Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Saturday, August 07, 2010

The right's comparison of Michelle Obama and Marie Antoinette is more astute than they realize

So members of the right are using a trip to Spain to again smear First Lady Michelle Obama as uncaring and extravagant.

You'll forgive me for not being impressed but I've seen it before. Remember the rumor spread about her supposedly eating lobster, caviar, and champagne at the Waldorf-Astoria while Obama was preparing for the third Presidential debate in 2008? It didn't happen. Not that it matters, however. After all, why let truth stand in the way of a good rumor.

But there is a new thing in this recent smear. Members of the right, such as Rush Limbaugh, have compared Mrs. Obama to Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France during the French Revolution who was executed for crimes against the state. It's a talking point which several have repeated so don't think the comparison is spontaneous or by accident.

Antoinette's name is byword for uncaring extravagance mostly due to the legend of her comments regarding why the people of France were raising hell. Allegedly when she was told that they have no bread, she remarked "let them eat cake." The story symbolized her supposed nasty attitude regarding her subjects.

And so we have members of the right now using Mrs. Obama's vacation in Spain with her daughter to spread the meme that she is just like Antoinette in the fact that she is doesn't care about people suffering from this awful climate of recession in the United States.

However, I would advise those on the right to tread lightly with this comparison. While it is not known for a fact that Antoinette said the "let them eat cake" comment, it is known that the rumors were used to make her public enemy number one in France. She was not popular for a multitude of reasons, one of which because she was foreign (Austrian). Therefore any negative rumor told about her gained immediate popularity

So subsequently when she, her husband Louis XVI, and the rest of their retinue were arrested, she was subjected to many indiginities by the French mobs hungry for blood including:

nearly made to stare at the head of her mutiliated friend (Maria Teresa Luisa of Savoy, Princess of Lamballe) as crowds paraded it on a stick outside of her window,
being separated from her family and falsely accused of molesting her young son, a charge which she denied so vehemently that it is said she nearly turned the women who were against her to her side,
and even suffering a final indignity of being denied privacy before her execution to take care of the hemmorraging caused by her uterine cancer.

Certainly things are not as extreme for Mrs. Obama as they were for Antoinette the irony here is stark. Members of the right are using a historical symbol of uncaring extravagance to smear the First Lady while forgetting that this same figure became that symbol due to substantiated rumors designed to flame mobs against her.

Perhaps Limbaugh and the rest shouldn't worry about how much Mrs. Obama compares to Marie Antoinette and worry about how they compare to those bloodthirsty French mobs who demanded Antoinette's blood.

Friday, August 06, 2010

Know Your LGBT History - Don't be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

The Wayans family is the first African-American film family of Hollywood and they got this monicker through their brand of blue humor comedy movies.

Some are funny, others areastupid and in a few of them, the lgbt community have been made fun of. But to be honest, so have a lot of other groups and nationalities.

Now their first movie to hit it big, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, (1996) was a takeoff of the annoying plethora of movies which featured black men in danger of being murdered through gang activity and neighborhood violence.

I hate to say it but this movie grows on you and there are some serious laugh out loud scenes.

But I had a discussion with a friend of mine involving two scenes which didn't necessarily talk about the lgbt community per se but is still of some interest to us . . . maybe.

The first scene is a take off of the cookout scene from the movie Boys N Da Hood. In it, the head villain is bragging about how he is not afraid to go back to jail. And his sentiments are echoed by members of the cast, until the last part:

'Porno Pete' LaBarbera's 'Truth Academy' flopping big time and other Friday midday news briefs

Bulletin: Porno Pete’s ‘Truth Academy’ a Poorly Attended Dud - And we should be surprised by this lovely turn of events?

This is not a parody - But mercy, I wish it was. The GOP gay group GOProud is inviting (wait for it) Ann Coulter to speak. Coulter hasn't exactly been verbally nice to the lgbt community. I still am in the Twilight Zone about the flyer in this link calling Ann Coulter the "right wing Judy Garland." That had BETTER be a parody.

Martin Ssempa didn’t like the article on gays in Uganda - Dr. Poo Poo doesn't like it when others tell facts about the lgbt community.

Hospital Responds to Discrimination Trans Flap - So it admits the wrong done to members of our community. Good. Now fix it.

Religious right blame game continues over Prop 8 decision

In two separate interviews, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America continued to place game on the Prop 8 decision - which they lost big time - on other reasons. Never mind their side just couldn't defend its mess.

It was the classic religious right strategy of using talking points to evade the question. I don't think the hosts (Rick Sanchez or Chris Matthews) were having any of it though:

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Maggie Gallagher is another reason why we won yesterday in Prop 8 decision

Another reason why the Prop 8 side lost yesterday is demonstrated by the above video which features Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage and Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry.

Maybe it's just me but Gallagher came across as rude and shrill. She didn't seem to want to answer the questions at hand and at times talked over host Anderson Cooper.

Isn't it a shame that her cohorts couldn't act the same way in court. Maybe they would have gained a little ground.

One more thing - her "waaaaaa, stop calling me a bigot" routine could easily disappeared is someone would ask her about her associations to folks like the Traditional Values Coalition and Louis Marinelli.

Related posts:

Phony disclaimer won't help National Organization for Marriage

National Organization for Marriage needs to address hate in its own ranks

National Organization for Marriage tries to cover up ugly comments with pitiful lies

National Organization for Marriage - gays were never hunted down and murdered like 'Jews, Christians, and blacks'

Message to Maggie Gallagher: associating with bigots does make you a bigot

How George Rekers is connected to the Prop 8 supporters and other Thursday midday news briefs

An incredible breakdown by Rachel Maddow as to how the Prop 8 side is connected with the discredited George Rekers. And this is a point in which I hope to touch upon in my speech at SC Pride on Sept. 4 - just how connected the religious right is to junk science. The Prop 8 decision should be a lesson to us all. In the face of logic, the dubious claims of the religious right always collapses.

And in other news:

Gary Cass on Prop 8 Ruling: What Do You Expect From the Debased Mind of a Pervert? - Well what else can we expect from a man who defends a church which tried to exorcise "a gay demon" out of a child.

Prop 8: Cable news roundup - And for you news junkies is the roundup of cable news reactions to the Prop 8 decision.

Schadenfreude Alert: Liberty Counsel Blames ADF For Prop 8 Decision - Finally, one of the sweetest tastes from the Prop 8 decision - religious right groups attacking each other.

More on Proposition 8's pitiful court defense

Again I reiterate the position that Proposition 8 lost yesterday not because of "activist judges" or because of a "secret plot," but because those defending Proposition 8 blew it. They had the chance to defend the vote and failed miserably. I pulled out a number of pieces which proves my point:

Prop. 8 Supporters: We Don't Need Evidence - this is Judge Vaughn Walker's summary of the evidence by those supporting Proposition 8:

At oral argument on proponents' motion for summary judgment, the court posed to proponents' counsel the assumption that "the state's interest in marriage is procreative" and inquired how permitting same-sex marriage impairs or adversely affects that interest. Counsel replied that the inquiry was "not the legally relevant question," but when pressed for an answer, counsel replied: "Your honor, my answer is: I don’t know. I don't know."…

Despite this response, proponents in their trial brief promised to "demonstrate that redefining marriage to encompass same-sex relationships" would effect some twenty-three specific harmful consequences. At trial, however, proponents presented only one witness, David Blankenhorn, to address the government interest in marriage. Blankenhorn’s testimony…provided no credible evidence to support any of the claimed adverse effects proponents promised to demonstrate. During closing arguments, proponents again focused on the contention that "responsible procreation is really at the heart of society's interest in regulating marriage." When asked to identify the evidence at trial that supported this contention, proponents' counsel replied, "you don't have to have evidence of this point."

Pro-Prop 8 Witness Laments Reaction - David Blankenhorn, the only pro-Proposition 8 witness has not had a good experience. I do feel sorry for him. His testimony was probably a huge reason why lgbts won yesterday.

Does Miles McPherson want to hide his gay = pedophilia belief from the Proposition 8 trial? - This piece of mine from earlier this year talks about how there could have been other witnesses for Proposition 8. But they chose not to testify.