Ted Cruz Challenges Obama to a Duel

[ClydeR]

He didn't actually say "duel" but that was the clear implication. We haven't had a good duel since 1804.


Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday said that if President Barack Obama wants to be critical of his rhetoric, he should "come back and insult me to my face."

Obama has been critical of Cruz's proposal for handling the Syrian refugee crisis, which includes allowing in Syrian Christians, but not Syrian Muslims. The president earlier this week called that approach "shameful," adding, "we don't have religious tests to our compassion."

More... (http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/ted-cruz-obama-syrian-refugees-216018)

[Taernath]

Yeah, say that to his melty gremlin face Obummer!

[drauz]

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

[Thondalar]

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

No, now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!

[Thondalar]

He didn't actually say "duel" but that was the clear implication. We haven't had a good duel since 1804.

Typical of your limited scope...not even 2 years later Andrew Jackson killed Charles Dickinson (not the author) in a duel...just as sensational considering Jackson's position...but nobody ever talks about that one. I get that the Burr/Hamilton duel was crazy because it was two founding fathers...one a VP and one a former Treasury secretary...but that sort of shit happened quite frequently back then, and there is a pretty strong body of recorded evidence of it between "common" men of that time...then, as now, it is only news if it involves someone famous.


Edit: Fuck, forgot about Sam Houston...I don't know what you mean by "we", but...we've had a LOT of "good" duels since 1804...too bad that's not a "thing" anymore, I'd be down.

[Warriorbird]

Typical of your limited scope...not even 2 years later Andrew Jackson killed Charles Dickinson (not the author) in a duel...just as sensational considering Jackson's position...but nobody ever talks about that one. I get that the Burr/Hamilton duel was crazy because it was two founding fathers...one a VP and one a former Treasury secretary...but that sort of shit happened quite frequently back then, and there is a pretty strong body of recorded evidence of it between "common" men of that time...then, as now, it is only news if it involves someone famous.

For once I'll completely agree with Thondalar's take on history.

[Thondalar]

For once I'll completely agree with Thondalar's take on history.

I don't think that we've ever disagreed on the facts of history; just the implications, indications, and ramifications thereof...the analogy there is strong, regardless of particular implication.

It is quite easy to say "the first Constitution of the United States" was the "Fundamental Orders" of the State of Connecticut...we can argue that particular point until the cows come home. Fact is, as we consider it now (and then), that's true...that was the first "Constitution" of the "new world", the colonies that would become the US.

My historical facts are just that, and are beyond reproach...my interpretation of the lessons they should teach will always be in question, as they should be, and I'm more than happy to explain that part of it.

[Taernath]

I think Cruz should duel Ronda Rousey. She can regain some honor and he can get his face kicked in.

[Thondalar]

Hate to double-post in a thread, but...I went outside to check on the brats and something occurred to me...I was watching a show called "Adam ruins everything" on TruTV the other night, and it was about voting...and it ties is directly in to what we're talking about here...

The show is basically about this guy who uses historical facts to undermine common misconceptions about everything...from eating out at a restaurant to charities to voting...I mostly like it because everything he says has a citation pop up on screen to show you where he came to that conclusion, and a lot of them are legit. I took a bit of offense to his "restaurant" episode because he generalized pretty heavily, as did his "sources"...there are a lot of restaurants that don't do any of the shady shit he suggested, including mine, but...that's a different can of worms.

What killed me was the one particular episode about voting...the entire show was based on a false pretense. He preached about how great unfettered Democracy was, but then proceeded to show how "American Democracy" wasn't Democracy at all...like that was a bad thing. I don't often get all that animated sitting on my couch watching TV, unless it is a Giants game, or something...especially that Giants game last weekend against the Pats...TD by all rules that wasn't, interception to end the game the dude dropped, 4th down and they leave the middle open, 54 yard field goal that curved at the end but not quite enough....yeah...I died like 4 times in the last 2 minutes of that game.

But I digress. I got animated about this particular show because...AMERICA ISN'T A DEMOCRACY. It was never intended to be, and the more we try to make it one the more things suck. It honestly surprised me that a show on a network channel called TruTV would broadcast something on such a false pretense.

Completely politicized...instead of showing the reasons why a pure Democracy destroys nations, it showed how "terrible" it is that Felons can't vote. The summation was something I actually did agree with, though...make voting day a National Holiday. Only problem with that is, millions of citizens would still be "disenfranchised"...emergency workers, restaurant workers, hospital workers...you know, the people that never get a Holiday, even when the rest of the nation does. I've worked 12 hours on Labor Day every time for the last 15 years...BUT...it's better than nothing. If I have to absentee ballot, so be it, if it'll make other lazy people actually vote...

And that was the one thing I took away from that episode...they lambasted the Founders, they lambasted things that have happened since...but they also showed where things have gotten better over time....the Founders weren't perfect, by any stretch...but they did put in place a system that could improve over time....and it has. We can continue to improve it.

[ClydeR]

I'm not sure anybody knew who Andrew Jackson was in 1806. A fatal duel in the young nation's backwaters over a mundane dispute likely drew little attention outside of the area where it happened. On the other hand, Jackson's behavior in the duel showed that he was willing to exceed conventional norms to win. It presaged the brutality of New Orleans, perhaps?

I've always thought Jackson had the most interesting life story of any of our presidents. He was an orphan, who as a child ran messages between rebel commanders in the Revolutionary War. He fought in duels. He was a war hero. And that's just half of it! He had faults, for sure, which is why Certain People want to remove him from the $20 bill. In his time and for a half century afterwards, he was the standard to whom many other politicians compared themselves. In that way, he was much like Reagan.