Posted on 04/16/2003 5:46:09 PM PDT by FreeTheHostages
'Human Shields' Protect Reporters from Pacifist Actor
By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Congressional Bureau Chief
April 16, 2003
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - "We're here to protect you," members of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Free Republic told reporters gathered to cover an anti-war speech by self-proclaimed pacifist and actor Tim Robbins.
"We're here to demonstrate against Tim Robbins and act as human shields for reporters in case they ask a question that Tim Robbins doesn't like and he threatens to harm them like he did Lloyd Grove of the Washington Post ," said Kristinn Taylor, co-leader of the group.
Grove wrote about Robbins' "life-partner," Susan Sarandon or, more accurately, about the fact that Sarandon's 79-year-old mother, Lenora Tomalin, is a die-hard conservative Republican who supports the war in Iraq and President Bush. During the interview, Tomalin volunteered that she believed Sarandon and Robbins had "politically brainwashed" their son, Jack Henry.
That did not sit well with Robbins.
"My 13-year-old boy, who has done nothing to anybody, has been embarrassed and humiliated by a sadistic creep who writes, or rather, scratches, his column with his fingers in the dirt," Robbins said Tuesday.
Grove reported on March 25 that he had a post-Tomalin encounter with Robbins, at a party following the Academy Awards.
"As for Robbins, we said hello to him in a crush of partygoers that included his life partner, Susan Sarandon," wrote Grove, who refers to himself in the plural in his column.
After a brief but apparently pleasant conversation, Robbins apparently recognized Grove as the author of the Tomalin report.
"You wanted to be divisive and you caused trouble in my family," Grove quoted Robbins as saying. "If you ever write about my family again, I will [expletive deleted] find you and [expletive deleted] hurt you."
Robbins did not deny the threat when asked about it Tuesday at the National Press Club.
"I'd rather not talk about the specifics of it," he said. "When someone introduces something nasty you try to just not talk about it anymore."
The actor-activist attempted to portray Grove's quoting of Sarandon's mother as an attack on his son.
"I personally think that we should lay off the children," he said. "It's not their choice that their parents are saying what they are saying. They shouldn't be vilified in the press. It's just nasty, it's not nice."
D.C. Free Republic's Taylor noted that the comment involved Sarandon's mother giving a negative assessment of the couple's parenting, not Grove "vilifying" Robbins' son.
Taylor told CNSNews.com that his group hoped their services as human shields for reporters would not be seriously needed. But they wanted to point out, "the hypocrisy of the Hollywood elite who are on the one hand demonstrating for peace yet they have a lot of violence in their hearts, as evidenced by Tim Robbins."
Robbins' complaints about an alleged backlash against those who opposed the war also seemed hypocritical to Taylor.
"People like Susan Sarandon were supporters of and participants in the 'Stop Dr. Laura' campaign to get Dr. Laura's [Schlessinger] TV show taken off the air when Paramount was syndicating it," Taylor said. "Fair play for all?"
Given the opportunity to deliver a message to Robbins, Taylor joked that he would say simply, "Please don't hit me."
Several questions were submitted by reporters to the host of the event, who read heavily edited versions of the questions to Robbins. The actor responded to each of the edited questions verbally, without any actual or threatened physical violence.
Please don't throw me in that thar briar patch...
It's been interesting to watch your growth over the years, Kristinn. You've really reached your stride as a conservative activist, not to detract from Angelwood and the other DC commandos.
The Robbins standard punch also known as "The French method"
1. Put back of hand on shoulder (palm facing sky)
2.curl fingers at tips without making a fist
3. Raise and turn elbow approx.90 degrees to your right while twisting torso slightly to your right as well
5. Tilt head back and stick out your chest
6. Move your chest towards your opponent with your "fist" following second. Keep legs perfectly straight and feet still.
7. All in one motion, swing elbow left extend arm and flip wrist downwards while jutting out your chin saying nyah like your angry
What's the use of having the worlds strongest military if you won't use it to help mankind and stop human suffering?
You would rather let our enemies fester untill they are powerfull enough to destroy America?
Bush has ended decades of oppresion and tyrrany, something Clinton never even came close to doing.
You know, the Soviet union tried to close it's doors to the rest of the world, and that worked real well for them, didn't it?
In 1993, terrorists bombed the World Trade Center. Their aim was to knock one tower into the other, bringing them both down. They mixed chemicals into the bomb that they believed would produce cyanide gas, so that rescuers and survivors of the initial blast would choke and suffocate. Had things gone according to plan for them, 50,000 casualties would have been the minimum we could expect.
In 2001, terrorists again targeted the towers. This time they succeeded. Again, had things gone according to plan, they might have killed as many as 50,000 people. Remember that on the evening of the attack Rudy Giuliani said that there might be as many as 20,000 dead, and he knew as much at that moment as anybody did about how wonderfully the FDNY had done their job.
So that's the bottom line. In the last ten years, terrorists twice tried to kill 50,000 of us in one day, but for some reason you believe that dealing with this problem is not a proper national security interest. If you really want to argue that we should not pre-empt those who would kill thousands of us, or that we have no right to deal with those who kill Americans if the victims happen to be outside our borders at the time, feel free. It will only help the Darwin Award committee give you your deserved prize with due speed. However, you have no grounds for your charges of hypocrisy against those of us who support the war against Jihadistan, so please refrain from making them in the future. We don't believe the Constitution is a suicide pact. You do. The fact that you think that makes you a better American than the rest of us is infinitely pathetic.
He certainly would. See post 126, I think you'll like it.
If that was an attempt at wit, fire your joke writer.
If I have inferred feelings and thoughts you don't have (which is unlikely) I did no worse than you did when you decided that the FR community enjoys making people dead when a Republican is in office and turns into Kumbaya pacifists when a Democrat is in office. Why does FR need introspection when we have Greybird?
You have spouted slanderous accusations and proposed we ignore a movement whose adherents have twice tried to kill 50,000 Americans in one day. I propose you either get extroverted and defend your negligence-as-foreign-policy views, or get introverted and shut up.
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