Why "Rutabega"?

[equicom]

It's not much of an insult. Surely you guys can do better. Be creative.

[46zilzal]

It's not much of an insult. Surely you guys can do better. Be creative.
a brainless amorphous lump of biological tissue.

wikipedia has it measured:The swede, (yellow) turnip, swedish turnip or rutabaga (Brassica napobrassica, or Brassica napus var. napobrassica) is a root vegetable that originated as a cross between the cabbage and the turnip. Its leaves can also be eaten as a leaf vegetable.

Has the same IQ as mr. brain dead oval office man

[PaceAdvantage]

Why is it that two guys not living in the USA are so concerned with our President? Oh yes, that's right, the USA still rules the world.

I suppose if there were buildings worthy of having airliners plowed into them in your neck of the woods, we'd be engaged in an entirely different debate. And hopefully, a more intelligent debate than what is presented in the first two posts of this thread.

[equicom]

1. This was not necessarily about the President as an individual, but actually an exercise in liguistics and lexicography (or to be more precise, "comiconomeanclature", but I doubt most people are familiar with that term).

2. Yes. The USA to a very large extent "rules the world". And many parts of the world are not happy with the way the ruling is going.

3. When we travel to the USA, it is preferable to us not to be blown up by people who have a grudge against you.

Why are you so arrogantly assuming that your country is the only one to have had terrorist acts committed against it? Do you enjoy being a victim? Are you a hypochondriac?

Now, we do have plenty of buildings worthy of being crashed into by airliners. If we lived in France, we'd already be part of your "exclusive" club in that regard (or have you already forgotten about that?).

The main thing is that we're apparently not hated enough yet for anybody to do something like that here, although of course our alliance with your country - fighting side-by-side with you in Iraq, as we are at the moment - does put us at much greater risk, as was blasted home to us very clearly in 2003.

Eight of our soldiers died yesterday fighting for your President. According to you, however, nobody from our country should have a voice or be able to engage in discussion of these matters. We should just sit in the corner and remember we're not Americans, so therefore we have no rights.

We also have suffered terrorist attacks on our home soil during the past 50 years, and I would also like to point out that many people from my country (and most likely from Zilly's) were inside the WTC as well as inside the airliners when those tragic events occurred.

If I were as immature as some of the people who dip their toes in this pool, I'd accuse you of insulting the memory of those unfortunate souls and being insensitive to their families. But I believe the real case is that you're just ignorant and assume everything that happens in America is always 100% about Americans.

[PaceAdvantage]

This was not a debate about what countries have been affected by terrorism.

This is a debate about Bush, with you apparently wanting to see him insulted and criticized even more than he has been because of, among other things, his "war on terror" which started with 9/11.

That's why I brought up "airliners into buildings." Your country (thank God) didn't have to deal with that, and your Prime Minister didn't have to face the situation Bush did in the days, weeks and months following 9/11.

But of course, 9/11 is pooh-poohed around the world as not being "all that bad." What give America the right to fight back?

It seems as though you enjoy making many assumptions about me and others here. First you pegged me as Jewish (you were wrong), and now you accuse me of not acknowledging, or worse yet, not KNOWING ABOUT all of the non-Americans who lost their lives on 9/11, which again is wrong. I am well aware of the diversity of backgrounds lost on 9/11 among the almost 3,000 murdered.

[equicom]

This is a debate about Bush, with you apparently wanting to see him insulted and criticized even more than he has been because of, among other things, his "war on terror" which started with 9/11.


Nope. Not what I wanted to see. Just wanted to find out why Zilly was using the "Rutabega" tag, and also to see if people could come up with anything more creative. Nothing at all to do with the Prez, however.

I personally have no animosity toward the guy. Nor do I feel any other emotion regarding him.

My question was strictly academic, and in no way reflective of my personal opinions. In fact, you will notice that it is represented in the form of a question rather than a statement.

To refer to somebody as a "rutabega" is highly unusual, or at least I think it is, and therefore I think this was a valid question. I was very curious why somebody would use such a method to refer to anybody, and why they would consider it an effective insult.


...not a debate about which countries have been affected by terrorism...


You brought that into the arena in the first place. You stated that as Zilly and I were outside the US, we were out of place in commenting on anything to do with the issue of terrorism etc., since in the context of your apparently intended meaning, we were "unaffected" by the events that took place in your country.

[PaceAdvantage]

You stated that as Zilly and I were outside the US, we were out of place in commenting on anything to do with the issue of terrorism etc., since in the context of your apparently intended meaning, we were "unaffected" by the events that took place in your country.Not at all. I was merely questioning why two guys who don't even call the US home are so much into what goes on here...it's a bit unusual....that's all...

[equicom]

That's OK then. Something I have noticed over the past few days is that nearly everyone on Off-Topic, myself included, has a tendency to read more into statements than is intended by the author.

Unfortunately there seems to be this aura of suspicion that there will always be a subtext to every statement, even the most innocent remark can be viewed as an attempted attack either on a person or a belief system (eg. liberals, democrats, republicans, jazz musicians, etc).

It appears to have been going on for so long that it has become part of the culture. We should all probably lighten up a bit and stop taking everything so personally.