# Freepers make racist attacks on Malia Obama for wearing a peace-sign t-shirt **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 14, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011 "2009-07-14T18:13:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/101 "2009-07-15T18:21:15Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Why has Bristol earned the right to have tasteless jokes said about her? Because she fucked her HS boyfriend and got knocked up while her Mom was a politician? Because she and her mom claimed abstinence-only education works and is good, and obviously it doesn’t, because she got pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/102 "2009-07-15T18:23:22Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Look up Operation Rolling Thunder in Vietnam sometime - LeMay’s stated goal was to “bomb them back into the Stone Age”. Thanks, I just read the wikipedia entry on it, but the name LeMay does not appear in there at all, neither does the term ‘Stone Age’. The Rolling Thunder strategy seems to have been thought up by the Joint Chiefs and President Johnson and Secretary McNamara. I’m not saying my understanding is complete, so please feel free to expand. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/103 "2009-07-15T18:29:48Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > Because she and her mom claimed abstinence-only education works and is good, and obviously it doesn’t, because she got pregnant. Well, it’s obvious : abstinence only works. When you \*actually \*abstain 😃 ETA : However, screaming “I abstain ! I abstain !” at the O-point doesn’t. Maybe the abstinence campaigns should emphasize that. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/104 "2009-07-15T18:31:39Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > Because she and her mom claimed abstinence-only education works and is good, and obviously it doesn’t, because she got pregnant. That doesn’t justify calling her a slut or a whore. Hypocrite, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/105 "2009-07-15T18:33:36Z")
Who called her a slut or a whore? The joke was only that she got knocked up again. Is every unmarried woman who gets pregnant a slut or a whore? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/106 "2009-07-15T18:33:55Z")
> [@lalenin](#): > > Thanks, I just read the wikipedia entry on it, but the name LeMay does not appear in there at all, neither does the term ‘Stone Age’. The Rolling Thunder strategy seems to have been thought up by the Joint Chiefs and President Johnson and Secretary McNamara. I’m not saying my understanding is complete, so please feel free to expand. Either you’re a liar, or a lazy person. From the LeMay wiki page : [QUOTE=Wikipedia] Additional evidence of Lemay’s thinking is that in his 1965 autobiography, co-written with MacKinlay Kantor, LeMay is quoted as saying his response to North Vietnam would be to demand that “they’ve got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression, or we’re going to bomb them back into the Stone Age. And we would shove them back into the Stone Age with Air power or Naval power—not with ground forces.” [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/107 "2009-07-15T18:34:59Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > That doesn’t justify calling her a slut or a whore. Hypocrite, maybe. To be honest, I haven’t really seen anyone calling her that stuff who wouldn’t say the same thing about Chelsea Clinton. In other words, nasty cynics. I have heard quite a few chucklings about hypocrisy, though. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/108 "2009-07-15T18:39:56Z")
The following is offered as history, there is considerable controversy, but I believe it. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, LeMay saw an opportunity to make an end run around the wimpy President, JFK, whom he considered “soft”. He ordered SAC bomber wings launched towards the Soviet borders in Europe, knowing that the Soviets would pick them up on radar long before they crossed any borders. He assessed that the Soviets were much weaker, missile wise, than they pretended, and the US would “win” WWIII. He was hoping to provoke a panic “first strike” launch, then America could wipe out the Soviet Union. That this would entail the certainty of millions of Russian deaths and perhaps some Americans did not faze him. Fortunately, the Soviets (mostly Kruschev) saw it for what it was and held fire. They could do little else, truth be known. I was a brat, living on a SAC base in Arizona, and even though there was some attempt to shield us, we brats knew what was up. We were advised that if we heard a particular kind of siren, to get back to the base within thirty minutes, and don’t let anyone stop us. Oh, the Colonels kids had the flu, didn’t get on the buses that took us off base to school. It is not one of my fonder memories. My step-dad, who’s political leanings were just to the right of Otto von Bismarck, said he was a cigar-smoking runt who tried to get us all killed. He also engineered the firebombing of Tokyo, with the stated and deliberate goal of killing as many Japanese civilians as possible. He is alleged to have cheerfully remarked that if the US lost the war, he would be tried and hanged as a war criminal. In his own view, a hard-headed, no-nonsense realist. In my view, a monster. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/109 "2009-07-15T18:44:16Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Who called her a slut or a whore? The joke was only that she got knocked up again. Is every unmarried woman who gets pregnant a slut or a whore? > [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > To be honest, I haven’t really seen anyone calling her that stuff who wouldn’t say the same thing about Chelsea Clinton. In other words, nasty cynics. I have heard quite a few chucklings about hypocrisy, though. Dig out that Palin/Letterman thread from last month. It was _riddled_ with unnecessarily unpleasant comments about Bristol Palin. Even I was offended by the gratuitous misogyny on display, and I beat my fiancee daily with a wooden rod.\* ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/110 "2009-07-15T18:45:49Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Either you’re a liar, or a lazy person. From the LeMay wiki page : Speaking to the [Washington Post](http://www.bartleby.com/73/127.html) in 1968, LeMay said: > [@General Curtis LeMay](#): > > I never said we should bomb them back to the Stone Age. I said we had the capability to do it. I want to save lives on both sides. _Technically_, it’s true that the quote in his autobiography only advocates _threatening_ to take the Stone Age option. Cold comfort to those the bombs actually fell on. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/111 "2009-07-15T18:47:32Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Who called her a slut or a whore? The joke was only that she got knocked up again. Is every unmarried woman who gets pregnant a slut or a whore? To a lefty ,no. To a tighty righty ,yes. They judge these things harshly meanwhile their chosen leaders keep doing evil sex things ,over and over. This freeper thing is multiples beyond Letterman. They are cruel, nasty and not funny. But then they are not trying to be funny. That just makes it so much worse. ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/112 "2009-07-15T18:51:17Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Either you’re a liar, or a lazy person. From the LeMay wiki page : > [@](#): > > Additional evidence of Lemay’s thinking is that in his 1965 autobiography, co-written with MacKinlay Kantor, LeMay is quoted as saying his response to North Vietnam would be to demand that “they’ve got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression, or we’re going to bomb them back into the Stone Age. And we would shove them back into the Stone Age with Air power or Naval power—not with ground forces.” That quote is not in reference to ‘Operation Rolling Thunder’, in fact the term ‘Operation Rolling Thunder’ does not appear in LeMay’s wiki page, and LeMay’s name does not appear in the Operation Rolling Thunder page. I think a reasonable person will conclude that the two are unrelated. Again, as far as wikipedia is concerned, and so far that is my only source of information on this. I am trying to get a further understanding of why LeMay should be considered a monster, and so far I am not seeing it. By the way way please do not insult me. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/113 "2009-07-15T18:52:51Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > During the Cuban Missile Crisis, LeMay saw an opportunity to make an end run around the wimpy President, JFK, whom he considered “soft”. He ordered SAC bomber wings launched towards the Soviet borders in Europe, knowing that the Soviets would pick them up on radar long before they crossed any borders. He assessed that the Soviets were much weaker, missile wise, than they pretended, and the US would “win” WWIII. He was hoping to provoke a panic “first strike” launch, then America could wipe out the Soviet Union. That this would entail the certainty of millions of Russian deaths and perhaps some Americans did not faze him. All of which made “Bombs Away” LeMay the inspiration for General Ripper in _Dr. Strangelove_. By the way, **lalenin** apparently read the Operation Rolling Thunder entry, as suggested. LeMay’s name and the phase “stone age” don’t show up in there. The comment does appear in the biographical entry for LeMay. EDIT: Nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/114 "2009-07-15T19:00:34Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Who called her a slut or a whore? The joke was only that she got knocked up again. Is every unmarried woman who gets pregnant a slut or a whore? Are you serious? The implication of being knocked up again is that she is a slut or a whore. You cannot be that obtuse. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/115 "2009-07-15T19:00:56Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > He also engineered the firebombing of Tokyo, with the stated and deliberate goal of killing as many Japanese civilians as possible. I object ! Or rather, Curtis did. I quote : “There are no innocent civilians.” (New York Times, August 1945). And that says everything you need to know about the man. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/116 "2009-07-15T19:02:22Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > All of which made “Bombs Away” LeMay the inspiration for General Ripper in _Dr. Strangelove_. Aha! That’s _exactly_ who I was thinking of as I read **elucidator** ’s history lesson. Thanks, **'luc** ; I well recall the “bomb them back to the Stone Age” LeMay but wasn’t aware of his attempted end run into nuclear oblivion during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ah, memories – that happened when I was in seventh grade, and I still recall us kids huddling in the dingy cafeteria making shaky-voiced jokes about the impending Armageddon. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/117 "2009-07-15T19:02:36Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Are you serious? The implication of being knocked up again is that she is a slut or a whore. > > You cannot be that obtuse. Or that she’s dumb enough to believe that being in “wuv” or being a right thinking Republican will be enough to keep her from getting knocked up. I don’t think that a girl who gets pregnant is a slut (after all, sluts come prepared with condoms!)–but I think that a girl who is dumb enough not to use birth control is pretty stupid. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/118 "2009-07-15T19:04:38Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Or that she’s dumb enough to believe that being in “wuv” or being a right thinking Republican will be enough to keep her from getting knocked up. I don’t think that a girl who gets pregnant is a slut (after all, sluts come prepared with condoms!)–but I think that a girl who is dumb enough not to use birth control is pretty stupid. :rolleyes: 1. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/119 "2009-07-15T19:07:32Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > :rolleyes: > > 1. Seventeen is too young for me to laugh at her for being a dumbass who got knocked up? ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011/120 "2009-07-15T19:09:02Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Seventeen is too young for me to laugh at her for being a dumbass who got knocked up? No, but making it constant fodder for your nationally televised standup when she’s not even newsworthy anymore is pretty low-class, particularly when you are too dumb to do your research and realize it’s not even her you’re talking trash about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freepers-make-racist-attacks-on-malia-obama-for-wearing-a-peace-sign-t-shirt/503011.md?page=7)