Osama bin Laden-Martin? They Don't Even Make Sense..

[MrPrax]

Tory sorry for bin Laden remark

Friday, April 22, 2005

OTTAWA -- Mr. Dithers is one thing, but Osama bin Laden?
A cutting comparison of Prime Minister Paul Martin with Dagwood's boss has gained currency in political circles.
But comparing him to bin Laden landed a senior Tory strategist in hot water Friday.
Geoff Norquay later apologized for the remark, saying it was "off-the-cuff, and intended in jest."
Norquay had said Thursday that "Osama bin Laden-Martin" was sending in his videotaped address to the nation "from the cave."

More Insults and Stupid Tory quips here

Personally I think the Tories are overreaching with their 'outrage' and it will hopefully bite them in ass and most will see them for what they really...they represent everything mean and ignorant in Western Canada

I certainly HOPE I don't HAVE to vote Liberal to keep this 'greater' evil out of office...

[ClintonTyree]

1. Hmmm...

Geoff Norquay....Grover Norquist... has anyone EVER seen these two together at the same time? :tinfoilhat: Just kidding, but it's a relief to know that even Canada has it's share of right wing idiots as well. For a while, I thought the U.S. had a monopoly on them.

[iverglas]

2. over-reaching outrage ...

When the "Mr. Dithers" comparison was made, nobody thought that the person who said it meant to convey the idea that Paul Martin made a practice of kicking his employees in the bum and screeching abuse at them. It was a comment on his fussing and fretting, only (which really had nothing to do with the real Mr. Dithers anyhow ...).

The Bin Laden comparison (which would have sounded a whole lot cleverer as "Osama bin Martin", for pity's sake) was a comment on the practice of sending videotaped messages to the media, with the speaker on the tape remaining holed up someplace out of reach of questions. It was not meant, and could not reasonably have been interpreted, as an insinuation that Paul Martin kills innocent children, or wants to institute a theocracy, or is criminally insane.

I get tired of faux outrage flung around by people who really are smart enough to get the joke and too smart to pretend they don't, and who just aren't such tender, sheltered buds that their sensibilities really are shocked by comparisons to odious things/people for obviously humorous effect.

The outrage at Carolyn Parrish's "damned Americans" was faux; everybody who got themselves worked up into it knew that she was talking about the people in the room she had just walked out of, not the entire population of the US, or anybody else. Just another example.

Let's not PC ourselves into oblivion. It was a joke. It was at the expense of someone who deserved it, for the conduct that the joke was aimed at. It was moderately funny, if badly executed.

People used to be able to compare someone to Hitler based on his authoritarian propensities ("my teacher makes us line up to have our fingernails inspected before class and won't allow us to go to the bathroom; she's a little Hitler") without being accused by the humourless-PC crowd of calling him/her a genocidal anti-Semite. Life was better that way.

btw, I have long taken my PC seriously, and there are many things that I regard as very certainly *not* politically correct. But jokes at the expense of pompous / incompetent / insincere politicians that do not belittle or disparage or ridicule them based on their race, religion, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation or physical/mental/psychological status are just jokes.


How many feminists does it take to change a lightbulb?

That's . not . funny.

[MrPrax]

3. If PC works...

I'll use it...I am not too interested in a goofball fundie Tory govt chalked full of racists, Alberta oilmen, continentialists, homophobes, idiots and religious bigots. (did I miss any?)

Anything that works...

You play fair, if you want...it's a free country. But I gotta bang on doors out in the Prairies and it ain't pretty, when Joe Blow from Possumtrot, SK wants to tell you about how the French! Supreme Court ruled the Bible unconstitutional.

But in this case, the comparison was over the top and silly, there are many politicians that are noted for their insularity vis a vis the Press and the 'people'--especially in the western tradition.

Bush comes to mind, but that joke wouldn't have worked. I guess we should be happy he didn't 'red bait' and mention that Tommie the Commie loved radio too. (A comment made on redneck talk radio here)

Norquay could have made the point in a less inflammaTORY way--but Hey! I applaude the fact that most of the time when these guys open their mouths, they say stupid things.

[Joel]

4. Scott Brison

The Minister of Public Works and Defending Corruption made a similar comparison before he sold out his party. It's a joke smart people should get.

If all Scott Reid ( of the LPoC ) can come up with is Steven Harper is not funny then the Bloc or the NDP is going to be the official opposition to Prime Minister Harper.