Helen Thomas forced to retire...

[Dark Luther]

After brash comments stating that Jews should return to Germany, Poland, and the US - Helen Thomas is being forced to retire...

I wanted to post a link - but frankly everything out there is very inflamitory...
If anyone has been following this, share your thoughts...

[Rainbow Dash]

She was kinda way past her time anyway. I saw her in some recent press conferences and she's acted rather unprofessional or disoriented to begin with.

[Dark Luther]

I keep hearing that, and though it's true - that really isn't an issue as it was a personal moment...
The issue is the content of her words...
that's really what I wanted to get to...
Though I totally see why people are reacting as they are - I'm getting kinda annoyed that they are twisting her words into something they are not...

[Rainbow Dash]

Though I totally see why people are reacting as they are - I'm getting kinda annoyed that they are twisting her words into something they are not...
Keep in mind that this is happening shortly after the supposed massacre Israel committed enforcing their blockade, and that situation seems to have gotten pretty twisted as well. Either way, Israel supporters are probably pretty low on patience for this sort of thing at this point.

Though really I think it was her age as much as anything, her timing on that stunt really wasn't a good move either.

[Altima]

This was on the View earlier.

I thought that in America we had freedom of speech, the freedom to say what we want and not have to tone down our thoughts.

They hit her financially for her words and made her retire before she was ready to.

I understand that sometimes you should keep your mouth shut, but you shouldn't be hit in the wallet or anything like that for just stating your 'opinion' and that is all that she did.

It is a sad day in America when you can't say what you want and express yourself and your opinions using 1 of the very things that this country was built on and supposed to have.

Freedom of religion, press, and "speech" obviously that is something that only exists when it agrees with the vast majority of our country. However when you say something that is against the country majority it isn't allowed to be said.

[Snips]

This was on the View earlier.

I thought that in America we had freedom of speech, the freedom to say what we want and not have to tone down our thoughts.

News Flash. "Freedom of speech" doesn't technically exist in the United States of America. I don't know if you remember "The Red Scare" back in the 1950s or so, rough estimate. I forget who but an American general was overheard saying "Communism isn't really that bad" and later went missing. It was a huge conspiracy theory about the government silencing him. Of course I learned about this YEARS ago so my memory is likely hazy.

Point being, these days people are getting labelled as terrorists for stupid things. One Autistic 13 year old is being charged as a terrorist for drawing a picture of his teacher getting shot. Right now, with the rampant paranoia of the masses who refuse to believe the terrorists have won if you're living in fear, there's no "freedom of speech" unless you're bashing terrorism. Or talking about innocent things like flowers.

Freedom of religion, press, and "speech" obviously that is something that only exists when it agrees with the vast majority of our country. However when you say something that is against the country majority it isn't allowed to be said.

Basically. It's not fair, but you've hit the nail on the head. It sucks that this is the world we live in, but we can't change the masses. Mob mentality dictates that although one person may be smart, get a group together and they tend to act less intelligent as a collective whole. And look at the world population....

[Dark Marmosett]

I think she was a bit too old for her line of work. She kinda has gone a lil senile from my understandings. Personally she should've retired a while ago at least her mid 80s or after this year anyway. I mean 90? Enjoy whats left of your life and slow it down.

Personally I don't think she should've been fired just for stating her thoughts. Sure it might not be the Morally right thing to do but she still has the right to think it anyway or say it. Though of course its gonna piss millions of people off like jewish people that shes telling them fuck off go back elsewhere instead. So the only thing to do instead of having the gov't get bitched at for her actions. She gets the blame and gets booted to save their asses over her lil moral dilemma. Its typical. And you know what. The Gov't abuses their power far too often. Its no big surprise they were gonna can her from her job because she bluntly stated her thoughts on everything. If it wasn't here it'd have been Someone else.

[Rainbow Dash]

News Flash. "Freedom of speech" doesn't technically exist in the United States of America. I don't know if you remember "The Red Scare" back in the 1950s or so, rough estimate. I forget who but an American general was overheard saying "Communism isn't really that bad" and later went missing. It was a huge conspiracy theory about the government silencing him. Of course I learned about this YEARS ago so my memory is likely hazy.
Yeah, bullshit. A lone case of a guy going missing after saying something negative does not mean that we're not allowed to speak our minds. And the person in question this time was already walking such a fine line between senility and staying employed that you cannot possibly believe that this is an attack on freedom of speech.

Point being, these days people are getting labelled as terrorists for stupid things. One Autistic 13 year old is being charged as a terrorist for drawing a picture of his teacher getting shot. Right now, with the rampant paranoia of the masses who refuse to believe the terrorists have won if you're living in fear, there's no "freedom of speech" unless you're bashing terrorism. Or talking about innocent things like flowers.
I don't see how that case is an infringement on freedom of speech. Nor do I think you understand the political climate of America right now, or ever.

[Snips]

Yeah, bullshit. A lone case of a guy going missing after saying something negative does not mean that we're not allowed to speak our minds. And the person in question this time was already walking such a fine line between senility and staying employed that you cannot possibly believe that this is an attack on freedom of speech.

I was just giving one example. And I never said this was an attack on freedom of speech. I was simply countering the "lolfreedomofspeech" wall of text. I could give more examples, or I can just say "Look at slander and libel being lawsuit worthy and tell me Freedom of Speech is infinitely true, I dare you." I know someone who got charged with harassment and then bitched "Freedom of speech my fat hairy ass!" as if they were entitled to curse someone out day after day for no reason. People take things like this too seriously. Look at when NH banned texting while driving. The State Motto is "Live free or die" and people were raging about "What about the state motto!?"


I don't see how that case is an infringement on freedom of speech. Nor do I think you understand the political climate of America right now, or ever.

That case speaks for itself. It goes beyond freedom of speech. Not only is it about freedom of expression, but it shows that people are so paranoid that they're charging a 13 year old autistic with the mentality of an 8 year old as an adult terrorist. It shows just how bad "zero tolerance" systems in schools are, and quite honestly it shows a very large amount of "we don't want to work at fixing this so let's just sweep it under the rug." The problem is that "it" is a person. And has mental issues anyways. He's not a danger to anyone. They just can't be bothered to look at the facts and want to set an example so it doesn't happen again.

And if you think your political situation is that much different than ours, think again. We're partners, geographically, politically, and socially. Even if we were to suddenly be at war with each other, what affects one of us would still affect the other. I may emphasize the bad, but in all honesty that's because the bad is what makes headline news. The bad is the first thing anyone sees when they see a newspaper. If the front page is a sports story, you know no one died the day before. However, that's not to say I have all the facts you do, either. I'd be shocked if that were true.

May I remind you about the time Canada's PM suspended parliament because of two of the opposition parties banding together to try to unseat him? The Coalition had no direction or teamwork, and if they passed a vote of nonconfidence, they wouldn't be able to agree over who'd lead and would have dragged the country down. Yet all any non Canadian saw was "this dick is taking a vacation to save his job!" So by all means feel free to enlighten me if you feel I don't have all the facts. In fact I welcome new insight or perhaps details I didn't know.

I'd be lying if I said I had a 100% understanding of any and all things political, but I'm hardly as ignorant as I was back when I was saying "war is bad because people die" either. I just hardly believe that "Freedom of speech" is actually free in today's world, and I also feel that people are too quick to yell "Terrorist!" which is all I was trying to say in the above post.

[Rainbow Dash]

Nobody this side of elementary school thinks that freedom of speech means they can say or do whatever they want, which seems to be your definition. It's a responsibility, not a right, and no the constitution does not define it as a right. The meaning has not changed since the 1700s when a journalist published that the governor of new york is a pompous ass. Freedom of speech does not, and never did mean that you're immune to the effects of pissing people off.

And the right wing nuts are too busy being pissed off at our government to care about terrorism any more. Well them and a lot of other people, but Terrorism isn't really the number one issue anymore. That kid is not going to be successfully tried as a terrorist anyway, that is just absolute fucking idiocy on the part of the school district, which is par for the course.

[Chicken Little]

Nobody this side of elementary school thinks that freedom of speech means they can say or do whatever they want, which seems to be your definition.

Freedom of speech entails doing things other than talking now? News to me.

FWIW, during the age of Communism there was a rampant paranoia with campaigns to dob people in for epic interrogation and incarcerations, to get rid of someone you merely needed to make yourself out to be patriotic and dob in the other person as a commie and you wouldn't see them for a good few weeks if they were an "average joe", this is irrelevant though because the red revolution does not equate to derka derka KABOOOOM! "ooo virgins!"

Very little idea who this woman was (old political reporter type), what context the comments were in or anything short of a 1 minute news story to provide any insight on my thoughts.

[Raist No. 2]

Freedom of speech entails doing things other than talking now? News to me."Freedom of expression" is the more apt term for current law, since it also covers things like paraphernalia and other forms of non-verbal communication. One of the more famous cases involved a school district suspending students who wore armbands with peace symbols protesting the Vietnam War, which the Supreme Court eventually ruled was protected as "symbolic speech."

[Dark Luther]

Yvl - it's a right - not a responsibility...
That line gets said about everything - you've managed to find the one thing that is actually a right...
Though it's not all encompassing..., it is a right none the less...

But let me ask you specifically - what did you mean "supposed" massacre by the Israeli commandos on the boat...
Not going further on it till I get you view on that...,


That aside - I actually whole-heartedly agree with her words...
I disagree that the words were in any way a moral concept - it was a realism based observation that simply ignored tact and was rather brash...
But despite how it's being twisted - what she said is true - many jews in Israel should return to their homes in the US and Europe - as most of them are from those areas...

[Rainbow Dash]

I'll tell em you said it was a right when I yell fire in a crowded theater. Well, it's kinda both, but the point was that it wasn't a completely set in stone right that nobody can touch in any way whatsoever the way Saph was making it out to be.

But let me ask you specifically - what did you mean "supposed" massacre by the Israeli commandos on the boat...
It was self defense no matter how I look at it. If it was humanitarian aid, then A) they should have gone through the various other ways for them to reach Gaza and B) they shouldn't have provoked the "massacre." If not, and it was military aid, then they had every right to kill all those people since that's the whole reason for the blockade being there.

And yet, Israel somehow is at fault for this, according to public opinion. It's like any time they do anything save for shooting themselves suddenly the evil Jews are at it again.

[Dark Luther]

Wow Yvl..., I knew I could rely on you for that...
Jeez - your the reason Israel gets away with this..., do you even have an idea of why the blockade is in place..., or why this is being viewed as an illegal act..., or do you simply agree with whatever Israel does...
First let me address you amazingly naive view of how Israel is...

The ship was filled with humanitarian aid - ( not if it was, IT WAS ) - and this aid included medical supplies and education material...
Seriously - the ship was boarded days ago - it's not up in the air...

The ship was attacked and boarded in International Waters - an illegal act as stated by the UN...

There IS no way of reaching Gaza with this material - Gaza is being blockaded by Israel...
( this itself is viewed as partially illegal, as the protest Israel has is that Hamas is hostile to them, though in turn they were democratically elected as a result of the stern and really vulgar acts Israel took with Palestine. )

Also - wtf - provoked the massacre...?
Not touching that one, just needed to repeat it to myself...

Whatever, just so you know - the provoking of the massacre included elite Israeli Commandos raiding a boat of humanitarians...,
the humanitarians picked up clubs to defend themselves - and the commandos simply massacred them with automatic rifles...
This includes an American citizen present and aiding the humanitarian venture...


Despite all of this - I have trouble seeing Israel defending itself...
Frankly, half of what it does in self defense simply angers it's enemies more..., while it itself never attempts to solve the grudges it's enemies have...
Diplomatically speaking - even if the boat had military aid - Israel would still be breaking UN law by simply raiding it in international waters and slaughtering the crew...

And your seeing the complete opposite...
No where in the media have I seen the "evil Jew"...
Fuck that stereotype.., this is not about religion - this is a political concept regarding the nation of Israel which has more diplomatic infringements than any other nation in the world...
To be honest - Israel does a lot of fucked up things - and I don't know what magical channel your watching - but they basiclally get a free hand with the media in the US....

[Raist No. 2]

It was self defense no matter how I look at it. If it was humanitarian aid, then A) they should have gone through the various other ways for them to reach Gaza and B) they shouldn't have provoked the "massacre." If not, and it was military aid, then they had every right to kill all those people since that's the whole reason for the blockade being there.lol

Whatever, just so you know - the provoking of the massacre included elite Israeli Commandos raiding a boat of humanitarians...,
the humanitarians picked up clubs to defend themselves - and the commandos simply massacred them with automatic rifles...lol

What would I do without you guys.

[Dark Luther]

lol

lol

What would I do without you guys.

Shoot yourself...
shoot others...
lose teh game...?
I don't know what you kids are doing these days...