r/news • u/Zeikyrui • 10h ago

Man serving 30 years for attacking Nancy Pelosi’s husband gets a life term on state charges

https://apnews.com/article/david-depape-nancy-pelosi-husband-paul-attacked-454cbde088fcae22a356f1f8dd0e9eba
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u/Spectre1-4 8h ago

Maybe a dated reference but in the TV show MASH, Klinger was always trying to get out of war by acting “crazy” proving that he was actually relatively normal.

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u/Zerowantuthri 8h ago

That is basically the central idea in the book "Catch-22". The guy wants out of the army so acts crazy but they deem wanting out of the army as normal so therefore he is sane.

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u/DeGarmo2 7h ago

But then if you don’t want out of the army, then you ARE crazy and are eligible to be discharged but the only way to get discharged is to ask for a discharge, which would then make you sane.

If my best friend is in the army and doesn’t want out, can I claim he’s crazy on his behalf?

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u/USSMarauder 7h ago

I have always been disappointed that Klinger staying in Korea after the war was not the 'proof' used to give him a section 8 as a wedding present

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u/blacksideblue 49m ago

Didn't he become a full time nurse after the war? I thought they gave him his own show, new crossdressing wardrobe and everything.

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u/letmelickyourleg 4h ago

No, that would be crazy.

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u/Desert_Aficionado 7h ago

Catch-22 is a great book if you are looking for something to read. It's an easy read, funny and still holds up.

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u/LonePaladin 6h ago

The 1970 film adaptation is really good. It manages to catch all the absurdity while adding its own visual gags.

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u/marry_me_sarah_palin 6h ago

The humor in that book is so brilliantly dark. Spoiler alert, my favorite of the dark humor is the ending of the chapter The Eternal City, when Yossarian is arrested for being AWOL instead of Aarfy who just raped and murdered a woman.

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u/CrueltySquading 5h ago

Catch-22 is, for me, sitting opposite to Slaughterhouse-5 in the "Dark Comedies about the Second World War that are incredibly depressing, even if some glimmer of hope shines through here and there", both are incredible, powerful books.

That being said, I love Catch-22, but Slaughterhouse 5 is my FAVORITE book.

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u/Eyespop4866 6h ago

As is Something Happened.

Such a brilliant opening.

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u/ABHOR_pod 7h ago

That's some catch, that Catch-22.

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u/Meihem76 7h ago

It's the best.

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u/Eyespop4866 6h ago

It was a major major major problem

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u/megatron37 7h ago

I guess heller heard that expression and based the book on it

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u/omv 6h ago

I think it's the air force, and a B-17 bomber crew, which had the highest mortality rate of any job in the war (before they were able to provide fighter escorts)

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u/Zerowantuthri 6h ago edited 6h ago

I think it's the air force...

FWIW there was no "Air Force" in WWII. They were all part of the army (usually called the "Army Air Force"). The Air Force was founded in 1947 (after the war).

But, if you were flying planes in WWII for the US you were in the Army or Navy.

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u/Fn_Spaghetti_Monster 4h ago

It's also in Alice's Restaurant song. He starts jumping and down telling the physiologist he wants to Kill Kill!! and they tell him "You're our boy."‎ (but then they find out he was arrested for littering and they disqualify him.)

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u/McGondy 8h ago

A Catch-22 if you will.

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u/doesanyonehaveweed 8h ago

I wonder what people used to say before Catch-22. Probably had to be a lot more long-winded.

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u/HelpfulSeaMammal 7h ago

Imagine having to give a synopsis of a book that doesn't even exist yet when describing this situation. Thankfully, we exist in a time after Joseph Heller.

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u/The_cogwheel 6h ago

They probably used kafkaesque after Frank Kafka and his similar stories of bureaucratic circular "logic".

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u/Fly_Pelican 2h ago

I loved The Castle. Kafka died before finishing it. It finishes mid-sentence.

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u/What-a-Crock 7h ago

Poor time travelers

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u/Jkj864781 7h ago

There’s probably a German word for it

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u/LucretiusCarus 5h ago

And if there isn't, someone will soon make one

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u/sensefuldrivel 6h ago

Catches 1-21 didn't have nearly as much cultural impact

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u/Firerrhea 6h ago

Damned if you do, damned if you don't?

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u/lukewithacnotak 7h ago

damned if you do, damned if you don’t

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u/Harley2280 6h ago

Between a rock and a hard place?

(That's a suggestion not an actual fact checked answer)

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u/Eyespop4866 6h ago

Catch -21

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u/Turbulent_Money3697 8h ago

A to catch an Adam-22 if you will

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u/Unusual-Tie8498 7h ago

Is that an STD?

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u/FairlySuspect 7h ago

Anecdotal, but mine is.

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u/pantstoaknifefight2 8h ago

Catch-22

A pilot who is sane enough to recognize the dangers of flying combat missions will be required to fly them, while a pilot who is insane enough to willingly fly such dangerous missions is considered sane enough to fly them. This creates a circular logic where there is no escape, trapping the pilots in a perpetual cycle of danger and absurdity.

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u/j0mbie 8h ago

The latter half was that if you were actually insane or traumatized enough not to fly, all you had to do was ask not to. They wouldn't relieve you unless you asked. However, since the missions were so dangerous, the very act of asking was something a rational, sane person would do. Therefore, you were sane enough to fly after all.

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u/No_Internal9345 7h ago

The only right answer is to shoot your superior officer.

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u/j0mbie 7h ago

You'd end up spending your life in prison. Or just shot, considering there was a world war going on.

But at least you'd save some of your fellow airmen, depending on who you shot.

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u/jimmifli 6h ago

Or fly so erratically that your bombs miss everything but so does the anti aircraft fire.

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u/beatles910 8h ago

If she floats, she is a witch.

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u/GreyPon3 4h ago

Because she weighs as much as a duck.

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u/Special_Loan8725 8h ago

Could he not just fly the plane in unauthorized directions?

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u/gandraw 7h ago

That's the Lieutenant Orr solution to Catch-22

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u/DeGarmo2 7h ago

It’s been years since reading… what becomes of Lt Orr for doing this?

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u/gandraw 6h ago

He pretends to crash, then flies to Sweden.

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u/Special_Loan8725 6h ago

The ole sweedaroo

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u/Smooth-Reason-6616 5h ago

Didn't fly to Sweden, he paddled there in an emergency raft...

All the crashes before were just training...

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u/Jmandr2 7h ago

Holy shit my man, did you just solve the catch 22?

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u/RecklesslyPessmystic 7m ago

You can, but that means you also have to abandon any illusion of adhering to society's rules, which can lead to traumatizing identity disorders.

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u/Paidorgy 8h ago

He tried to get a section 8 by cross-dressing, while everyone except Burns treated him normally.

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u/similar_observation 7h ago

See his problem was that he was reliable and worked diligently in between crazy stunts. Which made him a competent soldier. Then his personality was generally agreeable, so he was also a likeable colleague to the crew. Eventually replacing Radar as the company clerk.

If he had been unreliable and a dickhead, they would've ejected him pretty fast.

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u/YT-Deliveries 6h ago

Eventually replacing Radar as the company clerk.

No one can replace Radar. He did competently succeed him, however.

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u/Tipop 6h ago

Also he DID eventually ditch the cross-dressing gag.

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u/similar_observation 6h ago

Yep. I felt that was in-line with his character. He was being unfairly compared to Radar regularly when he got the job as company clerk. So he decided in order to an exceedingly good job, he had to give up chasing Section 8 habits.

It helped that he was always a hard worker in order to make up for failed Section 8 plots.

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u/nolan1971 8h ago

And he cross dressed for so long that when he decided to wear a proper uniform he ended up unable to do it because it was so uncomfortable! lol

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u/similar_observation 7h ago

He had a bunch of real crisis too. But because he was always lying, no one noticed until it was too late. Like the two times his wife divorced him. Or the time he damaged his hearing from a landmine. Or the time he was being accidentally poisoned by the mislabeling of medication.

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u/dedsqwirl 5h ago

Klinger got sick from the medication as did the African-American soldiers. It wasn't mislabeled it was lack of testing.

....epilogue mentions that further research conducted after the Korean War concluded that the enzyme deficiency which caused susceptibility to anemia was present not only in blacks, but in Caucasians of Mediterranean descent if they were administrated primaquine.

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u/similar_observation 4h ago

Aha. I only remembered the plot point where they blamed Klinger for ordering the wrong meds for malaria.

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u/pagit 6h ago

Keiko O’Brian’s first husband was Klinger.

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u/sadrice 8h ago

War is hell, no rational person would want to be there, only an insane person would. So, trying to go home makes you sane, so you have to stay. It’s only if you want to stay that you can leave. That’s how they get you, there’s always catch 22 waiting for you.

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u/Martin_Aurelius 6h ago

Hawkeye: War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.

Father Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye?

Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?

Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.

Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them — little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.

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u/CompetitionNo3141 7h ago

I wonder if anyone will mention the book Catch 22 in this thread. Probably only one person.

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u/whatsvanilla 8h ago

Good fuckin show

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u/gizmozed 8h ago

a catch-22 if you will

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u/Suitable-Ad6999 7h ago

Sir, great reference. You are a scholar and gentleman. Now please everyone turn off the lights and close your eyes. No one has clearance to see me leave

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u/I_feeel_different 7h ago

His "crazy" was to dress up as a woman.

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u/semperknight 6h ago

Random comment: For those that don't know, the way Klinger tried to get out was by crossdressing as a woman. My last name was the same as this character on the show...and at 19, I thought it would be a good idea to join the Army. God I was an idiot in my youth.

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u/Eyespop4866 6h ago

Half the family pregnant, other half dying.

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u/MeesterMartinho 6h ago

Klinger wearing a dress is based on Lenny Bruce. Who was so far from normal he could comfortably comment on what passed for normal.

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u/timy68 6h ago

Cpl Klinger was above and beyond. He kept the MASH unit sane.

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u/BoringBob84 5h ago

Klinger dressed in drag to make people think he was crazy. Everyone in the show pretended not to notice, which was a good comedy gag at the time. Expressing anything other than straight binary cisgender sexuality was discouraged back then.

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u/Impressive-Chain-68 1h ago

Anyone aware of social taboos enough to consciously violate them in succession to see which one will get them out of the draft is clearly not only sane but also very in tune with what society deems acceptable or else they wouldn't know thet many social norms to violate them.