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Hatewatch is managed by the staff of the Intelligence Report, an investigative magazine published by the Alabama-based civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center.
AFA’s Bryan Fischer Takes Knockout Punch on CNN
Bryan Fischer, the gay-bashing, truth-challenged spokesman for the American Family Association, went one rant too far Tuesday for CNN anchor Carol Costello.
“And we know from the CDC and from the FDA, not part of the vast right-wing conspiracy, that homosexual behavior,” Fischer gushed excitedly, “has the same health risks associated with …”
“That’s just not true,” Costello said, cutting him off before he could insert his foot any further in his mouth. “I’m going to end this interview now, sir. I’m sorry because that’s just not true.”
The interview was about the AFA’s laughable attempt to portray the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mix It Up At Lunch Day program – in which students are simply asked to sit with someone new in the lunchroom – as part of a sinister plot to indoctrinate children into the “homosexual lifestyle.”
Earlier this month, the far-right AFA urged its supporters – it claims 2 million online activists – to call their local schools and harass them into dropping out of Mix It Up Day, which falls on Oct. 30 this year. So far, about 200 schools have canceled, but more than 2,500 are going forward and more are signing up every day.
Launched 11 years ago by the SPLC, Mix It Up is seen by many educators as a way to break down social barriers that can lead to bullying. The SPLC serves as a clearinghouse and provides ideas and free resources, but each school tailors the event to its own needs.
But to Fischer, who sees the “homosexual agenda” lurking behind every bush, Mix It Up is nothing less than an effort by the “fanatical pro-homosexual” SPLC to “bully-push its gay agenda.”
On Monday night, Stephen Colbert and his audience had more than a few laughs at the AFA’s expense.
“Don’t fall for it kids,” Colbert said, looking directly into the camera. “It’s a devious plot. Get kids to learn that despite our outward differences in our hearts we’re all pretty much the same.’’
Laughed at one minute, hung up on the next. It’s been that kind of 24 hours for Fischer and the AFA, which SPLC added to its list of hate groups in 2010.
But it took the veteran journalist Costello quite a while to lose her patience.
“Mix It Up At Lunch appears to be a lesson in intolerance,” she said to Fischer as the interview began. “As a religious leader, what’s wrong with that?”
“Parents need to understand about this program,” he said, ignoring her question, “it’s a thinly veiled attempt to push the normalization of homosexual behavior in public schools. And eventually punish students who would express a Judeo-Christian view of sexuality.
“So it appears to be innocent and innocuous on the surface, but the hidden agenda if you look at the website, tolerance.org, is primarily about pushing homosexual orientation and acceptance of alternative behavior – sexual behavior.’’
But Costello did something that it appears Fischer did not. She actually visited the website.
She told Fischer “it urges students to move out of their comfort zone, saying connect with someone new over lunch. There is absolutely no mention of homosexuality at all and this program has been going for 11 years.”
Straining for a metaphor that would make some sense, Fischer tried to capitalize on the date of Mix It Up, noting that it falls this year on the eve of Halloween. The program, he said, is “like poisoned Halloween candy. Somebody takes a candy bar, injects it with cyanide, the label looks fine. It looks innocuous, it looks fine. It’s not until you internalize it that you realize how toxic it is.”
Costello asked Fischer if the attack on Mix It Up was motivated by the fact that SPLC has listed the AFA as a hate group. He did not answer directly and instead accused the SPLC of being a bully, trying “to silence Christian students who take a conservative view of human sexuality …”
At one point, she read a statement Fischer made during a radio broadcast in 2010. “You have said, “Hitler recruited homosexuals around him to make up his storm troopers. They were his enforcers. They were his thugs. Hitler discovered he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders but that homosexual soldiers had no limit to the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whoever Hitler sent them after.”
She added that “by many people’s standards, this would be hate speech.”
A few moments later, she ended the interview.
“Mr. Fischer,” she said, “thanks for sharing your views. I guess.”
on October 16th, 2012 at 5:06 pm
No doubt the handful of people still watching CNN were entertained by this.
on October 16th, 2012 at 5:09 pm
SPLC an anti-Christian bully, is it?
Well, Mr. Fischer…you might want to decide if you are riding the cross or driving the nails.
on October 16th, 2012 at 5:17 pm
Jared Taylor has said he welcomes homosexuals in his organization. He considers it a non-issue. A non-white, 3rd world America will be no better for white gays, than it will be for straight whites. We all know that in the gay community there is a division based on race. White gays prefer white partners; which only goes to show further that racial diversity is not a strength. On gay dating sites there is usually a preference for race you can check.
on October 16th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Sweet. I hope this incident fully destroys any notions that this guy possesses anything like legitimacy as a religious figure and places, in the public mind, the AFA uncontroversally in the hate group category it rightfully occupies.
on October 16th, 2012 at 7:42 pm
Ah, if it were only the case. Fischer is not discouraged by silly little things like “facts” and “science”. Those are very clearly the tools of Satan. Then again, if you believe that an actual entity is the personification and architect of all evil in the world, then facts and science become meaningless.
on October 16th, 2012 at 8:56 pm
Good for Carol Costello in cutting off Mr. Fischer and his nonsense. He has a right to freedom of speech, and CNN has an absolute right and duty to cut off speech it knows is nothing more than lies and absurdity.
The question, however, is: What was CNN doing interviewing AFA’s Fischer in the first place?
on October 16th, 2012 at 10:48 pm
Kudos to Carol Costello for abruptly ending the interview. I only wish more journalists in the corporate media would do this sort of thing with the wing nuts.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Fischer himself were a closeted gay man. This virulent homophobia tends to be a symptom. Remember Ted Haggard?
on October 16th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
” Hitler discovered he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders but that homosexual soldiers had no limit to the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whoever Hitler sent them after.”
Apparently this guy doesn’t know much about soldiers or WWII history. If this were even remotely true, we’d have to believe that the soldiers not only of Germany, but of several other nations, were largely homosexual. Somehow I find that hard to believe.
on October 16th, 2012 at 11:39 pm
What were the 200 schools that cancelled this excellent program thinking? Brian Fischer is so obviously wacko. If I thought it would bring him sanity I’d almost send him my copy of “The Damned” (Luchino Visconti, 1969) which has a much more interesting account of the Night of the Long Knives than the History Channel’s.
on October 17th, 2012 at 8:49 am
Ezra: I’m in class again, so no tactful response. Just shut up already? You’re making a complete jackass of yourself. And you’re not gonna derail this thread again with your drivel. Not THIS time.
As for Mr. Fischer, I hope the spanking he got on CNN leaves him too sore to sit for the next week or two. Looks like less people are interested in hearing insanity on legitimate news sources. They can go to Fox News for that.
on October 17th, 2012 at 9:34 am
Erza, thanks for your comment. It helps accomplish our goals more than anything we could ever say.
on October 17th, 2012 at 9:51 am
I’m not a full-blown history professor or something, but I do enjoy reading and studying about it, and for some reason, I think I would have heard about the Hitler-Hiring-Homos program before now.
And I would hazard a guess that if it were discovered that while Hitler didn’t hire people based on their sexual orientation that a significant percentage of his stormtroopers WERE gay, they were probably of the self-hating variety that have “evolved” into the overly-obsesses-about-gays gay-bashing politicians, religious figures, et. al. of today.
on October 17th, 2012 at 10:30 am
In the 1920′s, there were supposedly more gay bars in Munich than there are today. One of the Nazi party founders, Roehm, was gay. When the “Brown Shirts” turned against Hitler, they were all killed including Roehm, on the Night of the Long Knives. Hitler had always been highly moralistic and against the “decadence of the intellectuals”. Gays were assigned pink triangles and herded off to concentration camps. In the military, isolated incidents were treated with understanding and a transfer, as “German males are so beautiful it’s bound to happen”. In the first part of WWII, we were drafting everybody we could, and gays were tolerated fairly well in our armed forces until Eisenhower cracked down hard on them. Across the world from him, in the Pacific, they commonly ran the supply depots and did other clerical jobs for the whole war. In the Navy…. Well don’t get me started.
on October 17th, 2012 at 10:58 am
“Hitler discovered he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders but that homosexual soldiers had no limit to the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whoever Hitler sent them after.”
So if unlimited savagery and brutality are indicators of “homosexual soldiers,” then we can take the following as a story about gay behavior:
“So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.” (Joshua 6:20-21)
And not just those who carried out the orders of Jehovah, of course, but also those hordes of gay marauders commanded by Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan, who presumably likewise “could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough.”
“[Costello] added that ‘by many people’s standards, this would be hate speech.’”
Indeed. And by many people’s standards, it would be sheer hallucination.
on October 17th, 2012 at 11:16 am
Ezra please provide data to support your ridiculous claim that “white gays prefer white partners” or STFU. Or are your claims based only on your personal preference?
on October 17th, 2012 at 11:43 am
Communist Russia, at least at first, made a big deal about tolerating Jews. I know nothing about current White Supremacy groups except what I read here, but human nature seems to use inclusion of certain groups to justify the exclusion of others. The model for their life is a severely out of balance wheel. It’s the concept that it matters whether they like a group or not that is their fundamental problem. Live and let live.
on October 17th, 2012 at 11:44 am
Fischer’s reduction ad hitlerium forgets too that the thugs and enforcers of the Third Reich were not necessarily fanatical SS troops. They were also the Wehrmacht. In fact one of the things that is so disturbing about the Third Reich was that ordinary, relatively normal people got caught up in carrying out the atrocities.
It is the banality of it that really stands out, not for any given social group or for homosexuality. These were people who were very much like, well Fischer himself. People who considered themselves moral, upstanding citizens, but who fed on hatred in a never-ending supply.
Fischer is much closer to that which he claims to abhor than I think he realizes…
on October 17th, 2012 at 3:09 pm
Please, everyone, seriously consider this proposal: when Hatewatch posts its next entry, and Ezra posts his next bit of gibberish, NO ONE respond to him (her?). Let’s make a pact, just for one entry: we all ignore him completely. Call it an experiment in denying a troll its food.
on October 17th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Adamhill, It isn’t right that we ignore people who have opinions that are different from our own.
Remember the only way to expose the radical-extremist right is to expose their hypocrisy and hate through fair and open dialogue.
Once a tolerant society refuses to engage in dialogue, against those who are intolerant, the intolerant themselves will leave the political process, and become what they are know, a bunch of rascist extremists who cling to guns and religion.
The radical right feels a loss of power, and I think that the Ezra’s point about, whether there was racism even inside of the gay community, is patently false and should be rejected and discredited at every turn.
The LGBT community is one of the most honest, respectful, and tolerant demographic group among the American community, I don’t see them starting militias or engaging in hate crimes.
I agree that one of Ezra’s statement might have been false, but she still has the right to say that, and Adam remember Ezra is not the enemy to a just and equal society, it is the radical right and their henchmen who sit on the boards of the major corporations, and who are destroying the beutiful promise of an open society.
“We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.”- Karl Popper
on October 17th, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Well I want to comment on the article and noticed that there is a previous response calling for action to ignore one of the posters here. Let’s not call to action a mob, we get enough of the Borg sort of thinking in my part of the country. Let freedom ring and those who want to respond, respond freely this is America.
Second I think it’s ridiculous to make all this fuss over Gay people. You don’t have to be gay you don’t have to have them over for dinner if you are strongly opposed to their lifestyles. However, I believe that we do owe them civility and the freedom and peace we owe every American Citizen. Practicing hate and divide in this country is really not the right thing to do.
And just for the record the most horrible monsters I have ever met have been bigots not gay people. The gay people I have encountered have by and large been great community players. It’s the bigots and those that practice hate that push a very ugly agenda and make America an unpleasant place for everyone outside of their bigot family branch.
on October 17th, 2012 at 6:34 pm
Reading, writing, math, science, and various trades. The only activities should be various sports, arts, crafts, music.
No social programs of any kind should ever be allowed in any school. School is there to educate, that’s all. No teaching any morality, sexuality or political leaning of any kind should ever be allowed in public school.
Public schools are not a political battleground where children should be forced to accept anything from the left, right or center. If the only thing being taught, and the only activities of any kind in public schools is what I’ve written in the first paragraph. How could there possibly be a complaint?
on October 17th, 2012 at 11:53 pm
@ adamhill,
As long as the moderators permit JasonAnnieEzra et al. to drool his/her/their idiocy on this forum then he/she/they will be called on their collective idiocy. Personally, I would be delighted if this particular specimen never polluted my screen again, but we can’t have everything.
JasonAnnieEzra is a sad character, seeking the scorn of total strangers in a persistent campaign of futility. The repetition of the same material suggests OCD rather than any intellectual insight into the human condition. However, my pity is tempered by the evil nature of JAE’s spew. So, as long as he is permitted through the front door, I will be sitting at the bar, mocking and debunking him/her/them as required.
on October 18th, 2012 at 9:27 am
NWOslave, that is an impossible goal. Any attempt at moral neutrality supports the dominant paradigm. All unproven theories, and all organized religions, should be taught ABOUT but none should be declared fact unless absolutely proven by the Scientific Method. Our students are beng taught to repeat dogma, not make intelligent decisions. Even the modern desk arrangement into groups and circles is carefully designed to boost a collective mindset compared with the individual spacing that encourages individuality.
on October 18th, 2012 at 10:10 am
“If the only thing being taught, and the only activities of any kind in public schools is what I’ve written in the first paragraph. How could there possibly be a complaint?”
Because the Department of Education in 2009 found that not only is there a 7% median per pupil spending difference between white and non-white students around the country, 40% of this variation in spending occurs within individual districts.
In other words, this is not due to property tax collection, but racist policies within individual districts. Mind you no white President in the sixty years since Brown vs Board of Education ever bothered to look into the issue. It took the election of Obama to make it happen.
on October 18th, 2012 at 10:23 am
Sam Molloy,
We don’t like to think about the consequences of our wasteful, selfish way of life on the world as a whole, but each individual is connected to what happens on the planet. The myth of the rugged individualist is a charming anachronism that can be preserved in literature, but no longer has a place in modern society. The survival of our species may depend upon it.
on October 18th, 2012 at 11:28 am
Oh — this is just so refreshing! Someone calling Bryan Fischer on his nastiness and his lies!
As for Mix It Up at Lunch, I think it’s an absolutely wonderful idea — and frankly, it would be great if it was carried through to workplaces and other places people gather.
Kids face a lot of social pressure, and much of this is in the form of cliques (or just a friend or two) protecting their “turf” by excluding others. I expect that a lot of kids would LIKE to have an excuse to talk to other kids they don’t really know — if simply out of curiosity. So they discover that they don’t have a lot in common with their lunch partner, that’s okay. Since it was part of a “formal” event, no harm, no foul, no clique or friends to get too up in arms that you’ve talked to “the weird kid” or whatever. And you my even make a friend. This would be helpful in adult settings, as well.
As I wrote on another site in a thread about this, I think of how, when we go on vacation, or visit new places, we often strike up pleasant conversations with strangers and have a great time when we do so. We do this in large part because we are out of our “element” (or clique), and we feel open, and it is “low-risk,” because if we find that we don’t really care for the “vacation buddies,” we don’t have to see them again or have our friends know that we talked to “them” (whoever “them” is to people who tend to be fearful or suspicious of people they don’t know).
As for the statement about keeping social stuff out of schools; schools ARE social. In addition to learning (hopefully) all the stuff in books, children are learning how to navigate in society and honing their social skills. Encouraging them, one day a year during lunch hour to flex those social skills by talking to someone they don’t know well is a good thing. Frankly, I think that maybe the Mix It Up at Lunch thing should be done monthly, or if not that often, then twice a year. Bravo to SPLC for pioneering this simple, yet effective, event!
on October 18th, 2012 at 11:44 am
You people see me as a heretic. You see me as a “sinner” because I’m a “racist”. You see “racism” as a sin. That’s it! That’s the answer! You people have a belief system, an ideology with all the characteristics of a religion including: Holy books, Icons, Gods, Angels, Heretics, the Devil; you have simply replaced every concept with a new one.
1.) heretic = racist
2.) holy books (e.g. “Das Kapital”, every other nutty left wing book)
3.) A pantheon of Gods, angels, saints, lesser saints, and icons (e.g. Martin Luther King, Ghandi, kooky college professors, heroes of the left like Marcuse, Adorno, etc …)
4.) The Devil = Hitler
5.) Sin = racism, homophobia, etc …
So after being on this blog for a while interacting and observing people, I finally have it figured out. You’re all crazy. You have been suckered into a religion. I’d call it the religion of egalitarianism/multiculturalism. You’re nuts.
on October 18th, 2012 at 12:08 pm
adamhill, it likely expects too much of people to expect them to ignore something as funny as Ezra’s Krazy Klan Komedy Hour’s latest offering :)
on October 18th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Hmm… I thought EzraTheHillbilly’s post sounded familiar:
From the 12 July article on FAIR:
Jessica said,
on July 13th, 2012 at 12:48 pm
When someone calls you a racist what is happening is,the accuser is claiming moral purity: “My soul is pure and spotless, washed in the blood of the Lamb. Your soul is dirty, stained, unclean.”
Anti-racism has the characteristics of 19th century religious though, replete with icons, holy books, heretics, sin, and an entire pantheon of gods and lesser angels. Anti-racists are just as intolerant as religious fanatics of the middle ages. It’s a belief system. An ideology, like Communism. They’ve invented whole new categories of crimes. I’d call them ‘thought crimes’. Racism is a ’sin’. It’s a thought crime. ‘Racists’ are heretics. But it’s not a monotheistic religion. It is not an Abrahamic religion.
Anti-racism is like a crazy religion like Scientology. When you become an anti-racist you have become a ‘clear’ in the language of Scientology. And anti-racists have a whole vocabulary all their own, just like in Scientology. The best historical parallel is Communism in the early days of the Soviet Union. The true believers want to spread anti-racism throughout the world in anticipation of their Nirvana: A world free from ‘racism’.
What can you do with such a crazy religious fanatic? Just run away as fast as possible.
on October 18th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Hey Aron,
Thanks for re-posting my post of July 13! It was much better written than my recent post and I had put more thought into it. I’m going to have to copy and save it for future publication.
Well, it’s what i believe. It basically sums up my understanding of most of you. You’re all part of a nutty religion similar to Scientology. When someone becomes an anti-racist they have become a ‘clear’ in the language of Scientology. It’s a whole worldview, an ideology similar to Communism.
Just as when the Communists took over in the November revolution, whole new categories of crimes were invented for things humans had done naturally for thousands of years. The simple act of buying and selling things became a crime.
In that same way, you see me as either a criminal. Just as Communists saw business owners as criminals. Or you may view me as a heretic, just as religious fanatics of the middle ages had their heretics.
That explains why the Anti-racist Action crowd becomes violent and attacks people whom disagree with them. You see me as an unrepentant heretic … and I’m laughing all the way! Ha Ha Ha!
on October 18th, 2012 at 12:37 pm
There is a difference between intelligent exchanges of views and specious, time-wasting drivel designed to annoy. The latter is basically a toddler-tantrum and should be ignored where not hazardous, but in no way encouraged.
Meanwhile Sam, you are too young to have seen much. The standard arrangement of desks in my youth was in files up and down the classroom, and secondarily in parallel ranks (but with aisles between them), a much more militaristic arrangement than what you described. Prior to that, students were similarly arranged, but at double desks (still a few around when I was a kid). This ended when it was found to lead to too much cheating.
No matter what subjects are taught in school, they’ll always carry some kind of cultural value. Literature is obvious, as is history; but even science and math carry such a valence. Math stands for the proposition that certain procedures, carried out in the same way on the same quantitative substance, should have the same results. Hard sciences, i.e., those based on math, carry a similar message. “Soft” sciences- biological and psychological- require standards of objectivity and skills in empirical observation and impartial evaluation, without which they produce such monstrosities as phrenology and the more bigoted and superstitious kinds of eugenics (not a completely unsound study, but one we should know a lot more about before we essay it). A value-free education is not possible. Let us, therefore, see that the values passed on are those that lead to mutual survival, not mutual destruction.
on October 18th, 2012 at 12:40 pm
Thank you Ezra, for affording us yet another opportunity to show the gallery how WNs can’t argue, and how easily their attempts to do so are smacked down.
“You people see me as a heretic. You see me as a “sinner” because I’m a “racist”. You see “racism” as a sin. That’s it! That’s the answer!”
No, you’re a racist because you fit the definition of racist. You judge people by their perceived race, which you have proven in some other recent entries. For example, in the FEAR story, about a defendant who wasn’t even implicated as a WN, you changed the rules about who is “white” by claiming he must have been Polish, despite his clearly not-Polish surname. This is something an ignorant idiot does. But writing ignorant idiot takes longer so we’ll just call you racist.
” You people have a belief system, an ideology with all the characteristics of a religion including: Holy books, Icons, Gods, Angels, Heretics, the Devil; you have simply replaced every concept with a new one.”
LEEEEEET’S GEEEEET REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEADDDDY FOOOOOOOOOOOR BAAAAAAAAAAAAD ANAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALOOOOOOOOOOGIEEEEEES!!!!!
“1.) heretic = racist”
No, person who considers “race” to be of great importance when judging people’s worth = racist.
“2.) holy books (e.g. “Das Kapital”, every other nutty left wing book)”
Capital is an analysis of capitalist political economy which says nothing about race or racism. Nor is it considered a ‘holy book’ by anyone. It’s not really a political book either, since it says nothing about socialism or Communism. You bringing up Capital in this forum is akin to bringing up One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Actually that would probably be more appropriate, if only by a little.
“3.) A pantheon of Gods, angels, saints, lesser saints, and icons (e.g. Martin Luther King, Ghandi, kooky college professors, heroes of the left like Marcuse, Adorno, etc …)”
Actually Ghandi had expressed some racist ideas in his past. The only thing making any of these people “saints, Gods, etc.” is you. By your logic, Jared Taylor is your “god.”
“4.) The Devil = Hitler”
Sooo….Are you defending Hitler? I thought you were the respectable, not-a-Nazi WN who supports Amren and doesn’t worship Hitler.
“5.) Sin = racism, homophobia, etc …”
Replace sin with “dick moves” and you’re closer to the target.
on October 18th, 2012 at 12:40 pm
Aron, you just got Ezra to admit identity with Jessicat
on October 18th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Ahh poor wittle twoll…didn’t get enough attention today?
on October 18th, 2012 at 1:10 pm
So, Mr. Fischer got cut off almost as soon as he began speaking, most likely due to stating data that could not be disputed. But, that is what happens when a conservative person of reason tries to speak about an issue that is offensive to a person of ultra liberal leanings. Freedom of speech goes out the window when you disagree or try to state factual evidence that will upset them.
on October 18th, 2012 at 1:21 pm
Ah, Wentra, I remember you! Welcome to another committee member, folks!
on October 18th, 2012 at 1:29 pm
Deal with it when Ezra has a point. Any world view can be called a religion, as it is where you stand to look at the rest. Differences are what make this forum so interesting. Rey, thanks for the youth assessment. Old geezers told me about Civics class, which was a mixture of the philosophy behind our Constitution, and nationalistic hokum to ready young victims for the next useless war. Civics class has been replaced with the Pagan earth worship of “Ecology”, mixed with one world hokum to ready young victims for the next noble crusade.
on October 18th, 2012 at 1:32 pm
Wentra, your logic is poor, to say the least. If I were the host of a show and a guest began to claim that Abraham Lincoln defeated Hitler with his kung fu skills, I wouldn’t sit there and waste the viewers’ time with such idiocy.
on October 18th, 2012 at 1:32 pm
I think that Mr. Fischer’s commentary is a horrible slander of both homosexuals and christian values. Think about it. Mr. Fischer is alleging that young men and women are being damaged by interacting with people they do not know. He is literally saying that children should not talk to other children. What kind of parent tells their kids, “Now hon, i know there are a lot of kids in school, but, remember to only talk to people that look, act, dress, and speak like you.”
That is the language of fear. The language of hate. The language of controlling others for your own purposes.
on October 18th, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Oh! People, let’s not be so critical of Carol Costello having an interview with AFA’s Bryan Fischer. Me thinks, it was for the simple reason to show viewers how mixed up the AFA and himself are. The majority public isn’t that stupid to see through the whole mess. Give the majority it’s due, PLEASE!
on October 18th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Wentra,
The data cannot be disputed that White People are responsible for most child molestations and serial killings in the United States.
It is also true that White People were responsible for three of the most horrendous atrocities of WWII: the Holocaust, the Dresden Fire Bombings, and the Nuclear Attacks, not to mention biological warfare against the Native Americans.
Do you think it would be appropriate for some Nation of Islam representative, for example, to go on air on Fox News and talk about these facts about the menace of White People in America?
I have a feeling he’d get his mike cut off…
on October 18th, 2012 at 3:07 pm
Sam, I suspect you have a problem dealing with any education outside your own Hall of Mirrors.
on October 18th, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Sam, it would appear that you slept through your theology classes as well. A world view is not the same thing as a religion, in the generally accepted definition of the term “religion”. A religion may inform or create the basis for a world view, but it is not correct to say that any world view can be labelled a religion.
For your benefit, and JAE’s, religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
So, JasonAnnieEzra does not have a point worth addressing. In fact, this is at least the fourth time that s/he has posted the same copypasta.
I’m curious, Sam, why did you put Ecology in scare quotes?
on October 18th, 2012 at 3:29 pm
You make a good point Derrick. When I was young Christian youths were encouraged to interact with folks they didn’t know in order to “witness” for their beliefs. Just another example of how thoroughly “unchristian” the AFA really is.
on October 18th, 2012 at 3:30 pm
In regard to censorship and not allowing a free change of ideas, I believe that there is a fine line, and that it is better to err on the side of allowing people to speak rather than shushing them constantly.
However, with that said, I don’t believe that this gives vicious liars a right to other people’s media outlets to spout nutty and inflammatory beliefs. People like Fischer already have plenty of outlets for their vitriol. It is refreshing, for once, to see such craziness called out (and for people who don’t like gays or gay marriage — whatever floats your boat, but that doesn’t mean the rest of use have to countenance well-debunked and repeatedly debunked lies. If you don’t understand that, then your problem isn’t the First Amendment, the problem is the dark, airless, stinky place where your head is obviously spending most of its time).
As for the multi-headed Ezra pest, personally, I prefer to ignore him because why waste my time? And I don’t think that anyone should be forced to engage with him. It is so clear that he isn’t really interested in having an actual exchange of ideas. We have had folks come on this site who have put forth ideas with which some of us didn’t agree, and I think that it is important to engage them in a clear and respectful manner. However, when they continue to repeat the same stuff over and over, without attempting to explain themselves (and hey — sometimes they have some good and valid points, and I, for one, like to hear what they have to say), then they are opening themselves up to getting bashed by others who are trying to have an actual conversation.
I don’t believe that it is our place to persuade everyone to believe as we believe–heaven knows my own understanding of the world has shifted over time–nor should we condemn honest disagreements, but when someone is clearly trying to make trouble or is posting views that some of us find utterly noxious (especially when we’ve already made this known to the writer–repeatedly), then continuing to listen to them isn’t tolerance for the opinions of others, it’s “co-dependence.” Enough! in other words.
Let them go play on Stormfront or on anti-LGBT websites with others who share their diagnoses!
on October 18th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Erika,
Well, it is fun to swat flies like Ezra and I can understand how difficult it is resist the urge to do so. My point really is that beyond being fun, there really appears to be no other point to swatting him. His notions are crazy on the order of a flat-Earther, so often arguments against him don’t (can’t) reach above the level of, “you’re an idiot because you think the world is flat.” Ezra himself is beyond convincing, it seems, because he’s a zealot, or a troll, or both. He’s a troll in the sense that he comments here for the purpose of causing trouble. He throws out racist comments not to inform or communicate but to derail ongoing exchanges, to make people uncomfortable or angry (that is he not very successful at this pathetic goal says much about his character). Often his comments have nothing at all to do with the blog post under which they appear. Even he is not so deluded to believe he’s influencing opinions here. I understand how irresistable it is to knock these fools down, but it’s worth noting that treating trolls with silence is smacking them down by other means.
on October 18th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
“Ecology” is a recently made up word combining a bastardization of the Greek word for “Home” with the high toned “-ology” of established highly regarded sciences. As taught, it contains some very fine principles of sustainability, the permanence of styrofoam VS the fragility of life, etc. It is also used by plutocrats to try and coerce peons to accept a life of austerity and uniformity, so they can continue to live high on the hog by using the earth in any way that will make a profit. It replaced Civics class, which taught individual responsibility and the dignity of Human life, in the 1960′s.
on October 18th, 2012 at 5:43 pm
I stand and applaud Ms. Costello for calling out Fischer on his misguided views and historical revisionism, though I’m sure he’ll be whining about it on his radio show in a day or 2…as Jerry Seinfeld would say, “Ehh, that’s a shame”. :-D
on October 18th, 2012 at 7:18 pm
Thanks for elucidating the finer points of religion, Gregory. It is important to edify Sam Molloy at every opportunity.
on October 18th, 2012 at 7:33 pm
To return to thread, I just saw Brian Fischer on Right Wing Watch (via Towelroad) saing “We can’t give one millimeter to the Homosexual Agenda”. He is thoroughly obsessed with us. Yeah, I know…
on October 18th, 2012 at 8:16 pm
Like the saying goes”you can fool some of the people some of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. That is an impossible feat to accomplish so It must be excruciating to work that hard trying to convince the world of something as idiotic as the AFA attempts to do. I’m glad they got a smack down that one more time shows just how foolish they actually are.
I’m also curious if Wentra is just another one of Ezras personalities. I get a kick out of people that say i’m not crazy, it’s the rest of the world. that statement is a pretty good indication of mental illness and delusional thinking.
on October 18th, 2012 at 10:14 pm
What I find most funny about Ezra is that he/she/it seems to be here in an attempt to win converts to the WN side from the gallery. I know how WNs think and he/she/it probably subscribes to this internal monologue which goes like this: “I’ll use my common sense arguments I learned on Stormfront on this blog and then other whites will see how the anti-racists can’t answer my claims!!! HA HA HA!”
In reality, the claims get easily smacked down every time with facts, demonstrating that WNs in fact can’t hold a debate in forums they don’t control.
To be honest, Ezra isn’t even close to the most challenging WN I’ve ever debated(not that he was too difficult, he just liked to pretend to be an amateur geneticist, throwing around scientific terminology in hopes that nobody would call him on his BS).
on October 19th, 2012 at 5:03 am
“There is no one more close minded than the open minded liberal. ” Author unknown
When someone tells me they are uncomfortable with the “gay agenda” I take their word for it. The point being, they’re uncomfortable. Calling them names, like homophobe, doesn’t help the situation. It only polarizes it.
Last I checked the Ahmish don’t accept the gay lifestyle and I don’t witness them receiving the intellectual tongue lashing that I see here.
As we are tasked to recognize diversity in all it’s forms can we not recognize and appreciate the straight lifestyle as well?
on October 19th, 2012 at 8:32 am
Well NAFTA Refugee, why don’t you tell us what the “gay agenda” is? To be treated like human beings? How sinister!
And while the Amish don’t accept the gay “lifestyle”(your term), they also don’t attempt to change the laws of the country to restrict the rights of gays or spread lies about them.
The “straight lifestyle”(I didn’t know that it was a lifestyle) is plenty celebrated.
on October 19th, 2012 at 8:42 am
I assume the gay Amish simply leave the group. There is an Ambient Straightness in every aspect of everyday life that is not apparent unless you don’t fit the mold. The move toward personal responsibility and liberty and away from the absolute power of Crown and Church, roughly from the Magna Carta to generally the time of the French Revolution and our Revolutionary war was called “liberalism” at the time. Now it’s called “Classical Liberalism”, and what we got now can be referred lto as “welfare liberalism”. There are plenty of Gay people who self identify as Conservative. I find even the craziest John Birchers are more tolerant of differing opinions than those overeducated pinheads who call themselves Liberals.
on October 19th, 2012 at 8:55 am
Ohhhhhh, man, so many idiots and so little time… Who to smack first… I’m spoiled for choice! Let’s start with Sam Malloy, since he’s the first one who REALLY made me angry.
First off… Ecology isn’t a science, but it’s an important CONCEPT. Without it, our planet is in deep trouble. Frankly, there aren’t enough resources to sustain the population we have NOW for long, so it’s incredibly important to learn how to stretch them and replenish them to sustain the world’s health. It’s not about “austerity and money…” It’s about survival!
SECOND, NAFTA Refugee. No. Just NO. There IS no “gay agenda” because homosexuals aren’t a hive mind. They don’t all agree on everything, and therefore can’t have some sort of plan to normalize pedophilia and all the crap that people claim they do.
As for your LAST comment, you show what an enormous moron you are by saying crap like that. It’s the same as Ezra trying to claim that White Pride is a legitimate and non-racist thing to say. Heterosexuality is considered NORMAL in society (and that in and of itself is WRONG), and that makes it mundane. Therefore it deserves no special appreciation. Homosexuality is considered deviant and NOT normal, and has extreme prejudice against it. Because of that, it is important to focus on it to dispel myths and show that homosexuality IS normal.
And I’d appreciate it if both of you would go smack yourselves around now, since I’m not there to do it to you.
on October 19th, 2012 at 8:59 am
Sam Molloy —
While I agree that ecology and other discussion of the intricacies of environmental issues often leave something to be desired in elementary and high school (and in some college courses I’ve seen), ecology isn’t a pseudoscience, and I don’t really understand why you would think that it is.
As an environmental consultant, I can tell you that in order for people to understand the impact of various activities (human and naturally occurring, such as volcanic eruptions), it is necessary that they have at least rudimentary knowledge of ecological cycles.
on October 19th, 2012 at 9:00 am
So now we’re over-educated pinheads, Sam?
Well, considering how many times we’ve smacked down your silly anarcho-capitalist ideas in the past, I personally think YOU are either UNDER-educated or OVERLY cocksure (no pun intended) of himself.
Go have fun with the other Log Cabiners and GOProuders. We all know how much the Republican establishment loves you…
on October 19th, 2012 at 9:06 am
Sam, darling, if ecology is a new word, it is not a new concept. For most of human history we have lived in harmony with our environment because we needed to in order to survive the changing of the seasons and various hostile forces of our world (seasons, rainfall, natural hazards, wild beasts). Only in more recent times has our civilization grown with an order that destabilizes the natural order of our planet. So there is nothing surprising nor unusual about new concepts that point to the truth that our conduct on the planet has repercussions for the natural order. We need to leave a lighter footprint, consume less, and live more sensibly. Unfortunately that means in many cases giving up stuff we think we have a “right” to in order for the species to survive…and requires living less selfishly. How is this possible except through education?
on October 19th, 2012 at 9:14 am
NAFTA refugee, I think the issue is that heterosexuality should not be compulsory.
on October 19th, 2012 at 10:56 am
Sam sez “I find even the craziest John Birchers are more tolerant of differing opinions than those overeducated pinheads who call themselves Liberals.”
Even the craziest Bircher? Really? I didn’t realize there was any other kind, but I think I see your point. When not saving the world from the United Nations, the JBS is often in the forefront of civil rights issues like marriage equality.
I find it hard to believe that you are wasting your time with the bigots here in this veritable cesspool of intolerable.
on October 19th, 2012 at 11:11 am
That last line of sarcasm should read intolerance, not intolerable. Very clearly my spellchecker is of the inferior pagan earthworshipping collectivist type.
on October 19th, 2012 at 11:29 am
Try telling a Bircher that they don’t understand how the UN works(or doesn’t work), or that other countries aren’t socialist hellholes.
on October 19th, 2012 at 11:46 am
The basis of this idiot’s argument against Mix It Up is that a gay student might end up talking to a conservative Christian student and convince him/her to become homosexual.
My question to Mr. Fischer is: In the same context, Christian students would be free to preach to gay students and try to convince them to become straight Christians…unless he believes that being gay is really NOT a choice but how you are born, which sort of blows his whole argument out of the water.
on October 19th, 2012 at 11:49 am
The basis of this idiot’s argument seems to be that Mix It Up will be talking to conservative Christian students and convincing them to become homosexuals.
My question to Mr. Fischer is: In the same context, Christian students would be free to preach to gay students and try to convince them to become straight Christians…unless he believes that being gay is really NOT a choice but how you are born, which sort of blows his whole argument out of the water.
on October 19th, 2012 at 11:50 am
Ruslan, I have. And the results weren’t pretty. The Bircher was lucky I considered him my friend, or I would have simply laughed in his face.
He was just nucking futs.
on October 19th, 2012 at 11:51 am
@Sam Molloy
“NWOslave, that is an impossible goal. Any attempt at moral neutrality supports the dominant paradigm.”
By removing all social studies/humanities and only teaching math, reading, writing, sciences such as chemistry, computer programming, art, music and various sports and shop classes. this would precisely remove all dominant paradigms.
Again I ask, how could the removal of all political leanings be objectionable? In math 1=1+2. In reading and writing the letter “A” makes the AAAAAA sound. In chemistry H2O means two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Music is different notes. In carpentry you might make a bird house. In tennis 2 or 4 people hit a ball over a net into a defined area.
Since it is impossible for any of these thing to have a political leaning no one can object. If only these types of subjects are ever taught by public schools, how could anyone ever object? The very nature of these subjects removes the possibilty of even one person objecting.
on October 19th, 2012 at 12:15 pm
NWOslave,
It also removes even one child’s chances of growing as a person. You are preaching the creation of unthinking, unfeeling drones.
And I find it morally reprehensible.
on October 19th, 2012 at 12:48 pm
NWO slave the difference I suppose is that you are not used to the idea that everyone wins soccer. Although it might seem strange at first, for someone who has no familiarity of the concept, like taking baths, after a while the idea starts to make sense. This is called becoming more civilized.
on October 19th, 2012 at 3:30 pm
NWO said:
“In math 1=1+2.”
Not in any math I’m familiar with.
But seriously, Sam is right for once. The “dominant paradigm” is for schools to provide the business world with perfectly machined cogs to plug right into their economic engines. In other words, they’re already only teaching “skills” and steadily disappearing the humanities and social sciences. Those subjects by nature require learning about the kinds of things people have believed and said in the past, and how to make judgments about them, even judgments that go against the prevailing world-picture.
Your position is sort of like telling kids to draw pictures but then not letting them look at anything but blank paper.
on October 19th, 2012 at 4:34 pm
I grew up in USAF Housing – THE ‘Lab Maze’ upon which was done, from 1948-63, the sociological research that went into the crafting of the doctrines outlined in the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and, you know what, every single freaking time we moved – often, after only two years – and I had to “move out of my comfort zone”, and “into a whole new zone, filled with a whole new group of people”, I GREW for having had the EXPERIENCE OF IT!!!
This guys reactions remind me of those that some of those who I ran into in a certain small town, after my Dad finally retired, and we ‘settled there’, had…..They seemed to “HATE” their Troopps CHILDREN!
They FEARED the UNKNOWN – and RESENTED anyone who was perceived to be “braver” than them; they were going to, “Smash my souveniers from Berlin, if I ever brought anything like them to show n tell again”, after five of em jumped me! .
Real Men, they were…….(Gag, Puke)
on October 19th, 2012 at 6:27 pm
NWO, the math and chemistry can be divorced from spin, but history is very important and also very malleable. The facts of the Shootout at the OK Corral are indisputable. “A” fired a “B” type bullet and it hit “C”, etc. Who was a good guy, who were the bad guys, and whether or not to mention it at all are all up for grabs. As far as overeducated pinheads go, I did not say anyone here is. Throw a rock at a pack of dogs, and the one that yelps got hit. You can name yourselves anything you choose.
on October 20th, 2012 at 4:54 pm
I had never heard of Carol Costello until this.
I will have to pay her more attention henceforth. She has certainly won many points with me.
on October 20th, 2012 at 9:05 pm
“NWO Slave: Again I ask, how could the removal of all political leanings be objectionable? In math 1=1+2.”
Only if your math textbook is “1984,” by George Orwell.
You know, NWO Slave, that theory on education reminds me of Adolf Hitler’s plans for how the conquered Slavs would be treated under the Third Reich, viz.:
“Nothing would be a worse mistake on our part than to seek to educate the masses there. It is to our interest that the people should know just enough to recognize the signs on the roads. At present they can’t read, and they ought to stay like that.” July 27, 1941…his private conversation.
For Poland, his plan was as follows: Polish children were not to be taught to read or write. They would learn to count to a maximum of 500, write their names and “that it is God’s command that he should be obedient to Germans, honorable, industrious, and brave.” Blitzkrieg, by Len Deighton.
on October 21st, 2012 at 8:20 pm
Don’t miss this, if you haven’t seen it…the video was from about a month ago but just posted to Gawker.
A pastor at a City Council hearing makes a fiery speech against gay rights then reveals interrupts it to reveal it was based on speeches against racial integration from the fifties and sixties, just swapping the term race for gay. Very much worth the watch and very much what we’ve been saying all along…:
http://gawker.com/5953357/miss.....t=53689930
on October 21st, 2012 at 8:22 pm
“As far as overeducated pinheads go, I did not say anyone here is. Throw a rock at a pack of dogs, and the one that yelps got hit.”
I’m sorry, Sam.
That is not the way everyone wins soccer.
on October 22nd, 2012 at 9:44 am
Exactly why, Sam, do you feel a need to call us dogs and throw rocks at us?
on October 22nd, 2012 at 10:16 am
So Fisher has this to say about his treatment on CNN, read it with a grain of “poisoned candy”(sic). Just between you and me, I think this guy could trace his family linage back to Judas.
Here’s the Link from Right Wing Watch (Which I highly recommend) Enjoy!
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/.....oks-action
on October 22nd, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Bryan Fisher: “It is simply a true fact that homosexual behavior is immoral. ”
You see? He has a hard time telling the difference between a fact and an opinion. That’s like me saying it’s a fact he’s gay because his shirt’s pink.
on October 22nd, 2012 at 2:02 pm
““Nothing would be a worse mistake on our part than to seek to educate the masses there. It is to our interest that the people should know just enough to recognize the signs on the roads. At present they can’t read, and they ought to stay like that.” July 27, 1941…his private conversation.
For Poland, his plan was as follows: Polish children were not to be taught to read or write. They would learn to count to a maximum of 500, write their names and “that it is God’s command that he should be obedient to Germans, honorable, industrious, and brave.” Blitzkrieg, by Len Deighton.”
Yup, there goes the champion of the “white race.” It’s sad how there are actually people in Poland today who think this was preferable to Communism.
on October 22nd, 2012 at 3:24 pm
Well, Ruslan, and then there was the part where Polish and Czech children who were tall, blond, shapely, and looked “Teutonic” rather than “Slavic” were to be kidnapped, parcelled out to childless German families, Germanized, and then used to breed more tall, blond children with “Teutonic” features.
on October 22nd, 2012 at 3:46 pm
aadila, don’t you know that God told him to wear pink? :)
on October 22nd, 2012 at 4:48 pm
Erika, if Fisher’s underwear is pink, it would really tell the full story. And whether they are “boxers or briefs” would also be useful toward shaping a conclusive opinion to stand against any fact. I already respect Ms. Costello and CNN but I think she should have asked the really important questions about his preferences. You know…I just thought of something. Do you suppose he goes “commando”?
on October 22nd, 2012 at 5:06 pm
Aadila, that’s disgusting.
on October 22nd, 2012 at 10:11 pm
aadila! OMG! Even suggesting that Bryan Fischer would go command…. No. I can’t say it! And just thinking such a thought, thinking about him, ah, WITHOUT….
Oh No! My vision is fading! MY VISION IS FADING!
Where is my keyboard?
I can still see images in my mind!
on October 23rd, 2012 at 9:54 am
That’s right! I realize this was a very severe thing to say on my part, and I apologize for burning your retinas so to speak with such vile imagery.
But it was necessary….there was no other way.
As you can see, today Fisher is wearing blue as he discusses his exalted prophet status as the messenger of God. He can’t help but to peek here at what we are saying, you see. All true prophets have bloated egos, that’s why the become exalted and gain the right to impose their morality on others.
But I bet his skivvies are pink!
on October 23rd, 2012 at 10:26 am
aadila, since you made me think of the extraordinarily unpleasant topic of Mr. Fischer’s underwear, my guess is white briefs with a pink swastika pattern.
on October 23rd, 2012 at 10:53 am
aadila, there should be a Chick Tract warning about the dangers of homophobes in pink underwear :)
on October 23rd, 2012 at 10:59 am
Ahhhh! My vision has recovered!
Thank you, aadila, for the laugh of the month and a horror to eclipse anything one might see on Halloween!
on October 23rd, 2012 at 11:08 am
He’s as straight as uncooked linguine. He just wants to wear pink bikini briefs for a while.
on October 23rd, 2012 at 11:49 am
And they’re silk.
on October 23rd, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Stop!!!! My vision is fading….It’s fading….
AH! I can’t see the keyboard!!!…..
on October 23rd, 2012 at 12:41 pm
Even though I have given this entire thread the moral and metaphysical equivalent of a red eye, I should feel guilty about it and I don’t.
on October 23rd, 2012 at 2:05 pm
aadila — that is because there simply are some things that just scream out for sarcasm — and the Universe will give you a Mulligan….
….Kind of like seeing the wonderful irony in the crash of the Hindenburg-Romney Blimp — and then having Pres. Obama handing him his hat during the debate about how his thinking is still stuck back in the horses and bayonets era.
You know — kind of like that, when your antiquated airship blazened with your painfully grinning visage goes splat in a field. Obviously, the Universe has spoken — and it’s okay to laugh, since no one was hurt. (Still wonder if maybe it wasn’t a wind problem so much as the blimp’s skin being pierced by one of those newfangled bayonets).
on October 23rd, 2012 at 2:20 pm
Oh, I’m Captain Jinx of the Horse Marines
And when I speak, I’m full of beans
I’ve been that way since in my teens-
It kept me out of the Army!
I teach my horses how to dance
How to dance, how to dance
And I wear megic underpants
They kept me out of the Army!
on October 23rd, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Read: “magic”. Rather in pain today.
on October 23rd, 2012 at 2:25 pm
It strikes me, ladies, that we’ve been getting into men’s pants a lot today.*
*Peace, Hays Office. After all, in about ten days, I’m going to be LXIX.
on October 23rd, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Any censorship notion would be due to preventing illness rather than excitement given that no one really wants to compleplate the underwear of Bryan Fischer.
But i do wonder what the deal with the magic underwear of the Mormons. i’m obviously not very well informed about the Mormon cult because until Mitt Romney came along i had never heard of it – and at first, i actually thought it was a joke. Does it ward off evil spirts? Perhaps it is a chasity belt? Maybe it delivers electric shocks if too much stimulation is present? Does it have any relationship to those bras which are marketed as “Miracles?” So many possibilities here.
And between her discussion of corporal punishment in schools on the Hal Turner thread and introducing the topic of Bryan Fischer’s underwear here i nominate aadila for the the Platium Paddle Award for outstanding achievement in assuring that only deserving targets are struck.
(unless she would prefer the alternative prize of the Bruised Peach Bottom Award for Naughty Attorneys but it was kind of designed with me in mind)
on October 23rd, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Erika, what the Hell is going on in your state and your circuit? Or is this the doing of the Virginia Bar Disciplinary Committee?
on October 24th, 2012 at 9:36 am
a lot is going on in Virginia, most of which as you can imagine are bad.
But don’t worry, no problems with the state bar or courts – my naughtiness is on a personal rather than professional level.
Any more i obviously cannot say :)
on October 24th, 2012 at 10:19 pm
okay, i actually did decide to say more but becauseit relates to the discussion of corporal punishment in the schools i said it there.
and really as that shows, the bruises on this peach are primarily emotional.
And thanks for you concern, Rey :)