Obituary thread

[ShadySands]

Madeleine Albright at 84

[HoonDing]

Every time I read one of those truly wicked people has moved on the magma plains, I check and see Kissinger is still alive.

[Malcador]

 

[ShadySands]

I'm no fan but I thought it was newsworthy. 

I told my wife and she said she wonders if there's a special place in hell for her. She's still upset about that.

[Zoraptor]

I wouldn't usually defend either Albright or Clinton, but I also don't doubt that their faux pas had a lot more legs because they were women.

Quasi ironically considering Albright's justification of the 'special place in hell' remark their biggest mis-steps in office almost certainly came from trying to say something overly... aggressively to 'compensate' for being women too, and instead coming across as being sociopathic and diplomatically, being counter productive. End of the day though, if Hillary didn't get fulsome support from Albright she wasn't going to get fulsome support from anyone- possibly even including Bill in that. Would have been better if it hadn't come across as, well, overly aggressive and mildly sociopathic plus ultimately counter productive fulsome support though.

[ShadySands]

Steven Wilhite, because choosey Jods choose .gif

 

Regarding Albright and the like, I think anyone involved in realpolitik at a high level is most assuredly a sociopath of some sort regardless of gender or anything else.

Edited March 23, 2022 by ShadySands
Programming error

[Bartimaeus]

Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, currently unknown cause (they were apparently scheduled to perform an hour before his sudden death).

[Raithe]

Euroweekly News - Belgian Cyclist, Cedric Baekeland dies aged 28, of heart attack

 

[Hurlshort]

44 minutes ago, Raithe said:

Euroweekly News - Belgian Cyclist, Cedric Baekeland dies aged 28, of heart attack

 

That's very sad. I am very concerned that it is due to the use of PED's. It still seems to be rampant in cycling.

[Malcador]

Scott Bennie https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-03-31-fallout-writer-scott-bennie-dies-aged-61

Scott Bennie, a writer and contributor to the original Fallout, has died aged 61.

Bennie served as a designer, writer and producer of numerous games during his time at Interplay in the 1990s, including The Lord of the Rings, Starfleet Academy, plus Starfleet Command and its sequel.

[Amentep]

Hong Kong star Jimmy Wang Yu (One-Armed Swordsman, Master of the Flying Guillotine, Killer Meteors) at 79.  Apparently he'd been in ill health for a few years.

[Gfted1]

Estelle Harris

[alanschu]

On 3/27/2022 at 2:08 PM, Hurlsnot said:

That's very sad. I am very concerned that it is due to the use of PED's. It still seems to be rampant in cycling.

I had to double take your name sir! XD

[Hurlshort]

4 hours ago, alanschu said:

I had to double take your name sir! XD

A bunch of us had fun changing them awhile back, but now I don't remember how we even did it, so it is stuck like this.

[rjshae]

On 3/23/2022 at 12:16 PM, Malcador said:

 

A couple of points about this:

a. She later apologized for this statement.

b. The data was subsequently attributed to Iraqi propaganda, and was determined to be completely false.

Changing views on child mortality and economic sanctions in Iraq: a history of lies, damned lies and statistics

[Malcador]

5 minutes ago, rjshae said:

A couple of points about this:

a. She later apologized for this statement.

b. The data was subsequently attributed to Iraqi propaganda, and was determined to be completely false.

Changing views on child mortality and economic sanctions in Iraq: a history of lies, damned lies and statistics

Apologized for Rwanda as well, good thing all sins are forgiven, heh. Also the fact that the number is inaccurate doesn't matter that much - her reaction to the number is the thing to note.

In any case, nothing all that shocking that a high official isn't all too concerned with people.

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by Malcador

[Sarex]

27 minutes ago, rjshae said:

a. She later apologized for this statement.

Are you serious?

[Malcador]

19 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Are you serious?

Sort of https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/20/magazine/madeline-albright-interview.html

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, Hurlsnot said:

A bunch of us had fun changing them awhile back, but now I don't remember how we even did it, so it is stuck like this.

You go into account settings and it's with changing your email. I look forward to seeing Twirlshot soon.

[rjshae]

6 hours ago, Malcador said:

Apologized for Rwanda as well, good thing all sins are forgiven, heh. Also the fact that the number is inaccurate doesn't matter that much - her reaction to the number is the thing to note.

In any case, nothing all that shocking that a high official isn't all too concerned with people.

Because she was diplomatically careful not to acknowledge the genocide until it had been confirmed? Yeah, sure.

[Malcador]

18 minutes ago, rjshae said:

Because she was diplomatically careful not to acknowledge the genocide until it had been confirmed? Yeah, sure.

I guess question of ignorance being willful or not, but given her other actions at the time (granted as she says she was just an ambassador, to paraphrase) and the fact she apologized (as best as you can from a politician), there's something there.  Certainly not the only one to wear blame for it and the idea that Somalia made the US wary of involving is pretty funny, especially when you look at what went wrong in Somalia.

Edited April 8, 2022 by Malcador

[Zoraptor]

Rwanda was more or less understandable, since the US was getting most of its information from the French who were backing the Hutus politically, and training their militia. Key take away: don't get all your information from an interested party or you may end up embarrassed; see also, outsourcing research on the 'moderate Syrian opposition' to, lol, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

(The million deaths from sanctions claim was always shaky as it came from demographics, and demographics inevitably includes people who, well, never actually lived (like most of the babies who 'died' in the infamous quote). But, demographic analyses are fine when they show what you want. The classic example being that demographic analysis of Churchill's Bengal Famine is Unscientific because you can end up with something extraordinary like 8-10 million deaths, because to quote Churchill "Indians breed like rabbits" while demographic analysis of Stalin's Famine is perfectly Scientific because you 'want' a high death toll for that, and you certainly don't want Churchill to look worse than Stalin!)

[ComradeYellow]

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Kremlin court Jester, comic relief leader of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party (Not anywhere near the American definition of 'liberal'), dies at 75.  

One of his greatest hits.

[alanschu]

I read up on him and uh yeah some seriously bonkers stances he had.

[Zoraptor]

I was always amused by Zhironovsky's party being the Liberal Democratic party like he just picked it by random generator rather than to reflect any actual belief.

Fun (?) fact, Zhiro contested the 'original' Russian Presidential election way back in 1991, coming 3rd. He only missed one election campaign since then (2004)

Edited April 9, 2022 by Zoraptor