So what exactly did Kurt Vonnegut mean when he called * "the

[rzemanfl]

syphilis President?" Post your thoughts here.

[Vickers]

1. VD will rot your brain. George is in the beginning stages of rot-dick

psychosis.

Maybe the middle stages.

[grytpype]

2. He's as welcome as a case of syphilis

and just as hard to get rid of.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. I think it's obvious.

If you don't think so, get thee to a doctor for a VD analysis.

[Lexingtonian]

4. People who had syphilis

in the past used to go into dementia. The bacterium has evolved since- it's less 'virulent'-so that rarely happens anymore.

The most famous person that happened to was Nietzsche. He got those delusions of personal superhuman ability from that and elaborated them into his famous theory and immoralism. Intellectually he started contradicting his earlier and brilliant work, and died raving mad.

[chascaz]

22. It may be a reference to Hitler...

http://www.kimel.net/why.html

and from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2842819.stm


Hitler syphilis theory revived
Hitler
Hitler suffered poor health
A fresh attempt to suggest that Hitler's behaviour might partly be influenced by advanced syphilis has been made by a US historian.

The rumour that the Nazi leader might have contracted the sexual disease has surfaced before - along with a multitude of conflicting and occasionally outlandish theories about his health.

Syphilis is easily curable in its early stages by modern antibiotic treatments, but if left untreated for some years, secondary symptoms, including heart, nerve and mental problems may emerge.

The latest book, "Pox: Genius, Madness and the Mysteries of Syphilis" by Deborah Hayden, says that Hitler had many of the symptoms which might point to advanced syphilis.

<snip>

[Junkdrawer]

5. Stardust Memories...

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0305-27.htm

[mdmc]

6. he meant that w. mihop, like hitler and the Reichstags fire

syphilis causes this kind of thinking

[El Supremo]

7. You have to "clap" for him. n/t

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

8. He meant, "Your Majesty is like a dose of the clap."

"Before you arrive is pleasure, and after is a pain in the dong."

One of Shaw's, one of Shaw's.

[rzemanfl]

9. But isn't the clap gonorrhea? n/t

[wakeme2008]

10. yes.....

And I was lucky in Vietnam and did not catch it.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

12. Kurt Vonnegut was hoping you would allow him the artistic license

so I could illustrate with a gratuitous Python reference.

[FredScuttle]

18. I got it

"Her Majesty is like a stream of bat's piss"

"Er....what?!!!!"

[El Supremo]

15. Oh, you are right!

I got the gonnorrhea.
I got it from Maria.
She gave it to me free-a.
It hurts me when I pee-a.
Oh, I got the gonnorrhea.

Sung to the tune of Rancho Grande.

[Junkdrawer]

11. Read the beginning of "Breakfast of Champions"...

..he compares syphilitic men to broken robots...

[Junkdrawer]

13. Found an excerpt...

...

As for the suspicion I express in this book, that human beings are robots, are machines: It should be noted that people, mostly men, suffering from the last stages of syphilis ... were common spectacles in downtown Indianapolis ... when I was a boy.

Those people were infested with carnivorous little corkscrew which could be seen only with a microscope. The victims' vertebrae were welded together after the corkscrews got through with the meat between. The syphilitics seemed tremendously dignified erect, eyes straight ahead.

I saw one stand on a curb at the corner of Meridian and Washington Streets one time. ... The syphilitic man was thinking hard ... about how to get his legs to step off the curb and carry him across Washington Street. ... Here was his problem: his brains, where the instructions to his legs originated, were being eaten alive by corkscrews. The wires which had to carry the instructions weren't insulated anymore, or were eaten clear through. Switches along the way were welded open or shut.

This man looked like an old, old man, although he might have been only thirty years old. He thought and thought. And then he kicked two times like a chorus girl.

He certainly looked like a machine to me when I was a little boy.

...

More complete quote here:

http://www.uta.edu/faculty/fuston/vonnegut.pdf

[rzemanfl]

19. The message is decoded and I note that on the very next page

the * symbol appears as Vonnegut's rendition of an asshole.

[rzemanfl]

16. Damn, you are right! I wish my memory was that good.

Breakfast of Champions came out, and I read it, in 1973. I remember that part now that you mention it.

[Junkdrawer]

17. The '70s and early '80s were rough for me..Vonnegut helped me...

make it through with some sanity remaining.

Vonnegut is a tremendous humanitarian in the guise of a curmudgeon.

[rzemanfl]

20. As I recall, the 70's and early 80's were rough on the whole

country. I had a first mortgage on my house at 16.5% Most of the problems were blowback from another stupid war we got involved in. It's gonna happen again.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

14. The end stage of syphillis results in madness

He was calling Bush insane.

[rzemanfl]

I think Junkdrawer nailed it. n/t

[Marie26]

21. ...

[sleipnir]

23. Syphillis can be spred from Mother to Child.

I wonder if that's the direction Vonnegut is talking about. Bush's mother and father are corrupted and they've passed this corruption onto their son.

[PsN2Wind]

24. I'm glad you all explained it to me

I thought he meant that Dubya was someone you wouldn't want to fuck with.