Now it is time for this week’s game, which we will call “Yoda or an Army Officer.” Below are a series of quotes. Your goal is to determine if they were uttered by Jedi Master Yoda or Col. Steve Boylan.
1.) “Truly wonderful the mind of a child is.”
2.) “I am interested in this issue. What I am doing about it does not concern you. ”
3.) “Do or do not; there is no try.”
4.) “Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you?”
5.) “Interesting is what I find it.”
6.) “No! No different. Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.”
7.) “Pray tell, where do you think he is and how long have you fantasized that he has been here?”
8.) “Always in motion the future is.”
9.) “Good, bad or indifferent…I will not judge. That is our system and we must work with it.”
10.) “That is why you fail.”
Answers below the fold. Good luck!
Answers:
1.) Yoda
2.) Col. Boylan
3.) Yoda
4.) Yoda
5.) Col. Boylan
6.) Yoda
7.) Col. Boylan
8.) Yoda
9.) Col. Boylan
10.) Yoda
It wasn’t easy, was it? Clearly Col. Boylan was channeling the force.
neil
No, it was pretty easy.
Pinko Punko
Last night, this conversation having I was!
Touche!
Jake
4. confused me for a second.
I think your next contest should pit Boylan against Owens:
atari_age
I’m kicked that you picked up on that – I thought it was just me being a geek. It’s #5 that made the link for me.
That whole story is so bizzare, and the odd grammar just adds to the weirdness.
Davebo
It doesn’t matter because the Colonel never sent the email.
And even if he did he was right to.
Get it?
CESSPOOL!
scarshapedstar
9 got me.
El Cid
John Cole has mocked the verbal style of a serving military officer in Iraq.
This is exactly the moral equivalent of handing Osama bin Laden a suitcase nuclear weapon and a free flight to Washington DC.
You are warned: the right wing blawrgosphere will not take this lying down. Well, actually they will, but they will type furiously as if they aren’t.
jenniebee
This is a man who has made a successful career in public relations, and he writes like this?
Why haven’t I finished my novel yet? What am I doing with my life?
Billy K
That Yoda site isn’t very accurate.
It’s “Not victory, Obi Wan. The shroud of the Dark Side has fallen. Begun this clone was has.”
I call for a full investigation.
P.S. Didn’t even have to Google it, suckas!
John Cole
Are they even agreeing he wrote it now, or are we still doing that song and dance?
Actually, according to the comments section at Glenn’s, one right-wing blogger has already asserted that publishing Boylan’s email address was a gift to the terrorists.
DougJ
Does this mean Yoda is the one who created the first, fake email? That he used his Jedi powers to spoof the appropriate IP addresses?
Why does Yoda hate America?
ThymeZone
Funny as hell, I think your post is.
Amused I am.
El Cid
Apparently John Cole thinks it’s okay to make fun of something which possibly could have been done by a serving military officer in Iraq.
The rightwing will proudly condemn as a traitor John Cole for daring to imagine that there possibly could be something one could imagine as having been done by a serving military officer in Iraq which hypothetically could be wrong, or made fun of.
You shall not pass.
capelza
OMGZ! The terrorists will send him nasty e-mails! Between Bob Owens and snark from Sadr the guy doesn’t stand a chance.
John Cole
Given the past few weeks of idiocy, these guys probably thing a computer virus is fatal.
Ugh
Wait wait wait. What is this three periods in a row thing? Did he really type three periods in a row? Hah! I just checked the full email and he did NOT type three periods in a row where you said he did !!!1!1!ONE!!1 John Cole hates America, apple pie and the little baby Jaysus!!!
What do you mean he actually did type three periods in a row? That just proves my point!!!! If you truly loved America you would not have pointed that out in the first place. Another victory for the terrorist provided by the Dhimmicrats.
Cinderella Ferret
Nah! Colonel Steve probably has a really big light saber to vanquish them with.
I guess size does matter, eh?
Dreggas
Just a question for the Ex-Mil guys like myself here,
Are any of you disturbed by the fact that this guy, who has a bird on his collar and is expected to lead men, can’t even respond to an email without it being 8-up?
I mean seriously, I just hope this isn’t a reflection of the entire officer corps.
jcricket
A long time ago… in a galaxy far away… a jedi master was busy eating cheetos and spoofing emails from Darth Vader…
I think that’s how it went.
ConservativelyLiberal
Watch, someone on the right will point out that with advancing technology, soon it will be possible for “teh turrists” to send suicide emails. Open the attachment and BOOM!
I think I am going to head over to Symantec’s web site and see if they have released Norton Anti-Moron 2008 yet. I need something to protect my computer when I visit places like RedState, CY, CQ and so on.
Davebo
Ask The Commissar.
Jimmmmm
Holy William Shawn, Col. ylan’s in syntactical trouble. Somebody activate the Woolcott Gibbs signal!!
lysias
Boylan isn’t just an O6 bird colonel. His specialty seems to be PR. I mean, at least his last three jobs have all been PR. What kind of publicist is he?
Jimmmmm
“Actually, according to the comments section at Glenn’s, one right-wing blogger has already asserted that publishing Boylan’s email address was a gift to the terrorists”
Yeah, terrorists with a sophisticated sense of humor, maybe…
Starwarsgeek
I know the Original Trilogy by heart, so it was child’s play for me. Others might have more difficulty though.
KCinDC
The Great Orange Satan himself has linked here and given his blessing to John. This can only mean trouble.
Zifnab
It’s not so hard to decipher if you can distinguish wisdom from illiteracy.
Zifnab
Btw, John, you may not be the biggest fan of DKos, but the Big Orange Satan loves you to death. You’re two for two on the Kos frontpage regarding Col. Boylan.
El Cid
Can there be those who decipher illiterately? Does that include deciphering innumerately?
Delia
Corrupted the Jedi the cheetos did, leading them to the Dark Side, to neocons and Flying Keyboard adventures until their wits gave out.
Chris Johnson
Quote number five, the funny brings :D
Sparkles the Iguana
It’s not the grammar that’s weird, it’s the syntax.
salvage
OLLAI
(Out loud Laughing am I)
Cassius Chaerea
Front paged by Kos you are.
Jake
Wasn’t that a plot from X-Files or The Lone Gunmen?
(Laugh at my geekness, you must)
Node of Evil
‘Are any of you disturbed by the fact that this guy, who has a bird on his collar and is expected to lead men, can’t even respond to an email without it being 8-up?’
What I want to know is who in the heck plans an invasion and doesn’t send enough men to guard all of the ammo dumps and weapons caches, then turns a blind eye while the local population loots them at will. That has to be one of the biggest strategic blunders in recorded history.
Melissa McEwan
I can’t decide who you hate more: the troops or Jedis!
demimondian
Thus is it not, Cassius. Rather, twice is Cole FP’ed by kos today. Never have I been FP’ed — (not to mention cleverer) cole funnier than me is.
Node of Evil
‘…one right-wing blogger has already asserted that publishing Boylan’s email address was a gift to the terrorists.’
Yeah, you could, like, totally use visual traceroute to expose his location! (Yes, I tried it. Thankfully the military is smart enough to block traceroute-related packets, thus thwarting the evil plans of Mr. Greenwald).
Libby Spencer
Now you’ve done it John Cole. I have it on good authority that even as I type this, both the House and Senate are meeting behind closed doors to hammer out resolutions of condemnation.
Dreggas
MALOIA
(My Ass, Laughing Off I am)
eyeball
For what it’s worth I will lend credence to the possibility that Boylan has subcontracted some of his e-mail responses to a small cadre of Baghdad p.r. subordinates, one of whom might be responsible for the juvenile, unprofessional, snotty response to Glenn Greenwald, as well as some of the other flame-mails.
I have to imagine that Boylan gets many hundreds of emails a day from outlets of all types, with bloggers a growing majority. It would be a 24/7 job to answer them all and still handle overall spin duties. But because Boylan wants to be the Voice, he lets a few subordidnates use his email account when he’s busy elswhere. i can’t really blame him for that. In theory they should be trusted pros who can speak in his name. The risk of course is of some arrogant loose cannon fubaring the setup with traceable off-the-reservation stupidnesses. Now Boylan can’t throw this prized peon under the bus. But he can’t lie and say he sent the email himself, So he chooses the weaseliest path – deny he sent it but don’t express worry that his email account is badly compromised. In any scenario, his cred is shot to bits.
Chris
No, but it was the plot of Neal Stephenson’s rather awesome Snow Crash. Sort of.
The Other Andrew
Somewhere, some terrorist is signing him up for a Richard Simmons e-newsletter.
Travis
What are they going to do? Send him anthrax in an attachment?
jake
I think you’re on to something: Thanks to DADT a soldier can be chucked out of the military based on hints and rumors. First they fill Boylan’s in-box with e-mails from JizzMasters. Then they acquire other service members’ e-mails. Next thing you know the US military is decimated. Back home the Pentagon suggests eradicating DADT but that touches off riots in states that begin with an “I.” The IslamoFascistJihadis slip into the country while we’re distracted and before you know it they’re in control and Osama bin Laden is ass-raping Ace of Basement on the steps of the Capitol.
But other than that it would suck.
Bentley Stanforth
Ha, the first thing I thought when I read Boylan’s email wasn’t about the politicization of the military or how inappropriate his comments were, but that, jeez, this dude writes like Yoda. I’m glad I’m not the only one.
fisheye
Interesting is what I lost it.
Dagobah, almost a Baghdad word jumble
trishb
And an X-files episode, Kill Switch from season 5 or so, co-written by William Gibson.
MonkeyBoy
eyeball said:
Boylan’s email to Greenwald was unsolicited. It was complaining about something Greenwald wrote.
TenguPhule
Fear leads to Anger. Anger Leads to Hate. Hate…leads to Wingnuttia.
TenguPhule
Always two there are. No more, no less.
The master to hold power.
And the apprentice to crave it.
Punchy
I just shat myself laughing reading this thread. Good times.
Phoenix Woman
I haven’t decided; he’s a political officer all right, but is he zampolit or a commissar?
Zuzu
Really, it’s almost art:
Delia
Foolish blogger! Told the terrorists you have. Hitherto awed by Bush’s brilliance and Boylan’s PR blitz they were. Investigated by wingnuts you will be.
Dissento
Backwards ran sentences, until reeled the mind.
mrmobi
John, I got them all correct! I’m such a Star Wars geek it was easy, although number 5 gave me a pause.
Will you enter my name in the drawing for the suitcase nuke?
bartcopfan
“I know the Original Trilogy by heart, so it was child’s play for me. Others might have more difficulty though.”
Nah. I nailed 10 out of 10 having seen only bits and pieces of Star Wars I. (But I did read about Boylan’s bloviations at Digby’s just yesterday!)