grw@fortune.UUCP (Glenn Wichman) (02/18/84)
Someone has to dedicate new ships. Let's face it, celebration & ritual are very entrenched aspects of our society. The British have very wisely seperated them from running the country by setting up a seperate section of the government to handle all the social aspects. Imagine how much more time Ronnie could devote to running the country if he didn't have to go to all those purely decorative dinners! It would probably be quite cost-effective to pay a couple people some outlandish sum just to take those burdens off the president. Also, since they have prestige but no power, they are much safer people to send to funerals and stuff. So we need to find a couple of interesting Americans who aren't doing anything else important right now and appoint them Grand Poohbah and Grande Poohbess. How about Alice Cooper and Ruth Gordon? No, but seriously, Yul Brenner and Katherine Hepburn would make much more sense. -Glenn
grw@fortune.UUCP (Glenn Wichman) (02/18/84)
Sorry, one thing I forgot to mention. At Andropov's funeral, Ronnie didn't have time to go (he was too busy running the country -- see my previous article). In his place he sent George Bush, who is unexciting. The Soviets almost certainly felt put down by not getting the Top Guy at the funeral. However, certainly a country could receive no greater honor than the presence of the Grand Poohbah and Grande Poohbess themselves! Bad feelings would be alleviated and World War III averted! -Glenn
decot@cwruecmp.UUCP (Dave Decot) (02/19/84)
Ronald Reagan makes an excellent King of the United States, with his magnetic charisma, touching speeches, and great black-tie parties. Now, shouldn't we get somebody to adequately perform executive functions? Dave Decot "Californians are people, too." decvax!cwruecmp!decot (Decot.Case@rand-relay)
richard@sequent.UUCP (02/21/84)
>> ... Imagine how much more time Ronnie could devote to running >> the country if he didn't have to go to all those purely decorative >> dinners! ... >> >> -Glenn Great Idea! Let's get someone to have *ALOT* more functions for Ronnie to attend! I believe the less amount of time a president spends presiding, the better off we all are. ___________________________________________________________________________ The preceding should not to be construed as the statement or opinion of the employers or associates of the author. It is solely the belief... from the confused and bleeding fingertips of ...!sequent!richard
aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent) (02/21/84)
Yes, Royalty serves a purpose. In Robert A. Heinlein's book "Double Star", the Emperor remarks to the (caretaker) Supreme Minister (or rather, to the man temporarily impersonating him): "I relieve your office of a lot of tiresome cornerstone-laying and parade-watching, you know." -- -- Jeff Sargent {allegra|ihnp4|decvax|harpo|seismo|teklabs|ucbvax}!pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq "Buy the truth and do not sell it; gain wisdom, knowledge, and understanding."
spoo@utcsrgv.UUCP (Suk Lee) (02/21/84)
The British didn't "wisely separate" the true rulers from the real ones! The Queen got there because way back when her ancesters were meaner/smarter/ stronger than the rest of the clowns around, they set themselves up as head of the shop. Now, billyuns of years later, they have no power because the rest of us got smarter, but not smart enough to kick them out. They're figureheads, but they still own a *HUGE* part of the country. And if you ask me, it's all the better that Ronnie wastes time at all those dinners. Could you imagine what would happen if he had all that extra time to "run" the country???????????? The mind boggles. )-: -- From the pooped paws of: Suk Lee ..!{decvax,linus,allegra,ihnp4}!utcsrgv!spoo
leif@erix.UUCP (Leif Samuelsson) (02/21/84)
Glenn Wichmann suggested that kings and queens (the royal kind) would be good substitutes for the president when it comes to representations at funerals and such. I agree, to a point. The royal family in Sweden serves two purposes. First of all, they make the best possible PR for Sweden abroad, helping the export and tourist industries. Also, they provide jobs for all the journalists working for the scandal magazines in Sweden and Germany. But, and this is important, they are never involved in political matters. The king was not sent to Andropov's funeral, instead our prime minister, Olof Palme, went as usual. (This time he had to directly from his controversial tour in Central America). Leif Samuelsson LM ERICSSON Tel. Co. S-126 25 STOCKHOLM SWEDEN Phone: +46 8 7199734 UUCP: ..{decvax, philabs}!mcvax!enea!erix!leif
mike@erix.UUCP (Mike Williams) (02/22/84)
You in the USA don't realize how lucky you are. Kings and queen may be fine for opening buildings, bridges, after dinner speeches etc but they have one drawback - they don't go away after max two terms of office. Europe has official royalty in several countries. Maybe we could fix up some sort of deal with the USA. When we get fed up we could swap for a few months so we all learn what we really are missing. Mike Williams {decvax!philabs}!mcvax!enea!erix!mike
debray@sbcs.UUCP (Saumya Debray) (02/23/84)
<gah!> The consensus on the net seems to be that the principal function of royalty is to attend parades, inaugurate bridges and generally look pretty. For this, we seem to be willing to spend an awful lot of money keeping these glorified PR hacks comfortable! -- Saumya Debray Dept. of Computer Science SUNY at Stony Brook uucp: {floyd, cbosgd, ihnp4, mcvax, cmcl2}!philabs \ !allegra > !sbcs!debray {teklabs, hp-pcd, metheus}!ogcvax / CSNet: debray@suny-sbcs@CSNet-Relay