I only first heard about the chef Paula Deen about a month ago when Mika Brzezinski told how unhealthy her recipes are. Shortly thereafter Deen and her brother were sued by a (white) woman, Lisa Jackson, who had managed their restaurant over how they treat their employees. Somehow, Deen’s behavior regarding Blacks in her deposition dominated the news for awhile. She lost her TV show and some sponsors over this. Some people have a lot of sympathy for her,* but not me. She wanted to become a celebrity and then it turns out she couldn’t handle it. She is a public relations disaster.
Some say that Deen's "slips of the tongue or actions" were long ago, but Lisa Jackson says the N-word has nothing to do with the law suit.** Ms. Charles, Deen's cook of 22 yrs, also tells a different story:*** “I’m not trying to portray that she is a bad person,” she said. “I’m just trying to put my story out there that she didn’t treat me fairly and I was her soul sister.”** The columnist Robert M. Levy* shows his sympathy for Paula Deen by using an analogy from "Back To The Future" where George McFly was bullied by his acquaintance Biff, "Biff used George to do Biff’s homework. He then shoved George out of the way when he had served Biff’s purpose." Mr. Levy uses Paula Deen to be George and Biff being the "elite clique." It seems more likely that Deen's cook was George and Paula was the elite clique.
Well as far as I am concerned Deen can cry all the way to the bank. Last year her reported earnings were about 8 times more in one year than I earned in a 35 yr paid career, and most people would say I have had a good life. Deen's recent recipe book became a best seller at least partly because of her notoriety. I'm sure Paula Deen will come out of this all right. With so many TV stations, I'm sure she can find one willing to handle her show, if that is what she wants, and, if nothing else, she can put one on the internet. As for the law suit against Paula Deen and her brother, I am happy to let the courts decide.
But Deen is not the sole purpose of Mr. Levy's article. He goes on to say, "For instance, Paula went to (Jessie) Jackson to ask forgiveness for her use of a racial slur decades earlier, or about the same time Jackson was referring to New York in an anti-Semitic rant as “Hymie Town [1984].” Yet Jackson was noncommittal about forgiving her." Mr. Levy then follows this comment up with "When liberal actor Alec Baldwin ranted against a reporter in homophobic terms so vile [2013] that it was eclipsed only by a tape recording in which he called his child a “pig,” there was not even a ripple of anger by the credit card company he endorsed." And Mr. Levy is hardly alone on this point. See the article by Patrick Strudwick in The Guardian.com.*
Mr. Levy's real point, I believe, is that Paula Deen said some bad things about Blacks and paid a heavy price whereas Jessie Jackson and Alec Baldwin said at least as offensive things about Jew's and gays and have paid no price. I sympathize with Mr. Levy on this point. I have long admired Jews for their ability to motivate their children into careers such as law and medicine and to become prominent in other fields such as science and the arts. Let us hope that anti-Semitic statements like those of Jessie Jackson are a thing long in the past in this country, but they still seem to lurk just below the surface in some (many?) people. Enlightened views on homosexuals, who have also contributed greatly to this country, are more recent, but slurs in 2013 are certainly just as regrettable.
* http://www.thepilot.com/opinion/article_36645ac0-eaf8-11e2-a7d0-001a4bcf6878.html http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/28/hollywood-alec-baldwin-gay-slur?guni=Article:in%20body%20link
** http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/paula-deens-accuser-breaks-silence-578605 "Jackson, a former manager at Deen’s restaurants in Savannah, Ga., has accused the TV chef and her brother of committing multiple acts of violence, discrimination and racism that resulted in the end of her five-year employment with them. Deen’s lawyer has called the allegations false."
*** http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/opinion/the-soul-sisters-in-the-kitchen.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20130730
Showing posts with label homosexuals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homosexuals. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
WHAT IS GOD TRYING TO TELL US?
I have previously written on The Theology of Natural Disasters (http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2010/05/theology-of-natural-hazards.html). There are those in the evangelical movement who have their own theology and believe that God is trying to tell us something through various natural and man-made disasters. Usually what these people say God is trying to tell us has nothing to do with the disaster. Billy Graham's daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, said that 9/11 occurred because we don't allow God in our schools, government, business and marketplace.* Prominent among those who link disasters to God's message is Pat Robertson, for example, who felt that the Haiti earthquake happened because of their revolt against the French under Napolian.** And somehow Pat Robertson also linked Katrina to the abortion issue.*** John Hagee, on the other hand, linked Katrina to God’s anger over a proposed homosexual parade in New Orleans.****
And that brings us to Michelle Bachmann, a candidate for the Republican nomination for President, on why Hurricane Irene occurred, that it was a warning to Washington to cure the budget deficit.***** I have wondered if she could keep herself under control for the entire nomination period. You better believe that her handlers told her to go back out there and say she was joking. This follows her previous gaff when she signed a document that contained a passage indicating that Black children were better off during slavery. Bachmann said she had not read the entire document. Later the offensive passage was removed.***** Let’s give her a pass on this one, but expect more in coming months. And I sometimes wonder if late on a clear moonlit night, Rick Perry, the evangelical governor of Texas and another candidate for Republican nomination for president, just might wonder if the drought and wildfires in Texas, unbroken by an official three days of prayer, that God is telling him that anthropogenic global warning is real? Naw, it is probably due to Texas having the highest percentage of adults in the nation without health insurance - 27.8%.******
Supporting Information on the above:
Anne Graham Lotz:
"I say God is also angry when he sees something like this. I would say also for several years now Americans in a sense have shaken their fist at God and said, God, we want you out of our schools, our government, our business, we want you out of our marketplace. And God, who is a gentleman, has just quietly backed out of our national and political life, our public life. Removing his hand of blessing and protection. "*
Pat Robertson said:
“[S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. Napoleon the Third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you get us free from the prince.” True story. And so the devil said, “OK, it’s a deal.” They kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free.
But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle, on the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island.”**
John Hagee
“Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.” “New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God,” Hagee said, because “there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came.”
Machele Backman
"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the
politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to
start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people
are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to
rein in the spending.”*****
The Family Leader
The Family Leader, an Iowa-based conservative activist group, removed a sentence Saturday from the introduction of their “Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family” that said: "Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.” *****
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/
07/family-leader-under-fire-over-slavery-comment-in-marriage-defense-pledge/
* http://www.prayerfoundation.org/billy_grahams_daughter.htm
Note: Hmm. I thought the message of 9/11 was that we need to strengthen our defenses against terrorism.
** http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/01/13/77141/robertson-haiti/
Note: The sad thing was that things were just looking up for Haiti. They were beginning to get some industry. The French ruined the crop land growing sugar so agriculture is difficult there. But I agree that Haiti is a very sad country.
***http://mediamatters.org/research/200509130004
**** http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2008/04/23/22152/hagee-katrina-mccain/
Note: The people most affected by Katrina were the working poor, not the indigent, say, who lived on the top of a hill. I don't know that the working poor have a more sinful lifestyle than any other group, but their problem, of course, was that they were living in a coastal area below sea level. I'm surprised God would make these people suffer because of abortion or a proposed homosexual march. I think maybe what we were being told was to build higher and stronger levees if we are going to have people live below sea level.
***** http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/29/news/la-pn-bachmann-hurricane-god-20110829
Note: Bachmann got her law degree at Pat Robertson University.
****** http://www.e-wisdom.com/news/insurance/more-than-a-quarter-of-texans-do-not-have-health-insurance-110230036/
And that brings us to Michelle Bachmann, a candidate for the Republican nomination for President, on why Hurricane Irene occurred, that it was a warning to Washington to cure the budget deficit.***** I have wondered if she could keep herself under control for the entire nomination period. You better believe that her handlers told her to go back out there and say she was joking. This follows her previous gaff when she signed a document that contained a passage indicating that Black children were better off during slavery. Bachmann said she had not read the entire document. Later the offensive passage was removed.***** Let’s give her a pass on this one, but expect more in coming months. And I sometimes wonder if late on a clear moonlit night, Rick Perry, the evangelical governor of Texas and another candidate for Republican nomination for president, just might wonder if the drought and wildfires in Texas, unbroken by an official three days of prayer, that God is telling him that anthropogenic global warning is real? Naw, it is probably due to Texas having the highest percentage of adults in the nation without health insurance - 27.8%.******
Supporting Information on the above:
Anne Graham Lotz:
"I say God is also angry when he sees something like this. I would say also for several years now Americans in a sense have shaken their fist at God and said, God, we want you out of our schools, our government, our business, we want you out of our marketplace. And God, who is a gentleman, has just quietly backed out of our national and political life, our public life. Removing his hand of blessing and protection. "*
Pat Robertson said:
“[S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. Napoleon the Third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you get us free from the prince.” True story. And so the devil said, “OK, it’s a deal.” They kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free.
But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle, on the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island.”**
John Hagee
“Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.” “New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God,” Hagee said, because “there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came.”
Machele Backman
"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the
politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to
start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people
are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to
rein in the spending.”*****
The Family Leader
The Family Leader, an Iowa-based conservative activist group, removed a sentence Saturday from the introduction of their “Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family” that said: "Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.” *****
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/
07/family-leader-under-fire-over-slavery-comment-in-marriage-defense-pledge/
* http://www.prayerfoundation.org/billy_grahams_daughter.htm
Note: Hmm. I thought the message of 9/11 was that we need to strengthen our defenses against terrorism.
** http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/01/13/77141/robertson-haiti/
Note: The sad thing was that things were just looking up for Haiti. They were beginning to get some industry. The French ruined the crop land growing sugar so agriculture is difficult there. But I agree that Haiti is a very sad country.
***http://mediamatters.org/research/200509130004
**** http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2008/04/23/22152/hagee-katrina-mccain/
Note: The people most affected by Katrina were the working poor, not the indigent, say, who lived on the top of a hill. I don't know that the working poor have a more sinful lifestyle than any other group, but their problem, of course, was that they were living in a coastal area below sea level. I'm surprised God would make these people suffer because of abortion or a proposed homosexual march. I think maybe what we were being told was to build higher and stronger levees if we are going to have people live below sea level.
***** http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/29/news/la-pn-bachmann-hurricane-god-20110829
(http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/
07/family-leader-under-fire-over-slavery-comment-in-marriage-defense-pledge/).
Note: Bachmann got her law degree at Pat Robertson University.
****** http://www.e-wisdom.com/news/insurance/more-than-a-quarter-of-texans-do-not-have-health-insurance-110230036/
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