[extropy-chat] it's all understandable, except

[Damien Broderick]

At 09:12 AM 11/4/2006 -0800, spike wrote:

>________________________________________
>  Al Brooks [kerry_prez at yahoo.com]:
>
>... however the current school system doesn't make ANY sense. None, unless
>for some hidden purpose, say, to make a certain number of young guys vicious
>so some of them will be more inclined to join a branch of the Service.
>...
>
>Al, I notice your email address is kerry_prez.  The irony here is that
>senator Kerry destroyed any remnants of his possiblity to become president
>with a single comment similar in spirit to this one.

Careful, Spike. What you should have written is "with a single ironic 
comment at Bush's expense that was maliciously and misleadingly spun 
by his opponents as a comment similar in spirit to this one."

This is not a party-political observation (I don't get a vote in the 
States). It's a matter of comprehending the context. Of course, maybe 
I'm wrong about this and Kerry just happened to utter a remark in 
public equivalent to Bush or Cheney, say, blurting out in public 
that  Halliburton is corrupt and all elected politicians are morons. 
Seems unlikely. Nor am I even convinced that he "told the joke 
wrong"--I suspect he assumed his audience was smart enough to make 
the leap to his ironic intent: "Hey, guess who's got himself mired in 
Iran... it's that booze-sucking brainless frat boy in the White 
House!" (I keep making that kind of mistake myself, assuming people 
will understand and laugh at my ironic quips when all too often they 
tend to stare open-mouthed and aghast.)

Damien Broderick