# And there was much rejoicing! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 21, 2001, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430 "2001-08-21T22:16:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2001, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/61 "2001-08-23T01:34:37Z")
Don’t forget [Jesse trying to make black Senator Carol Moseley-Brown cry by singing ‘Dixie’ at her in an elevator](http://www.thenewrepublic.com/archive/1199/111599/cottle111599.html). Truly, the man goes beyond asshole into evil. If I’d been Carol, I would have maced him. ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2001, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/62 "2001-08-23T01:39:36Z")
The image of Carol Moseley-Brown macing Jesse Helms would make Baby Jesus smile. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2001, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/63 "2001-08-23T03:01:12Z")
Well, I’ll not only defend 'Sprix, I’ll raise him. I want Jesse dead. Dead-dead-dead, long-suffering-painful dead. None of this but-I’m-sure-he’s-nice-to-the-dog bullshit. He has worked enormous evil over the course of his career, doing his best, for example, to ensure the long-suffering-painful deaths of those with HIV. My only disappointment is that assuming he survives to the end of his term, he won’t experience that kind of death while wielding the power he has so abused throughout his political life. A gangrenous soul deserves body to match. Once he is dead I will visit his grave - to dance on it. ---
**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2001, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/64 "2001-08-23T05:07:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by anya marie \* > \*\*The image of Carol Moseley-Brown macing Jesse Helms would make Baby Jesus smile. \*\* Especially if she used the mace in [this picture](http://www.ece.nwu.edu/~pred/Images/noble-medieval.gif). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2001, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/65 "2001-08-23T16:49:09Z")
**Esprix** , I don’t blame you at all for feeling the way you do. It’s easy for those who have not been personally insulted by this man’s statements and actions to step back and use the pot-kettle analogy. You and I know that Helms used his power in the most despicable ways, to oppress, to discriminate, and by attemting to deny funding to the study of HIV, to _kill_ those who he felt were unworthy of equal existence. He attacked you, and attempted to ensure the deaths of people you know and care about. Wishing death upon him is not only natural, it might even be a healthy sign of self-preservation. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2001, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/66 "2001-08-23T18:13:50Z")
I get this daily email from Slate that briefly mentions what is in the nation’s newspapers. One part of it mentions the editorial pieces on Helms: > [@](#): > > The NYT runs an editorial which begins, “It is always tempting, when old warriors retire, to lament their passing from the political stage. In the case of Senator Jesse Helms, that is a temptation to be resisted.” Wills are apparently weaker over at the WSJ, which runs a Helms op-ed under the headline, “Farewell to a Great Jacksonian.” It’s by someone named Walter Russell Mead at the Council on Foreign Relations who notices something everybody else on the planet missed: “Helms is one of a handful of Southern statesmen who ensured the triumph of the civil rights revolution.” Apparently, Helms’ great achievement is that, when blacks in the 60s attempted to assert their civil rights, Helms was not, unlike previous Southern erstwhile segregationists, “directly and openly involved in the murder of black political leaders.” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2001, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/67 "2001-08-23T18:15:18Z")
**SK:** _Wishing death upon him is not only natural, it might even be a healthy sign of self-preservation._ I’d just like to add that (although I think it’s not a good practice to rejoice at the fact or prospect of **anybody** ’s death, and have thought so ever since I seriously considered throwing a party to celebrate the death of Ayn Rand in January 1982)…where was I? Oh yes, I’d like to add that the disapproval expressed about **Esprix** ’s comment was a little puzzling to me, in light of the orgy of torture-and-execution fantasies routinely engaged in by SDMB posters when notorious criminal cases are mentioned. Plenty of people here (though I’m not sure any of them are the same ones who criticized **Esprix** ) are perfectly happy to describe in detail the fatal kinds of suffering they’d like to inflict on certain criminals who’ve done evil things. If you think that’s okay, then why should it not be okay for **Esprix** to say something much more civilized and restrained about his indifference to the death of a man who by his lights (and mine too) has also done evil things? True, the evils committed by Jesse Helms were not criminal offenses and they didn’t **directly** cause injury or death to anyone else (though I wouldn’t necessarily swear to that in the case of the SFRC stuff, perhaps). But as **SK** points out, many of them were pretty awful and destructive nonetheless. Do you think that desiring, or merely not minding, the death of an evildoer is appropriate only in the case of an evildoer who’s actually broken the law? How come? ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2001, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/68 "2001-08-23T23:52:13Z")
Indeed. I didn’t say I wanted him to die painfully, slowly or horribly, just to die. We all do it eventually, and he’s long overdue. I just think sooner would have been better than later, considering the enormous amounts of suffering he’s caused others, all in his own twisted view of what’s “right” (for white, upper class heterosexual Americans). It is well with my pervue to believe that the world will be a better place once he’s gone. It is one thing to be intolerant and have opinions that are contrary to mine - it is entirely another when that bigotry and hatred is used to make lawful policy that affects millions. IMHO, anyway. Esprix ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/69 "2001-08-24T00:03:36Z")
I gotta agree with **Esprix** , except that I wish Jesse Helms gets AIDS. I want him to suffer, to be treated like a pariah, to know firsthand the pain his hatefilled career has brought to others. And, frankly, the idea that hating Helms is somehow too low is bullshit. Helms is the enemy. He is an evil, vicious man. Ihate to break it to you good folks, but there really are evil people in this world who cannot be compromised with. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/70 "2001-08-24T01:27:16Z")
well d’uh! I hate the guy too. I don’t want him to get AIDS, I want him to be like Jack Chick in that parody tract-he comes back as a Catholic Hispanic lesbian or something like that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/71 "2001-08-24T04:03:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by iampunha \* > \*\*Let’s just hope SC doesn’t elect someone who will want to continue in the ass-prints Helms made in his chair. \*\* NC. Well, there’s some interesting [news](http://www.salon.com/politics/wire/2001/08/23/dole/index.html) from Mrs. Dole today. > [@](#): > > _originally posted by Kimstu_ > \*\*I thought they were supposed to be sorta mainstream conservative/libertarian, not a bunch of right-wing kooks. \*\* [Here](http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=1907) is an introduction to freeper psychology. I would not call them “mainstream”. Not after reading the thread where they demanded that Dubya be impeached for considering the idea of allowing illegal immigrants to become citizens. Or the thread where they were ecstatic about the news that John McCain had cancer. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/72 "2001-08-24T19:29:53Z")
Unfortunately for all of us, it would appear that Jesse’s shoes are not too large for another ignorant racist Carolinian to attempt to fill. [‘‘There’s a lot of it that’s truth, the way I see it,’’ Davis said. ‘‘Who came to this country first the white man, didn’t he? That’s who made this country great.’’](http://www.boston.com/dailynews/234/nation/N_C_lawmaker_forwarded_white_s:.shtml) North Carolina, have you tested the water supply lately? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/73 "2001-08-24T20:36:27Z")
> [@](#): > > I do know this, however: were Jesus to log on to FreeRepublic and read the perversion His message has undergone in 2,000 years, He would beg to be crucified again, so as to be spared exposure to such hatred. I might just make this a new sig-If Jesus were to see the perversion his message has undergone in 2,000 years, He would beg to be crucified again as to be spared exposure to such hatred. Right on. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/74 "2001-08-24T23:44:37Z")
**ITR:** _Here is an introduction to freeper psychology. I would not call them “mainstream”._ Thanks **ITR** (and **Guin** ). I stand very, very, very corrected. Not to mention appalled and nauseated. Yikes. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/75 "2001-08-25T01:31:53Z")
[Here’s](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/08/24/DD155932.DTL) a great take on Helms’ announcement by columnist Jon Carroll, whose stance seems to be “We don’t get villains like Jesse Helms anymore.” Particularly interesting in Carroll’s claim (unsubstantiated, to be sure) that when Helms is playing to a foreign audience, he’s not nearly as dumb or as Southern as he is for the folks back home. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/76 "2001-08-25T03:50:36Z")
The first paragraph of [this](http://www.startribune.com/viewers/qview/cgi/qview.cgi?template=opinion_a&slug=ED24A) editorial in today’s Star Tribune killed me… > [@](#): > > Occasionally in life, you come up against someone with whose views you could not disagree more intensely, but who acts with such integrity and grace that you extend to them your respect and even your friendship. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., is not one of those people. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/77 "2001-08-25T04:34:35Z")
MC Hawking is [down with **Esprix**](http://www.mchawking.com/music.html): [Hawking voice] _Yo, Jesse, you dumb-ass racist cracker motherfucker, why the fuck won’t you just hurry up and die? And take that punk bitch Strom Thurmond with you._ [/Hawking voice] Oh, man, that gag never gets old. ---
**Author:** ![ultress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/7c8e57/32.png) [@ultress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultress)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/78 "2001-08-25T11:39:55Z")
Yea, **Sofa King** we’ve had the water supply checked and it’s fine. Have you pulled your head out of your butt lately to have it checked for any brain growth since you checked negative the last time. One man does not make a state. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/79 "2001-08-25T22:17:49Z")
Woah! Touchy, aren’t we? As a Virginian, I will remind you that while your fine state appears to be controlled by a hardcore minority of racists and homophobes, I have to contend with their close cousins, the creationists and thumpers. The thing is, _my state does a better job of dealing with it_. Clearer heads prevail where I come from. They obviously do not in North Carolina, or we wouldn’t be having this discussion. I’m sorry your racist, homophobic, oppressive, backwards, backy-spittin’, _nouveau_-red-tech, punk-ass shithole patsy ugly step-sister to the real Carolina is an embarassment to the rest of America and the free world. I really am. Hell, I’m sorry you’re part of my fucking country, and if I could saw your piece of shit state off and watch it sink into the Sargasso Sea I’d be right alongside Bugs Bunny doing it. Unfortunately, I can’t, so I’ll come right out and say, “thanks a fucking lot, voters of North Carolina,” for putting your mouth where the money is and allowing bastards like Helms to fuck up the world for everyone. Say it’s not your fault? Good. Keep voting for what’s right in your shitty, sky-blue bastion of Hell on earth. I’ll thank you for that, too. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2001, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430/80 "2001-08-26T02:03:33Z")
Reading this thread reminded me of a great exchange from the Overheard (or whatever it’s called) section at the beginning of Time magazine. This was several years ago, but I remember it clearly - not every single word perfectly, but the gist. Jesse Helms was interrogating a woman from the NEA at a Senate hearing. The following exhange occurred: Helms: I see you have donated money to a Mr. Monnet, a known Communist. Woman: Excuse me? Helms: Monnet. You gave him money. Woman: I’m sorry, Senator, I don’t know what you’re referring to. Helms: A Mr. Monnet. M-O-N-E-T. Woman: Oh! Monet! He was a French impressionist painter…we donated money to have his garden at Giverny reconstructed. Oy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-there-was-much-rejoicing/77430.md?page=5)