In the movie, The Quiet Man there is a scene early on where Sean Thornton (John Wayne) meets “Red” Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen) in the local pub. Danaher is the local bully, who attempts to intimidate with either his money or his size. Danaher has it in for Thornton, having been bested in a business deal, and loudly announces in front of others that Thornton needs to stay away from his sister, Mary Kate. He launches into a smear against Thorton,
Danaher “Why, this very moment, let him deny it if he can. At the back of the chapel, he took liberties that he shouldn’t have.”
Thornton “I said ‘good morning’ to her.”
Danaher “Good morning? It was ‘good night’ you had on your mind.”
Thornton “That’s a lie.”
Thornton isn’t taken aback, he doesn’t start explaining all the ways he respects Mary Kate, indeed how his life has been one long testament of proving his gentlemanly bona fides.
Thornton merely calls the bully on the facts at hand. Danaher is a liar.
I couldn’t help thinking of this scene, and how we have let the American Left dominate the public discourse, in essense bullying and cowing anyone who dares cross them, when reading of Bill Clinton’s sad performance when interviewed by Kate Snow on Good Morning America
Snow asked Clinton, “Do you personally have any regrets about what you did campaigning for your wife?”
With his arms folded and looking a bit tense, Clinton replied, “Yes, but not the ones you think. And it would be counterproductive for me to talk about it.”
Barely pausing for a breath, he added, “There are things I wish I’d urged her to do, things I wish I had said, things I wish I hadn’t said. But I am not a racist, I never made a racist comment, and I didn’t attack him personally.”
Whatever the other faults of Billy Jeff, and they are legion, no one can seriously consider him a racist. But it is the measure of the success of Leftist control of the Narrative that Clinton felt he had to declare himself innocent of racism.
From the silliness of David Gergen declaring the McCain ad that mocks Obamessiah as ‘code’ racism to Tom Brokaw’s outrage of being labeled a “racist” in the pernicious scribblings of race-pimp Scott Pelligrino, the Leftist bullies have declared that regardless of reality, regardless of evidence, regardless of anything approaching reality or reason, if they declare a person racist, then it is so.
And we let them.
Maybe it’s time we took a page from Sean Thornton.
Comment by dicentra on 8/4 @ 10:47 pm #
See, as soon as they establish the “code” conceit, you’re sunk, because they can always accuse you of speaking in “code.”
It’s a blatant co-opting of the meaning of your words, and unless people start shouting, on TV, “YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY WORDS TO MEAN ANYTHING BEYOND THEIR PLAIN MEANING, SIR,” then the technique will continue to have power.
It’s an act of oppression, plain and simple. If you don’t get to use language according to your thoughts and intents, you’re as good as in the Gulag.
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 8/4 @ 11:15 pm #
Clinton felt he had to declare himself innocent of racism.
With friends like these who needs anyMORE enemies?
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 8/4 @ 11:17 pm #
These = Jan Hamsher, BTW. That wasn’t clear.
Comment by The Lost Dog on 8/5 @ 12:42 am #
Screw the left and their Balkanizing characterizations.
All of sound mind should declare themselves “Jerkists”, and stick to it.
Just the declaration leaves one able to call a jerk a jerk.
As far as I am concerned, in my life there is NO other “…ist” or “…phobe”.
I suppose if you are in a bad mood, you could modify it to “Asshole-ist”. Close enough…
Comment by Jeff Y. on 8/5 @ 2:49 am #
The Quiet Man is prolly my favorite movie. Maureen O’Hara is so damn gorgeous in that movie. And that kissing scene, with the wind blowing in the door — nice. Shit. I’m sounding all chick-flickish. But it’s a damn good kiss.
On a more manly note, John Wayne drags Maureen O’Hara, sometimes literally by her hair, to see her bully brother. That provokes one of the best, and longest, fight scenes ever.
Anyway, if we were going to drag Bill Clinton to see the bully, who would we end up fighting?
Comment by Big Bang Hunter (pumping you up) on 8/5 @ 5:54 am #
- Mr Bo Jingles was down 1 to McCane yesterday, so we can expect to see more and more race card, not less. O! Buckwheat is stuck on the wrong side of Iraq, on the wrong side of the oil Elephant, so hes long rambling welfare for everyone diatribes abd rants against the evil Capitalists, so race is all they got left. Count on it.
- It worked against Hillery. McCain, not so much. If he keeps falling, hes in trouble.
Comment by SDN on 8/5 @ 5:55 am #
That’s because lying about someone in public used to trigger the “fighting words” exception to the assault and battery statutes. Now - not so much.
Comment by Big Bang Hunter (pumping you up) on 8/5 @ 6:03 am #
“Anyway, if we were going to drag Bill Clinton to see the bully, who would we end up fighting?”
- We wouldn’t, it would be Hill kicking Willeys ass for letting his mouth get her in trouble again.
Comment by JD on 8/5 @ 6:40 am #
I want to feel bad for President Clinton, but I cannot. How many good intentioned and not-racist people have been tarred in this manner by the Left, over nothing bigger than a policy dispute?
Comment by Darleen on 8/5 @ 6:53 am #
JD
I certainly don’t feel sorry for Billy Jeff at all. He’s made his deal with the devil Left long ago and now come to the point where instead of it serving him, the Left has trashed any semblance of his legacy. BJ’s role in this election will always have the ‘racism’ smear in it.
BJ engaged in his own lying, quite cynically too. Recall the smear against Limbaugh and all non-left radio as the ones “responsible” for OK bombing.
BJ is experiencing a little karma here.
I’m sad for this country coming to this place.
Comment by Neo on 8/5 @ 7:20 am #
It’s all caused by Global Warming.
Comment by JD on 8/5 @ 7:23 am #
It is now Global Climate Change, Neo. Or, weather.
Comment by Strick on 8/5 @ 8:27 am #
Sean Thornton, not Thorton. No offense.
Billy Jeff’s racist because all Southern white males are automatically racists. There’s no defense and it’s only a matter of time before you say or do something that demonstrates your guilt. He should know that.
Obama’s candidacy simply extends that principle to everyone who disagrees with him, that’s all.
Comment by McGehee on 8/5 @ 8:49 am #
@ #11 & #12: The most accurate phrase is “Gullible Climate Change.”
@ #13: When Barry and Michelle get into an argument, she’s racist. When he flip-flops, either he has become racist or he has recently stopped being racist.
I could get to liking that rule.
Comment by Bill Grant on 8/5 @ 9:20 am #
An excellent post.
Comment by bigbooner on 8/5 @ 9:41 am #
Maybe they should have asked Bill when he stopped beating his wife.
Comment by MarkD on 8/5 @ 10:01 am #
Racist is now a synonym for bad. I refuse to play the game.
Comment by Smirky McChimp on 8/5 @ 10:34 am #
The other side of that scene (and movie) is that eventually bullies have to be fought. Red Will Danaher responds to being called a liar with “That’s a word I take from no man,” and prepares to fight (only the arrival of the village priest prevents that happening). The trick of bullies is to claim to be the victim when their tyranny is challenged, and to demand redress. At this point, you must either give into the bullies or fight them. There’s no third option.
Bill Clinton is likely regretting that he did not fight back against the charge. He’s not a stupid man, and probably knows that another Sistah Souljah moment would likely have won his wife the nomination and been of benefit to his party, and the nation.
Comment by TmjUtah on 8/5 @ 12:27 pm #
I’m sorry, but acting in a manner that would benefit his party or the nation is a reach I’m not buying. This is the man who teamed up with his wife to scare a pre-internet national constituency bad enough to lose his party a forty year majority in the house, and almost over night. He also had Osama bin Ladin over iron sights and let him walk so as not to threaten his fundraising.
I can believe he’s bummed he has to listen to Hillary butch for the next four years. He knew the campaign was over when the media chose O!. He’s lots of things, dumb notamong them.
Comment by Terry Gain on 8/5 @ 6:55 pm #
Screw the Left or as I like to say: “I request your immediate departure, with a sexual connotation”.
Comment by Jeff Y. on 8/5 @ 10:48 pm #
Smirky McChimp, I like your style. You’re not the kind of guy to play tiddly winks in the rectory.
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