The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Richard Day's picture

    PRUDENCE

    File:Luca Giordano 014.jpg
                                                             PRUDENCE


    "Empowered by faith, consistently, prayerfully, we need to find our way back to civility.  That begins with stepping out of our comfort zones in an effort to bridge divisions... Civility also requires relearning how to disagree without being disagreeable; understanding, as President [Kennedy] said, that "civility is not a sign of weakness."

                                                                                      President Barack Obama

     

    Too often, for example, religious believers have been uncharitable, liberals have been illiberal, conservatives have been insensitive to tradition, champions of tolerance have been intolerant, defenders of free speech have been censorious, and citizens of a republic based on democratic accommodation have succumbed to a habit of relentless confrontation.

     

                                                                                     The Williamsburg Charter

     

    It's been really a concerted effort by people who want to damage the tea party, people who want to make the tea party something it's not, people who want to characterize me as someone who I'm not," Paul said. "I take great pride in presenting myself as someone who is thoughtful, someone who is respectful and I see more of an intolerance on the left in the sense that they won't discuss the ideas in a sane way, other than to call me names and call me hateful things that really doesn't further the discussions of any of these problems in our country.

                                                                                       Rand Paul

     

    Yeah that old intolerance of the left for chrissakes!  We are just unable to see the other side of things. For heaven sakes!!! I need to work on my intolerance so that I can reach the ultimate nirvana that Paul and his Tea Baggers have reached.

    Let us just look at the most recent teabagging discussions that choose rational discussion over hyperbole:

    Walter Williams, sitting in for Rush Limbaugh for example, opined that taxing the rich represents the same hateful immoral attitudes of slave owners and of NAZI's sending Jews to Death Camps. Oh and rich people should get more votes in our democratic system of government.

    Beckerhead? Just pick a day and tune right into some real discussions by an intellectual:


    • reportedly retaliated against a rival radio host by calling the rival's wife and mocking her for having a miscarriage. On the air.
    • enumerated the various people, including Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), that he wanted to "beat to death with a shovel."
    • reportedly attacked Terri Schiavo's husband, Michael  -- after he had previously run segments mocking Terri's condition -- as a "murderer" who sired two "bastard" children
    • attacked Katrina victims as "scumbags," adding "I didn't think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims."
    • reportedly resorted to "vicious personal assaults on fellow radio hosts," including lobbing "exceedingly cruel, pointless" "fat jokes" aimed at an overweight rival host during his time as a DJ in Louisville, Kentucky.   http://mediamatters.org/columns/201006040059

    Deep thinkers like Michael Savage believe that courtesy is mandated by the lord in all instances:

    "90 percent of the people on the Nobel Committee are into child pornography and molestation, according to the latest scientific studies."

    The Catholic League headed by Donohue wishes to promote a more courteous  and rational flavor to religious discussion:

    He has said, for example, that "[p]eople don't trust the Muslims when it comes to liberty" and that "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular." Donohue has also demonstrated selective outrage when it comes to the religious bigotry of others, defending conservative writer Jerome Corsi's attacks on the Catholic Church and conservative actor Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic rants. (Donohue has previously been granted a guest post at On Faith. http://www.alternet.org/media/75119

    The NEWT has deep affection for our President of course and attempts to merely initiate a discourse concerning some of Obama's programs:

    Now, he is promoting his new anti-regulation, pro-drilling book, To Save America, which argues repeatedly that the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress are a "secular-socialist machine" that "represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union."   h-hitler-threat/

    And Dick Armey believes in polite discourse and thinks that hate speech is not beneficial in the current political atmosphere. That is why he refers to the current chairman of the House Financial Services Committee as Barney Fag.

    Not that a little venting does not do one good from time to time and fuck you very much Senator Leahy.

    As it happens, the exchange between our former Vice-President and Senator Leahy occurred on the same day the Senate passed legislation described as the "Defense of Decency Act" by 99-1

    Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) came to the defense of the racists and bigots who shouted slurs at members of Congress Saturday. The Tea Party protesters shouted the 'n' word at African American members of Congress the 'f' word at an openly gay member.

    Rather than condemn the anachronistic behavior, Nunes blamed the Democrats, saying that they make people do and say crazy things with their tyrannical behavior. http://somecountryforoldmen.com/2010/03/21/democrats-made-teabaggers-racist/

    You see, if Senator Leahy were not such a fucker, Dick Cheney would not have had to point that out to him.

    If Congressional members of the Black Caucus were not such n%^&*rs, they would not be referred to as such.

    If Barney Frank were not such a goddamnable faggot, Dick Armey would not have had to call him out as such, so to speak.

    If Obama were not such a goddamnable Muslim Terroristic Stalin/Hitler, all these repubs and teabaggers would not have to continually call him out as such.

    If Hollywood were not controlled by so many Christian hating Jews, our movies would be so much more...well...Christian.

    If the Norweigian Parliament would quit giving the Nobel Peace Prize to homo, pornographic, Christian hating Jewish communists, the prize might mean more.

    If natural disasters and man-made disasters did not always claim scumbags as victims, maybe people like Brownie could really perform one heck of a job.

    If the American People could just wake up and quit electing ragheads Presidents and Governors, we could all live in peace.

    If poor people were not such ignorant, irrelevant, lazy and secular people, THEY WOULD NOT BE POOR AT ALL.

    IT'S NOT THE REPUBS' FAULT!!!

    If the media would simply be more sensitive to the needs of the right wing; well Rand would have more of an opportunity to make his sentiments known.

    And as my mother used to say, never use the 'f' word unless and until you are really worked up.

    The conversation then moved to Paul's recent comments on Obama's response to the BP oil spill in which he said Obama "sounds really un-American in his criticism of business." Asked how he responded to Obama's recent rebuke of a new BP ad campaign, Paul said:

    "It bothers me. I saw the full-page ad in the newspaper and they've promised to pay for the clean up. Do we have to have a villain? That's my whole point -- do we want a presidential administration that says outlandish things like we're going to put our boot heel on BP? I want BP to pay, everybody wants them to pay for cleaning up the oil mess. But the thing is, is that sometimes people are well-intentioned and bad things happen. And I don't know if there was negligence or fault here -- it should be investigated and if there is someone should be punished for it. But we shouldn't automatically assume that there is."     http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/08/rand-paul-complains-of-in_n_604185.html

    Imagine, this poor corporation had to dig into its most recently acquire 26 billion dollars in profit and pay for an ad promising to do good.

    I think we have all hurt BP's feelings.

    I mean corporations are people too.  http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/25/corporations-china-business-economics-opinions-columnists-michael-maiello.html

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-2lMstw6qs