[I wrote this two years ago, but given the Hank Williams, Jr. shenanigans, and the ongoing failure to understand what it is the First Amendment protects, I figured it was ripe for repostin’. -ABLxx]
You know what? I’ve had it up to HERE (::lifts arm as high as she can which, sadly, is not very high as Angry Black Lady is practically a midget–pardon me–little person::) with morons, idiots, and asshats.
Idiocy is running rampant among the American population. Forget about swine flu. The worst that swine flu can do is kill you. Idiocy, on the other hand, is a seemingly airborne virus that is spreading from person to person, turning each of those persons into a moron, each more moronic than the last. Idiocy isn’t a disease that kills. Sadly, no. It is a disease that turns a nation of formerly intelligent individuals into a multiplying mass of moronic mouth-breathers.
Now what form of idiocy is most distressing to me right now?
The idiots who throw around the term “freedom of speech” and “First Amendment” without having a clue what the fuck it is they are talking about.
You can see idiocy on TV: Carrie Prejean, that dumbass who has gotten herself into a heap of trouble over her “opposite marriage” shenanigans at the Miss USA Pageant, had this to say at a press conference last week:
My grandfather served under General Patton World War II. He never spoke about the Battle of the Bulge that he participated in as rifleman…. On April 19, on that stage, I exercised my freedom of speech. And I was punished for doing so. This should not happen in America. It undermines the constitutional rights for which my grandfather fought for.
(First of all, dumbass, you weren’t exercising your freedom of speech. You were answering a question for a beauty pageant. Second of all, dumbass, you weren’t punished for it. You just lost the goddamn pageant and people called you a dumbass on TV.)
You can also see idiocy in print: Some nitwit who calls herself Melanie Morgan standing up for poor wittle Cawwie Pwejean:
Leo Penn, the father of famous actor Sean Penn, was hauled before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (the McCarthy hearings) during the 1950s and harassed, spied upon and ultimately blacklisted for his political views (he attended a pro-union meeting called to support other black- listees.)
He refused to accuse others, and lost his livelihood for a period of time, but went on to direct many TV shows including Star Trek, The Law and Mr. Jones, and I Spy.
Now Carrie Prejean, beauty queen and determined supporter of marriage between a man and a woman, finds herself smeared on the Internet, castigated in public, on TV, (Chelsea Handler on E! channel has taken aim with a vicious gleam in her vodka-stoked eyes) and her parents have been dragged through the mud as well.
So where are the free-speech warriors? How about Sean Penn and the rest of the Hollywood elitists who think the First Amendment was written solely for their benefit? …
Penn, who played Harvey Milk in the film “Milk,” for which he won an Oscar, is probably too biased to see that the Founding Fathers weren’t just thinking of him and his high-brow leftists when they stood for freedom of expression for EVERYBODY.
…
Guess what, Sean. Because you have the right to rant and rave about your radical agenda, Ms. Prejean also gets to use words that are so offensive to you and Perez Hilton, whose mouth is filthier than a latrine in a high school locker room.
Guess what, Melanie? You’re a fucking idiot. Whenever I read an article that uses the words “elitists” and “high-brow leftists,” my head explodes because the articles are usually penned by neo-conservative religious right idiots. Sure, Melanie. Sean Penn’s agenda of equality for everyone is radical. Get bent, lady. (Sidenote: Who says get bent anymore? I do. That’s who.)
Carrie and Melanie, this next bit is for you (and all the dumbasses who whine about their “freedom of speech” when they say some stupid bigoted shit and are called out for it), so listen carefully (I’m going to yell):
THE FIRST AMENDMENT, AND MOST STATE CONSTITUTIONS PROHIBIT GOVERNMENTAL ENTITIES FROM ABRIDGING AN INDIVIDUAL’S RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH.
Meaning, Melanie, when Leo Penn was hauled into Congress during the McCarthy era and harassed and spied on, that was an abridgment of his freedom of speech. because he was punished (subject to hearings) by the U.S. government for his political views.
Sean Penn, Chelsea Handler, and other members of the Hollywood or media elite are not governmental entities, and what Carrie seems to think is punishment (these “elitists” calling her on her bullshit) is actually an exercise of their right to speak without government intrusion. So, Melanie? Do go read the Constitution and STFU until you’ve figured it out.
And Carrie, if you had said “I hate gay people” and then the Feds swooped in, put a black bag over your head, sent you to Gitmo, then put you in a space ship and shot you out into space, where you would be doomed to live out your stupid life alone–thankfully removing you from the gene pool–without chance of passing your idiocy on to anyone else, well, that would be an abridgment of your freedom of speech. It would also be exactly awesome.
But losing a stupid beauty pageant or even having Perez Hilton talk smack about you on his blog, IS NOT AN ABRIDGMENT OF YOUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Sure, Perez fancies himself a monarch of some sort (indeed he is–the King of Doosh), he is still a private person exercising his right to say what the hell he wants.
And your loss of the crown is not punishment either. It’s a corporate decision to not give you the title of Hottest Girl in America With Fake Hooters. Was it your answer to Perez’s question that lost you the crown? Maybe. Or maybe you just fucking LOST because you fucking SUCK.
I swear to Cruise, I hate people sometimes.
[cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles][*cough*]
NobodySpecial
Perhaps we can just get President Obama and his committee to determine that she’s worthy of killing, and then a drone strike.
KS in MA
Paul (the apostle) said, in another context, “All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful.”
(Not every distinction Paul made was useful, but that one is.)
Ben Cisco (mobile)
Damn, trolled in one. That’s gotta be a record.
LittlePig
@Ben Cisco (mobile): I swear they just sit there and hit F5 all damn day.
Bokonon
What is interesting to me is that Hank Williams Jr. did little more than parrot some of Rush Limbaugh’s trash talk (the “Three Stooges” reference was clearly from talk radio). So was the whole Obama-golfing-with-Boehner-being-the-worst-thing-in-the-world. So was the casual Hitler reference.
So Williams may be genuinely shocked that he doesn’t get to repeat on TV the same thing he hears repeated on talk radio every day.
But yeah … all of this reflects the perennial folklore confusion that the 1st Amendment gives you the right to say whatever you want to whoever you want … and UP YOURS! … nobody can tell you to shut up (or take away your music gig, fire you, deny you a beauty pageant crown, or criticize you). Unless you are a liberal.
Even Sarah Palin has made this claim – apparently with a real sense of entitlement and grievance. Remember how she claimed that media criticism prevented her from being able to get out her political message, and all of that deprived her of her free speech rights.
soonergrunt
@NobodySpecial: I’d support that.
Baud
@NobodySpecial:
I agree. The only way to really deal with a slippery slope is to slide all the way down.
Bokonon
Hey, nobodyspecial – I would watch out. I think that Obama and his committee are clearly spying on you, since you are such an articulate and ferocious enemy of their agenda.
Someday soon, they will probably send a special team to your house some night to abduct you, tie you up, and dump you into a mineshaft someplace. A mineshaft filled with vampire bats.
Obama is vicious and ruthless that way. Just like Hitler.
So … do not relax your vigilance, not even for a moment. Do not go to sleep. Do not take your eye off the door. I repeat – DO. NOT. GO. TO. SLEEP.
You may want to consider fleeing the country, and seeking asylum in Russia.
merl
Right wingers know the Constitution about as well as they understand the New Testament.
cckids
@Bokonon: Yes, unfortunately for him, Hank Jr. doesn’t comprehend that he doesn’t have quite the, er, heft of Limbaugh when it comes to spouting complete anti-American bullshit over the airwaves. So, he is SOL. Sux to be you, Junior
tkogrumpy
Not all of us ABL, that’s not healthy.
b-town
Why have there been three (at least) posts about the comments of a man whose brain was directly exposed to the elements for at least a half-hour?
Strandedvandal
@b-town: Because at least 3 people have wanted to discuss it.
kindness
Oh ABL, normally you would rule the day’s threads. But between the government ‘legally’ assassinating citizens (& non-citizens) and Obama busting Medical Marijuana outlets….you are going to be sorely under clicked today.
But you are correct. Randal Williams (his name isn’t Hank, never was, he was just ripping off his Daddy’s fame) is a major douche and deserves disrespect. Good job.
aisce
@ kindness
and some people have the nerve to suggest abl doesn’t have ass-kissing fanboys/girls that are every bit as ridiculous as the troll patrol. poor, poor abl. she wasn’t able to “rule the day.” such a tragedy.
as for the thread topic itself, didn’t we get enough of this with the dixie chicks? country singers are free to say political stuff, and the public and walmart and the disney corporation are free to do damage to their professional careers in response.
Cat Lady
OT but the Stanley Cup is right this minute being escorted into the Gahden for opening night and the Banner Raising. Real hockey starts tonight!
Speedy
@Bokonon:
And for God sakes , whatever you do , PROTECT YOUR PRECIOUS BODILY FLUIDS !
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@aisce: didn’t we get enough of this with the dixie chicks?” That’s even dumber than your usual bullshit.
gravie
Ooooh — this “First Amendment” knee-jerk from jerks is one of my serious pet peeves. It can send me into a rant of monumental proportions. I have a high school acquaintance (and former FB “friend”) who insisted that he was entitled to come on anyone’s page and say anything he wanted and anyone who objected (or who hid his posts) was infringing on his First Amendment rights. I posted the actual First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law… etc.” It has nothing to do with personal conversations or really any other thing that these morans think it applies to. They are never convinced, however, because facts don’t align with their delusions.
opal
@Speedy:
Watch the skies, everywhere. Keep looking.
KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES.
Dr. Squid
@Speedy: But What About the Soil???
harlana
Ugh, I hadn’t thought about Melanie Morgan in years. Now, you’re going to make me read her.
LT
Someone should point out to them that not only is a company firing you because you’re a dickhead not a violation of Free Speech – it’s *capitalism*.
Why do they hate our Capitalisms?
Arclite
Or maybe she lost because she doesn’t suck (or swallow). I always wondered how these contests worked.
Do you suppose if Carrie received enough of my liberal DNA that she would turn liberal?
Chris
@gravie:
Conservatives believe the Constitution exists to protect their right to do whatever the fuck they feel like doing at any particular moment. Some people think they have a constitutional right to post on other people’s facebook walls. Some people think they have a constitutional right to prevent other people from building mosques on their own property. Some people think they have a constitutional right to be shielded from the existence of gay people in the public square. Etc, etc, etc. It’s all the same me-me-me sense of entitlement.
ETA: take the old saying “your right to swing your arm ends at the tip of my nose” and flip in over, and you’ve got the conservative ethic in a nutshell. Your right to have a nose ends at the tip of their arm-swinging radius.
Ravi M. Singh
Standing ovation for this post.
Chris
@LT:
You’d never know it from listening to their worship-words, but you’re right – these guys fucking hate capitalism. They’d never express it that way, but they basically expect the Invisible Hand of the Market to give them all the outcomes they want, and when it doesn’t, they go on a rampage looking for the liberal conspiracies that must be skewing the market.
Companies firing a guy because they’re afraid the way he shoots his mouth off will bring down their ratings – that’s one example. Deregulated television promoting a sinful and promiscuous culture because that’s what gets ratings – another example. Hollywood having a “liberal” and “anti American” bias because it has a worldwide audience which mostly doesn’t share American Conservative ideology – yet another.
West of the Cascades
The prohibition also applies to private entities acting under the color of state law (like privately-run prison systems, but not beauty pageants or large cable sports networks), but these fuckwits sure don’t know that nuance, either.
Villago Delenda Est
@Chris:
Chris, all true.
To further add insult to injury, as I mentioned yesterday, it’s remarkably easy to troll these guys with quotes from The Wealth of Nations.
They’re massive reservoirs of ignorance.
Oh, and your post at 25 is spot on, too. They do not get that people aside from them have rights, too. Randism is built on this meme.
srv
As silly as all the BART protestors thinking the subway is a Free Speech zone too. You’d think someone would have noticed SCOTUS didn’t agree a few decades back.
agorabum
It’s all about rights for me and not for thee.
So HWjr has the First Amendment right to call Obama a Hitler.
But no one has the right to complain about it.
There are many other special rights out there that only work for republicans. They have the right to say racists things (since they are not really racists, of course), and saying anything about it is “playing the race card” and a violation of their rights.
Or the right to cut taxes, but not raise them. The right to run deficits in a recession (see: Bush statements in 2001/2002), but not during a potential depression. The right to start wars, but not end them. Etc.
pete
I enjoyed that.
Speedy
Every time I run across a bunch of butt hurt , wingnut Konstitooshunal skolars , whining about how Obama is taking their free-dumbs away , I come away wishing that abject stupidity would result in severe , debilitating pain.
Most of the morons whining about Hank the Drunken Hillbilly’s First Amendment Rights being trampled wouldn’t know the Bill of Rights if you used a rolled up copy of it to knock Hank’s dick out of their mouths.
jo6pac
Forget about swine flu.
I hate it when humans are considered equals to pigs. Hank the lesser is gone I hope but then again Amerikas liberal press/tv will give him another chance next season.
Ben Cisco (mobile)
Best part of all this: he wasn’t even an employee of ESPN in the first place.
Ben Cisco (mobile)
Best part of all this: he wasn’t even an employee of ESPN in the first place.
Ben Cisco (mobile)
Best part of all this: he wasn’t even an employee of ESPN in the first place.
econtutor
Where’s the “like” button?
rikyrah
nobody stopped him from saying what he wanted to — THAT IS THE FIRST AMENDMENT.
but, if there is blowback in the ‘marketplace’. then, oh well.
too fucking bad
marginalized for stating documented facts
Absolutely right, ABL.
These far-right cranks are amazing. How long before losing an election constitutes “abridging their freedom of speech”…?
marginalized for stating documented facts
@Speedy:
FTW!
Post of the day!
Lee
@merl:
I am totally stealing that.