March 19, 2011 - 6:30 pm
bgates has offered up some Obama Milestones tonight:
Barack Obama has now been responsible for firing more cruise missiles than all other Nobel Peace prize winners combined.
He’s still in 2nd place for number of Arab deaths caused (and 3rd place for Muslim deaths) behind Yassir Arafat and Mikhail Gorbachev.
I realize it’s a trick statement and I hate to be obtuse but don’t Bush 1 and Bush 2 fit in there between Arafat and Obama in number of Arab deaths. I mean surely more Arabs were killed in each of the gulf wars than were killed yesterday in Libya. (This is not a Bush bash – I voted for both of them – just an honest question.)
Bush 1 or Bush 2 didn’t win a Nobel.
Ah, I see. The statement could have been better worded.
And, BTW, if O is behind Gorb and Arafat in Arab deaths that puts him in *third* place, not second – unless of course G & A just happened to have killed exactly the same number and are therefore tied for first. Or am I misreading again?
Wait, can you explain how that statement possibly could have been better worded?
@ George – I’m quite aware of the difference between Arabs and Muslims. I am indeed having a reading comprehension problem today with this particular missive, thus my question. You perhaps are not aware of the fact that in grammar, a parenthetical has no effect on the syntactical construction, which should be able to stand on its own sans parenthetical. This one doesn’t.
If he meant what you think he meant (and, having now looked it over from your perspective, I am inclined to agree) he should have said, “He’s still in 2nd place behind Yassir Arafat for number of Arab deaths caused and 3rd place for Muslim deaths behind Arafat and Mikhail Gorbachev.” Or, he might even have said, more awkwardly, “He’s still in 2nd place for number of Arab deaths caused and in 3rd place for Muslim deaths behind Yassir Arafat and, Arafat and Mikhail Gorbachev, respectively. Instead, he stated it nebulously with the cumbersome and unnecessary use of the parenthetical.
Hey, it’s his blog; he can do however he wants. Anyway, glad it was perfectly clear to you right away, even if it wasn’t for some of his readers with way more education than necessary to make it so.
@Smith – Perhaps you should focus less on pure grammar and focus more on overall context and implied meaning of a given piece of text. Unfortunately, this may result in a reduction of the number of overly wordy and condescending posts you feel inclined to make on the internet. Your mileage may vary.
Making a ‘subtle’ reference to your vast educational background did make your argument much more convincing and was a very classy tactic, though.
Alas, if only there were grammatical rules for sarcasm.
@Smith When the word-count of your comments grossly exceed that of the original post? It’s time to take two steps back from the keyboard and re-evaluate your place in the food chain.
@Smith – you seem to be having a reading comprehension disconnect day.
Muslims and Arabs are not the same thing. Hence he’s in 2nd and 3d place in two separate distinct measures.
Prediction: Obama will be the first black president to win the Nobel War Prize
I read it to mean that Arafat was responsible for most Arab deaths and Gorb for most Moslem ones.
Of all the things to over analyze and argue about, you chose this? Really?
It’s satirical. It’s humor. Have a laugh and get on with your life.
Kissinger. That is all.
What ever happened to the great right-wing motto, “peace through superior firepower”?