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A Ricochet Challenge
I’m torn. On the one hand, I think we should all pause from our busy schedules to consider the most salacious and astonishing tabloid scandal in British history since the Profumo affair. We could surely use the comic relief.
On the other hand, the entire story violates our Code of Conduct.
I thus solicit your suggestions for appropriate, dignified, and family-friendly ways to discuss the matter of Lord Sewel. (Warning: The link is not safe for work. And do not open it in front of your children.)
The contest is open.
Published in Culture, Entertainment, Humor
LOL, that’s a sneaky way to get us to read the story. After you piqued our interest like that, who could refuse? ;) Going over to read it now.
Tried to open the link here at my government computer…blocked. Guess I’ll go back to work.
I just don’t know how to handle this one. It’s news, for sure, but how can we even discuss it?
The severely Bowdlerized version is available on Wikipedia.
I’m sure they think the same thing about us, but… the Mother Country is weird.
Euphemism is your friend. What better resource (particularly in this case) than the language of the English during the Victorian Era?
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=victorian%20euphemisms
So weird. There is just no other country that gives rise to scandals like this.
I remember being at a party one time in high school and snapping a picture of a friend smoking pot. It was long enough ago that nobody had digital cameras (or phones of any kind), so it was just a disposable camera with real film. He flipped out and launched into a tirade about cops and federal agents, etc… etc… and I didn’t argue with him but noted the paranoia was a bit high, considering the crime being committed and the relative importance of the person committing it. Interestingly, this kid is now (I only know via my wife’s facebook account) flamingly left-wing and just as moronic as he ever was, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised with any of it.
Needless to say, in one of those pictures, the prostitute is clearly holding a phone directly over his … weenis (as my 3 y/o says) … and snapping a picture. Now, I know the purpose of this post was not to brainstorm various ways a person could avoid scandal while still committing the deed, but I’d like to think that a no-phone policy at the orgie is just simple common sense.
Wow, what a story. The thought of a 69 year old bald man stripping naked in public is pretty gross. It’s my impression that when British politicians do something wild, they really go over the top, even though they might on the surface look extraordinarily respectful. Inside of 75% of contemporary British men is a rock-and-roller, wild man waiting to break out. Mick Jagger turned 72 yesterday; I think he’s be proud of this guy. :)
What’s not to discuss?
Easily summarized, really:
Left-Wing Peer of the Realm is a dislikable bad-mouthing miserable human being.
Is that really news?
“Blanket hornpipe” might do. “Convivial society,” perhaps. “Blow the grounsils?” I’m just not sure which one applies to the acts in which the Lord was filmed. The Victorian Era’s euphemisms seem lacking in descriptors for snorting cocaine off a convivial lady’s lady parts, however, while boasting of doing this at the taxpayers’ expense.
It seems pretty straightforward to me. A politician offering his assessment of his colleagues to two of his constituents.
Or a cocaine-fueled rant while naked to two high-priced prostitutes.
Either way works.
A proven successful defense:
Let me get this straight:
A LORD in the United Kingdom hires some hookers, takes cocaine with them, and hangs out talking politics?!
There’s nowt so queer as folk.
See this is why we need a Ricochet After Dark section.
Yes, especially if you’re responsible for enforcing standards in the Lords, and the recent author of this column:
You mean, I can’t just say it’s yet another case of a pol caught with hookers and blow? The Profumo affair was far more interesting. As Flanders and Swann observed, “Nil combustibus profumo.”
Fair enough. The best since Stephen Milligan’s tragic demise.
Sewel, 69, said of Mr Cameron before shooting from the hip, 69: “He just shoots from the hip.”
Later, after making one-off commitments he could not deliver on, he said of Cameron “He makes one-off commitments and cannot deliver.”
I didn’t know about that one. Pretty good.
Finally someone gets it! Although, I usually call this kind of thing “Tuesday”.
So what’s new Claire? Or different from a great many of our own? Would love to know how Reid really got that black eye, then we had one that took his own selfies and posted to the internet. Politicians swill at the taxpayer’s hog teats, and think they are something special.
Sewel calls it Twos-day.
Meanwhile, back at the House of Lords several members are cancelling their weekly appointments with a couple of coked up prostitutes.
Alternate headline: “Tactless Lord found in Topless Rant”
I hope this type of scandal isn’t in store for the United States if Mrs. Clinton is elected. Mr. Clinton will get bored. Nothing to do all day but be gross.
Come on Claire, do we have to look at these particular pictures? Couldn’t you have linked to some good pictures and just relabeled them?
It’s really sad that this fellow and Donal Trump appear to be the only pols around who speak with genuine candor even if it is made up candor.
Not to get all English major but pairing Lord with Lady would add an alliterative quality, don’t you think?
Brain bleach, please. ;-)