Posted on 04/29/2014 6:30:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
A private recording of racist remarks by the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling, in a telephone conversation was released last week. Among other comments, Sterling said to his former mistress, a black Mexican woman known as V. Stiviano:
"It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to? ... You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that ... and not to bring them to my games. I'm just saying, in your lousy f---ing Instagrams, you don't have to have yourself with, walking with black people. ... Don't put him [Magic] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don't bring him to my games."
That these comments are racist and therefore contemptible goes without saying. But the incident raises other issues that are not as clear as the racism in Sterling's comments, yet they are at least as important.
One is the increasing release -- and acceptability -- of private recordings and videos. Take the video released last month of a married congressman engaged in a passionate kiss with a married member of his staff. This was a security surveillance video. Isn't the only reason for the very existence of surveillance cameras to catch criminals? Why didn't the release of such a video shock the media and the country?
I have consistently defended these ubiquitous video cameras against those who argue that they violate our privacy. I am convinced that they are indispensable to apprehending violent criminals, as they were in the case of the Boston Marathon terrorists. But, I have repeatedly added, if these cameras are ever used for personal or political reasons to ruin people's lives or careers, the perpetrators of the release must be punished severely, including prison terms. And if this abuse becomes widespread, the cameras must be taken down.
The fact that whoever released the surveillance video of the congressman has not been apprehended is a threat to us all. Yet this aspect of the incident has not even been discussed. All we heard was gloating over catching a conservative congressman in an act of infidelity.
Similarly, recordings of private speech must also remain private unless they pose a danger to others. When the media report private conversations that pose no threat of violence, they encourage more and more people to record and release private conversations. That, far more than the NSA trolling of billions of phone calls in order to identify terrorists, poses a real threat to privacy. Where are the civil liberties groups and libertarians on this issue?
Now, the second issue: How important to the public are the private remarks of public individuals? On July 18, 2000, I wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal titled: "Hillary Isn't an Anti-Semite."
It was a response to a book titled "State of a Union" by Jerry Oppenheimer, in which the author claimed that Clinton had called the Jewish manager of husband Bill's failed 1974 Congressional campaign, a "Jew bastard."
"I wish to defend Hillary Clinton," I wrote, "against the charge of anti-Semitism. I do so as a practicing Jew and a Republican. ... We must cease this moral idiocy of judging and labeling people by stray private comments. As David McCullough's biography of Harry Truman revealed, one of the most courageous friends American Jews and blacks ever had in the White House frequently used 'kike' and 'nigger' in private. He even wrote them down: In a letter home from New York, Mr. Truman described the city as 'kiketown.' Was this unfortunate? Yes. Important? No. Defining of the man? Absolutely not.
"I am repulsed by the loose talk about Mrs. Clinton's long-ago utterance. If that renders her an anti-Semite, then virtually every Gentile is anti-Semitic and almost every Jew is an anti-Gentile bigot.
"It is highly misleading to probe private comments for evidence of anti-Semitism, racism, bigotry and sexism. The present trend emanates largely from a lethal combination -- the totalitarian temptation inherent in contemporary liberalism and the media's sensationalism."
It may well matter to God what people say in private. But what should matter to us is what people say in public and how people act -- whether in private or public.
Now, as it happens, Sterling does seem to have behaved in a racist manner in the past. And these actions do matter in assessing Donald Sterling. It is worth noting, however, that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People apparently felt that all the previous charges of racist conduct meant nothing. It was scheduled to award Sterling a lifetime achievement award at its upcoming Los Angeles gala in two weeks.
Yes, the private remarks attributed to Sterling are racist and awful. But the growing acceptance of leaks of people's private non-criminal behaviors and comments -- and the consequent judgment of these people -- will ultimately injure society far more than who owns the Los Angeles Clippers.
That’s what I would be thinking. If I were wealthy, and she was being cute and coy with me, I would say “NO THANKS.”
I think this goes to how shallow Sterling’s little girl friend is. She should be out there spitting bullets defending him. Naw, she has something else in mind.
Sure she does!!!
“$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$”
I’d like to see his lawyers go after her for illegal wiretapping though. It IS a crime.
What about all of the media who played an illegal tape? What about the NBA commisionar handing down a decision based on an illegal tape?
If she released the conversations without his permission, and if the NBA has used those conversations to ban him and fine him, perhaps he can file a huge lawsuit against the NBA for using illegally obtained conversations to punish him. Maybe a sympathetic jury would find for his case, and award him several billion.
“...Maybe a sympathetic jury would find for his case,...”
Good luck finding that.
He’s an evil white “ray-cist”. Worse than a murderer, worse than a child molester.
But in all seriousness, he should be lawyering up and fighting back with his considerable $$$$.
Brilliant reply.
Well said.
I could not agree more.
You forgot Haiti, Compton, Jamaica, Belize, Biloxi, Newark, Oakland, Killadelphia, Somalia, Brixton, Johannesburg...
I could not list every locale where toxic governance is in control. Besides we are all supposed to pretend. There are several psychological defense mechanisms and all have some value except for the one called “denial.” Denial is what one engages in when one is stuck on the railroad track and the train is going 100 M.P.H. and is only 100 feet away. I think you get my meaning.
I pasted "Oprah complained about black people being in her home" into a search box, but got no good matches. Can you enlighten me about that complaint?
I’ll say this in public...is Sterling a total moron? She’s not even that good looking. She must really perform!!
Roots was produced by white liberal elites....
“He’s a registered Republican they say “So what?” is what I say to that.”
But he’s only donated to RATS.
“Hypocrites, all.”
That should be the slogan for the RAT Party.
“I got gasoline, if they need it...”
Now you’re talkin’!
He may cover for her on the CA recording law because he doesnt want her talking to the press and in court about it.
Maybe because she has lots of dirt on him, and she’s a double minority.
Note no talk of it and no one exposing her identity.
Levin was going off about it being a secret recording of a private conversation but he never once mentioned that CA law, nore FNC nor of course MSNBC.
If Obama was illegally taped saying something inflammatory about the U.S., would the same people be saying it was a private conversation?
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.
Luke 18:9-14
9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
AMEN!
This just in:
NFL to require audio (and possibly video) recording of ALL conversations in LOCKER ROOMS.
News at 11.
Or insert MUSLIM.
It's still permited to rag on THEM!
We've ALWAYS been at war with EastAsia.
https://www.google.com/search?q=japanese+war+propaganda+posters&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7ADRA_enUS475&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=9d9gU7CFDabS2QXxqYCQBw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=548
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