September 24, 2015

Why Vladimir Putin called Elton John on the telephone.

Elton John had said that he wanted to meet Putin, so he could talk to him about his "isolating and prejudiced" attitude toward gay people. That led a couple of Russian satirists to prank call John, and John fell for it, posting on Instagram that Putin had called him. Then Putin — the real Putin — decided it would be a good idea to call Elton John. He said: "I know that you were pranked by the telephone guys. Don’t be upset with them. They’re harmless, although that, without doubt, does not justify them."

8 comments:

Rob said...

Why he called him on the telephone? How else could he call him?

Birkel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Birkel said...

Are we so credulous as to believe Putin's professed motivations?

I, for one, am not.

(But surely Rob is correct.)

Sprezzatura said...

Fairly often, Althouse expresses dissatisfaction with the NYT. 'They're supposed to be biased.' 'They're supposed to be full of fluffy gal-content.' 'They're supposed to be sneaky about turning on comments.' And, for a while, Althouse had some sort of disclaimer thing because the NYT (feebly, since it's so easy to evade: browse in private) attempted to make folks pay for access to their content. At the same time, Althouse hasn't yet decided to show up for free at the UW. In fact, Althouse even wants to be paid for her hobby, i.e. blogging.

Why can't Althouse have a weekly (or more frequent) post that expresses how much she relies on, appreciates, and needs the NYT?

Her many posts that depend on it already imply that she owes much to the NYT, why not make it explicit? It's a great, unrivaled American paper, imho.

The NYT even wrote a nice thing about a doer-dude that got Althouse to say she does. And yet, inexplicably, Rush is afforded more reverence than the Gray Lady. You'd think gals in their golden/gray years would stick together.

fivewheels said...

I don't think Limbaugh is treated with reverence, he's treated the same as the NYT: as a partisan outlet playing to its audience but also accurately representative of that audience.

Comparing the NYT to Limbaugh is only an insult if your ideology demands that it is.

Wilbur said...

It could be she regards Rush as frequently insightful, although often hyperbolic and bombastic.

I've yet to detect any reverence in her mentions of him. Unless one regards the mere mention of him or his views as worshipful.

Gary Kirk said...

And the circle is complete.

Sir Elton pranked Putin into calling him by proclaiming that he had received a call from Vlad when he very well knew that what he had received was indeed a prank call not from Putin.

Now all we have to wait for is Elton to proclaim that he met with Putin.

They don't call it "act"ivism for nothing do they?

mikee said...

Phone call, schmone call.

Homosexuals in Russia are still going to psychiatric hospitals for their "mental illness" or to prisons for their "antisocial behavior."

Putin got some PR; his victims still get put in cells.

Every mention of Putin should be accompanied by a spitting noise. Putin (Ptooey!)