'Hate Speech' from a veteran columnist

[kyredneck]

"Helen Thomas , a veteran columnist for Hearst Newspapers, announced her resignation today shortly after the White House condemned her remarks about Jews as "offensive" and "reprehensible."
[ take note: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/obamajews.html ]

White House Columnist Helen Thomas Resigns After Telling Jews 'Go Home'

"Thomas caused an uproar with her recent remarks that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and "go home" to Poland, Germany, America and "everywhere else."
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Medi...s-telling-israeli-jews-home/story?id=10847378

 

[sag38]

There's no defending what she said. It's not something that you can just casually take back. At least she had the character to do what she should have done along time ago. Maybe she would make a good contestant for "The Biggest Loser."

 

[kyredneck]

per Wiki: "Thomas was born in Winchester, Kentucky.[3] Her parents, Mary (née Rowady) and George Thomas, were Lebanese immigrants from Tripoli, Lebanon;..."

 

[kyredneck]

Michael Savage comments (himself Jewish, born Michael Alan Weiner):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkgbSqGmblg

(I call this 'real' hate speech.)

 

[1Tim115]

God gave the land of Israel (Canaan) to the children of Abraham for a possession forever.

Genesis 22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

 

[kyredneck]

That is what is generally believed amongst protestants and baptists.

 

[RAdam]

That God also pronounced judgement on them which was fullfilled in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem, the temple, and dispersed the Jews all over the known world. The Jews have no more claim over that land today than anybody else. I feel sympathy for them over their blindness to scripture and the fact that they are surrounded by people who would kill them all if they could get away with it. That said, they've been judged.

 

[Robert Snow]

Would we have this uproar if Thomas had said for the Palestinians to go home to Jordon and Syria and leave Israel? I doubt it!

 

[kyredneck]

Would we have this uproar if Thomas had said for the Palestinians to go home to Jordon and Syria and leave Israel? I doubt it!

The ones screeching like car alarms are the Jews. From RabbiLIVE.com:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQcQdWBqt14

 

[Crabtownboy]

Where are the Conservatives who want the country to live by the Constitution which includes the right to free speech.

I do not agree with her. But this was her opinion. She threatened no one. She did not call any individuals foul names. She simply expressed her opinion. Under the Constitution she has that right, regardless of how bad her opinion sounds. I am not defending her opinion, I am defending her right to free speech ... just as you have free speech.

The stages of hate speech that lead to genocide are:

1. Classification of people into groups ... us and them.
2. Symbolization -- tagging groups with degrading names
3. Dehumanization -- calling a group rats, cockroaches, etc.
4. Organization -- into groups or mobs to hunt down the identified group.
5. Polarization -- and eliminating the moderates in both groups.
6. Identification -- drawing up a list of people to be eliminated.
7. Extermination -- as in Hitler's "Final Solution."

I do not see any of these in her opinion. She has paid a great price for expressing her opinion. Others have gotten away with worse.

 

[targus]

Others are just as much entitled to an opionion of her statement as she is entitled to state her opinions.

Why do you want to deny others the right to state their opinions of her statement?

 

[Crabtownboy]

Others are just as much entitled to an opionion of her statement as she is entitled to state her opinions.

Why do you want to deny others the right to state their opinions of her statement?

What makes you think I want to stop others?

 

[StefanM]

I think this was overblown.

I think her comment was idiotic, but I don't think it was that big of a deal.

 

[sag38]

I thought liberals were so anti-racist. Yet, when Ms. Liberal, herself, makes what is an egregious racist statement, Crabby has the gall to make it a matter of free speech. Unbelievable!

 

[Crabtownboy]

I thought liberals were so anti-racist. Yet, when Ms. Liberal, herself, makes what is an egregious racist statement and yet Crabby has the gall to make it a matter of free speech. Unbelievable!

Did you really read my post?

Does she have the right to free speech under the Constitution?

Did I say I agreed with her statement?

Are you for free speech?

I will defend your right to free speech ... even when I disagree with your statements.

Will you do the same for me?

 

[sag38]

Crabby, you can't wiggle you way out of this one by giving more homework questions. There's nothing else to say. I'll let your statements defending her hate speech speak for themselves.

 

[Walguy]

Where do people get the idea that the Constitutional 'right to free speech' means you can say whatever you want with no consequences whatsoever? It only means that the government cannot arbitrarily outlaw speech or punish people for saying something they decide they don't like. SOCIAL consequences of free speech are a completely different matter. Should a clerk be able to call a customer offensive names because they have the right to free speech? They can't be charged with a crime for doing it, but they can and should be fired. That is not a violation of Constitutional rights.
But Helen Thomas wasn't even fired! She resigned after many people, exercising the same right to free speech that she did, condemned her comments. No one suggested that she be arrested and imprisoned for what she said. She decided, rightly, that she could no longer do her job properly with this unremovable cloud hanging over her. If she HAD been fired, however, it would still not be a Constitutional issue.
Except for the 'yelling fire in a crowded theatre' situations, speech cannot be outlawed. But that does NOT mean that there should never be any other consequences for speech. We are and well should be held accountable socially for improper things we say, especially when they are at the level of offensiveness of what Helen Thomas said.

 

[pinoybaptist]

Where do people get the idea that the Constitutional 'right to free speech' means you can say whatever you want with no consequences whatsoever? It only means that the government cannot arbitrarily outlaw speech or punish people for saying something they decide they don't like. SOCIAL consequences of free speech are a completely different matter. Should a clerk be able to call a customer offensive names because they have the right to free speech? They can't be charged with a crime for doing it, but they can and should be fired. That is not a violation of Constitutional rights.
But Helen Thomas wasn't even fired! She resigned after many people, exercising the same right to free speech that she did, condemned her comments. No one suggested that she be arrested and imprisoned for what she said. She decided, rightly, that she could no longer do her job properly with this unremovable cloud hanging over her. If she HAD been fired, however, it would still not be a Constitutional issue.
Except for the 'yelling fire in a crowded theatre' situations, speech cannot be outlawed. But that does NOT mean that there should never be any other consequences for speech. We are and well should be held accountable socially for improper things we say, especially when they are at the level of offensiveness of what Helen Thomas said.

I get calls from people all over this country that tempt me to say "you're dumb and stupid", or "you have no right to own a computer", or "so you call us and unload your idiotic rant on us who have nothing at all to do with your own ignorance", or "you think just because you're our customer you got the right to speak to me like I'm supposed to smell your behind and say it smells like a bed of roses" ?

I got free speech, right ?

But I don't say these things out loud.
I think them, and give the bird to the caller's info on the screen.

Yeah, I agree with most all you said.

That said, I think most of these saber-rattling comes from those who think that Israel cannot make mistakes simply because they're God's "chosen people" (which at this point in their history I think is over). Like Jay Sekulow on the radio spitting his froth all over his microphone (figure of "free" speech, okay ?).

 

[JohnDeereFan]

Where are the Conservatives who want the country to live by the Constitution which includes the right to free speech.

Who stopped her from speaking? She has the right to speak and she exercised it.

I am defending her right to free speech ... just as you have free speech.

It's always easy to "defend" something that no one has threatened. Kind of like it's easy to blame a former president who left office a year and a half ago.

 

[kyredneck]

I think this was overblown.

I think her comment was idiotic, but I don't think it was that big of a deal.

Thank you. She's 89 yrs old, has ethnic ties to the middle east, maybe a little senile, and it's probably time for her to retire anyway. The Jews will make a mountain out of a mole hill with anything they percieve as anti-semitic.