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Dick the Knife

Michael Young | 11.7.2005 11:25 AM

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To paraphrase, I believe it was, Milton Berle describing Don Rickles: He's the only person who has a movie of the Pearl Harbor bombings with a laughing track. Betcha he's not the only one.

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NEXT: We can only hope that with sufficient wisdom and a lot of good luck, our Iraq editorial will get this right; if so, it would truly be stunning

Michael Young is a contributing editor at Reason.

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  1. Ruthless   20 years ago

    I think it's called a "laugh track."

  2. joe   20 years ago

    "Cheney's camp says the United States does not torture captives, but believes the president needs nearly unfettered power to deal with terrorists to protect Americans."

    I didn't shoot nobody. And if I did, it was self defense.

  3. SPD   20 years ago

    Well, at least Ted Stevens (R-AK) supports Cheney. So he's got that going for him, which is nice.

  4. Phil   20 years ago

    . . . believes the president needs nearly unfettered power . . .

    ::::sigh:::::

    This is a sentence that should never be uttered, about anything, ever.

  5. Jeff P.   20 years ago

    He's a hockey puck.

    I don't know about a laugh track, but I once synced up Tota Tora Tora with Dark Side of the moon...

  6. Vincente   20 years ago

    arguments:

    1. No, we don't do that.

    2. Even if we did do that... and I'm not saying we would or have... its absolutelyvitalfornationalsecurityandthedefenseofourwomenfolknbabiesfromevil.

  7. Michael Young   20 years ago

    If it's "laugh track", consider it corrected...

  8. Adam   20 years ago

    absolutelyvitalfornationalsecurityandthedefenseofourwomenfolknbabiesfromevil

    that would have been a catchier name for DHS. it's got a nice ring, like "PATRIOT Act."

  9. Hakluyt   20 years ago

    ...but believes the president needs nearly unfettered power...

    So much for having seperate and co-equal branches of government. I dunno, the last time I checked Article I, most of the war regulating power resided with the Congress and not the President.

  10. Ken   20 years ago

    Move the camps to the midwest - next to the big pig farms. Bring back the dunking stool and use the manure pits for the dunking.

  11. Jason Ligon   20 years ago

    It is interesting in a perverse sort of way to see a public figure willing to go to the mat for the right to treat people inhumanely. I mean, for most unpopular policy concepts, the spin machine would already be in high gear explaining to us how the administration didn't mean 'unfettered' to be taken expansively as we have, yadda yadda.

    I can only surmise that the veep honestly believes this sort of thing is necessary. The big question is, does he beleieve that because The World Changed on 9/11, or does he believe it because we have always been doing this sort of thing and actually prevented some stuff from happening as a result?

  12. heather   20 years ago

    Dick Cheney has always seemed to me to be just a mean old man. Now he has proven it!

  13. Lennybruce   20 years ago

    Oh, c'mon. That's a cheap and extremely unfair comment about V.P. Cheney. There's NO WAY he'd have footage of the bombing of Pearl Harbor with a laugh track.
    Okay, maybe footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a laugh track -- that's pretty funny (Rook! More reafrets!). But not Pearl Harbor.

    (Yes, I apologize.)

  14. Eric Atkinson   20 years ago

    Maybe you guys would rather the US gov. turn over these tangos to the Church of Scientology. The taxpayers could fund their training to OT6 and everyone would be happy. Except joe. Maybe we can send him too.

  15. thoreau   20 years ago

    Lenny Bruce is not afraid!

    Eye of the hurricane, listen to yourself churn, something something something something....

    It's the end of the world as we know it!

  16. Eric the .5b   20 years ago

    This is a sentence that should never be uttered, about anything, ever.

    I dunno. I fully support giving the President unfettered power over the White House menu. Unless, you know, he's a cannibal...Hrm.

    OK, you're right, nevermind.

  17. isildur   20 years ago

    Even if he is a cannibal, it's ok.

    He can just put HuFu on the menu.

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