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Samizdata quote of the day “Two substantive political issues are the federal budget deficit and the war in Iraq. Now, if you’re electing Democrats to control government spending, then you’re marrying Angelina Jolie for her brains. This leaves the Democrats with one real issue: Iraq. And so far the best that any Democratic presidential candidate has been able to manage with Iraq is to make what I think of as the high school sex promise: I will pull out in time, honest dear.”
– PJ O’Rourke. He is still the greatest.
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May we have the source of this quote, please? Thank you.
I have fixed the link. It took a while to find it; the actual quote appeared in CATO’s actual newsletter.
I have a problem with the first part of this analogy.
OK, I married Angelina for her brains and am somewhat disapppointed in that respect. However, I am rather consoled by the fact that I find myself married to Angelina Jolie.
I agree with Eamon Brennan about the consolation of being married to Jolie. I also suspect that she isn’t actually dumb, at what she really knows about which is being a movie star. Calling Hollywood movie stars dumb reminds me of that lazy habit that Democrats have of calling Republican Presidents dumb, merely because they don’t mind appearing dumb.
In other words, typical second-rate PJOR. Sounds good, but he sacrifices real truth for a laugh, which ultimately means that it’s not really that funny. I wish he’d concentrate on truth more, and let the laughs come without being forced. When he does that, he can be superb.
Fair enough; but a lot of Hollywood celebs do come out with some jaw-droppingly silly things, but then so do politicians these days. In fact it is often hard to tell the two apart in terms of their personalities.
“I do not want to keep our troops in Iraq a minute longer than necessary to secure our interests there.”
“Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.”
It seems to me that one of these statements is rather more definite than the other. (Although Obama goes on to vaguely mention something about keeping ‘some troops’ around).
In fact, it’s quite nice to see a clear difference of approach between Mcain and Obama on this. At least there’s something to choose between, although I suspect Mcain’s route is the safer option.
As opposed to marrying George W Bush for HIS brains?(Link)
Ian_QT,
Any chart that shows surplus/deficit only, without showing total spending and tax revenue, is useless.
I’m not defending Bush, mind you, but the chart uses narrowly presented data to come to a false conclusion—particularly regarding Clinton.
Agree with you about the Angelina Jolie bit (not because of Eamon’s reason, but because I agree she’s probably not as dumb as she seems), but give credit where it’s due: comparing the Dems on Iraq to the “high school sex promise” is genuinely funny. And it’s funny because it’s true. They’re for the war when it’s fun, but at the first hint of consequences they want out, and they peddle as a “responsible alternative” something that just isn’t. Isn’t responsible, and isn’t really an alternative.
No, Mastiff. The chart uses very telling data to show the result of 2 years of Democrat Congress and White House followed by 6 years of a Republican Congress opposing a Democrat White House. That was the first significant time Republicans held Congress with the opposing party’s President since well before WWII.
Republicans in the White House are generally useless at self restraint. But in Congress they are generally pretty good at restraining opposition presidents. I would rather have a Democrat President if it is the means to resurrecting opposition to big government in Congress. Admittedly, the first two years might be painful. But that is kinda the point.
There is no evidence that Angelina Jolie is anything other than an imbecile when it comes to anything other than looking sexy and believably mouthing words written for her by others. It is funny, and PJ O’Rourke is the greatest.
Re Angelina. She’s probably not dumb at all but not smart either.I have a friend from childhood – part of the Russian post Stalinist diaspora who is a well-known actress in the francophone world. It suddenly bonged me one day that while I had gone through several evolutions in my life she was still the eighteen year old of our teen years. A lot of members of the acting profession do their development onstage and remain starry eyed ingenues in real life which partially explains their addiction to simplistic solutions to the world’s problems
Many thanks for the link.
Cheers.
Actually, the Democrats are making and even more difficult promise. They promise to pull out in time but not to soon!
As usual, the Democrats claim the the Goldilocks ability to get things just right. I hope they’re right this time. I can’t handle another Cambodia.
Fair enough; but a lot of Hollywood celebs do come out with some jaw-droppingly silly things, but then so do politicians these days. In fact it is often hard to tell the two apart in terms of their personalities.
In the case of politicians, at least in the United States, it rather seems that they are required to say dumb things if they want to get elected. Consider the brief public relations uproar when one of Obama’s advisors was quoted as having assured the Canadian government that Obama didn’t really intend to pull the United States out of NAFTA, and Obama had to make a big show of hating NAFTA just as much as Clinton does (or more to the point, as much as she now makes a show of doing). It seems likely that all the presidential candidates at least have advisors who are smart enough to tell them that really abolishing NAFTA would be an economic disaster. But the electorate contains a lot of people who hate it, so they have to put on a show of sharing the electorate’s economic delusions and resentments, whether they actually feel that way or not, just as McCain has to make a show of endorsing the religion of the booboisie.
Re Angelina: are the claims that she is dumb based on anything she said or only on her looks ? Any links or documentation ?
Isn’t it possible that she is no more dumb than any egghead (university type) ? Or are you supposing, as per the cliche, that beautiful = dumb ?
I must confess that I haven’t the slightest idea about how wise Angelina is, neither seems the question very important – there are more important things about her.
Too soon? What does that mean? Do the want the War in Error (as opposed to the War on Terror, which is in Afghanistan) to be 50% worse than 9/11, instead of the measaly 33% worse it is now? Maybe they want it to be 75% worse? They’d have to wait for the death toll to hit 6000 before it’s twice as bad as 9/11.
Of course that’s just considering blood … in treasure, the War in Error is already 400% worse than 9/11, and rising.
Rich,
You are becoming tedious. We know your opinion on Iraq.
We were discussing a more important issue – Angelina.
Yeah, he’s still the greatest.
Rich Paul,
Too soon? What does that mean?
It means they don’t want to be blamed for another Cambodia. If they withdraw to soon and Iraqi spirals into mass murder as happened the last time we abandoned a region, they don’t want to be held responsible. They won’t escape responsibility this time.
They also don’t want the Republicans in the 2012 election to be able to point to Iranian or Jihadist controlled Iraq as a concrete failure of their policies.
Public opinion can turn on a dime.
But if you are electing Republicans to control the deficit, that’s like dating Ann Coulter for her shy demeanor and graceful manner.
Sheesh, there are no good guys here, just various flavors of sewage.
Shirley Knott
“…then you’re marrying Angelina Jolie for her brains”
He actually did not say Angelina Jolie was dumb. He just implied that any brainpower she possessed was a bonus and the probable real reason you would marry here was her drop dead gorgeous body, she openly admits she loves sex and the fact she was movie star rich. Any brains she had would probably be the secondary decision factor.
Of course, that would apply to most humans. To Brad Pitt, who is a rich handsome movie star, who has dated other world class gorgeous women, her brains and personality may actually have been the decisive factor. 😉
Where the fucking hellski does the idea that Angelina Jolie is beautiful come from?
She is clearly no swamp donkey but “beautiful” is surely over-playing it a tad.
Uma Thurman is beautiful,
Monica Bellucci is beautiful,
Sigorney Weaver (in a particular scene towards the end of Alien in her (surprisngly, considering what she’s been through) pristine white panties is beautiful.
Halle Berry is beautiful.
So, is Scarlett Johansson.
Jolie is a Barbie Doll with crap tattoos (bet she has a tramp-stamp) who looks like she’s taken a hornet’s nest in the kisser. For Gawd’s sake she was chosen to play Lara Croft who is essentially wanking fodder for 14 year olds with 80 year old thumbs.
She is admittedly more beautiful than Jennifer Aniston but by no stretch of the imagination is she more attractive so what the hell Brad Pitt is playing at is beyond me.
The difference between politicians and actors:
One is perfectly capable of pretending to be somebody who is completely different that who they really are in exchange for money and popularity, and the other is…um…
O’rouke is using Jolie as a metaphor, nothing else. Jesus-H-Christ on a bicycle, I bet you guys are boring as hell when you are drunk.
(bet she has a tramp-stamp)
Ok, ok…Explain this one to me.
Nick M, how on earth did Uma Thurman get on that list? Great body I’ll grant you, but beautiful? Not even close.
And how did you leave Catherine Zeta-Jones out of your catalog?
De gustibus non est disputandum.
glad to see we’ve got down to the real question – Angelina is it the brains or the body. Thats why I love it here …
Roight. Because the Publicans have been so successful in controlling the deficit.
I’ve never agreed with PJ’s politics but a writer of such wit and style is always to be admired.
Finally! My area of expertise can contribute to a conversation!
A “tramp stamp” is a tattoo on the lower back above the crack of the ass.
Who was it that described politics as “show business for ugly people?
Golly! Now I know my education is in deficit.
It seems Nick M would debedistrate the lissom & highly desirable Jollie…wasps nest & all. in favor of Mother Theresa or the Alien…
The beautiful, statuesque Sigourney Weaver, by the bye, is the greatest six-foot threat to male stupidity ever.
Female filmstars are supposed to be beautiful and, mostly, they are.
Politicians are supposed to be honest & intelligent & supportive of those by whom they were elected & to have their Nation’s interest at heart and, mostly…
they are an unmitigated shower.
This is the blog for which I’ve been searching!
Jolie is another one of those actresses destroying her looks by losing too much body fat. Also, her looks really depend on the camera — full frontal shots of her face typically do NOT look so good.
Thurman belongs on that list if you consider her turn back in Dangerous Liaisons 🙂 Maybe GATTACA. Since then, not so much.
BTW, did anybody else see the *52* year old Dana Delaney on Jay Leno Thursday night? Wow.
I like Sandra Bullock.
All y’all watch it, or I’m going to tell this asshat about this thread: http://allecto.wordpress.com/
Scroll down to where she goes on about Firefly, to really understand. I can only imagine that mommy and daddy told her that the thermometer contained shiny liquid candy when she was young.
Link left cold, intentionally. If she starts seeing SD as the referrer it’ll be like that thread where my ex-wife showed up and pretended to be about thirty different Hillary Clinton fans.
My bad. I thought that, if I just typed the link it would stay cold.
Don’t be like me. But you already knew that.
Laird,
Catherine Zeta Jones. You are having a giraffe aren’t you? Uma is fucking gorgeous but that Welsh bint is pedestrian and frankly if you think I’m going to have fantasies about Michael Douglas’s sloppy seconds then you can dream on…
And yes permanentexpat I would crawl over Angelina to get to, well almost anyone.
Mola mola,
You didn’t make that up did you? There really are people that fucking stupid? I didn’t get to Firefly, just the effing demented nonsense about Gardasil and I could read no more.
I found that link on SFC B (previous commenter)’s blog by clicking on his name here in this thread. Do you wanna give him credit, or did you come by it on your own somewhere else? Sorry for the insinuation, but it seemed like a huge coincidence, two references to that showing up on the same (unrelated) comments thread. Recommend it to everyone for entertainment value, of course!
Joshua,
Got it in an email from a friend. He found it on some gun-related site, barfcom I think it was. Apparently the Gorgon Poison chick is pretty popular. And by calling her a ‘chick’ when I have my doubts about whether ‘her’ is even accurate, that’s probably rape in her world.
Nick,
How long did you spend in college? You had to have met people who were that stupid in grad school. Morons like that would starve if they weren’t on the faculty somewhere.
I thought about trying to troll them, post a few caricature comments, etc. I couldn’t do it. I could not come up with a parody that was farther out than the reality. And according to them, that’s rape, and the way they throw the word around royally f***ing pisses me off. I deal with REAL victims and suspects in REAL rapes and have a mother****er of a time getting the bad guys prosecuted and the victims the help they need because of nasty pieces of work like this gorgon bitch trivializing the word and the meaning.
So, Gorgon, if you’re reading this: you provide a smokescreen that lets real rapists get away clean. Proud of yourself?
My vole is for Cate Blanchett. Like Sigorney Weaver, from certain camera angles she doesn’t look so great, but from the right angle ….breathtaking.
That’s incredibly depressing.
He makes the claim that Canada is broke because of health care costs – the Canadian government actually has a surplus. I am Canadian and I’m not fond of our health care options but our government isn’t broke.