And his mother Anne Bancroft starred as Mrs Robinson in The Graduate and as Mary Magdalene. Quite a pedigree.
Mel Brooks is the greatest satirist of our age. Consider
Get Smart - espionage
Blazing Saddles - Westerns
The Producers - Movies
Young Frankenstein - Horror
History of the World Part One - Religion.
For years I used to confuse him with Mel Blanc who voiced most of the Bugs Bunny characters.
It is hardly surprising that WWZ provides such a withering brand of satire.
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Ch. 1: Warnings
- Robert Tulip
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Genius
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Re: Ch. 1: Warnings
Just finished listening to # 1 . . . on Sunday night, I was told by a woman who is returning to Africa, where she will now become a permanent resident. Her life's work is helping to run a children's orphanage there. She's very attached to the kids.
I asked her how they're doing. There are a couple dying, she said - also one of them has rabies!
I didn't ask her to enlarge on that. She will be here in Toronto till September - when we meet for coffee, I'll ask her about it.
I was disturbed to hear about the rabies thing while listening to this chapter. Had I not been informed about this child, I probably wouldn't have taken it seriously.
I asked her how they're doing. There are a couple dying, she said - also one of them has rabies!
I didn't ask her to enlarge on that. She will be here in Toronto till September - when we meet for coffee, I'll ask her about it.
I was disturbed to hear about the rabies thing while listening to this chapter. Had I not been informed about this child, I probably wouldn't have taken it seriously.
- Robert Tulip
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Re: Ch. 1: Warnings
This discussion of Africa reminds me of an article that I suspect influenced Brooks in his writing of World War Zombie.
The Coming Anarchy by Robert Kaplan was an influential article and book from the 1990s that saw the collapse of African societies due to civil war as presaging an epidemic of anarchy, a blood-dimmed tide loosed upon civilization. Kaplan's prediction has not come true, but the idea of collapse in poor countries as spreading by contagion to the rich world is rather similar to this zomboid idea of 'African rabies'.
The Coming Anarchy by Robert Kaplan was an influential article and book from the 1990s that saw the collapse of African societies due to civil war as presaging an epidemic of anarchy, a blood-dimmed tide loosed upon civilization. Kaplan's prediction has not come true, but the idea of collapse in poor countries as spreading by contagion to the rich world is rather similar to this zomboid idea of 'African rabies'.
Robert Kaplan wrote:The Coming Anarchy
How scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet
By Robert D. Kaplan
The Minister's eyes were like egg yolks, an aftereffect of some of the many illnesses, malaria especially, endemic in his country. There was also an irrefutable sadness in his eyes. He spoke in a slow and creaking voice, the voice of hope about to expire. Flame trees, coconut palms, and a ballpoint-blue Atlantic composed the background. None of it seemed beautiful, though. "In forty-five years I have never seen things so bad. We did not manage ourselves well after the British departed. But what we have now is something worse—the revenge of the poor, of the social failures, of the people least able to bring up children in a modern society." Then he referred to the recent coup in the West African country Sierra Leone. "The boys who took power in Sierra Leone come from houses like this." The Minister jabbed his finger at a corrugated metal shack teeming with children. "In three months these boys confiscated all the official Mercedes, Volvos, and BMWs and willfully wrecked them on the road." The Minister mentioned one of the coup's leaders, Solomon Anthony Joseph Musa, who shot the people who had paid for his schooling, "in order to erase the humiliation and mitigate the power his middle-class sponsors held over him."
Tyranny is nothing new in Sierra Leone or in the rest of West Africa. But it is now part and parcel of an increasing lawlessness that is far more significant than any coup, rebel incursion, or episodic experiment in democracy. Crime was what my friend—a top-ranking African official whose life would be threatened were I to identify him more precisely—really wanted to talk about. Crime is what makes West Africa a natural point of departure for my report on what the political character of our planet is likely to be in the twenty-first century. more...
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Genius
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Re: Ch. 1: Warnings
Well, I've never really thought of humans as being 'rabid' . . . I know if you get bitten by a rabid animal, you need to get medical attention immediately. It can be fatal.
But I've never thought a human could become rabid.
But I've never thought a human could become rabid.
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- johnson1010
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Re: Ch. 1: Warnings
Robert,
Here's Mel Brooks hanging out with Jerry Seinfeld.
He still looks sharp!
Here's Mel Brooks hanging out with Jerry Seinfeld.
He still looks sharp!
In the absence of God, I found Man.
-Guillermo Del Torro
Are you pushing your own short comings on us and safely hating them from a distance?
Is this the virtue of faith? To never change your mind: especially when you should?
Young Earth Creationists take offense at the idea that we have a common heritage with other animals. Why is being the descendant of a mud golem any better?
-Guillermo Del Torro
Are you pushing your own short comings on us and safely hating them from a distance?
Is this the virtue of faith? To never change your mind: especially when you should?
Young Earth Creationists take offense at the idea that we have a common heritage with other animals. Why is being the descendant of a mud golem any better?
- johnson1010
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Tenured Professor
- Posts: 3564
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:35 pm
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Re: Ch. 1: Warnings
I think that's innocence of muslim, or whatever it's called.
On youtube, where apparently there's an image of mohammad.
I haven't seen it. but it seems it was enough to incite believers to murder.
stay classy islam.
On youtube, where apparently there's an image of mohammad.
I haven't seen it. but it seems it was enough to incite believers to murder.
stay classy islam.
In the absence of God, I found Man.
-Guillermo Del Torro
Are you pushing your own short comings on us and safely hating them from a distance?
Is this the virtue of faith? To never change your mind: especially when you should?
Young Earth Creationists take offense at the idea that we have a common heritage with other animals. Why is being the descendant of a mud golem any better?
-Guillermo Del Torro
Are you pushing your own short comings on us and safely hating them from a distance?
Is this the virtue of faith? To never change your mind: especially when you should?
Young Earth Creationists take offense at the idea that we have a common heritage with other animals. Why is being the descendant of a mud golem any better?
- johnson1010
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Tenured Professor
- Posts: 3564
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:35 pm
- 15
- Location: Michigan
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Re: Ch. 1: Warnings
Muhammad ->
there's an image of Muhammad for you. go ahead, freak out.
there's an image of Muhammad for you. go ahead, freak out.
In the absence of God, I found Man.
-Guillermo Del Torro
Are you pushing your own short comings on us and safely hating them from a distance?
Is this the virtue of faith? To never change your mind: especially when you should?
Young Earth Creationists take offense at the idea that we have a common heritage with other animals. Why is being the descendant of a mud golem any better?
-Guillermo Del Torro
Are you pushing your own short comings on us and safely hating them from a distance?
Is this the virtue of faith? To never change your mind: especially when you should?
Young Earth Creationists take offense at the idea that we have a common heritage with other animals. Why is being the descendant of a mud golem any better?