Has died aged 84, from complications arising from Covid-19.
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He felt bad about openly lying to the UN. That's at least something. -
Two glaring things about Powell:
First, his death is very public evidence that while vaccines are very effective they are not perfect. And therefore evidence that letting the disease run wild in the "safe" population of unvaccinated under-18s is really fucking dangerous for the rest of us.
Second, I always felt just the tiniest bit sorry for him having to parrot the screaming glaringly obvious bullshit lines, that he must have known were utter crap, about WMDs - I'm pretty sure I saw him with a satellite image of tankers at a farm telling us that this was evidence of WMDs, as if there were no other explanation for a milk tanker or a fertilizer truck or an oil truck going to a farm. He seemed to genuinely believe that it was important to convince the international community and have popular international support, rather than going along with Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld in believing that it was fine for the US to function completely above and outside the UN. But in the end I didn't feel very sorry for him because he was obviously willing to go along and spout the lies in order to start a completely unnecessary war.Comment
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This is one of the strangest posts I have ever read on OTF.Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
The guy is a war criminal plain and simple.
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Would anyone get the reference if I said "Console the widow PacMan"?Comment
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Yeah, if he felt that bad about it, he could have resigned or spoken out or something. Instead he helped cause thousand of deaths.Comment
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As an aside, I never did get my head round the pronunciation of his first name. Coe-Lynn? Coe-Lon?Comment
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Did he ever actually apologize for lying to the UN? Last time I researched it, I found nothing. Maybe I was harsh, but even this from CNN:
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February 5, 2003 - Powell addresses the United Nations Security Council to present the United States’ case against Iraq under UN Resolution 1441 regarding weapons of mass destruction.
December 15, 2003 - Undergoes surgery for prostate cancer at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He was diagnosed with the disease earlier in the year.
November 15, 2004 - The White House announces President Bush has accepted Powell’s letter of resignation dated November 12. The letter states he will remain in office until his successor is confirmed.
January 26, 2005 - Powell’s resignation becomes effective with the confirmation of Condoleezza Rice.
2005 - Joins the California venture capital firm of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers as a “strategic limited partner.”
March 2006 - The National War College Foundation establishes the Colin Powell Chair for National Security, Leadership, Character and Ethics.
Summer 2007 - Begins to speak out against the Bush administration’s decision to go war against Iraq, the increase in troop strength in Iraq and the treatment of prisons at Guantanamo Bay.
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yeah... hmmm.Comment
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No, he did not, thus my post on the other thread.
On pronunciation
Despite his parents' pronunciation of his name as /ˈkɒlɪn/, Powell has pronounced his name /ˈkoʊlɪn/ since childhood, after the World War II flyer Colin P. Kelly Jr.[20] Radio and television reporters have used Powell's preferred pronunciation.[21]Comment
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That's an interesting one. There's two ways you can be called colin. There's a version that is common amongst English people which is usually derived from a french name, and that would always be said in the normal way. If on the other hand you've got this name because your family are irish, there's a strong chance that it is derived from Cóilín, which is the diminutive of Colm, . That ó corresponds to the sound Powell took from an Irish american bomber pilot, but the ín sound at the end is -een. Something to consider about how Irish names got seemingly mangled in america is that may be how the name was said by their ancestor i.e. the difference between Ronald Reagan, and Donald Regan, is down to one having ancestors from near cahir, and the other having ancestors from any part of the country that isn't the deise. (Similarly Tim Cahill,) So it's not inconceivable that that person's family may have gone to america and not encountered anyone who had come across the name colin in any form.
A good example is the American Naval Historian Albert Thayer Mahan, whose name is pronounced as though he was french or also May-han, whereas his grandfather was a rather more prosaic Dennis Mahon, from the clare/East Galway border, and there was no really fixed way of spelling these names in english at the time. Though you can see why his father may have changed the pronunciation of his name, as he was a senior naval officer and it was a world where being able to pass as a wasp wasn't the worst thing in the world.
As for Powell, He may have spent his life doing all sorts of things, and being all sorts of "First X" , but He's only going to be remembered for one thing. That's not great. It reminds me of that old joke, "But fuck one <insert name of farmyard animal>"Comment
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Haha, very good.Comment
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[pedantry]Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
Pete Wentz is the bassist and Patrick Stump is the frontman.[/pedantry]Comment
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I suspect it may even be "Attend to the widow Pacman".Comment
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"Amy, tend to the widow PacMan" is the quote according to the internet.Originally posted by Eggchaser View Post
(I watched the episode a few nights ago and am a bit annoyed with myself that I got it wrong.)Comment
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I see trump is being as classy as ever. The wrong brother drank himself to deathComment
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I feel like Pete Wentz is more famous, though.Originally posted by Simon G View Post
I didn't know they were related.
Also, Powell's son Michael ran the FCC and helped make life easier for massive media conglomerates. He also got to be the chair of the board of visitors for my Alma Mater (his too) and fucked some things up in the process. I don't think he'd had either job if his dad wasn't Colin Powell.Comment
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Here's a two litre bottle of Shasta and an all-Rush mixtape to console yourself with.Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View PostComment
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