http://www.salon.com/books/int/2008/07/21/jokes

or click sig

an article about the origins of humor contains this little anecdote. Having met DQ only once, and briefly, I can't attest to its veracity. But it sounds true enough.

/index1.html

...That's another terrible thing about jokes, they function as a test for social inclusion. If you're among friends and someone tells a joke and you're the one who doesn't get it, you're doubly excluded -- first of all, you miss out on the fun of it, then everyone looks at you. This happened when Dan Quayle was vice president, and a friend of mine was invited to a luncheon he had for the press. The idea was that Quayle's handlers would prove to the press that he was actually a fairly clever, interesting guy despite all appearance to the contrary. Quayle rarely seemed to laugh at the jokes they told, but every once in a while he would laugh after a slight delay, and then he would proceed to explain the joke to everyone.

Q. The joke they'd already laughed at.

A. Right.

But we shouldn't be "fussy" about them. WTF was that!? Screw that douche-bag...

'cause it's PDA and GG who are making me laugh, today.

"Stealing commas for the matzoh". Sheesh.

And make mine pastrami on rye. W/ a glass of milk.

You must've listened to the wrong interview.

I'm going to go out on a limb, here, and posit you don't know too many Jewish people.

You know I love Chomsky. But I think you're over-reacting a bit. There are far fewer comments of the type you're alluding to than I would have expected considering the source.

(Chomsky would really like the way I constructed the previous sentence.)

The copy of "Distorted Morality" I rented from NetFlix just arrived.

No kidding.

tsao-tsao arrives. Weird, that.

I really dug that phrase, and I wish I could claim to have coined it, but it was some other wag. Sharter28% inspired the coinage, I remember that.

You guys wouldn't make it past the first turn... 8')

click sig for linky

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1438490562

BTW, does anybody have a linky to WT's last post? Or remember the post topic? I must've missed it.

WT was sounding pretty melancholy at the last.

Hope he's well.

Our loss.

Dunno why I didn't think of using the Google.

As WT said to Kitt

"Google is everybody's friend"

Since Glenn's not around (and, come to think of it, I AM getting hungry) I thought I'd ask -

I remember wincing at a comment GG made to [somebody] in which he mentioned their disregard for the Letter to the Editor format and treating this place as if it were a chat room. Or a saloon, or something.

So I try, more or less unsuccessfully, to stay reasonably on-topic until a given post is more than a day old, or the comments seem to have wandered off on their own without my input. But I almost always feel at least slightly guilty when I don't have anything truly substantive to say. Like, constantly.

I figure I can get away with it, since GG is, for the most part, so laissez-faire about the peanut gallery.

But I'm curious as to whether or not anybody else took note of that comment of Glenn's.

You ought to watch "Distorted Morality". It's a vid of a shortish talk Chomsky delivered @ Harvard in early 2002. I can't type well enough, or think clearly enough to even attempt to "summarize". But I think you'd appreciate some of the perspective on "Middle-East Terrorism" and Israel. Also interesting to see where he was flat wrong in some of his predictions.

Also, in the Q&A was a pretty interesting bit where Chomsky discussed his perspective on the Drug War.

I don't know enough history to follow every on of his references, and I'm too lazy to follow-up. My shame.

What the Hell is he talking about? "Remaking the World"?

How many thousands of people read this comments section?

And ondelette's letter has, what, maybe 100+ signatures?

Fuck you and whatever excuse you come up with.

My sincere apologies to all non-U.S. citizen readers toward whom I mistakenly directed my ire. Mea culpa.

Please allow me to respectfully disagree.

As ondelette has amply documented, and provided original source references, it's not just waterboarding. People have been beaten to death (the phrase "legs were pulpified" springs to mind) in our name. As Chomsky says, it's not "America" in some abstract sense, it's YOU and ME, for not doing anything!

Electronically signing that letter takes less effort than it took for many of these assholes to peel their goddam "Support the Troops" magnet off the back of their cars.

Ondelette refers to the fact that one investigation was initiated w/ less than 240? signatures.

And these jack-offs can't even be bothered to click a few linkys.

Wonder how Bush got away w/ what he has?

The thought literally makes me physically ill.

No. it's because nobody would do a damn thing, even something as simple as signing on to a petition to get somebody else to do something to oppose him.

So fuck you.

I really hope some of your "ideological opponents" will take the opportunity to debate you on your critiques.

Let the games begin.

Are you taking suggestions for guests?

Invite Olbermann.

I sent to your Salon addie a msg re: this

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/07/24/journalism/permalink/93e37a0731db5c94ba7988f75e990bb6.html

In some circles, THIS guy is a legend.

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/07/24/journalism/permalink/cacb4e0bcb3ca8ff7c3f249e4f39ae56.html

Wisdom of the masses and all that.

I just ran across a comment by THIS guy

http://letters.salon.com/a06ab7c80067776b079e03aa92d43e81/author/index1.html

in one of GG's recent threads.

I'm baffled. Was the Major spoofing this guy all along? Is it the Major? (Seems to spell better...)