Was Sarah Palin's Use Of The Term "Blood Libel" Offensive

[DemocratSinceBirth]

[The Magistrate]

1. Needs A Line For 'Fuck Yes', Sir, But Yes Will Do For An Answer

[EFerrari]

13. Pat Buchanan approves, really!

joshtpm Josh Marshall
HE SHOULD KNOW! Pat Buchanan says Palin saying 'blood libel' was 'excellent'. http://tpm.ly/fxXniL

[The Magistrate]

16. He Would, Ma'am: After All, the Anti-Semite Is The New Jew....

[EFerrari]

38. It actually sounds just like him. I wonder if he wrote it or coached it.

Maybe her writers read this column for style.

http://buchanan.org/blog/poisonous-politics-4591

[TygrBright]

36. You beat me to it, Sir. That was my first response as well...

(meh, meant to be a reply to #1)

"Where's the 'F*** YES!' option?"

I was totally gobsmacked when I heard that came out of her vain, stupid, greedy mouth.

affirmatively,
Bright

[Amerigo Vespucci]

28. Magistrate! What that other DUer said yesterday...you DO "still got it" LOL!

Poor grammar aside, I think you know what I'm saying. Well played, sir...well played.

:toast:

:rofl:

[roguevalley]

29. Ditto, Magistrate. I love ya.

[prolesunited]

54. You crack me up sometimes

Glad to see you around.

[tularetom]

2. Sarah Palin is offensive to me period

She could recite the lyrics to "Imagine" and it would piss me off.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. LMAO!

I really am LOL to your comment! :rofl:

[coalition_unwilling]

33. ROTFLMAO - I'm with you - n/t

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Offensive and in poor taste!

Had Rep. Giffords been African-American, how many would place bets "blood libel" wouldn't have been used but something like "lynch mob" or some derivative would have been used?

[Dawgs]

4. Not offensive. STUPID!! n/t

[earth mom]

6. Where's the choice for: Do you find everything that comes out of Palins mouth offensive?

HELL YES! :grr:

[MarthaM]

7. Sarah Palin's use of the entire English language is offensive. n/t

[RandySF]

8. Delusions of grandeur. .

She equates her self-perceived persecution with the suffering Jews endured for thousands of years.

[ohheckyeah]

9. I find it offensive that I have

to share a gender with Palin.

[madokie]

10. Anything 'snowbilly' says is offensive to me

I'm borrowing snowbilly from one of my fav's here, Dain Bamaged. I hope he doesn't mind :hi:

[EV_Ares]

11. Obviously she lacks having any history knowledge to any extent as well

as she only seem to operate in a totally negative manner. She loses if the debate turns to an intellectual manner instead of the volatile diatribe it has been because that is the only way she knows.

[Mike 03]

12. Kick and Rec. This is a much more intelligent poll than mine--wish I had thought of this

question.

[Zephie]

14. Were Giffords not Jewish, then I don't think it would have been as big a deal

however seeing as the congresswoman is of the people who that exact bit of slander is aimed at, it is most certainly the wrong terminology to be using in this horrific time.

[gateley]

15. Had I been familiar with the term I probably would have been offended and

assumed Palin's speechwriter (or Palin, if she wanted it used) understood the history of it.

Since I was unfamiliar with it it I wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't received so much attention.

[guruoo]

17. "profoundly ironic" "a deep self-judgment" "affirming exactly what her critics charge"

Jan 12, 2011
Rabbi: By 'blood libel' claim Palin admits 'words can be deadly'

...

"It's not just inappropriate, it's profoundly ironic. By making this comparison and playing Jew in the picture, the person endangered by a blood libel, she admits that the words people use can have deadly impact. By claiming that others' words are a blood libel that endangers her, she's at least admitting the prospect that claims her words endangered others could be true. I'm not giving her a free pass. It was a poor and hurtful analogy. But clearly, she's affirming exactly what her critics charge"
(-Rabbi Brad Hirschfield)

"... at some level, unconsciously, she feels guilty in some way for what has happened. But this is so painful at an unconscious level that she has disassociated and lashed out accusing others of what is a deep self-judgment. This is sad, as she is not responsible at all for the shootings in Arizona. She is simply, along with all of us who have created her, responsible for the coarsening of our public culture at a time when we are facing historic challenges that cut to the very core of what America will be in the next period of history."(-Rabbi Irwin Kula)

More:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2011/01/sarah-palin-blood-libel-jews-giffords-killing/1

[guruoo]

18. oops. Dupe. nt

[jobycom]

19. yeah, but it's sort of like asking if a drop in the ocean is wet.

It is, but it hardly stands out more than the rest of the drops.

[csziggy]

20. Even before I read here what the phrase meant, I was offended

That Palin was trying to appear to be a victim rather than apologizing for agitating for violence. "Blood libel" sounded to me like an escalation of her rhetoric and claiming victim status.

Now that I know what it means I am completely flabbergasted that she would use it the way she did and appalled that she went there.

[beac]

21. Offensive AND ignorant, like all things Palin. n/t

[efhmc]

22. Looked up the term. I had never heard it

before and I am old. What a hideous choice of phrases. Bet she denies any "antisemitic" knowledge of the usage.

[damntexdem]

23. Yes, but almost everything Sarah says is offensive.

This one goes quite a bit further, however.

[Journeyman]

24. More amused than incensed. . .

To think, that such an intellectual lightweight aspires to the Presidency.

Even being generous, and assuming she didn't know the history of the term, for someone (anyone!) to use a term with which they are unfamiliar, and not make the effort to determine if they are using it correctly or even if it means what they intend, is quite hilarious to me. Especially when this person wants me to believe they're qualified to run some of my affairs.

And if she knew what it meant, and thought she'd get away with using such incendiary language in this day and age, well . . . I can only chuckle at stupidity of such monumental scale, and attribute it to deluded ravings of a true chucklehead.

So no. I wasn't offended by her use of a noxious term. It only served to better define her.

[efhmc]

25. Sounds like you are a nice person. She, on the other

hand, is such a lightweight stupid person that she causes evil.

[pettypace]

26. No one is more pro Israel than Palin

Jewish groups being up in arms about this tells me that even the tiniest of slights will be used as political fodder.

Sarah Palin, anti semetic? Oh, okay.

[Behind the Aegis]

30. Trying to "out Palin" Palin?

:eyes:

[DemocratSinceBirth]

40. What Does Israel Have To Do With Her Unfortunate Use Of Metaphors?

I don't think she's a Jew hater. I do think she's a cipher.

[Behind the Aegis]

41. I don't think you meant that question for me.

;)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

43. I Was Echoing What You Said.

What an idiot not to know her words would cause an uproar.

And it was a prepared speech and not an extemporaneous remark.

However I don't think she hates Jews. She's just an idiot.

[Behind the Aegis]

44. Gotcha.

I agree she is an idiot. She should fire her Klansman speech writer.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

45. I Don't Know Who Wrote The Speech

IMHO, the use of "blood libel" in this instance isn't anti-semitic. It's just totally inappropriate, insensitive, and just plain ignorant.

[Behind the Aegis]

59. You addressed the wrong person.

If not, your posts make no sense. I was not the one who invoked Israel, nor did I imply she was anti-Semitic or its use was anti-Semitic, I orginally said it was offensive and in poor taste. It is "pettypace" that thinks it is the Jews are making this a bigger issue than it needs to be.

[pettypace]

51. your response proves my point

[Behind the Aegis]

58. No, it proves your post is ignorant and conflates Jews with Israel.

[coalition_unwilling]

34. Palin's religious world view foresees that during the 'End Times,'

only 144,000 Jews will be saved. Just what do you think is going to happen to the rest of the Jews? Hint: they are not going to be reincarnated as Buudha.

Palin is overtly pro-Israel, but covertly anti-semitic.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

39. Nobody Said She's A Jew Hater, Just An Insentitive Clod

~

[pettypace]

53. So Jewish groups are ticked because she' s insensitive?

No one is arguing '5 colleges in 6 years' Sarah isn't the sharpest tool, it's the response that needs examining.

I'm 32 years old and read tons of history, and I've never heard of blood libel.

What percentage of the population recognizes the implication of that phrase? 10, 5 percent.

I mean how long has it been since that phrase has been relevant? decades, centures?

Geeeeeeeeez Louisse

[TheKentuckian]

48. Whatever, she's a TeaPubliKlan. They LOVE to hate Jews and weirdly be pro-Israel

Surely we aren't going to pretend this isn't another bizarre but prevalent idiosyncrasies among Reich wingers. I've know them by the ton that despise, ridicule, disparage, and curse Jewish people that will absofuckinloutely go berserk if one were to suggest holding back a weapons system to Israel.

I can't really explain it but it simply "is".

More than likely most of the anti-semites you've crossed paths with have been Reich wingers. There are some on the left, of course, but none of them hold the competing rabid support of the Jewish State.

Now, keep in mind that I'm not accusing fuckwit of being anti-semitic but rather that folks of her strip often hold such seemingly competing and exclusionary beliefs.

What ever rational notions a TeaPubliKlan scrapes out of life certainly do not translate in any observable way to their politics. Much of their ideology and apparent beliefs are either failed, absurd, illegal and morally repugnant, or like this a living oxymoron.

In any event, I can't get past her vain, martyr, diva, attack dog, and whatever else complex that would lead to such a choice of words enough to digest if she is one of the many TeaPubliKlans that falls in with that particular idiocy or not.

It doesn't matter her intent or content because if she opens her mouth or logs on to facebook or twitter something stupid, evil, and/or incomprehensible flies out.

[Motown_Johnny]

52. Her faith believes that all Jews go to Hell, and that you need Israel for the 2nd coming

It is possible to want Israel to thrive, so they can rebuild their temple, and still consider Jewish persons to be inferior

[Mike 03]

27. Kick and Rec.

[JoePhilly]

31. Every thing she says is offensive.

[Initech]

32. I find Sarah Palin offensive, period.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

35. Up until this last statement I did not believe she had taken any real damage

with her followers. The misuse of the term Blood Libel may do some.

[EFerrari]

37. Her followers expect and approve of this dog whistle, imo. nt

[Ter]

49. I think it'll make her more popular with some

Many of her followers like her, but think she's an Israel firster.

[defendandprotect]

42. I'd like to hear some explanations of those 14 "No" votes .... really ...

[quaker bill]

46. I voted no

because I have already reached the offense saturation point with Ms. Palin. Hearing more stupidity and insensitivity from that direction has become the norm. Very little she could say would shock and offend me anymore than the fact that anyone listens to her at all. People apparently still do listen to her and that fact alone conjures up all the offenedness I can manage.

[PBS Poll-435]

47. Yes. Not for the anti-semitic angle,

But for the very fact that it was a thinly-veiled "Not my Fault" speech hidden inside a "Let's All Come Together" speech.


Sure, she will never win an election again, but she still raises money from idiots for idiots.

[tallahasseedem]

50. I voted yes...

but only because fuck yes wasn't an option.

[Iris]

55. Offensive in its stupidity as well as just plain offensive.

[etherealtruth]

56. I must admit ... I was not aware of this term

if one is speaking to a public audience .... you probably should make sure you are not using terms/ phrases that are offensive (whether unwittingly or not)... it's Palin ....so, who knows what her intention (or her speech writer's) intentions were ... regardless, now knowing the meaning, I think its offensive.

[bluestate10]

57. Palin, when faced with a big moment, showed that she could become even smaller. nt.

[Swamp Rat]

60. Not unlike Mel Gibson, we now know Sarah Palin hates Jews,

and that she smokes dried moose dung.

[backscatter712]

61. Yes for two reasons.

One for being insensitive to Jewish people.

And two because her entire argument is total bullshit - asking for civil political discourse is not "blood libel".