Be Excellent To Each Other

Looks like I've scored a point

Christopher Hitchens died last night...yet his brother still lives, proof that CH was right.

oh boy.

Damn, I had him a prospective 2012 candidate.

Donald "The Black Panther" Neilson has also pegged it today.

Looks like God's having a purge! Of nogoodniks, I mean.

Not a shite.

When Hitchens got up there, he had a word.

Actually it was several words... "Oh you've got to be fucking kidding!"

He went downstairs for supporting the invasion of Eye-raq, obv. At least Kim didn't do that!

Err, God rest his soul.

One of our number has just tweeted the faintest of Thatcher murmers. What are the odds of an early Christmas?

I wonder if this new film about her life will sway any body's opinion of her. It's wrong to celebrate her death, no matter how much you disagree with what she did.

You know, I almost hope she doesn't die. If she does, I'll have to see her ghastly visage all over TV and on the front pages for an argh of always.

What about Kim? Or Stalin? Or Hitler?

Some people are "evil", and it's a good thing when they die. I'm not saying Thatcher fits into that category for me, but it's a matter of degree and perosnal perception, I guess. And as long as people aren't actively hastening the death of said person, I'm not sure what it matters to me how they feel about it.

I think there is a difference

Kim was still in power and people might hope that his death might improve the situation there
much more so for Hitler at the time
Thatcher is home drinking tea and hasn't been causing any problems for ages that I'm aware off

Hmm. I'd say it's a good thing when they're no longer in a position to affect others with their evilness. In most cases that doesn't require them to die.

You're confusing problem solving and karmic justice.

Quite. The first is important, the second is meaningless.

The most controversial Disney Character, evers.

Not to many people. Punishment is an aspect of any criminal justice stystem, for instance.

My use of the word "karmic" was probably silly and irrelevant, on reflection, so reread it as just "justice", in the broader sense.

but on the other hand... any excuse for a party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbp3k3rYMs4

I didn't mind her until I lived and worked in Coventry, Manchester, Hull, the Welsh Valleys. While her death won't make any difference in real terms and it certainly won't undo any of her wrongs, it will be a hugely cathartic and symbolic moment for many, many people. I'll raise an ironic glass to it with anyone who wants to... and I'll not begrudge anyone who feels it necessary to have a little bogle atop her grave. She forfeited her right to dignity when she took it from so many others. Bollocks to her.

Most importantly though, if she does go, everyone's deathlists will require ten percent more thought in future than they have done for the last few years.

To quote Mark Twain "I have never wished death upon any man, but I have read several obituaries with great pleasure."

The current lot in power hold her up as some kind of ideal, so her actions are definitely still having an effect.

Her death wouldn't make any kind of difference to that though.

You are, once more, rather missing the point.

Who are people going to blame for their crappy lives on after she dies, though? It clearly wasn't their fault.

Oh, her, still, I guess. Meh. Carry on!

I suspect it will, to be honest. But backward to the way people want.

I predict it will have feck all effect. In the same way that there won't be a resurgence of Third Way Blairism when TB chokes to death on his money.

I'm not missing the point of what I just replied to.

I get that there's catharsis involved. I just don't think it's particularly edifying.

Craster, you fucked her, didn't you?

Brilliant.

o/

Sincere apologies, but I rather think you were. It's an additional reason as to why some people may feel pleasure at her passing, rather than going "Meh, it was all a long time ago, wo’eva" – for the very reason Plissken posts and you responded to, the effects of her policies are still being felt and so it's not surprising that people will still harbour negative feeling towards her, rather than letting it go and moving on.

I don't think Plissken was suggesting that her dying would prevent people following Thatcherism.



That’s like, your opinion, man.

You're calling for edification in a thread entitled Celebrity Deathlist

Oh, by the way, if I came across as patronising in those last couple of posts, it's because I meant to.

The point I was replying to was that her effects are still being felt because the current government are still harking back to Thatcherism as being an ideal worth pursuing. And I was stating that won't change if she dies. Indeed, as Grim... pointed out, her dying is likely to make it worse.

Indeed. She'll become some kind of martyr figure. *shudder*

Plissken clearly wasn't suggesting that it would, so your response is apropos nothing.



Indeed, as I responded to Grim..., I suspect that is somewhat unlikely.

Makes your 8-odd replies to it since a little redundant then, doesn't it?

Not really, no. There's never any redundancy in pointing out that you're a dunderhead, as some things bear repeating.

Oh fuck Forums, I wrote the below in response to a post I can't even find now. Hate that. Anyway...

Exactly. Plus, there's little point in debating the crone, and this isn't the thread for it in any case. She'll be dead soon, loads of people will have a really good night out as a result, a handful of people will complain about it, probably on Twitter, and then everything will go normal.

Possibly. Possibly some people will stop thinking of the horrendous conditions they've spent their lives living in as being the fault of a living person and focus more upon what they will do to get themselves out of their situation. That's her great irony really, looking at the entirety of the 'no society' interview - she's worsened the problem by a huge degree, over what is coming up on four generations now. She did the usual Tory thing of bulldozing their way to an ideal without accepting the plain and horrible truth that some elements simply will not cope or move towards independence without state intervention and if you try to encourage them by simply removing support, they just become substantially greater and more costly problems to be addressed, which is usually by an incoming Labour government throwing pretend money at everything that looks appropriate. Then the Tories come along again and hack the bloated but functioning systems to shreds and we rinse, repeat.

She was supposed to be cleverer than that. She certainly believed she was. Facile politics, brashly practiced.

Agree with all of that.

You should get her moulded for your Fleshlight while you can, Craster.

Thought about it. Went for Mark Thatcher's gob instead.

Well, she did invent ice cream vans.

Sort of.

It occurred to me that when someone has a go at the recently dead, someone pipes up with "Look, someone just lost a parent". And then you realise in this particular instance the people who have just lost a parent are someone with no sense of direction who tried to illegally overthrow an African government and his sister, who appeared on TV and ate kangaroo testicles.



Clearly inherited the family talent for diplomacy, there.

Much as I dislike Carol Thatcher, technically she was right, of course.

I don't deny she was technically right, but staggeringly tactless.

But hey, its Carol Thatcher.