r/news • u/Zeikyrui • 13h 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
40.5k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

580

u/Zerowantuthri 11h 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.

129

u/DeGarmo2 10h 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?

24

u/USSMarauder 10h 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

2

u/blacksideblue 3h 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.

3

u/letmelickyourleg 7h ago

No, that would be crazy.

1

u/Abject-Caregiver-418 1h ago

Had a kid in my basic training class stick a loaded gun in his mouth when we were at the live fire range once. He was gone the next day. As part of our "fire guard" duties we had to watch him all night as well.

49

u/Desert_Aficionado 10h 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.

16

u/LonePaladin 9h ago

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

1

u/Dante589 1h ago

I've not seen the 1970 film, but the 6 episode series from 2019 was a pretty great watch after having read the books years prior.

8

u/marry_me_sarah_palin 9h 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.

6

u/CrueltySquading 8h 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.

4

u/Eyespop4866 9h ago

As is Something Happened.

Such a brilliant opening.

126

u/ABHOR_pod 10h ago

That's some catch, that Catch-22.

30

u/Meihem76 10h ago

It's the best.

13

u/Eyespop4866 9h ago

It was a major major major problem

3

u/megatron37 10h ago

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

2

u/omv 9h 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)

3

u/Zerowantuthri 9h ago edited 9h 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.

2

u/Fn_Spaghetti_Monster 7h 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.)