Schwarzenegger Announces : Running for CA Gov.

LW, Just go back to nimh's post, above, and you'll see what I mean about Sofia. She doesn't want to "offend" the Germans, but all other's are open season. So I repeat:

"Why don't we stop now before we end up saying something we regret."

I don't think you know the difference. c.i.

c.i.--
I don't think you're reading correctly.
I get irritated when any group is slurred.
Your remark about "open season" on all others has no meaning.
On what do you base that insulting comment?

Sofia wrote:
"Nigger", "Jap", holocaust jokes, too. Wish they didn't bother me as much as they do. Oh well. Climbing off my soapbox now.

I think they should bother everyone. Open season? Just the opposite.

Sofia, You wouldn't understand if it hit you over the head. You must first learn what is considered offensive. That is a road you will never learn. c.i.

The Mahr joke appeared to me to refer to the Bush administration's seeming Nazi tendencies, which would refer to Hitler, not the German nation as a whole. In that context I saw nothing to offend.

And, I think you find the terms offensive, but accept more muted offenses if the politics behind it suits you. I do speak plainly and openly. I did not make a statement of offense against any person or group.

Why don't you tell me what I said that was so offensive?

Case closed. c.i.

Yes, that's the way I saw it, Edgar. I suppose the final word would most logically be one of our German A2K'ers -- whether they'd find it obnoxious or funny. My heart and what's left of my brain and loyalties tend to be on the other side of the Atlantic so I'd tend to have a negative reaction to Maher's joke... but I didn't.

The best humor is spoken quickly without a nudge-nudge or amplification. Remember that scene in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" where the wonderfully tiresome son keeps needling his mother, wanting her to "get" some awful joke he keeps repeating?

I found Maher funny, and to the extent that Sofia was being offensive (much too strong a word -- perhaps slightly tiresome would be better... and in a noble cause) it was only to insist that we didn't "get it," just like that kid. Probably best, whether one is being insistently politically correct or purposefully politically incorrect, to just say one's piece and then let it go.

<I tried the "carry on". It didn't take.>

So, what are the current polling numbers? Arnold and Bustamente keep trading places. Maher had McCormick on last night, and gave him a lot of good slant on the show.

On a somewhat similar subject, re what is funny, I did not like a comment by a columnist I often enjoy about a politician I will not vote for - that is, Molly Ivin's recent description of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Ivins on Schwarzenegger

While a person can infer that someone who has spent much of a lifetime embodying an extreme physique may very possibly be tremendously self- involved and perhaps missed some study time, that kind inference (whether true or not) has at least some possible reasoned basis; a standalone insulting physical description, though, is not useful.

wait a minute
Wait a minute, everyone. I think you all missed the point of Mahar's joke. I think it was in reference to the fact that Arnold's father was a Nazi. It also refers to the obscene financial and political relationships between the Bush-Walker families with the Nazis before and during World War II.

When taken in that context, I don't find Mahar's joke objectionable.

---BumbleBeeBoogie

Why BBB is pissed as Arnold
I don't care a fig about Arnold's sex life, then or now. What really pisses me off is that he knew this stuff would come out and he went ahead with his political plans without regard to the effect this info would have on his young children. And its not just the old stuff, the news about his womanizing since his marriage to Maria will also be comming out.

He is supposed to care so much about children, yet he seems blind to how his children are supposed to cope at school and other places when their father's raunchy behavior is exposed. And why didn't Maria make a stand to protect their children? I didn't think she was a wimp, but maybe so.

And Arnold's sex-object attitude towards women won't make his children or his wife feel any better.

If you love your children, you just don't indulge in your own self interest at their expense. Arnold is a world class egotistical asshole!

---BumbleBeeBoogie

A slur against the Nazi's and Facism is out of line? Of course, using "original German (language)" is obvious to me -- what others want to read into it is their business. There is an element of exageration -- humor is nearly always based on some exageration and political humor is always at somone's expense. Maher himself will often issue a disclaimer on his humor by say, "I kid President Bush, Ashcroft (et al)" with a great big smile on his face. Of course, it is one-upsmanship where you can't alway tell him he is purposefully jabbing at them with a verbal knife. It's not as if he's the only one saying it and he derives some of his humor from what Op-Ed's he undoubtedly reads. I believe he gets a lot of mail he reads on his own site.

(I do notice on his HBO show of late, he's basically dropped the "I kid George Bush, etc."

Re Molly Ivins (whom I usually like.... we attended the same college... rah rah) and Osso (whose taste is impeccable and brains admirable) I'm gonna study that article and see whether I agree with Osso:

A+:

A+:

B:

Well, I can see your point about the physical description, Osso, but it's par for the course in political fights, and has been from the get-go. Look at what they did to poor old Taft. Lincoln was considered repulsive and told so. Since Ivins manages most times (and this time, I think) to find the perfect words for description, I give her a pass and even an A+ just because she made me laugh out loud to the extent that my dog stared and then, apparently taking it personally, moved outside.

And one other thing: a guy like Ahnold who is riding a particular horse (of physical fitness, of celebrity, of movie fame, of great personal fortune) and who also loves to be known for the work he has done with children, the irony inherent in Ivins' description of what actually happens to kids is a much needed juxtaposition. Ahnold and you and I and just about everyone else who's a bit comfortable in America today probably need twenty lashes applied to our backsides daily for what we turn our eyes away from; that Molly Ivins actually offends us, rubs salt in our (and Ahnold's) wounds, is probably a good thing, overall.

Osso
Osso, I love Molly Ivins and I admired her column re Arnold because it contained information people need to read.

---BumbleBeeBoogie

I like the rest of the article fine. My business partner walked in the door yesterday, put down her dog's leash and her purse and said, instead of good morning, Guess what Ivins said today!

So that is the context, the walnuts in condom quote, standing alone. I admit I laughed, but I don't like the quote. I laughed at Whistle Ass too, can't remember if I posted I did, on another topic. The physical insults bother me, though I know they're routine.

And... I remember going on and on about his height earlier in this thread, not entirely innocently, so I ain't pure myself, but - mostly - I brought it up re the power of his screen image in exciting voters.

My one source for the Mahr quote is this thread. I have never watched the man on tv.

I had to print out the Molly Ivins article to pass around to family, friends and neighbors. It's still unfathomable to me how anyone could think that this person is qualified to run a state government, let alone get it out of its current financial mess. I suppose he thinks that hanging pictures of movie stars and other movie memorabilia around the state capital building will do the trick.

LW - I'm in a state where politics are quite often associated with all kinds of interesting things, and even we get to sit and laugh about poor California. Personally, I think it's silly to belabor anyone's jokes. I think Jon Stewart is one of the funniest today - but he's quick and sharp, and the Lenos and Lettermans tend to work a joke over until it's gotten lost.

Arnold announcing on Leno was, to me, like Bob Dole advertising Viagra. How serious could they be? Could never again look at them and not picture them naked, which would never get my vote.

And if a would-be politician gets blasted, funny or otherwise, on anything and everything,....tough. Once somebody has ambition enough to run for public office that somebody should expect public scrutiny. And should be expected to be the butt of jokes, comic or otherwise. It's called don't get in the kitchen if you can't take the heat.

There are serious issue to deal with here, and Austrian Arnie is one of them. Sofia, I believe you really stretch it when you do that ethnic slur thing. I believe Mr S uses that accent deliberately. Not for its ethnicity, but because his publicists have told him it's a cute trademark. Much worse is his pick of Pete Wilson - that's the red flag.

How come you don't center on Bustamante - who cracks jokes about himself? The one about the food won him some fans.

Nah - mostly it looks like what it probably is - worried republicans trying to grab whatever they can wherever they can. We do have national jokes - and Arnie is one of them. Oui?

Mama
Mama - salude!

BumbleBeeBoogie