It's only April. That means we have another six months to hear all about the upcoming U.S. presidential election. While it's obviously a very important decision that we all need to be well-informed about, I must admit, I'm getting a little tired of hearing about it. So, for something completely different, let's discuss frivolous political parties (and no, I don't mean Democrats or Republicans).
The Deadly Serious Party of Australia was anything but. In the 1980s, the DSP was formed and promised to send a flock of trained, killer penguins to protect the Australian coasts from an invasion from Argentine.
Yes! A party I can get behind. Apparently Beer Lovers political parties weren't that uncommon in post-Soviet states. Their platform was "cleanness and quality of the national beer, state independence and the neutrality of Belarus, freedom of economic relations, personal inviolability and inviolability of the private property".
The chairman of the party, Andrey Romashevsky, was arrested in 1995 for "hooliganism". I had no idea that was a criminal offense. After he was released, he moved out of Belarus and the Beer Lovers Party pretty dissolved. Its mascot is a drunken hedgehog, which is a stereotype from Russian jokes (maybe someone can explain that to me?)
The Parti Rhinocéros, AKA the Rhinoceros Party, was registered in Canada for more than 30 years. They issued "A promise to keep none of our promises." Members of the party claimed to be the "spiritual descendants" of Cacareco, a Brazilian rhino that was elected to São Paulo's city council in the 1950s. They claimed that the rhino was the perfect symbol for a political party, because, among other things, they are "slow-moving, dim-witted, can move fast as hell when in danger, and have large, hairy horns growing out the middle of their faces." Promises the party made (which they had already promised not to keep) included repealing the law of gravity, paving Manitoba to make the world's largest parking lot, ending crime by abolishing all laws and that they would enforce higher education by building taller schools.
The UCWSE was a shockingly successful silly political party started in Denmark in 1979. Jacob Haugaard, the founder, was rather unexpectedly elected to the national parliament of Denmark in 1994. During his '94 campaign, he promised better weather, better Christmas presents, more pieces of Renaissance furniture in IKEA, Nutella in the army field rations and more bread for the ducks in parks. He actually accomplished the last two during his four-year term, and also had a public toilet placed in the park in Aarhus. This was especially important to him, because after each election he served beer and sausages in the Aarhus park to his voters.
Although the UCWSE was a joke, Haugaard was not expecting to actually be elected and took his duties very seriously when he was. He retired from politics in March 1998 when his first (and only) term was up. Photo from InternationalReports
The McGillicuddy Serious Party formed in 1984 in Hamilton, New Zealand, and had a strong Scottish theme. This seemed a little strange to me until I did some research – Hamilton is named for Captain John Charles Fane Hamilton, the Scottish commander of the HMS Esk. He was killed in Tauranga Campaign of the New Zealand Land Wars.
Anyway, Clan McGillicuddy discovered an extremely distance relationship to the Stuart pretenders of the royal family and suggested one of their own as a replacement for Queen Elizabeth II. They challenged the New Zealand army to a winner-take-all pillow fight battle for the crown. The challenge was declined.
To select political candidates, the party held a battle with newspaper swords and water balloons. Whoever lost the battle would become the candidate for that particular election. A game of musical chairs was another option.
The various policies of the party over the years included free dung, leaving beer on all of the beaches so any invading army would abandon attack and get drunk instead, a potato famine, limiting the speed of light, free castrations and putting accountants in concrete and using them as traffic barriers.
Arguably the most famous frivolous party so far, the Official Monster Raving Loony Party is a registered party in the U.K. started in 1983 by David Sutch, AKA Screaming Lord Sutch. The party had some pretty solid backing in Commander Bill Boaks, a retired WWII hero who was involved in the sinking of the Bismarck.
Their platform included refusing to sign up to the euro, but inviting the rest of Europe to use the pound; letting motorists drive straight over a roundabout when no traffic was coming; and the introduction of a 99 pence coin to save on change. Despite their bizarre manifesto, some of the things the OMRLP asked for have come to pass in the U.K., including a voting age of 18, passports for pets and all-day pub openings.
Eventually, the some members of the party split off into other factions, most notably the Raving Loony Green Giant Party and the Rock 'n' Roll Loony Party. Photo from BBC News
The Deadly Serious Party
The Deadly Serious Party of Australia was anything but. In the 1980s, the DSP was formed and promised to send a flock of trained, killer penguins to protect the Australian coasts from an invasion from Argentine.
Beer Lovers Party of Belarus
Yes! A party I can get behind. Apparently Beer Lovers political parties weren't that uncommon in post-Soviet states. Their platform was "cleanness and quality of the national beer, state independence and the neutrality of Belarus, freedom of economic relations, personal inviolability and inviolability of the private property".
The chairman of the party, Andrey Romashevsky, was arrested in 1995 for "hooliganism". I had no idea that was a criminal offense. After he was released, he moved out of Belarus and the Beer Lovers Party pretty dissolved. Its mascot is a drunken hedgehog, which is a stereotype from Russian jokes (maybe someone can explain that to me?)
The Rhinoceros Party
The Parti Rhinocéros, AKA the Rhinoceros Party, was registered in Canada for more than 30 years. They issued "A promise to keep none of our promises." Members of the party claimed to be the "spiritual descendants" of Cacareco, a Brazilian rhino that was elected to São Paulo's city council in the 1950s. They claimed that the rhino was the perfect symbol for a political party, because, among other things, they are "slow-moving, dim-witted, can move fast as hell when in danger, and have large, hairy horns growing out the middle of their faces." Promises the party made (which they had already promised not to keep) included repealing the law of gravity, paving Manitoba to make the world's largest parking lot, ending crime by abolishing all laws and that they would enforce higher education by building taller schools.
Union of Conscientiously Work-Shy Elements
The UCWSE was a shockingly successful silly political party started in Denmark in 1979. Jacob Haugaard, the founder, was rather unexpectedly elected to the national parliament of Denmark in 1994. During his '94 campaign, he promised better weather, better Christmas presents, more pieces of Renaissance furniture in IKEA, Nutella in the army field rations and more bread for the ducks in parks. He actually accomplished the last two during his four-year term, and also had a public toilet placed in the park in Aarhus. This was especially important to him, because after each election he served beer and sausages in the Aarhus park to his voters.
Although the UCWSE was a joke, Haugaard was not expecting to actually be elected and took his duties very seriously when he was. He retired from politics in March 1998 when his first (and only) term was up. Photo from InternationalReports
The McGillicuddy Serious Party
The McGillicuddy Serious Party formed in 1984 in Hamilton, New Zealand, and had a strong Scottish theme. This seemed a little strange to me until I did some research – Hamilton is named for Captain John Charles Fane Hamilton, the Scottish commander of the HMS Esk. He was killed in Tauranga Campaign of the New Zealand Land Wars.
Anyway, Clan McGillicuddy discovered an extremely distance relationship to the Stuart pretenders of the royal family and suggested one of their own as a replacement for Queen Elizabeth II. They challenged the New Zealand army to a winner-take-all pillow fight battle for the crown. The challenge was declined.
To select political candidates, the party held a battle with newspaper swords and water balloons. Whoever lost the battle would become the candidate for that particular election. A game of musical chairs was another option.
The various policies of the party over the years included free dung, leaving beer on all of the beaches so any invading army would abandon attack and get drunk instead, a potato famine, limiting the speed of light, free castrations and putting accountants in concrete and using them as traffic barriers.
The Official Monster Raving Loony Party
Arguably the most famous frivolous party so far, the Official Monster Raving Loony Party is a registered party in the U.K. started in 1983 by David Sutch, AKA Screaming Lord Sutch. The party had some pretty solid backing in Commander Bill Boaks, a retired WWII hero who was involved in the sinking of the Bismarck.
Their platform included refusing to sign up to the euro, but inviting the rest of Europe to use the pound; letting motorists drive straight over a roundabout when no traffic was coming; and the introduction of a 99 pence coin to save on change. Despite their bizarre manifesto, some of the things the OMRLP asked for have come to pass in the U.K., including a voting age of 18, passports for pets and all-day pub openings.
Eventually, the some members of the party split off into other factions, most notably the Raving Loony Green Giant Party and the Rock 'n' Roll Loony Party. Photo from BBC News
Comments (14)
You are right about votes at 18 in 1970.
The point that is not explained properly is that
it was Screaming Lord Sutch and his National
Teenage Party At the Stratford on Avon
By-election of 1964 who wanted votes at 18 when
it was obviously 21.This was the forerunner to
the party as it is today. See omrlp.com
Contact omrlp.com for info on joining
Having been to Canada and spent a couple weeks out there, I'm whole heartedly behind this idea. Not like anything else much gets done out there.
I still think we should have sent the penguins to China though.
Oh, and the syringe thing, it was used in a movie and i can't remember the title!
The 'toilet suit' is actually kinda neat, and is something I can use on the job.
The ventilation system on the airplane that gasses everyone unconscious is also an interesting concept, though as we all know it is highly unpredictable and dangerous as that massacre in the Russian theater proved.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT-23_Molodets
Of course I'm a noob when it comes to international patent law, so if we can go patent russian inventions, I call dibs on Tesla's work.
A truck with a gun turret? Great for war, but name me one terrorist who has ever run around the streets of America with explosives strapped to them, screaming, "Shoot me! I'm totally about to blow some shit up!"
A railroad missile system? That just screams, "Steal me!" Besides, I see a train derail in the US about once a month. What if every time it happened, we had to worry about whether a NUCLEAR MISSILE had been stolen.
I could go on, but rest assured bean, while a few of these have some minor use, I doubt in my heart of hearts that anyone will ever be saved by an explosion containment net.
Excellent.
the explosion containment net is kinda strange but the concept is pretty cool
The airplane trap door really is a neato and could be useful!
Medium east is making my eyes water still. From laughing, not poison gas.
Hey! not the same thing at all, our trains carry intercontintal ballistic missles while theirs simply carry bombs.
__
this is our product ||
it is a inter-fiborious ||
friction fastener ||
\/
__
this is their product ||
||
it is a nail ||
\/
Of course I’m a noob when it comes to international patent law, so if we can go patent russian inventions, I call dibs on Tesla’s work.
[/quote]
Thomas Edison already did that :-)
Have you actually watched Under Siege 2: Dark Territory? Because I don't think anyone would call that movie plot "great".
http://www.google.com/patents?id=Kq8JAAAAEBAJ&dq=6499693
Actually, there is such a thing. The Russian OSNAZ team used it in the Moscow theater hostage crisis.
Robin
info@nutec-medical.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D6PUD66UMc
I'm a government scientist by trade and it abhors me that there is very little in the way of technical/engineering analysis of these fantasies and implementation is another problem no one seems to think about. Not to mention the prior art.
Trap door on a plane? Hah! Everyone knows that there is a cubic butt-ton of empty space in the underbelly of a airliner. Surely we can squeeze a prison cell in there!
*Poster slaps forehead*
P.S. The feud between Tesla and Edison is an interesting read. It's a shame the real geniuses aren't backed by the J.P. Morgan money machine.
Also, come on! A Kevlar net that will remain anchored to the ground during an approximately 100 atm (~1500 psi, 10 MPa) blast front? I don't think so. You'd basically be adding more debris to be thrown about.
I mourn the death of scientific thought and reasoning. I suppose it's for the best, really. It's been suffering for such a long time.
Thanks for the anti-terrorism bra idea. I added anti-terrorism panties and now have a patent pending.
Best
Jacky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3tT5F9ECpA
I dont think Potential Complication would be wiping the back... This is because the specification reads, "the waste collector has interior portions which are soft to serve as toilet tissue"
The potential complication that I see is that the suit is typically for males... Females wearing it cant use it to dispose urines as their phisiology is differently modelled!!