Rally to restore sanity (Stewart) / keep fear alive (Colbert)

I am curious how calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie restores sanity.

 

The singer attracted controversy in 1989, during an address to students at London's Kingston University, where he was asked about the fatwa calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie. The media interpreted his response ("He must be killed. The Qur'an makes it clear - if someone defames the prophet, then he must die.") as support for the fatwa. Yusuf released a statement the following day denying that he supported vigilantism, and claiming that he had merely recounted the legal Islamic punishment for blasphemy. In a BBC interview, he displayed a newspaper clipping from that time period, which quotes from his statement. In the years since these comments, he has repeatedly denied ever calling for the death of Rushdie or supporting the fatwa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens

 

Oh, and of course Ozzy peed "on" the Alamo, right?

"In 1982 while wearing his future wife Sharon's dress because she had hidden his clothes, Osbourne drunkenly urinated on a cenotaph erected in honour of those who died at the Alamo in Texas, across the street from the actual building."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozzy_Osbourne

Does that excuse what he did? Of course not- PI and indecent exposure is a crime and he was arrested for it. Is it "on" the Alamo? No, and yes- it does make a difference.

 

And watch out for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, because he converted to Muslim, presumably to help scout out the infidels:

Speaking about the thinking behind his change of name when he converted to Islam he said to Playboy that he was "latching on to something that was part of my heritage, because many of the slaves who were brought here were Muslims. My family was brought to America by a French planter named Alcindor, who came here from Trinidad in the 18th century. My people were Yoruba, and their culture survived slavery (...) My father found out about that when I was a kid, and it gave me all I needed to know that, hey, I was somebody, even if nobody else knew about it. When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. And that's a terrible burden on black people, because they don't have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kareem_Abdul-Jabbar

 

America, is FUNNY as F#%@


Thats what I get out of all this. And my indifference is LIBERTY.

 

His claim was that I was ignorant. I wanted proof. I didn't accuse him of being ignorant.

 

How about the pictures TSchamel posted at the end of the previous page. Everyone looks looks high schoolers to me. That is about as accurate as taking the first 20 people off facebook.

 

LOL at tallanvor's "you can't prove me wrong therefore I am right" argument...

Are you sure you aren't the one who is in high-school?

 

My argument is you can't call me ignorant if you can't prove I am wrong.

 

<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dOoIkS5LfpA?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dOoIkS5LfpA?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object>

 

Of course, because it's not like people of the same age hang together and would thus be in a picture together as opposed to a sampling from Facebook in which it was obvious it wasn't just one age group.

Fine. What would be an accurate sampling for you? Say, 40 people? 60? 100? If you think I'm going to ask 200,000 to email me with their age, you're crazy on top of being ignorant (not that you're stupid, far from it, you're obviously intelligent, but you're being ignorant in this situation).

By the way, to clarify, I'm not saying you're ignorant as a whole. Most people that post on here are intelligent. It's just kinda obvious that you're being purposefully sarcastic or just "unknowing." Seriously, this would be as bad as me saying that all Tea Party candidates are racist, which is stupid. Or that all the attendees at the Beck rally are Nazi followers- I'm sure there were plenty of people at his rally who are decent people and had good intentions. I just... believe me, I've tried to give that guy a fair shake, he just...just... needs to stop saying such bizarre things. He makes it too easy for his critics.

 

Bob might want to lay off the booze.

 

To quote Jon Stewart's announcement of the Rally ...

"Hey American, take it down a notch"

There isn't much in my life that I encounter that justifies me getting as excited as this guy seems to be. If my kids were harmed by somebody or my wife, then I'd be pretty worked up. But to get this worked up about a Rally ...uh, Xanex might help for that.

 

It took real guts to post that all in the name of obvious humor. Thank you.

 

So, wanting Rushdie killed is taking it down a notch. Good to know. Good to know.

 

I don't know why you guys argue about the ages of the attendees. It's very simple. Go watch the youtube videos. This is the first one I pulled up, I have not even seen the whole thing. I am sure there are many more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlMq1R-64Qc

 

too true


The Real Center of American Politics:

The true center of American politics isn't found where most of us agree. We fiercely disagree. That's not a problem. Democracy assumes disagreement.

The true center is about how we resolve those disagreements. Most of us believe we should work them out respectfully.

We don't believe in winning political arguments through bullying, name-calling, lying, intimidating, or using violence.

In other words, the political center isn't about what we decide; it's about how we decide. A central tenet of American democracy is a commitment vigorous debate, done honestly and civilly.

That's why some of what we've been witnessing recently is troubling.

Consider the foot-stomping incident in Kentucky by Rand Paul supporters, just outside a Senate debate. Or Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller's security detail handcuffing a reporter from a liberal-leaning website.

Consider last year's congressional town hall meetings where members of Congress were shouted down, a Tampa town hall meeting turned violent, and gunshots were fired at Democratic campaign headquarters in Arizona.

Consider the outright lies about "death panels," "government takeovers," and the president's nationality.

Consider Rep. Joe Wilson's "you lie" outburst against the President on the House floor.

And the vitriol emanating at all hours from rage radio, yell television, and Fox News -- against immigrants, intellectuals, "coastal elites," gays, and the President.

We're better than this.

This is not respectful disagreement. It's thuggery. It has no legitimate role in a democracy. And most Americans are fed up with it.

Sadly, we needed two comedians to remind us.

 

I fail to see the connection of singing a 25 year old song and a self described regrettable comment made 10 years ago ...how that takes away from a comedy skit in 2010.

If anything, it highlights the mantra "Take it down a notch".

 

Shows Stewart's hypocrisy.