DISQUS

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Why I love San Francisco

  • Seal Bonk Charlie · 1 year ago
    I completely agree. Vancouver, Canada hosting the 2010 Olympics is a disgrace. Not only are Canadians a menace, they have a huge Chinatown population.

    And those poor Tibetan seals.
  • topazz · 1 year ago
    apropos of nothing: mimes protesting the Olympics
  • SamG · 1 year ago
    Who gives a sh!t about the olympics anyway? Half of the reporting from the Olympics is about lawsuits related to Meds that make 'em run real fast (or whatever they choose to do to stay sweaty).

    Now, back to the sign. To make the irony work, Tibetan monks should have a great runner at the Olympics in China. You think they can run dressed in window drapes and drinking Goji juice?

    Another thing that does not work in this irony is the ironic bedfellowship between US Turbocapitalism and Chinese Ultrasocialism.

    Nazi Germany was touted to be the defender against Russia and their bolshevik bullsh!t, until Hitler installed some railtracks and put up signs that work can make you free. Now, how ironic is that Chinese "capitalism" holds the same promise for masses working for next to nothing? Some socialism.

    The real Olypmics and freedom is on Ebay guys. That is the only place on the planet, which is not even on the map, but where Freedom and Capitalism works for everyone - provided you have some sh!t to sell to other people.

    Like Fake Steve and his touch-me products. Tactile.
  • simon · 1 year ago
    Just out of frame is another equally ill-informed banner:

    'Would we have allowed communist Russia to host the Olympics?'
  • Pengwen · 1 year ago
    I think nazi Germany is completely more worse than China. Jews never did anything bad to people and were unfairly persecuted but the Monks ran a society based on slavery and beyond the grave debt. 99% of normal Tibetans do not want to return to that life. They're just pissed off with the Chinese and Muslims running all the business and making more money.
  • jj cale · 1 year ago
    Muslims??
  • Marcel Proust · 1 year ago
    Perhaps he's referring to Darfur where the Chinese have economic interests that coincide with those of the Muslim government, which is carrying out genocide on the blacks there.

    Chinese hackers have attacked the Save Darfur site as well as pro-Tibet sites:

    http://news.softpedia.com/news/Save-Darfur-Coal...

    As for Tibet and "99%" of Tibetans, why wouldn't "99%" of Tibetans relish a foreign dictatorship overrunning their country, looting it, massacring people, crucifying and burning monks, raping nuns, shelling the Potola (which was built in the *Seventh* century), burning books, and doing their best to destroy this ancient and admirable culture?

    Why wouldn't Tibetans be all on fire to approve the current round of brutality?

    http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=11805

    Of course they would. It's only logical.
  • Corny · 1 year ago
    Yes, Muslims (which are not ethnic tibetan) in Tibet are making good money. Small to medium business is their thing.
  • DT · 1 year ago
    ... was completely worse ... ! There is no Nazi Germany anymore. Thanks
  • PJ · 1 year ago
    No they DIDN'T. It was all shot on the MOON, so that Ben Johnson could run that fast and beat the Germans.

    (I gotta stop reading xkcd...)
  • Jim Hassinger · 1 year ago
    Gee, Andrew Sullivan thinks San Francisco is stoopid. I guess that's why he suspected they would have "Fifth columns" against the Great Patriotic Iraq War back in 2002. But now that he's an Obama supporter, I guess we just erase his past as a member of the 99th Fighting Keyboardists. Oh, and he thinks Hillary is just a HORROR too. Just like you, Fake Steve.
  • resoulution.com · 1 year ago
    Whoever put up this sign, he or she should have googled it before.
  • shiroineko · 1 year ago
    Ignorant moron. Guess, it was hard for the banner's author to attend world history lessons. I wonder, where did he learn what a nazi is.
  • Michael Foord · 1 year ago
    Fun. :-)
  • djwanson · 1 year ago
    Good sign, irony works.
  • Anarch · 1 year ago
    Hell yeah!
  • JJ · 1 year ago
    I feel really bad now... I doubt the human race will survive with such stupidity
  • pmlawrence · 1 year ago
    we're one step closer to idiocracry

    http://imdb.com/title/tt0387808/
  • Sue Dunham · 1 year ago
    Look at the size of that sign compared to the guy holding it. I hope it's not a windy day.
    You've been 'shopped
  • Harry Bosch · 1 year ago
    No, you've been punked by FSJ. Jesus fucking christ you people are stupid.
  • krstykat · 1 year ago
    Dude,
    Nazi Germany did host the freaking Olympics.
    I feel a smug storm coming.
    daKat
    Paix
  • Hans Larsen · 1 year ago
    Not only that, but the Olympic Torch was Hitler personal idea... People are protesting against Nazis during a Hitler-legacy event. Ironik at its finest.
  • Pete · 1 year ago
    Nazi Germany DID host the Olympics. Americans are sheeple if they don't know that!
  • silverstream · 1 year ago
    So it *is* true - Americans don't do irony.

    Would it help if there was another sign next to it that said "if we'd known then what we know now?"

    I realise there are some people too stupid to know about the 1936 Olympics, but they aren't the ones campaigning for basic human rights in China.

    They're the ones sitting on their fat asses whining about keeping politics out of sport.
  • TimK · 1 year ago
    Sure Americans "do" irony. But not irony for its own sake. I think we expect irony to have a point, which this example does not manage to do.
  • Coln · 1 year ago
    No, really. Most Americans have their irony glands removed at birth, thus you never really understand irony. You certainly don't "do" irony - it's why your comedy programs have canned laughter - it's the cue for everyone to spontaneously break out in laughter because the joke was just soooooooo funny.
  • Anarch · 1 year ago
    Really? Do you see how much of a meme this image has become? The sigh relies on people being smart enough to know that it's wrong so they tell all their friends about this funny sign they saw. It's perfect.
  • Rbenum · 1 year ago
    Hi. I took the photo. They were not being ironic. They were being serious. See those little bits on the top of the sign? Tibet prayer flags. If they were ironic, they would not have done that.
  • TimK · 1 year ago
    Thanks, that's exactly my point. Whether this is photoshopped or a real sign -- and if it is a real sign, whether or not it's being held by a torch protester -- the sign is a distraction from the issue. Sure it's funny...a little, anyway. But it's pointless, which restricts how funny it can actually be. Real comedy, ironic or not, has a point of some kind.
  • silverstream · 1 year ago
    The sign draws attention to the issue, gets people talking about it. So it has a point, and it works.

    The not very brights can feel clever for a moment, because *they* knew (because they read it on a blog somewhere) that Germany did host the Olympics during the Nazi regime.

    The slightly more clever ones can stop and think for a moment, hey, what *is* the difference here? Are we still trying to reward human rights abuse, in the hope that the world watching will encourage China to allow freedoms we take for granted? Is being nice to China the same as appeasement in the 1930s?
  • TimK · 1 year ago
    Your post raises those issues effectively. The sign is too short, and too context-free, to do so.

    If "the slightly more clever ones" are the only people you're interested in communicating with, you need to stop and think what you're trying to accomplish. "The slightly more clever ones" are probably already on your side; if they're not, they could be more effectively reached by a clearer message.

    (later addition)
    On further reflection, your assertion that it's the "not very brights" who can feel clever because they know Nazi Germany did host the Olympics is nonsense, and it highlights the problem with this kind of "irony."

    The biggest problem with the sign, which I hinted at above by referring to its lack of context, is that as receivers of its message, we know nothing about the person behind the message. There is no particular reason to assume, as your "not very brights" do, that the person is ignorant of the relevant fact; there is also no particular reason to assume, as your "slightly more clever ones" (and presumably, by extension, you as well) do, that the person is aware of the relevant fact. We simply don't know, and this is the biggest reason why the irony doesn't work: we don't know whether it's actually irony or not.

    That's why I described the sign as "pointless": it may have a point, but we can't tell, so effectively it is in fact pointless.
  • Wrong. · 1 year ago
    Totally wrong man. The irony works beautifully. Just admit you are one of the 'not very brights'
  • Wrong. · 1 year ago
    And to clarify, the irony is effective because it makes us answer, 'yes we did allow it' which begs the quesion why, and would we still, knowing what we do now? how will we feel about appeasing the Chinese 40 years from now after more atrocities toward human rights have been committed?

    Most important of all...how might history have changed HAD we and others boycotted, stood up to the Germans in 1936?

    I dunno, I got all that from the sign. Not so pointless after all is it?
  • G. Burdell · 1 year ago
    This is what you get when kids in K-12 get a laptop instead of an education.
  • G Webster Wormleigh · 1 year ago
    ...well, at the spelling and syntax are acceptable...probably a Berkeley doctoral candidate....
  • Marcel Proust · 1 year ago
    That is so funny, FSJ.

    And, apparently, the torch carrying that is currently causing so much "controversy" was instituted by the Nazis:

    http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=...

    Quote from Adolf himself:

    "Sporting chivalrous contest," Hitler declared just before the torch was lit, "helps knit the bonds of peace between nations. Therefore may the Olympic flame never expire."

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7330949...
  • Nancy · 1 year ago
    well Hitler must have been good at English. To use the word knit.

    stricken is knit in the german or the austrian language. I'm betting any germanic language you do not knit and purl, you stricken right and stricken left. This is the motion of the needle. In english the words probably come from knot. The word purl is also the word for bubbling up, as a stream. Now don't make me make all you programmers review knitting rules. Perhaps you should look at the inside of Steve's knitwear if your eyes can see that fine. And if you still can't understand, I may have to call on the spirit of all the wives of certain famous physicists that the some guys based all their ideas off of and these poor women ended up broken and bent, unspoken for and spent. They may be relieved or angry. WHO knows with women?

    I do not know the words for knitting in Oriental languages. The monks wear woven fabric. That's weft and warp, by dear sons.
  • Nancy · 1 year ago
    Ahh, the internet.

    Panchang,

    and now I understand what it is you say to me. I am relieved to just be another not so rich girl, in American terms, as I live and shop in this country.
  • Veruca Salt · 1 year ago
    Is that a "No Bending Over" sign in the background?
  • hob · 1 year ago
    that's either tragically funny or ironically brilliant. I can't tell!
  • John Davies · 1 year ago
    In ten words you summed up my thoughts completely. I'd really like a minute to ask questions of the sign maker to find out which.
  • Hermann G. Oehring · 1 year ago
    The 1936 Summer Olympics were in fact hostet by Nazi-Hitler in Berlin, Germany:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Summer_Olympics

    USA did not boycott the games, btw.
  • Mike Cane · 1 year ago
    It would have been funnier if it had said, "Would We Have Allowed Communist China To Host The Olympics?"

    As Homer is wont to exclaim, Doh!
  • stryfe · 1 year ago
    hilarious...you just made my week!
  • Rob · 1 year ago
  • Walter · 1 year ago
    HEY! Did you know that the Nazis actually DID host the Olympics? I can't believe nobody has pointed it out on this comment thread yet. Seems like someone might have picked up on that already.

    Although, I don't know if they were actually Nazis but they were threatening castration. Are we gonna split hairs here Donnie? Am I wrong?
  • lziskind1 · 1 year ago
    Gosh, Fake Steve, I feel like this is an segment of the Tonight show when Jay goes out among the teeming masses to illustrate how astoundingly bad our education system is.
    But you, I love. That is, I fake love you. But in a real way.
  • SamG · 1 year ago
    I still think it is funnier that Olympic Torch had to take public transportation to get around in Paris. And it had to be re-ignited (love the drama of that word) with ancient Zippo lighters, carried around by Ancient Greeks after being blown out.
  • SamG · 1 year ago
    Bedfellowship of Olympic Rings? Had someone not given the Olympics to China, could Steve make enough iPods at prices you like? Hm?
  • savemefrommyself · 1 year ago
    I honour the place where that guys attempt at morality and his complete lack of knowledge become one - namaste
  • Joseph Ottinger · 1 year ago
    You realise that the Nazis did, in fact, host the 1932 Olympics, right?
  • pk · 1 year ago
    1936 Olympics. Jesse Owens, Adolf, et al.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Summer_Olympics

    He was also Time Magazine's Man Of the Year in 1936. Got them out of a depression by building a massive military. Sound familiar?
  • frazman · 1 year ago
    Does nobody posting here appreciate the possibility that the sign is being sarcastic? And that maybe the sign-bearer is 'protesting the PC protesters'?
  • brentonf · 1 year ago
    Oh come on guys, hasn't anyone heard of the Cacophony Society? Yes, Nazi Germany DID host the Olympics, hence the crux of the joke. Get it? Get it? It's a joke.

    No, you don't get it. *sigh*
  • sdc · 1 year ago
    Coincidentally, I just read an angry blog rant this morning railing about the incorrectness of John Belushi's statement about the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor.
  • KNitsee · 1 year ago
    umschlag
  • James Thompson · 1 year ago
  • MurrayTrillionaire · 1 year ago
    Stop buying products made in China and start buying Made in New Jersey. 90% of the world's toothpaste is made in New Jersey. That's right. The world would have bad breath if it weren't for New Jersey.

    Murray
    http://blog.murraytrillionaire.com
  • SamG · 1 year ago
    Yeah, Murray, great blog btw, but most toothbrushes are Made in China. I think the bad breath is now as a global a problem as global warming.

    Just cashed in all my carbon credits. Bought some Apple stock. FSJ, is that a moral hazard?
  • Ralph · 1 year ago
    How about this: The sign is a knock at the difference in treatment betwixt the caucasion Nazis and The yellow monster chinese.

    It's the racism syupid!
  • SamG · 1 year ago
    FSJ, did you post this on Hitler's birthday just by accident? Or is this yet another pre-meditated pun? Keep it coming. We are feelin' it.
  • faddah · 1 year ago
    fish. barrel. bang!

    but for those still wondering, clicky here, please
  • TM · 1 year ago
    It's a very stupid statement by an ignorant guy! I'm once more disappointed by Americans. You can't compare Nazi Germany to China! I absolutely don't want to defend Hitle, but before you post such things on other countries think about how Americans have treated their black citizens!!!!!
  • KNitsee · 1 year ago
    we let them say MF in their songs, but not on the radio, George Carlin.

    Needless to say...grandmother and the devil.

    pot...black
    kettle...copper
  • bilgi kaynak · 1 year ago
    nice text..
  • pk · 1 year ago
    Nazi German DID host the Olympics. Mix in a core history course along with your women's studies and ecology classes. JFC, don't you know that the Olympics is about MONEY? Hello? McFly? Anyone home?
  • dMotz · 1 year ago
  • ballink · 1 year ago
    Actually you did - Hilter hosted an olympic games and althetes were required to give the heil hilter salute. God I love Americans haven't a clue about anything
  • Peter · 1 year ago
    Yes, we did. And Jesse Owens kicked ass.
  • APR88 · 1 year ago
    Actually, the GERMANS kicked ass. They dominated the olympics that year. Jesse Owens won in track. Wow.

    There are so many lies about that Olympics due to WW2 and all the propeganda spewed out by our media and government. Of course, the winners of war write the history books so all those lies became fact.
  • doonrothmani · 1 year ago
    Is the poster arguing FOR the choice of host, because in fact have the nazis hosted the olympics in 1936? They could be saying that, it being san francisco and all.
  • Captain O · 1 year ago
    As a matter of fact the Nazis did host the Olympic Games. A little history lesson people.

    I also read that the whole torch relay was designed by Napolean when he was the king of the Roman Empire. A sad legacy to uphold, no doubt.
  • krstykat · 1 year ago
    Like I said, Smug storm a cometh.
    Paix Out
  • cstrieb · 1 year ago
    Unfortunately, due to the lack of Historical education that this protester didn't have, his/her sign is INCORRECT. Nazi Germany DID host the summer games in 1936. It was that summer that Jessie Owens, the track runner, won gold from the country who touted the superiority of the Arian race.
  • Iditios are everywhere · 1 year ago
    What is this moron doing? Nazi Germany did host the Olympics.

    It just shows how some Americans don't know history - and will repeat it.
  • yucate · 1 year ago
    ty
  • DoonRothmani · 1 year ago
    wow you are a real sharpie.
  • joe · 1 year ago
    uhhhh.... we did.
  • acap. · 1 year ago
    Can understand that you love frisco because not many teutones are there, but how near sport & fascism - seen as massphenomen are, is unfortunately a international problem.
    I can just say again: spent if possible ten free ticket's for watching the easy rider movie to each of this fascismtards you see somewhere.
  • yet another steve · 1 year ago
    Well of course we wouldn't!
    I hear Hitler was as bad as GWB!!

    Hell, SJ won't license OSX to clonemakers and bricks unlocked iPhones. So he's a Nazi too, right? No Olympics in Cupertino either!
  • FakeJDL · 1 year ago
    But we did allow Nazi Germany to host the Olympics.....doesn't anyone remember 1936?
  • Andrew Countryman · 1 year ago
    Nazi Germany did host the summer olympics in Berlin in 1936 and the U.S. partisipated although some athletes did boycott it.
  • Americans rule, Europeans blow · 1 year ago
    i believe it's implied 'if we knew then what we knew now'

    which the answer is of course not. the point of the sign is, 'how will history look back on this?'

    SO SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU SMUG FLAMING FOREIGNERS WITH YOUR CLUELESSNESS.
  • Americans rule, Europeans blow · 1 year ago
    i believe it's implied 'if we knew then what we knew now'

    which the answer is of course not. the point of the sign is, 'how will history look back on this?'

    SO SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU SMUG FLAMING FOREIGNERS WITH YOUR CLUELESSNESS.
  • giana · 1 year ago
    We did allow Nazi Germany to host the Olympics. 1936 - Berlin Olympics.
  • Graham · 1 year ago
    Uhhh, NO. WE did not allow Nazi Germany to host the Olympics. At least no one asked me about it. People who are long dead allowed it and they didn't have enough information at the time (1936 was 3 years before Germany invaded Poland) Now, we have much more information about China than was available about Germany. I would boycott the olympics if given a choice. It's nearly irrelevant now anyway. The only reason we (America) can't is because we owe the Chinese too much money.
  • Ca · 1 year ago
    "Americans Rule, Europeans Blow." You, and your narrow minded kin (not all Americans I hasten to add) are the reason that 90% of the world hate Americans. It was not implied, it was obviously not researched, and is just another example of someone not checking their facts. If you stopped looking at your navel for five seconds and picked up a book or watched a news program that wasn't only about the USA, you might be surprised to learn that your lack of knowledge about anyone but yourselves is what is the most annoying about the narrow minded portion of the population. So "America Rules" get your finger out, have a look about and stop giving the rest of you a bad name.
  • echeola · 1 year ago
    USA! USA! USA! USA!
  • Americans rule, Europeans blow · 1 year ago
    Haha, douchebag.

    How do you know it's not being sarcastic, making a point, etc? Do you know who made the sign? No. Quit jumping to conclusions like the 289 other baited flamers who replied 'duh, Germany did host the 1936 Olympics, but I'm too retarded and lazy to read any of the other replies so I'll say the same thing over and over again'

    one of the reasons this blog exists is to draw the attention of clueless 'tards like you who are quick to jump to conclusions and get off pointing out someone else's 'mistake'.

    Down with the USA! We don't know our history or geography! TOTAL. DUMBASS.
  • acap. · 1 year ago
    America's MIL production between the years 1940&1945 was, like i can read in a book 186billion Dollars - what a German economic miracle.
  • Ca · 1 year ago
    Yeah, that will show the rest of us....
  • lastangelman · 1 year ago
    Holy crap! That damn sign is phony, i.e. the photo is a fake, it's been photoshopped. Nice prank, day after Adolph "Mein Idiocies" Hitler's 119th birthday.
    I love the hysteria of crowds, don't you?

    Hokay, for Earth Day, Branson, you listening? Let's go to Columbia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Chiapas, then drive some poor peasant farmers off their land and consolidate it all so we can grow some ethanol crops and pat ourselves on the backs for doing something about the ecology while making a quick billion or three at the expense of others. We're already getting first returns from Mugabe's 'reclaimed' farms in Zimbabwe. Oh, and er, don't forget to bribe the local mafias, militias, municipalities and the local deputies and the governors, so we can say with a straight face, we gave back to the communities.
  • Rbenum · 1 year ago
    I took the photo. It is not 'shopped. I wish.

    and no, they were not being funny. I'm pretty sure of that.
  • nina_aoki · 1 year ago
    FSJ - I'm seeing a new round of 'Think Different' commercials here...

    Just sayin'
  • acap. · 1 year ago
    Stop business with military weapon production, we have global other (par example hunger, ecological) problems to dissolve.
  • mikel · 1 year ago
    this blog is beauity i love him
    this is my blog if you like to visit him
    http://moviewow.blogspot.com/
  • Ca · 1 year ago
    Wow, "Americans Rule" you really are adept at displaying your superior intellect with the high degree of eloquence you use whenever making a point about anyone who disagrees with you. My, what a wonderful indication about the state of the education system in the USA. Much, much more than that of the sign...photoshopped or not.
  • Graham · 1 year ago
    I think the point is "Would we NOW allow Nazi Germany to host the Olympics" NOt whether it was done in the past. We is a collective we that exists in the present. The people that allowed Nazi Germany to become what it did, are mostly dead or too young to have made a difference.

    This isn't as stupid as everyone seems to believe it is. Not as stupid as this guy who was pro-war in Iraq:

    http://growabrain.typepad.com/growabrain/Morans...
  • FAH · 1 year ago
    ...Shop-shop-shop, shop-shop-shop, shop your photo, shop your photo...

    (to the tune of "shake your booty)
  • Jai · 1 year ago
    Um guys, we did allow Nazi Germany to host the Olympics, sure it was before Poland but they were still well on their way.
  • mseinber · 1 year ago
    Um, I hate to be a a buzzkill but didn't Nazi Germany host the 1936 Summer games and Jesse Owens kicked some major Nazi ass 3 years before WWII started?
  • Steven · 1 year ago
    Duh! Nazi Germany DID host the Olympics, 1936
  • Steven · 1 year ago
    I wonder if anyone told this idiot that Nazi Germany did host the Olympics. Yes, ignorant, ugly Americans continue to show the world that we don't study history, don't know anything about anything that has occured outside of our cozy little borders. Double Duh!
  • vodkajello · 1 year ago
    ummm.... Nazi Germany did hold the summer olympics. Jessie Owens won his race and Hitler had a hissie fit.
  • Domino Theory · 1 year ago
    Yeah! Those slant eye'd Commie chinks are evil! I'm sure glad Americans don't do business with them!

    We got principles!!!!
  • john · 1 year ago
    Holy crap this is funny. You are helping to prove my theory that 95% of people in the world are total idiots!
  • John leonard · 1 year ago
    well we did allow nazi germany to host the olympics..Jesse Owens? hyprocrisy never goes out of style, unfortunately
  • foo · 1 year ago
    Adolf Hitler endorses the Olympics in China. He likes the excellent parades, marches, large places filled with many healthy people and he is impressed by the excellent treatment of the opposition. He just hopes that no black man will win - something that troubled him during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

    He is especially thrilled that they carry on the tradition of bringing the torch from Greece to the Olympic Games - a PR-stunt which had been introduced 1936 by the Olympics organizer Joseph Goebbels.

    Best wishes from Austria!
  • KNitsee · 1 year ago
    You say mosche? vee say masche

    I guess you gotta be a knitter who understands graphs and politics and accents and language to get the joke.

    One person laughs. Madame Defarge goes on knitting with the wool pulled over her eyes. Cloris Leachman.

    Ahh usenet