President gets tepid welcome on GOP turf -- Immigration policies vigorously opposed

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 4/25/6 | Carla Marinucci

[nathanbedford]

I have often in this exchange been astonished at your utter disregard for the meaning of words. You seem to think that you can string them in series without regard to what people will think when they read them. Here is the latest example which proves what a time waste it is to try to reason with you.

At 6:10:51 you posted this:

I did not call for you to refrain from posting on this or any thread. Not once.

Had you forgotten that on 2:18:27 you had posted thus (first quoting NathanR and then in the second paragraph noting your approval of what you had quoted):

I think that anyone with your name should stay out of immigration threads, and threads that the KKK might have a position on.

Thank you, NathanR. Yours is a very well-stated encapsulation of the point I was making.

Had you forgotten? Did you think we would forget? Madam, I am done with you. You are either a liar or afflicted. In either case I have no more time for you.

[The Iguana]

Once again, the fact that the founder of the KKK is a hero of yours is something you choose to advertise about yourself.

In fairness, I think you might do well to do some more research into Nathan Bedford Forrest's postwar history.

You might be surprised.

[Wolfstar]

Had you forgotten? Did you think we would forget?

Of course not! I agreed with the overall point (which you clearly understand) is that your participation in such discussions while using the name and image of the founder of the KKK is inflamatory.

I'm delighted you finally resorted to attacking me on a personal level, because it reinforces -- for me, at least -- the idea that you probably have more in common with your hero than you may wish to let on.

Now I am done with you.

[Wolfstar]

In fairness, I think you might do well to do some more research into Nathan Bedford Forrest's postwar history.

I commented earlier about this point, but let me try to restate:

There are many parts to every human being, including historical figures. Benedict Arnold was a genuinely great general. Ted Bundy was a charming, exceptionally intelligent man. Adolf Hitler loved dogs and was a fair architectural artist. John Wilkes Booth was one of the top actors of his day, celebrated and admired until April 1865.

You get the point, I hope. Whatever good the dark figures in history may have done in some parts of their lives, their hideous deeds forever mark them and their memory. Whatever good they may have done cannot outweigh the enormity of the bad.

If someone were to sign onto this or any forum using both the name and likeness of Hitler, Arnold, Booth, Stalin, Bundy, or any other such historical figure, that person would not be well thought of by most others on the forum. In my eyes, at least, Nathan Bedford Forrest is in that group of historical figures.

Countless times, people here on FR have skewered Sen. Robert Byrd because he was a member of the KKK? Yet here we have someone who apparently reveres the founder of the KKK, but presumably because he's on "our" side of the political divide, we're supposed to turn a blind eye to the screen name and NBF image posted over and over again.

[muawiyah]

Uhhh, historic correction. Forrest was merely the first Grand Kleagle or whatever they called it ~ HE DID NOT FOUND THE KLAN.

He got sucked in ~ it wasn't his idea.

[abigailsmybaby]

JFC, 2008 can't come fast enough.

[Wolfstar]

Uhhh, historic correction. Forrest was merely the first Grand Kleagle or whatever they called it ~ HE DID NOT FOUND THE KLAN.

The Klan was founded in Polaski, Tennessee, in 1866 by six Confederate officers. One of them was Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Imperial Wizard of the KKK.

[muawiyah]

You are disputing the historic record. Forrest did not originate the idea. Even if he attended the first meeting, it simply wasn't his idea. He never claimed to have originated it. Another man is always identified as the originator.

[muawiyah]

This is kind of like getting closer and closer and closer to the Schwarzschild radius. Before you ever arrive at the singularity, time will have slowed to such a crawl that an outside observer would see that you were near, but not "at".

[Wolfstar]

Even if he attended the first meeting, it simply wasn't his idea. He never claimed to have originated it. Another man is always identified as the originator.

A distinction without any substantive difference. So he's one of the six founding members and the first leader of the KKK. Sheesh!

Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto, but Lenin, Stalin, Hitler and Mao were the ones who used the ideas to butcher millions. So Marx gets a pass, is that it? Unbelieveable.

Forrest was a butcher, the ugliest sort of racist, a liar who denied his involvement with the Klan before Congress, and a 19th century terrorist. Admire him if you want, but stop trying to convince me that he's pure as the driven snow.