The Ultimate Darwin Award Nominee

[Tony]

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2003/12/18/1071337102236.html ...full article


A 70-year-old woman was overcome by grief at the capture of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and died of a heart attack after seeing pictures of the humiliating event, Jordan's Al-Rai daily said yesterday.

A relative of the woman, who was only identified by her initials, told the newspaper she broke into a fit of tears Monday and died after she saw a disheveled and haggard-looking Saddam in the hands of US troops.

[c0rbin]

Only if she didn't reproduce.

[aerocontrols]

I didn't think 70-year-olds could qualify for the Darwin Awards.

[Tricky]

No, this doesn't qualify for the Darwins, not only because she was not likely to reproduce, but most importantly because she didn't do anything stupid. She cried for her leader. I saw a number of people doing this back in 1963. I didn't consider them stupid.

What is curious is that this Tony presents this item as if it is somehow supposed to be funny, like most Darwin Awards are. Elderly woman dies of grief. Hilarious.

[geni]

Originally posted by Tricky
She cried for her leader. I saw a number of people doing this back in 1963. I didn't consider them stupid.

Saddam wasn't the leader of Jordan.

[Mycroft]

Originally posted by Tricky
Elderly woman dies of grief. Hilarious.

Well, all the Darwin award nominees are tragedies. Is feeling grief over the humiliation of some other countries leader somehow more tragic (and less funny) than any other odd way to die?

[hgc]

Originally posted by Tricky
...
Elderly woman dies of grief. Hilarious. Hey, lighten up. It's not like she died of grief over the loss of a family member. She died of grief because some genocidal maniac she never met was captured. That is pretty funny.

[Andonyx]

Originally posted by hgc
Hey, lighten up. It's not like she died of grief over the loss of a family member. She died of grief because some genocidal maniac she never met was captured. That is pretty funny.

I can't really laugh at a woman dying of grief no matter how misplaced it might be. You gotta remember half of these people never heard or saw the truth about this man. They only got the propaganda.

People keep reacting shocked that anyone in Iraq would fight for their leader. Well the people he tortured and killed were the ones who knew the turth or had some measure of power. If you were just a poor starving peasant, he probably didn't bother with you and all you knew was what the blaring posters and propaganda announcements told you.

Sure you were starving and poor, and miserable, but that was the fault of the great satan in the west.

Remember when you don't have access to Major news networks, or even a small radio, and newspapers, and libraries, and of course the JREF...It's not easy to have the same perspective on the world we do.

Sure Jordan is a little further along, but there is a invisible media barrier between us and the middle eastern nations that is not always easy to get through.

I won't laugh at this woman, I'll chalk her up to another one of Saddam's victims.

[Skeptic]

No, this doesn't qualify for the Darwins, not only because she was not likely to reproduce, but most importantly because she didn't do anything stupid.

I don't recall JFK putting millions of Americans in mass graves for voting for the other party, though, to name one difference.

I'd say that being so hearbroken you die of grief at the death of one of the world's greatest mass murderers of your own people, while not qualifying for the Darwin award, could fairly be titled "death by stupidity".

[geni]

Originally posted by Skeptic
I'd say that being so hearbroken you die of grief at the death of one of the world's greatest mass murderers of your own people, while not qualifying for the Darwin award, could fairly be titled "death by stupidity".

There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity

[Tricky]

Originally posted by hgc
Hey, lighten up. It's not like she died of grief over the loss of a family member. She died of grief because some genocidal maniac she never met was captured. That is pretty funny.
No, she died because she was old and any emotional episode could have sent her over the great edge. It just happened to be this one.

Now don't think for a minute that I can't find humor in death. When the Ayatollah Khomeni's body was pretty much ripped apart by his worshipers who wanted "souvenirs", I almost wet my pants laughing, but this is not the same thing. This was not human folly, but simply an old person regretting that the world she knew was falling apart. Nothing ironic or deserving about it. It is not even particularly lamentable, since one so fragile as to die from weeping was not likely to live many years in any case, but it is simply not funny, ironic, stupid or anything that would cause me to grant it a wry smile.

What it sounds like is that certain people here find the death of any Saddam supporter to be risable simply because they hate Saddam. That kind of "humor" is very lame by my (excedingly high) standards.

[American]

There were similar stories when the Beatles passed by groups of young women and didn't even wave to them. I myself suffered a panic attack when Tim Conway didn't sign my copy of DORF GOES FISHING after I waited 4 hours for him to appear.

[Crossbow]

Originally posted by Tony
http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2003/12/18/1071337102236.html ...full article




One should not be too terribly surprised by this sort of thing. A bit surpised, yes, of course; but not terribly surprised.

After all, there are many people who think that Al Capone, Pablo Escobar, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Vlad Terpes, et al, were the greatest person in the world. However, these folk are almost always those who have substantially benefited from the leader in question.

[NoZed Avenger]

Originally posted by Andonyx

I won't laugh at this woman, I'll chalk her up to another one of Saddam's victims.

Well said.

[Larspeart]

Originally posted by geni


Saddam wasn't the leader of Jordan.

Good call.

[BTox]

Originally posted by American
There were similar stories when the Beatles passed by groups of young women and didn't even wave to them. I myself suffered a panic attack when Tim Conway didn't sign my copy of DORF GOES FISHING after I waited 4 hours for him to appear.

Bwaaa! :D

[Snide]

This might be up there, too...

Man accidentally killed while posing as a human pinata (http://www.startribune.com/stories/1451/4277301.html)

You may need to sign up to read it. Here's a quote:

To indulge his two younger siblings, Sebastian Cahum Pech allowed them to tie his hands and feet, balance him on a beam and swing at him with sticks, the newspaper Reforma reported...

While he twisted to avoid one blow, Cahum pech fell from the beam, tightening the rope around his neck and leading him to die of asphyxiation.