Ron Falzone, the film teacher, critic, and director, once remarked about an especially improbable plot device, “You can only get people to disbelieve their suspenders for so long.” He wasn’t referring specifically to the Romney campaign, but he might as well have been.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
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The famous Judith Merril quote is “Disbelief should be suspended, not hung by the neck until dead.”
The famous Tolkien quote is “disbelief had not so much to be suspended as hung, drawn, and quartered.”
Although moviegoers are far more critical than voters. Karl Rove had it right: politics is TV with the sound turned off.
Mark, do you have anything interesting to say? Or, have you decided that the name-calling suffices to rile up the base?
Sorry you’re bored. Perhaps you should go check out some of the more intellectual bogs, like Rush.
Suspenders (Am.E):
Suspenders (Br.E):
Interesting linguistic difference and I thank you for sharing it, although it didn’t really improve my understanding of the quote. I understand the “people won’t suspend their disbelief forever”. It the suspenders reference (whether to American or British English) that I don’t get.
Ummm … it’s a pun?
Mark,
As a practical matter Romeny need only persuade the people until Tuesday, November 6, 2012. None of his lies will matter after that, anyway.
Yep. They got a lot of money yet to burn. But still:
Lipstick on a capitalistic pig (with assets in Bermuda) is a tough image to aviate in this economy.
Which is all to suggest:
Richy Rich would have a far better chance of being elected Class president of America if the middle class wasn’t being squeezed to death.
We’ve already taken a severe haircut. And yet the 1% are going for the juglar by running Romney with a fake smile and scissors in his hands…
That’s why I say: if they can sell this pig in a poke to us now, it is game over.
Or if you will: Twilight for the empire…