DiscussMormonism.com

I hear that no one clicks links, so I'll provide a few excerpts from what I found to be another great installment from my favorite journalist:

It seemed somehow profane that Sen. Jesse Helms should have managed to depart this life on the 232nd anniversary of the declaration of American independence. To die on the Fourth of July, one can perhaps be forgiven for feeling, is or ought to be a privilege reserved for men of the stamp of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom expired on that day in 1826, 50 years after the promulgation of the declaration. One doesn't want the occasion sullied by the obsequies for a senile racist buffoon.


...there was no recollection of Helms' role in opposing the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, in protecting the apartheid state from the imposition of sanctions, or in defending white Rhodesia.


....His chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was a period of national embarrassment and, sometimes, disgrace. The Helms-Burton Act of 1996, imposing additional economic sanctions on Cuba, multiplied the misery and beggary of Cuba's luckless inhabitants while doing nothing whatever to weaken its military dictatorship.Helms' amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act in 1973, forbidding American aid to any family-planning groups that even mentioned the option of abortion, also greatly added to the woes and miseries of millions of Africans

.... make no apology for calling him a provincial redneck, because that, to be fair to him once more, was how he thought of himself and even described himself.It was a scandal that a man with so little knowledge of the outside world should have had such a stranglehold on American foreign policy for so long.



...He once introduced Benazir Bhutto as the prime minister of India. All right, that could have happened to anybody. But what about the hearings on North Korea in which he made repeated references to "Kim Jong the Second"? In order to prevent any repetition of this idiotic gaffe, Helms' staff propped up a piece of card on which was clearly written the pronunciation "Kim Jong ILL." The senator from North Carolina duly made the adjustment, referring thenceforth to the North Korean despot as "Kim Jong the Third."


...was to hear Helms say in 1994 that if President Clinton ever visited North Carolina, "he'd better bring a bodyguard."


...The way to mark Helms' passing is to recognize that he prolonged the life of the old segregated South and the Dixiecrat ascendancy and that in his own person, not unlike Strom Thurmond, he personified much of its absurdity and redundancy.

I recommend reading the entire, short article: http://www.slate.com/id/2194921/

Helms dies and America celebrates with fireworks, beer, and hotdogs. Personally, I'm glad that racist white trash asshole is dead.

Wonderful left wing hate speech. Typical of both the genre and the psychological type. Following in the same spirit, I suppose I should long for the day when the morally abyssal Chap of quddick, the vacuous self serving liar and traitor in war time John Kerry, the political career criminal Bill Clinton, and the racist poverty pimp and professional Black, Jesse Jackson, all chew their last wad.

But I won't because if I did, then I'd get called "mean spirited" by the enlightened, loving, socially conscious liberals here.

I wonder what will happen when Robert Byrd dies, or, for comparison, Al Sharpen, a leader beloved by the mainstream media but who is one of the most egregious racists in the country, and far more divisive and vicious in his racism than Senator Helms ever was for much of his Senate career.

Droopy wrote:Wonderful left wing hate speech. Typical of both the genre and the psychological type. Following in the same spirit, I suppose I should long for the day when the morally abyssal Chap of quddick, the vacuous self serving liar and traitor in war time John Kerry, the political career criminal Bill Clinton, and the racist poverty pimp and professional Black, Jesse Jackson, all chew their last wad.

But I won't because if I did, then I'd get called "mean spirited" by the enlightened, loving, socially conscious liberals here.

I wonder what will happen when Robert Byrd dies, or, for comparison, Al Sharpen, a leader beloved by the mainstream media but who is one of the most egregious racists in the country, and far more divisive and vicious in his racism than Senator Helms ever was for much of his Senate career.

Ok, so you're defending that racist son of bitch simply because he's a republican or because you agree with his policy decisions? By your language, I'm guessing it's because you're a racist asshole yourself.

Just pointing out the standard liberal hypocrisy...and the mindless hatred that fuels the Left's doublethink and delusions of cultural grandeur.

Droopy wrote:Just pointing out the standard liberal hypocrisy...and the mindless hatred that fuels the Left's doublethink and delusions of cultural grandeur.

Yes, because why attribute negative sentiment to Helms having been a racist, free-speech suppressing homophobe when you can just say "you guys just don't like him cause you're all dirty liberals", amirite.

Droopy, if you projected any harder we could point you at a wall and use you to show Power Point presentations.

Yes, because why attribute negative sentiment to Helms having been a racist, free-speech suppressing homophobe when you can just say "you guys just don't like him cause you're all dirty liberals", amirite.

1. When did Helms ever attempt to suppress fee speech?

What do you think of

1. The Fairness Doctrine
2. McCain Feingold
3. Institutionalized Racial preferences in hiring and college admissions (Affirmative Action)?

Droopy wrote:1. When did Helms ever attempt to suppress fee speech?

I guess you're either to young to remember or simply didn't pay any attention to the stink Helms raised during the early 1980s when he tried to prevent the National Endowment for the Arts from giving grant money to artists he deemed "offensive". Hell, I was a little kid when that happened and I still remember it very well.

Droopy wrote:What do you think of

Not that any of it has any bearing on the topic, but what the hell... I'll bite.

Droopy wrote:1. The Fairness Doctrine

It was a good idea that should have promoted open and honest debate, but was worded and executed poorly.

Droopy wrote:2. McCain Feingold

A good thing that could be made even better if they ever get around to closing the 527 loop-hole. Stop KOS morons and Swiftboat idiots in their tracks. Works out well for both Republicans and Democrats.

Droopy wrote:3. Institutionalized Racial preferences in hiring and college admissions (Affirmative Action)?

Worthless. I'm a firm believer in people advancing on individual merit and not because of their skin color, what bits they have between their legs, what bits they like between otehr people's legs, or what, if any, invisible sky fairy they pray to.

Droopy wrote:Wonderful left wing hate speech. Typical of both the genre and the psychological type. Following in the same spirit, I suppose I should long for the day when the morally abyssal Chap of quddick, the vacuous self serving liar and traitor in war time John Kerry, the political career criminal Bill Clinton, and the racist poverty pimp and professional Black, Jesse Jackson, all chew their last wad.

Like you don't long those days. Who do you think you are kidding?

But I won't because if I did, then I'd get called "mean spirited" by the enlightened, loving, socially conscious liberals here.

(I'm not a liberal, far from it. Nor is the author of the article. Not like that matters to YOU)

I wonder what will happen when Robert Byrd dies, or, for comparison, Al Sharpen, a leader beloved by the mainstream media but who is one of the most egregious racists in the country, and far more divisive and vicious in his racism than Senator Helms ever was for much of his Senate career.

I know you are politically color blind and only see things in terms of conservative or liberal, pardon me, Lib - but try and imagine what different shades of grey might look like for a moment and notice what the "left wing genre and psychological type" are saying about that fool, Al SharPTON: http://www.slate.com/id/2166143/

Yes, Angus, Droopy is only defening Helms because he is a Republican.

I guess you're either to young to remember or simply didn't pay any attention to the stink Helms raised during the early 1980s when he tried to prevent the National Endowment for the Arts from giving grant money to artists he deemed "offensive". Hell, I was a little kid when that happened and I still remember it very well.

The issue in that case had nothing to do with "censorship" as it is properly understood, nor was actual censorship ever considered, by Helms or anybody else.



Droopy wrote:
What do you think of

Not that any of it has any bearing on the topic, but what the hell... I'll bite.

I see you're backed up against the wall already. Nice try though...


Droopy wrote:
1. The Fairness Doctrine

It was a good idea that should have promoted open and honest debate, but was worded and executed poorly.

That may have been the intention of the original legislation, and as to it being a good idea, if that were the case then what it actually promoted - a dearth of open and honest debate in the public sphere, espeially on radio, would not have happened. The motivation completely changed, however, after the rise of Rush Limbaugh and the progressive domination of AM talk radio by conservatives.


Droopy wrote:
2. McCain Feingold

A good thing that could be made even better if they ever get around to closing the 527 loop-hole. Stop KOS morons and Swiftboat idiots in their tracks. Works out well for both Republicans and Democrats.

Great! You let me catch you in this obvious trap, and I'm now quite satisfied. You have just admitted, despite all of your pontifications about free speech, censorship, and the constitution, that you, in point of fact, do not believe in free speech and, indeed, you believe in strict limitations on the specific kind of speech the constitution was created to protect (political) and at the most critical time in the political life of a nation (near general and off year Senatorial and Congressional elections).

I see that you want to deny people, both on the Right and the Left, with whom you disagree, the right to make there views known in the public square as an election draws nigh. Interesting (by the way, the Swifties did nothing more than tell the stark, ugly, naked truth about one of the most egregious political charlatans in modern times, who's fabrications regarding his own war record, and his much more serious fabrications regarding the Vietnam war and the conduct of his country and American soldiers in that war, and his support of and aid to the enemy of this country in that war,earned him a rightful place in the halls of infamy in the minds of American servicemen on both sides of the political aisle. Its telling that neither Kerry nor his campaign ever even attempt to answer the charges in a rational manner, or produced any facts or evidence to the contrary. Their entire response was ad hominem).

Droopy wrote:
3. Institutionalized Racial preferences in hiring and college admissions (Affirmative Action)?



Worthless. I'm a firm believer in people advancing on individual merit and not because of their skin color, what bits they have between their legs, what bits they like between otehr people's legs, or what, if any, invisible sky fairy they pray to.

Well, you redeemed yourself, by the skin of your teeth, at the 11th hour. Good show.