I don't know if "Jump The Shark" is the right term, but this "news story" is beyond "over-the-top"

[Stinky The Clown]

The story tells of Obama dropping in to a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco's China Town. He had a To Go order, went in, greeted customers, picked up his two bags of food, paid cash, and left.

That was the start, middle, and end of the essential story.

:yawn:

But Wait!

There's More!!!!

It seems this particular restaurant has shark fin soup on the menu. It seems someone was offended that Obama would frequent such an establishment. Shame on him, the story implies. How dare he - how DARE he - patronize such an ecologically irresponsible place. Why does Obama hate sharks? What shall we tell the BABY sharks????? OH NOES!!1!!!!

Read the story at this link to the AFP article on Yahoo News. Whether you love Obama, like him, dislike him, or can't stand him, you can still appreciate the unbridled stupidity of the article.

Before you follow the link, drop some spare change into the empty carry out container. We're taking up a collection to buy these morons a few clues.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-hot-water-over-shark-fin-soup-224053506.html







Yes, sharks are under pressure. Yes, there are problems. Yes, the practice should be banned. The issue here is not the practice of shark finning. That is for another thread. The issue here is the attempt to tie that to Obama's ordering Chinese food by the absolutely most tenuous of connections.

[MicaelS]

1. This story is the kind of crap that makes me mad at the media

Instead of concentrating on the big issues, they waste time with shit stories like this. This is just a typical shit-stirring story.

[Kalidurga]

2. Yep that is a stretch...

I am a vegetarian so maybe I should only go to vegetarian restaurants. Oh wait, there are only one or two in the Twin Cities and none close to my home or where I go to school. I probably shouldn't shop anyplace that might sell leather goods either, like the Mall of America. Seriously where does the insanity end. We can't boycott everything. We can stop buying those things that particularly offend us and we can try to make laws to protect what is worth protecting, like sharks. But, to say someone hates sharks because they went where it is served, that is a real stretch.

[HopeHoops]

5. Same issue here. Although I do buy leather belts and have two leather vests.

They don't kill the cows for the hides. They're a byproduct of the meat industry. Steak houses often have wonderful salad bars. I don't think eating at such a place contributes to their use of meat. If anything it encourages them to offer things OTHER than meat - and you can usually score a baked potato there as well. I spent a lot of time in Texas on business and about the only thing I could eat was pizza (which I get tired of) or a pasta salad that Hooters used to have on the menu (a long time ago). That was about it for available options. I was still at a point where the smell of seared flesh made me want to puke. It doesn't bother me so much anymore.

So lets see then. By the logic in this story, if Obama eats anywhere in Texas, he must HATE ANIMALS! I'm amazed by the hoops they will jump through to twist any minor story into a way to attack the poor guy. The biggest problem with oriental restaurants (for vegetarians) is that many if not most of them use chicken broth as a base for flavor, or slip in small slivers of ham without listing it as an element of the dish. Just about anywhere, you have to ask if the fries are cooked in the same oil as the chicken wings. But because he ate Chinese food, that probably means Obama hates chickens and probably Jews because he ate ham, or something silly like that. Wait for the details from FOX.

[Generic Other]

3. That was no shark!

That was a red herring!

[2ndAmForComputers]

6. DUzy

[lunatica]

4. The non-stop mega-decibel outrage is running out of things to keep raging about

I'd say they long ago jumped the shark on what to be outraged about. Poor thangs....

[Moonwalk]

7. Yeah, Obama was supposed to only order dim sum from the one San Francisco Chinese restaurant....

...that's run out of shark fin soup stock and isn't selling that soup any longer. How dare he not have his people look into that and make sure to find such a restaurant Of course, real environmentalists wouldn't be upset about this because they'd know that California has banned shark fin soup and that this had to be made from left-over stock--which the restaurants can legally use up till July. Real environmentalists would point out that he's getting his dim sum from a state where Shark Fin soup has been banned, and that's awesome.

This is just a lame attempt to imply that Obama is not so popular with his base despite the cheers and chanting of his name that he gets every time he walks into a restaurant.

Yahoo really needs to get a clue and dump it's conservative bias.

[niyad]

8. "jumping the shark"

Jumping the shark


Jumping the shark is an idiom used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery. It is synonymous with the phrase, "the beginning of the end." It also means and/or is often signified by a particular scene/episode/aspect of a show in which the writers use some type of "gimmick" in a desperate attempt to keep viewers' interest.

The phrase derived from an early fan forum website (jumptheshark.com) where users debated a given television show's jump the shark moment. On June 20 2006, website founder Jon Hein sold his company Jump The Shark, Inc., to Gemstar (owners of TV Guide). In early 2009, Gemstar scrapped the original fan forum site and converted jumptheshark.com into a redirect for TV Guide's celebrity gossip site.

In its initial usage, it referred to the point in a television program's history when the program had outlived its freshness and viewers had begun to feel that the show's writers were out of new ideas, often after great effort was made to revive interest in the show by the writers, producers, or network.[1][2][3]

The usage of "jump the shark" has subsequently broadened beyond television, indicating the moment in its evolution when a brand, design, or creative effort moves beyond the essential qualities that initially defined its success, beyond relevance or recovery.

. . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark


that story is one more incident in the long line of absolute media stupidity