I have a long history of exposing non-irony. Yesterday, a weather blogger, discussing the much ballyhooed VORTEX-2 tornado research project, lamented the lack of tornadoes this spring. “While that’s great news for the general public, it’s terribly ironic news for the VORTEX2 project…” he said. No, it’s not. Why is that ironic? Yes, it is like rain on your wedding day, but that’s not ironic either. It’s unfortunate. Inconvenient. Maybe it’s ironic if you have your wedding in the desert of Chile because you are afraid of the tropical dousings of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean – only to encounter the first rain in 30 years in the desert while the tropical island stays dry for a month straight. That might be ironic. I’d buy that. Otherwise, no.
Meanwhile, I somehow don’t think that Obama’s conciliatory Middle Eastern speech was planned for today on a whimsy. Iran’s presidential election is in 8 days, and Ahmadinejad’s primary point of strength is his anti-Western position. And I, for one, like it. Obama’s, having inherited a situation that was bad in almost every metric, is doing a good job despite it all. Isn’t that ironic?
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Happy Birthday, Eric!
Do you think it’s ironic that the other day the FoxNews building’s giant scrolling marquee read something to tune of “Middle East rolls out the magic carpet to Obama…”
I kid you not. It said magic carpet. You know, genies, snake charmers, turbans? Since Obama’s so down-home/close-knit w/ his terrorist brothahs & all.
I believe you posted before you heard the speech. I’d be interested to hear your take on it Eric.
In sticking with the post’s original theme of irony –
isn’t it ironic that we’re not a ‘Christian’ nation but that we are a ‘Muslim’ one? It’s also ironic how the name Hussein is improper to use to show Muslim roots in one setting and yet somehow entirely proper in another. Reaching out to others is great, but the disturbing trend is how politicians will use anything and everything for political capital.
Also, what happened to sticking to facts, or at least to perceived facts? How many Muslims live in America again? I believe our president exaggerated with his seven million stat, using a factor close to three of the actual estimate.
He also could have been positive, especially, if he was trying to promote American relations with Islam. He missed a grand opportunity to tout any number of conflicts in which we came to the aid of Muslims. I can think of about five or six major ones. No sense in knocking America and letting others chime in and agree. The President should be our biggest promoter. What happened to the way Reagan used to do it?