What, exactly, is “urban” about this myth? Can we please spread the word that “That is a myth” is a perfectly serviceable way to communicate what the above poster was trying to communicate, and that “urban legend” is a specific type of modern myth?
Thank you, that is all.
For a bunch of us shooting the breeze on the SDMB, that’s fine.
It’s rather different coming from someone who (as of the time of the interview) is in a position to make policy to recommend limitations on science – particularly given that a few years’ delay in those 150-year healthy lifespans would have the effect of generating human misery on a scale that it makes Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin look like a couple of naughty boys who should be slapped soundly upon the wrist and denied dessert for an entire week.
You mean an outdoor cafe in a public square of the type found all over Italy? That’s public eating, John, which your mate Kass would regard as appalling and crass.
7 years ago? What is this, some sort of bizarre discontinuity principal by which someone who, in his late fifties/early sixties, expresses certain views very strongly (in a book, not in a bar over a beer) should not be assumed to still hold those views seven years later? That is just stoopid.
Read the whole quote. The guy has extreme views on propriety, out of all touch with modern western behaviour and thought, and he is put on an ethics committee. Ethicists don’t have some hotline to a god, or handbook based on unarguable logic from which they can obtain answers to difficult ethical dilemmas. They just make judgment calls.
As Tuckerfan points out, it is quite clear from the passage quoted in his cite that Kass is the type of guy to whom the whole concept of “IMHO” would be alien. He is a guy who Knows what is Right and Wrong, namely what he thinks is right and wrong.
What seems right and wrong to this dickhead is most definitely out of touch. He is kind enough to make us “aware” that there’s a problem with eating a sandwich, or biting an apple. His reasoning? It’s what an animal would do. An animal also breathes. Should we be “embarrassed” and try to cover that too?
This guy has serious issues with his own body. That is entirely relevant to his fitness to be on a medical ethics committee.
Would you put Hannibal Lector on your menu committee?
Ya, but couldn’t that same position be taken regarding any medical advancement? Would it be good for society if Alzheimers’ were cured at all? One could argue that the answer isn’t necessarily “yes” to that either.
Personally I don’t see what unresolvable social problems would be introduced by a lifespan half again as long as it is now. But even if there were, I wouldn’t trust someone to make that call for me if that person can’t even rise above their own catastrophic oral-aggressive shame issues.
Speaking of which, from the transcript of the interview I note that Dr. Kass is at least aware of how others perceive him in this regard: “I have a few embarrassing sentences that I’ve written in my life. In my (inaudible) book, there is a sentence about licking ice cream cones in public, which has been following me around. Had I thought about it, I would have taken the sentence out. It was in context of interest.”
I’m so, so sorry, I just have to say it…
…
…
We are DOOMED like a MOTHERFUCK!!!
Did you read the whole article? He specifically says he doesn’t know what the answer is, but we shouldn’t just automatically say “yes, adding more to our lifespand is good”. I think he makes a valid point. He’s supposed to be a bioethicist, so he’s paid to think about these issues, not just assume that the easy answer is always best.
The guy may indeed be a nut, but I don’t see it in that article. If what has been reported about him in the wikipedia article is true, then I have some real problems with his views.
A much more succinct way of putting what I was trying to put. Well said.
Yes, Mr Kass, but…
Tuckerfan started this OP concentrating on the icecream bit. Then **Smitty ** and **Captain Amazing ** chimed in suggesting that **Tuckerfan ** was quoting out of context, and that Kass’s icecream comment was a mere wackjob-sounding example in a non-whackjob overall philosophy. **Ponder Stibbons ** and Cheesesteak then suggested that Kass’s overall philosophy put him even more firmly into the whackjob category. Count me in with them. Note that Kass, in the above quote, says merely that he would have taken the icecream sentence out ie overall, he stands by his warped ideas.
In case you haven’t seen anything like that (Youtube video). I miss that show.
Yes, I read the whole article, especially the part where he slips and slides like a catfish covered in Astroglide in response to Kondracke’s questions about whether he would support government prohibitions on life extension.
Since the Wikipedia article provides a link stating them in his own words, the conditional qualifier can be dropped.
Whatever his other faults, Kass is simply too smart not to realize (even if only for long enough to push the thought aside; intelligence is no sure antidote to self-delusion) that the current war against Islamofundamentalism is going to affect his social views in much the same way that the war against Naziism affected genteel anti-Semitism.
Don’t knock it. Many people credit Nancy’s consultation of astrologers in scheduling the president’s appearances as the thing that broke the curse of Tecumseh (the curse was actually laid by his brother, the prophet Tenskwatawa). The Curse of Tecumseh is the one that caused every president elected in years ending with a zero to die while in office. Nancy combatted the vengeful curse of Tecumseh (actually, the curse was probably made by Tecumseh’s brother) by consulting astrologers to find auspicious dates. This is believed to have thwarted the curse but it may not have been broken, the actual conditions for satisfying the vengeful spirit of the curse and laying it to rest forever are unknown. There is a competing theory in astrology that says that the curse was actually a divination by the prophet Tenskwatawa regarding events that are dictated by the confluence of Jupiter and Saturn under an earth sign Something that has only happened since Harrison and skipped Reagan and happened again in 2000. Indeed it is possible that the curse amplifies the astrological forces that lead to presidential deaths and the 1980 election which opccurred under the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn under an air sign resulted in a probable but not certain death of Reagan, this probablity was thwarted by Nancy’s heeding of astrological omens. An alternate theory relates to the fact that Reagan did in fact die but was resuscitated and therefore fulfilled the requirements of the curse by dying. Under all theories (except the one that says the curse has actually be broken by Nancy’s intervention) Bush is slated for death while in office, I’ve been waiting with baited breath but the combined prayers of 51% of a nation have kept him in good health (either that or Tecumseh figured not killing Bush would be worse punishment than carrying out his curse).
Well, Steve, I think you’re a pretty smart guy and you seem to general keep an open mind, so I’ll take your word for it. I clicked on the link and when I saw how long the article was, I just couldn’t get interested in reading it. I actaully did read about 3 paragraphs, but they guy’s writing style is too opaque. I can’t figure out what the hell he’s saying most of the time.
:rolleyes:
Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.
Or maybe the curse was transferred to the nation as a whole, so the US will soon cease to exsist.
Dear lissener, I’m afraid you are completely and utterly wrong.
In the field of folklore, “urban legend” is a technical term. It is somewhat old-fashioned, and most scholars would now say “contemporary legend.” “Myth” is also a technical term. Each refers to a different type of traditional narrative. Your use of the word “myth” is incorrect in this sense. A legend is not a type of myth any more than a carrot is a type of potato. Snopes explains.
“Attorney General John Ashcroft believes calico cats are a sign of the devil” has no narrative content, so it cannot be a legend, urban or otherwise, nor a myth. It is a belief, and apparently a false one. The story about John Ashcroft’s belief in kitty devilspawn is a legend, but NOT a myth, again in the technical sense.
If you don’t care about the scholarly distinction, then you are still wrong, because contemporary spoken English uses the terms belief, superstition, folklore, myth, legend, urban myth, and urban legend as more-or-less synonyms for “false belief or story.”
But because there are 300 million Americans and only one president elected in 2000, each American will suffer only one three-hundred-millionth of the curse. There will, of course, be some statistical ‘noise’ in the effects.
I expect a rash of car accidents, bankruptcies, job losses, investment failures, tax seizures, business implosions, corporate scandals, murders in the heat of passion, heart attacks, hangnails, and celebrity divorces.
Insert joke about Bush being an immune carrier of the curse.
I reread some of it with an eye toward trying to guess whether he’s obfuscating because he realizes on some level that his argument is indefensible when exposed to the light of day, or whether he’s just a crappy writer. I gave up trying to reach any conclusion on that question.
The problem is, you all haven’t seen how Leon Kass eats an ice cream cone in public. I’ll give you a hint:
he can wrap his tongue all the way around his head!