Bill O'Reilly calls for surrender to terrorists.

[Walsingham]

Uh, I know this is the off-topic forum, but er...

 

Can everyone please talk about Iraq in the "Bash Greenspan" thread? I'd like to focus more on the discussion of The Onion's article actually.

 

Er... like I say, The Onion is very funny. My favourite point-counterpoint:

 

Point: Blowing wheelchair bound old men up with helicopter launched missiles is OK as long as they're terrorists.

 

Counterpoint: Blowing wheelchair bound old men up with helicopter launched missiles is awesome.

 

Well, the truth always comes out eventually - sometimes as a joke.

 

Could it be that you guys really like killing?

 

Maybe all you want are good excuses and socially acceptable targets for the show?

 

I know what the warrior culture take is on these types of issues. Murder is justified by it's success. Peace through victory. Etc.

 

What is the Christian take?

 

We were talking about joking, and the PURELY satirical newspaper The Onion. www.theonion.com

[Azarkon]

What is the Christian take?

 

When it all began? The opposite (think the Beatitudes). Christianity took root under the tyranny of the Roman Empire, and many of its early leaders were martyrs. They preached messages of faith, hope, and peace - for those were the messages that the oppressed understood. Things changed, many would argue, when Christianity rose to prominence, though my impression is that the change is less that of the religion and more those who represented it. The attitudes of the oppressed are one thing; the attitudes of power are another - and once Christianity was adopted by men of power things like the Crusaders and the political authority of the Church came into being. At the apex of the Crusades and the glorification of the Christian Warrior, it's not clear to me how different Christianity was from traditional warrior culture in terms of its views on war, but presumably there has always been the separation of "for God" and "for honor," the latter being more relevant to other warrior cultures.

[Walsingham]

Are we finished talking The Onion, btw?

[Sand]

Onions are good. Dice them up, along with potatoes and tomatoes, place them in a skillet and hamburger and fry them up. Place them in a tortilla shell, get some shredded cheese, and they make good eatin'. :D

[SilentScope001]

Well, the truth always comes out eventually - sometimes as a joke.

 

Could it be that you guys really like killing?

 

The Onion is a satrical newspaper, meaning that it's hard to tell what they really do believe. It's supposed to be funny, making fun of trends, but humor is subjective.

 

I think what The Onion really meant when writing that point/counterpoint is that the human race really do like killing for killing's sake, and they want to ridicule that by protraying that as a "legit" argument, even though it's not really...

 

But explaining jokes takes away from the humor.

Edited September 19, 2007 by SilentScope001

[Walsingham]

A lot of humour comes from the unexpected. This can be surreal or the concealed truth. In this case, if you set aside the many layers of thought underpinning Sheikh Yassin getting assassinated you have to admit it's a real Hollywood concept. What makes it funny is that we know we'd laugh about it in a film, while we are far more ambivalent in real life. Discovery, guilt, surprise, wonderment. Comedy.

[Calax]

we laugh because we know that we would never EVER do that in real life... would we?

 

Also 90% of comedy now a days is either impossible or will land you without a job.