var json_comments = new Array("
\"user-pic\"
Eldritch
October 3, 2009 10:56 PM
Moderate | Flag for review

This doesn't surprise me. Anything to make a buck. Nothing is sacred anymore. My mother has students who don't even know who Gandhi was.

Reply
1 replies
\"user-pic\"
bohemian
October 4, 2009 2:48 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@Eldritch: I would be more impressed if $24,000 of each pen sale went to charity.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
threadislocked
October 3, 2009 11:04 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

Who cares?
Also, people seem to forget that the great ghandi was a racist.
[www.trinidadandtobagonews.com]
[www.trinicenter.com]

Reply
4 replies
\"user-pic\"
Ben Popken
October 5, 2009 1:41 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@threadislocked: I'm pretty sure this is a post about oxymorons and materialism, not a debate on the historical awesomness or not-awesmomness of Gandhi.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
nstonep
October 4, 2009 12:57 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@threadislocked: You're going to love my Gandhi musical comedy...it's hilarious and has a gigantic foot of Ganesh squashing all his enemies. The rest is hush hush.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
threadislocked
October 4, 2009 12:10 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@witeowl:
Ghandi hated that indians were discrimated against in Africa, but then forgot all that when he was discriminating against blacks.


Ghandi believed in the caste system in africa and was pissed that the native blacks were hire up than indians. So he wanted to assist the british and help fight (that is right, FIGHT) the natives who wanted rights just so the British would give indians full citizenship rights.


Then in WWII Ghandi only offered nonviolent support to the British fighting the nazis, not because of his morals, but basically he tried to take advantage of the war and told the British that India would only help them fight the Nazis if they gave India independance. If the British gave India its independance you would have never know about Ghandi's non violent teachings because it never would have happened.


His non violence attitude was political BS.
He definately was not a great person.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
witeowl
October 4, 2009 2:34 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@threadislocked: And how many of the USA's historical \"great men\" owned or otherwise had no objection to owning slaves? Or were OK with treating women like property? I consider Malcolm X to be a great person despite his unquestionable flaws. Heck, let's not even address the evils of our ancient Greek philosophers. I even hear tell that Mother Theresa was not a very nice person.

My point remains: If you hold out for perfection, you will never find anyone to respect. Each great man or woman in our world history was working on one problem while living in ignorance of others. That doesn't lessen the overall impact.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
TecmoTech
October 4, 2009 2:41 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@witeowl:

Is there some sort of rule that says you have to admire an old historical figure?

Most people are d-bags. I don't really admire anyone unless I know them personally. Probably not even a handful of people on my list.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
witeowl
October 4, 2009 4:06 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@TecmoTech: Not really, I guess. But I can't imagine a world in which we don't look upon people who have made significant contributions with some sort of respect. I'm not one to mourn for anyone who wouldn't mourn for me, but I appreciate how many have made my world a better place. I shudder to think how our country's growth would have been stunted had Ghandi's methods not provided some inspiration and guidance for Dr. King.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
threadislocked
October 4, 2009 1:49 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@witeowl:
Ghandi was not a nonvoilent person, only lack of commuication and twisted of stories for the 40s made him seem great.


Ghandi only came up with the nonviolent protest to resist helping the british kill the nazis. He told the british if they gave indian indepedance they would help fight.
He was a political asshole that tried to use the Nazis to get what he wanted.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
ohnoes
October 4, 2009 4:15 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@witeowl: Dr. King was a philanderer (whereas Gandhi wasn't as he became abstinent after his father died, though the part about the girls is true and was an exercise in self-control), but the first sentence in his entry on Wikipedia isn't \"Dr. Martin Luther King was a notable adulterer who happened to become an influential figure in the American Civil Rights Movement.\"

Reply
\"user-pic\"
threadislocked
October 4, 2009 1:52 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@ohnoes:
Dr. King actually did what he was known for.


Ghandi was not a nonviolent protester. He became nonviolent only when the british wanted India to help them fight the Nazis. He told the British if they gave Indian indepedance Indian would help FIGHT.


Ghandi volunteer Indiana to kill native blacks in south africa in the early 1900s. He was political asshole, not a spiritual nonviolent leader as people like to pretend.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
MostlyHarmless
October 4, 2009 5:47 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@threadislocked: You lost me at \"Ghandi\". Spell the fucking name right before trolling.

@ohnoes: If you've noticed his comments in other threads, you probably have noticed that he is a borderline troll. I mostly just ignore him.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
ohnoes
October 4, 2009 2:18 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@threadislocked: Nelson Mandela started out with violent tactics and then turned to nonviolent ones. Should we remember him as a \"political asshole\" as well? Jews in Palestine bombed 14 bridges to force the creation of Israel. Should we remember the founders of Israel as \"political assholes\" as well since they supported these tactics? Or just terrorists?

Regarding that Gandhi became nonviolent \"only\" when the British wanted something, you're wrong. Nonviolence was adopted as a tactic when he was in South Africa, working as a lawyer. And it's strange that Gandhi became the leader of the INC in 1921, 12 years before Hitler came to power.

Considering that the British raped their colonies economically and materially, intentionally engendered ethnic and religious hatred (not only in India but everywhere they went), responded to local unrest in ways that make the final scenes of Braveheart look like an elementary school play, and did it all in the name of the \"white man's burden,\" it doesn't strike me as odd or unfair that Gandhi would demand Indian independence as a condition of helping fight a war thousands of miles away. I am cognizant though, that the British did lay the foundation for the industrialization of India, one example being the laying of thousands of miles of rail that Gandhi would likely have opposed in his agrarian utopia.

If you're going to focus on only one aspect of an individual, then you're going to have a very skewed and ignorant perception of history. That's your right, but don't blame others if you get exploited because of it.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
ohenry
October 4, 2009 2:47 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@TecmoTech: I don't think his point was whether you personally admire them or not, but rather that history admires them. And History certanily does admire, for example, Thomas Jefferson, who despite being a great political leader and such definitely owned a lot of slaves.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
TecmoTech
October 4, 2009 2:55 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@ohenry:

History admires many horrible people.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
G.O.B.: Come on!
October 4, 2009 12:46 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@threadislocked: Everyone is always on Gandhi's nuts like he was a humanist. A nationalist-humanist is an oxymoron.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
Shadowfire
October 4, 2009 12:19 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@threadislocked: To think I was coming here to say the same thing. :P

Reply
","","
\"user-pic\"
AppleAlex
October 3, 2009 11:38 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

Considering I lose about every single pen I have on a weekly basis and end up buying new ones every weekend. I'd likely just put this in a glass case and display it and therefore never use it

but then again, who would take an 18K $25,000 pen to high school?

Reply
5 replies
\"user-pic\"
bohemian
October 4, 2009 3:02 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@AppleAlex: Micron tech pens cost $3 and write better than any expensive pen I have tried. At $3 I only get moderately annoyed when someone steals it or I lose it.

It is the same thought process as designer sunglasses. I can't imagine paying over $100 for something that I will lose or drop lens first onto the sidewalk leaving a huge scratch.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
ohnoes
October 4, 2009 4:16 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@AppleAlex: I think that's how most people who buy these pens use them, which is a shame, although I doubt that this pen writes 100 times better than a $250 fountain pen (don't use them, so don't know the prices).

Reply
\"user-pic\"
mac-phisto
October 4, 2009 5:17 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@ohnoes: it doesn't. you don't even need to spend $250 to get a nice fountain pen that writes well. but there are many collectors of rare fountain pens & mont blanc caters to those collectors.

to be honest, $25k is probably a steal for this pen. that may sound silly, but there will only be 241 sold - that puts it on the rare side of pens in mont blanc's collection. most of their production runs are for 4,810 - the height of mont blanc (the mountain).

Reply
\"user-pic\"
diasdiem
October 4, 2009 2:04 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@AppleAlex: To paraphrase Mitch Hedberg:

\"I bought a $25,000 pen, because I kept losing them and I was sick of not caring!\"

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
gladeye
October 3, 2009 11:39 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

Think of the food, clothes, and other basic necessities $25,000 could buy. A ridiculously over-priced fountain pen stand for a decadent materialism that would have offended Ghandi. Who uses fountain pens anymore anyway, other than people signing treaties and constitutions? I thought the super rich paid others to write for them.

Reply
1 replies
\"user-pic\"
mac-phisto
October 4, 2009 5:18 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@gladeye: i use a fountain pen. i like the way it writes. i'm not rich (& my pen cost me $50; not $25k).

Reply
","","","","
\"user-pic\"
ethereal_pete
October 4, 2009 1:23 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@threadislocked: and don't forget that he liked to sleep nekkid with young girls and had an obsession with enemas

Reply
","","
\"user-pic\"
diasdiem
October 4, 2009 2:12 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

Would this be a bad time to unveil the Colt's Manufacturing Company's special commemorative handgun, the Colt .45 Pacifistmaker? Perfect for all the self-styled dispensers of Karma.

Reply
","","
\"user-pic\"
eirrom
October 4, 2009 2:40 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

I'm honestly surprised that some pen company has the balls to charge $25k for a pen in this economy. I can't imagine how much money I would need to have to justify this expense.

Reply
3 replies
\"user-pic\"
kmw2
October 4, 2009 3:14 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@eirrom: I'm sure there's 241 people in the world with the appropriate intersection of cash, lack of corporate oversight, and lack of self-insight to purchase this item.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
diasdiem
October 4, 2009 5:25 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@eirrom: Enough money so that you don't have to justify yourself to anybody

Reply
","","","","
\"user-pic\"
AgamemnonV1
October 4, 2009 3:07 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@TecmoTech: I agree. We should forget all people of important history so history can repeat itself. Great logic there.

Reply
","","
\"user-pic\"
SatanicGuinea
October 4, 2009 4:06 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

@threadislocked: Tell me who you admire and I'll point out their flaws for ya.

Reply
2 replies
\"user-pic\"
Trai_Dep
October 4, 2009 3:32 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@threadislocked: I've got to ask what your cultural heritage is, since yours is such a unique way of looking at the anti-Colonial movement in India.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
ohnoes
October 4, 2009 3:33 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@Trai_Dep: My guess is Trini, judging by the links posted.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
ohnoes
October 4, 2009 3:34 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@ohnoes: In the interest of disclosure, I'm South Asian.

Reply
","","","","
\"user-pic\"
bobcatred
October 4, 2009 5:00 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

... who would buy it? I highly doubt that people who can afford a $25k pen would be followers of Ghandi's philosophies. I just can't see the Trumps and Hiltons of the world wanting this. There's probably no need to even oppose the pen, as it will probably bomb just fine on its own.

Reply
3 replies
\"user-pic\"
threadislocked
October 4, 2009 1:55 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@bobcatred:
Who cares. Gandhi was a Nazi supporting asshole.

Reply
\"user-pic\"
Traveshamockery
October 4, 2009 1:01 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@bobcatred: I guarantee they'll sell each and every one.

Reply
","","","","
\"user-pic\"
sonneillon
October 4, 2009 5:41 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

The pen probably doesn't even write well.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
anithinks
October 4, 2009 6:22 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

Dear Marc:

Please note the spelling is \"Gandhi\", not \"Ghandi\". This article lists both spellings and the latter (which I presume are your additions) just fail to notice the correct spelling twice, within the same paragraph!

It is such a common habit to call him \"Ghandi\", but it baffles me all the time!

Reply
1 replies
\"user-pic\"
gladeye
October 4, 2009 2:37 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@anithinks:


It's such a common name, you'd think most people would know better.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
PølάrβǽЯ
October 4, 2009 8:59 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

\"We kind of like that sentiment, though we think we'd probably be able to embrace the concept just as easily with a $2 Pilot VBall as with a $25,000 Montblanc.\"

Agreed, and agreed.

Reply
1 replies
\"user-pic\"
Rachacha
October 4, 2009 2:10 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

@aaron8301: Eeh, just wait a few months and you will be able to pick up a $25,000 Montblanc knockoff for about $25 in SoHo or China.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
nstonep
October 4, 2009 12:56 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

I read about this in a Graduate business class...I believe it was POOR TASTE 605

Reply
","","","","","","","","","","","","
\"user-pic\"
Alarm Bell
October 4, 2009 3:03 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

And who'd be self-indulgent and obnoxious enough to buy this?

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
bohemian
October 4, 2009 3:05 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

The belongs with the Faberge junk that they are now only selling by private appointment. A total waste of money even if you could afford it.

Reply
","","
\"user-pic\"
banmojo
October 4, 2009 3:16 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

And I bet every copy of this ridiculous priced pen will be picked up by people richer than they really should be :^)

Reply
1 replies
","","","","","","","
\"user-pic\"
yentaleh
October 4, 2009 6:31 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

You know with $25K I could buy a new car that I desperately need because my service dog (He's a Boxer) is quickly out-growing my current car.

I find that Cross pens work just fine and in my opinion they are alot better than Mont Blanc. (And cheaper too) My Cross pen that I received as an anniversary present was inlaid with gold was only 1500$.

Reply
","","","
\"user-pic\"
SacraBos
October 5, 2009 2:37 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

I'll wait until the Chinese knock-offs are selling on E-Bay.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
ArizonaGeek
October 5, 2009 8:04 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

As long as it's not black it should be okay.

/Gandhi was a racist asshole, check your history

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
kaptainkk
October 5, 2009 8:28 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

The pen IMO is a bad idea, it goes w/o saying that it's in poor taste and indirectly represents a country that is poor and a lot of good could be done with that kind of money BUT to all you sorry Gandhi hatin' jerks out there, the greatest Gandhi quote is \"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.\"

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
ageshin
October 6, 2009 5:54 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

Actually I feel that a solid gold spinning wheel would have been a better item to honor Mahatma Gandhi. It could be used to spin alpaca thread to make alpaca loin cloths.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
david
October 8, 2009 10:04 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

A great way to honor Gandhi would be for Montblanc to go bankrupt after creating this thoughtless, tacky piece of shit.

Reply
");