quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: Well, if it's a Frankish knight and Japanese samurai, I'd think the native born clause would exclude them both from running, but let's say they are born here citizens.
They're both in the military, so that's good from the point of view of electability, but I think a lot of GOP voters might shy away from an Asian president, plus he's probably Shinto, so, an animist religion will turn off the Conservative base of the party, though given Japan's view of illegal immigrants at the time, I'm sure his policies on the border would play well with the party's base.
The Frankish knight on the other hand would be strong on defense, probably a highly religious Christian, and very much interested in defending our interests abroad. He'd probably be quite wealthy, which means he'd be able to provide some of his own funding perhaps for the campaign, and I think he'd play well in the Bible Belt and the plains states.
Conclusion? I think the Samurai takes California, and the geek vote nationwide, but overall the knight is innately more electable. I'm guess the Democrats would run a wizard or mage against him in the General though. That'd be a tough one.
A wizard? Tsk tsk, the Democrats always make the mistake of running Ivory Tower intellectuals that the common man has a hard time understanding. The knight would win for sure.
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Hang on, though, the Frank is likely to be a Catholic. That wouldn't be so good for the Evangelicals. He's also likely to support the Inquisition, torture as a means of getting information, and white supremacy; which isn't so good for, basically, anyone.
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Actually, the using torture as a means of getting info doesn't seem to upset that many Americans. It means he is tough on terror. And his pro-Inquisition viewpoints will go well with Huckabee's Constitution rewrites.
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Can I say how much I loathe that "like torture for others" has become part of the Republican platform?
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I think its high time for a national leader that is willing to commit seppuku in response to mismanagement of military events Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: Well, if it's a Frankish knight and Japanese samurai, I'd think the native born clause would exclude them both from running, but let's say they are born here citizens.
They're both in the military, so that's good from the point of view of electability, but I think a lot of GOP voters might shy away from an Asian president, plus he's probably Shinto, so, an animist religion will turn off the Conservative base of the party, though given Japan's view of illegal immigrants at the time, I'm sure his policies on the border would play well with the party's base.
The Frankish knight on the other hand would be strong on defense, probably a highly religious Christian, and very much interested in defending our interests abroad. He'd probably be quite wealthy, which means he'd be able to provide some of his own funding perhaps for the campaign, and I think he'd play well in the Bible Belt and the plains states.
Conclusion? I think the Samurai takes California, and the geek vote nationwide, but overall the knight is innately more electable. I'm guess the Democrats would run a wizard or mage against him in the General though. That'd be a tough one.
But the Frankish knight would be both Catholic, and French. Those could work against him if the samurai had a good PR director.
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Very likely that he'd be Catholic. For all intents and purposes, he's American for this discussion, but even if he wasn't there's no guarantee that he'd be French. He could be any of a couple dozen different kingdoms or principalities. If memory serves, Frank comes from the Arabic "franj" which meant something like "outsider." It was a generic term used by the Arabs in Outremer to describe pretty much any Western knight, regardless of nationality or allegience.
But I'm 99% positive that if religion were an issue, they'd vote for a Catholic before they vote for an animist. At least a Catholic is still Christian. Though ironically, the stuff they were afraid of in the 60's about Popes giving orders would probably have a lot more truth to it, depending on the time period.
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quote:Originally posted by King of Men: Hang on, though, the Frank is likely to be a Catholic. That wouldn't be so good for the Evangelicals. He's also likely to support the Inquisition, torture as a means of getting information, and white supremacy; which isn't so good for, basically, anyone.
First, the Inquisition was a Spanish thing, so the Frankish knight wouldn't necessarily support it.
Second, "white supremecy" would not have been in the mindset of a Frankish night, as we know racism today. One theory is that institutionalized racism actually started with the Spanish slave trade, when they started buying primarily for west African slaves. The mindset spread throughout Europe from there.
(I'm taking a course on the History of the Jewish Sepharad this semester)
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No it wasn't. The Spanish Inquisition was a Spanish thing. The Inquisition was pan-Catholic. The office of the Inquisition still exists today, but with a name change. The current Pope was head of it at one time.
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Hmmm, a knight for the Republicans? Well, as long as it is not a Templar Knight, those guys could be seriously bone-headed on the battlefield.
As for the democrats, if we're considering a pirate versus a ninja. I think a pirate would play well to the base, with lax intellectual property stances (that would annoy the establishment), ambiguous sexuality (which would play well to the gay marriage crowd), and with a rather instinctive detachment to the military which would tend to shorten a stay in the Iraqi theatre.
On the other hand, a ninja, while suffering from both being Asian and non-Christian, would be much more of a hawk, albeit with an rejuvenated and welcomed emphasis on intelligence and special forces operations rather than conventional military.
What other issues are there? Abortion? Pirate might be more liberal, wanting more access to and less consequences for the companion to "pillage and ..." Gun rights, a pirate would be for gun rights. A ninja would be less predictable. Drugs, a pirate would be all for legalised drugs. A ninja would be more conservative.
Hmmm, I'm starting to get the sense that a ninja would be more of an establishment candidate while the pirate would be more of a populist, playing well to the base. But between intellectual property rights (hostile to corporations), ambiguous sexuality (gay marriage), and abortion plus the ninja advantage on military I'd say the better choice for the democrats would be the establishment ninja to attract the independents and attack the swing states. That said, the democrat party may well pick the unelectable populist pro-base pirate candidate and shoot themselves in the foot.
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No it wasn't. The Spanish Inquisition was a Spanish thing. The Inquisition was pan-Catholic.
This is true. As recently as 100 years ago the Inquisition was still active in rural parts of Brazil. Not as active as it was in Spain, but still.
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Moreover, "the Inquisition" encompassed a range of activities, from torture and execution to tribunals who determined whether someone had committed heresy and prescribed solely ecclesiastical punishment (up to and including excommunication and laicizing priests).
The latter functions are still carried on today by an organization within the Church that is a direct successor to the organization that oversaw the Roman Inquisition.
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quote:Originally posted by Mucus: As for the democrats, if we're considering a pirate versus a ninja. I think a pirate would play well to the base ... ambiguous sexuality ...
Um, Is the "ambiguous sexuality" taken from Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow? I can't think of ANY other sexually ambiguous pirates. I'm not sure we should assume our theoretical pirate is sexually ambiguous based on one recent popular film series.
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quote:As for the democrats, if we're considering a pirate versus a ninja. I think a pirate would play well to the base . . . with a rather instinctive detachment to the military which would tend to shorten a stay in the Iraqi theatre.
Are you forgetting that many pirates actually had a contract with the queen of England and some of the more famous pirate captains, (Francis Drake for example) were promoted to captains in the royal navy
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Obviously we're talking about the romanticized and fictionalized sort of pirate found in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, where the military is a fascist and imperialist regime and the pirates are just a bunch of freedom-loving sea-hippies.
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Indeed. And if I had more knowledge of anime (not that I want to), I would pick a similarly colourful, romanticized, and fictionalized ninja character
The Rabbit: Voters would go for Jack Sparrow over Francis Drake. Charisma counts, saavy?
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quote:As for the democrats, if we're considering a pirate versus a ninja. I think a pirate would play well to the base . . . with a rather instinctive detachment to the military which would tend to shorten a stay in the Iraqi theatre.
Are you forgetting that many pirates actually had a contract with the queen of England and some of the more famous pirate captains, (Francis Drake for example) were promoted to captains in the royal navy
Those were privateers. You're only a pirate if you don't have a letter of marque and reprisal.
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Whether they or not there was any difference between a pirate and are privateer depends mostly on whether you were Spanish or English.
Isn't the hispanic vote important to you?
quote:Obviously we're talking about the romanticized and fictionalized sort of pirate found in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, where the military is a fascist and imperialist regime and the pirates are just a bunch of freedom-loving sea-hippies.
Pirates of the Caribbean aside, the Buccaneers that ran pirate ships out of Tortula might well be described as freedom-loving sea-hippies. Likely the most democratic group to ever sail the seven seas, they frequently elected new captains several times during a campaign.
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Any self respecting Ninja wouldn't run for President. He'd use his resources to secure a much easier post, like President Pro Temp. Then he'd assasinate the president and VP, elevating himself to power through guile and trickery.
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Mitt would still be in the race if kids knew how hardcore he was (language, questionable use of Jesus Christ). As if pirates or samurai could stand a chance.
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If Mitt were in the race, a ninja would have to run against him, as per the age old rivalry between ninjas and robots.
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No self respecting pirate would ever assume the office of President. He'd announce his campaign, amass an enormous war chest of donations, then suspend his campaign, use the money to buy an Island in the Caribbean and spend the rest of his life drinking rum and enjoying the brown sugar.
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quote:Originally posted by MrSquicky: If Mitt were in the race, a ninja would have to run against him, as per the age old rivalry between ninjas and robots.
I believe you are confused, sir. Everyone knows that it's pirates versus ninjas and monkeys versus robots.
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quote:No self respecting pirate would ever assume the office of President. He'd announce his campaign, amass an enormous war chest of donations, then suspend his campaign, use the money to buy an Island in the Caribbean and spend the rest of his life drinking rum and enjoying the brown sugar.
Ohhh, so that's what Ron Paul is doing.
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I read the Nova episode about how they craft katana yesterday. It was really awesome. Someone tried to explain it to me when I was about 7, and I totally didn't get it.
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quote:Originally posted by pooka: I read the Nova episode about how they craft katana yesterday. It was really awesome. Someone tried to explain it to me when I was about 7, and I totally didn't get it.
I love the fact that, in a thread entitled "Mitt Romney's Out", someone can say the above, and just the above, and have it be completely on-topic.
I'm sure there are even better examples of thread drift in this forum's history, but this is definitely the best one I've ever participated in.
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quote:Originally posted by pooka: I read the Nova episode about how they craft katana yesterday. It was really awesome. Someone tried to explain it to me when I was about 7, and I totally didn't get it.
I've seen a special on it before. All I remember is that they heat it, fold it, pound it, and between each layer they mix something, but I can't remember what it is. Then they heat it to bind it all together, fold, pound, etc. And eventually you're left with a giant razor blade.
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Anyone see the Mythbusters where they tried to cut off the barrel of a machine gun with a samurai sword? As I recall, the sword came out much worse, even when the gun barrel was heated to make it softer.
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quote:Originally posted by Shigosei: Anyone see the Mythbusters where they tried to cut off the barrel of a machine gun with a samurai sword? As I recall, the sword came out much worse, even when the gun barrel was heated to make it softer.
Your recollection is correct, on all points.
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I saw a show, recently, where they compared the effects, both on the sword and on the target, between a modern forged sword of high grade carbon steel and a katana.
quote:Originally posted by Kwea: I saw a show, recently, where they compared the effects, both on the sword and on the target, between a modern forged sword of high grade carbon steel and a katana.
It was great.
What happened?
Edited to include the quote, since this tops a new page.Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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