have been derided and criticised. In fact, to be blunt, for more than two millennia we have had to put up with opprobrium and vilification, but now all that will be a thing of the past, for in George Bush we have found an ally - indeed, we have found a leader. A man who is prepared to place himself at the head of the forces of destruction and misery, and who is unafraid of the opinion of the rest of the world.

George Bush has finally put Armageddon firmly on the political agenda, and it is likely to stay there for the foreseeable future.

This means that we Armageddonists need keep to the shadows no longer. Bush and his colleagues in the White House have given us credibility and respectability. They have made our goal their goal, and death, disease, war and famine are now the most likely fate for more people in the Middle East than we Armageddonists had ever dared to hope for.

...

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/terry_jones/2006/08/armageddonists_of_the_world_un.html

[bronxiteforever]

1. excellent!-those Pythons are some smart dudes

[htuttle]

2. Terry Jones is the smartest one of the bunch, too

Or that's what the other Pythons always said (IIRC, he has a history degree from Oxford).

Unfortunately, his desire to be Prime Minister was dashed when it came out that he had trouble saying the letter 'R'. Well, that's what Spiny Norman told me, in any case.

[NYCGirl]

3. Then there's his fashion sense, which also precluded a political career:

[bronxiteforever]

4. lol!!

[madame defarge]

5. Yeah, but(t), can he play the piano! n/t

[NYCGirl]

6. You know, I never actually listened...hmmmm.....

:rofl:

[rosesaylavee]

10. Dinsdale?

:)

[mcscajun]

12. Dinsdale?

Dinsdale? Dinsdale?

[rosesaylavee]

13. .

:rofl:

[ixion]

7. excellent satire,

Terry Jones Rules! :yourock:

[Lisa]

8. his TV series "The Crusades" is out on DVD

Highly recommended -- gives a very interesting (and prophetic) look at the Middle East. I lent it to an Arab friend, who said that he was impressed to see such a thoughtful and sympathetic analysis from a non-Muslim historian.

Jones also did a series called "Medieval Lives", which I don't think has been shown in North America yet ... but the book is out, and it's an excellent read. Lots of scholarly info, presented in a funny yet insightful way. Jones also tears a hole in the "heroic knight" and "damsel in distress" myths (mostly a post-Medieval creation) -- and the insights about the roots of militarism and anti-feminism are very relevant for today.

I can hardly wait for his new Roman-era series!

[Briar]

14. I saw it

and it is excellent. It displeased an Italian acquaintance of mine, however. Couldn't accept that the Romans might not have been the uniquely civilised power of the time! And as for what he had to say about the Empire's heir, the Church...!

[Lisa]

15. I'll bet your friend won't like the "Britain B.C." series!

It really slams the Romans, drawing a parallel between imperialism then, and military involvement in the Middle East today. (Sure enough, the Romans were active in not just Jewish territory, but as far east as parts of Mesopotamia ...) I saw that show recently, and was startled by how political it got at the end. (I'm expecting that from Terry Jones, after reading all the op-ed pieces he's done on the Iraq war, but hearing it from Pryor, an archaeologist, really got my attention.)

p.s. one Italian scholar I know has pointed out to me that modern-day Italians are not the same society as the ancient Romans -- more than a thousand years of cultural and even genetic changes (migration of other groups onto the peninsula), and in any case there were plenty of Roman-era writers who were critical of their own government (loss of the republic, political corruption, militarism, exploitation, etc.). So while it's understandable that your friend would identify strongly with the Roman Empire, it's good to emphasize that the negative aspects of it do not reflect badly on Italians in general ... just as many modern Scandinavians, while insisting that "marauding vikings" have been misrepresented by historians (and I agree!), also accept that some of their ancestors did things which are not approved of today. Europe would be a huge mess if the founding cultures (Celts, Germans, Scandinavians, Romans, Greeks, etc.) had not all had some fundamental ethics and decency.

He might enjoy "Rome in the First Century", the PBS mini-series.

[Briar]

16. I don't know if that has

reached these, or Italian, shores. But I shall look out for it!

I strongly suspect that what was wrong with the Roman Empire had nothing to do with it being Roman, and everything to be with it being an Empire. Imperial pretensions corrupt absolutely.

[Lisa]

19. they showed it on the History channel in Canada ...

So I imagine that it will show up in the US soon, if it hasn't already. (And I think you're right about the corruption of empire ... the same kinds of problems cropped up in China, Mesopotamia, and Mesoamerica as well. Ronald Wright's book "A Short History of Progress" is quite informative ... I've met him a number of times and he's a pretty cool guy.)


http://www.diverse.tv/programme.aspx?code=britainbc

[Briar]

20. I'll watch out for the book! n/t

[JawJaw]

17. Bloody Romans

Reg: All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Attendee: Brought peace?
Reg: Oh, peace - shut up!
Reg: There is not one of us who would not gladly suffer death to rid this country of the Romans once and for all.
Dissenter: Uh, well, one.
Reg: Oh, yeah, yeah, there's one. But otherwise, we're solid.

[Cobalt-60]

21. It was very good

I still have my 1995 recording. (Guess I better get that onto dvd...)

[Lisa]

22. mine (taped off A&E) has a rather odd series of commercials on it

I think it's from a re-broadcast in either 2000 or early 2001. Towards the end of the last segment, Jones is describing the backlash to the Crusades, in the Arab world. The commercial break then features (I kid you not) an American Airlines ad, and a Travellers Insurance ad which shows a "New York City of the Future", with the World Trade Center looming overhead.

In retrospect, the juxtaposition is rather startling.

[rosesaylavee]

9. Needed a laugh...

Thanks for posting.

Most of the characters on the world stage now could come from a Python skit... how wacky has the world become?

[Patsy Stone]

11. Excellent satire

I love those darn Pythons. Sadly, it's very nearly true.

K&R!

[chat_noir]

18. Bush: Trannie Whore of Babylon or Anti-Christ?

Clicked on the "See who is linking here" URL and found this...

Bush: Trannie Whore of Babylon or Anti-Christ?

Maybe George the War Criminal keeps those Four Horses of the Apocalypse on the potemkin ranch he bought when he decided to run for prez. He should use this August vacation to muck the stables...but Bush doesn't like horses, as I recall. Is it different if they're apocalypic horses? Since he pays no attention to his daily briefings, he needs something to do. If he wants a good read other than My Pet Goat while the world burns, maybe he should check out this Human Rights Watch report on U.S. actions under his mismanagement.


http://parisfauxreal.blogspot.com/2006/08/bush-trannie-whore-of-babylon-or-anti.html