Obama has become target of sick minds (barf alert)

The Chicago Sun-Times ^ | April 2, 2008 | Andrew Greeley

[cdga5for4]

When Chicagoans who know Sen. Obama read the columns about him turned out by the national punditocracy, we tend to gasp and shake our heads in bemusement. He has become an ink blot for sick minds, very clever sick minds. Call up realclearpolitics.com and see what I mean. My favorite recent outbursts of hate come from Thomas Sowell, an African-American conservative economist, and from Naomi Schaefer Riley, the "assistant taste editor" of the Wall Street Journal (which title may be an oxymoron). Both write about Obama's connection with the Trinity United Church of Christ.

[cdga5for4]

I assume this is the infamous Catholic priest.

[rockinqsranch]

Andrew Greeley

Speaking of “sick minds”.

[ClearCase_guy]

Obama wants to kill children and offer them up as sacrifices to his god. Greeley’s on board with that.

[Oldexpat]

Evidently, more people than just Osbama really believe what Rev. Wright was preaching. This Wright has not existed in a vacuum..thousands of people have heard and cheered his message and they reside in Chicago. I guess they drink the Kool Aid and agree with the message.

[MrB]

Rev Emanuel Cleaver, KC Mo, now a congressman, stated this week that rev Wright’s speeches reflect what the whole of the black community believes.

So it’s not just “thousands in Chicago”.

[Dan Evans]

The people, including the young ones, are the best dressed and best groomed congregants I have ever seen, and they emerge from the most elegant collection of cars displayed in Sunday morning Chicago. ... This is not Rev. Jess territory nor do the congregants look like radical white-haters.

I had no idea you could tell someone's politics by the way they dress or what kind of car they drive.

[ottbmare]

I assume this is the infamous Catholic priest.

You should put "priest" in quotes. He is no more a priest than my horse is.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Many of Wright's defenders and talking head show guests are making claims of "it's but just several snippets from a long and uncontroversial career." They want to look passed the snafu. But look back upon a recent incident...

A very famous television actor (same #1 show for 9 years), was in a nightclub delivering his stand up act. For two dizzying minutes, he spewed vile invective upon a black member of the audience. Blacks were riled. Executives were riled. And Michael Richards hasn't worked. But he too had a sparkling career without incident but for one "mistake" he might still be marketable.

I dare say the sainted Obammy and the nearly-reverend Wright agree with Michael Richard's fate.

[MEGoody]

Recently they put the entire sermon from which Rev. Wright's incendiary remarks were excerpted online to show that they were drawn out of context

Andy Greeley has also taken Sowell's comments out of context. Andy thinks what Jerry Wright spews is not hate, but what Thomas Sowell wrote is hate.

Me thinks Andy is a lunatic.

[Tax-chick]

Argh, my brain, my brain!

Isn’t Greeley dead YET?!? What is it with all the zombies these days?

[cdga5for4]

The pastor at the famous Fourth Presbyterian church on Michigan Ave. in Chicago, John Buchanan, strongly defended Wright’s comments from the pulpit on Sunday. My sister-and-law and her husband were absolutely fuming.

[Tax-chick]

Were they in the congregation at 4th Presbyterian? Are they going to continue attending?

[cdga5for4]

They were in the congregation. They were shocked. I haven’t talked to them since their initial outrage so I can’t answer their question. I can’t believe they were alone.

[ClearCase_guy]

I hope you can gently remind them that staying in a church where a pastor preaches hate is exactly what Obama did. Decent people pick up and move on when the pastor goes in that direction. We all make our choices — the Bible tells us that humans often make bad choices, but we are called upon to try to do the right thing.

[Tax-chick]

Well, best wishes to them. I honestly don’t know whether my pastor has said anything about this issue. We go to the Spanish service, and he doesn’t speak Spanish, so he writes his sermon (brief, and directly related to the Scriptures for the day) in English. Then the Hispanic Ministry director translates into Spanish and gives it back. If he’s feeling well (he’s over 70 and has Parkinson’s Disease), he reads it in Spanish (more or less), and if he’s too tired, he reads it in English and we hand out pages with the Spanish text.

It’s cumbersome, but it does eliminate off-topic commentary!

[RepublitarianRoger2]

Hmm, so let's take a look at this, shall we?

When Chicagoans who know Sen. Obama read the columns about him turned out by the national punditocracy, we tend to gasp and shake our heads in bemusement.

Do you REALLY know him, sir? Or have you just been smooth-talked like the rest?

He has become an ink blot for sick minds, very clever sick minds. Call up realclearpolitics.com and see what I mean. My favorite recent outbursts of hate come from Thomas Sowell, an African-American conservative economist,

Uh huh. Thomas Sowell, whom you made a point of labeling as an African-American conservative economist and not just an American conservative economist, is a person with a sick mind and is a messenger of hate. Riiiiight. You are simply using the old tactic of turning the same accusation back on the accusers. Well, it doesn't work. There is NO parallel to be drawn between the likes of Rev. Wright and Thomas Sowell. And it is very typical for a person with a clever, sick mind to perceive that all of his enemies are the ones with sick minds. Witness Fidel Castro or Ahmanutjob.

Neither expert, I daresay, ever drove by the church on 95th Street on Sunday morning. The people, including the young ones, are the best dressed and best groomed congregants I have ever seen, and they emerge from the most elegant collection of cars displayed in Sunday morning Chicago.

And what does this have to do with anything? As I recall, Hitler was also a pretty well-dressed fellow. And if you want to see a really elegant collection of cars, check out those owned by the leaders of Saudi Arabia. You'll be floored.

Also, Thomas Sowell is very well-dressed and I'm sure he drives a nice car. Yet you accuse him of being a sick mind who spews hate. Which shoots your argument all to hell. Make up your mind.

nor do the congregants look like radical white-haters.

Looks can be deceiving, sir.

Recently they put the entire sermon from which Rev. Wright's incendiary remarks were excerpted online to show that they were drawn out of context, as were most of the other clips. Someone assembled the YouTube show to do the maximum possible damage.

There is no possible context that would ever make statements like those look normal and justifiable. None. In what possible context could you place a statement such as "AIDS was a plan created by white CIA operatives for the purpose of killing black people" that would ever, ever make that statement look anything other than completely nuts?

It would appear, however, from the most recent Wall Street Journal poll, the senator has recovered from the scandal, but he still lags badly in Pennsylvania.

You rely on a single poll for your information? From what I can tell, Obama was mortally wounded.

Anyone who knows anything about Obama's activity as a community organizer in Chicago, even before he joined Trinity knows his style was always one of bringing people together in consensus. For someone with legitimate claims to scholarship, Sowell is curiously innocent of regard for facts.

Uh huh. And what does this have to do with his 20+ years of attending Trinity church? The fact remains that he attended that church for 20 years, sir. His community work in the '80s might have been laudable, but is largely irrelevant.

Apparently the healing of conflict is not a religious theme.

Huh?? Exactly how is Rev. Wright healing conflict? For crying out loud, he is FOMENTING conflict!

Sowell is unaware of the facts of the senator's coming to political maturity, which is bad enough.

No, Sowell is aware of the facts of the senator's coming to political maturity, and realizes that these facts are largely irrelevant to the issue at hand.

Riley claims the gift of scrutatio cordium, reading human motivation and smelling out hypocrisy. She is both more clever and nastier than Sowell. If you are a taste editor at the Journal, you don't have to explain how you know that another human person is guilty of hypocrisy.

So in effect you are making a sweeping statement that he Wall Street Journal is tasteless, eh? That, in itself, disqualifies you as a serious commentator.

Note that both are political conservatives, but their criticism is aimed not any specific position but at Sen. Obama personally. They simply can't stand him.

Note that you are a stupid liberal who can't grasp the fact that your criticism is not aimed at any specific position but at Sowell and Riley personally, and that style your criticism is a LOT nastier and more emotion-based than either Sowell's or Riley's criticisms.

Neither columnist is capable of delivering a precinct, no matter how skillful their fiction. However, their venom indicates that both are offended by this attractive, charismatic and intelligent young man. The last American politician who was the subject of such animus was JFK.

Oh, please. There have been plenty of Republicans who fit your description who've been smeared, slandered and defamed by the likes of you over the last 30 years.

You fail.

[Ouderkirk]

For the moment we can give Rev. Wright the benefit of the doubt. Hovever, with that benefit comes a responsibility for results. What exactly has Rev. Wright ever done to make the “racial divide” become smaller? What has he ever done in his career to lift up the black congregants of his church? What exactly has the Rev. Wright done to advace the principles espoused by Christ.

The comments were indeed taken out of context and that may not be an accurate reflection of the man. However, an examination of his deeds and the product of his works ARE fair game for scrutiny.

His works do reflect the man and I dare say that the Rev. Wright has been a dismal failure in is works as a minister, and as a Christian.

He is little more than a race hustler cloaked as a man of the cloth to deflect the scrutiny of his words and deeds.

Jesse Jackson
Al Sharpton
Jeremiah Wright

Race hustlers all

[cinives]

Why didn’t they get up in the middle of the garbage and walk out ?

[RepublitarianRoger2]

Argh, I got a little dyslexic there with what was supposed to say, “and that your criticism style is a LOT nastier and more emotion-based than either Sowell’s or Riley’s criticisms.”

[Bigg Red]

Good point.

I hope you don’t mind that I lifted your thought in an email to this jerk Greeley in which I said the following:

I just read your comentary in the Chicago Sun Times in which you allege that Senator Obama is being attacked by sick minds.

Well, Senator Obama, like his fellow Democrats, believes in abortion, whereby little babies can be killed in the womb as a sacrifice to their evil god. So, now who is it that has a sick mind?