Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
You know I got slammed awhile back by saying that perhaps not EVERYBODY should enjoy the freedoms provided by the First Amendment. Yes I know that taking the right to scare elderly people, and simpletons away from Fox News might result in someday losing the ability to tell real factual information on the Rachel Maddow show. I get that.
But dammit, these assholes are telling their audience of elderly people, whose median age is 65, and who are probably thinking about religion and the afterlife far more than your average television viewer, that Barack Obama is about to usher in the Apocalypse.
That is unconscionable and, in my opinion, there should be a serious consequence for that kind of reckless and abusive behavior. Am I wrong?
And even though I try not to advocate any violence, if I were in a room alone with Glenn Beck I....I..would...well I guess I would not do anything because it is against my personal guidelines to physically injure a soft, doughy, little pantie-waist like him. But if he were an actual man, I am afraid I might have to serve a little jail time and possible take an anger management class.
You know, again.
Though I have little doubt that it would be worth it.
(Hat tip tp Politicususa.)
If there were really going to be an Anti-Christ, wouldn't it be a vapid female dominionista who openly claims to be getting messages from God Almighty that she should be the leader of the free world, thus uttering in the battle of Armeggedon?
ReplyDeleteYes! It's hits home when an elderly parent spends some of their meager retirement to buy one of her books. She stole from my mom...now it's personal!
ReplyDeleteI believe Sarah Palin is the Anti Christ and Glenn Beck is totally insane.
ReplyDeleteIf you were in a room with Beck and wouldn't do anything, well get ready for your ass to be kicked to the curb as I would and not give it a second thought.
ReplyDeleteJust so ya know, your ass would them be kicked to the curb by a female.
Dude stop with the ageism. While I'm sure that many 65 year olds may conform to your stereotype of "elderly", many do not. While they may not be in the most desirable demographic for advertisers, they are hardly at death's door, contemplating a possible afterlife. Also, too, you will soon be in the group that you are unconsciously maligning.
ReplyDeleteNo, Gryphen, it would NOT be worth it. The weeper and the grifter will bring themselves down without us doing a thing. In the meantime, many people are just beginning to understand who the really stoopid ones are -- it just takes a little more time for some than others to figure things out. Peace and big cyberhugs to all. The truth will ultimately prevail.
ReplyDeleteHey Gryphen, do you have any influence on the ads on this site? While the adoption agency thing is OK, I was curious and took a look over at their site - this particular agency is highlighting the racial makeup of placed infants - Since those noted were all either caucasian or caucasian/hispanic, it seemed pretty clear, especially since on my cursory look there were no African American or even Native American looking babies or birth mother models, that what they were saying was "we have white babies , not those undesirable ones." THey are also touting gender selection babies too. How much closer can they get to Babies 4 sale, before it's illegal. Sorry to threadjack, but this was pretty disturbing.
ReplyDeleteAmericans are giving the world much to laugh at.
ReplyDeleteAnd for all the wrong reasons.
regarding the ads, they are generated by what each viewer has stored in their browsing histories/cookies
ReplyDeleteI have had ads for places I have visited, including the shaman shop & big/tall place for my son
Here's what I don't get - why is the FCC so adamant about making sure our culture isn't polluted by nipples but doesn't seem to give a hang about seditious talk, hate talk, outright lies put out there as absolute truth.
ReplyDeleteFreedom of speech really applies to speaking out against the government.
We can't slander. We can't defame. We can't make someone fearful for their safety (that's assault as in assault and batter --- battery is unwanted touching and physical violence against another).
We can't yell fire in crowded public places for s*its and giggles. We can't stand outside in the middle of the night screaming out our frustrations. We can't stand around cursing our our bosses or neighbors or little kids at will.
We can't use some words on the radio or broadcast television. Sometimes books and periodicals get taken off newstands or banned from school districts of words or ideas.
Why on earth, then do we allow Fox News (or any media) to mislead people.
It has the right to criticize the government. That is truly a freedom of speech right.
However, it should not have the right to undermine the public good by inciting to hate, violence or mistrust (based upon obvious lies).
If Fox has proof of its allegations, then, fine, let it product those facts. But to just allow it to scare people, to push them to the brink of buying and using guns, to provide fraudulent information that might affect our local,state or national elections - NO, it should not have the right to do that!
Congress could, if it weren't dominated by corporate money, tailor regulations that would curtail the worst abuses. Do I have hope - yes, if we ever get off our collective butts and get a majority of progressive democrats in office and get fair judges appointed or elected.
But it lies in our hands. We have to demand and work for that change.
Hey watch that crap - some of your biggest fans are over 65.
ReplyDeleteI'm an old white guy, approaching 70. I'm a fan.
ReplyDeleteI may not be able to jump over the candlestick like I used to, but I haven't lost my bullshit monitor. It may even be getting sharper.
If I were in a room with Glenn Beck, I'd take his magic undies waistband in a strong grip and twist it 'til his Vicks Vaporub tears were real.
Thank you, Garcolga and Anon 2:51.
ReplyDeleteBoomers were NOT implanted at birth with a brain chip that makes them think in lockstep. There is just as much diversity in our demographic as in any other, and I would really like an apology for the "elderly" remark.
I am 71 and I agree with gryphen. Most of my aged friends are very vulnerable to the FOX "news" propaganda and fear mongering. If Fox says something enough times I hear them parroting the lies and the fear. Then they go back for more.
ReplyDeleteI nearly hung up on my elderly mom when she held her end of the phone up to a "Is Obama the Anti-Christ" UTube video. (Of course the "scriptures" used in that piece of propaganda were completely discredited by actual ancient language scholars.)
ReplyDeleteDad also has her believing that the world might end on December 21, 2012.
*Sigh*
Gryphen, here is an excellent article I think you would like, great comparison of the Palin family vs the Obama family and how they are treated.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/this-your-nation-white-privilege-updated
Fox should be simply categorized as propaganda and forced to say so.
ReplyDelete"Hey Gryphen, do you have any influence on the ads on this site?"
ReplyDeleteI've asked about this before and been labeled a 'bot'. I've seen ads for Meg Whitman, Rand Paul (Sarah-endorsed candidate) and Mitt Romney om IM. The money flows from these people, to the ad agency, to Gryphen. You can't deny that.
Gryphen, show some integrity. If you really need the money from advertisements, use an ad service that does NOT allow ads for conservative causes on YOUR website.
Well what else are they going to do? I mean really - the shit's hitting the fan, which of course - is Obama's fault! Assholes.
ReplyDeleteT
Sarah's latest rant on Facebook just proves how much she does not get it-she calls out the Wisconson unions and tells them "we all need to sacrifice".She does not get that sacrificing and giving up rights are 2 different things.Those union members are will ing to pitch in and make less,pay more for benefits,what they are against is losing their rights to collective bargaining.Something Toad enjoyed when he spent a couple months a year working his union job for big money.
ReplyDeleteericmiami THAT may be my favorite comment in quite a while. Thanks for the laugh.
ReplyDeleteAnd once again for those asking ,I have ZERO control over my Google ads. All I can do is choose which type I allow. The only ones I DON'T allow are sex ads, the exact ad is determined by YOUR surfing habits not me.
What was Cheney's qoute about Saddam's Iraq? "The last gasp of a dying regime"
ReplyDeleteGodspeed, Fox News dimwits.
There may be hope. My FOX-watching, wingnut relative (when I sent her this post) said "That's absurd!"
ReplyDeleteGryph, thank you for your continued attention to what is happening here in Wisconsin. We are trying to take back our great state, and your continued postings on our behalf is helping to keep up our morale. PLease, please, don't stop supporting us. Walker is unmoved by the people. He must be recalled. We need to keep this momentum and I for one, appreciate every post that you write.
ReplyDeletePRIOR: Freedom of speech really applies to speaking out against the government.
ReplyDeleteRESP I always understood FOS to be about government control of speech.
Isn't implying that the sitting president is the Anti-Christ bordering on sedition?
ReplyDeletePRIOR: However, it should not have the right to undermine the public good by inciting to hate, violence or mistrust (based upon obvious lies).
ReplyDeleteRESP: How would you define "public good," and how would you define when that public good had been crossed.
How would you define inciting hate, violence or mistrust" (particularly in light of the speech of the founding fathers which I assume would be considered within the 1st A if there had been a 1st A at the time).
So you really want the government (or community standards) to be the arbiter of truth?
@ 2:42: If you were a member of Congress (or if you are), what kind of language would you propose to tailor regulations that would curtail the worst abuses.
ReplyDeleteGB is a waste of the very air he inhales!
ReplyDeleteI use Firefox. I block ads. I see no ads at all on this site.
ReplyDeleteWARNING! Mark Williams planning to infiltrate SEIU and act up for the news, trying to make the unions look bad.
ReplyDeletehttp://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2011/02/20/tea-party-plan-to-impersonate-union-protesters-even-if-it-becomes-known-that-we-are-plants-the-quotes-pictures-will-linger-as-defacto-truth/
Please tweet it, facebook it, get the word out!!
"Our goal is to make the gathering look as greedy and goonish as we know that it is, ding their credibility with the media and exploit the lazy reporters"
ericmiami -
ReplyDeleteGoodonya! I raise my glass to you!
While Gryphen has no control over which ads appear on this site, YOU have control to not see any ads. Anywhere.
ReplyDeleteThere are many free ad blockers available. My favorite is Hostsman along with the included HostsServer. Ads are blocked via Windows hosts file and is therefore browser independent. The Server can be configured so all ads appear as nothing but a polar bear in a snow storm. Aaaah.
For Macs, you can use Glimmer Blocker.
If you're using Linux, well, you're probably already a geek. Download mvps hosts (or any of your choice) and put it in /etc/hosts.
SOMEONE will milk the money from the mentally infirm. It's part of the capitalist system.
ReplyDeleteI have a FOX view relative who should be intelligent and sturdy enough to see through the bullshit. BUT he's proud of his allegiance to FOX. I regularly yank him back to reality with the odd bit of logic or (gasp) simple facts.
FOX can be beat, it takes persistence though.
Faux News and their ilk wouldn't recognize the anti-Christ if he/she walked in the studio, bonked them over the head with his/her scepter,and loudly announced: "I am the anti-Christ". I am very tired of the scare tactics.
ReplyDeleteBTW watch the ageism or this little ol' lady will tap dance all over you. :-)
Sorry Gryphen - didn't mean to cause you problems - can't for the life of me figure out why that one would pop up then - except for this one incidence of curiosity, I have and have had no reason to visit an adoption site.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, FAUX fought for and won the case against Jane Aker, in which they argued that they did not have to tell the truth. Check out the link below, or get the film The Corporation if you haven't already seen it.
http://www.foxbghsuit.com/complaint.htm
To ericmiami. I don't care how old you are or if you can jump over a damn candlestick, you are hilarious. Still laughing.
ReplyDeleteericmiami: can I help? Please. I am a 60-year old angry white woman! And I would love to kick that namby-pamby Glen Beck's backside til he cried real tears!
ReplyDeleteHere's a direct quote form the Aker site - from Jane herself, quoting the court docs.
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn’t it fall under the definition? Under whistleblower law, the misdeed the whistleblower reports must be illegal, defined as a violation of a law, rule or regulation. The basis of our case was that lying, falsifying the news over the public airwaves is illegal in that it violates the Federal Communication Commission’s rules and regulations against news distortion. The three judges didn’t agree.
The bottom line is good news for any disreputable news broadcaster---go ahead and lie on the public’s airwaves. The 2nd DCA has essentially decided that a whisteblower will never be able to blow the whistle on a broadcast station’s misdeeds. That sounds like a story to me.
And that IMO, was the license for FAUX to being the Beckdick/Limpball reign of lies.
Shit I live in New Zealand .... China is about to take over ..... oh no .....
ReplyDeleteWe gave up on the 'yellow peril' scare two generations ago !!
I know some people here who believe in the ideas Beck alludes to, but they are regarded as loonies and are usually off their meds.
Take it from me New Zealand is not being overtaken by China !!!
When you tag people who are 65 as senile Becker heads remember we are the ones who ended the Vietnam war, who fought in the Vietnam war and who were murdered in Mississippi, Kent State, and Jackson State, who were vilified and gassed, beaten, and jailed from one end of the free country to another.
ReplyDeleteWe were the last generation to take the streets of this country and truly change our government. And to change the way many in this country looked at pointless war, women and Blacks.
I think it's great that people like Sarah and Paul are wasting their money on a site where they are supporting freedom of speech against themselves.
ReplyDeleteJust as well Sarah doesn't know what irony means.
Ericmiami, honey, you are my kind of guy.
ReplyDeleteI'm a 60 year old grandma and I didn't take Gryph's remark personally at all. I've been hanging here for forever, so I know what he meant. Lighten up folks and stop making it personal.
A good friend of mine was in her late forties when her pastor started spreading terrifying Obama-is-the-Anti-Christ garbage via his weekly sermons a couple of years ago. She's become aware and informed since then and has left that church, but I'm sure many of the faithful still subscribe to this dreck. Is this just another convenient way for the ultra-righteous bigots to justify their feelings?
ReplyDeleteOr are they praying for the divine comfort of knowing that Sistah Rapture has the nuke codes scrawled on her paw in Sharpie?
trev
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/19/947285/-Conservatives-ginning-up-fake-doctors-excuse-handout-story-at-Wisconsin-protests-
Also too Kos quoting, Crooks and Liars. The "doctors" handing out excuses in Wi were plants from a group that is at lease loosely connected to Breitbart.
I'm 66, white, male & I say fuck the right wing assholes. I am an asshole also & would have no hesitation proving that. Beck and his ilk are the lickspittle and ass-suckers of the Kochs & their ilk. Go after the head...cut it off and the slime will wither.
ReplyDeleteanon @ 5:39 - I know, I'm a BB myself. ANd yes, it's good of you to remind us of what some 65 ish were doing in the '1970's. But you have to admit, that there were also preppy conservative types back then too, those who were throwing the rocks at the freedom riders, and blocking African Americans from schools, being uprooted and pulled from public to private schools or city to 'burbs by racist parents who didn't want them in integrated schools, and calling anybody with long hair hippies, etc. I had both types in my own FAMILY. Yeah, Thanksgiving was a real hoot.
ReplyDeleteAnd I took it to mean that Gryph meant those folks, the large majority of which are as clueless now as they were then.
To anonymous @4:22 I guess I would start with the FCC. If one doesn't have proof, then one would have to present it as mere speculation. THat would be a start. Huge labels about editorials vs. news.
ReplyDeleteShit, I'm just amazed that even Murdoch/Fox would allow this idiocy to be broadcast. I hope it's an indication that they're circling the drain just like $arah.
ReplyDeleteI consider myself lucky, I have Dell and Home Depot ads.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to the day when our society moves past FOX News. Nothing but worthless rubbish.
3:17, I hate to brag, but my 71 year old mother is very liberal and very informed. She knows her history and religion and spends her days keeping up with the bs on the TV so I don't have to. I'm satisfied with the executive summary, including why the pundits and "journalists" are wrong. It's like my personal Media Matters. And she's not even on the internet. She got her info the old fashioned way: lots of really thick books.
ReplyDeleteIF you are paying for cable TV, and IF the cable TV bundle you are paying for includes Fox News, **YOU** are giving them **YOUR** money.
ReplyDeleteWhat would happen if a substantial number of people decided to boycott basic cable until it was available Fox-free? We'll never find out, because we're a bunch of whiny-ass babies who can't live without the glass teat.
(This Nonny Mouse has lived quite well without cable TV for 2+ years now; the kids were pissed for a while, but they got over it. Every time the cable sales thing comes around we tell it we will NOT be buying cable again until it's available withOUT Fox News.)
Wow... Really?!
ReplyDeleteI thought Beck was going blind.Could it be he didn't tell the truth.Can't happen too soon for my money.
ReplyDeleteIf *I* were in a room with Glenn Beck I would not acknowledge his presence. He would be shunned.
ReplyDeleteIf I were forced in any way to interact with him, I'd basically laugh AT him. And use my extensive vocabulary, the product of TWO masters degrees, to verbally squish him like a bug. He would be very small indeed.
I would make Glenn Beck cry.
And I'd enjoy it.
I am just amazed at the people who think this. Shortly before the 08 election, the CFO told me (in the workplace) that Obama was the Anti-Christ. He was dead serious, not a hint of a joke. He's an educated, accomplished man.
ReplyDeleteRaised in the Southern Baptist church, I always learned that the Anti-Christ came during a period of Tribulation AFTER the church has been raptured. IOW, we will be long gone before that happens. Hmmm. So why is Beck so afraid?
ReplyDeleteGlenn Beck is selling gold and emergency kits to people who are too lazy to do their own research. That is the ONLY reason he's "afraid": To make a buck.
I've got to agree with GarColga, it isn't about age, it's about being gullible and quite frankly, stupid. If you can even stomach listening to that doughy little boy for longer than 30 seconds, you have something seriously wrong with your brain, and that has nothing to do with age.
ReplyDeleteMy 71 year old mom is liberal, too. So is her 71 year old neighbor. So is my elderly neighbor across the street, as well as many of my good friends. I suspect my elderly pastor isn't a conservative, either. He never politicizes his sermons, but he prays for peace and God's love for ALL the people of the world, so there's no way he could be a rightwinger.
ReplyDeleteFox is also starting to characterize this as Democratic legislators not doing their jobs, teachers being AWOL, etc.
ReplyDeleteWe need to not fall into the same old trap of trying to defend our side from the right's charges. Instead, we need to make our own charges and put them on the defense for a change.
My suggestion? Point out that the first thing Castro did when he came into power was ban the unions. So did Hitler. So did Quadaffi in Libya. In short, we need to call Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans dictators over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.
I am a 61-year-old black woman who finds Beck, Palin, Limbaugh, and others, as well as FOX Noise, abhorrent. They foment anger and division on a daily basis under the guise of being patriotic and God-fearing. They are doing the same thing to the Wisconsin workers in 2011 that people in the 1960's who were opposed to the Civil Rights Movement did to the protesters and freedom fighters. They know perfectly well that the Wisconsin protesters are fighting injustice, but just as those opposed to the movement in the
ReplyDelete1960's did, they are demonizing those fighting for justice. As always, they throw President Obama into the mix in yet another ridiculousl transparent to demonize him. Unlike the reactionaries in the 1960's, they have Fox Noise with its malevolent influence on so many.
Gryph, been enjoying your writings since Sept. 8, 2008. Love you a bunch because of your sense of humor. It's much like my own. You crack me up almost every day.
ReplyDeleteI rarely ever comment & have never left a comment here. I'm one of those people that likes to look into someone's eyes when I'm talking to them. Also much better with pen & paper than a keyboard.
What made today the day? Why ericmiami of course. If I wasnt happily married already, I'd probably ask him. Eric, I'm sure you don't, but if you need any help with the always disgusting pile of shit aka Glen Beck, I've got your back!
An old saying popped into my head when I read your comment, "I may be too old to cut the mustard, but I can still lick the jar." When I was in my early 20's I bartended. I had an elderly man, in his 80's come in every morning for a glass of beer. He would always flirt & tell me that. So thanks for making me smile & for reminding me of Nels.