Now for the clown award, given as always for meritorious stupidity.You know, of course, about the case of Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the "Duck Dynasty" family, who was momentarily suspended from the show by A+E for an interview in which he expressed contempt for homosexuals, claimed all non-Christian societies are plagued with problems because "no Jesus," and insisted that before all that civil rights stuff came along, blacks in the South were "singing and happy."
It took only a couple of days for A+E to offer its unconditional surrender to the banshees of the right, screeching about his "First Amendment right" to be on a cable TV show. (In which case, I'll be contacting HBO to see when my own Constitutionally-required special will be on.)
But believe it or not, A+E is not the clown here, much as they deserve to be.
No, the clown is Ian Bayne, a right-wing talk show host who is running for the GOPper nomination for a Congressional seat in Illinois. Why does he deserve the big red nose more than A+E? Well, while the network was just being a craven coward, Mr. Bayne went all in. Phil Robertson, he declared, was just like Rosa Parks. You remember Rosa Parks: the woman who helped spark the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and through that the modern civil rights movement by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man as the law demanded she do.
In a fundraising email, Bayne called Robertson the "Rosa Parks of our generation." Why? Because she took a brave stand and so did he. She took a stand against "persecution of black people" and he took a stand against "persecution of Christians."That's right, according to Ian Bayne, Christians in the present-day US, despite making up 78% of the population, are subject to the same level of persecution as blacks in the pre-civil rights South and it took "courage" for Robertson to stand up for Christians! Right on!
What's more, comparing Rosa Parks to Phil Robertson was, he said, a compliment - to Parks. Yeah, can't you just imagine Rosa Parks, if she was still alive, saying "He said I was like Phil Robertson? Wasn't that nice of him! What a compliment!"
Bayne went on subsequently to tell Talking Points Memo that the US is "a Christian nation" and predicted a dire future where, quoting, "we will wake up in an America where if you walk around with the bible you could be arrested," which is why the courage of Phil Robertson was just so wonderful. In fact, it was just like Rosa Parks. Yup.
Two footnotes before I wrap this up: One is that blogger Daisy Deadhead had a wonderful rant on her local radio show, where she pointedly noted that firing Phil Robertson because of what he said is exactly what the right wing wants the bosses to be able to do! They want the bosses to be able to fire you for any reason. So what are they griping about?
And two, the blunt fact is, the whole crew of guys of "Duck Dynasty" are phonies. Bogus. Fakes. The family are millionaires and the whole bearded-camo look is nothing but a costume to fool the rubes. Don't believe me? Here are some examples of pictures from before and after the show started:
Brother Jase, then.
Brother Jase, now.
Brother Jep, then.
Brother Jep, now.
Brother Willie, then.
Brother Willie, now.
So number Ian Bayne among the rubes. As well as a clown.
Footnote: For those who don't know, the reason I called the network A+E is that html uses the ampersand as a special command character, so it would not display properly if I used it, requiring the use of the plus sign instead.
Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/20/ian-bayne-duck-dynasty_n_4480745.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/goper-who-compared-duck-dynasty-star-to-rosa-parks-he-wanted-to-expose-persecution-of-christians
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ian-bayne-clarifies-rosa-parks-duck-dynasty-comparison-not-about-skin-color-or-literal-comparison
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/24/war-on-christmas_n_4499155.html
http://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/
http://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/2013/12/daisys-duck-dynasty-rant-from-thursdays.html
http://crooksandliars.com/2013/12/duck-dynasty-yuppies-red-neck-drag
http://www.refinedguy.com/2013/03/27/duck-dynasty-cast-before-and-after-style-pics/
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