Blood Libel

[filkertom]

Sarah Palin's phrase that pays. (A different write-up at dKos, with different links.)

The other day, I swore to not get into any violent rhetoric, not that I ever got into much besides wanting to smack a few people in the heads. And I shall continue that. But I think a few choice insults are applicable here.

To wit: Sarah Palin is a grotesque, offensive, attention-grabbing fool with delusions of competence. I would not trust her to handle any more responsibility than that of a diner waitress, and not a senior one. She is shallow and fatuous on her best days, violence-prone and violent-minded on her worst. Yet now that she's being called on her unique contributions to our national discourse she's doing her best to not only scrub the evidence but to make herself out to somehow be a victim.

The victims were the people shot and killed Saturday. The victims are the dead and wounded and their families.

And to invoke "blood libel" in the attempted murder of a Jew is obscene.

Andy Warhol was, unfortunately, wrong. Sarah Palin's fifteen minutes were up long ago. But, as the saying goes, "How can I miss you if you won't go away?"

Comments

[mimiheart.livejournal.com]

I tried explaining why it was disgusting on a fairly right-wing political message board. I was told "gentiles can use the phrase too!" and how dare I say that Sarah Palin was misappropriating the term.

Someone also said, "For all intensive purposes [sic] that's exactly what this was."

I give up.

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

Gentiles can use the phrase, too? Well, yes, they can. It makes 'em look ignorant of history, unable to distinguish between actual oppression and simply being annoyed, and otherwise very tacky, but....

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

I'm seeing that even in places that aren't fairly right wing. See, for example, the blog of comic book writer and novelist Peter David (http://www.peterdavid.net/index.php/2011/01/12/dear-ms-palin/).

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

speaking by way of a pre-recorded video because she can't handle interviews

Do what.

[susan-the-rogue.livejournal.com]

It's thoroughly appalling that her "fifteen minutes" isn't up yet, and I've pretty well come to the conclusion that she's willing to do just about anything to extend the time of her fame. My attitude towards her really isn't helped by the fact that my relatives are constantly singing her praises and want her to be president....and I live with them >_<.

[ladymer.livejournal.com]

Sarah L. Palin, will you PLEASE GO HOME!

(Actually, don't. We don't want you here either. Just go away.)

[misterseth.livejournal.com]

How about this:
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/54793284@N04/5349411379/)

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

To wit: Sarah Palin is a grotesque, offensive, attention-grabbing fool with delusions of competence.

Her ignorance of history (and many others too) is staggering. How anybody could imagine her in charge of anything, let alone the entire country is beyond my imagination.

I don't know whether the political rhetoric played any role in Saturday's tragic events. At best it didn't help.

A theory

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I have a theory about Palin. She loves attention. By pissing off liberals, conservatives think she's doing something right so they pay attention to her. The more outrageous things she says, the more we get mad, the more it feeds her persecution complex, and the more conservatives defend her. Attention all around from all sides.

If we ignore her, she's just going to say more outrageous things until we do respond. Worse, there haven't been too many conservative talking heads that went so far over the edge that no one paid attention to them. I think the only way end her 15 minutes is to get her to say something against conservatives that will give them a brain hemorrhage and I doubt that will ever happen.

Re: A theory

[neadods.livejournal.com]

If we ignore her, she's just going to say more outrageous things until we do respond.

So basically she's the new Coulter?

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

This from the woman who told America that Democrats were secretly planning FEMA re-education camps, and that Obamacare was a plot to have Death panels murder their grandparents.

My first reaction upon hearing the phrase "blood libel" was that she must be in favor of it.

[his-spiffyness.livejournal.com]

I keep wondering if Sarah Palin would cease to exist if we all quit paying attention to her.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Only like tooth decay ceases to exist if you don't go to the dentist.

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

Is that woman physically capable of apologizing for anything? Any error, any injury, any atrocity, any flagrant fuckup she's caused in her life? Has she ever been documented doing it? Is there any proof of her having been taught the definition of culpability?

I mean, ignorance might serve to explain all this just as readily as malice. Or, what is more likely, the two in filthy congress all over the kitchen table of American politics.

*Spits with rage.*

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

She's a text-book narcissist, so, no she's not.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Consider that Certain People assert that "Jews control the media" and that Sarah Palin was specifically complaining about members of the media connecting her violent rhetoric with violent action. Maybe Palin does indeed know the historical meaning of "blood libel" -- or at least, her speechwriter does.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to figure out what she *actually* meant with that phrase.

[batyatoon]

My guess is that she meant she is being falsely accused (libel) of being responsible for these deaths (blood).

If the phrase had no historical background, it'd really be only mild hyperbole.

As things stand, of course, well.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

My response to your comments: too fair, too even-handed and too complimentary. I don't think it would be possible to put the evil that is Palin into words. If there were such a thing as Satan, she would be the same amount of evil multiplied exponentially. I would like to see a non-violent cartoon where she gets into an argument with Ann Coulter and they consume each other until there's nothing left. Or at least as non-violent as possible.

I find it somewhat ironic that the recent violence occurred in John McCain's state. Perhaps that's part of his divine retribution for inflicting Palin on us in the first place. not that I believe in divine retribution or anything.

My sincere wishes for a speedy and complete recovery for all those injured in the attack, and for an improved mental health care system that might serve to cut down the number of such incidents.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

As outraged as I was earlier (and still am) at Sarah for this, I wish I'd written what John Scalzi did on the subject:

Well, there are many ways to explain why this is idiotic, contemptible, morally egregious, conceptually denegrating and just plain wrong, but perhaps the best way to explain it is to send other a few other things through the Palin Equivalence Filter:

Paper cut: AORTIC SPURTING

Lumpy hotel pillow: SMALLPOX ENCRUSTED BLANKETS

Flat soda: SCHISTSOMIASIS

. . .

“Sarah Palin’s Alaska” canceled: MANTLE-CRACKING ASTEROID

Hangnail: THE VERY CRUCIFIXION ITSELF

That's why he gets paid for his words, and I get paid to make others' words look pretty.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

What does the Palin Equivalence Filter do with the things she says?

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

Honestly I'd never even heard of blood libel until today. It's obvious though that Sarah Palin new the context of the term so she should have expected some blow back for using it.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

The blow back feeds her persecution complex. I read on Peter David's blog of how someone was actually trying to defend her and got shot down pretty quickly.

sarah the mouth

[j-e-richards.livejournal.com]

well, there's one thing to remember...she's not likely to be our next president, because the job doesn't pay well enough.. (one hopes her greed is more of a factor than her ego...)

[sdelmonte]

I will give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she had little idea of the meaning of the term. She's proven herself to be ignorant time and again, and as I am seeing here and elsewhere, a lot of people really don't know what a blood libel is.

Maybe some tiny good will come out of it, at least. I know that CNN will be doing a story about it. Because they called the museum I work at looking for medieval illustrations for the story. (Alas, we don't have any.) If more Americans understand what a blood libel is, then the next time there is one from Iran (because such canards are still with us, sadly), they will understand.

All that said, I agree completely about her. But have no doubt we are stuck with her because, inexplicably, a lot of people like her.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm sure she didn't know what it meant.

A woman who can't name a single newspaper or magazine is not going to know what "blood libel" means.

The problem is that apparently her speechwriters are just as ignorant.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Shun her like an Amish village.

[msgeek.livejournal.com]

1.) I'm Jewish.
2.) This pisses me off.
3.) Goddess willing, this is Palin's Macaca moment.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

I'd contend that Warhol wasn't wrong, he originally said "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes" ... he didn't say "only for 15 minutes" and I take it to mean that everyone, no matter how otherwise insignificant, will have the spotlight on them for *at least* 15 minutes in their life (and of course it's an artistic saying rather than a scientific theory!)

I cannot understand why anyone with half a brain supports Palin ... and that may be insulting to any of my friends who do support her, but it is incomprehensible to me.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

It's not the brain in the top head her male supporters are using. Her female supporters see her as one of them and willing to overlook just about anything.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

I would not trust her to handle any more responsibility than that of a diner waitress, and not a senior one.

"I want you to hold it between your knees."

Buddhist Quote

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I got a Google gadget that displays random Buddhist quotes. I thought this one fits.

Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world.

Re: Buddhist Quote

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

If this is so, is it equally wrong to tell a kind lie as it is to tell a cruel truth?

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

*facepalm*

Sarah, please, just ... GO AWAY.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately she won't go away because she's a raging narcissist and she can't live without the incessant ego-stroking she gets from Faux News and the other people who pander to her stupidity. And she's a victim because (a) she said so, and (b) people who disagree with her are EVIL!