Sir Charles and the “fake Christians”:
Heh.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.
with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.
Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?
No one could have predicted…
In my day, never was longer.
Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.
Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.
Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!
Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…
Everything is totally normal and fine!!!
You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.
GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.
Let’s not be the monsters we hate.
You cannot love your country only when you win.
I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.
Democracy cannot function without a free press.
The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.
Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.
People are complicated. Love is not.
Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?
Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.
When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.
Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.
Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?
grandpa john
same old Blitzer,So where was blitzer speaking out and saying that you can’t label all the people when republicans were labeling ALL the anti-war people as “Traitors”.
Alan
It wasn’t that many years ago Rush Limbaugh thought highly of Barkley. He even said Barkley leaned to the right. All it took was the GOP to take complete control of our government to bring people like Barkley and myself back to reality. Regardless of what Rush, Bennett, Gingrich or Tom Delay believe, promoting God and family values is not a winning strategy. Witness Charles Barkley.
RandyH
I’ve never been much of a fan of basketball, but I love this guy. Tell it like it is, brother!
Zifnab
Oh boy, you know what this means?
TOO THE SWIFTBOATS, CITIZEN JOURNALISTS!
CHECK THAT MAN’S COUNTERTOPS! INVESTIGATE ALL EXTRA-MARITAL AFFAIRS! QUESTION HIS PATRIOTISM! DIG THROUGH THE DUMPSTERS OF HIS CHURCH! BEMOAN RACIAL BIAS!
Elvis Elvisberg
God bless this guy.
How many times have you seen people on the TV saying that Democrats are wimpy America haters, and Republicans are defenders of truth and righteousness and America? It is just so great to see one person, finally, attacking the GOP, right there on CNN.
I hope that Barkley runs for governor in 2014, but hopefully by then, Democrats will be needing to be checked to avoid hubris from their 6 years of electoral dominance, rather than emerging from their defensive crouch like they are today.
jake
“They can’t do nothin’ to me, I don’t work for them.”
OMG, he’s teh best.
Realize the target is a very large brown guy rather than a disabled 12 year old.
RETREAT! RETREAT!
mellowjohn
barkley would be pretty hard to swiftboat, because everything is pretty much out there. he says whatever he damn well pleases (a real drawback for any politician), does pretty much whatever he wants, and when annoying people get in his face, he throws them through a window!
btw, his autobiography (ghosted by michael wilbon) is called “who’s afraid of a large black man.”
dslak
People like Blitzer are useless when it comes to discussing religion. They buy into the conservatives’ conflation of political conservativism and religiosity. I’ve never seen Blitzer come to the defense of any religious liberals when they’ve all been smeared by someone as godless or impious.
Graeme
I do think it’s great that people are saying they’re sick of the GOP as it currently is. Now if the Donks in Congress would fucking grow a pair, we’d be in business.
All Obama or Clinton need to do is be fairly honest and competent, and the GOP is going to have a hell of a time over the next couple decades.
The Conservative refrain throughout the Clinton years was ‘think about what Reagan could have done with a GOP Congress! If you give us the Legislative and the Executive, we’ll transform this country.’
Well, they did. We’re a banana republic. It’s going to be a long damn time before I vote for a GOP candidate again…
Punchy
There could not be a stupider move by R’s than to trash Barkely. The guy gets air time for everything he says. The sports media AND the news media would lap up all his pontifications. He can influence a generation of young minorities.
Any coordinated winger response would qualify as Teh Dumbest Move Evah.
The Other Steve
Is it possible that Blitzer being Jewish puts him in a position of not understanding Christanity? Such that when people are arguing about differences, he doesn’t see the distinction?
Most Christians I know don’t understand the differences between different sects of Jews or Muslims.
I’ve long argued that one of the great failings that allowed the Christian Right to gain dominance, was the lack of voices speaking out against their heresy.
I seem to recall that just prior to the rise of the Christian Right, that they launched a series of attacks on the National Council of Churches to discredit them.
Krista
Charles Barkley owes me a new monitor if I can’t get the coffee off of it.
That was freaking awesome. Pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage, and doesn’t give a flying fuck what people think about him.
Charles, you have just gained a fan.
jake
True, so we all know what that means.
The Swiftboating will begin in 5 … 4 … 3 …
The Other Steve
You’re talking about people who thought invading Iraq would help boost our economy.
The Other Steve
Speaking of not bright people.
Behold the Free Republic!
There’s some awesome quotes in there. :-)
jake
No, wait. I know what they’ll do:
“Waaah! We’d love to have an open and frank discussion with Mister Barkley and correct some of his mis-perceptions but he’s so angry and he supports a man with Islamic connections so there’s no point in trying. Waaaah!”
[Translation: We’re all reasonable but you know how nasty those uppity coloureds get.]
ThymeZone
Sure, if you assume that he is an uneducated moron. But he’s not, and furthermore, the issue wasn’t about christianity, it was about religiosity in general. It was about the relationship between government, politics, and religion, none of which has anything to do with christianity per se any more than it has to do with any other religion. Nothing Barkley said would require the listener to have a degree in theology to understand it, he was talking about, and used the word, hypocrisy. I seriously doubt that being Jewish dulls the ability to understand simple and basic hypocrisy, does it?
I saw the interview, so my reflections are based on that viewing.
And … Barkely was my favorite player of all time. He wasn’t flashy-athletic but he was always the smartest player on the court.
ThymeZone
And any number of other important topics. Blitzer is an attention machine. Everything he says and does, every question he asks, every comment he slides into his speech, even his tone of voice … all about “Look at me look at us pay attention urgent important scary fight fear this just in.”
His mind never leaves that track, not even for a second. Since everything is superduperimportanturgent to him, after a while, listening to him, nothing seems important except that you stay tuned to hear what’s important next.
ThymeZone
The world is better off without Saddam.
That’s all that matters.
myiq2xu
Bush & co were wrong about the anti-war people being traitors and the media say nothing. Barkley states the obvious and Blitzer immediately corrects him.
I agree with Barkley. If Jeebus ever comes back he’s gonna be really disappointed when He finds out that hardly anyone is following his instructions and He’ll be pissed when he finds out what the fundies have done to his reputation.
ThymeZone
Um, no, Jesus is watching you and listening to you and taking care of you every minute. He is disappointed already, trust me. Deeply, profoundly disappointed.
But my larger point is, he doesn’t have to come back to be pissed. He is already pissed. We are all under the gaze of Pissed Off Jesus.
Aside from the fact that your number might be higher on his list than mine is, who do we think pisses him off the mostest of all? Who is Jesus “Kill Bill” target?
Personally, I think it’s all the sociopathic “leaders” in the world who shrug at killing people as long as the deaths don’t affect them directly, or as long as they bolster the sociopaths’ power.
After those people, it’s the war profiteers, the bankers, and Republicans.
dbrown
After Obama gets his two terms, I hope Barkley runs.
J. Michael Neal
I’m hoping for Eliot Spitzer, myself.
ThymeZone
Barkley says he plans to run for governor of Alabama.
jake
Imagine the looks on their faces when Big J says “Rapture? Nuh-uh. For you bitches it’s RUPTURE TIME.”
Darkness
Charles, my man. Wow. And it’s telling that Wolf must never talk to anyone with an opinion, he seemed stunned when he said, “And you feel comfortable with expressing that…”
Made my day. The idealistic simplicity of Barkley’s arguments “They need to go back and read that part” makes it harder to demonize. Christianity exists only as an ideal that no one can achieve so pointing out such an inarguable spot of unachievement will make them bluster for a while before they can regroup. In their grey little souls that constant lack of reaching the ideal is a thorn that makes them bleed.
Splitting Image
I clicked on the Free Republic thread The Other Steve linked to.
Amidst all the ad hominem drivel, there was this:
“Not good. Sounds like Conservative is starting to take on a negative reaction the way the word liberal has. Barkley is outspoken but hardly a liberal. Some of the over-the-top bs that hypocrites in the conservative movement are doing is giving the Dems a chance to redefine conservatives as those who are unaccepting of others while tolerating the Larry Craigs and other pervs who want to be associated with conservativism.”
Spot on. Except that I would argue the Democrats are completely missing the opportunity for the most part and independents are making the decision themselves.
Tax Analyst
Yeah, I imagine there will be some mighty long faces when Big J throws their first “Waterboarding Party”. I mean, if it’s not “Torture” they ought to be cool with it, right?
So who goes first, Cheney or Bush? Hell, maybe do ’em both at the same time and see who yells out “For The Love of God, Stop!” first.
Helena Montana
Is it just me or are Wolfie’s speech rhythms, intonations, and cadences starting to sound like Chris Matthews?
Beej
Yeah it was a kick to listen to Sir Charles say what hardly anyone else has the chutzpah to say, but what does it say about cable’s insatiable, never-ending need for someone, anyone, to interview, comment, whatever, when they are actually asking Charles Barkley about politics? Charles Barkley?
Beej
I think we really need to spread this around some. What’s Peyton Manning’s take on the upcoming elections? How about Randy Moss? Does Dale Jr. have an opinion? Why aren’t we hearing from them.
CJ
Barkley in 2012! Now if only professional pundits could follow the lead of a basketball star. (Why the hell was he on CNN anyway?)
tofubo
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ – Mohandas Gandhi
tom
I always wanted Charles Barkley to win a NBA Championship, because he worked so damn hard for it. Now I would like to see him run for Governor. We have done much, much worse. & if the Supremes had appointed him president, rather than appointing a chickenhawk ex-cheerleader, we wouldn’t have had all that wanna-be macho posturing by Commander Codpiece. I doubt Charles would have picked a draft dodging VP either. We could have been led by real men, not draft dodging wimps (bush, Cheney, Rush) who need to send our sons & daughters to war to “prove” something.
Jimmm
Question: Is it only permissible for a black person to call another black person articulate?
Is this like the “N” word?
Sorry, Charlie, it took you too long to come around to your senses, at least politically. A few years back Charles admitted that the issue of race is a dodge, and that his views were based on his economic status — he was rich, ergo he was a Republican.
So now we have an endless war and struggling middle classes. STFU, Charles.
HyperIon
a couple of years ago i saw Barkley opining on non-sports matters. he said that whenever he goes back to alabama, as soon as he gets off the plane, he feels like he’s been transported back to the 70s. so i wonder if he would really take the plunge.