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Thursday, July 2, 2009 12:00 AM

The still-growing NPR "torture" controversy

The media outlet's use of Bush euphemisms sparks a much-needed debate on journalistic standards.

The letters thread is now closed.

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Friday, July 3, 2009 01:36 PM

LondonLad - You must be joking!

You see no British white people had black slaves like so many white Americans did.

Surely you didn't mean to write this.

Friday, July 3, 2009 01:52 PM

-- The Reality Kid

Surely you didn't mean to write this.

Why not? It's no more whacked out than most of the horseshit he posts here.

Hell, he even thinks Obama came from Africa. Directly, no less.

Next thing you know, we'll be reading about how invisible pixies planted C-4 in the WTC and the Pentagon just prior to 9-11 and that there are 4 fully loaded Boeing 767s hidden in Area51.

Friday, July 3, 2009 01:55 PM

Jebbie

Lets just have a quick look and see how dumb assed self appointed censor in chief actually is when he says that I making a racist remark calling Obama Barry The African. (by the way dip stick where do you suppose the name "Obama" comes from?

Anyway Ann a Caucasian marries an African. They have a child. Racially the child is half African, half Caucasian.

Can anyone see the word "American" yet? Of course not. And you know why? Because being an American is a statement of ones NATIONALITY but not a statement of ones RACE.

Nationality is an abstract man made conceit it is NOT a race.

But so consumed is he with his rageful idiocy Jebbie doesn't notice the error he made when making the following statement.

Obama is an American, not an African.

So sodden with Imperial grandeur is the pratt that he thinks nationality, if any way it is an American nationality, both trumps and extinguishes some ones racial make up. As with believing the towers "fell" he believes what he THINKS has more reality than actual reality.

He will of course be completely oblivious to the totalitarian implications of his thinking and one can only hope for the fascism to arrive all the faster to give him the kick up the arse he so richly deserves.

OBAMA unless one was to spell it O'Bama and make it Irish it sure looks like an African name to me and is a name as would befit someone who is at least half, and looks fully, African.

You got a problem with a half African with a full African name as your president Jebbie?

Friday, July 3, 2009 02:15 PM

Reality Kid

You see no British white people had black slaves like so many white Americans did.

Surely you didn't mean to write this.

Well of course I meant to write it. In Britain, British people never had African slaves. Not because we are good but because we are old. We already had enough of our own to work the land in our small island even before we discovered Africa. So we never needed the labour. In true hypocritical style a few major British firms made fortunes shipping slaves to the large new land of America. But here in Britain no Blacks ever had slave status.

Friday, July 3, 2009 02:25 PM

Re: "British people never had African slaves."

http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/slave_free.htm

Most plantation owners lived in Britain. They brought their household slaves back with them from trips to the Americas, and used them to perform domestic duties in Britain.

The celebrated Somerset ruling of 1772 [...] had a profound effect on slaves. Many of them misunderstood the ruling to mean that slaves were emancipated in Britain. This was not the case. The decision was that no slave could be forcibly removed from Britain and sold into slavery.

Despite Lord Mansfield's ruling, slave owners continued recapturing their runaway slaves and shipping them back to the colonies. Numerous newspaper advertisements of the time show that Black slaves were still being bought and sold in England. A few years later, in 1785, Mansfield himself ruled that 'black slaves in Britain were not entitled to be paid for their labour' (free Black people were, however, paid).

The legal status of African slaves in Britain and its colonies remained unclear until the early 19th century. In 1807, with the passing of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, the slave trade became illegal; and 21 years later almost all Black men, women and children held in bondage in the British empire were granted their freedom.

http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/slave_free.htm

Friday, July 3, 2009 02:30 PM

Jebbie

Hell, he even thinks Obama came from Africa. Directly, no less.

An Obama from Africa travelled DIRECTLY to the American State of Hawaii where he had sex with and got pregnant an American woman who gave birth to a Black boy not only called Barack after his Black African father but also of course was called Obama after his farther.

Sounds pretty direct to me.

Friday, July 3, 2009 02:40 PM

--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ6wupB-5Fs

Friday, July 3, 2009 02:45 PM

London Lad

I'm being antagonistic towards certain pious twat whiteys just have fun watching them fall for what they think is racism but isn't.

I noted that as one of the reasons:

--or even, perhaps some antagonism towards the idea that there is a social penalty for saying whatever you want about race, no matter if it is offensive to some.

It makes no difference to me. Trying to sound like a racist to offend white people that you have, in your infinite wisdom, categorized as sanctimonious sounds to me exactly the same as the other kind of racism you claim to reject. You don't like the fact that the backlash against four hundred years of murderous racism has made certain ways of thinking and speech taboo--well boo-fucking-hoo. This is the tiniest viola in the world playing for the world's oppressed white minority.

Friday, July 3, 2009 02:47 PM

+

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvWMLAWrEjU&NR=1

Friday, July 3, 2009 02:52 PM

-- LondonLad

So according to you, the term 'African' denotes the race of someone and therefore Obama is an African, right? Is that what you are saying?

Here's a clue sport, the term African does not indicate the race of anyone.

Of course, if you're correct, anyone born in South Africa is racially an African. Ditto Zimbabwe.

Well, I gotta tell ya, sport, I have some real good friends from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) who are as white as fresh snow and if you were to say they are the same race as, let's say, Robert Mugabe they would think you were crazy (just as I do).

Friday, July 3, 2009 03:01 PM

-- LondonLad

An Obama from Africa travelled DIRECTLY to the American State of Hawaii where he had sex with and got pregnant an American woman who gave birth to a Black boy not only called Barack after his Black African father but also of course was called Obama after his farther.

Sounds pretty direct to me.

Do I see the word "An" as the first word in your first paragraph? Is there some reason for that other than you are attempting to justify your idiocy using verbal slight of hand?

We're talking acout a specific Obama, Sport, not "an" Obama.

Damn, you can't even crawfish with any dexterity. You got caught with your pants down, Sport, and the best thing to do when that happens, is pull them up before you start to run.

Perhaps you should go back to explaining gravity to us.

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