# "Why must this idiot be on MY side???" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 28, 2000, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-this-idiot-be-on-my-side/23854 "2000-06-28T12:51:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-this-idiot-be-on-my-side/23854/1 "2000-06-28T12:51:58Z")
We all know that politics (and religion, and other things) makes for strange bedfellows, and there’s nothing new about that. Sometimes, we have to form alliances with people we don’t much like. But who are the allies you REALLY hate siding with? Any atheists out there who cringed when they saw Madalyn Murray O’Hair on TV? Any gun lovers who find Charlton Heston a pompous ass? ANy right-to-lifers who find the Operation Rescue people a bit kooky? Any hemp advocates who are embarrassed by the sub-moronic Woody Harrelson? COme clean: who are the people on YOUR side that you find an utter embarrassment? My personal choice: WIlliam F. Buckley. I loved his magazinne, but… MAN, was he good at making ridiclulous arguments on behalf of my causes! (And I still haven’t fully recovered from his serious suggestion that HIV positive gay men have warnings tattooed on their buttocks!) ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-this-idiot-be-on-my-side/23854/2 "2000-06-28T13:49:07Z")
James Carville. That guy is not only annoying as all-get-out, he’s OBVIOUSLY an alien from some planet of loud, ingratiating, pumpkin-headed dingleberries. 'Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-this-idiot-be-on-my-side/23854/3 "2000-06-28T13:50:47Z")
Well, as a conservative Republican, it bugs me when there’s a rally/protest/cause, whatever, for something I believe in… And then David Duke shows up. Great. Now, I can’t even openly support said cause without someone equating me to Duke. This doesn’t just happen on racial issues. He’s an anti-tax capitalist type who has many beliefs indistinguishable from mainstream Republicanism. Which means he has the opportunity to attach himself to a variety of issues. I wish he would go away. ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-this-idiot-be-on-my-side/23854/4 "2000-06-28T14:14:51Z")
pldennison: > [@](#): > > \*\* > …pumpkin-headed dingleberries…\*\* Hey, good one! Oh, sorry. I thought I was in the “Best Band Name” thread. For all the good Bill Clinton has done for this country, Lewinsky-gate, or zipper-gate, or whathaveyou, made him the red-headed stepchild of the democrats. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-this-idiot-be-on-my-side/23854/5 "2000-06-28T14:21:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Any atheists out there who cringed when they saw Madalyn Murray O’Hair on TV? Yes. She did NOT know how to conduct herself in a debate. She had a great radio show, in which she delivered talks. She sounded reasonable, and the essays were very interesting. But yeah, I think that she did a lot of harm to the atheist movement when she went on TV to “debate” someone. I think she helped it a lot, too…but I don’t know if she did more good or harm. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-this-idiot-be-on-my-side/23854/6 "2000-06-28T14:34:50Z")
Add another atheist appalled by Mrs. O’Hair. I suspect she was done away with by atheists who were tired of being identified with her . . . I love Gilbert & Sullivan music, but I cringe at the fey, twee G&S nuts who gather at conventions and go all cutesy-wutesy about it. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-this-idiot-be-on-my-side/23854/7 "2000-06-28T17:07:19Z")
I agree, O’Hair was, to say the least, abrasive. I was also put off by American Atheists’ web page, which includes a kind of introduction that basically says, “Don’t try to weasel out of it and say you’re a ‘freethinker,’ a ‘humanist,’ or an ‘agnostic.’ Either you’re a full-fledged atheist or you’re a useless, cowardly fence-sitter! Would you like to make a donation to our cause?” ---
**Author:** ![Edwardina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Edwardina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edwardina)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-this-idiot-be-on-my-side/23854/8 "2000-06-28T17:35:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > I love Gilbert & Sullivan music, but I cringe at the fey, twee G&S nuts who gather at conventions and go all cutesy-wutesy about it. > \*\* I think I must begin worshipping you now: "Fey, twee G&S nuts . . . " I very rarely hear either or those words, much less both in the same sentence. _commences girl-crush_ ---
**Author:** ![jamshid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@jamshid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jamshid)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2000, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-must-this-idiot-be-on-my-side/23854/9 "2000-06-29T00:31:20Z")
Actually, I find it really offensive when \ and I see eye-to-eye. I was going to say “Jay Leno”, but I realize the cancer spreads much deeper than that. David Letterman. Oprah Winfrey. God forbid, Geraldo Rivera. Alec Baldwin. Bawbawa Wawtews. About the only TV host that I used to be able to stomach was Craig Kilborn, but even he has gone over to the dark side. The list goes on and on. Is there any celebrity who hasn’t become the equivalent of a pap smear for the nation’s conscience?