Tuckerfan:
Or “on”?
Actually, I meant to say, “Would that be one of the pages who worked for Mark Foley?” Though, “on” works equally as well, I suppose (for some people at any rate ;)).
Wow. I’m impressed. I don’t think we had a prime minister who was into psychics since Mackenzie King.
If your White House people have to be weird, couldn’t you get them to, you know, turn pirouettes behind the Queen, or bop assassins over the head with Inuit sculpture, or something else safe and constructive around the home?
I’m sure Kass is just opposed to eating, like, a dog. Eating, like, a cow - or eating, like, a cheesecake - shouldn’t be any problem whatsoever.
So he’s opposed to eating icecream cones in public?
Why does he hate America?
I’m sorry, this must be my fault. It’s not so much the licking the ice cream that offended him, it was that I licked my ass afterwards that grossed him out.
What would you think if you saw someone eating bratwurst like a python?
I’d think I was in Milwaukee in [del]Oktober[/del] September.
I don’t get it. What was the context of his writing this? So, the guy has an old-fashioned sense of manners. Eating while walking on the streets is commonly looked down on as borish American behavior by lots of Europeans, btw. I don’t get what the bid deal is. Did he say this was going to be at the top of his agenda when he started his tenure on the bioethics committee? It looks like this quote goes back to 1999, btw.
To steal a line from “The Simpsons,” the stick up that guy’s ass has a stick up ITS ass.
And who, besides Mr. Leon “Extremely Uptight Prig” Kass, has a problem with seeing people eating (or drinking) in public? I also wonder exactly what his definition of “public view” is. Restaurants are public places so does that mean in a truly polite society, they should not exist because their very raison d’ etre involves the public consumption of food? I bet this guy is a barrel of fun at dinner parties.
I’ll admit that unless GW wants to make Kass some kind of etiquette czar, his “eccentric” opinion on public eating are of little consequence. Still, seeing such a view expressed by someone who advises the President makes him such a big juicy target for ridicule that it’s impossible to resist.
I am reassured that with Mr Kass on guard, there will be no eating of stem cells or any other portions of the unborn. in public.
I don’t understand how you can say these manners are “old fashioned” when people have always eaten in public. This isn’t like sex, where it was publicly hidden for periods of our history, it’s food. There have always been street vendors and public eateries.
I’d love to hear from some of our European colleagues on this concept. I find it difficult to believe that people in Europe don’t buy from street vendors, or eat while outside the home.
I certainly saw Europeans doing a lot of both during the two years I recently spent in the Netherlands. If the Dutch and the Belgians refrained from eating in the street, the “patat frites”* vendors would probably go out of business. The ice cream vendors too.
I too would like to see a cite for the claim that “eating while walking on the streets is commonly looked down on as boorish American behavior by lots of Europeans”. Certainly, there are some outdoor venues where public eating wouldn’t be considered appropriate. But IME not even the starchiest, snootiest Europeans see anything inherently unacceptable or “dog-like” about licking an ice-cream cone in a casual outdoor setting.
And as far as US etiquette goes, Leon Kass is way out of step with the recognized authorities on this one. Even Miss Manners recognizes certain kinds of eating-on-the-street as acceptable behavior (e.g., ice cream cones, fries, chips, hotdogs, etc., okay; stuffing down a carton of lo mein or a Caesar salad, especially with your bare hands, not okay).
- Them’s the Belgian-style twice-fried french fries. Yummy yummy. I even like them with the traditional mayonnaise sauce, which a lot of non-LowCountryfolk think is just depraved.
Maybe I’m extrapolating from two small a sample, but my Italian friends (actual Italians, not Italian-Americans) always told me one way you could tell the American tourists is that they’d eat gelato while walking in the street. No well mannered Italian would do that, I was told. It was also a swipe at Americans’ antziness-- they can’t just sit and relax in a cafe to eat like you’re supposed to.
At any rate, I still don’t see what’s so Pit-able about this odd sense of etiquette that this guy expressed 7 years ago.
Ah, that’s more like it. I got nothing against a good Bush bashing, but at least give me a beat to bash to.
I love the smell of batshit in the morning.
Thank goodness we can rely on the President’s Bioethics Council to protect us from medical research with undesirable side effects like a longer lifespan.
At least now, if I ever find myself present at a conference that Dr. Kass is attending, I know just what to snack on.
While I agree with you about this Klass moron, the above is merely an urban legend.
You know, I never did finish that episode. I don’t suppose you’d mind hijacking the thread, posting some spoilers, and letting me know?
If anyone is interested in the whole interview, it’s here (warning: PDF). I don’t think that little clip gives it justice. Not sure I agree with this guy, but he comes across as pertty thoughful, not some loon. It’s more like one of thos GD threads where we debate: would it be good for society if lifespans were increased by 50%? He’s just saying the answer is not necessarily “yes”.