Ta Ta Jesse Helms

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Motorboat Cruiser

Sometimes, the only way you can avoid saying something unkind about someone is to say nothing at all. I'm sorry for his family's loss and I'll leave it at that.

Thank you for this post.

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Helms was a racist, homophobic a$s. What is one supposed to say after someone dreadful like this dies? Oh, he was just a good 'ol boy, it was just his way. Oy.

Originally Posted by Tref

What is it about the death of assh*le that brings out the philosopher in us? The man was a sh*t. Helms made no attempt to repent or feel sorry for his words and deeds. I have no pity for this man. I am glad he is gone. I think its funny that a few here feel the need to shame others into feeling bad for expressing relief at the man's death. KB -- I don't tell you how to feel, so you certainly do not need to tell me how I should feel.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

His family doesn't read the LoT. He was a public figure, deserving of all the scorn the world may want to heap upon him.

I can understand the notion that grave dancing is unseemly. If you feel that way, don't do it yourself. But learn the lesson of the unfortunate Helms, and leave others to do and be as they please, and not as YOU would have it.

Originally Posted by Boss Radio

While cancer is no laughing matter, it does shed some light on Ted Kennedy's abnormally large head...which, unlike his brothers, has proven to be remarkably less than bullet-worthy.

As for grave dancing...Jesse Helms deserves a Coachella-sized Lord of the Dance revival while the earth is still fresh.

Originally Posted by NirvanaMan

He was a POS and the world is a better place without him. Now if Teddy will just die too we can all breath a tiny sigh of relief.

It's a shame I don't believe in hell, 'cuz I love the idea of those two d-bags arguing over how to destroy the country quicker while being butt-raped by Saddam and Satan.

Y'all should join the Westboro Baptist Church. You have very similar belief systems.

[innerSpaceman]

Sorry, I don't get the reference.

[Boss Radio]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

He was a public figure, deserving of all the scorn the world may want to heap upon him.

I can understand the notion that grave dancing is unseemly. If you feel that way, don't do it yourself. But learn the lesson of the unfortunate Helms, and leave others to do and be as they please, and not as YOU would have it.

(I tried to Mojo you, but it wouldn't let me.)

You are absolutely right. Grave dancing aside, the lesson must be learned, else those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

Y'all should join the Westboro Baptist Church. You have very similar belief systems.

The only way to belong to that church is to be in Fred Phelps' family.

I see no merit in defending someone who is a racist and a homophobe. The man opposed federal funding for AIDS research in the 80's. While my friends were dying, he was avidly and rabidly attacking them.

Here are some winning quotes:

"I've been portrayed as a caveman by some. That's not true. I'm a conservative progressive, and that means I think all men are equal, be they slants, beaners, or n*ggers."
- Jesse Helms, North Carolina Progressive, February 6, 1985, quoted from the Democratic Alliance.

"There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy."
(States News Service, 5/17/88)

"I've never heard once in this chamber anybody say to the homosexuals, 'stop what you're doing.' If they would stop what they're doing there would not be one additional case of AIDS in the United State."

"To rob the Negro of his reputation of thinking through a problem in his own fashion is about the same as trying to pretend that he doesn't have a natural instinct for rhythm and for singing and dancing."

"The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men's rights."

"Homosexuals are weak, morally sick wretches."

- 1995 radio broadcast

"She's a damn lesbian. I am not going to put a lesbian in a position like that. If you want to call me a bigot, fine."
- Explaining why he was opposing the appointment of a woman for a cabinet post.

"They should ask their parents if it would be all right for their son or daughter to marry a Negro."
- In response to Duke University students holding a vigil after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, 1968

"We've got to have some common sense about a disease transmitted by people deliberately engaged in unnatural acts."
- Arguing for reduced AIDS funding, The New York Times, 1985

"These people are intellectually dishonest in just about everything they do or say,".... He added, "They start by pretending that it is just another form of love. It's sickening."
- From Variety

Oh, yes. Let's defend him.
F*ck Jesse Helms.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Sorry, I don't get the reference.

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

The only way to belong to that church is to be in Fred Phelps' family.

I see no merit in defending someone who is a racist and a homophobe. The man opposed federal funding for AIDS research in the 80's. While my friends were dying, he was avidly and rabidly attacking them.

Here are some winning quotes:
Oh, yes. Let's defend him.
F*ck Jesse Helms.

The is a huge difference between not defending someone and his actions vs. celebrating a death.

Those who are celebrating JH's death are exercising the same rights as the Westboro Baptist Church exercise with their inane protests of homosexuals. I find it to be quite the ironic comparison.

Jesse Helms's actions in life were aberrant. That, IMO, does not make it okay to celebrate a person's death.

[Disneyphile]

I just don't see celebrating less hatred in the world as a bad thing, sorry.

There is a difference between Phelps and people who applaud the death of a racist and homophobic bigot.

The targets of Helms' hatred aren't going to protest at his funeral.

[Gemini Cricket]

Isn't irony a kick in the pants? I would like to be spared the 'you should know better than that' speech and the 'in with hate out with love' crap. I'm ticked. I'll be ticked with tap shoes, thank you.

I dislike this whole notion that someone is untouchable after they are dead. The man left a hateful legacy behind him. I don't think people should forget that legacy.

And for the record, I find Phelps laughable. He strengthens the gay community's point, by displaying it in a big way in the media, that some churches are despicable.

Sorry, KB, I'm glad he's dead. If that makes me a small man, then sign me up for a Baby Gap credit card.

[JWBear]

Sorry Kevy, I have to agree with everyone else. While I'm not celebrating his death, I am glad he is finally gone.

I find the comparison to Fred Phelps and his clan to be rather insulting. Relief at the death of someone who, by his actions and words, proved himself to be truly evil does not make one evil in return. Should people not have been happy when Hitler died? (And no I did not just invoke Godwin's Law. It's a legitimate question.) By your logic, they shouldn't have.

[Gemini Cricket]

I met a transgendered activist at Harvard. When I asked her if she gets mad at these idiot lawmakers, she said something like this to me:
"Their children's children will know how hateful they were. Their children's children will know they lied to forward a horrible agenda."
That statement is so freakin' profound to me. Why?
ie.
Jesse Helms has a gay granddaugher, Jennifer Knox.
Rabid racist Strom Thurmond fathered a child with a black teenage maid.
Yeah irony is fascinating, isn't it?

[Boss Radio]

We kept Helms in fancy shoes and hookers for thirty years on OUR DIME. I do believe that buys us - all of us - some "Glad you're gone" bonus miles.

I cite Freedom of speech and all that. If he got to repeatedly say in the hallowed halls of congress that "negroes and gays" were subhuman while we paid his expense account (since the 70s!), then I think the least the guy owes us is an all-black, all-male graveside revival of Lambada: The Forbidden Dance, with an encore of Yankee Doodle Dandy, for patriotism's sake.

And that's me holding back.

As far as values go, I don't think anyone on this board is capable of 1 iota of the hate that filled that not-quite-human politician's heart every day of his worthless life.

There are good guys and bad guys. It's ok to feel good when a bad guy dies.

Dance away, GC. I'm right there with you.