Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Metaphor Theft

Thomas Sowell is reading Atrios:
People who remember the old comic strip “Peanuts” will recall an often-repeated situation where Lucy offers to hold a football for Charlie Brown to kick. Then, as Charlie comes running up to kick it, Lucy snatches away the ball, and Charlie Brown loses his balance and goes crashing on his backside.

The reason this same scene remained funny, despite how often it was repeated, is that in the later repetitions Charlie Brown would express suspicion at Lucy, recalling how she had tricked him before. She would then come up with some claim that she wasn’t going to do that anymore — and of course she did.

There is a similar routine that has been repeated many times in Washington over the years, with the Democrats playing Lucy and Republicans playing Charlie Brown.
That's pretty great. Further into oppositeland:
It goes like this: Democrats start spending money wildly, handing out goodies to a wide range of people whom they want to vote for them, while Republicans complain about deficits and the national debt. Then, when the public becomes alarmed about the debts that are piling up, the Democrats get the Republicans to vote for higher taxes to deal with the debt crisis, in the name of “fiscal responsibility.”

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24 comments:

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

I wish i lived in that land.

Substance McGravitas said...

Sounds like the kind of land people would vote for.

tigris said...

Ronald Reagan: Democrat.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

the Democrats get the Republicans to vote for higher taxes

This is the portion of an engineering procedure known as "black Box" wherein an unknown process happens. Many times represented by ATAMO; "And then a miracle occurs".

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

This is the portion of an engineering procedure known as "black Box" wherein an unknown process happens.

The process involves the morans getting a brain.

mikey said...

Damn. That's some hardcore lying right there.

Well, I guess the ground rules need to be modified to catch up with the goalposts AGAIN. So here we go:

Ok. You're entitled to your own opinion. And yeah, ok, I guess you're entitled to your own FACTS. And alright already, you can change even well known historical events to fit your narrative. BUT. You CANNOT rewrite history that happened while I was watching. You have to go back farther than me. That's just the way it's gotta be, 'cause otherwise I'll get all confused and end up at the neighbors at four in the morning with no trousers.

AGAIN...

M. Bouffant said...

mikey!!

fish said...

Stupud BBBB spelled branes rong.

mikey said...

Wow. Goddamit, you gotta appreciate a broadminded homeowner.

Trust me. They are few and far between...

tigris said...

Wow. Goddamit, you gotta appreciate a broadminded homeowner.

Maybe their attitude was "let him who has not found himself naked and hungover on a stranger's couch 20 miles from home cast the first stone."

fish said...

leaves me out

Johnny Pez said...

Next: Sowell denounces the evil libruls for listening to peoples' phone calls without a warrant and torturing prisoners . . .

M. Bouffant said...

Couldn't find a link to the one I saw on the news: A 16-yr. old was so drunk he went to a house where he hadn't lived for three yrs. & passed out naked in the new owner's bed, who found him when she returned from fireworks watching.

No charges pressed there either.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

In college (go figure) I once woke up and discovered a naked man sleeping on the shelf of my closet....

I didn't press charges either.

mikey said...

Hmm. I'm just wondering if maybe you were kinda loaded and PUT that naked man on your shelf - you know, something to get back to later - and forgot...

Rusty Shackleford said...

The OLD comic strip Peanuts?

*sigh*

mikey said...

By the way. Is there ANYBODY in the whole world who hasn't used this metaphor at some point?

Just wondering...

fish said...

By the way. Is there ANYBODY in the whole world who hasn't used this metaphor at some point?


Nope.

Substance McGravitas said...

Thieves all. Also jumping granny metaphors are where it's at.

fish said...

As soon as we figure out what it is a metaphor for.

Smut Clyde said...

We're waiting for Sowell to steal the Raging Granny metaphor. Also the "theft" metaphor.

Does he accuse his intellectual opponents of projection?

Smut Clyde said...

Means "Oh shit!"

Grannies should certainly be kept from children and shaken before use, but I was not hitherto aware that they were made in China.

Mendacious D said...

Is it the grannies that are the metaphor, or the jumping?

WV: unmesses.

Mendacious D said...

when she returned from fireworks watching.

No charges pressed there either.


I see what you did there...