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The Greek track star was booted off the Olympic Team. No, it was not because of the Euro… It was because of her slur against Africans. People need to keep their mouths shut. I was glad the Olympic Committee was adhering to high standards.
Later, another report came across the wire. This one actually had translated what she had said…… It was something like …”with so many Africans here, the West Nile Mosquitoes will be able to dine on local food.”
I read it again, because that didn’t sound horrible.
“with so many Africans here, the West Nile Mosquitoes will be able to dine on local food.”
I HAVE to be missing something…. I read it real slow.
With….. so…..many….. Africans….. here, .. the….. West….. Nile…. Mosquitoes…. will…. be….. able…. to…..dine…. on …..local…. food..
Didn’t see it that time… I tried reading it real fast.
Withsomany Africans here, theWestNileMosquitoes willbeabletodineon localfood.
No it is not in delivery…. Is there something racist about West Nile Mosquitoes?
Google Search of West Nile Mosquitoes lists these locations…. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Atlanta, Rockville, and Illinois. Someone just died of it in Arizona. These mosquitoes are all over America, and it appears they bite white people as well as nonwhites too. Oh, crap. They just found one in Tom’s River!!!!! Now even I’m worried. I saw one on my arm earlier today….
Is the joke in regards to the Nile River? It is, after all in Africa. But is that pejorative? After all, most of us associate the Nile with Ancient Egypt, where mankind began civilization. The Nile almost has a regal nature to it. Do we preach defamation when someone says “Mississippi”? or “Missouri”? or “Ohio”? They are rivers too… How about… “Amazon”? Ooooh. There is pejorative turn of a word. That makes me think of tall scantily clad Lucy Lawless. … If there was a mosquito disease originating in Jefferson County outside of New Orleans, and we said, the same thing when the Saints come up to Philadelphia to play… ” With so many Saints fans here in Philadelphia, all our Jefferson County mosquitoes will have local cuisine.” ( I would have added) “I hope they didn’t lose their tolerance for cayenne.”
Would I be cast off an Olympic Team?
The Phillies play the Colorado Rockies at home next on September 7,8,9th. Must I pencil myself a note never to say… “Rocky Mountain spotted fever” on those three days? Especially if to do so is….to lead me “to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless joke I published on my personal Twitter account. I am very sorry and ashamed for the negative responses I triggered, since I never wanted to offend anyone, or to encroach human rights.”
Or if I go up to New London, Connecticut, I must be very careful not to think of ticks and if I do get bitten by one on the back of my hairline, while there, I must be very careful not to say in the local’s presence… Lyme Disease. Old Lyme is only a couple of towns west of New London. I wouldn’t want to offend anyone, or encroach human rights.
Encroach human rights? How.
How does either statement encroach human rights? Does either statement bring down people from Colorado or Connecticut?
Are you a bad person just because there is a disease that originated in your country? If so, all Africa is doomed. And so is South America. And syphilis came from the New World! So we are all in this together.
Mosquitoes dine on everyone, myself included. They ARE color blind.
Where is the racist remark? “There are so many Africans here?” Should she have said Negroes? or blacks? Do we take offense when we get called Americans while we are abroad? “kick that bitch off the team. We are United Staters; not Americans. Everyone in the Western Hemisphere is a damned American…”
I’m struggling here. Someone help me out. I’m trying to think of a slur made at Americans that would require an apology and a kick off the Olympic Team… and for heavens sakes, I just can’t think of one.
Basically her point is…. Gee, there are a lot of Africans here… Yeah.. duh… it’s the Olympics……
You take that and put it with the fear of West Nile, which in Greece is at a higher preponderance than here in the US.
The Olympics must have the highest standards. Without question. But there is the other standard, the one requiring a burden of proof. It appears all we have to have is a prosecutor and boom, a sentence is levied.
And this is not one occasion. Nancy Grace on Fox is a case. Bloggers comments are another case. Everyone has an opinion. No one stops to look at facts. They judge based on one or two words in the question. “Sure, if someone slurs a race, they should be thrown off the team. I say throw them off the team. We need to make an example so powerful it never happens again!” Hey, everybody! Let’s judge by popular opinion and not the facts.
Everyone has an opinion before anyone knows what she said. The implication is: “oh, it doesn’t matter what she says. If someone complains and thinks it is derogatory, then that is what matters. Whether it is derogatory or not, is inconsequential. After all, how can she not be guilty, if someone complains?”
Uhhhhh. perhaps the person doing the complaining is simply not that smart? If affects 50% of the worlds population you know?
I remember saner times.
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July 26, 2012 at 10:42 am
anonymous
What’s a threat, what’s plain meaningless?
Apparently some find a careless joke a threat, while deadly lies, go ignored.
Now here’s a dangerous joke:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMAn6O1IeoQ
Let’s put what is a harmless statement and what it truly horrendous, in perspective.
What’s so offensive? The “so many Africans here,” the”West Nile Mosquitoes,” or the mosquitoes dining “on local food” or the combination thereof?
Now compare that to what republican politicians are saying (and not saying,) about the ‘C’ word. Climate ‘Catastrophy.’
Dr. James Hansen, world renown climate scientist says, “If global warming approaches 3°C by the end of the century, it is estimated that 21-52% of the species on Earth will be committed to extinction.”
3 degrees C is equal to 5.4 degrees F. We are nearly a third of the way there.
But dont’ pay any attention to scientific predictions of mass extinctions, worry instead about one person’s idea of a joke, a play on words.
But how about hearing the world’s legitimate climate scientists, predicting catastrophes in our, our children’s, our grand children’s lifetimes? And thinking about, on the way to those 2.2 more degrees C, changing weather patterns, droughts, fires, extreme storms, crop losses, rising food costs, sinking shorelines, the probable fall of political structure, angry migrating masses, etc.
James Hansen: “In a study funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, a group of retired four-star generals and admirals concluded that climate change, if not addressed, will be the greatest threat to national security. The definition of how not to address climate change is to develop unconventional fossil fuels such as tar sands. That would guarantee that there will be far greater national security problems.”
Don’t pay it any attention.
Worry about a joke instead. Let politicians get away with spouting non scientific nonsense, offering 20 years of deceptive, non truths in catastrophic doses instead.
Hansen, “Every seller will tell you his pile of pollution is small compared to the total pile on Earth, and that is correct. What makes tar sands particularly odious is that the energy you get out in the end, per unit carbon dioxide, is poor. It’s equivalent to burning coal in your automobile. We simply cannot be that stupid if we want to preserve a planet for our children and grandchildren.”
Preserving a planet for children, grand children. Is that important to note?
No one imagined the power that fossil fuel special interests would have over policymakers and the public.
Instead Americans are free to wonder why an athlete would say a meaningless thing.
Read something truly horrendous:
http://www.zero-carbon-or-climate-catastrophe.org/climate-catastrophe-denial.html
July 26, 2012 at 10:56 am
anonymous
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