The Swamp

The woman who made post-punk and new wave music possible has passed.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/08/world/eur ... ?hpt=hp_t1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maybe I should have started a too soon thread?

"When England was a kingdom, we had a king. When we were an empire, we had an emperor. Now we're a country, and we have Margaret Thatcher."

"Her state funeral is going to cost nine million pounds. For that much money, you could buy a shovel and give it to every single Scottish person and we'd dig a hole deep enough that you could deliver her to Satan personally."

@TheBig_Sam comments on Thatcher's passing:

Was right at the tail-end of a sensational, lunchtime wank when I heard the news about Thatcher. Near ripped my fucking bellend off. Superb.

I know very little about her. Was she kind of a cunt or something?

Didn't realize she was still alive to begin with.

If you worked in heavy industry or mining in the UK, yes.

Jerloma wrote:I know very little about her. Was she kind of a cunt or something?

brian wrote:Didn't realize she was still alive to begin with.

This.

brian wrote:Didn't realize she was still alive to begin with.

Same

My gf's dad thought she was awesome, so she probably like crushed unions and told people to get a job and stuff. I don't know a thing about her either, other than she was BFFs with Reagan and they rode horses once.

Jerloma wrote:I know very little about her. Was she kind of a cunt or something?

Mixed opinions. On one hand, Britains economy was going in the dumper before she took office. She took on the powerful unions, and ripped up the welfare state, which offended many, but the British economy was much improved when she left versus when she arrived.

She was Reagan's lapdog. Implemented trickle down policies for the UK, eg, cut taxes for wealthy and cut social programs.

I think some of the hatred is a backlash for the revisionist love after she left office. She supposedly helped end the cold war.

Most interesting comment I've seen:

You want to see what would have happened to the American car industry if the Republicans got their way during the Recession? Thatcher's Britain. Under her management of the country, all the car companies either went out of business or were sold to foreign interests.

BMW of Germany owns Rolls-Royce and Mini. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation owns MG. Tata Motors of India owns Jaguar and Land Rover. Volkswagen of Germany owns Bentley. Rights to many currently dormant brands, including Austin, Riley, Rover and Triumph, are also owned by foreign companies.

Anything not screwed down, she made sure was sold off. She ran on a platform of the Labour Party "not working" because unemployment was at half a million, and then her policies sent it to over two million. Reaganomics was ran at a faster pace than in the USA, and the ruination happened quicker.

The icing on the cake was Black Wednesday. The Conservatives (and their press, spearheaded by Rupert Murdoch and The Sun newspaper) bet that their policies would help the currency. One currency speculator bet against their policies. That speculator made a billion dollars in one day betting against Thatcher / Reaganomics. His name? George Soros. And now you know why Murdoch hates him with a seething passion... Soros was able, in an eight-hour stretch, to take every right-wing talking point (and they're still in use today) and call the bluff. And win. Conservatives are sore losers and bad with money.

Paging Dr. Howard...eagerly awaiting your spin...

Any company that greenlighted the PT Cruiser and the HHR should have gone out of business.

Icepenis wrote:My gf's dad thought she was awesome, so she probably like crushed unions and told people to get a job and stuff. I don't know a thing about her either, other than she was BFFs with Reagan and they rode horses once.

This, and I like Shrew's post as well. She was Reagan in a skirt and a dour attitude. Reagan and his team stole a lot of tricks from Thatcher and her team, and much like in the US, long-term, it royally fucked the middle and lower classes and made the rich and fuck ton of money. Though from my understanding, the Conservatives in the UK were more about maintaining power than making money for the wealthy than their Republican counterparts. But that is my perception, and not a very informed one. I need to read up on British politics of the late 20th Century. Any recommendations?

Icepenis wrote:Any company that greenlighted the PT Cruiser and the HHR should have gone out of business.

Ha! When the PT Cruiser first came out, I was given one by a rental company. Besides being embarrassed driving it, it was the worst car ever. Changing lanes was the worst, as their was a metal post right in the mirror blind spot, so you couldn't see even if you turned your head to look. Sucked balls. Even the front windshield angle sucked for vision, not to mention performance.

I've been reading a few of the Oxford Short Introductions To Series. Very informative and well done. There is one on British Politics (20th Cen) and should be at your local library.

The Sybian wrote:I need to read up on British politics of the late 20th Century. Any recommendations?

The Sybian wrote:

Icepenis wrote:Any company that greenlighted the PT Cruiser and the HHR should have gone out of business.

Ha! When the PT Cruiser first came out, I was given one by a rental company. Besides being embarrassed driving it, it was the worst car ever. Changing lanes was the worst, as their was a metal post right in the mirror blind spot, so you couldn't see even if you turned your head to look. Sucked balls. Even the front windshield angle sucked for vision, not to mention performance.

I've had PT Cruisers as rentals before, and that car has the worst turning radius of any car I've ever driven. Just parking a mall parking lot was an ordeal. Just a complete POS car.

Sabo wrote:

The Sybian wrote:

Icepenis wrote:Any company that greenlighted the PT Cruiser and the HHR should have gone out of business.

Ha! When the PT Cruiser first came out, I was given one by a rental company. Besides being embarrassed driving it, it was the worst car ever. Changing lanes was the worst, as their was a metal post right in the mirror blind spot, so you couldn't see even if you turned your head to look. Sucked balls. Even the front windshield angle sucked for vision, not to mention performance.

I've had PT Cruisers as rentals before, and that car has the worst turning radius of any car I've ever driven. Just parking a mall parking lot was an ordeal. Just a complete POS car.

What amused me most was that it was supposed to be some sort of throwback to street rods based off 30's cars yet it had the crappiest interior I've ever seen. Shit was worse than plain vanilla and radical as a wet book.

Ha! When the PT Cruiser first came out, I was given one by a rental company. Besides being embarrassed driving it, it was the worst car ever. Changing lanes was the worst, as their was a metal post right in the mirror blind spot, so you couldn't see even if you turned your head to look. Sucked balls. Even the front windshield angle sucked for vision, not to mention performance.[/quote]

I've had PT Cruisers as rentals before, and that car has the worst turning radius of any car I've ever driven. Just parking a mall parking lot was an ordeal. Just a complete POS car.[/quote]What amused me most was that it was supposed to be some sort of throwback to street rods based off 30's cars yet it had the crappiest interior I've ever seen. Shit was worse than plain vanilla and radical as a wet book.[/quote]

I love it. Margaret Thatcher dies. In 8 posts, we completely shift the thread into a bashing of the PT Cruiser. The car is truly that shitty in every way, but so was Margaret Thatcher! Come on!!!

Chick in my old office building drove this one:

Shrew wrote:Paging Dr. Howard...eagerly awaiting your spin...

1) Maggie was famously a fan of Frederick von Hayak, and the Austrian School of 20th Century economic thought. As am I. However, as many folks in power over the past 30 years, she twisted and peverted these economic concepts to justify their true agenda of enrichment of their masters residing in the City of London (their Wall Street). Folks who understand Hayak, particularly his non-economic tract, The Road to Serfdom spit on her grave. I'm first in line.

2) When Maggie and the Tories took power, things were not exactly peachy in the UK. The deep structural damage of the post-war social welfare state had four decades to wreck havoc. All those car brands that were liquidated--anyone here old enough to remember when a single one of those manufactured good quality cars at a price that would allow for competitive sales? A tv show set in 1966 joked about the unreliability of Jaguars. Manufacturing in the UK was dead before Maggie presided over the wake; or if you prefer a different metaphor, before she pulled the plug because the ICU bills were mounting.

True, most of her remedies were exactly wrong, but to blame the economic disaster that was England in 1978 on one party is just ridiculous. She made it worse, while enriching the ruling class, just as had 'Old' Labour before her, and 'New' Labour following. Reagan-Bush/Clinton-Obama--regardless, somehow the rich got richer, the middle class got poorer, and as the Cold War waned, war became more and more common. Or, to reduce this point to two words--Tony Blair.

In no way do I defend Mrs. Thatcher; but this is essential perspective, on both sides of the pond.

3) My usual blah blah blah. Let me defer to a more poetic, more insightful master. The song of the day:

When England was the whore of the world
Margaret was her mada'am
And the future looked as clear and as bright
As the black tarmacadam



music starts at 4:03

She despised commies, despised the "politically correct", repeatedly warned the world about the dangers of both, ran her country like a grocery store and didn't take shit from anyone. One of the very few Brits, and I can count them on one hand, that I've ever admired.

If you doubt her at all, simply look at that appalling pussy Tony Blair.

RIP.

And, shrew, calling her "Reagan's lapdog" is just dead wrong.

What the fuck is a tarmacadam?

Jerloma wrote:What the fuck is a tarmacadam?

I'm guessing one of these made with tar:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macadam

Johnny Carwash wrote:

Jerloma wrote:What the fuck is a tarmacadam?

I'm guessing one of these made with tar:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macadam

Didn't Boy George have a song about them?

T'ar Mack a Dem sounds more like reggae.

Or Gaelic.

Tarmacadam is tar over macadam i.e. gravel or stone that's laid down and tar is spread over it to bind it.

That doesn't seem so awful.

Scottie wrote:T'ar Mack a Dem sounds more like reggae.

Or Gaelic.

It sounds like Scottie making an overt threat against a political party to me! Get him, boys!

Bring it on, you tree-hugging bastards!

You guys remember my hate-hate relationship with a company that rhymes with LexisSchmexis.

The EVP of sales was (still is, for that matter) the weakest leader of any organization I've ever known. He ruled by consensus, and then by exception without explanation. He excused himself for any decision he made, and then reminded you that "this is what we all agreed to."

Shortly before I left, I stumbled on this quote by Margaret Thatcher, and it amplified my hate for the man even further.

"To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects."

Perfect.

Jerloma wrote:That doesn't seem so awful.

Not awful; but not clear nor bright.

Scottie wrote:Bring it on, you tree-hugging bastards!

No, that would be a threat to our religion.

Rush2112 wrote:Tarmacadam is tar over macadam i.e. gravel or stone that's laid down and tar is spread over it to bind it.

Is that the "tarmac" that planes sit on at the airport?

Jerloma wrote:

Scottie wrote:Bring it on, you tree-hugging bastards!

No, that would be a threat to our religion.

Don't bring daisies to a tree fight, son.

Scottie wrote:

Jerloma wrote:

Scottie wrote:Bring it on, you tree-hugging bastards!

No, that would be a threat to our religion.

Don't bring daisies to a tree fight, son.

What else is he supposed to put in the barrel of your branches? Come here, big fella. I think you just need a hug.

[quote="Scottie"]She despised commies, despised the "politically correct", repeatedly warned the world about the dangers of both, ran her country like a grocery store and didn't take shit from anyone. One of the very few Brits, and I can count them on one hand, that I've ever admired.

If you doubt her at all, simply look at that appalling pussy Tony Blair.

RIP.

And, shrew, calling her "Reagan's lapdog" is just dead wrong.[/quote]
If you asked me to sum her up in a sentence that's what I would come up with. I would say that at first glance a lot of people would say the same.

I'm probably inaccurate in calling her Reagan's lap dog but give me more evidence than running the country like her father's grocery store and being stubborn. "She's better than Tony Blair" is damning with scant praise.

Edit: "She's better than Tony Blair" is damning with scant praise.

The Britain of the 70s was so dreary (by all accounts). The Britain of today seems to be doing okay. Somebody must have done a good job between then and now.

Shrew wrote: "She's better than Tony Blair" is damning with scant praise.

Edit: "She's better than Tony Blair" is damning with scant praise.

Those are not my words. Those are your words. Self-echoed.

Scottie wrote:

Shrew wrote: "She's better than Tony Blair" is damning with scant praise.

Edit: "She's better than Tony Blair" is damning with scant praise.

Those are not my words. Those are your words. Self-echoed.

Yeah. I meant that that was the edit that I made. What I had before was really unclear.