# When Margaret Thatcher dies, will you... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 16, 2009, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925 "2009-06-16T10:02:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/121 "2009-06-18T17:29:34Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > If I think what now? Where the fuck did you get that? How’s about this? If you want to make a point by linking to a thread, why don’t you make sure it actually supports your point, rather than inventing positions that no one has taken? > > Here’s a starter clue for ya. I don’t see assholes being assholes in that thread, unless you think defending Snow against **Dio** ’s comments is assholish. Do you? Forget it, Jake. It’s **Shodan** town. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/122 "2009-06-18T17:36:49Z")
_Won’t you take me to Shodantooooooooooown_ ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/123 "2009-06-18T18:21:42Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > If I think what now? You don’t know either? Shit, when you post, one of us better know what he is talking about. > [@](#): > > Where the fuck did you get that? From what you said. > [@](#): > > How’s about this? If you want to make a point by linking to a thread, why don’t you make sure it actually supports your point, rather than inventing positions that no one has taken? It does support my point. Tony Snow dies - one of the Usual Suspects says he is glad Snow died, and hoped that his death was unpleasant. It’s called an example. You could look it up. If you think it is the only example, then (obviously) you are being stupid. Read this thread, for instance - several bozos saying that they will be glad when Thatcher dies, and **BrainGlutton** mentioning sodomizing her corpse. Yes, yes, I know - that’s different. Just like it was when Helms died, and Falwell, and pretty much every other prominent Republican. Just a little joke, right? Of course, no one takes any offense at [jokes](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=468776&highlight=Shodan). Especially if they don’t say anything even remotely similar to dancing on anyone’s grave or suchlike. :rolleyes: Same old same old. Elizabeth Edwards gets cancer - everyone on the SDMB, even the conservatives are entirely supportive. Helms or Falwell or Snow dies - “I intend to piss on his grave/I hope he suffered/I want to sodomize his corpse/I wish I believed in hell so he could go there”. Consistency, thou art a gem. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/124 "2009-06-18T18:31:28Z")
Yes, because there’s absolutely no difference in the policies or personalities of Elizabeth Edwards versus Thatcher, Helms, Falwell, et al., that might possibly lead people to be more sympathetic to one versus the other. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/125 "2009-06-18T21:13:10Z")
Yeah, **Shodan** , the right wing is the epitome of respectful nods to those on the other side of the aisle. :rolleyes: Coulter, Savage, O’Reilly, Hannity, Beck, etc. “Liberals are traitors. They hate America.” Rush: “I hope Omaba fails.” FOX News: Barack/Michelle & their terrorist fist bumps, 1,000s of other examples. Gov. Palin: “We are the real America/Americans” (her stump campaign speech at rallies where the audience was 99.99% white…) M. Bachmann: Investigate the anti-American liberals in Congress, and candidate Obama, too! And a thousand more examples of GOPers chanelling the slimy spirit of Joe McCarthy. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/126 "2009-06-18T21:19:03Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > From what you said. It does support my point. Tony Snow dies - one of the Usual Suspects says he is glad Snow died, and hoped that his death was unpleasant. And yet you use it as an example of all the Usual Suspects being disgusting. I guess what you’re telling us is that the SDMB’s Loony Leftist Usual Suspects are a terrifying horde of… one. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/127 "2009-06-18T23:09:47Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > You don’t know either? Shit, when you post, one of us better know what he is talking about. Oh I know what I think. I also know that it’s not what you said I think. > [@](#): > > From what you said.It does support my point. Tony Snow dies - one of the Usual Suspects says he is glad Snow died, and hoped that his death was unpleasant. > > It’s called an example. You could look it up. Right. It’s an example of one Suspect being a jerk and just about everybody else telling him to shut the fuck up. It isn’t an example of “the Usual Suspects” piling on a conservative. Quite the opposite, actually. > [@](#): > > If you think it is the only example, then (obviously) you are being stupid. Well, stupid is as stupid does and all that. What’s stupid is \*you \*thinking that \*I \*think it’s the only example of the Usual Suspects behaving badly, since I clearly don’t think it’s an example of that at all. Which should have been obvious to you in the post you quoted. And since I don’t think it is an example of such behavior in \*first \*place, I can’t think it is the \*only \*example of such behavior. Get it? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/128 "2009-06-19T01:46:35Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > First thing I thought of too. What does Elvis Costello have to do with it? 😕 I don’t really have any strong feelings on Thatcher – although her politics are the polar opposite of mine, she WAS the first female PM of Britain, so she’d probably HAVE to be some kind of “dragon lady” to get there in the first place! Still, as much as I loathed Reagan, I didn’t cheer for his passing (in his case, it was a blessing – as he was out of pain!), and I certainly wouldn’t do so for Thatcher. So honestly, I don’t have any strong feelings one way or another. But I do hate the idea of cheering simply because I disagree with someone politically. Unless we’re talking someone seriously hateful, (um, Ann Coulter?) ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/129 "2009-06-19T02:15:06Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I will mourn her. She was the second-greatest British politician of the 20th Century after Churchill. She and Churchill dominated 20th Century British politics. Thatcher and Churchill have much in common. They both held the working class in utter contempt. They both used violence against working people seeking to preserve their jobs. They both felt that being English made you superior to other races and nationalities, including those within the United Kingdom. They both used the personal sacrifice and suffering of British soldiers to glorify themselves. And they are both revered in the US, including by people who would view their domestic policies with abject horror if they were practiced by an American President. When she dies, I have always said I will throw a party, not with any great degree of seriousness. I won’t gloat to my friends who are huge fans, because that would be churlish. It is possible I will meet with a couple of like minded friends, and raise a glass, not to her passing, but to the memory of a Britain that many of us loved and that was sold out for the benefit of Thatcher’s cronies in the City. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/130 "2009-06-19T02:30:05Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > What does Elvis Costello have to do with it? 😕 [Tramp the Dirt Down](http://www.elviscostello.info/lyrics/spike.html#tramp_the_dirt_down) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/131 "2009-06-19T04:22:25Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Still, as much as I loathed Reagan, I didn’t cheer for his passing (in his case, it was a blessing – as he was out of pain!), and I certainly wouldn’t do so for Thatcher. That’s because Reagan’s passing (long after the peak of his political importance) was politically irrelevant, as Thatchers’ passing (long after, etc.) will be politically irrelevant. If either were relevant, we all would have good cause to cheer. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/132 "2009-06-19T06:25:52Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > … The successful recapture of the Falklands was a significant event in the fight against the Soviet Union. It gave us hope. It showed the Soviet Union that we would not back down. … Right up there with Grenada! A proud moment for all! :rolleyes: > [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > … Time to cue up “Pills and Soap” and “Tramp the Dirt Down” (and maybe “Stand Down Margaret” and “Madame Medusa”) on the mp3 player. Might want to throw on [del]Pink Floyd’s[/del] Roger Waters’ _The Final Cut_ too. . . . “…It was announced today, that the replacement for the Atlantic Conveyor the container ship lost in the Falklands conflict would be built in Japan, a spokesman for…” . . . What have we done? Maggie, what have we done? What have we done to England? Should we shout? Should we scream? “What happened to the post war dream?” Oh Maggie, Maggie what did we do? [. . .](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkdgxgIdIVg) Brezhnev took Afghanistan And Begin took Beirut Galtieri took the Union Jack And Maggie, over lunch one day Took a cruiser with all hands Apparently, to make him give it back Maggie, what have you done? . . . She stands upon Southampton dock with her handkerchief And her summer frock clings to her wet body in the rain In quiet desperation knuckles white upon the slippery reins She bravely waves the boys goodbye again Maggie, what have you done? Still the dark stain spreads between their shoulder blades A mute reminder of the poppy fields and graves When the fight was over we spent what they had made But in the bottom of our hearts we felt the final cut [. . .](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7yLUqUNMFk) Take all your overgrown infants away somewhere And build them a home, a little place of their own The Fletcher Memorial Home for Incurable Tyrants and Kings . . . Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Reagan and Haig Mr. Begin and friend, Mrs. Thatcher, and Paisly Mr. Brezhnev and party, The ghost of McCarthy and the memories of Nixon And now, adding colour, a group of anonymous Latin-American meat packing glitterati . . . They’ll be good girls and boys In the Fletcher Memorial Home for Colonial Wasters of Life and Limb Is everyone in? Are you having a nice time? Now the final solution can be applied [. . .](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFzVpZLpvuU) CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/133 "2009-06-19T11:44:19Z")
[QUOTE=crowmanyclouds] Right up there with Grenada! A proud moment for all! [/quote] What have these two conflicts got in common? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/134 "2009-06-19T13:14:40Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > What have these two conflicts got in common? Good question. . Thatcher vehemently opposed the Grenada invasion. ``` Thatcher vehemently opposed the Falklands invasion. ``` ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/135 "2009-06-19T13:53:20Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > The successful recapture of the Falklands was a significant event in the fight against the Soviet Union. This reminds me of a Neil Kinnock quote he got unfairly vilified for. When told that at least the Falklands proved that Mrs. Thatcher had guys he replied “Yes. It’s just a shame other people had to leave their’s on Goose Green just to prove it.” ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/136 "2009-06-19T13:57:59Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Wondering where his career went? He’s playing Bonnaroo and headlining at the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan so something tells me he’s not wondering too hard. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/137 "2009-06-19T14:20:14Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > As for the Falklands, remember that it was the Argentines that actually invaded. Their choice, not Mrs Thatcher’s. And Lord Carrington’s responsibility on our side, not hers. And he took responsibility and resigned. The successful recapture of the Falklands was a significant event in the fight against the Soviet Union. It gave us hope. It showed the Soviet Union that we would not back down. Contrariwise, had we failed then the malaise would have deepened. I saw the change in the public’s morale; I can only assume **casdave** , being in the navy, was somewhat insulated from it. Except, the invaders of the Falklands were a RIGHT-wing dictatorship. So why would the Soviets give a shit? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/138 "2009-06-19T14:24:25Z")
I suppose they might have been scared shitless at the realization that the Royal Navy was able to defeat a third-world opponent. But probably not. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/139 "2009-06-19T15:04:54Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Except, the invaders of the Falklands were a RIGHT-wing dictatorship. So why would the Soviets give a shit? Because it showed that unlike previous administrations, Mrs Thatcher had a spine. It showed that we were willing to stand up for ourselves. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/140 "2009-06-19T15:30:13Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Because it showed that unlike previous administrations, Mrs Thatcher had a spine. It showed that we were willing to stand up for ourselves. Yeah, I can’t tell you how annoying it was watching Prime Minister after Prime Minister ignore invasions of British territory. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925.md?page=8)