What’s refreshingly different about the Iranian review is that everything is blamed on “Joooooooooos” whereas, her in the U.S. they are blamed on “Boooooooooosh”.

That’s why you should travel the world people. It will give you a whole new way of looking at things.

JadeNYU on March 16, 2007 at 10:14 PM

My brother just called to say that he needed to get a couple of guns that he left at my house. Know what I said to him? “Molon Labe!”

Heh.

Barntender on March 16, 2007 at 11:01 PM

Your friends in the Great White North are ahead of the curve on this one, and have brainstormed some movie title ideas that our esteemed Dinnerjacket pal and his Ayatollah’s might find more to their liking.

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/005754.html

shaken on March 16, 2007 at 11:15 PM

Professor Blather on March 16, 2007 at 11:31 PM

It isn’t necessary to smear an entire group of people because you don’t agree with the politics of some of them. It’s bigotry.

Nonfactor on March 16, 2007 at 11:44 PM

Way off topic here, but Michael Crook has apologized!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i76PEIdtJm8

remember Michael Crook, Forsake the Troops?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQa8G3336fQ

sorry for being off-topic, but we used to have a weekend fun thread at this late hour.

Vincenzo on March 17, 2007 at 12:19 AM

csdeven on March 16, 2007 at 11:57 PM
PinkyBigglesworth on March 17, 2007 at 12:30 AM

Hey, for those of us(like Nonfactor ‘n’ me)who aren’t in on the enemies list, why don’t you two geniuses put you’re scary-smart heads together, and give us a list of all the people a good red-blooded American should hate?
I for one would really appreciate it.

billy on March 17, 2007 at 12:37 AM

billy on March 17, 2007 at 12:37 AM

I would too, give me a moment, I have to put my son to bed, bbe right back with the History book……. History? You ask, just give me a moment…..

PinkyBigglesworth on March 17, 2007 at 12:47 AM

Crickets Chirping………. I thought as much.

No need to write a lesson plan if when asked, there was no need of reading.

Kinda reminds me of………. the Iranians.

PinkyBigglesworth on March 17, 2007 at 1:07 AM

Tony737 on March 17, 2007 at 1:07 AM

Tony, you can say anything that you want.

But tell me I am wrong about the Democrats, or the Iranians?

They spend all their time spewing out sooooooo much Anti-American Propoganda, and one film, just one comic book put on the screen, and it’s time to call in the UN.

That to me is “screaming like a stuck pig”.

All I ask is that you back it up with facts, and when your facts are proven untrue, and you result to personal attacks, you have made my point for me.

I hope you enjoy “300″, I did…..

PinkyBigglesworth on March 17, 2007 at 1:14 AM

Pinkster, I was just kiddin’! Remember the Three Little Puppies? They changed it cause some whiney muslim said he was “offended” by it. My comment to you was only sarcasm, sorry if I didn’t make that clear.

Tony737 on March 17, 2007 at 1:18 AM

No worries…… yeah, I saw that story about the “Three Little Puppies”, what was cool was the local Iman say WTF?
Are you guys insane, we love that story?

PinkyBigglesworth on March 17, 2007 at 1:30 AM

Well, if ‘300′ was “zionist propaganda” then sign me up for more of it because that propaganda was so good I saw it twice which is something I haven’t done for a movie at the theaters in a looooooooooooooooong time.

Yakko77 on March 17, 2007 at 1:49 AM

Hmm. I put /sarcasm tags into that message, but they didn’t appear.

laelaps on March 17, 2007 at 2:34 AM

The portrayal of the Persians as a bunch of slave-whipping kinkozoids is in essence accurate. They were not completely defeated after Thermopylae. Their conquests across the Middle East and North Africa set the stage for Alexander, who was (rightfully) greated as a great liberator everywhere.

laelaps on March 17, 2007 at 2:42 AM

You forgot? This guy’s thumbs have already been cut off for a wrong call on Ah-ma-nut-job’s home movies.

warriorlawyer on March 17, 2007 at 8:12 AM

I say it’s bigoted to generalize all Persians and I get turned on. Whoda thunk?

Nonfactor on March 17, 2007 at 2:41 AM

1) See my post above. Pinky only lumped together all those who identify themselves as “Persian”.
2) No one turned on you. Pinky was trying to educate you. Which I thought was a restrained response since you called him a bigot.
3) We are talking about a movie. It’s much ado about nothing.

csdeven on March 17, 2007 at 8:42 AM

I purchased a couple of Persians on sale just so my family and I could walk all over them.

I won’t even allow my dog to piss on them.

saint kansas on March 17, 2007 at 8:50 AM

remember Michael Crook, Forsake the Troops?

“Sloth love Chunk!”

fusionaddict on March 17, 2007 at 8:57 AM

It isn’t necessary to smear an entire group of people because you don’t agree with the politics of some of them. It’s bigotry.

Nonfactor on March 16, 2007 at 11:44 PM

The irony of Non-factor making this comment with absolutely no trace of irony or self-awareness is so delightfully delicious I salivated when I read it.

This from a chump who, in almost every drive-by trolling, “smears an entire group of people because [he] doesn’t agree with their politics.”

You can’t make this stuff up, folks. And, of course, the Factorless one is actually only lashing out because I embarrassed him so badly in another thread.

So how about I do it again?

Read my comment again, Chomsky. Read carefully. I realize to be a liberal means that by definition you are lacking in basic historical education - because my comment is historically accurate.

The Persians were indeed arguably history’s greatest losers. After amassing a vast territory of immense wealth and resources, in the early 5th century BC Darius I took a massive army west to invade Europe, with Greece as the doorway to expansion. In 490 BC, Athenians, Spartans, and other Greeks faced the Persians at Marathon, and - against the usual vastly superior force, at least numerically - the Greeks slaughtered the losers. They were outnumbered at least 2:1; some say 6;1. And it wasn’t even close.

10 years later, desperate to avenge his father’s embarrassment, (Pink) Xerxes amassed an army that dwarfed Darius’ and tried again. 300 Spartans and a few thousand Thebans and Thespians et al, were enough to stop history’s greatest losers for almost a week. Xerxes army was at least in the six figures - some claims as high as 5 million, including non-combatants. Yet by the standards that count, they lost that one, too.

A month later, off Salamis near Athens, Xerxes massive Navy - once again vastly outnumbering the Greeks - somehow managed to once again emerge as losers. They had, at minimum, four times as many ships as the Athenians. And they lost. Again.

At that point, Xerxes - a giant pink loser - wisely decided to take his loser ass back to loser Persia, leaving Mardonius behind to continue the losing streak.

Sure enough, in 479 BC at the battle of Plataea, Mardonius made the mistake of facing the Greeks on their home turf, with numbers that were roughly equal (okay, it was more like 3 to 1 in favor of the Persians, but when you’re history’s greatest losers, you need way better odds than that.)

And like clockwork, the Persians were slaughtered in a Greek victory so one-sided it was almost unprecedented. According to Herodotus, the Greeks lost less than 200 men - while the Persians lost almost 100,000.

That’s some impressive loserdom, ain’t it? You’d have to fast forward to Andrew Jackson fighting the British outside of New Orleans to find that kind of lopsided victory. (Well, you could fast forward to 1991 and Operation Desert Storm, but pointing out the continued loserness of that regions warriors seems to get your panties in a bunch).

But wait - we can’t possibly talk about the greatest losers in history without pointing out how they really earned that reputation. More than a century later, circa 330 BC, another Greek - Alexander the Great of Macedonia - decides its time to take a little payback from those loser Persians.

Does he go the Xerxes route and create a multi-million man army (not to mention the lobster people and the rhinos)?

Nope. He invades the massive Persian empire with an army numbering less than 50,000.

And the Persians lose every - single - battle. Alexander is outnumbered every - single - time. Usually wildly outnumbered. Yet facing Darius III (Persian losers sure cling to their most losery names, don’t they?), he never lost. From Granicus to Issus to Gaugamela to Babylon, and all the way to Persepolis, the Persians lost and lost and lost.

By the time Alexander’s relatively small army was done a decade later, Darius III was dead, and there was no Persian Empire any more.

Shall I go on? The record Persian loserdom continues right up to this week. It’s not exactly a new experience that their greatest enemy today is a tiny, tiny country that could kick their ass in a heartbeat.

The Persians were losers.

Their politics had nothing to do with it.

And you, non-Factor, are an uneducated dolt.

;

Professor Blather on March 17, 2007 at 10:54 AM

The Persians were indeed arguably history’s greatest losers. After amassing a vast territory of immense wealth and resources, in the early 5th century BC Darius I took a massive army west to invade Europe, with Greece as the doorway to expansion. In 490 BC, Athenians, Spartans, and other Greeks faced the Persians at Marathon, and - against the usual vastly superior force, at least numerically - the Greeks slaughtered the losers. They were outnumbered at least 2:1; some say 6;1. And it wasn’t even close.

What about the Germans? As Eddie Izzard said, “Ein, zwei, ein, zwei, build ein empire, very Prussian…then they’d celebrate with a World War, and lose the whole f*ckin’ empire by the end of the war.”

fusionaddict on March 17, 2007 at 2:32 PM

So on Iranian TV, 300 is propaganda.

We don’t need Iranian TV to see propaganda, I just watched propaganda on MSNBC, talkin’ about the anti-war protestors … with not a single word about the *counter* protestors. No mention of them at all. But over on Fox, they mentioned them and even showed them. Fox told us there were about an equal number of each group. Yet the lefty libs think Fox is all propaganda.

Tony737 on March 17, 2007 at 3:39 PM

Bottom line - If you claim that all X group of people are liars/cheats/murderers/rapists because of a person or a group of people within X group you’re being a bigot. I can’t believe some of the people here can’t see that.

Nonfactor on March 17, 2007 at 3:43 PM

Self-parody. It’s not just for breakfast any more.

Professor Blather on March 17, 2007 at 3:48 PM

Professor Blather, thanks for taking the time to roughly outline that history, great lesson! I knew some of it, but not the details so it’s greatly appreciated.

Nonfactor, by using your “bigot terminology”, the “Persians” are bigots too (you can easily see it in the clip and the other hotlinks above). Hell we’re all bigots since we all discriminate based on selecting (instert blank) that we see as (good, favorable, advantageous, etc.), as opposed to something we see as (bad, wrong, disadvantageous, etc.). I just find it outrageously hilarious (and scary) that present day Persians (or I should say Muslim Persians since in fact it is the “Islamic Republic of Iran”) get outraged at movies like 300 or Mohamed cartoons in newspapers, when they are blatantly more “bigoted” in their anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism at home. These people by far have to be the most hyper-sensitive, hypocritical, reality evading folks in the world. It’s not hard to figure out why M.E. cultures have been stagnant since the 11th century with this type of thinking. The proof is in the pudding as they say. If you say being a bigot, is calling a spade a spade, then that’s too bad, the world doesn’t have enough of those brands of “bigots” around. To say that history is “bigoted” is just nonsense, which is why Prof Blather’s lesson is so valuable in a conversation like this.

On a side note. I can’t wait for “300” to hit Europe this week! I will definitely be going to watch it (I’ve been waiting since November, ahhh!), and it should be interesting to see the reception it gets. I’m trying to get a group of my Greek classmates to go with me, but so far I’ve got a tepid response from them. Now that’s scary…

Roark on March 17, 2007 at 6:24 PM

Nonfactor, by using your “bigot terminology”, the “Persians” are bigots too (you can easily see it in the clip and the other hotlinks above).

Roark on March 17, 2007 at 6:24 PM

Irony. Simply by saying that all “the Persians” are bigots is a bigoted statement. I find it funny. You are aware that there are Persians in the United States as well? To say that all Persians/Blacks/Whites are __________ is bigoted. Just as if someone said in response to a new item: “This proves that the Italians are murderous mobsters.”

Nonfactor on March 17, 2007 at 7:59 PM

But Nonfactor, for what I read in this string, I never saw your answer to one of my first questions…….

can you please provide me with your defenition[sic] of what a “good red-blooded American is?” before I start teaching “hate”……..
Please tell me you answered it and I just missed it?

PinkyBigglesworth on March 17, 2007 at 9:33 PM

the factorless one did not use that expression, I did, right after my comment about CG being a Zionist conspiracy.
I never responded because I assumed that anyone who would be utterly baffled by such a common expression as “red-blooded American” really wasn’t going to “educate” me on much of anything worthwhile.

billy on March 17, 2007 at 10:18 PM

Prof B,

I’d also like to thank you for the history summary. I knew bits and pieces of it and I appreciated seeing the whole picture.

INC on March 17, 2007 at 11:13 PM

Prof B is the hip young professor who all the cool kids like and always is good for an easy A, but you might want to check out this guy, INC.

billy on March 17, 2007 at 11:19 PM

billy on March 17, 2007 at 10:18 PM

No worries, billy……….

Let me ask you an easier question.

May I ask what is your “Definition” of what an “American” is?

PinkyBigglesworth on March 18, 2007 at 12:48 AM

Yes, billy, I saw the movie, and actually know history.

It is a great escape from reality, not true to the books, but there is an underlying message.

I hope you like it……..

I have not seen Amazing Grace, but I plan to. Being a single dad of a 4 1/2 year old little boy, I don’t get the chance that much, but I hear that Amazing Grace is also a movie, story, histoy told in a story, is worth while….

Please, enjoy yourself, no sarcasem , just enjoy the day…

Take care…

PinkyBigglesworth on March 18, 2007 at 2:19 AM

With such a wonderful review I just have to see this movie, and encourage others to see it as well. I look forward to seeing the courage and skill of 300 Spartans keep 1 million Iranians Persians deadlocked in futility.

With the conflict with Iran limited to a war of words, for now, it is good to get the mental image of what it will be like when the Left looses their influence and Iran can be put into it’s proper place in the world: being recogized for the pimple on the ass of the Middle East that it is.

After all of their insults and active opposition to American interests for so long, many are looking forward to the day when they have generated enough cause and anger to warrant truly punitive measures. Putting Iran into the dark ages, literally, will give many satisfaction, and the Russians the opportunity to get Iran deeper into debt.

I am really going to enjoy this movie “300″.

omegaram on March 18, 2007 at 4:13 AM

I saw it last night, and in my best King Leonidas imitation, let me say …

IT … WAS …. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Watching the movie, it was glaringly obvious why left wing critics, the mullahs in Iran, and wimpy pacifists everywhere hate this movie so much - and why that should be seen as a badge of honor. This movie flies in the face of everything they believe. It’s unbashedly pro-West, pro-warrior, and pro-honor - everything they are not.

Don’t worry about the historical inconsisencies - this is not a documentary. Keep in mind this paragraph from a VDH column regarding 300:

If critics think that 300 reduces and simplifies the meaning of Thermopylae into freedom versus tyranny, they should reread carefully ancient accounts and then blame Herodotus, Plutarch, and Diodorus — who long ago boasted that Greek freedom was on trial against Persian autocracy, free men in superior fashion dying for their liberty, their enslaved enemies being whipped to enslave others.

thirteen28 on March 18, 2007 at 1:48 PM

Finally saw 300. It was pretty good, love the message, but in some ways I kinda like the 60’s version better. The wifey enjoyed the beefcake, I enjoyed the battle scenes and the whole point of the story which was that they were fighting for their way of life … and ultimately ours.

Looking down from Heaven, the Greeks know what they did for us.

Tony737 on March 18, 2007 at 9:15 PM