Patterico's Pontifications

The guy with the bow tie to his immediate left is looking at Cruz like he has two heads for most of the clip — but by the end even he is laughing and clapping.

A metaphor for his campaign?

Patterico (86c8ed) — 11/14/2015 @ 9:01 am

He’s got kids. I can talk Phineas and Ferb, but not in front of my daughter’s friends anymore. 😉

nk (dbc370) — 11/14/2015 @ 9:28 am

why does he have on two watches

happyfeet (831175) — 11/14/2015 @ 9:58 am

That was entertaining considering I have no idea who The Princess Bride is.

mg (31009b) — 11/14/2015 @ 10:02 am

He is doing double time

mg (31009b) — 11/14/2015 @ 10:02 am

This is a really, really good thing to put out there. Many people have watched “The Princess Bride” and know the scene.

But here is the thing. Try to see HRC doing that scene.

Simon Jester (c8876d) — 11/14/2015 @ 10:09 am

The goal of the Left (and some folks on the Right) is to make a candidate they dislike into someone “not human.” It’s important to show your humanity and humor.

Well, if you have those things.

Simon Jester (c8876d) — 11/14/2015 @ 10:10 am

The book is just as good if you’re a Hollyweird-phobe like I’m becoming, mg. Better in some ways, although the movie is very good too.

nk (dbc370) — 11/14/2015 @ 10:11 am

Good for Ted. I have the movie on Blu-ray. I think I’ll watch it again today.

felipe (56556d) — 11/14/2015 @ 10:15 am

OK, but does he know the Spongebob Squarepants opening theme? That’s what will decide it for me 🙂

Bill H (2a858c) — 11/14/2015 @ 10:30 am

nk, I remember watching the movie with my father (now pretty much non-compos mentis, sadly, so I like to remember good times). Anyway, he sat there, smoking his menthol cigarets, watching.

He pointed at Peter Faulk. “That old fart is just making it up as he goes along,” he exclaimed.

“As you wish,” I replied to him.

It’s a good memory.

Good for Ted Cruz.

Simon Jester (c8876d) — 11/14/2015 @ 10:31 am

I know that scene well, but could never recreate it from memory, especially on the fly.

NeoCon_1 (1bb699) — 11/14/2015 @ 11:11 am

Great
Now we can look forward to Cruz saying in a debate
I don’t think that word means what you think it means…

He’ll probably get criticized for being sexist with the “witch” comment.

MD in Philly (not in Philly, and out and about) (deca84) — 11/14/2015 @ 11:24 am

By contrast, look below the surface at Hillary and she ends up appearing far worse than the way she is on the surface. Yet far too many Americans remain total naifs, dopes and fools about her, while casting a wary eye at decent people like Cruz because, well, his philosophy just doesn’t ooze enough rainbows and lollipops.

Human nature can be quite idiotic.

Mark (74fce8) — 11/14/2015 @ 11:33 am

I’m not trying to be argumentative, Mark, but this is a topic I’ve wanted to talk about for some time. In fact, I would post on it if I were still blogging.

I don’t think Americans are stupid or foolish. Instead, I think some are ignorant and uninformed. People with weak educations and a poor grasp of history, such as most college kids, are perfect examples. Being indoctrinated and uninformed doesn’t make people stupid. They can function well in everyday life, but they start with poorly thought-out premises and that results in poor decisions.

See, for example, climate change. That’s ignorance, not stupidity.

DRJ (15874d) — 11/14/2015 @ 11:40 am

I don’t think Americans are stupid or foolish.

DRJ, I certainly don’t single out Americans when it comes to the weakness of liberal biases and how such emotions make a person foolish or willingly naive since, regrettably, that trait is evident worldwide, albeit worse in some societies than others.

Mark (74fce8) — 11/14/2015 @ 11:48 am

#4: mg,

http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Bride-Cary-Elwes/dp/B00003CXC3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447531071&sr=8-1&keywords=dvd+princess+bride&pebp=1447531109230&perid=0V50FAKHZ2XAW3TDB463

If you have the patience, and the time, it’s a fun flick. I’ve never seen the whole thing in one sitting. I run into it while scanning cable channels, and I usually watch the next few fragments.

BobStewartatHome (a52abe) — 11/14/2015 @ 12:05 pm

I know that scene well, but could never recreate it from memory, especially on the fly.

Well, he didn’t either, but he captured the essence of it pretty well.

Patterico (86c8ed) — 11/14/2015 @ 1:24 pm

I don’t think Americans are stupid or foolish. Instead, I think some are ignorant and uninformed. People with weak educations and a poor grasp of history, such as most college kids, are perfect examples. Being indoctrinated and uninformed doesn’t make people stupid. They can function well in everyday life, but they start with poorly thought-out premises and that results in poor decisions.

I think that’s exactly right, and it’s a distinction that I am not always careful to make.

Patterico (86c8ed) — 11/14/2015 @ 1:26 pm

DRJ #15: Oh, but that is a wonderful topic. In my more paranoid moments, I suspect that the Clerisy are promoting that lack of basic information. That way, everything can be about outrage and emotion without context.

I have mentioned before the woman I know, well educated and successful, who insisted to me that sexism and racism were worse today than one hundred years ago. Part of it is overstatement, of course, but I am betting that how things were one hundred years ago was not covered very well in her classes.

I know this is the case for my own children.

“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley has some insights into that. This quote from Henry Ford is an important centerpiece of the novel:

“…I don’t know whether Napoleon did or did not try to get across there and I don’t care. I don’t know much about history, and I wouldn’t give a nickel for all the history in the world. It means nothing to me. History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.

Interview in Chicago Tribune (25 May 1916)…”

The history we make today. Yep.

It’s all about outrage, overstatement, and lack of context. Bumper sticker thinking. And it gives the people in power more power, over more people. Which may be the point, sadly.

Simon Jester (c8876d) — 11/14/2015 @ 1:52 pm

Thank You. BobStewartatHome

mg (31009b) — 11/14/2015 @ 2:22 pm

It shows how pervasive the FitBits and the like have become, when Presidential candidates are wearing them …

Alastor (2e7f9f) — 11/14/2015 @ 5:09 pm

The idea that Americans, or Germans, or Canadians, or Syrians, or Chinese, or Hawaiians, or Indians, or Nigerians, etc., are inherently stupid is utter nonsense. We all share the same cpu (DNA,) and the difference is the operating system, the cultural values, and the compatibility of societal norms with concepts of individual freedom and responsibility.

We are in a state of nearly utter decline when it comes to civic involvement. The Lincoln-Douglas debates had audiences of tens of thousands, and those listeners had to expend a great deal of effort, probably a day or more of travel, just to attend. Today, we can listen to almost anything with a few keyboard strokes and a couple of mouse clicks, and yet we have “university” students who demonstrate a lack of knowledge of the world that would have embarrassed an elementary student three generations ago. We continue to heap responsibility on the central government for what used to be individual concerns, but there is no accountability for the faceless bureaucrats who misuse their powers or perform their duties negligently. And the solution is always to heap more power on these fools.

We continue to support the abomination of government schools which are little more than pension factories for teachers who refuse to be held accountable for their failures. SAT scores had fallen so far between the 60’s and the 90’s that the College Board had to add 200 points to everyone’s scores so that the failure of the schools wouldn’t be so obvious. And they’ve changed the SAT yet again to avoid any chance of historical comparison. Indeed, students are encourage to create “portfolios” to illustrate their “knowledge” of geometry and other subjects. These “portfolios” are filled with origami and other arts and crafts activities that bear little relation to the subject matter.

It would be almost trivial for us to fix this, but it will take millions of us. And we have to be organized at least to the extent that we can all contribute dollars and time to worthy candidates. As I mentioned yesterday, in my little town, we have 5500 patriots who voted for Romney. But to date, only seven of those people have bothered to give anything to any of the Republican Presidential candidates. When the RINOs destroyed the Republican brand, they made it more difficult to achieve the needed coordination, but we really don’t need any of them. We need to get off our butts and get it done. It is as simple as that.

BobStewartatHome (a52abe) — 11/14/2015 @ 8:20 pm

14, 15, 19, 23. There are, I suppose, lots of reasons democracy is a bust. The preponderance of lawyers in this forum, provide a skewed sample of America, not merely because of an above average collective intelligence(a measure of potential) but skewed because that population, in general, has more time on its hands after satisfying Maslow’s bases of the pyramid of self-actualization.

Note all the lawyer blogs: we may indeed indict over-achievement but leisure time has to be included as a source, time to pursue interests.

All that notwithstanding, moral fiber remains to be accounted. Reason is conviction’s biatch, and people without convictions or holding to those that are not life-affirming do not get around to serious contemplation. At bottom we are lazy phucks.

DNF (ffe548) — 11/15/2015 @ 7:06 am

#24: DNF, I disagree that “democracy is a bust.” We have the wherewithal to reverse our country’s headfirst lurch into oblivion, but we must do this is association with others. Further, we must do this with qualifications and reasonable expectations. For example, in thinking about Simon’s remarks in #20, it occurred to me that Henry Ford was a perfect example of the entrepreneur whom Mises puts at the heart of economic progress. Ford understood the prices of things, the technology that was available, and had a vision of the market that might be created, and he successfully combined this knowledge to create an enterprise that revolutionized the world. Bill Gates and Steve Job are modern day examples. But it is the free market and Adam Smith’s hidden hand that bestows the benefits of these innovations on the public at large. We err when we think these men are more than masterful visionaries and organizers in a tiny niche of our economic life. It is almost assured that they know next to nothing about huge portions of our economy and its institutions. Consider, for example, Paul Allen’s foray into professional sports after making his fortune at Microsoft. He’s been about average. Or Gates’s stumble into advocating world governance: “socialism” is the answer?

This isn’t to say that they can’t learn, but it would be a mistake to assume that their success in one field will lead to success in another. Certainly, there are thousands of lawyers who have superior oratorical skills than any of the fou men I named, and it would be almost a miracle if they could learn these skills later in life, if, indeed, such skills can be learned and are not innate.

My point is that we must be conscientious consumers of those who proclaim to be “statesmen”. And we need to support those who meet our standards. We need find an Abraham Lincoln. And if millions of us give this man our support, then he will be successful nationally. Like the men who travelled to Freeport, or Quincy, or Alton to hear Lincoln debate Douglas, we need to get moving.

BobStewartatHome (a52abe) — 11/15/2015 @ 10:15 am

The idea that Americans, or Germans, or Canadians, or Syrians, or Chinese, or Hawaiians, or Indians, or Nigerians, etc., are inherently stupid is utter nonsense.

Not inherently stupid, but certainly inherently liberal. Or a populace vulnerable to the stereotype (ie, the generally positive but also lazy one) that is wrapped around the image of a caring, compassionate, loving, generous (free stuff for all!), humane person. This bias is evident in the reactions that most people have of “mother” and the comparatively lukewarm reaction most people have of “father.”

Substitute liberal for mother and conservative for father and you realize just how easily warped a society can become. That’s because what works in the home (even more so in this era of the single-mother household) can quickly lead to a mess in the broader society.

Show me a nation that has a long record of consistently favoring sensible, practical and non-liberal/leftist leaders and that society likely will reflect greater stability than others. Unfortunately, such a country is hard to find out there, meaning that most places therefore thrive or fail based mainly on demographics and sheer up-and-down luck alone.

Mark (f713e4) — 11/15/2015 @ 10:44 am

It’s probably a good thing he didn’t use a Vizzini scene.

Kevin M (25bbee) — 11/15/2015 @ 10:51 am

The world is full vizzini.

narciso (ee1f88) — 11/15/2015 @ 11:16 am

That reminded me of this: Margaret Thatcher does the Dead Parrot Sketch.

Rich Rostrom (d2c6fd) — 11/15/2015 @ 7:45 pm

25. I hate to be caught quibbling but please itemize evidence “we have the wherewithal”, i.e., having proven by use of.

I envision no fight at all until many lives are lost, and at that point, orderly transition under the Constitution will be a contradiction of terms.

DNF (755a85) — 11/16/2015 @ 8:48 am

I read somewhere that Ted Cruz has perfect memory of spoken words and can recall verbatim things he has heard. This would seem to be evidence of that since I doubt he has the time to watch that movie enough times to fully memorize it.

Guy in Texas (4ee3f9) — 11/17/2015 @ 5:01 am

11/14/2015

Ted Cruz Recreates Scene from The Princess Bride

31 Responses to “Ted Cruz Recreates Scene from The Princess Bride”

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