So someone else is seeing the unreasonableness that I see? Good. I'm sorry if basso pisses you off but you have no business taking it out on other people. Get a grip on yourselves, people!! :grin:
if you dont have a problem w/ people making jokes about god killing the president then you shouldnt have a problem w/ people making the same about you. what does it matter if he is a public figure and you are not? and why are you going to such lengths to defend people who "joke" about praying to god to kill our president? doesnt seem very "christian" to me to pray to god to kill people. it actually seems pretty dang unchristian.
When you insult a public figure, its more about insulting what they are in the public mind instead of directly insulting them as a person. For example, a Texans fan might say "I hope God strikes Bud Adams dead!" OK, Bud Adams is a public figure, and we take that to mean that Adams is a reviled figure in the mind of Texans fans, and so that comment is more about attacking the image of Bud Adams rather than the man itself. Implicitly, we understand this. Its quite different if a Texans fan happens to meet individually with Bud Adams and says the same thing, "I hope God strikes you dead." The words have hardly changed, but the context is very different and its now a much more personal attack. This would be considered far more offensive, I think. giddyup, wouldn't you agree? If Obama met with this Tea Party fellow in a chatroom, and this man said angrily "You know, I hope to God that you die" wouldn't you agree that this is far more serious? I think we all would. There is a big difference.
Absolutely. It's the difference in saying something about someone vs saying it to them. TSchmuck's wish was that I get cancer- a very specific and sordid and childish request that affects me, my wife and my children. I guess he thinks it is being funny but it clearly steps out of bounds. I would neither laud nor condemn the FB pages. I think it is kind of stupid but it's not really a personal attack on the man as much as it is his office. I hold no office which is why I objected... and so would you if it were you. Look, I didn't cry myself to sleep over this. I objected because I wanted TSchmuck to realize the unintended consequences of a pathetic attempt to be funny. Why can we not disagree without resorting to ugliness? I'll try to never refer to you as TSchmuck again, okay? :grin:
remember when people got arrested for wearing anti-bush t-shirts. remember when the GOP would go around forcibly removing non-bush supporters from public events? it was all real funny then for the neo-cons. but now we have people bringing assault weapons to public events and its no big deal. people carrying signs making not-so-veiled death threats (we came unarmed...this time). death threats against obama up 400% over bush. facebook pages wishing death upon the president (fox news would have been all over that if it was about bush). the hypocrisy never ceases to astound me!
^^ In a way, it exemplifies 'the pen is mightier than the sword' (or the T-shirt logo is mightier than the assault rifle).
i don't remember this- could you share some examples? i do remember people throwing bags of cement off overpasses as buses carrying delegates to the republican convention in st. paul passed underneath.
a simple google search could provide you w/ plenty of examples in about half a second, but here you go... so under bush this gets you arrested... and under obama this is acceptable... and if people were throwing bags of cement off of an overpass they should have been arrested. they could have killed someone.
Say what? I thought they were all in lockstep with Chimpy McHitlerburton? Are proto-teabaggers hypocrites too? Cool t-shirt, bro. some "not-so-veiled death threats" Spoiler and a little more direct Spoiler The next one isn't threatening but it was too awesomely epic not to share (NSFW). :grin: Spoiler
^ So let's go with Antisonic's little fiction that there is absolutely no difference in kind between the gun-toting tea partiers and the black helicopter, Federal-building exploding militia pals and a bunch of silly activist hippies. Which activity do you think is more likely to provoke a visceral reaction, which , if not justified, is at least more understandable - a controversial war with a body count in the 100's of 1,000s, or a mandate that insurers not deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions?
it looks like to me that under Bush, a false arrest gets you $80k, under Obama you get beat up and pilloried as a racist.
Worldwide more Mohammed Attas but in the US there probably a lot more Timothy McVeighs. Consider in just the last year we've had a group of militia radicals arrested planning to use IED against police in Michigan, a man crashing a plane into an IRS office, and 3 officers shot by another anti-government radical in Pittsburgh in an ambush. Well if you are talking about Right Wing violence in general historically its been much much greater by Right Wing ultra-nationalist which the Tea Party is. Consider that a Right Wing ultranationalist movement that arose to counter a left leaning progressive government ended up causing WWII. The threat of violence by Right Wing ultranationalist groups is considered by many countries particularly in Europe as a threat on par with Muslim radicals. Consider that a few countries outlaw membership in a some ultranationalist groups.
Could you provide a link for this? I live in Minnesota and was here during the Republican convention and don't recall anything like that.
I'm sure if the guy with the sign saying "We came unarmed, this time!" was arrested he would be able to sue for false arrest too. As far as getting beat up do you have evidence that that man was beat up?
I have evidence that his Jean Shorts are too short, and for a guy to be wearing something close to "Daisy Dukes" at tea party rally might also apply to a reason why he could have been beaten up.
Was my remark in poor taste? Yes. Do I feel bad about it? A bit. Did I have a point? Yep. Did giddyup get the point? Nope. So, it was more or less a failure on my part. Sorry.
What makes you think I didn't get the point? Didn't you read where I admitted that I wasn't crying myself to sleep over the insensitivity? You think you have a point. This is a community of people who need to treat each other with respect. In no way does wish a life-threatening illness on someone add anything to anything. It's not funny and it can be very ill-advised. I'm not a public figure; I'm a private individual. BTW, the other reason I wasn't crying myself to sleep about it was because I was kidding to make a point. My plan all along had been to reveal the truth when you "apologized." This is about as close as I'm going to get (4 days late), so now the truth is out: I was kidding about cancer, but I'm at that age... you never know... in fact, you never know with anybody.... so saying crude thoughtless things is just out of bounds. Be careful what you say to people.
