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MODERN-DAY NERO

Obama Pictures and McCain Pictures

MODERN-DAY NERO: Multitasks while California burns.

Who is that in the picture? Tell us in the Comments

picture: Time. lol caption: jpb

» Recaption This

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» 137 comments

  1. Tehshay says:

    Real American Hero.

    This Bud’s for you! *clink*

  2. froofrou says:

    Gotta love the Segue. WANT!!!!

  3. charro says:

    Well, it’s going to fall off into the ocean anyway… Who cares if it’s on fire? It’ll get doused eventually.
    Or.. are the fires god’s way of punishing CA for voting yes on prop 8? Hmmmm.

  4. no one says:

    Caption FAIL?

    • w4c0m says:

      no, Nero is right

    • Sarah says:

      Nope, Nero played the violin while Rome burned. :) Not really, but…history gets distorted sometimes!

      • lora_vine says:

        He was probably taking a dump and in those days a euphamism for dump was playing the violin…

        “where is Nero? ROme is on Fire?”
        “He’s playing the violin, if you know what I mean.”

      • Danbala says:

        Who, for certain, knows today whether he did or didn’t? If he did, the story’s better, and as the most important materia is narrativiium, I’d go for that. :o )

      • Kuromisa says:

        Or so the idiom goes. : )

      • hotsauce says:

        Except the fiddle/violin hadn’t even been invented yet, and in fact Nero wasn’t even in town when the great fire happened. As soon as he found out about it, he rushed back to town, arranged food for the refugees, and opened up his palace to them. When the are that was burned was being rebuilt, he made sure less flammable building materials were used. But his political opponents spread distortions and outright lies to make it look like he’d done a horrible job instead of a good one.

        In other words, he was swift-boated.

        • rhorho says:

          Oh noes!! Not another Librul!!!
          Welcome aboard, Hotsauce. :o )

        • thruthiness says:

          Of course you leave out the part where he blamed the Christians, burned them, crucified them and threw them to the dogs.

          Yup. Swiftboated.

          The account you quote (one of 2) was written by Tacitus who was 9 at the time and lived through the fire. The other account to survive mentions that he played his lyre while it burned. Now when you take into account that that lyre fell out of fashion and most people wouldn’t know what it is I’m sure you can agree that the violin fits in nicely as modern day substitute.

          • PortlandMark says:

            I understand it was “just coincidence” the areas burned were areas where Nero wanted to do a few urban renewal projects that had been too unpopular to accomplish before the fires. Does anyone know if there’s any truth to that story?

          • hotsauce says:

            I didn’t mention it because it isn’t part of the modern idiom. I mean, nobody says “Nero fiddled while Rome burned, then blamed the Christians because at the time they were a bunch of weirdos that made handy scapegoats” do they? And yes, he was fond of playing the lyre, and since he was away from Rome on business and didn’t know it was burning, there’s no reason for him not to have been doing so. But it sounds better to say “he played while Rome burned!” and let people think what you want them to think. Kind of like saying “I served in Vietnam with John Kerry,” and letting people believe that you knew him and served alongside him, when in fact you were simply in the same country as he was during roughly the same time period. So yes, swift-boated.

    • Sam says:

      Grasp of world history FAIL for you.

  5. ck says:

    A modern-day warrior
    Mean mean stride,
    Today’s Tom Sawyer
    Mean mean pride.

  6. LimeyG says:

    “I made a huge mistake …”

  7. this guy over here says:

    Yeah, but what else would you expect from GOB Bluth?

  8. Danbala says:

    Hey… If I was living there and had a segue, that is pretty much exactly what I would be doing (I couldn’t properly call anyone, since no one friggin’ answers when I phone ‘em).
    QQ

  9. Jack Bauer says:

    Goddamnit dad…I told you everyone would think you were a douche with your BlackBerry.

  10. BAW says:

    IMHO, we ought to have let Mexico keep California; it has been more trouble than it has been worth. Ditto Texas.

  11. nako13 says:

    It kind of looks like Dr. Cox from ‘Scrubs’

  12. nostalgic for CA says:

    Aah, how Ive missed CA. Moved away two years ago and haven’t been back to visit in at least 6 months… Seeing this picture, however, brings it all back to me. Well-to-do folk with high tech gizmoes and gadgetry standing by, blissfully portraying helplessness, in the midst of crisis. “Someone else should be ascending from the heavenly PDA store in the sky to deliver me in MMS format from this evil that roars before, to a better, less conflicted place… perhaps Vegas!” Don’t worry, CA. We wouldn’t want you to get your hands dirty taking care of yourselves…

  13. sharon says:

    so the “masked rider” is Neil Peart?

  14. Sorsha says:

    Very clever.

    well done.

  15. Uncle Fester says:

    It’s from the ‘don’t get mad, get even’ dept….

  16. AC says:

    What’s that? Does it spam you back? Does it do something evil if you click on her address?

  17. slanagat says:

    I’d give you very long odds indeed against the linked e-mail address actually belonging to the poster.


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