or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
April 20, 2005
Everyone On Earth Is Crazy
From August 25-September 11 last year I went crazy, and wrote about the Armenian Genocide over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
I have no excuse for my actions.
But at least I recognize that my behavior was peculiar. At least I have that much of a grip on reality.
By contrast, on February 2nd of this year, a new comment appeared on this particular entry, posted by a certain "Norman." A scant five months late, Norman asserted that the "so-called Armenian genocide" was not a genocide at all. In fact, "518,000 documented Ottoman Muslims... were directly slaughtered by Armenians."
Okay. But it gets even more wonderful: this Monday, a man calling himself "Osman Karacan" appeared in the same place, providing an extensive list of massacres of innocent Turks by the filthy Armenians. According to Osman, these come from the "Turkish military and Ottoman archives," which "have just been opened up."
It is at moments like this I feel our species really needs to go back to the drawing board. Clearly there's something wrong in the original blueprints.
Posted at April 20, 2005 08:03 AM | TrackBackI'm a little confused, Jonathan. Has anyone considered NOT slaughtering and such? I'm as fond of atrocities as the next guy, but. . .
Posted by: Harry at April 20, 2005 09:42 AMI'm afraid that my own life is devolving into "Armenian Genocide Fortnight". Anyway, I'd like to offer this recent, related, personal story.
My wife is a student in business school at Carnegie-Mellon. The student body is perhaps 50% international, and in fact quite diverse - not just students from India and China, like in engineering school. They put together an International Festival every spring, which this year was last Friday. Most of the tables (one per country) place an advertisement in the student newspaper.
Today, my wife (who edits the newspaper, the "Robber Barons") got an e-mail from a Turkish student (on behalf of all the Turks in the program, which is between 5-10) complaining that
a) the Armenian table was serving Turkish food, and
b) that the advertisement for the Armenian table claimed that Turkey, during WW1, killed 1.5 million Armenians and inspired an enormous diaspora, when in fact Armenians had killed 500,000 Turks.
I mean, I guess that settles it, right? You should throw away all those snooty books of yours, Jon, 'cuz they clearly make you crazy.
(My wife learned today from the organizer that there was a lot of grief between groups at the festival because certain tables didn't want to be near other tables. Future business executives. Take note.)
It's never occurred to me to ask any of my (reasonable) Turkish friends what they are taught about WW1, the Armenian genocide, or the civil war during the '20's. Maybe I should get around to that.....
Posted by: Aaron at April 21, 2005 12:16 PMJust as my kids are taught here in Egypt that Egypt won the 73 war with Israel, the Turkish kids are taught from a very young age that the Armenian genocide never happened and in fact it was the other way around. It is sad, but indoctrination is much more common than education the world over. This includes the U.S. in many ways.
Posted by: Anna in Cairo at April 27, 2005 04:39 AMyes and the armenian kids learn all the same one sided stuff since their childhood.the critical point of armenian deportation is three months ago from the april 1915..at that time armenian riots attacked city of van..invaded and killed the muslims of the city (about 30000) and invited russian troops...ask your armenian friends about these events..u ll see that they never heard of it..and one more point armenian terorists bombed the house of prof shaw who was not supporting their claims...armenians are not ready to listen the other side of the story
Posted by: mustafa mert at June 14, 2005 05:33 AM
