Lefties in gov't

Took me a while to figure out you meant left-handed. I was so confused for most of that paragraph.

kuwisdelu said:

Took me a while to figure out you meant left-handed. I was so confused for most of that paragraph.

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But it works the other way, too: just Reagan.

robeiae said:

But it works the other way, too: just Reagan.

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Depends where you're looking from. Doesn't work for me.

Wikipedia:

"Though constituting less than 10% of the general population, 60% of U.S presidents in the last thirty years have been left-handed, including Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. President-elect Barack Obama is also left-handed."

Interesting. But also,lefties have always been distrusted. "A left handed compliment," for example, one which is an insult in disguise. The root for left in Italian is the Latin sinister, which is of course where we get the word. In French, left is gauche.

Right, on the other hand, means not only directional right, but rectitude and just authority as well. This holds true in many languages.

Christ. They'll be after the vote next.

rugcat said:

Wikipedia:

"Though constituting less than 10% of the general population, 60% of U.S presidents in the last thirty years have been left-handed, including Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. President-elect Barack Obama is also left-handed."

Interesting. But also,lefties have always been distrusted. "A left handed compliment," for example, one which is an insult in disguise. The root for left in Italian is the Latin sinister, which is of course where we get the word. In French, left is gauche.

Right, on the other hand, means not only directional right, but rectitude and just authority as well. This holds true in many languages.

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Reagan was a lefty?!?! Damn. Stinkin wikipedia...

robeiae said:

Reagan was a lefty?!?! Damn. Stinkin wikipedia...

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Ah, but there's this:

"And then there's the case of Ronald Reagan. He wrote with his right hand, but discussion has abounded that he was switched from his natural tendencies when he was young by strict schoolteachers. It has been pointed out that he slapped Angie Dickinson with his left hand in the film "The Killers," which is what a lefty would do. (No one thinking right would ever slap Angie Dickinson at all, actually.)

So just as in politics, Mr. Reagan apparently went from left to right as his life evolved. He shows up on some lists of left-handed presidents but not others, meaning we've had between five and seven of them, with much more likelihood of a left-handed White House in recent decades than before."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08056/860162-294.stm

I wonder if any are the same as I:

Left handed, dribble and shoot hoops left, and throw left
Bat right and kick right footed
Tennis and golf right.
Strum right handed and finger the frets with the left on the acoustic guitar
Cut food with the right and fork left

I'm not exactly the same, Donroc, but similar. I do most everyday activities right-handed. But anything requiring a chopping motion--cutting with an ax, digging with a pick, shoveling--I can do either right-handed or left with equal dexterity and accuracy. I have no idea why it's just things with that type of motion.

My wife, who always considered herself left-handed, fell on the ice many years ago and broke her right wrist. At that point, she discovered that the only things she actually did with her left hand routinely were to write and eat. Everything else was with the right hand. She'd never noticed, except in earlier years when, playing softball, she batted left-handed and threw right-handed.

How strange we are.

Here's a little tidbit -

Gerald Ford was lefthanded only when he sat down.

'Splains a lot about Gerry, dunnit?

I write lefty, but do just about everything else righty. Weird.

It has been pointed out that he slapped Angie Dickinson with his left hand in the film "The Killers," which is what a lefty would do.

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That has to be one of the stupidest arguments ever. (I know rugrat was quoting some else's argument, not making himself, BTW)

In a film, all actions are carefully staged. If you have the slapper on the right, and the slapee on the left, then the slap will be blocked by the actors if it is a right hand slap. So you'd have the actor do it with the other hand so it would look good. It's a film, after all.

The idea that this somehow indicates how the actor would normally do it is bizarre.

However, being left handed is a huge advantage in politics.
It enables you to stab your opponent in the heart while shaking their hand.

Mac

And that is always handy

Mac H. said:

That has to be one of the stupidest arguments ever. (I know rugrat was quoting some else's argument, not making himself, BTW)

In a film, all actions are carefully staged. If you have the slapper on the right, and the slapee on the left, then the slap will be blocked by the actors if it is a right hand slap. So you'd have the actor do it with the other hand so it would look good. It's a film, after all.

Mac

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Uh... why would the slap be blocked? I can't imagine a director asking someone to slap with the other hands. I really can't.

Coincidence? Or reason? "The world may never know...."

"And then there's the case of Ronald Reagan. He wrote with his right hand, but discussion has abounded that he was switched from his natural tendencies when he was young by strict schoolteachers.

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I can see that. It's been documented that this did happen (at least to others - don't know about RR specifically)

I think my son would have been a natural lefty - but I trained him not to be - as an infant. ( I hope I didn't mess him up doing that )I thought it would be to his advantage to be a righty.

I don't know if it matters... re: OP -but it's interesting to think about.

Well seeing you're all on to the conspiracy now, it's like this. Years of discrimination and pain from trying to use right-handed scissors and screwdrivers drives us lefties to enter politics so we can make all of your lives as miserable as you've made ours.

Bartholomew said:

Uh... why would the slap be blocked?

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I mean the camera's view would be partially blocked by the people's body.

Look at this video, for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNgwrA0gn3U

Imagine what that scene would have looked like if the first slap had come from the other side... it wouldn't really be clear. So if you want to emphasise the slap, you'd want to make sure the actor uses the hand that is towards the camera.

This is an industry that happily left-right reverses images during editing to preserve spatial continuity, after all!
(Ever wondered why Darth Vader's chest panel kept reversing ?)

Mac

As a lefty, I was told by another lefty that not only are most presidents left-handed, but so are most geniuses... and most serial killers.

That means when we talk, you better damn well listen.

We should bring back the term Southpaw.

I always liked that!

Also, some other notables who were Southpaws...

John McClain. Yes, he killed all those terrorists/Hans Gruber with his left hand.

And that's all I can think up off the top of my head.

But, still, I was always tickled by how evil the left hand used to be though. I learn this from...from...

From...

A book! With a guy named Christomancy in it. And the main character was called Cat or Kit or something...and there were two fats kids who wanted margarine but had to make due with butter, and their margarine was brown instead of yellow, and the French won the battle of Agincourt.

I know that this book exists. It has too.

Back to the southpaws controlling our lives, I'm pretty sure that the conspiracy mentioned earlier is the tooth.

Only left-handed people are in their right minds.

I'm left-handed, but not across the board, like donroc:

Write left
Bowl right
Play tennis left
Play golf right
Throw overhand left
Throw underhand right
Shoot left
Dribble right
Screw left
Lean right

I forgot to add:

shoot right, both pistol and rifle.
Shoot arrow left
Wear wristwatch on right.

Oh good, I'm not alone!

I write right
Throw darts left
Shoot Bow and arrow left
Shoot pool left
bat left, throw left or right
Use a mouse on the left
Dial the phone left, hold the receiver right
Hold fork left, knife right
Wear a watch on the right-if I ever wear one

My desk at work is set up more with everything on the left, if my pen is on the left I just pick it up and start writing left, so I CAN write left, it just looks worse than when I write right.

Some people make fun of me about it, my mom said just to tell them it's because I use BOTH sides of my brain

Wonder where heredity comes in? My biological father and my brother are both left handed, but I wasn't raised with them.

When did the term Southpaw go away?

Blocking is the technical term for staged movement in theatre and film.

Interestingly enough, Julius Caesar was left-handed too. Just another bit of useless knowledge from the dungeons of my brain.