Penn Jillette says he's glad Tenn. lost Miss USA

Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier ^ | June 21, 2011

[xjcsa]

Magician and Miss USA judge Penn Jillette says he's happy a pageant queen from Tennessee lost to Miss California USA Alyssa Campanella because her onstage answer to a question about burning Qurans ran afoul of the First Amendment.

[snip]

Durham responded to a question about whether burning religious items should be afforded the same constitutional protections as flag burning by saying it crossed a line and shouldn't be allowed.

[andyk]

What an absolutely ridiculous question for a beauty pageant.

[Ken H]

'Who do you prefer, Ginger or Mary Ann?'

[RobRoy]

I have not had TV since 1997. However, a friend gave me a copy of the Penn and teller Bullsh** show on recycling. I’m now hooked, thanks to Youtube. The Peta episode is amazing as well. I also stopped recycling and used to be anal about it. I still throw the aluminum cans in the right bin at work, but that’s about it.

I see Penn as my agnostic twin. His worldview is incredibly full of Christian wisdom, but without the Christianity. I get the feeling the guy may just turn around some day.

[Vendome]

Ler that be a lesson to ya girly.

You are in a personality contest and the didn’t like your answer.

consider his explanation and ponder it.

One to grow on.

[Vendome]

IBL

I’d hit it on the way to 1st!

[Vendome]

Nope.

Her answe falls under my “Lets see if you are interesting enough to talk to more than 5 minutes”.

Fail

I’d probably give her a 2nd chance after a couple of drinks.

[boop]

Penn & Teller are more than agnostic, they are vehemently anti-religion. To each his own. I agree with them on most things, though. I especially liked the Bull$hit episode on smoking. Neither of them smoke, but adamantly defend the rights of businesses to set their own policies.

[Jim Scott]

Lets be serious. Who watches a beauty pageant to see what weighty answers the attractive, college-age competitors give to loaded questions with political overtones? Please. I admit that I haven’t watched one of these things in years. After awhile, the contestants all seem to blend together. Frankly, I don’t care what Miss Tennessee thinks about burning the Koran. These questions should be mostly superfluous and when they get ‘political’, it puts the young women in a tight spot. From his previous rantings, I suspect that Penn Jillette is about as anti-religion as you can get. His use of his highly developed respect for the First Amendment to criticize a young lady for her forthright response to a no-win question is petty and smacks of bullying. Where do they get these judges?

[calex59]

BS, she stated her opinion, HE says she is violating the first amendment(which a private citizen can’t do, BTW)and implies that she has NO first amendment rights and shouldn’t speak her mind. If you can’t see that, I am sorry for you.

[SeaHawkFan]

Extensive airbrushing is not the same as a real photograph.

[Fledermaus]

I’m confused. Penn is an atheist and the only other people I’ve read in the news, and attacked by the liberal media, that say burning the Koran is a right are supposedly crazy Christian preachers that he hates.

[Fledermaus]

I liked the show, but their total over the top hatred of religion turns me off.

As supposed “libertarians” isn’t the creed liberty and freedom and the right to believe as you will? He attacks this young hot twit, educated by idiot libs, on 1st amendment grounds but trashes and attacks anyone else using the amendment to practice their religion as they see fit.

That, in my opinion, makes him and Teller hypocrites.

I’m not a religious person and don’t care for organized churches. My beliefs are my own. I don’t attack others for theirs as Penn and Teller do.

[supremedoctrine]

Not having TV for the past fourteen years-—don’t worry, you haven’t missed much-—the only show worth watching for the past several years has been MAD MEN, set in an early (and now mid-) 1960s NY Ad agency. That, and a terrific show hosted by Chas. Osgood called SUNDAY MORNING, which is on of course on Sunday mornings, on CBS (I think).

[Vendome]

I am sorry for you too.

We live in the same state.

[Navy Patriot]

To be fair, the question was asked in a somewhat convoluted way and Ms. Tennessee does not come across as the brightest apple in the barrel. I think she ignored the “constitutionality”

I agree completely. I also stipulate that it was the only question asked of the young ladies that proscribed a "feelings" answer including the "legalize pot?" question.

Because her answer was from the heart, and motivated by patriotism and civility, it was fine by me.

I would have preferred her to turn the PC question on the judge as such:

Answering, "To ensure free POLITICAL speech, the Constitution allows Flag, Bible and Quran burning, all of which are provocative activities and shouldn't be engaged in, unless absolutely necessary to expose an oficially sanctioned bias of political tolerance in government or the media against, for example, Christians or,...(tiny pause) Seikhs, don't you think?"

Let the leftie PC judges worm out of that one, and it's a one sentence answer.

[RobRoy]

We get exposed to TV from time to time as we visit friends, etc. We actually own two tv series on dvd. One I discovered after being exposed to the movie based on it and the other my wife discovered from “hulu”.

They are Firefly and Reba. We both really like both of them.