Dispatches from the Creation Wars

Given that the children depicted in the mural are current stuents at the school...I think the principal is an even bigger piece of excrement. Just WHAT are you teaching the children under your care, moron?

Posted by: gwangung | June 7, 2010 12:13 PM

"To depict the biggest picture on the building as a Black person, I would have to ask the question: Why?"

This is a perfect example of what so many assholes fail to understand about racism - if it had been a "white" person, it would never have occurred to him to ask "why"? White is "normal", whereas black requires an explanation. Post-racial society, my (skinny white) ass...

Posted by: Dunc | June 7, 2010 12:21 PM

"To depict the biggest picture on the building as a Black person, I would have to ask the question: Why?"

Why not?

Posted by: Captain Mike | June 7, 2010 12:31 PM

He insists the controversy isn't about racism but says the mural lunch counter sit-in is intended to create racial controversy where none existed before.

"Personally, I think it's pathetic," he says. "You have changed the ambience of that building to excite some kind of diversity power struggle that doesn't exist in Prescott, Arizona Greensboro, North Carolina. And I'm ashamed of that."

'Nuff said.

Posted by: DaveL | June 7, 2010 12:32 PM

Holy fucking fuck.

This is one of those days that I'm ashamed to live in this country.
Oh, and Steve Blair. Just fuck you. With a huge, very black dildo.

Posted by: Fifth Dentist | June 7, 2010 1:46 PM

or to echo John Stewart's take on the above mentioned ploy:

"I'm not saying your mother's a whore, I'm just saying she sleeps with men for money."

Posted by: EricJ | June 7, 2010 1:58 PM

Captain Mike points out the succinct, and correct response: Why not? There is no way that chucklehead could answer the question without showing his true stripes. It follows what Lenny Flank said about creationists: just hand them a microphone and let them talk. They always give the game away.

As far as changing the mural, if I was the artist, I would register my protest by going along with the request to lighten the skin tone, but to go overboard and make them look like mimes by using a pure white.

Posted by: carlsonjok | June 7, 2010 2:10 PM

I always wonder how these small towns never realize that they are presenting themselves to the country as backwards slack-jawed morons. Doesn't this principal have a part of his brain that tells him when something is just a bad idea?

Posted by: Brandon | June 7, 2010 2:46 PM

The funny part is, all they have to do is wait a few years. The mural will lighten up all by itself out in that Arizona sun.

Posted by: Chilidog | June 7, 2010 2:57 PM

@Serah

Good to hear! Its always good news to see bigots prevented from doing damage and to see that the general populace is still full of good people.

Posted by: Marshall Schreiber | June 7, 2010 3:01 PM

re: #17. Unlike the 'white' residents of Prescott, who would have been deemed 'colored' in apartheit-era South Africa.

Posted by: VJBinCT | June 7, 2010 3:06 PM

"http://scienceblogs.com/isisthescientist/racial%20bingo.jpg"

But, but, but. Everything IS delicious wrapped in a tortilla

Posted by: Alex Besogonov | June 7, 2010 3:25 PM

"You have changed the ambience of that building to excite some kind of diversity power struggle that doesn't exist in Prescott, Arizona. And I'm ashamed of that."

I'm reminded of something that happened at a baseball game some years back. A man sitting next to me nudged me and said, "Looks like he's trying to start something, doesn't it?"

When I asked what he was referring to, he pointed at a black man ascending the stairs wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of Martin Luther King, Jr and the words "I have a dream."

Posted by: Pieter B | June 7, 2010 3:27 PM

Arizona has officially joined my list of states that make me ashamed to call myself an American.

Posted by: Sadie Morrison | June 7, 2010 4:08 PM

@ 8

I love it when douche bags get caught up in PR shitstorms.

Posted by: Owen | June 7, 2010 4:59 PM

asdf - it takes an entire country to raise this much of an idiot! ;) - Dingo

Posted by: DingoJack | June 7, 2010 5:05 PM

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/06/how_would_i_feel_if.html

Ebert wrote abotu this, too. he's great, as usual.

Posted by: Ace of Sevens | June 7, 2010 7:43 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiX5p8NL040

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPIRKnaCKzo

Some nice audio from Steve Blair's radio show including the now famous:

"I am not a racist but.........," line as well as a conversation with fellow councilman John Hanna's wife Sherry.

Posted by: tobias frent | June 7, 2010 8:19 PM

Here is an other interesting story about Blair a few months ago he a Spanish Census banner removed as it did not reflect his community:

http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1086&ArticleID=78660

Posted by: tobias frent | June 7, 2010 8:24 PM

Keep up the great work in Prescott, Sarah! Give the bigots hell.

Posted by: Reverend H.L. Spork | June 7, 2010 8:59 PM

asdf @ 2: Holy smokes! It's Hugo Chavez.

Maybe Glenn Beck should do an expose' about this obvious pictoral reference.

Posted by: Urban Spaceman | June 8, 2010 2:07 AM

Regarding #27.

First off, you and anyone else that holds this sentiment is an uninformed moron. Prescott is a city, and a small one at that, and doesn't represent the state. Second, these people are only a small part of Prescott, and are being bitten in the ass by the rest of the people who aren't a bunch of bigoted fucking jerks.

That said, it's beginning to piss me off the reaction AZ, my state, is getting from people on the left who seem just as ready to take their outrage overboard as the teabaggers are on the right. Yeah, we've got the immigration law controversy, a law I'm not happy with, but it seems like the media is ready to dig up any anecdotal evidence it can find so they can paint the state as a bunch of backward inbred racists.

You want to compare us to the south, to Texas and Alabama? Go ahead at your own risk. Doing so means you've never lived in either place and have no fucking clue. I've lived in the south, and I live here. There is no comparison. Arizona is conservative, but moderately so. We have elected a long line of democratic governors (May I remind everyone that our current republican governor was not elected, but is replacing Janet Napolitano )and our major city currently has a democrat for a mayor and usually elects dems about half the time. We also have a history of electing hispanics and women to public office. We don't have a problem with religion being pushed in school, don't have legislators trying to secede from the union, and don't have a culture that treats minorities as lesser citizens. In other words, we are nothing like the south.

I can bet that if our critics or the media were to look into it, you'd find states like Texas and maybe even California already have laws on the books similar to the Az law in content. They just aren't being made public because they were passed long ago and over many years. I'm not going to excuse our laws, or our legislators, but I can guarantee there will be people voted out of office over this, and we will elect a democratic governor the next time around. Give it some time to work out and quit acting like teabaggers. Uninformed criticism and boycotts harm the wrong people. Direct your scorn at the politicians both state and federal that allowed this problem to happen in the first place, and at the publicity whores getting face time on Faux. Stop with the generalizations.

Posted by: David Thompson | June 8, 2010 11:48 AM

I've noticed a few people who seem to want to characterize this as an American problem. I wish.

We have plenty of racists in Canada, and I have no doubt that Europe is full of them, as are Asia, South America and Africa. Australia's got more than it's fair share. Racism and racist attitudes are not in any way limited to the United States.

If what Serah @ 16 said is true (and I have no reason to believe that it isn't) then there are reasons to be very proud of the citizens of Prescott. Enough of them stood up and shouted when there was reason to shout.

Posted by: Captain Mike | June 8, 2010 12:17 PM

@17;

The funny part is, all they have to do is wait a few years. The mural will lighten up all by itself out in that Arizona sun.

While the white kid will darken up, from the same cause.

Before long, the real live white kid will be darker than the painted brown kid.

Posted by: James Hanley | June 8, 2010 3:33 PM

The problem was not helped by calls for boycotts, it was exacerbated by them. When the NFL pulled the Superbowl, it caused many people to get pissed off enough to vote against it. They were tired of outsiders getting involved in what they believed was none of their business.

Oh, yeah, David, sooooo unlike the south.

We ain't got no here race problems down here in Alabama. If those liberal yankee do-gooders would just stay home insteada gettin' involved in what ain't none of their business, we wouldn't have no problems at all.

Yeah, it's always the fault of those who dare to point out your faults, eh?

Posted by: James Hanley | June 8, 2010 3:46 PM

I asked David Thompson @ 46:

What affects, if any, do you believe the controversy over MKL Jr. Day had on Arizonians?

David responds @ 48:

No other state, by a vote of the people, created an MLK holiday. Initially it was proclaimed by the Governor, Bruce Babbit, but was rescinded by Evan Mecham, who only replaced Babbit as Governor because the three way race divided the votes of the the front runners and allowed Mecham to slip through. So the controversy probably would not have occured had a more mainstream candidate won.

The problem was not helped by calls for boycotts, it was exacerbated by them. When the NFL pulled the Superbowl, it caused many people to get pissed off enough to vote against it. They were tired of outsiders getting involved in what they believed was none of their business. Eventually the controversy died down and we got to vote on it it again, and it passed. People should take a lesson from the MLK day fracas.

David, that's a history of the controversy, not your perception regarding what people in Arizona learned per my request. I was already perfectly cognizant of its history.

If I were to guess I'd have to conclude that your lesson is to blame outside forces for everything given you direct your criticism outward @ 48 in spite of my asking what Arizonians learned.

I was hoping Arizonians had collectively learned a lesson from the MLK Jr. Day controversy regardless of how fairly outsiders treated this issue. Given your response here in both your original post and your post at 48 which redirects our viewpoint outward in spite of my inward request, I'm no longer surprised this new controversy so closely mimics the MLK Day Jr. event. Your answer argues that the answer to my on what Arizonians learned is, "Nothing". I'm not surprised, that was exactly why I asked the question I did which confirms why you vented outward in your original comment post.

That begs the question whether Arizonians will learn any lessons from the current controversy, regardless of how fair or unfair outsiders are treating them. If David's response is consistent with at least 50% of the population, I think it's safe to predict the answer will once again be that they will learn nothing except for perhaps how to better blame outsiders for criticism they get dealing with politics involving race. Hopefully a few percentage points will peel off and give the current majority a thumping on future matters involving race. However I don't see that happening since about 64% of Americans nationally are perfectly comfortable denying brown-skinned Hispanic-looking American citizens their equal rights on such matters (though this violation of rights might not even happen, that was the framing when the poll was taken).

Posted by: Michael Heath | June 8, 2010 4:41 PM

“All Men are created equal”! The founders had it right, when attempting to form a perfect union and they also knew that they were not there yet but knew we one day would get there. Lincoln moved us forward as did JFK and LBJ. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

It is my contention that this AZ law is not constitutional and will fail when challenged (unless, of course, they keep adding more amendments), pretty funny for this so called perfect law, that many internet blogs claim it was copied “Word for Word” from the Federal law, which I frankly do not believe, if it was then no amendments would have been made, right?, of course.

As for the undocumented workers, as was attributed to Ronald Reagan “It’s the Economy, Stupid”. When the economy is good we say let’s all celebrate “Cinco de Mayo, my brothers” but when the economy is down “it’s all your fault, you damn immigrant”. This too will pass. The real problem is the narcos, arms and people smugglers and that’s what the focus should be on.

Don’t you find it funny that no one ever voted for Brewer for Governor, it’s all about politics and getting elected, do not be fooled. Busy Brewer has passed S.B. 1070, no permit conceal weapons law, the famous Birthers law, banning Ethic studies law, (could she be behind the Mural in Prescott, Arizona) and if history is a lesson she should look up Arizona’s House Bill 2779 from two years ago (which failed when legally challenged) and the craziest one the boycotted Martin Luther King Day, not wanting another holiday, how crazy is that. I believe there is an undercurrent to their enactment of new laws, they real love following a distinct pattern. Poor Brewer, last week, she first she said her Dad had died in Germany fighting the Nazi in World War II (war ended 1945) and we find out her father was never in Germany and died in California in 1955 (watch the spin doctors go into overdrive) and then she went to Washington and came back empty as always, poor dear.

Posted by: Benito | June 11, 2010 11:57 AM

The Tea Bag Party are just “haters not debaters” or as others have dubbed them “screamers not dreamers”, with their failed attempts at stopping Healthcare reform, they say they respect the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence but they do not mind passing laws, through weak Governors (no one voted for this crazy) who only cares about getting elected Governor, on the backs of undocumented workers, that will not pass Constitution muster.

Brewer signed into law;

1. S.B. 1070,
2. No permit conceal weapons law,
3. The famous Birthers law,
4. Banning Ethic studies law,

5. Could she be behind the Mural in Prescott, Arizona, ordered to be whiten,
6. On deck to pass, no citizenship to babies born to undocumented workers,

7. If she can read she should look up Arizona’s House Bill 2779 from two years ago (which was un-constitution and failed when legally challenged),
8. The boycotted Martin Luther King Day, what idiots don’t want another holiday? Yes, you guessed it Arizona.

Well Arizona, you can boycott new holidays and keep passing crazy laws and the rest of us will continue to challenged them in a court of law and continue to add cities to our Boycott of your state.

I real cannot believe anything that comes out of Brewer’s mouth, in an interview she first said her father had died in Germany fighting the Nazi in World War II (war ended 1945) but of course we find out the truth that father was never in Germany and died in California in 1955. But we are suppose to believe everything else she says, right!

As for the Tea Bag Party, their phony patriotism is sickening; they are just racists going by another name. We all know you are just itching to put a sheet on their head? Let’s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, energy (remember Cheney’s secret meetings with oil companies where loosening regulation and oversight were sealed), climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. It appears that the Republican Party is only good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. The Republicans party will continue turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party (and their Confederacy appreciation roots) because they continue to allow a small portions (but very loud portion) of their party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” to rule their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing “Follow the Leader” by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions).

The Birthers and the Tea Bag party crowd think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like “This time we came unarmed”, let me tell you something not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. The world is complicated and people like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now it’s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. For a party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, it is tragic that the ranks are filled with too many empty suits and the crazy Birthers who have not learned that the way our courts work is that you get a competent lawyer, verifiable facts and present them to a judge, if the facts are real and not half baked internet lies, then, and only then, do you proceed to trial. The Birthers seem to be having a problem with their so called “Internet facts”. Let’s face it no one will take the Birthers seriously until they win a case, but until then, you will continue to appear dumb, crazy or racist, or maybe all three. I heard that Orly Taitz now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC), she wants to re-establish a family values party, that is like saying that the Catholic Church cares about the welling being of children in their care, too late for that. Yee Haw!

Posted by: Montana | June 16, 2010 2:02 PM

Im reading this from the United Kingdom, and even though teh article shows a ridiculous side to US society, the response from true Americans shows this as one idiot and his mates!

Posted by: Danny | December 30, 2010 8:19 AM

Davey, honey:

Is that intended as snark? If so, ya might wanna put a "s/--/s on that screed. Otherwise, you'll look like--and be considered by most commenters (nice, sane people that they are) as a bigoted fucking moron.

Have a nasty day, asshole.

Posted by: democommie | November 10, 2011 9:59 AM