Just to recap what we’ve learned today: the phrase “blood libel” is, per a host of “reasonable” people in the media and in public office who have reached an interpretive agreement, objectively anti-Semitic — regardless of the intent behind its usage — when not deployed in a particular pre-vetted context, or by a particular identity group who has claimed ownership of the phrase and have the requisite authenticity to use it (or grant its use to others).
Enjoy!
****
update: Q: “what is government if words have no meaning“? A: in a way, I think we’re witnessing a bit of that already.
Surely maintaining there is such a thing as a tasty matzoh isn’t though.
“blood libel” sounds icky they should call it daffodil sauce
How fortunate that you are a Jooooo and can use the phrase. Perhaps you can extend Mrs Palin some form of dispensation on this?
Oh, crap! I just realized than my gravatar is of King Richard Coeur de Leon, and a massacre of the Jews occurred after his coronation.
I humbly beg forgiveness.
The Media can suck my schwantz.
Sausage libel is even more Anti-Semitic.
I don’t suppose it has occurred to any of these rocket surgeons that “blood libel” is not in the “Things an Anti-Semite Ever Says” set.
why is Eric fucking Holder there exactly?
I’d never commit blood libel, but I have dabbled in bone-marrow slander.
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To tell us about Jesus.
duct tape ‘feet, Jesus, to the goalpost of life
Iowahawk is on friggin fire..
http://twitter.com/iowahawkblog
From Gabriel Malor on Twitter:
Liberals spent the day looking up the definition of “blood libel.” I think they should have looked up “memorial service” too.
From a retweet by Tops (richard_Mc enroe:
“and let’s not forget the folks who made tonight’s show possible! Let’s have a big hand for what’stheirnames, the DEAD PEOPLE!”
So now it is anti Semetic now to just use the term “blood libel” in an analogy, but when those who want to disparage and attack the Jews use it in the context of lies about secret baking ingredient in matzohs, the outrage indexes do not go off?
Jonah Goldberg did not get that pissed off. And he is a half Jew.
And Pablo is of course correct, those disparaging the Jews do not ever say “blood libel”.
Allen Deroshowitz even defends Sarah Palin:
Is that a memorial service or an Insane Clown Posse concert? What’s with all the cheering and whistling?
Excuse me Alan Dershowitz. My bad.
Jonah Goldberg. He is not offended, just thinks it is less than ideal as a term for this.
The Memorial is over.
Roll Tide.
@14 lol -richard_Mc enroe:
the cocktail party response
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Rich Lowry.
Opposite end zone.
Upside down.
They gave the performance a title and handed out t-shirts.
Honestly.
They did.
Nuance.
Also, you’d think Lowry would’ve known exactly how this was going to play out. Obama and his handlers essentially orchestrated a minor Sister Soldjah moment.
It was planned this way. We know this because yesterday Obama was on the phone with Sheriff Dufus commending him for his fine (dirty) work, which in castigating the Tea Party (YAY!) and right-wing radio (YAY!) set Obama up for tonight, allowing him to appear above the fray even as he was quite grateful for all the political smearing going on against the bitter clingers and their talk radio Svengalis.
And now we’re supposed to swoon that The Won managed to get through a memorial service without calling Rush Limbaugh a big fat dickhead, and millions of Tea Party activists “enemies”?
Blow me.
commentary is a fun blog
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The only takeaway from the speech (besides the tee shirt) is the phrase “moral imagination” which sounds suspiciously like a different flavor of conscience dreaming. Which, they say liberalism is a mental disease…
Could we settle on Together We Throb?
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The president’s speech is well done.
Too bad some of his followers cannot follow his example on this.
Jeff, I am not convinced Obama planned it this way. He was just smart enough to rise above his various cronies and hangers on.
But you are right Jeff, he is shrewd enough to take advantage of it.
except not, cause these people work for him and he still showed up.
once I saw the logo, I knew I wouldn’t be watching.
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Joe: The buck stops with Obama.
Be thankful, though. As close as they were to the border, they could have had a full on Donkey Show.
You know something, I was willing to give Obama the benefit of doubt. Taking advantage by saying gracious things? Sure, that is the smart thing to do. But then I saw Jeff’s comment about the t-shirts.
T-shirts? Really?
I should know better.
more from the cocktail set
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“He was telling them, and everyone”
if you work at commentary they give mind reading abilities.
I thought bumblefuck’s speech was cowardly – never once did he shut the door on speculation that it was rhetoric what pithed Gabby
It only took him 5 days to “tell everyone” — and he decided to do it in a televised memorial service. Making it all about his glorious rising above-ness.
I’m going to be sick.
more cocktail party notes: other than handing out tee shirts and doing the wave O! is ok
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Call me crazy but one shouldn’t try to develop a reputation for giving credit where credit is due by giving credit where credit isn’t due.
It’s (and here’s our go-to word for all of this) transparent and cynical.
bad link on that last one Mr. newrouter
oh. hah
I have a cold
what’s this “he is our president” bullshit?
he’s a cocksucking dirty socialist Soros whore and America is shamed
yea but the dirty socialists at amspec tagged it for you
ot jeff $50 to you if you put the html tag things active in the comment box.
oh i’ll just send the 50 regardless. thanks for your blog.
the cocktail party are really happy tonight
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hey, it takes time to print the tee shirts.
which, who paid for those things?
It is a well written speech. And that it was five days after the event or done on television (given that is the major media now) is not atypical or unusual in itself.
But I am pretty sure Lincoln did not give out t-shirts after the Gettysburg Address and that FDR did not do so after Pearl Harbor. And I do not believe W gave out t-shirts after his appearence at Ground Zero or Clinton did so after Oklahoma City.
Iowahawkage:
Thanks, Dave. I needed that. ;^)
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it was probably left over monies from the Teddy K mournapolooza
Teh One made her see. He heals.
That Fred Bauer piece is very good, in particular in the sense in which he conveys that the craziness of the insane act opens wide the door for us to insight into the depths of our own ignorance and a simple inability to bring insanity to account. We are at a loss.
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“Hey little Christina. What do you think the name of your memorial service will be?”
“I don’t know. Maybe ‘The Christina Green Memorial Service’?”
“That’s a little heavy on the ‘Christina Green’. How about we go with ‘Together we Thrive’?”
“I don’t know. I’m not feeling real thrivey right now.”
oh noes chalk board attack
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some cocktail people unhappy with the O!
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your tax dollars at work
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john pod comeback kid
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We need some pd buttons poetry about the memorial service.
Auburn (56)
TCU (3)
Oregon
Stanford
Ohio State
Final BCS top five.
Death to the BCS.
I’m all for a playoff system myself, but like they say about Obama, we got what we got – make the best of it.
What did I tell you about those Commentary squishes? They are all establishment GOP dinosaurs.
Here is what a reader e-mailed Glenn Reynolds, and he couldn’t be more correct:
“The Republican party is in big trouble. Palin pushed Obama to the right today. Palin did. Not the Republican beltway class, not the Republican commentariat. Not the Republican brain trust. They might as well admit it. Without the tea party they’re nothing. Does that mean Palin should be the nominee? No. The primaries will settle that. But it does mean this. Whoever the beltway crowd wants they won’t get. And no one cares if they pack up and go home any more. No one at all. After they’re gone Palin will still be here.”
And if you want to see yet another carnival of non-discernment and/or willful blindness about tonight’s events, go over to ricochet.com. The majority there are so anxious to congratulate The One for a “moving” speech that they miss or ignore his call for greater “civility,” which really means, “All you who oppose my transformation of America and who have been libelled for the last five days, shut up and take it.”
Very quick decisive action taken against those who would threaten in order to silence people such as Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh or, or,… Oh wait, nevermind, the narrative is saved.
Tammy Bruce is on fire…
[…] By the way – […]
I’d do her.
Twwweeeeeeet: Personal foul, 15 yards, unsportsmanlike conduct, Number 70, penalty to be marked from the spot of the foul.
Amongst the commenters there, I’m sticking to the same position I’ve always held regarding Obama: never give an inch.
Bullshit. You’d sell tickets, beer and popcorn to watch. ;)
PPV, larger audience, more money. Then hawk the video.
Only if I get a free copy. I’m celebrating my immoral imaginations!
I think if I was a POTUS that had one thing going for him–that my likely opponents are scattered and not terribly effective as candidates–I would haul ass to whatever bus-into-the-river tragedy happened and give a “why cant we be friends since we are all equal in Gods eyes” speech.
And then I would find rotary club members and WWII and Korea vets who died and I would speak at their funerals too. Then I would get around to people who fell into paper making machines, smokers with cancer and, when that failed, Id just start stopping by graves because WTF does it matter, really?
Because when you can play two or three notes and your audience wants symphonies, you find the movements with your notes in them.
I wouldn’t want to be Obama when someone graphs CPI next to some proxy for wage increases next to moving averages of gas and heating oil. One of those four lines is going to be pretty telling.
[…] noted here last night in the comments: […] you’d think Lowry would’ve known exactly how this was going […]
Intellectually. James, I’d say there is a window somewhere that you haven’t licked.
Mike LaRoche – I’ve seen your comments there and appreciate your making them, but you are distinctly in the minority on this topic. I don’t presume to criticize George Savage, but the other commenters – obtuse at best.
I suppose it could’ve been worse. They could’ve said, “My congresswoman was nearly assassinated and six innocent people were murdered, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.”
Which, maybe I shouldn’t give them ideas for the next memorial/political rally.
If I weren’t so dedicated to this new environment of civil discourse, I might observe that handing out t-shirts any time a Congresscritter was shot in the head might be a cool idea.
But I am, so I won’t.
At least they weren’t distributed by bazooka.
“Madness, Madness!”
— The Bridge On The River Kwai