Ah, Fred Phelps... the only man who could be such a horrible person to grow up under, that several of his children have post traumatic stress disorder that makes Vietnam veterans with PTSD go "dayem!".

And no, I'm not kidding on that one.

The man is a certifiable lunatic. And so for that matter is Pat Robertson whom you quoted in your other post, who made some really choice comments post-9/11 as well.


Lilith

re: Fred Phelps

c'mon what could be damaging to your own sense of self about living with a guy who wants (wanted?) to erect a Matthew Shepard statue saying "MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22." #(

Hi Silibo, LadyAttercop and Lilith,

thank you very much for your explanations. I thoroughly agree with the theory that both the contemporary religious lobby and the American foreign policy we are currently able to witness are the heritage of Puritanism. It's still the "city upon the hill"-attitude, only that this very city seems willing to expand and all introversion (?) is lost.

These waves of liberalism and conservatism the US face, when do they appear? I mean, to what circumstances are they linked? It wouldn't be all too suprising, if one could discover a rise of the messiah-complex in times of a struggling national economy as a compensation for personal pressure experienced.

Luciferian,

yes, there are quite some Americans, who defy this bad cliché, but the problem is that they don't have any place in the public awareness (?), to the majority of the people, they are simply nonexistent (at least in Europe). The average person doesn't know a Noam Chomsky, a Susan Sontag or a Ralph Nader. Sad, but true.

Excuse my igonrance, but who are Fred Phelps, Pat Robertson and Greg Palast? are they of any importance? I've never heard these names before...

Best wishes,
Your aversion

In my early days of exploring the virgin internet, I had the misfortune to stumble across Mr Phelps' notorious anti-gay site "God Hates Fags" (I will not demean myself by giving out its URL). Now I've seen a lot of websites since then, from the worst of Rotten.com to the likes of Lemonparty, tubgirl and the infamous Goatse. Of all those sites, Phelps' is the only one that genuinely made me feel physically sick.

Such is my loathing for the man, I would amputate all of my limbs and spend the rest of my life in a wooden box to see the second coming of Jesus beat the crap out of him. Repeatedly, using a baseball bat with barbed wire wound round it and nails hammered through it

- trag

See, I don't get why anyone would come up with an elaborate plan to torture Mr. Phelps, trag. Can't you see the man is in pain? I, being a far more compassionate man, would refrain from violence and simply give the poor Mr. Phelps what he has clearly needed all along: a big, sloppy, unshaven man-kiss.

With tongue.

Possibly administered rectally.



I have a funny feeling that ol' Fred would have himself a religious experience of another kind in that instance.





~Nachtzehrer, who mocks that which offends him~

WOW! You sure have a way with words. I laughed so hard while reading that I almost could not see the monitor for all the tears...

That site, on the other hand, is just ... Amazing, in lack of a better word. So many people, so stupid... Ack!

trag: read TSQ's signature.

bah, I'll copy/paste the relivant parts


p0m: Listening to slipknot is like raping yourself with a barbed wire baseball bat.
VarjoSusi: p0m: nah. baseball bat is too thin. more like barbed wire saguaro cactus

now, replace Listening to slipknow with Being Fred Phelps

thats how I feel about the man

Fred Phelps => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church_%28Topeka%29

Pat Robertson => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Robertson

...and now, speaking of Greg Palast, I saw some info by him in the above Robertson article:

"Robertson's great personal wealth and his uses of it. His net worth is between $200 million and $1 billion USD according to the 2002 book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast. Through his ostensibly charitable organization, Operation Blessing International, Robertson claims to have spent $1.2 million bringing aid to refugees in Rwanda. His critics, such as Palast, claim the money was actually spent to bring heavy equipment for Robertson's African Development Corporation, a diamond mining operation. He has purchased thoroughbred race horses, although he has stated on many occasions he is opposed to gambling. Robertson claims he bought the horses because he is "amazed by their athleticism".

Greg Palast => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Palast
http://www.gregpalast.com/



B)

I don't know about Noam Chomsky specifically, but Deepak Chopra has discussed world politics on the Dennis Miller Show more than once (CNBC, and Dennis Miller himself is conservative). And the left-wing nutjob Ward Churchill gets as much airtime on any TV news station as any right-wing nutjob out there.

EDIT: In the past four years, Noam Chomsky has appeared on CNN, in The Washington Post, and on NPR's "All Things Considered. That's hardly what I'd call a mainstream media boycott. He had had quite a few media appearances before 9/11 as well.

There is no vast right-wing media conspiracy. As a matter of fact, most conservatives are as displeased with mainstream media sources like CNN as most liberals are.

SS

Presuming we're talking about Deepak Chopra the holistic healer, I'm really not sure why he's discussing world politics on television. There's probably as much to gain from Csikszentmihalyi's opinion on politics. *shrugs*

The same could be said for Noam Chomsky though. He's a linguistics professor at MIT, after all, not a political science professor.

And to clarify, Deepak Chopra was discussing politics, not holistic healing, on the Dennis Miller Show when I saw it.

SS

3 appearances in the last 4 years? One is on public radio. One is in print. It's hardly what I call 'due attention' either.

I don't think I mentioned any sort of conspiracy.

Here's a quote from FAIR for you to have and to hold:

"Given that most media outlets are owned by for-profit corporations and are funded by corporate advertising, it is not surprising that they seldom provide a full range of debate. The right edge of discussion is usually represented by a committed supporter of right-wing causes, someone who calls for significantly changing the status quo in a conservative direction. The left edge, by contrast, is often represented by an establishment-oriented centrist who supports maintaining the status quo; very rarely is a critic of corporate power who identifies with progressive causes and movements with the same passion as their conservative counterparts allowed to take part in mass media debates".

Yes, I think people of all political persuasions can agree that the dumbing down of the news is a bad thing. I think it only favours conservative power in the short term.

Yes, the same could be said but I don't think it's a very strong comparison.

Anyway, I don't want my point to appear to morph into "flood the media with Chomsky" as I think that icon driven politics don't really benefit either side.

Did you ever lay eyes on his master piece "God Hates Swedes" that he made after the tsunami late last year?

He's such a lovely man... full of those compassionate values, just like Jesus was.




Lilith

I can't comment on Greg Palast, not knowing anything about him.

Pat Robertson and Fred Phelps are both evangelists/preachers. Pat Robertson owns his own major evangelist tv network, the 700 Club. Pat, along with pal Jerry Falwell (also one of those tv evangelist types), made such lovely comments in the wake of 9/11 which basically boiled down to the fact that America deserved the twin tower attack because it had turned it's back on god because of all that rampant liberalism and pro-gay stuff.



Fred Phelps almost makes Pat Robertson look like a flaming liberal in comparison. That man is seriously deranged. He hates gay people with a passion, and after the murder of Matthew Shepard (a college kid who had the shit beaten out of him and whom was left to die tied to a fence somewhere by 2 men because he had told them he was gay) he picketed the funeral with "god hates fags" and "matthew shepard rots in hell" type billboards.

And wikipedia also mentions the following:



So a real charmer, as you can imagine.



Lilith