# A rose by any other name... (or, Aldebaran is a dickhead)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [February 18, 2004, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808 "2004-02-18T16:39:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Da\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Da_Dude)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/1 "2004-02-18T16:39:50Z")
Re this Aldebaran dude.
I don’t know why you guys keep trying to debate this guy, as if he were capable of anything resembling a rational, reasoned discussion.
When I first came across his posts I thought he was a very intelligent individual with, unfortunately, a Rock of Gibraltar-sized chip on his shoulder; far too many issues drowning out whatever meaningful message he might of had.
But after reading some of his dribblings [here,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=239280) I’ve changed my mind.
A book-educated dickhead is just a dickhead in a higher tax bracket.
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### Author:  [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/2 "2004-02-18T16:55:16Z")
**Aldebaran** is a singluar joy to deal with.
That said, he’s become a much better contributor (in my opinion) recently. Besides the linked examples are really not his worst stuff. I recommend digging for his views on Church/State.
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### Author:  [@UselessGit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UselessGit)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/3 "2004-02-18T16:58:48Z")
During my short time on these boards I’ve come across posts by Aldebaran on quite a few threads. I have to say that I like his input, although his point is often osbstructed with layer after layer of anti…USA…-ism. There is also something about the way he uses the english language that tends to infuriate his fellow dopers.
Say what you will about old Alde but I, for one, would miss him if he’d stop posting.
Please note that I am not American - I’m sure I’d like him a lot less if I were.
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/4 "2004-02-18T17:18:10Z")
So, has **Aldebaran** broken the record for most pittings yet?
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### Author:  [@BF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BF)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/5 "2004-02-18T17:42:48Z")
I think Aldebaran is really a parody of [The Onion’s](http://www.theonion.com/onion3741/ask_a_high_school_student.html) Ask the “insert guru here” advice columns. For example:
Poster A: My boyfriend thinks I’m a virgin but I’m really not, what should I do?
Aldebaran: ( **Disclaimer: I am paraphrasing here** ) The US’rs bloodthirsty president is responsible for the deaths of thousands, if not millions of innocent Iraqi men, women and children. Bloodthirsty US troops bayonet screaming babies and rape their mothers. Cheney’s quest for free oil and imperialistic designs on occupying a sovereign country illegally is a historical travesty. No sites or cites will be provided, do your own research, for these truths I know.
Poster B: Should I let my son use his cell phone, even though he’s been grounded for running up the phone bill?
Aldebaran: ( **Actual quotes from the thread linked by the OP** ) I make of your post that you rejoice fanatically whenever the US army kills an innocent Iraqi man, woman or child and that you dream to take part in the butchery.
Hence it is also most amusing to watch the struggle of the brainless US government to uphold their claim they “needed” to invade occupy and devastate a sovereign nation - murdering thousands of people - because they “knew” Hussein had WMD that formed a “direct threat” to the USA.
Rinse, Repeat.
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### Author:  [@MrTuffPaws](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrTuffPaws)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/6 "2004-02-18T17:57:22Z")
Personally, I like him and his views. The first thing you will notice IMO after his postings is a simple hatred towards him, not his view in the current thread, just for him. If he repersents any amount of the population of the ME, then anything the US does there is doomed to fail. And us yanks sit around and wonder why the world hates us so.
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### Author:  [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/7 "2004-02-18T18:57:45Z")
Well, another Pitting for the World’s Most Argumentative Human™? Well, sure, why the hell not?
> [@](#):
>
> The first thing you will notice IMO after his postings is a simple hatred towards him, not his view in the current thread, just for him.
I disagree; the first thing you will notice after his postings, in most cases, is a series of objections to his habit of making wildly hyperbolic assertions and pointing out his frequent errors of fact, quickly followed by two or three more posts by the master himself, saying basically the same things he said in his first post and throwing in a few condescending insults at the other respondents to boot.
But hate him? I’ll freely admit that I think he’s one of the three or four most woodenheaded, arrogant, cloth-eared jerks to have ever repeatedly pissed all over this board, but I don’t hate him. Hell, I love him; in fact, he can fuck my sister\*.
After a year or so of posting, I guess he has no idea that many of his posts read like Latka Gravas on speedballs, and that he’s never going to learn that restating one’s fact-free assertions 7 times in exactly the same fucking words does not an argument make. So now I read him mainly for entertainment. And man, does he deliver. So all I have to say to _Alde_ is shine on, you crazy diamond.
\*Note: entirely gratuitious _Full Metal Jacket_ reference; my sister of course makes all her own decisions.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/8 "2004-02-18T20:24:33Z")
You haven’t been here a week, and you’re already pitting someone?
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### Author:  [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/9 "2004-02-18T20:30:31Z")
That’s true.
**Da’Dude** , it’s also customary to let the object of your affection know about the pitting.
I’ve let him know about it, but I doubt he’ll show up here as he would consider it a _childish_ waste of his time.
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### Author:  [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/10 "2004-02-18T20:32:38Z")
Quick study?
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### Author:  [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/11 "2004-02-18T20:34:42Z")
> [@Libertarian](#):
>
> You haven’t been here a week, and you’re already pitting someone?
Psst! It’s twenty-aught-four! He signed up in February of aught-three.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/12 "2004-02-18T20:38:08Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#):
>
> After a year or so of posting, I guess he has no idea that many of his posts read like Latka Gravas on speedballs…[/size]
Us Yanks\* is falling off our chairs laughing, thank you.
\*assuming this to mean Americans, and not the Evil Steinbrenner Empire.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/13 "2004-02-18T20:56:16Z")
> [@Ferrous](#):
>
> Psst! It’s twenty-aught-four! He signed up in February of aught-three.
I blame society. Unhappy childhood. Yeah, that’s it. Republicans.
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### Author:  [@Da\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Da_Dude)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/14 "2004-02-18T21:00:20Z")
Libertarian - that’s funny. Yeah, I’ve been in lurker mode mostly, and lurked for quite a while before I was even a member. But this guy just kills me. Almost (but not quite) on par with The One Who Shall Not Be Named…
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/15 "2004-02-18T21:25:22Z")
> [@Da' Dude](#):
>
> Libertarian - that’s funny. Yeah, I’ve been in lurker mode mostly, and lurked for quite a while before I was even a member. But this guy just kills me. Almost (but not quite) on par with The One Who Shall Not Be Named…
who who who?
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### Author:  [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/16 "2004-02-18T21:26:35Z")
I still maintain Aldebaran is a she.
Maybe a bored Belgian bippy, who has the quaran next to her computer and quotes from it when she’s done cleaning the Brussel sprouts.
**El\_Kabong** , Thank you for: ‘Latka Gravas on speedballs’.
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### Author:  [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/17 "2004-02-18T21:29:01Z")
I’m actually kind of fond of him. 🙂 You basically just have to learn to kick back with a nice glass of whiskey (I recommend 15 year single malt of your own preference) and just kind of gaze at his screed. He IS the master of the anti-US screed IMO (or anti-US’er screed to be accurate).
I’m with Grey also…he has kind of toned it down a bit and actually answers some questions now and then rationally. My all time favorite from The Master though, is (paraphrased as I’m too lazy to look for the cite) “My post is my cite!” I absolutely fell out of the chair with tears in my eyes when I read this classic Aldebaranism! One of these days I’m going to look that up and make it my tag line!!
I’m still hoping that the government is embarked on a massive hunt for Weapons of Mass Aldebaran though! But LONG LIVE THE MASTER!!
-XT
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### Author:  [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/18 "2004-02-18T21:34:55Z")
Back off pal. 🙂
**Aries28** and I are splitting that one. You we could split it up 3 ways though.
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### Author:  [@Da\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Da_Dude)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/19 "2004-02-18T21:35:51Z")
> [@xtisme](#):
>
> I’m still hoping that the government is embarked on a massive hunt for Weapons of Mass Aldebaran though! But LONG LIVE THE MASTER!!
> -XT
Goddamn it xtisme, GET IT RIGHT: WeMAd 😛
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2004, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-aldebaran-is-a-dickhead/229808/20 "2004-02-18T21:59:33Z")
I think he’s mellowed a little, but maybe that was just the impression I got seeing him against the backdrop that is **ephraim**.
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