BS: stupid sayings

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 09:26 AM

I used to have a tshirt that said, over a detail of sistine-chapel god pointing at Adam:

Gods don't kill people. People with gods kill people.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 07:17 AM

Guns don't kill people.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 05:40 PM

Why is the current asteroid being described as The size of 33 armadilloes? When I looked farther it said 9-banded ones tail-to-snout.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Mar 23 - 04:50 PM

Musha ring dumma do dumma da,
whack for the daddy 'ol,
whack for the daddy 'ol,
there's whiskey in the jar.

(Well it isn't stupid when you're singing it!)

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: mayomick
Date: 22 Mar 23 - 04:37 PM

".....is the poor man's......" . As in "whelks are the poor man's oysters "

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Mar 23 - 05:24 AM

good clean filth

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 21 Mar 23 - 04:19 AM

vidi vici veni - or should that be on the joke page?

have a nice day

and as Stephen Fry answered (allegedly)..... I have other plans!

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 08:45 PM

Build back better

Yes we can

Keep Britain tidy

Veni vidi vici

God bless America

One more heave

Oven-ready deal

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 09:14 AM

lethal AID

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Gda Music
Date: 19 Mar 23 - 11:03 AM

thank you very much indeed!

GJ

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 23 - 08:56 AM

Hands. Face. Space.

Brexit means brexit.

Education education education.

No. No. No.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Mar 23 - 07:52 PM

'High tech terrorist' This is what Biden and others call Julian Assange as he faces extradition and a 177 year sentence because he used the internet to publish actual Iraq war videos. Why aren't Insurrectionists
who used the internet High Tech Terrorists?

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 23 - 05:32 PM

I reminded myself when I posted "war on terror," that twenty years ago today Robin Cook made his historic speech in the Commons opposing the horrible descent into the grossly dishonest invasion of Iraq. He was no leftie but he had the kind of principles that were totally alien to Bush and Blair. He died just two years later, and who knows how UK politics might have been different (for the better) had he lived.

There were plenty of stupid sayings flying around at the time, but, this end, the stupidest and most dishonest one was the one in which Blair said that Saddam had "active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes."

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Mar 23 - 04:41 PM

Aw shucks

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 23 - 01:20 PM

Shock and awe.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Mar 23 - 11:21 AM

Hang Mike Pense

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Mar 23 - 08:39 AM

Just found on a webpage:

"I am always amazed, but never surprised, when . . ."

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 23 - 07:53 AM

War on terror

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 23 - 07:20 AM

Would that be Greenland or Baffin Island? :-)

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 Mar 23 - 06:09 AM

We seem to have filtered sayings, leaving mostly the "Rule of Three" which also follows its own rule rather neatly.

education, education, education

read my lips

Northern Island Protocol

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 Mar 23 - 06:04 AM

That was Crypton Knight............

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Mar 23 - 04:15 PM

I thought he was Superman's dog

Subject: RE: BS: stupid savings
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Mar 23 - 03:06 PM

Crypto is stupid savings

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Mar 23 - 10:26 AM

Labour isn't working (unemployment rocketed when they got in)

Back to basics

Vote for change

Strong and stable

New Labour, new danger (sorry, one word too many...)

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 16 Mar 23 - 03:10 AM

Take Back Control.
Get Brexit Done.
Stop The Boats.
Vote Conservative.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Mar 23 - 09:11 PM

ethnic purity.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Mar 23 - 06:50 PM

It's a fight lost, a bit like disinterested/uninterested. With "practice," the yanks have it right. Everything is "practice," and why not. But we have "practice" and "practise." Huge numbers of Brits get them wrong. So why bloody bother. If confusion is the order of the day, take the simple path. But I do think that we should discriminate between making things easier for everyone and degradation...

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Joe_F
Date: 15 Mar 23 - 06:31 PM

In my book, "alternate", at least in America, does overlap with "alternative" in one sense, viz second choice, in case the first is not available: "alternate route", "delegates and alternates". As a general substitute for "alternative" it is (I agree) semiliterate.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Mar 23 - 07:11 AM

100! Alternate truth is a fascinating fascist favorite.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Mar 23 - 03:03 PM

There are a bunch of Orwellian weasel words of bad intent that soil language by corrupting meaning. Turning equality into equity is one of them. Illegal aliens, death tax, deep state, fake news etc.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Mar 23 - 10:55 AM

Using the word "alternate" in any sense other than "first this, now that, now this again, now that again..." is utterly diabolical. The word is alternative. This lingovirus is so common now that dictionaries are accepting it as standard English. That's a crime, committed mostly by yanks. I blame the Monkees.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 12 Mar 23 - 09:40 AM

"Know what I mean" is pronounced "jomeen", and is how one pronounces a question mark; "innit" is a pronounced full stop, like. As Professor Higgins would say: "Garn."

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Mar 23 - 08:38 AM

In reality...

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 12 Mar 23 - 07:42 AM

Its easier to rename a problem than solve it.

I wouldn't count that as a stupid statement..

DC

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Mar 23 - 07:33 AM

I agree with those last two. But I do sort of like one or two that some find grating. I don't mind at all the gross overuse of "like" or "know what I mean?" Neither of those is used in order to sound pretentious. But if someone starts their statement with "I have to say..." I feel like butting in with, "No, you don't have to, not if you don't want to. That would be fine by me..."

I'm not sure about those people who start a sentence, often when trying to explain something, with "So..." but if you end your sentence with "...going forward" you should be incarcerated without heat or light for life, especially if you're a politician.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 12 Mar 23 - 06:52 AM

Any statement that begins, “Basically…”.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Neil D
Date: 12 Mar 23 - 06:46 AM

Any statement that begins "At the end of the day".

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 10:41 PM

Its easier to rename a problem than solve it.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 07:02 PM

The saying /philosophy that I heard at the CIA and have railed against for 45 years...
"Truth is perception"

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 06:08 PM

To maintain power the Republicans hope to set aside differences and unite with; the religious right, white supremacists, the KKK, Proud Boys, QAnon, Mexican cartels, the Russian Secret Service, Anti Zionists, Smersch, U.N.C.L.E., SPECTRE, Hair Club for Men, Old Nazis, Neo Nazis, the SSS Steve Shaw Syndicate, Russain Mob, Italian Mob, Westboro Babtist Church, Oath Keepers, Kill Jews for Jesus, Death Lovers R Us, and friends of Barney.

Stupid is what stupid does.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 04:07 PM

No one is saying victims and/or losers don't write their stories, but alas, the accepted party line is usually that of the victors if they remain in power.

The fact that the South lost the Civil War yet their party line that it wasn't about slavery prevailed for over 100 years is an illustration of losers still controlling the story. But in general, it takes paradigm shifts to move some of the things we think we know about past events, which is the point when reasoned voices make the case often enough to change minds.

I'll read your link a bit later, just posting now because my thoughts were incomplete in my earlier response.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 04:06 PM

Take a big uptick, Lighter.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 03:43 PM

This "history is written by the victors" is a pet peeve of mine, and I tried to debunk it earlier this week on the A.l. Lloyd Shanties thread, to wit:


"'History is written by the victors.'

"That proves that Jeff Davis and the Kaiser were both in the right.

"History, in fact, is literally written by professionally trained historians who aren't afraid to modify or change their conclusions in the light of new evidence. Their work is scrutinized by others. They don't always agree, either.

"Now that I've been told that the news is fake, science is fake, and history is fake, I guess the smart thing is to believe any goddamned thing I want.

Feels GOOOOD! :} "

**************************************

The idea is an old one:

https://slate.com/culture/2019/11/history-is-written-by-the-victors-quote-origin.html

But it's only true when the victors have a monopoly on writing and historians, a state of affairs that obviously held true when the vanquished were non-literate. The fact is that even non-literate societies have had spokespersons among the supposedly monolithic victors. For example, the notorious 1864 massacre of Native Americans at Sand Creek, Co., was investigated and condemned by the U.S. Congress, whose report contained the following words:

“It is difficult to believe that, being in the form of men and wearing the uniform of the United States, soldiers could commit or countenance the commission of such acts of cruelty or barbarity as are detailed in the testimony.”

(Not quite the stereotype of the victors, is it?)

Outside of Colorado and neighboring Kansas, the event was also widely denounced in the popular press.

The smug assertion that "history is written by the victors" implies that the "victors," whoever they may be, control the historians. Sometimes, as in Nazi Germany and the USSR, they do, but in democratic nations they don't. It also works as a pseudo-intellectual slogan meaning "I don't believe anything historians from the winning side have to say, because they're naturally liars, the voices of the losers have been silenced, and we'll never know the truth anyway. So don't confuse me with facts."

The saying also implies that the victors' historians solidly agree.

I mean, really. If the voices of the losers had been silenced, there wouldn't be neo-Communists in Russia and neo-Nazis in America.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 01:22 PM

It's written by neutral observers quite often, and, these days, there's plenty of recorded evidence in the media. If Russia does defeat Ukraine, heaven forfend, it wouldn't be Russia writing the history, would it?

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 01:08 PM

It is rarely written by the losers, so you need to expand on your remarks. Why do you think it's nonsense?

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Geoff Wallis
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 12:23 PM

'History is written by the winners/victors.'

Pernicious tripe (and very very incorrect).

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Mar 23 - 05:57 PM

The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist (or a mystic, an astrophysicist or a magic mushroom expert)

He's a few condoms short of an orgy

I looked into his eyes. The lights were on but there was nobody driving.

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Mar 23 - 05:33 PM

When confronted with an unenviable task,

"I'd rather hack off the family jewels with a rusty machete"

Or

"I'd rather rip me top off and staple me tit to a beehive."

Or, when utterly gobsmacked,

"Well paint me privates with honey and bring on the dancing ants."

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Mar 23 - 05:17 PM

A Raggytash one that he used once years ago and which I now use all the time: "Well bugger me sideways with a burnt chip."

(Once heard Stephen Fry doing a variant with a bent fish-hook)

Subject: RE: BS: stupid sayings
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Mar 23 - 04:46 PM

I worked with a Geordie who used to say "I'm not surf***ingprised". Dunno if is common in Geordieland though