In a different thread here in the pit, Pat Robertson claims federal judges are greater threat than al Qaeda/Nazi Germany, several folks remarked on the stupidity of Pat Robertson for his recent comments. Federal Judge Joan Lefkow testified today at a Senate hearing on security issues for federal judges and she also had a few words to say about the Reverand’s inflammatory remarks – click here. She was really quite eloquent, I thought.
I suppose this could have gone in the other thread but as it now has gone rather off topic I thought I would start a new one here.
Loathe as I am to defend such a leprous pustule as …that guy…, still, I didn’t take his remarks as inflammatory, bars kinda high on that, these days. The guys is truly a creep, but I can’t bring myself to hold him responsible, any more than I can hold Jody Foster responsible for the Reagan shooting.
(By the way, I didn’t really mean it when I said we should hang all the mimes. I was kidding. Don’t hang any mimes.)
I wouldn’t say Robertson is responsible for what happened to the Lefkow family. However is it such a stretch when there are groups threatening members of the judiciary who make unpopular decisions for her to make the point that his sort of rhetoric could encourage someone to act?
Certainly not. A mime is a terrible thing to waste.
No jury in the world would convict me.
That scumbag RObertson, and that pandering idiot Santorum, and that indefensible felon DeLay are definitely not to blame for Lefkow’s family being destroyed, however, it is now signaling a change in America that our lawmakers are no longer safe, no longer untouchable. Since public opinion is being swayed by the likes of the above pig-fuckers, and brainless idiots are inclined to listen to their words as the words of god I think it definitely opens up the playing field a bit into how regular people will treat the judiciary, how regular people feel about the judiciary at least subconsciously.
So it’s not their ‘fault’, per se, but the more vocal certain retarded members of congress are, the more liable people whose grasp on reality is tenuous already, might be influenced to carry out their moronic, psychotic acts.
Sam
I think this quote from the judge’s testimony illustrates the point rather well -
I’ve hated Judge Reinhold ever since Ruthless People.
If Robertson isn’t directly responsible (and Santorum and DeLay), then he (they) is at least guilty of fanning the flames and getting someone stirred up enough to act. He and the other pig fuckers could have acted more responsibly, but they didn’t. They were too busy “playing to their base”, rousing the rabble, and deliberately stirring the shit for their own benefit. Maybe they wre not directly responsible, but they sure had a hand in the outcome.
You don’t hang mimes, you shoot them. Use a silencer.
You will be eviscerated upon Cecil’s altar for that one, Biffy.*
As a centrist who holds small-c ‘conservative’ values closely, I’m loathe to hold even the most noxious blowhard responsible for the numerous idiocies government entities perpetuate. Of course anybody who thinks our own elected criminal class operates in a vacuum is either willfully deluded or too stupid to vote. Oh wait. Nobody breathing–or even technically dead–is ineligible to vote.
The vast majority of the yowling blowhards and opportunists, including Robertson, are on the far policital right at the moment. They’re responsible for the accuracy and probity of what they spout for bucks and ego, but they aren’t responsbible for what governmental officials do.
Policitally leftist drones are just as capable of spewing pure nonsense as drones on the political right. Most pundits are ego-ridden blowhards. That’s their business, and a very tricky, pitiless one it is indeed, viewed from long perspective. But even the most popularly persuasive pundit isn’t repsonsible for what pols do.
Rush Limbaugh wasn’t responsible for Clinton being sandbagged over a blow job. Pat Robertson isn’t responsible for anything beyond being a flagrantly transparent bottom feeder.
Veb
- It’s not really an altar, more a weird science lab from hell crossed with a packrat’s library.
Very true, but I think it’s worth noting that the far political right has much more influence and legitimacy in the mainstream than the far political left. And this isn’t just because a right-wing conservative is currently in power—it was true back in the Clinton administration, too.
Clinton never went near American far-lefties like Noam Chomsky or Angela Davis. The far-right Robertson, however, regularly meets with Bush (at least as recently as 2003) and other prominent conservative politicians. I think it would be somewhat inaccurate to say that somebody who has that much influence with high-level officials bears absolutely no responsibility for the course of official policy.
And if it isn’t him it’s Focus on the Hatred(I mean Family) demogogue James Dobson.
How did rhetoric that was once used to justify oppressing blacks which was shown to be hateful and vile become acceptable for any heteroseuxal, regardless of ethnicity to dehumanize and disenfranchise gays and lesbians?
Are you saying that it’s merely a coincidence that Bill Clinton, Angela Davis, and Pope John Paul II all majored in philosophy?
:eek: :smack: :rolleyes: :wally 
No, but I do have an amusing anecdote about the time that they all walked into a bar together.
BTW that was all a 
— didn’t know if it came across as too scoldy.
Okay Harborwolf, let’s hear it!
they all shot a mime.
I heard that Pat Robertson shot a mime in Reno just to watch him die.
/hijack
not exactly work safe but pretty clean
every time I hear Santorums name I think of this
/hijack off
Are you a Dadaist?