Victoria Jackson is not crazy

Not when you grade her on the (extreme) right curve

Depending on your scale of measurement, your conclusions can vary dramatically. For example, suppose you're trying to evaluate the sanity of Victoria Jackson, the Saturday Night Live alumna who has found a new life—if not happiness—as a right-wing pundit. Do you measure her against an absolute scale or a relative one? She comes out a lot better if you gauge her against the fringe-centered standards of Free Republic.

Recently Jackson announced that the Islamic group known as the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated “the highest levels” of government in Washington, D.C., including the White House! When Jackson's claim was posted at Free Republic, the first commenter said, ”I'm inclined to agree with her.”

A dissenter weighed in with a cautionary note: “Umm, don't we usually dismiss the pronunciamentos from Hollywood airheads out of hand?”

He was promptly denounced for his use of a foreign word.

Another Freeper chivalrously leaped to Jackson's defense: “She played an airhead of SNL but she isn’t one in real life.”

Perhaps he has not seen her current act. The crazy seeps right out of the video.

That's awfully white of you

Right-wing terrorism and its apologists

A visit to Free Republic is a lot like snorkeling in a sewer. Not advisable. Unfortunately, the freeper rabble has enjoyed the unaccountable spectacle of its extremism getting mainstreamed via Fox News, the teabaggers, and the Republican Party (which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of its nutcase fringe). The terrorist outrage in Norway sparked a predictable reaction among the freepers. First, it had to be an attack by Muslim extremists (or “Islamofascists,” as the freepers like to say). Second, the right-wing racist apprehended as the prime suspect isn't “right wing” in the American way. Third, the prime suspect was secretly part of an Islamofascist cabal (you know, just the way Timothy McVeigh was!).

While scanning the comments on Free Republic and gritting my teeth, I saw a phrase that puzzled me: “lily white” used as a noun.

I suspect this man is a ‘lily white’. This tactical action is very typical of Arab thinking.

It is meant to turn us against one another, to weaken us from within.

The Norwegians will find out the truth behind these acts and our media will ignore the facts. Just you all watch what develops.

21 posted on Saturday, July 23, 2011 11:40:26 AM by SatinDoll (NO FOREIGN NATIONALS AS OUR PRESIDENT!)

Apparently the denizens of Free Republic have keen insight (or think they have keen insight) into typical Arab thinking. I held my nose and did a little more poking around. I found another use of the term. It was in a 2005 post about Joel Henry Hinrichs III, the suicide bomber at Oklahoma University:

JAYNA DAVIS: Report No. 1 - OU SUICIDE BOMBING CASE
phone call with Jayna Davis | 10-5-05 | dfu

Posted on Wednesday, October 05, 2005 4:51:42 PM by doug from upland

JAYNA DAVIS: Report No. 1 - OU SUICIDE BOMBING CASE

As FReepers are probably aware, Jayna Davis, indefatigable reporter and author of THE THIRD TERRORIST, is on the case of the OU suicide bomber. A local FReeper is giving her assistance. Here are some of the highlights of our discussion a short time ago:

1 - she has spoken to the feed store owner, Justin Ellison . . . Joel Hinrichs III exhibited strange behavior while in the feed store trying to buy ammonium nitrate . . . the store owner asked why he wanted it, and Hinrichs turned away and started mumbling to himself

2 - Hinrichs was dressed in a photographer's vest that was stuffed . . . a wire was noticed sticking out of it

3 - a plain clothes officer was in the store at the time and witnessed what happened . . . Jayna is not clear who got it, but someone got the plate number to track the guy

4 - they did a background check and he came out clean . . . Jayna reminds us that he was a “lily white,” just like McVeigh and Nichols

What are we to make of this? A comment on this post provides a little more information about how this term is being used by the extreme right:

Good work Doug... keep us informed.

One only wonders why it has taken so long. Of course he was “lily white” like McVeigh or others on police checks. That's the whole methodology.

This might actually spur us to win the war.
4 posted on Wednesday, October 05, 2005 4:57:51 PM by Robert Teesdale

Another freeper weighed in with what he admitted was a “factless supposition,” but it certainly didn't stop him:

Here's a factless supposition:

Assuming this is a Muslim event at its core, what if his handlers caught wind of the fact that the Norman PD was checking him out, and they made the quick decision to “set him up the bomb”?

I don't have any knowledge of how and why his bomb exploded, but if it's possible his handlers set it off, what do you think of this as one possibility? His handlers knew they needed a lily-white, and all of a sudden, he's under suspicion.

18 posted on Wednesday, October 05, 2005 5:07:20 PM by savedbygrace (“No Monday morning quarterback has ever led a team to victory” GW Bush)

In Free-Republic parlance, therefore, a “lily white” is someone with a clean criminal record who serves as a front man for a (probably Islamic) terrorist organization. As we saw above, SatinDoll has already pegged right-wing Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik as one.

There is, however, some divergence of opinion among the freepers. Unfortunately, those who disagree with the Islamofascist-catspaw theory are even scarier than those who agree. The dissenters shake their heads in token disapproval of the massacre and then nod their heads in expressions of sympathy—for the killer. Fasten your seatbelts and consider the following, which came after a comment that Breivik had been described as anti-Muslim:

If that were the case, his target would've been Norwegian Muslims. ....of whom there are millions.

He was trying to make the enablers of the Muslim invasion pay. His motive, while inexcusable, is not that hard to understand.
18 posted on Saturday, July 23, 2011 11:33:17 AM by Gumption

---

“His targets make no sense if he was after Muslims.”

His target was the next generation of Labour Party activists, i.e. the people who make the laws that allow for muslim immigration. In a sick way, it makes plenty of sense.

22 posted on Saturday, July 23, 2011 11:41:39 AM by I Shall Endure

---

Any comments on leftwing socialism being responsible for 200 MILLION deaths in the 20th century?

...cue crickets....

30 posted on Saturday, July 23, 2011 12:11:10 PM by newfreep (Palin/West 2012 - Bolton: Secy of State)

---

I was unaware than the camp in question was a youth wing of Norway’s Labor Party. So knowing that....yes, there is a grim logic to it.

47 posted on Saturday, July 23, 2011 1:50:26 PM by Mr. Mojo

We might consider giving Mr. Mojo the benefit of the doubt, since he could be giving a straightforward and dispassionate analysis of the terrorist's mental processes. On the other hand, he's on Free Republic.

Be afraid of these people. They represent where conservative American politics is heading, step by crazy heads-on-fire step.

Ipse dixit

Know your audience

Sometimes I can pick up KMJ on my car radio. That's the 50,000-watt station broadcasting out of Fresno on 580 kHz on the AM dial. In my youth, it was simply the powerful local NBC affiliate, part of the McClatchy media empire, which also included the Fresno Bee and Channel 24 (the NBC television station). These days KMJ is a bastion of right-wing talk radio, a Peak Broadcasting affiliate with Rush Limbaugh serving as the jewel in the protuberant belly button.

I was randomly scanning the radio band when I hit something slightly interesting. The announcer was talking about a new program from the Franchise Tax Board, the official tax-collection agency for the state of California. The FTB has apparently set up a website where taxpayers can check the status of their income-tax refunds. KMJ's morning newscaster was explaining that those who filed electronically could expect their refunds in a matter of days via direct deposit, while those who filed paper returns might have to wait six to eight weeks to get their checks. Just visit the FTB website to find out how much longer before you're in the money.

Fine. Not exactly a newsflash. I reached for the radio buttons when the KMJ announcer continued: “You can find this at the Franchise Tax Board's website, which is ftb.ca.gov.”

Not exactly a surprise there, either. Every agency of the state of California has “ca.gov” for its web address. The announcer spelled it out as he reported it: “Eff tee bee dot sea a dot gee oh vee. We know that's a long one, so we've put a link on our website.”

A “long” one? Heck, it's about the shortest URL a guy could ask for! As for KMJ, its website is kmj580.com. That's every bit as long as the Franchise Tax Board's URL. Some shortcut!

Then I realized that my scorn was misplaced. KMJ is smack in the middle of Free Republic territory. The radio station is undoubtedly at pains to serve its primary audience as best it can. Therefore its announcers must always direct the listeners to the station's own website. By constant repetition, it might succeed in getting them to remember one 10-character URL, but two would be beyond the pale. (Beyond the Palin?) It all made sense.

Later I checked in at KMJ's website, but the Franchise Tax Board information was nowhere to be found. I presume it had already scrolled off since that morning's broadcast. Short attention span, too.

Freeper math madness

Innumerate significance

One of the symptoms of the derangement of today's right wing is innumeracy. I'll grant that this is a broad-based problem not confined to the ranks of teabaggers and other exponents of troglodytic conservatism, but these people have a peculiar talent for making a hash of math and then solemnly assuring each other of the significance of their screwed-up calculations. Today I ran across a characteristic pair of examples from Free Republic, the Fresno-based sink of deranged teabagging. They occurred in comments in a thread devoted to bemoaning the ratification of the New Start treaty, which apparently entails the unilateral disarmament of the United States and its immediate surrender to Soviet Russian conquest.

By an amazing coincidence, the 71-26 vote in the Senate is almost exactly the same percentage as the Parliament’s vote in support of Chamberlain’s Munich Agreement (369-150).

28 posted on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 1:24:45 PM by StanFran

Let's check StanFran's math, shall we?

A total of 97 senators cast votes on the New Start treaty. The ayes were 71/97 = 73.2% and the nays were 26/97 = 26.8%. (Amazingly, these add up to 100%!) Now let's consider the British parliament's vote on the Munich agreement. The ayes were 369/519 = 71.1%, while the nays were 150/519 = 28.9%.

Do you believe that 73.2% is “almost exactly the same” as 71.1%? If you don't, then you don't qualify as a Freeper. Furthermore, you must seek dark significance in the purported (but actually nonexistent) equality.

It would actually be more accurate to point out that Ronald Reagan was almost exactly 71.1 years old when he delivered his Indianapolis speech in 1982 on the New Federalism, thus proving (proving!) that he was secretly inspired by Neville Chamberlain and actually intended the New Federalism to serve as a disguise for the New World Order ushered in by his successor, George Herbert Walker Bush. Subtle! And scary!

The second example of bad counting was provided in an angry observation about ratification having been accomplished in a lame-duck session of the Senate:

Why are FIRED employees still making decisions that affect the health and well being of the company (country)?

They should be shown the door with a swift boot to help them along the way.

26 posted on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 1:23:45 PM by SunTzuWu (Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred. - Barzun)

“Fired” employees? Let's check the roster of New Start supporters. Recall that there were 71 of them. How many were actually rejected by the voters last November (as opposed to retiring of their own volition)? The first senator who fits the bill is Bennett of Utah, a Republican who was denied renomination by his own party. Next is Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat who will be sorely missed. Continuing down the list, we find Lincoln of Arkansas, the hapless Democrat who unfortunately survived a primary challenge and flopped spectacularly on election day. Finally, there's Specter of Pennsylvania, the long-time Republican who switched to the Democratic Party in a futile attempt to survive.

Count them up. That's it. Four. New Start would have gotten 67 votes even without the support of the “fired” senators. For the benefit of Freepers and other ignorant types, that's the two-thirds majority required for ratification of treaties. New Start was not nudged over the finish line by supposedly discredited legislators.

So there.

Nobody here but us tea partiers!

Oh, and the occasional racist

The tatterdemalion ranks of the Tea Party movement want it clearly understood that there is no significant racist component to their political activism. They oppose President Obama because of his policies. That's all. Certainly not his race. (But maybe his secret religion. Or his secret birthplace. Or his secret plan to round up white people and sterilize them.)

That's the take-home message: The Tea Party movement is a patriotic political movement without a scintilla of racism. (And no minorities, for that matter.) Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than at Free Republic, the Fresno-based on-line locus of Tea Party activism. For example, consider the measured tones of Free Republic's commenters (you have to be a member to comment) on the matter of the First Lady's trip to Spain.

Does not matter where our taxes take her..she will always look like she just walked off the plantation in Georgia or Mississippi.

Heck. That's just classy with a triple-K.

While it's not an official state visit when the First Lady is traveling privately in the absence of the President, no such excursion can avoid its political overtones. In the matter of the trip to Spain, Michelle Obama has been invited by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia to join the royal couple at their summer palace on Majorca. Naturally the White House was pleased to accept the invitation and Mrs. Obama will therefore be an unofficial goodwill ambassador to Spain.

The press photographers have swarmed the First Lady and Free Republic posted a clip. The Freepers tried to keep it positive, of course, with their acute sensitivity to women's fashions:

Re; blk/white one strap dress
This skank is a stain of the history of First Ladies.
She needs to cover up and try to show some dignity befitting her station.

(How soon they forget how much they hated Hillary.)

Did anyone chide the commenter who made the “plantation” remark? My goodness, no!

“Does not matter where our taxes take her..she will always look like she just walked off the plantation in Georgia or Mississippi.”

You nailed it.

The Freepers also had some concerns for Spain.

Spain is a beautiful country.
By being there, Mrs. Obama spoils it.
Everywhere this trash couple goes is stained forever.

“Forever”? Wow. Not even George W. Bush had that power (except, perhaps, for the permanence of the deaths of the victims of his unnecessary wars).

Some press accounts referred to Mrs. Obama as FLOTUS, a fairly well-known acronym for “First Lady of the United States.” When not describing the First Lady as a human stain, playful Freepers occasionally gave her another nickname.

Frankly, I think the WH has kept Sasquatch relatively under wraps. They probably realize that she is a very polarizing figure, not to mention a big mouth, who would likely reveal her blind hatred of white America in an undeniable fashion sooner or later.

“Blind hatred.” Say, let's go look up “projection” in a psych textbook. I'll bet we are in for an amusing surprise!

Later this month Mrs. Obama is hauling the family to the Gulf coast to encourage tourism in a region of Florida relatively unscathed by the BP oil spill, thereby giving a lift to the local economy. I wonder what the denizens of Free Republic will do then, thinking of President Obama's family in the context of oil slicks and tar balls. Why, it almost writes itself! And that's good, too, because idiotic shit-for-brains racists have trouble coming up with original ideas. They prefer to react reflexively with their unevolved lizard brains.

In the meantime, look at this, bully boys! You'll pee your pants when Sasquatch comes to get you!

Turing turns their stomachs

Nuts among the raisins

Alan M. Turing has gotten a long overdue apology from the British government for the way they treated him—a genuine World War II hero—for the high crime of homosexuality. I commend Prime Minister Gordon Brown for taking this small step in the interest of simple justice.

Others, of course, are not so pleased.

This is particularly true on the noisome fringe of American right-wing extremism. (Is it exaggeration to refer to our nation's right-wing extremists as having a “fringe”? I'm afraid not.) Excellent examples of reactionary fulminations are routinely served up by the loons with room-temperature IQs at Free Republic, the Fresno-based website that serves as the sweaty lint in the belly button of Central California. These comments (characteristic misspellings and all) were posted by “Freepers” in outraged response to Britain's apology:

Can’t trust poofers. Good rule of thumb.

3 posted on Friday, September 11, 2009 4:05:51 PM by pissant (THE Conservative party: www.falconparty.com)

Turing supposedly told the cops he was a homosexual when they visited his home to investigate a robbery he had reported.

He suggested that his 19 year old male lover might have been among the young men who robbed him.

He was later convicted on 12 counts.

Just looking up the Age of Majority in UK at that time, and it was 21. So Alan, like many risky gay blades of his time, was messing with a minor.

Certainly a well-known homosexual like Turing would not want for ADULT lovers ~ so he was taking risks ~ kind of like the office thief at work who liked to steal small things from people ~ personal things, and then set them out on her desk like trophies.

He later on may have commited suicide or accidentally poisoned himself while eating an apple.

Like many homosexuals of his time (or now) he may well have gloried in the tawdrier and more unwashed side of life ~ and all he had to do was wash his hands regularly to live (as suggested by his own mother).

I don't buy it that this genius commited suicide. He was just a nasty guy who wasn't all that clean.

Personal hygiene is not just a condom.

4 posted on Friday, September 11, 2009 4:06:35 PM by muawiyah

Britain sinks deeper into the black hole of political correctness. Should we go easier on a brilliant mathematician who is also a crazed killer? No. One has nothing to do with the other. If he is a great mathematician, he deserves to be recognized for it. If he is a depraved human being, he deserves to be ostracized for it — or worse.

Libs... always wanting to drag us deeper into that black hole. I know lots of mathematicians who should be castrated. All of them are libs.

7 posted on Friday, September 11, 2009 4:12:01 PM by LibWhacker (America awake!)

The guy was buggering underage (at that time) teenage boys?

Sick.

8 posted on Friday, September 11, 2009 4:26:57 PM by icwhatudo ("laws requiring compulsory abortion could be sustained under the existing Constitution"Obama Adviser)

The law at the time in UK made 21 the age of majority. I don't believe back in the early 1950s that they were into gradiations of buggery based on age differntials or time dilation factors.

Just a straight up and down ~ of age, or not of age.

So Turing was not satisfied with the law and violated it.

9 posted on Friday, September 11, 2009 4:29:53 PM by muawiyah

Every so often, however, the Free Republic echo chamber is disturbed by a discordant note. This time it was a Freeper by the handle of “steve-b,” the person responsible for the original post on the Turing apology. He had a rather telling observation about the way in which his fellow Freepers were falling all over themselves to justify compliance with law, although Free Republic is usually a hotbed of anti-government sedition.

So Turing was not satisfied with the law and violated it.

I'm sure the concept of disagreeing with and disregarding the government's decrees will give all good FReepers a severe case of the vapors.

11 posted on Saturday, September 12, 2009 7:02:23 AM by steve-b (Intelligent Design -- "A Wizard Did It")

Note that steve-b also mocks ID creationism. That alone suffices to make him suspect among Free Republic's creationist majority.

Not to mention that highly questionable support for apologizing to a dead queer. Shocking! (If he's not careful, he'll get “expelled.”)

Yeah. Even the extremists have a fringe.

The Pelosi Project

Ha, ha! What did I tell you?

KSFO's Melanie Morgan has clambered from the fetid swamp that is her morning talk show and taken her anti-Pelosi campaign to the big time—Hannity & Colmes. I'm sure she felt right at home. Last week she ranted on the air about the “dirt” that would keep Pelosi from ever becoming Speaker of the House. (You can see my original post on Morgan's threat immediately below; I wasn't too far off in predicting what Morgan would do.) The loonies at Free Republic are trying to push the story into the mainstream media:

KSFO's Melanie Morgan says illegal aliens are working in Nancy Pelosi's vineyard
Hannity and Colmes ^ | 11-13-06 | dfu

Posted on 11/13/2006 7:53:56 PM PST by doug from upland

NOTE: if anyone saw the show, please report

YOUTUBE PRESENTATION WITH INFO ON HER VINEYARD AND HER FAILURE TO HIRE UNION LABOR

I don't know if it is on the FOXNEWS site yet, but something potentially very important occured on Hannity and Colmes tonight.

KSFO's Melanie Morgan was a guest and exposed Nancy Pelosi, speaker in waiting, as employing illegal aliens to work on her wine vineyard in the Napa Valley.

If the charges are proven, how can the House possibly allow Pelosi to become speaker? Draining the swamp, will mean draining her.

As you might recall, Linda Chavez had to withdraw her nomination as Labor Secretary after it was revealed that she had hired an illegal alien in the 1990s.

FReepers, make the mainstream media cover this.

---

Oh, dear! Am I helping the Free Republic wackos and Melanie Morgan distribute a smear about Speaker-presumptive Pelosi? Yeah, right. Like a posting here constitutes major publicity. No, I'm merely pointing out how lame their efforts are. So very sad.

(The following was originally posted on November 10.)

Another right-wing delusion

I agree that it is unseemly for the victors in a hard-fought contest to gloat over the fate of their defeated opponents. Therefore I was pleased that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were gracious in their acknowledgments of the Democrats' success in taking over both houses of the U.S. Congress. I, on the other hand, can gloat all I want.

The day after the election, I radio-surfed among the various talk-radio stations (AM dial, of course) in northern California. Depending on location and time of day, I can usually pick up the Air America affiliate in Sacramento (KCTC, AM 1320) and the regional outlet for the Stephanie Miller Show and other Jones Radio progressive programs (KSAC, AM 1240). That's right—California's state capital has two liberal talk-radio stations. Bouncing back and forth between the two stations on November 8 gave me a heady dose of unreserved celebration and gloating. Yay! Take that, right-wing suckers!

Speaking of right-wing suckers, I can also pick up the highest profile regional source for reactionary rant radio, KSFO AM 560. Stuck in the belly of the beast in the Bay Area, struggling desperately to remain afloat in a region awash with dreaded “San Francisco values,” the conservative talkers on KSFO are led by local luminaries Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan. Since a gloat-fest can only benefit from a dash of Schadenfreude (not that I was feeling much Schade about my unrestrained Freude), I included KSFO in my post-election radio surfing.

Rodgers and Morgan were already trying out the now-official right-wing excuse for the Democratic romp (“The Democrats didn't really win—the Republicans lost; conservatives actually won a moral victory while the GOP took a tumble”). Morgan, however, was also her usual combative and aggressive self. Instead of lying back and acquiescing in the rout of her political allies, Morgan was already planning a counterattack:

She thinks Pelosi can be denied the House speakership.

“I have a lot of dirt on her,” said Morgan, “and I'm not afraid to use it. Nancy Pelosi will never be speaker.” (I'm quoting from memory since KSFO does not archive its broadcasts, but this is an accurate reconstruction of the content of her on-air remarks.)

I grinned at yet another example of Morgan's hubris. The week before she and her political group, Move America Forward, had taken their own shot at creating a “November surprise.” By all indications, Morgan really thought it would have an impact on the election. Now she was sharing another delusion of grandeur.

Using my own gigantic brain, I can speculate on Morgan's brilliant plans to head off a Pelosi speakership. Some aspects of this pipe dream have already been passed around in the redder portions of the blogosphere, although the size of the Democratic victory has muted their voices. The theory has been that several members of the Democratic caucus (particularly those newly elected in recently Republican districts) might be uncomfortable—or even balk—at voting for a dreaded San Francisco liberal as their leader. Here's an apposite quote from Free Republic:

Wouldn't it be sweet if those “Conservative” dems wake up tomorrow and see the light and defect over to the Republicans???

---

Yeah, that's going to happen.

First of all, Pelosi is a very smart woman who understands the two roles that she plays. She is the liberal representative of a liberal congressional district. That's an important role that she fills very well, giving her constituents a voice and a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is also the leader of the Democratic caucus in the House. As the leader of the Democrats, Pelosi's role is to keep the caucus together and to see that it prospers (as indeed it has under her leadership). She therefore works pragmatically with people who do not fully mirror her district or her political philosophy. Even the Democrats from the reddest districts know how much Pelosi contributed to their victories by keeping the troops focused on the key issues. They will unhesitatingly vote to make her Speaker.

Morgan and others will try to resurrect the failed “San Francisco values” attack on Pelosi, no doubt with the addition of the old whispering campaign against the Speaker-presumptive. For example, did you know she's wealthy? That's supposed to expose her as a hypocrite because wealth is obviously a Republican family value. And did you know that the Pelosi family owns a vineyard whose workers aren't unionized? This supposedly makes her a union-buster, contrary to her avowed support of the labor movement. Since no evidence of anti-union activities has ever been offered (and you can be sure the Republicans would serve it up if it existed), the absence of a union at the vineyard probably means the workers are well compensated and have never seen the need to organize. That's a far cry from being a union-busting hypocrite.

That's the sort of “dirt” the right-wing thinks it has on Nancy Pelosi.

We can expect to hear more big talk from Morgan before the Democratic caucus makes it official and confirms Pelosi as their leader and future Speaker of the House. And whatever Morgan says, I'm sure she'll be shooting blanks.

As usual.