The Great Conservative Mental Breakdown of 2010 continues unabated, and it’s reaching alarmingly weird depths. We’ve written before about the American right wing’s collective panic attacks since Barack Obama’s election as president, but compared to some of the things going on these days — the Tea Partiers’ weird claims that Obama is a socialist dictator from the Planet Xylon and so forth — seem like reasoned discourse. Granted, most conservatives are not this crazy, but on the other hand, and more importantly, you don’t hear a lot of responsible conservatives calling their more extreme brethren on the carpet, either. Examples:
1. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) expressed sympathy for the beliefs of the terrorist Joe Stack, who flew his plane into IRS offices in Austin, Texas, and rightwing blogs were filled with posts from people who declared Stack a “true American hero.”
2. A growing number of Indiana residents are following the beliefs of the “Tenther” movement (which claims the Constitution endows states and citizens with sovereign rights) to their logical extreme. These nutcases are declaring themselves “sovereign citizens” who are thereby exempt from all federal law, and, naturally, from paying taxes. They also claim that their homes are embassies, and have created identification papers that describe them as “diplomats.” One such “sovereign citizen,” Jonathan Dilley, is in federal prison for 4 years after he paid off $800,000 of debt by making his own currency.
3. A well-known religious right group, the American Family Association, has let it be known that the tragic death of trainer Dawn Brancheau, killed recently by a killer whale at SeaWorld in Orlando, could have been avoided if the marine animal park had only obeyed the Bible. No, I’m not making this up. The AFA says Brancheau would still be alive “If the counsel of the Judeo-Christian tradition had been followed” — specifically, owners of a Vancouver theme park, where the same whale killed a trainer in 1991, should have followed rules laid out in Exodus and stoned the whale to death at that time. Of course, following Exodus would have also meant stoning the whale’s owners to death, but hey, it’s in the Bible, so whadda-ya-gonna-do? The AFA is no small-potatoes group, either, as a number of GOP lawmakers and leaders kowtow to them regularly and take part in their radio shows and meetings. One of their big fans in Congress, in fact, is Sen. Jim “Hair Dye” DeMint of South Carolina.
4. And last but definitely not least, a far-right “Christian” group called “Repent Amarillo” has been terrorizing citizens of that Texas city. They see themselves as a type of militia, and refer to their group as “The Army of God,” although opponents have begun calling the group the Texas Taliban. They have publicly “outed” a local swingers’ group via harassment and illegal surveillance; they bullied a theater company into canceling a production of Bent, a play about persecution of gays by the Nazis; have tried to equate a nature preserve with solicitation for witchcraft; and declare they will go after environmentalists, Halloween, “spring break events,” and even breast cancer events that do not condemn abortion (?!).
All we’ll say at this point is thank God more sane groups and journalists are keeping an eye on these nuts.
This article appears in Mar 2-8, 2010.
All true, and still truly sick that the right wing psycho repubs are doing some of these things. It’s like mind control running 24/7 via dumbing down networks like Fox News. These fools really believe that crap! Sick, sad individuals.
The republicans are going to split Hell wide open. It’s almost like a bleeding cult being led around in the dark. Take a look at who these people are. You’ll quickly figure out what is going on. The Lord God will not keep standing by and letting them rape the world with lies.
Thankfully we have journalists watching out for all us ignorant people.
Fox News is nothing but lies and hate. Talk about ‘journalists’ with a personal agenda. NBC gets it right and isn’t afraid to call all the sick lies out that Fox News and the rublicans find themselves telling constantly. No wonder they hate the other networks. Do yourself a favor and save yourself from eternal damnation like Frank Griffin and the rest of the crazy right wing criminals.
People, please do not let Frank Griffin incite you with his rhetoric and gibberish. He responds like this to EVERY article, has been warned by the staff of Creative Loafing, and has been reported to authorities becauase of some of his abusive statements on here.
His goal is to bash everything written here. He is a hateful, sad, and pathetic human being with absolutely no life. He is here daily and does nothing but just what you see here. He hates gays, democrats, the President, the Mayor, minorities in general, and anything that may be contrary to the BS of the likes of Glenn Beck and Fox news.
He thinks everything is a debate and he is the winner. Sadly, people are stating the facts, don’t care to debate, and certainly don’t feel a loss towards this sad excuse for a man.
If you take the bait, he will go on and on and on, and will always try to get the last word, even if it’s a pathetic, childish one.