You know what's great fun to do if you're on, say, a flight from Chicago to New York and you're getting a little bored? Why not play being President Ahmadinejad? Stand up and yell in a loud voice, "I've got a bomb!" Next thing you know the air marshal will be telling people, "It's OK, folks. Nothing to worry about. He hasn't got a bomb." And then the second marshal would say, "And even if he did have a bomb it's highly unlikely he'd ever use it." And then you threaten to kill the two Jews in row 12 and the stewardess says, "Relax, everyone. That's just a harmless rhetorical flourish." And then a group of passengers in rows 4 to 7 point out, "Yes, but it's entirely reasonable of him to have a bomb given the threatening behavior of the marshals and the cabin crew."
No man can be a Politician, except he be first an Historian or a Traveller; for except he can see what Must be, or what May be, he is no Politician: Now, if he have no knowledge in story, he cannot tell what hath been; and if he that not been a Traveller, he cannot tell what is: but he that neither knoweth what hath been, nor what is; can never tell what must be, or what may be.
- James Harrington, THE COMMONWEALTH OF OCEANA, 1656
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Steyn's Humorous Exercise
From his latest:
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