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Refuge in Audacity/Real Life: Difference between revisions
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* Read Silvio Berlusconi's [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi Wikiquote page and marvel at how he stayed in office] as Italian Prime minister for 17 years. And the [[You Answered Your Own Question|probable ties with the Mafia]] and multiple scandals. One gets the feeling that if he hadn't been voted out, a good number of his countrymen wouldn't really have minded too much if someone invaded them on a mission of liberation from the <s>man</s> trope.
** Also, from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlusconi#Right-to-die_case Wikipedia]:
{{quote| After the family of Eluana Englaro (who had been comatose for 17 years) succeeded in having her right to die recognised by the judges and getting doctors to start the process of allowing her to die in the way established by the court, Berlusconi issued a decree to stop the doctor from letting her die. Stating that, "This is murder. I would be failing to rescue her. I'm not a Pontius Pilate", '''Berlusconi went on to defend his decision by claiming that she was [[Dude, She's Like, in A Coma|"in the condition to have babies"]],[89] arguing that comatose women were still subject to menstruation'''.}}
** You forgot [[Sarcasm Mode|this gem]], said during the Sme trial.
{{quote| "All citizens are equal (in front of the law) [[Animal Farm|but maybe the undersigned is a bit more equal than the others]], since the 50 % of Italians gave him the responsability for governing the Country”}}
** At the opening of the European Food Authority in Parma, June 21, 2005, asked to explain how Italy managed to get the support of its biggest competitor (Finland) over the EU Food Authority dispute, he claimed: "I used all my playboy skills and courted the Finnish President". The Finnish parliament took the claim rather seriously and questioned the President about it. Berlusconi then attempted a [[
* This was the essence of Attorney General Philander C. Knox' advice to Theodore Roosevelt when TR asked him to come up with a legal justification for America's having assisted Panama in gaining her independence:
{{quote| "Mister President, do not let so great an achievement suffer from any taint of legality."}}
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** That same kid, 14 years old at the time, was later arrested for driving off with a Lexus from a Lexus dealership. He was caught three hours later after a car chase ending in a crash against a telephone pole. He tried to get away by grabbing a stroller and casually walking away.
** Darius McCollum, who was obsessed with the New York transit system. At 5, he had memorized all of the routes. At 15, he hijacked a train and drove it along its ordinary route. Passengers did not notice. To this day he is still being arrested for impersonating transit workers.
* Ventriloquist [[Jeff Dunham]] balances his entire act on this. A character named "Achmed the Dead Terrorist" sounds like it should be horribly offensive... but a skeleton with [[Big Ol' Eyebrows]] who laments about having killed his son by taking him to Take Your Child to Work Day? Hilarious.
** Ironically, it somehow backfired on his short-lived TV show. It was canceled after 6 episodes, partially due quickly slipping ratings, and partially due to [http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2009/10/review-jeff-dunham-show-a-complete-train-wreck.html critics claiming it was racist]. They forget that Carlos Mencia got away with ''much'' worse on Mind of Mencia simply because Mencia was a minority.
* Absolutely everything [[Mock the Week|Frankie Boyle]] has ever said, ever. For him it's not so much a refuge as a home.
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* A German Prisoner had escaped from prison via... hiding in a [[Metal Gear|Cardboard Box]].
* ''Chutzpah'' has been defined as "clever audacity, for example a child killing both parents and then asking the courts for mercy because he's an orphan."
** Actually, in Yiddish [[Spell My Name With an "S"|chutspah or ''khutspe'']] is more assholish, moronic audacity. Clever audacity is called ''seykhl''. And now you know. [[And Knowing Is Half the Battle]].
* In the late 1950s, the Navy was determined to launch the first US satellite with their Vanguard rocket. Which meant that even though Wernher von Braun had built better rockets for the Army, he couldn't launch anything into space, only launch tests. So, without getting permission from his supervising officer, von Braun moved one of his rockets out to the pad and decided he'd launch it into space and then go "Woops, it was an ACCIDENT!" The supervisor found out before he could actually do the launch, but man, that took GUTS!
* One entry on [http://www.fmylife.com FML] runs that the poster was eating lunch in a park in [[New York City]], when [[Steve Martin]] walks up to him, grabs his sandwich, takes a bite, then leaves, saying, "Nobody will ever believe you!"
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* There's an old story of two strangers sitting at a table and eating their lunches. Alice looks up and notices Bob is eating a cookie from her bag. So Alice reaches out and takes another cookie, with a meaningful stare. Bob helps himself to another cookie. Alice takes another. They go all the way to the bottom of the bag, and there's one last cookie. Bob breaks it in half, gives Alice half, and leaves. That's when Alice {{spoiler|looks again in her lunchbox and sees her own, untouched, package of cookies. She was eating Bob's cookies all along.}}
** My friend is Bob. Alice is now his wife.
*** See also ''[[The
* Our very own [[Ad of Lose]] page is typically displaying at least one, and frequently two, ads for marketing services. What else could this be?
* T. E. Lawrence based his entire millitary career upon this principle.
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** [[Funny Aneurysm Moment|A man recently had a fatal heart attack there.]]
* eBay sellers that charge something like $100 for an item or more when there are others selling for way less. Possibly justifiable if you're the only one who ships internationally or something, but otherwise, who do they think they're trying to kid?
* [http://funnyexam.com/answers/popular/1610-actually-i-think-this-may-w this.] it takes [[Breathless Non
* [http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/11/us-malaysia-theft-idUSTRE72A6PR20110311 A house was stolen].
* John Wilkes Booth managed to escape capture at the Ford Theater due to the simple fact that what he did was so ''outrageous'' nobody realized what he'd done. He had time to jump onto the stage, breaking a leg, deliver a [[Bond One
* It seems the Pakistani government may be attempting one of these. The world's #1 terrorist is found a couple hundred yards from their largest military academy, in a massive house on an even more massive lot, surrounded by 10 to 18 foot high barbed wire topped walls with no phone lines, in a city full of retired military officers 30 miles from their capital city and they had no idea.
* Hizzoner Da Mare Richard J. Daley of Chicago could have listed an example every day. His son, Richard M. Daley, as mayor, wanted to get rid of Meigs Field airport on the lakefront, so he could reclaim it as parkland. The rich folks who enjoyed their airport pulled every trick in the book to prevent this. As a result, Daley sent bulldozers to the runway in the middle of the night to carve huge Xs into the runway, rendering it unusable. This circumvented a restraining order that prevented him from closing the active airport, and allowed him to condemn the now-unusable site.
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* Quite a lot of internet phishing (not to be confused with hacking) relies on [[Refuge in Audacity]]. Not as common now that the average joe knows about scam letters and phishing methods, but in days when the average AOL'er and secretary was less savvy, it was quite common for accounts or entire systems (occasionally very big systems) to be compromised simply by someone calling/emailing pretending to be a serviceman asking for their information. They did it by burying their intentions under technical jargon and functioning on the premise that it was assumed that no one with bad intentions would simply call and ask for your password or to be keyed into your system.
* Copyright-lawsuit outfit Righthaven, after loosing a case because the 'right to sue' that they had obtained from their parent company cannot exist under law, as you need to hold the copyrights before you can sue over them (a thing called 'standing'), then argued that, as they lacked standing, the court lacked standing to order them to pay defendants costs. The judge didn't find their arguments persuasive, surprisingly.
* Game designer and [[Small Name, Big Ego|rampaging egotist]] [[M Dickie]] justifies making a game depicting a heavily edited version of the life of the Muslim prophet Muhammad with an essay that boils down to, "Doing this isn't blasphemy because I don't want it to be. Also, the taboo against depicting Muhammad is the ''real'' blasphemy, because that way I'm actually an iconoclastic religious hero to a faith I don't subscribe to."
* An unintentional example ensued when a minister at a local church recovered from an illness. It was the custom to post messages to the parish on the church bulletin board using stationery inscribed with the message "[[God Is Good]]." Underneath this was written [[A God Am I|"Dr. Hargreaves is better."]]
* Steven Jay Russell, the con man who inspired the movie ''[[I Love You Phillip Morris]]'', certainly counts. It takes some balls to ''fake your own death from AIDS'' in order to escape from prison.
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