So the next issue of Rolling Stone is going to feature a story about Jahar “The Bomber” Tsarnaev. I’m looking forward to reading it — Janet Reitman has done some great work on ‘difficult’ topics — but it’s not the content of the article that has local media running indignant man-on-the-street clips to match the social media backlash…
As Margaret Hartmann at NYMag put it, “Tsarnaev’s selfie was plastered on newspapers around the world a few months ago, but no one’s written a song about the rock star connotations of being featured on the cover of the New York Times.”
Botsplainer
That song has always been one of my major earworms.
MTiffany
That photo is so outrageous to the 101st chairborne types because it is an undeniable reminder that terrorists are people, and that the first thing they ever did was draw their first breath when they were born, just like everyone else. And since these terrorists are people and NOT demons, their motives can be understood. But we’d have to ask “Why?” And FSM forbid that we ever ask any questions if there’s even the slightest chance the answers would reflect badly on us.
Debbie(aussie)
As I mentioned in an earlier thread my hubby was retrenched today after 27 years. Finished his shift at 7:30am, not going back. Am relieved I think. He hated it. Now he can look for something else. Won’t be easy tho, he is 54 and ageism can be rife in job seeking.
OzarkHillbilly
I think what has these delicate so upset is that the face of the monster looks quite human, even frail.
Also, for what ever reason, after I went there, google would NOT let me come back, saying you are an “attack” site. Now Firefox says you are infected… Sigh…. I hate the google.
OzarkHillbilly
Warning here Specific to balloon juice.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: even fragile, not frail.
OzarkHillbilly
@Debbie(aussie):
Especially if you’re a union carpenter (in a way, I don’t blame them) Wishing him some good luck.
Amir Khalid
I remember that when the authorities first put out his picture, there were girls crushing on him because he looked so dreamy. This ticked some people off. Maybe the objectors would have preferred to see Johar being perp-walked on the cover of the Rolling Stone. Doesn’t really matter to me, it’s just a picture.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s okay on i.e.. Mistermix, thought he found the problem but the warnings are still there. I guess it’s safe to ignore the warning though.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@MTiffany: More a mix of yimakh shemo and Herostratus, I think.
@JPL: Given a couple of the reports I’ve seen in the malware threads, I would recommend installing NoRedirect in Firefox.
Patricia Kayden
@Amir Khalid: I was wondering if people in general, and those who were harmed by the bombing, may be angry about how “dreamy” he looks on that cover. He doesn’t look sinister enough.
Debbie(aussie)
@OzarkHillbilly: thanks Ozark, he is a union machinist, unions not so utterly hated here. And thanks to them he has great redundancy package.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL:
Well, it did not happen this time, so I am going to assume all is well too. I am such a computer idiot that when these things happen, I just report it as info, not a warning as I would not know whether it is really a problem or not.
mothra1
He is a monster. He showed a total lack of human feeling. He is more than a bomber; he is a murderer. This glamour shot is offensive IMO.
OzarkHillbilly
@Debbie(aussie):
The hatred for unions here is something to behold. Kinda funny in that until I became a union carpenter I had no health insurance, and no pension. What’s not to like? Even the non-union carpenters I know like the fact of unions as their compensation is better because of them.
Lavocat
Yes, by all means, let’s have a shit fit over this since there’s absolutely nothing of substance that the MSM can otherwise be covering [eye roll]. Has the National Enquirer now consolidated its hold of American media?
Omnes Omnibus
@mothra1: It’s a selfie. Also, let’s grant your premise that he is a monster devoid of human feeling; it doesn’t force him to be ugly. The question worthy of consideration is why/how does an ostensibly nice young kid become capable of such an act. Born that way? Trauma? Weak will? Religion? Ideology? IDK. The point of the picture is that he wasn’t a stereotypical monster.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Lavocat:
The MSM scrupulously avoids covering anything more substantial than Dancing With the Stars and John McCain’s deep thinking on the issues.
Keith G
Greeted me this morning.
As per Jahar “The Bomber” Tsarnaev….I am more interested in why our justice dept seems so intent on not speaking to Congress about the shooting in Florida. I know its hip around here to trust our government overlords, but the FBI behavior has been very hinky.
snetzky
The photo was meant to evoke a response from those who would be outraged or intrigued by how normal the guy looks. Im in the intrigued camp myself, as I find fringe belief psychology fascinating. How do people become radicallized? Best friend of 20 plus years has gone full bore Pam Geller level wingnut to the point that I’ve just declared him dead in my mind, because the man I loved like a brother doesn’t exist anymore.
p
can’t figure out how to contact you — was just alerted that google has detected “badware” on balloon juice,, that this is an infected page and that i shouldn’t visit it again until the owners have resolved the problem!!!
say it ain’t so, joe!!!
OzarkHillbilly
@Keith G:
Law enforcement quite often declines to comment on “ongoing investigations.” There really is nothing hinky about it, just SOP.
p
@OzarkHillbilly:
i just got it too!!!
OzarkHillbilly
Reason # 1,523 why I hate the Catholic Church:
Vatican offers ‘time off purgatory’ to followers of Pope Francis tweets
p.a.
TNC on Richard Cohen and being a black male in the US. Can you say ‘evisceration’?
snetzky
@OzarkHillbilly:
catholicism: making God an Accountant since 300 AD
Chyron HR
@Keith G:
Not, of course, the shooting that everyone’s been talking about all week, but the IMPORTANT one.
gnomedad
Newsmax poll: Should Obama Use Zimmerman Verdict To Ban Guns? Wonder how that one’ll turn out.
different-church-lady
I wanna see that little fucker fry, but nonetheless I don’t get what the outrage is about. Kid looks like what he looks like. Are they supposed to ‘shop horns onto his head or something?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
I suppose the subject of human nature our innate savagery is on topic here. If you’ve never seen Thug Notes, you’re missing out.
Lord of the Flies
OzarkHillbilly
@snetzky: Catholicism: Beating the religion out of children since 300 AD.
Tyro
@mothra1: How is it offensive? Should he have taken a more menacing picture of himself? Or is the act of implicitly admitting that evil is not always ugly an admission that should not be publicly acknowledged? Who made you the arbiter of what philosophical realities we are to confront?
Cassidy
@Tyro: And who are we to judge what someone else finds offensive? I don’t share @mothra1: outlook, but that doesn’t mean I can’t understand how some people would feel that way.
Mothra1
@Omnes Omnibus:
Thanks for acknowledging the indisputible. He lacks human feeling. He chose monsterhood over humanity.
It’s a grotesque choice of photo and caption. Maybe that’s RS’s point; to contrast the exterior and interior. But the feeling I get when I look at it is offended; offended as a human being. I have no interest in watching him “fry”. I just don’t think the glamour shot is appropriate.
I’m always interested in criminal motivations; in why terrorists choose terrorism; in how monsters become monsters. I understand that terrorists sometimes choose terrorism because that’s the only tool in their toolbox. I don’t think that’s the case with the Brothers Tsarnaev. Do you?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
And Jesus said unto his disciples, “Retweet and ye shall be saved.”
rikyrah
Health Plan Cost for New Yorkers Set to Fall 50%
By RONI CARYN RABIN and REED ABELSON
Published: July 16, 2013
Individuals buying health insurance on their own will see their premiums tumble next year in New York State as changes under the federal health care law take effect, state officials are to announce on Wednesday.
State insurance regulators say they have approved rates for 2014 that are at least 50 percent lower on average than those currently available in New York. Beginning in October, individuals in New York City who now pay $1,000 a month or more for coverage will be able to shop for health insurance for as little as $308 monthly. With federal subsidies, the cost will be even lower.
Supporters of the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act, credited the drop in rates to the online purchasing exchanges the law created, which they say are spurring competition among insurers that are anticipating an influx of new customers. The law requires that an exchange be started in every state.
“Health insurance has suddenly become affordable in New York,” said Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president for health initiatives with the Community Service Society of New York. “It’s not bargain-basement prices, but we’re going from Bergdorf’s to Filene’s here.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/health/health-plan-cost-for-new-yorkers-set-to-fall-50.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1&
Cassidy
@Mothra1:
To me, this is where the plot is lost. Terrorists are only “terrorists” depoending on which side is doing the talking, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter and all that. Terrorism is a tactic, a horrendous tactic, but exceptionally successful in its purpose. It’s no different than any other unconventional military tactic.
People are complex. Assigning terms like “monster” really takes away from the kind of necessary analysis needed to figure out how people like him gto from point A to point Z.
Tyro
@Mothra1: maybe if all evil was ugly that would make you happier. Unfortunately that’s not true. I think more disturbing for you is that many not-ugly, human looking people you find compelling and attractive might actually be evil, and you don’t like dealing with that.
rikyrah
Howard University Trayvon Martin “Am I Suspicious?” Campaign Video
http://youtu.be/rH5bB8HUWFs
rikyrah
.
Complete Eric Holder NAACP Speech After George Zimmerman Verdict
http://youtu.be/0d4xbriIrbk
Omnes Omnibus
@Mothra1: I have no idea what motivated either of the brothers.
I am not inclined to say that they were monsters and lacked human feeling. To me, that seems an easy way out. But again, granting your premise for the purpose of argument, why must evil be ugly? If the devil is repulsive, how can he be seductive?
Mothra1
@Cassidy: @Tyro: @Tyro: @Cassidy</a@Cassidy:
Which is; you know; what I said-see the toolbox comment.
As for calling him a monster short circuiting analysis; again; looking at my response you cant make that case about me
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: chuckle
AxelFoley
@mothra1:
This.
Fuck all this “He’s a person” bullshit. This is the same shit they’re trying to do with Zimmerman.
Both of these fuckers are monsters.
Mothra1
@Tyro:
LOL
Dial it back to 11, please, and don’t give up your day job for one in psychiatry.
OzarkHillbilly
@AxelFoley:
Both of these fuckers are human beings that did monstrous and unforgivable things.
Mothra1
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes, evil can be seductive. It always fascinated me that OBL had such beautiful eyes.
Watching them walk away from setting the bombs, showing no emotion, is a bit of evidence of their monsterhood I put forward for you to consider. Walking through a crowd that included kids.
Mandalay
@MTiffany:
@Omnes Omnibus:
@snetzky:
You are all doing the publisher an injustice; the photo is there to sell copies of Rolling Stone. There is no need to ascribe pure motives to a commercial enterprise.
Mothra1
@OzarkHillbilly:
And thus became monsters. It’s not necessary to use the langauge appropriate to dealing with little kids to describe them [you’re not a bad boy, but what you did was wrong]. This was a monsterous act.
It’s taken a long time and a lot of years to really grasp what is meant by monster. This is it.
Laur
@Amir Khalid: The young girls finding him “dreamy” thing is a MUCH bigger problem though. He has thousands of tween and teenage “fangirls” on tumblr who are completely disconnected from reality.
Napoleon
I went and “liked” Rolling Stone on facebook this morning after reading this thread.
daveNYC
@Mothra1: Yeah, because there has to be something different, wrong, inhuman, about someone who does evil. That makes us feel better that we (the totally normal, nice, and humane) couldn’t possibly do something like that.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
T. Pratchett
Tyro
@Mothra1: I don’t think we need simple minded people like you posting like an ignoramus. I am sorry that you hate the reality of evil and are upset that Rolling Stone isn’t acting as a propaganda outlet in the way that you would approve of.
I am also sorry that you judge people by how they look, leading you to have collected a group of good looking, charismatic, evil and disposable people that you think are your “friends.”
Napoleon
By the way, if Rolling Stone has anything they should be embarrassed about it is the complete white wash of a story they did on Ted Bundy back in 1978 (before he admitted to his crimes). I recall reading it and thinking about what a pile of shit the article was and how it bent backwards to pretend he was innocent.
handsmile
Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray would seem to address the disturbing contrast between physical beauty and evil action.
But I think Mandalay above (#48) correctly, however cynically, surmised the publisher’s intention here.
Cassidy
@Mothra1: I’m not trying to make a case about you or against you at all. I’m just saying it’s easy to pigeonhole people into “monster” or “evil” or “terrorist” when the motivations and events leading up to that moment of extremem violence tend to be pretty diverse. I’m not saying he’s any less an asshole, but I think those artificial persona constructs take away from the valid discussion of motivation.
Example, pedophiles. Are they “monsters”? Some can be described that way. Some can be described as mentally sick people who are tortured by their compulsions. So is the answer to castrate all of them and be done with it or search for the deeper seeds that led them there? Then you start delving into prior abuse patterns and poverty and so on and so forth and maybe if we direct a little attention on intervention instead of punishment, maybe we reduce the overall problem.
Foregone Conclusion
I have a friend (not in the US) who has a pretty strong resemblance to Tsarnev, particularly in that photo. Heh.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mothra1:
This is true. But I come from the POV of one who is adamantly anti-death penalty. Not just because someone on death row might be innocent, which Tsarnaev most undoubtedly isn’t, but because I am not God and should not be able to decide who will live and who will die. It helps to remind myself that he is made up of the same things I am.
I understand where you are coming from, but this is where I am coming from. That’s all.
beergoggles
At least they didn’t recolor him brown like The Week did.
Aimai
I’m disturbed by the implicit racisim that feels encoded in the very way we perceive (or rather the assumed viewer perspective) a picture if the Boston bomber vs tray on Martin. The bb has the big eyes and sexy pout if a cross between a Potto and an ephebic male starlet. Are there any pictures of Martin, other thAn toddler pictures, which our prejudices and preconstructions about black teens, sexuality, violence wouldn’t incline us to see as violent and dangerous?
pat
@mothra1:
I have to agree. I’m not surprised that people find him just a bit too cute and innocent-looking. He is not innocent.
But they’ll certainly get noticed, won’t they.
cleek
@daveNYC:
the fact that most people don’t plants bombs, intending to kill as many people as possible during marathons, kindof suggests that there might, in fact, be something “different” about the person who does. and, it’s not such a stretch to think that becoming a mass murderer takes such a person out of the “totally normal, nice, and humane” categories, by the very definition of what it means to be normal, nice, and humane.
A Ghost To Most
@Mothra1: It’s pretty simple, actually:
“Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities”
This is what faith in foolishness (aka religion) does to people
Amir Khalid
Will Shakespeare said, there’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face. Johar Tsarnaev looks the way he looks, and that’s all there is to it. Rolling Stone put his picture on the cover because the cover story is about him — same as they’ve done with George Walker Bush, Barack Obama, and Katy Perry. Will it help at the newsstand because the teen girls figure Johar looks dreamy, or because people want to learn more about him? The latter, I reckon; as far as I know, teen girls aren’t really into Rolling Stone. But either way, man, *shrug*.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@beergoggles: Heh. I was going to ask if Hartmann perhaps thinks the picture needs to be darker.
Cassidy
@Aimai: Sure there are, but they only want the ones that aided in convicting him as a dope smoking thug. That’s what the trial was for right?
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: That’s pretty much my take. And as far as whether or not JT is a “monster,” Rolling Stone tagged him as such right on the cover.
It’s odd how some women / girls are attracted to serial killers / bombers, etc. Jail house marriages aren’t that uncommon for high-profile killers. Is there an analog for men? If so, you don’t hear about it as much, possibly because fewer women are killers.
Mandalay
@Betty Cracker:
More likely is that most men want sex, and women on death row present limited opportunities in more ways than one.
FlipYrWhig
Seems like the difference in the way this image plays — which, IMHO, is that if you didn’t know it was Tsarnaev you’d easily believe it was some musician of the moment; it looks like any other RS cover with a solo artist — is that magazine covers of bad people tend to put a box around the headshot/mugshot. Without that, you lose the visual declaration of the kind of photo and the kind of person it is. Right?
I’m looking forward to what SEK at Lawyers, Guns, and Money might say about the image. He’s unparalleled at finding meaning and history in images.
Ted & Hellen
Here’s a theory: As institutional religion has increasingly taken a back seat in American culture and the priggish, bluenose church lady has faded as a finger wagging expression of the country’s Puritan/uptight tendencies, priggish, bluenose politically correct types have risen to take her place.
Offense! Outrage! Shock! Dismay!
Salon magazine online has become a really horrible example of this annoying trend.
I think I shall do a portrait of the handsome young bomber, just to piss people off. :D
Amir Khalid
@Ted & Hellen:
That’s pretty much your only motivation for what you say and do around here.
Ted & Hellen
@Amir Khalid:
You poor, sensitive dear.
Fuck you.
A Ghost To Most
@Amir Khalid:
You seem to have touched a nerve with Wannabe Warhol. Not that I disagree.
Ted & Hellen
@AxelFoley:
You really need to rethink this.
People have a desperate urge to separate those who kill or commit other horrendous crimes from themselves and the rest of the human race by turning the perps into MONSTERS, or the OTHER who could not possibly in any way shape or form have anything in common with them or the nice little gentleman who lives next door (who might have severed heads in his basement freezer) or the old widow lady across the street (whose long dead husband is mummified in the attic). This makes them feel safer, less threatened, more at ease in the day to day world.
Truth is, we all have the MONSTER inside of us to one degree or another. Most people control their monster, are not bothered by it, or their monster is very tiny and mostly cute. The stories of those of us who lose control and let the monster out of the cage can be fascinating and informative and serve as cautionary tales for the rest of us.
Crime stories and bios are a time honored literary tradition.
Get off your high horse, Church Lady.
Ted & Hellen
@Laur:
No biggie.
This has happened many times throughout American history regarding a lot of different famous killers.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: Some more good news about the ACA. Repubs are crying.
A Ghost To Most
@Ted & Hellen
In this, I agree with T&H. Ascribing the actions of others as evil, is just another way of othering.
This is what religion does to people.
FlipYrWhig
@Ted & Hellen: So how do you feel about handsome pictures of Barack Obama? Totally cool with it?
hitchhiker
Got the magazine in my mailbox yesterday & it never occurred to me that the cover was offensive. The cover made me want to read the article, which I think is the point, right?
The article is mostly about how mind-fked his former close friends were when they realized that he had done this thing, plus the slow collapse of his family. Having read it, the picture isn’t a glamour shot, it’s an effing creepy reminder that you just can’t know what human beings are capable of.
Ted & Hellen
@FlipYrWhig:
Why do you feel that Barack Obama is a monster?
A Ghost To Most
@hitchhiker: or what humans can talk other humans into doing. They are not monsters; they are deluded into performing terrible acts.
FlipYrWhig
@Ted & Hellen: No, YOU do. You try to police other people’s reactions to and impressions of public figures all the damn time. So stop playing this game about free expression against stultifying correctness. You don’t believe in that at all. You like what you like and hate what you hate, and there’s nothing more to it, with the possible exception that you affect to like things other people hate so that you can get a reaction. If you have principles, settle on what they are and stick to them.
MathInPA
I’ve noticed a few references to Eldad Hagar and Hope For Paws, and checked the search a few times, and I noticed that a direct link hadn’t been made. Warning, the first page does start loading their YouTube stuff which is (a) set to music and (b) shows the rescues directly– including the condition of the dogs that are rescued. Hope For Paws is a bit flashy, but I really do think that the idea of showing the rescues (and in later videos, some of the rehabilitations) in process, works not only for advertising his organization, but also advertising the plight of these animals and in some cases the sheer, rage-inducing negligence that LA and the surrounding areas have towards animals. I might be a little unkind to my former home; they’ve had massive budget problems and the Liberal vs. Libertarian/Conservative fightover taxes, especially those fuckers John and Ken, has sorely reduced the budget for everything, period.
If you can stand to watch the vids– and I will repeat the warning that what’s happened to these animals is terrible and SHOULD be shocking– it is a much bawl-inducing thing. The ends are generally happy; as he refines his technique, it looks like he’s showing more of the cleaning and cleaned up process. I can’t watch too many at a time; I think the only reason I can really stand to watch more than one is the endings where they’ve got these abandoned dogs happy and playful again. There’s one video where he shows the condition of the dog on rescue (heartbreaking) and then the condition of the dog after 36 days of rehabilitation– it’s amazing. You see the process, and you can see how the shape of the face is the same, but otherwise, it’s incredible. He lists the foster agencies he works with in URLs below the videos, and similarly thanks organizations he works with to do the rescues.
Ted & Hellen
@FlipYrWhig:
Example of where I have stated that BO is a “monster?” Doesn’t exist. My disdain for BO is compounded by the fact that he knows exactly what he is doing, and he knows better, and he does it anyway. MONSTERS don’t act that way. Do you think my illustration of him portrays him as a monster?
Example?
Please note, COMMENTING ON AND MOCKING people’s views is not the same as “policing” them. You won’t see me expressing “shock” and “outrage” and “offense” at commenters here. That’s the language of prigs all concerned about their fee fees because they don’t have legitimate, non hysterical, non tribal bases for their views.
Ted & Hellen
@FlipYrWhig:
lol.
Yes, church lady.
Cassidy
The boring old queen rises out of the sewer like a turd in the flood. Just let it float on by. It has nothing to offer and never will until it ceases to exist, disappearing into obscurity as just another boardwalk caricature maker (I hesitate to use artist) lacking in originality.
Aimai
@FlipYrWhig: this.
Ted & Hellen
@Cassidy:
Call me! ;)
Mandalay
@Ted & Hellen:
This. And the evidence is everywhere.
Here’s an everyday guy/monster who will be the next George Zimmerman in Florida.
Think of teenagers who go to a party and end up pack raping.
Think of our military (and every other), where regular people end up committing atrocities.
Google “hit and run” for daily examples of regular people leaving others dead or dying in the road.
In most of these cases I am sure that perpetrator did not believe they were capable of being a monster just seconds before they committed their “monster” acts.
Raptorfence
Glad to see there’s no idea so bad that Lindsey Graham won’t have it.
Cassidy
@Ted & Hellen: No thank you. I have a family to spend time with. I have no need for toxic people. You’re welcome to wallow in your loneliness.
fuckwit
It’s a sad day when PEOPLE FUCKING MAGAZINE gets it more right than Rolling Stone.
Hey assholes, THESE are the heroes who deserve to be on the cover of a goddamned magazine:
http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2013/news/130617/boston-300.jpg
Jeebus how could they have fucked that up? People Magazine did the right thing.
Ted & Hellen
@Ted & Hellen:
Really? Homophobic much, you closet case, stalker, lard ass POS?
BTW…in the last ten days I’ve received new commissions to do a 5×3 foot painting of Madeline Kahn as her Mrs. White character in the movie version of “Clue”, 20×16 inch portraits of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Cab Callowy, and Joan Crawford, a 24×18 inch portrait of Phyllis Diller, and a three piece set of portraits of a client’s son. Total: More than $15,000.00
How much coin did you make last week, hiding from your boss while surfing the internet in your cubicle?
Ted & Hellen
@Cassidy:
Ha! See you at Pride next year! And stop friending me on Manhunt.net. Not gonna happen.
fuckwit
Also, it’s funny how this thread has brought out the trolls.
Folks, terrorists are just more violent trolls. They seek attention.
How do you deal with trolls? You ignore them. You do not feed the trolls.
And… you do not put them on the cover of a goddamned magazine. Jeebus fuck. That’s giving them (and people who want to copycat them) just what they wanted: attention.
There should be an unspoken rule among the media: do not feed the trolls. That means don’t glamorize them, don’t put them on the cover of magazines, ignore them.
wasabi gasp
The incentive to write crappy pop songs was bad enough.
LanceThruster
Officer Collier Shooting: “Rosebud” Moment of the Boston Bombing? The Contradictions Keep Coming
Cassidy
@Ted & Hellen: Hehehehe…hit a nerve obviously. Am I supposed to be impressed? Your a caricature maker who’s not even good enough to be derivative. You’re a no talent hack. I make plenty, thank you, but just a bit of advice, no amount of money you make will fill that empty space that is you. I know it hurts for your children to not want to be around you and you know you’re too selfish and high maintenance to be worth a shit as a parent. Clearly, they’re better off since you lef tto pursue your “muse”. And it has go to suck to know that every single time they humor you with lunch or a meeting, once they leave they snicker behind your back at just how foolish and high maintenance drama queen you are. Do you think they sit around with your ex-beard and talk shit about you over a glass of wine or two? Probably. Hilarity ensues, I’m sure.
Good luck on your crayon caricatures, though. Try making the heads a little bigger and adding a tennis racket or something so you can stand out from the people in th epark. I’m sure that money can buy you a handsome hooker so you can pretend to not be you for 30 mins. Have a nice day. ;)
Cassidy
@Ted & Hellen: Shit, if I were gay, I would not be interested in a tadpole like you. Get some exercise for fuck’s sake.
Ted & Hellen
@Cassidy:
Call me. I can talk you thru the loneliness of your sham closet marriage.
It’s never too late to make things right, fatty.
Ted & Hellen
@Cassidy:
Ha.
6′ 160
I think I’ll stay the way I am, thanks. :D
Links to your pics, big guy? come one, what are you hiding?
CommishTheFirst
@OzarkHillbilly: Great reply that helped clarify my own thinking. Thanks.
Amir Khalid
@Ted & Hellen:
That doesn’t really look like Obama. The lower half of his face is disproportionately large.
Cassidy
@Ted & Hellen: @Ted & Hellen: You are such a sad, pathetic person. But, I think it’s safe to say that if you want to continue a conversation with me, you should email me. I can call you a piece of shit in private as well as public. I think I’m done with you. As I’ve said before, you’ve gotten boring and repetitive and you lack creativity, but we knew that from when you wanted to pimp your boardwalk caricatures.
Ted & Hellen
@Amir Khalid:
Ummm…not meant to be a photographically exact duplicate. That’s what photographs are for.
If it doesn’t look like Obama, who does it look like to you? Anyone at all?
Ted & Hellen
@Cassidy:
haha…no, you’re not done with me, not by a long shot. That’s why you keep stalking me on FB and writing me here.
I understand: Before I got the courage to come out of the closet I used to fixate from time to time on gay men who were out.
It’s ok.
How can I email you if you keep hiding? :D
Amir Khalid
@Ted & Hellen:
Dunno whose likeness you captured there, but it isn’t Obama’s. Since it’s your artwork, why don’tyou tell me.
Ted & Hellen
@Amir Khalid:
Hokay…right.
Actually, it’s a portrait of Barbara Bush.
Ted & Hellen
@Amir Khalid:
Does my pitiously bad crayon drawing look more like Barack NOW?
Mnemosyne
@fuckwit:
This. What bothers me about the “dreamy” picture is not that it glamorizes him for young girls, but that it glamorizes him for other disturbed young men who now think that they will get to be on the cover of Rolling Stone after their massacre.
Also, why pick Tsarnaev and not the Colorado shooter, or the Tucson shooter, or the Connecticut shooter? All of them killed far more people than Tsarnaev did. Is it because Tsarnaev is conventionally attractive and the other three are not? Why are his actions more important and disturbing than theirs? Why is bombing the Boston Marathon worse than massacring first-graders?
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Those are all good questions. And we’re discussing them because RS put this kid on the cover. It’s what periodicals do.
Again, this same picture was sprawled across the top of NY Times’ front page and featured prominently online in May. Where was your outrage?
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
Please find a famous pop song whose chorus talks about knowing you’ve made it as a rock star when you’re on the cover of the New York Times. We’ll wait here while you find that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Because the shooters you mentioned all had mental health issues that made their rampages less
surprising. Tsarnaev doesn’t fit a standard profile. As a result, what happened with him is potentially more interesting. Also, it’s a pretty good picture.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
What’s your point?
Is this guy a pop star in your mind? Has RS never put newsmakers on their cover? You don’t think he’s a news maker? What?
Where was your poutrage when he appeared in this pic in the NY Times and all over the internet after the bombing?
Find something less transparently bogus to bitch about.
Ted & Hellen
He’s in good company.
Brian H
Seriously, is there any thread this attention whore Ted & Hellen can’t derail? As a longtime reader and mostly as a lurker, I came to this thread to read reactions to the Rolling Stone cover (fwiw, I think it was in poor taste, and a craven bit of cynical trolling in its own right), but instead I get endless nonsense from this dipshit, so that no matter what the subject of the thread is, he manages to turn it into being about him. Really, Cole & Co., he takes far more away from this blog’s experience than he contributes to it. Begone before someone drops a house on you too.
Ted & Hellen
@Brian H:
Oh you poor delicate thing. I wonder if the commenters who attack me personally have anything at all with making a thread about me personally…nah, couldn’t be any part of it I’m sure.
If I were a Bot, yet posted with the same commenting style, I’d be very popular here.
It’s not my style but content you object to, troll.
cckids
@Foregone Conclusion: My son has an unfortunate resemblance to him. Thank FSM he is blonde.
Mothra1
“Example, pedophiles. Are they “monsters”? Some can be described that way. Some can be described as mentally sick people who are tortured by their compulsions. So is the answer to castrate all of them and be done with it or search for the deeper seeds that led them there? Then you start delving into prior abuse patterns and poverty and so on and so forth and maybe if we direct a little attention on intervention instead of punishment, maybe we reduce the overall problem.”
You’re setting up a false dichotomy here. Just saying.
lojasmo
I don’t agree with giving criminals public attention. I don’t have a problem with the qualities of the photo in relation to the bad things he did. I just don’t think he should be on the cover of the rolling stone.
Heliopause
I’ve been away all day because of the malware warning but let me just say, this, uh, “controversy” has managed to finally unite left and right in this divided country, not to mention that it has conveniently identified, for future reference in my dictatorship, those individuals who are too stupid to take a piss on their own much less be allowed to breed. And, Christ, there are an awful lot of them. Well done, Rolling Stone.
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
The last “newsmaker” of this kind that RS put on their cover was Charles Manson. So I guess you think this kid is just as bad as Charles Manson?
I guess you could call setting off a bomb in a public place and killing two people “making news.” I call it murder, but you stick with your personal terminology, I guess.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Actually, my other problem with this cover is that he does fit a standard profile: he’s a skeery skeery Mooslim who refused to fit in with American culture and see how that shows that Those People will never really assimilate?
RS is being Edgy by pushing a right-wing meme. Not really a shocker, but annoying.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
You got all that out of the cover photo?
Or is your new issue now with the article inside to which the photo relates?
And what you seem to get from the article are nothing but your own projections, as per your usual half-hinged view point.
Have you read the article?
Which thing specifically are you OUTRAGED about? The photo? The article? RS’s not calling you for input on the article? All of the above?
Paul in KY
@Patricia Kayden: The picture is very flattering, IMO. Maybe they didn’t have any ‘bad’ pictures of him. Although I thought he looked a bit dorky in those street camera stills of him & his brother when they were commiting their crime.
Paul in KY
@OzarkHillbilly: You know, Chaucer wrote something about that practice…