I want Tom Ridge to end every announcement with “Word, yo.” That would be the greatest thing ever.
Operation Iraqi Freedom always creeped me out based on the sheer crassness value of it. What happened to non-political naming conventions in military operations like Desert Shield and Desert Storm?
Dissonance,
Bill Clinton ended that in 1998 with “Operation Desert Fox,” when he ordered the four day bombing of Iraq. Everyone was like “Desert Fox?” What the fuck does that mean?
Now, they’re either named by comittee (eg, Iraqi Freedom) or by random name selection (such as Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan or Operation Allied Force in Kosovo.)
As far as “Homeland Security,” well, its not as bad as say “The Committee for the Protection of the Homeland” or perhaps “The Department against Anti-American Activities.”
Stoid, I think you need a day off. Tell you what - you spend tomorrow watching a movie, and I’ll take care of the daily Bush-is-Evil rant. Just pick a topic from the following list, and I’ll write it.
-
"Isn’t it Scary that ‘George’ and "Adolph’ have the Same Number of Letters?’
-
“How Dare Those Republicans Write Campaign Ads Designed to Trick Americans Into Voting for Bush?”
-
“No One Should believe Powell and Rice Have Any Real Role. It’s all an Evil Republican Plot to Hide Their Racism.”
Oh wait. I forgot that joke posts aren’t permitted. Say, how do you get a pass on that rule?
Oddly enough, the tactic just induces eye-rolling disbelief from me. “Do you think I’m stupid enough not to see the blatant manipulation involved here?”
Remember when the US was first going after Afghanistan and called the operation, “Infinite Justice”? Muslims were upset because only Allah can dispense “Infinite Justice”. Whatever the government names some operation, it will probably piss someone off.
I thought it was more McCarthyist, but that’s just me.
They did make a bit of an err in Afghanistan by naming the overall operation Infinite Justice, later changed to Enduring Freedom due to religious problems: Infinite Justice/Enduring Freedom.
Odd side note: one of the stealth development programs was called Senior Trend, which always struck me odd due to the possible giveaway as both were ST; Senior Trend and Stealth Technology.
It just reminds me of the HomeLAN Internet Alliance, which hosted many a Counterstrike server… and I tells ya, the bowels of Counterstrike are FAR worse than the Third Reich ever was…
I do understand Stoid’s associative thought, but I’m not sure whether Homeland is actually a translation to a word that was in fact used by the Nazi regime.
On the other hand, it is an exact translation of the word ‘Thuisland’. These were part of the politics of the former regime of South Africa (see Wikipedia, which I now notice translates this as ‘Homeland’). Still not a very good association to have.
We could just rename the ‘Department of Homeland Security’ to ‘Reichssicherheithauptampt’ (abbreviated as ‘RSHA’). Sure, we don’t speak German. Sure, it may rub some people the wrong way. But the SS black uniforms were pretty cool, you have to admit!
aah! motherland!!
oops, wrong thread.
Yep. I’m with Stoid on this. Matter of fact, I’m pulling for the liberalest of the Democrats to win it all this time. It’s way past due to swing this pendulum the other way.
Brutus: Nah, the Nazis were the biggest leather fetishists to come down the pike since the barbarians that sacked Rome. Their uniforms were too fetishistic to appeal to me.
I think the uniforms used by the US now are much better. Black is good for angsty teens and metalheads, not soldiers. (Unless they’re special ops soldiers at night. But special ops soldiers also wear ferns when the mood strikes.)
Real Nazis don’t run for office. Also, back then Joe Terrorist Mohammed could not lay his hands on a nuclear briefcase bomb. Moreover, Bush has no plans to conquer the world. I know, lefties know best: “Bush: Hitler, Trotsky, Goebells, Goering, Himmler, etc.”
The bright side is that some people are finally learning modern history.
It’s a push so far. Or, to be clear, what would you prefer? Open borders and a prayer every day (towards Mecca) that Usama stops trying to destroy Western civilization?
A false dichotomy if ever there was one, Beagle.
I also like “No Child Left Behind,” which is such a nicer name than “Who Needs Schools, Anyway?”
Meanwhile, others aren’t troubling themselves with such things.
Hitler ran for office in 1932 and, though he lost the popular vote by a large margin, he became Chancellor through Germany’s version of the electoral college.
RTA, that’s not even close to being what happened. There’s simply no parallel at all. The Chancellor wasn’t even the same office as President; it’s more like Prime Minister.
The Nazis, in fact, won more seats in the July 1932 election than any other party, but not a majority. Hitler ran for PRESIDENT, not Chancellor, and lost to Hindenburg, but got enough votes that Hindenburg was displeased. The centrist coalition in the Reichstag reformed under Franz van Papen, but with the Nazis and Communists together holding more than half the seats but hating each other, a stable government became impossible. There was a vote of non-confidence and new elections were called, in which the Nazis again won a plurality (though not quite as many seats as in July.) The Nazi popular vote was about 33%, and they got about a third of the seats. Hitler’s basic requirement for Nazi participation in a majority government was the chancellorship and emergency powers, so negotiations to form a majority government between the Nazis and the centrist government kept breaking down.
Anyway, Papen was unable to form a majority government so Hindenburg fired him, too, and handed the reins to Kurt von Schliecher. However, other elements tried to convince Hindenburg to let Hitler be Chancellor to form a majority government on the assumption they could rein in Hitler. Hindenburg agreed, fired von Schliecher, and had Hitler sworn in as Chancellor.
Hitler became Fuhrer essentially by having enough Reichstag members bullied into voting for the Enabling Act that he was basically voted dictator by the Reichstag.
There’s nothing in his rise to power remotely comparable to the electoral college. Germany had no such thing, and there’s notthing equivalent that could happen in the U.S. It’s as if in Canada’s next election no party won a majority, so the governor-general dissolved Parliament and demanded a new election and there still asn’t a majority, to Paul Martin became PM of a minority government but couldn’t pass any bills, so the governor-general fired him and then fired his replacement and then hired some whackjob named John Smith, who somehow got Parliament to pass the John Smith Is The Fuhrer of Canada act, which is technically unconstitutional but Smith had a private army that would beat or kill anyone who tried to stop him so he became dictator.
Compared to the false dichotomy of the OP?
What’s next? “Christianity is so Nazi like… it creeps me out.”? “Gun Rights are so Nazi like… it creeps me out.”? “Lowered taxes are so Nazi like… it creeps me out.”?
You get a non sequitor thread, you get non sequitor answers, buddy-buddy.