Jeff Walz is an Embarrassment......to his kid

[bags27]

We don't need no moderator. Maybe Waquoit is right; maybe my sense of humor isn't sufficiently developed. But I think some things shouldn't be taken lightly. For example, I don't hear cutesy references to Adam Lanza, and as terrible as they were, his crimes pale in comparison to the Nazi's. Or maybe the incomprehensible scale of the Nazi's atrocities makes these references acceptable in some perverse way.
Anyhow, I'll try to work on my sense of humor, but I'm old and set in my ways, so I can't promise anything.

No, no, you're right. I confess to using "grammar nazis" myself humorously But I, too, really dislike using words like Nazi or fascist glibly. They refer to specific times, peoples, and horrors, and using them as movable descriptors cheapens what they originally stand for. That's sort of Orwell's point in "Politics and the English Language": we debase the meaning of words and it effects how we understand our politics. I'm making absolutely no reference here to our current situation.

 

[uconnfan68]

When my eldest granddaughter was 5 or 6 and lived far away to where we saw her only a few times a year, when we visited we would pick her up at school and she would run to hug us when she spotted us.

Fast forward to last year when she was 12. My wife said let's go to the bus stop to meet her on our arrival day. I said we better not. So we compromised and waited about a half block away. When she got off the bus, she spotted us, ducked back behind the door and circled behind the bus so she would be far enough away from her friends by the time she would acknowledge us. There does come that point in every child's life when expressions of love by an adult in the presence of the kid's peers is as welcome as poison ivy.

Should have gone to the bus stop and acted like she was 2-3 again. That would have been something you'd laugh about for years.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

No, no, you're right. I confess to using "grammar nazis" myself humorously But I, too, really dislike using words like Nazi or fascist glibly. They refer to specific times, peoples, and horrors, and using them as movable descriptors cheapens what they originally stand for. That's sort of Orwell's point in "Politics and the English Language": we debase the meaning of words and it effects how we understand our politics. I'm making absolutely no reference here to our current situation.

I agree in principle, but I think the usage of "Nazi" in this context really harks to the "Soup Nazi" reference popularized on Seinfeld (not that I ever actually saw it, but he really exist(s/ed). I am a "mid" person on this sort of thing - I wouldn't tend to think of using certain phrases, but am not offended when they are used in a "common" context.

 

[bags27]

I agree in principle, but I think the usage of "Nazi" in this context really harks to the "Soup Nazi" reference popularized on Seinfeld (not that I ever actually saw it, but he really exist(s/ed). I am a "mid" person on this sort of thing - I wouldn't tend to think of using certain phrases, but am not offended when they are used in a "common" context.

I yield on this point, that Nazi has its humorous applications. I, who cannot bear to see Hitler's face on TV, even use the term sometimes in those circumstances. People can and do choose to do that--as I said earlier, making fun of the Nazis and of Hitler, as did Jack Benny and Charlie Chaplin, is one way of diffusing the horror. But I think everyone has their own emotional response to this question. Some may recoil at this practice, and I just wanted to assure McFly that he didn't need to apologize for his reaction.