$%^&*!!: Civility and tolerance in the Age of Obama
My syndicated column today looks at the outbreak of Obama-esque discourse across the country. Couldn’t even mention some of the misogynist sleaze prompted by the Tea Party movement because newspapers wouln’t print it. And they call us an “unhinged mob?”
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Civility and tolerance in the Age of Obama
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2009
They told us if Barack Obama were elected, the nation would come together. Souls would be fixed. Spirits would be healed. Public discourse would be elevated. Welcome to civility and tolerance in the Age of Obama:
* Celebrity leech/trash blogger Perez Hilton took to the Internet and TV airwaves to humiliate a beauty pageant contestant who gave what he considered an “offensive” answer about gay marriage. Hilton, inexplicably serving as a judge of the Miss USA contest, had asked Miss California Carrie Prejean whether she supported the legalization of gay marriage. Prejean respectfully answered: “I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.” President Obama, by the way, defines marriage the same way Carrie Prejean does.
No matter. Hilton immediately lambasted Prejean as a “dumb b*tch” in a viral YouTube video he taped after the pageant Sunday night. He apologized the next morning for the attack, then retracted his apology, then escalated his divisive rhetoric. On Tuesday afternoon, Hilton told an MSNBC female anchor that he was thinking of an even more vulgar epithet – the “c-word” – as he listened to Prejean’s answer. The female anchor said nothing. Basking in his new role as thought and speech enforcer, Hilton told CNN’s Larry King that beauty pageant contestants must bow to the tolerance mob: “Yes. I do expect Miss USA to be politically correct.”
And apparently, the Miss USA organizers agree. Instead of apologizing for pageant judge Perez Hilton’s vile behavior, the pageant director of the Miss California contest, Keith Lewis, sent a note to Hilton throwing Prejean under the bus: “I am personally saddened and hurt that Miss CA USA 2009 believes marriage rights belong only to a man and a woman…Religious beliefs have no place in politics in the Miss CA family.”
But gutter profanity and misogyny do?
*At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last week, former GOP congressman Tom Tancredo came to speak against legislative proposals to provide illegal alien students in-state tuition discounts not available to law-abiding Americans and legal immigrant students. Protesters at the institution of higher learning responded by blocking Tancredo with massive banners and screaming “No dialogue with hate.” Adults in the room stood by while students smashed a window a few feet from where Tancredo stood. Physically threatened, Tancredo was forced to leave without delivering his remarks.
According to campus reports, leftists had prepared for a week to mount a speech-squelching demonstration. The same thuggish tactics have been used at Columbia University, Georgetown University, and Michigan State University to shut down speakers who support strict immigration enforcement. The UNC administration apologized for the students’ tantrum, but took no steps to examine its own culpability for fostering a climate of intellectual vandalism and intolerance.
*The nightly airwaves turned into a soft-porn cesspool last week as liberal journalists derided and slimed hundreds of thousands of Tea Party protesters across the country who oppose reckless taxing and spending by both major political parties. Award-winning CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, mimicking his bottom-of-the-barrel competitors at MSNBC, smugly indulged in sexual puns about “teabagging.” MSNBC devoted the entire week to sophomoric sexual slang and innuendo with references to “nuts,” Dick Armey, and “full-throated” protesters.
And White House adviser David Axelrod calls the Tea Party folks “unhealthy?”
Speaking of unhealthy, angry white liberal actress Janeane Garofalo venomously played the race card: “It’s about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up and is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks.” The theme was echoed by Jeffrey Kimball, a professor emeritus of history at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, who castigated the “extreme right” for organizing against President Obama because “he’s black and he’s liberal.“ Tell that to the thousands of activists in South Carolina who practically booed and heckled white Republican Rep. Gresham Barrett off the stage at a Tea Party in Greenville last Friday night for supporting the trillion-dollar TARP and embracing the pork-laden stimulus law after voting against it. “Go home!” they shouted. The only color that mattered to protesters: the red ink of government debts.
But in the age of Obama, there’s no room for such nuance and inconvenient truths. A decent young woman is a “dumb b*tch” for holding the same view of marriage as the Obamessiah. A conservative campus speaker is bullied as a hatemonger by wild-eyed hatemongers. A grass-roots movement is debased as a bunch of racist vulgarians by a media mob of racists and vulgarians. Civility and tolerance have taken a left-hand turn down a one-way street. So much for changing course.
***
B. Daniel Blatt at GayPatriot:
Why do so many refuse to acknowledge the legitimate objections some people have to state recognition of gay marriage and hesitate to challenge them on the level of ideas? Why do they resort to name-calling as a means of discourse?
Their preference for slurring gay marriage opponents parallels the way they and their peers respond to the Tea Parties. Instead of listening to their adversaries’ arguments and acknowledging the sincerity of their concerns, they treat them as a bully treats the defenseless kid on the playground.
They think they can get away with it because the MSM encourages their insults. And doesn’t hold them to account for their mean-spirited attempts to demean their adversaries.
Our society could gain by a serious discussion of gay marriage. Gay people in particular would benefit from such a conversation. Yet, the supposed advocates of this change would rather score points in some imaginary contest with conservatives than make a point about the social benefits of extending the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples.
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It’s the religous aspect they hate. Her answer is EXACTLY that of Obama. She gave her opinion, was nice about it, and I suspect will go on with her life. My guess is Hilton will find his core fans less adoring in the future since he basically called them all the C word.
Attack, retract, attack again. Looks like the little lady Perez missed a dose of Midol.
Where is Trump on this? He should show he has a pair and stand up for the runner up.
Unless he does he cannot claim to be a real leader, in any capacity.
Jim M: A bunch of excellent points regarding the use of the law. However, you also note that there is a dispute regarding whether certain law applies — and that is part of the reason for a law suit. First, and most important, is to get a complete set of facts. At this point, there is a lot of speculation about the potential for fraud, slander, and discrimination/harassment. Second, how those facts relate to potential arguments under the law is always part of the process as defendants are dropped and added based on findings. Essentially, the law changes as the case develops.
My key point involves not only the potential for damage to Prejean, but to every one of the contestants. If you have to answer based upon whatever shifting sands of political correctness are involved, then you are really in trouble in what is supposedly a freedom loving America. Since we know for sure that Prejean’s freedom of speech was used against her, we can also assume that it was used against someone else and will be done so in the future. I would rather see the Miss USA Pageant gone than tolerate such suppression.
The culmination of the insane left finally left me no choice but to write up my own rant. No longer am I going to sit idly by without a word. I am madder than a ferret after a bath!
They did clear them and approved the question.
But apparently, they didn’t clear the answer.
I wish that were true. You are over-estimating the kind of women who follow this…person. I can’t imagine who or why this guy is even in the public spot light. Who is he and why does anyone care. Proof positive our humanity hasn’t kept up with our technology. I’m assuming it is because of the internet that this guy is known on any level..right?
If the producers cleared that question…
and threw in the Flaming “Burning branch” they knew had a rep as a trash-talker with an agenda…
IT WAS A SET-UP…!!!
If you knowingly set stuff in motion, you are liable when it happens.
It’s called “foreseeability” in the law, and it’s all over this if what you say is true.
How is it a setup if they didn’t know who would receive the question?
It doesn’t matter if it is a dead-bang certainty, or a probability.
If you put in the ingredients and stir the pot…
you are liable for what comes out.
In this case, I can readily see that there were cynical people…believe me, I know the type…who hoped (prayed) for the result they got.
And, it’s working to a fair-thee-well. Look at this thread, for crying out loud!
Its a setup because if she gave the answer they like, they advanced their agenda by getting Miss America to endorse it. If the contestant does not give the answer they like, they can induce ridicule, shame, call names… and advance their agenda.
Are you sure you can’t see that?
I’m more inclined to believe that then the conspiracy theories that say she was specifically targeted.
They may have specifically targeted her. I don’t know. Maybe they knew how she would answer and that’s the answer they really wanted so they can show hate, fear etc. Kinda depends on how they decide the questioner turns etc. That would really be a shame if they went after her.
How many contestants at that phase of the pageant?
more like TRUTH HURTS.
post your proof. lets see it, put up or shut up. ya got nothing…except a few (quite a few) extra lbs….
If you’re making the accusation that the question was a set up, the burden of proof falls on the prosecution, not the defense.
Suppose this became actual litigation, the court is not going to demand that the defense prove that it was not a set up – it would be the counsel of the plaintiff to make a case (beyond reasonable doubt) with the onus of proof. The defense would need only establish that there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the question was a set up.
A little confusion here about the burden of proof.
You are citing the criminal burden.
Civil litigation involves only “a preponderance” of proof…for most issues. Sometimes, “clear and convincing” for punitive damages.
But once you establish a colorable case by proof, the burden can shift in civil litigation.
But, all that stuff aside, this is…if anything…a court of public opinion. No real rules.
Thus quoth the trial lawyer…
C’mon…anybody…
How many contestants at that phase of the pageant when the question was asked?
Where’s Omu? This topic should be his paradise!
Political correctness run amuck. Miss california could have lied and gotten the title, but she stood by her beliefs. Good for her. This confused half little boy, half little girl, simply proved the tyranical nature of the gay brown shirts.
Mookie said:
The question shouldn’t have been cleared and shouldn’t have been asked to any contestant. It was a tacky, incendiary question.
And this answer was coming from a gal who lives in California (liberalville)…I can’t imagine the answers would have differed amount any of the contestants much except from maybe Ms. Vermont, Hawaii or Massachusetts.
At any rate, he (it) was completely out of line calling this gal a b and a c word just because the little ingrate didn’t like her answer. Perez is a sexist Pig. After viewing his clip, Ms. California looked like Einstein next to this baffoon.
I know three year olds with a better sense of fashion than this little turd.
Perez Hilton: 37
Those that hate him: 0
He’s loving this. We’ve all done our part. clap, clap, clap, clap, clap,…
She knew what she was doing, too. Her interviews show she has more stones than most members of Congress.
She expressed Christian love for Perez, and that was class.
I agree that it should have never been asked but apparently, it has been asked at other pageants. I found that surprising.
Either way, this is the best thing that could have happened to either one of them.
Y E P
Geez, people….
Somebody has to know how many contestants were in this phase of the pageant….
I don’t watch these things, but somebody has to know…
Perez Hilton just wanted to be a sissy but now he’s become a c***.
o’riley is going to interview trump tomorrow.
Why doesn’t the gay/lesbian community have their own “beauty pageants” and leave the Miss USA/America pageant alone? They have to infiltrate everything! Just like they forced eHarmony to serve them against company policy. They are getting so used to inserting themselves where they don’t belong.
The ugliness and intolerance of the Left is beyond belief.
If any state goes for secession, I am there!
Seriously, I think the non-Left needs to secede and re-form the USA. Let the Left have the new USSA.
simple logic, something that liberals seem to lack…
the organizer’s and the judge’s attitude toward this girl is very obvious…they didn’t want her to win, and they rigged it….
how hard is this???
given that neither of us have access to exactly what went on…lets see liberals rig elections, they rig hollywood so conservatives don’t get jobs…
what would EVER make anyone think these good libs would do ANYTIHNG wrong..
Nothing further need be said….
Really.
Nothing. Please.