Michael Medved Plays To The Lowest Denominator. Again.
By Nicole Belle Thursday May 15, 2008 3:30pm
Did someone declare this National Flaming Racist Idiot week, and I just didn't notice until now? You have got to read Michael Medved's latest foray into pseudoscience: he has declared American superiority to be genetic, encoded in our good old American DNA. Because our ancestors were immigrants, who were risk-takers, who were selected for their energy and aggressiveness. Oh, except for those who are descended from slaves.
The idea of a distinctive, unifying, risk-taking American DNA might also help to explain our most persistent and painful racial divide - between the progeny of every immigrant nationality that chose to come here, and the one significant group that exercised no choice in making their journey to the U.S. Nothing in the horrific ordeal of African slaves, seized from their homes against their will, reflected a genetic predisposition to risk-taking, or any sort of self-selection based on personality traits.
But, he hastens to add, modern African-American genetics have been leavened with the genes of recent, self-selected immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa, so their unfortunate stay-at-home genes have a "less decisive influence".
Okay, I realize that being a conservative pundit means never having to say anything factual, but how can anyone be so unafraid to show his utterly bigoted ignorance? Does any brave soul want to listen to his program and get a list of sponsors so we can ask them if this is the kind of idiocy that they want their businesses associated with?
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First!
Seriously? Whats this guy smoking ? I want some
Who is Michael Medved and why the f*ck should I care what that douchebag has to say?
Send ol' Mikey out to review Prince Caspian so he can gush about the Christian overtones in the narrative, then tell him to shut up.
PZ Myers and his commenters did a bang-up job mocking Medved's foolishness a couple of days ago.
Speaking of flaming idiots, Chris Bowers, the self-described "highly educated" "progressive" pundit, wrote an article entitled, "Wow, We Nominated The Black Guy" about a week ago.
Lowest common denominators are converging like greased lightening.
Oh crap, I just reposted the same link as Nicole B. Sorry.
Medved didn't grow that facial adornment under his nose to attract nesting cockroaches -------- but he should have. Then they could mate with the ones in his head and get better DNA.
Unbelievable... what a dangerous man.
Even for that sniveling Medved, this is mind-boggling. I can only laugh at such unbelievable boobery.
I suppose we can discount the vast numbers of immigrants that resulted from the emptying of prisons and the religious sects driven from their homes. Of course it might go a long way to explaining our propensity for genocide and brutality
Jared Diamond he ain't.
So the "huddled masses", that were obviously not the top of the heap, that emigrated had superior genes. So the ones fleeing religious and social persecution were the cream of the crop?
That is so stupid on so many levels.
"You can tell the pioneers by the arrows in their backs".
In the words of Carl Carlson, "What. A tool."
Wow! Is he related to O'reilly or Malkin?
Seeing as how Medved is the result of too much swimming on the shallow end of the gene pool, you would think that he would be an authority on the subject.
Sadly, all of his personal experience is for naught.
Oh … my … gawd. One hoped that this sort of melange of eugenics-prejudice-pseudoscientific bafflegab and sophistry had been so thoroughly discredited in the twentieth century that we would never see it again.
Another hope dashed.
American superiority to be genetic, encoded in our good old American DNA.
Wow, how Nazi-ish of him.
And of course, this "genetic superiority" doesn't apply to any Hispanic or, say, Arabic "risk-takers" who want to come to the USA *now*....
I guess Medved's genetic window is closed.
(And by the way, based solely on his surname, I'd wager that *his* relatives came here because of their let's-avoid-dying-in-the-pogrom "genes," rather than anything more noble.)
Yeah, by "risk takers" he also meant, "tired, poor, and huddled masses."
See, it's also not a problem that people are poor because that's ordained in their DNA as well.
I don't think this schmuck would earn a passing grade in biochemistry.
WHAT an ass-wipe.
Hopefully this will destroy media attention for this nut-case. He is clearly delusional.
*
Michael Medved: every bit as good a scientist as he is a film critic.
I am a high school history teacher, and I think Mr. Medved would do well to attend a few of my - or anyone else's - American history classes. He obviously lacks even the most cursory knowledge of the subject. Not to mention Introduction to Life Science, which we normally start teaching in grade 8.
More menacing, this comment of his is little more than the old discredited social Darwinist argument redressed in fancier and less gaudy fashion. And tipping one's hat to the "horrific" days of slavery before launching into one of these pseudo-scientific screeds is, at this point, a little like our Deep Southern habit of saying "bless your heart" before or after "slamming" someone. But even we down here - one hopes - abandoned these impoverished arguments decades ago. And as a southerner, especially, it makes me sick to hear such veiled slurs directed against my students, my friends, and my neighbors, any one of which is worth twenty Michael Medveds.
So spin away Michael! I await with bated okra and cornbread breath what will doubtless be the most weasley rhetoric since Watergate as you try to grease-pig your way out of THIS gaffe!
"It is better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it and remove all doubt." - Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), att. (para.)
Did someone declare this National Flaming Racist Idiot week, and I just didn’t notice until now?
Geez. I guess, since every week in the USA is 'National Flaming Racist Idiot Week.' Just more so for the doltish Medved.
Here's a news flash: Americans are not superior to anyone. Unless it's a contest to see who can be the fattest, dumbest, or sloppiest.
Fascist= Extreme nationalism+ racism= Medved
That's right America, keep stroking yourself while the rest of the world passes you by.
miss_kitty @ 23:
Medved. What a tool. Continuing the celebration of Flaming Idiot Week, Huckabee joked about some one shooting Obama while giving a speach to the NRA
Oh yeah, but what about those damned IRISH!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071230/
BTW, the grandfather of one of my best friends, Moshe Menuhin, one of the early anti-Zionists, once wrote “Jews should be Jews—not Nazis.” He was speaking of the Israeli oppression of Palestinians, but Medved should check his shit next time he goes to temple.
Wow, this is right out of old Soviet Lysenkoism. It doesn't surprise me that a neo-con would be so ignorant as to not see that connection. Hell, he probably wouldn't have a clue who Trofim Lysenko was. I could make another comparison to someone who believed in genetic superiority but I don't want to Godwin the thread so early.
Who exactly is his audience? Only those who agree with him would give him the time of day so I assume he is preaching to his own choir.
I'm guessing Jimmy the Greek was one of is heroes.
Hasn't Medved heard that "Social Darwinism" was discredited in the early part of the last century?
What's he gonna do next, read the bumps on our heads?
Isn't Medved a f*cking Creationist?
correction. I'm guessing Jimmy the Greek was one of his heroes.
Ranger Jay @ 28:
Or these guys.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/
Every week is flaming racist idiot week in the good ol' US of A. That's the beauty of the First Amendment. They are entitled to be flaming racist idiots. What is not entitled is the network platform from which to spew their flaming racist idiocy.
The danger that would result from taking their platform away is on display at
PNAC
What? The neo-cons website is suspended?!??!?!?!?
Rut O Rorge....
They're retreating to the underground bunker!
This can't be good...
Anyway, keep the loonies right up front. Let them skewer themselves with
their clever newspeak. Let them preach to their ever shrinking choir.
Let them think they still hold sway over thought and policy. When the time is right,
they'll either join the human race or leave it.
For now they act as great compasses. If you're uncertain which way we should go, just turn 180 degrees from their pointing fingers.
Michael Medved is the lowest common denominator.
Did something happen to the Bold on C&L or did C&L mess with the C&L themes/templates/CSS? Just asking. I don't see an open thread, I guess I could have hit F3 and search for one but hey...I'm here already.
FYI - Everything is looking text-y-ish (like a 1996 BBS kind of.) without any bold or highlight for the Subject titles and or links. Very hard to find what the headlines are from the text of the whole story. The SUB Categories on the left are spilling over across the vertical grey line. Only colors I see are Orange (left block), Blue (links), Black (text), and white (background.) The banners on the right, look okay. The logo at the top-left is okay. The Blue Crooks and Liars text-link at the top-left is invisible nearly. The Message headlines are the same size as the message content.
Peace, just wanted to get this out.
Tried Opera v9.25 and Firefox 3.05b. Both have similar problems.
Site Monitor: We're having some fairly serious server issues. It's not known if it's from an attack or not yet. We're working on it.
Isn't Medved an observant Jew and a staunch defender of Israel? Hasn't he made a career out of how important his religious/ethnic identity is to him? Now he wants to talk about genetics and race in a manner startlingly reminiscent of Nazi theories of eugenics.
He is also, I believe, associated with the intelligent design movement, yet he postulates this theory that's based on natural selection, which is part of classic evolutionary theory as proposed by Darwin and Wallace. One thinks that the intellectual limbo bar of conservatism cannot get any lower, only to be be surprised time and again. Medved's resume begs the question, "Is it really possible to ride the short bus to Yale?"
MEDVED's ratings must be dropping.
The fact is that most of the Europeans that emigrated to America or North And South America ( they did go to South America) were desparate and had no options. The ecomonies in their countries collapsed . There were risk takers but those risk takers also went to S. America ( they came from the same countries , but took a different boat) , Mexico and Canada.
Medved: "...and Australia the most genetically inferior! A bunch of lazy people who never risked leaving their country and a bunch of criminals who got caught. It's all in their genes!"
I think the only way we are going to be rid of fascist media and freaks like Savage (Weiner), Medved, O Reily, Rush is to clean out the FCC by controlling the Executive, by filling up their public file with complaints that they do not serve the public interest, and petitioning for NON renewal of their frequency and station licenses.
oh.
my.
god.
did these guys just regress back into the 1850s?
He forgot about the American Indians, the Chinese that were bought and then shipped here, the Irish that only came because they were starving, the Mayflower refugees that were driven out of England because of their religious beliefs, the Jewish people that fled Germany prior to WW2, the Cubanos that fled a repressive regime, and finally the Mexicans and South Americans that came here because staying home meant starving.
What a bunch of lazy MFers.
Then don't you also have to include all the people that stayed on the East Coast prior to the Westward Ho movement. I think all those people that stayed in their comfy New York slums were just more stupid and lazy people.
Snark.
By the way black white and blue for the them works pretty good. Although the LOGO and the banners are missing now. ;o)
Peace.
whoopsie, them = theme in #44
I'm happy to see this post from Medved for two reasons. First, it explains his Adolf/porn moustache a little better, and two, blatant racism is so much easier to call out than when it's subtly woven in. More, Medved!!!
This argument is only about 1 step removed from something I've heard Dennis Prager say many times. He says Jews are naturally more intelligent because rabbis, whom he just assumes are the most intelligent people in Jewish society, are encouraged to have many children while Priests and other religious leaders are not.
Therefore, over the centuries, non-Jews have bred themselves to be less intelligent, and Jews have bred themselves to be more intelligent.
Then he'll segue right into how evolution is a lie. Hmm.
Mr. Medved didn't have the balls to put his real name to his first book, cowritten with his brother. I really enjoyed "The Golden Turkey Awards",one of the first books I bought when I first came to this country in 1977.
Unfortunately the guy has really become a shit-for-brains in the past decade.
From the theme to 'American Dad':
"The sun in the sky has a smile on its face, and it's shining a salute to the American Race..."
As a resident of Hawai'i I have always been moved by the smooth interplay between the races here. The East is West of here and the West is East. The culture of South America mixes with the Pacific islanders, and the Asian's, and the Europeans, etc. It works here. Obama is a result of black and white genes, Christian and Muslim exposure. He is a product of the Hawai'ian cultural melange. I see little mention of this in the Us/Them arguments because Modern Hawai'ian culture is so little understood by those that have not lived it. Obama represents a more sane approach to life on this planet at this time, and it's where humanity is headed. The old media dinosaurs can wail a shreak all they want, but this climate change is coming (and I'm not talking about global warming).
All this lock-step marching to the mock-outrage at false issues called out by right-wing talk radio is killing the republican party. By forbidding critical thought, they shut off the oxygen of fresh ideas and lose the ability to respond to real issues like failed foreign policy, hurricanes, and mis-guided wars gone awry. They are literally dying of suffocation in a hot-house of manufactured anger. Good riddance.
All human beings alive today are the same species. Race is not a biological, but rather a social construct.
What you observe as cosmetic differences, the amount of dermal melanin, facial features etc are a minute portion of the genome.
Historical they have been taken to mean something, maybe a lot, but they mean very little.
There is far greater difference in the human genome (85%) in a local group than there is between what this person is attempting to identify as outmoded ‘racial’ groups, 3% to 8% within those groups and 6% to 10% between the groups.
You have as much difference in genetic makeup with your neighbor who looks just like you as you do with anyone in Kenya or Katmandu.
If fact, you may have more difference with your next door neighbor.
Here by R.C. Lewontin, Professor Emeritus of Zoology at Harvard University clears up confusion about 'race', this is an excerpt:
Over the last thirty five years a major change has taken place in our biological understanding of the concept of human “race,” largely as a consequence of an immense increase in our knowledge of human genetics. As a biological rather than a social construct, “race” has ceased to be seen as a fundamental reality characterizing the human species.…
Michael Medved needs to read some modern science before he opens his mouth on such an important issue.
AMEN!!!
Is he suddenly Medved The Greek?
Medved should have stuck to his (useless) herbal remedy business. That was more scientifically based than what he dribbles now. And it wasn't.
Parodee@40: I don't think Medved vacations in Australia. He'd want no part of a nation of convicts. He's so dumb, he probably thinks the "Mad Max" movies are documentaries.
Ooops, I was trying to quote Phil@ 41 with an AMEN (see #53), but I guess the "Quote this comment" feature isn't working.
Please delete #53. Kinda in the wrong context...
Isn't he contradicting himself here since he also proved that slavery wasn't so bad and in fact may have have been good for them?
Who is the elitist now, you ****ing ***hole.
And for his next trick he's going to re-introduce phrenology.
Sweet merciful flaming fuck on a trike! This ignorant pustule couldn't be more revolting, ignorant or contemptible if he tried!
Ok. So I suppose this conservative believes in evolution if he thinks there is such a thing as "naturally selected" American DNA. Doesn't that go against the creationist creed of so-called modern conservatives?
Then - after reading the log and several posts - I would very much like to know something. Were all slaves from Africa as seems to be suggested? Of the total number of human beings that ever did work at the hand of another, involuntarily with no freedom to choose their destiny, stolen to this country, in other words slaves: How many were from Europe, how many from Asia, and how many were from Africa?
Awesome! The site C&L looks great again!
MargeAggedon @ 59:
Two words describe this Medved moron for me... brain damaged...
What a load of pseudo eugenic, psuedo ethnocentric horseshit...
Just about one step removed from measuring noses and eyebrows to determine intellect.... Fuck him! Don't know where he's from but he'd fit right into Nazi Germany and it's master race hokum from back in the day.............JD
I ARE A SCIENCEMAN!!
Of all the racist crap they've been spewing this year, this one takes the prize. The whole premise is absurd on it's face, but even if it did have validity, it is entirely possible that people taken as slaves were those who left the safety of the village because they had a more adventurous spirit.
Americans (of all races) may have a penchant for adventure, but it has to do with 300 years of 'frontier spirit' mythology, not DNA.
i am a 60yr white male. i believe that racism is
one of the most horrific injustices in this country.
i also believe to help stop some of this problem that
everyone who fosters and commits acts of racism
especially against the Afro-American community
should be dyed permanently black for the rest of
their lives, so they can experience the injustices
they so espouse.
Michael's scientific cred:
Born in Philadelphia, raised in San Diego, Mr. Medved entered Yale as a sixteen-year-old undergraduate, graduating with honors as an American History major, then attended Yale Law School where his classmates included Bill and Hillary Clinton. After working as a screenwriter in Hollywood, he reviewed movies for CNN, and later as chief film critic for the New York Post. He also served for twelve years as co-host of Sneak Previews, the nationally televised weekly movie review show on PBS-TV. Medved continued his involvement in politics, becoming a friend of Ford's chief of staff, Dick Cheney, affiliating himself with the Republican Party, and campaigning for Ronald Reagan in 1980.
As we all can see, Michael is not a scientist of any sort, much less a social scientist. He also fails to distinguish between psychiatrists and geneticists, as he apparently is just looking for some cover for his own personal racist contentions and their related political positions.
Give Me Convenience @ 60:
Mikey's version of DNA would be a circle drawn in crayon wearing a little baseball cap [backwards of course] and have the stars and stripes tattooed on it's microscopic ass. Of course that's only the little 'boy' DNA's. The little 'girl' DNA's would be wearing farm girl braids and blue gingham dresses. Did he mention that when he uses the term "DNA" he means "Diminutive Nano Americans" ??
dadams @ 68:
If this means that Medved is going to be dipped in tar, than I stand ready to help.
Someone's been reading The Bell Curve again...
Conservatives accuse liberals of being racist, then they come out with bullshit like this. Projection is a scary thing.
Using this perverse "logic", the Nazis are the most genetically superior group of individuals on the planet.
Dude, he just said white Europeans have superior genes over African Americans. It couldn't be more clear. And if you read enough into it, that black people that came over on slave ships were losers without any sense of risk or adventure. What a fucking asshole.
Powkat @ 67:
I agree with this statement. That's some messed up shit Medved just said. Someone needs to punk this dude out.
Here is a list of his sponsors
Please, I BEG you, don't ever send me to that scary place ever again! It's a fantasyland, where all immigrants wore buckskin coming off the boat and immediately set up a mercantile stores - get that DNA a'rollin'!
As long as we ignore the thousands upon thousands of people forced to come here (after the slave and indentured servant years) out of poverty, criminal charges, desperation. Ask the Irish how anxious America was to utilize their DNA! And if the DNA of intrepid travelers was the valuable, desired kind, we really screwed the pooch wiping out the indigenous populations who actually MADE those treks, eh? Is it possible that the most adventurous, risk-taking Chinese people came over to work on the railroads or could they possibly have been the most desperate of souls?
Michael Medved, you suck. And you are living proof that there is NO "intelligent design."
Judging by the large number of American lard asses in SUVs who watch wrestling, NASCAR, and vote Republican, I'd say his genetic theory has some holes in it. And he's not a flaming racist, just a flamer.
Michael Medved is an idiot.
There's plenty of evidence to suggest that Africans and Asians explored and colonized the Americas prior to European exploration and colonization.
He could start by reading this.
Or this.
This sort of puts the lie to Medved's "genetically disposed to be lazy" theory, doesn't it?
BruceGardner @ 76:
At least two of those won't pull sponsorship: Gary Bauer's group and Hillsdale College. You probably know about Bauer. Hillsdale is about as right wing as Higher Education gets. Hillsdale takes no Federal money- no federal research grants or Pell grants- so their immune from a lot of civil-rights-related law. I have a cousin who went to school there, and know a few others, and they're big dittoheads and O'Reilly listeners.
How does he explain the fact that when his ancestors emigrated to America the average IQ in two countries went down?
He hasn't heard the quote " stay quiet and seem the fool by opening your mouth and prove it" He should stick to movie reviews but even there he sucked.
It's funny some americans think of America as that " shining tower on the hill" is that why the roads are failing and we're slipping into third world status We have become complacent and expecting things handed to us.
The "can do" thinking has gone on vacation
I sent this to Medved's website email:
Mr. Medved, you really should study just a little bit about the subject of evolutionary biology before setting forth your not even quarter-baked "theory" about American superiority because we have the genes of risk-takers. I believe you will find, with even the slightest investigation, that your idea is quite simply preposterous, scientifically, and all too reminiscent of the 'eugenics' pseudoscience of the early 20th century of which the Nazis were so enamored.
Of course, your suggestion is not really a theory at all, since it offers no practical means of scientific investigation and verification. What it actually is, of course, is incendiary political provocation. And, unfortunately, the conclusion that it is motivated by racism is hard to avoid.
I wish I could say this kind of intellectual sloppiness was atypical of you, but to all appearances the opposite is the case.
DS
We must protect our precious bodily fluids!!!
1st Republic 14th Star @ 79:
You go far enough back and all of us homo sapiens share the same genes. Not that your wrong, it's a good argument you present. But you could point out that the ancestors of non-Africans are, well, Africans who left their continent of birth....
BTW, 1421 is a good read because it szparks the imagination, but it's been disproved as highly speculative at best.
ken martin @ 82:
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."
This is one of the many versions of the quote I could find. It's attributed to multiple people including Mark Twain and Lincoln.
And you are absolutely correct, medved is the poster child for this sentiment.
wow.
seriously - wow. this guy is a loon.
Remember when he was just a crappy film critic?
oooo... what a marooon.
Yellow Elephant Safari @ 32:
Phrenology, now that was good stuff!
Maybe he can determine if any of his friends are Jewish by holding up placards to their profiles so he can measure their noses.
It's a sad commentary on our country when 19th century racist turds like this have an audience in the 21st.
Actually, following his logic - the current illegal immigrants (regardless of country of origin) are just as genetically superior... people who're willing to take crazy chances and toil under herculean weights just to provide a foothold, launching pad for their children.
Can't wait til someone smacks him in the face with that...
Though, the more I think about it... I find it amazing (amazingly brazen racism) that he would totally discount an entire group of people who suffered, yet managed to toil enough to build this freakin' nation and fuel it's economy...
what, would he have been happier if there were more slave rebellions? This man has got to go
CCR @ 59:
Too funny, I'd forgotten that...
Batocchio @ 88:
And we thought he couldn't get any worse... guess that proves the "always expect the unexpected axiom"
Hell, even Gallagher's become a right wing radio pundit ala Rush... who'da thunk?
This asshole really is as stupid as he looks...........as are all these rightwing blowhards, O'Leilly, Rush, Hannity, Coulter, Savage Weiner, Levin, Boortz, Ingraham, etc. etc. Its just a shame these turds are allowed to pollute the public airwaves with their rancid filth in the name of free speech. Of course, the bottom line is the big bucks they all earn. Sell your soul to the devil spreading lies and hate and you win the pot of gold.
Kevin @ 91:
True. They really should be running this country, don't you think?
In the good old days paranoid and schizophrenic people like Medved could find help in mental institutions where they would be given plenty of drugs to calm them down and keep them away from harming themselves and other people. Unfortunately this neo-conservative government has over the last seven years eradicated most of the money for mental patients and mental hospitals as they foresaw that all places would be immediately taken by their own people. There idiotic logic being that when there are no mental hospitals, there cannot be mentally sick patients.
As a former white South African, I've heard this argument before.
I was told as a child that "the blacks" shouldn't have the vote or equal treatment because they are inferior animals who don't have the genes for hard work and thought.
"They're stupid, lazy, and ignorant."
"If they are so smart, why didn't they take over South Africa and rule us?"
"Look at how they lazily work they in the mines, taking breaks to dance and sing like they still live in the bush, never aspiring to anything higher."
"If they work so hard, why did they still live in huts before we "civilized" them?"
And so, my people supported a state that marginalized and murdered them, all the while telling the whites that we had to keep the "muntz" down or they would rise up, kill us all, take over, and institute a communist regime.
Thankfully, history has shown that was all lies.
Too see Social Darwinism and racial fear mongering in this country makes me very angry.
David Studhalter @ 83:
Good job.
Republicans have a hard time getting people to listen to them. So they take matters in their own hands and just make up stuff. They then keep repeating this crap over and over til dumbasses think it is actually true.
Bottom Line: Republicans are liars and cannot be trusted.
Australia was settled by the English as a prison colony. Some fraction of Australians are descendants of those prisoners. Prior to the American Revolution, England shipped its prisoners to America. The English started shipping prisoners to Australia soon after the American Revolution because they needed a new place to send them. Some fraction of Americans are descendants of convicts shipped out of England. Does having some heritage of convicts mean that current-day Australians and Americans are good or bad or ugly? Please! Just say NO to republican-science!
Cantor de Mambo @ 96:
Think out the logical conclusion to
Okay, follow me here....Which people, of a relatively small gene pool have been *ahem*risk-takers*ahem*, in that they've moved all over the world? Here's a hint: the proof of their *ahem*risk-taking*ahem* gene is that they, as a people, have managed to break the bonds of slavery just to go a wanderin' some more.
Medved has a race problem -
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0801/13/rs.01.html
CNN RELIABLE SOURCES
January 13, 2008
KURTZ: But some black leaders in South Carolina and elsewhere, Michael Medved, have taken offense at Bill Clinton's comments as if he was talking about Barack Obama's civil rights record or his whole candidacy. And it seems that's very different from what Clinton said and what the press reported that he said.
MEDVED: Well, yes, but there is that element. I mean, when you say "fairy tale," the question is, which fairy tale you have in mind. Rachel mentions Camelot. I think it's more Cinderella, which is the idea that the clock strikes midnight, which who knows which primary that's going to be in, and then all of a sudden the coach turns into a pumpkin and the footmen turn back into mice, and Barack Obama goes back to the -- God forbid -- the kitchen. And in that context, "fairy tale" is probably the kind of loaded language that Republicans in particular would get slammed on given the fact that Obama himself is what he calls a hope monger.
MADDOW: I mean, I will say, there's something going on here, which is that, on the Democratic side, the two front-runners right now are an African-American man and a white woman. And we have never had that situation before in politics. And there's something going on with both the coverage of Obama and Clinton, which is pundits feel like, I feel, treat them in a way that is weirdly patronizing. Whether it's the metaphors, whether it's Chris Matthews actually reaching out and grabbing Hillary Clinton's cheek, whether -- I mean, even just today, while we have been discussing this, Michael, you described -- you used terms likes Barack Obama getting back in the kitchen or him being exotic.
I mean, there's stuff that is -- there's the language that is used, there are techniques that are used to describe and talk about these candidates that I think is -- looks uncomfortably like patronizing them. And it feels racist and gendered (ph) to me in a way that I think a lot of people, potential voters, react to.
MEDVED: Well, it seems to me that, first of all, I'm doing those phrases, obviously, in quotes to deal with the fact that people do recognize that this is a history-making campaign. Either way the Democrats vote, they're going to be making history, which is one of the reasons, it seems to me, that one of the problems in everything that we've been talking about is that if Democrats do what Republicans have done to Republicans' detriment, and start going back and arguing "about the past," who took this position on the war five years ago and three years ago, that's going to hurt them.
Andy K Jong Il @ 102:
Fixed
As stupid, ignorant, and fundamentally wrong as that was - the one larger thing I see some people here have picked up on is that his little diatribe follows the line of biological evolution. He's way, way off - but if he truly believes that (it's not like he's going to let a little thing like "truth" change his mind), then he obviously supports evolution, and I think it is our duty as intelligent citizens to call him on his show, follow him to his public and online appearances, incessantly praise his coming out in support of the theory of evolution and at the same time teach him how his views differ from the current theory that is accepted through empirical observation. I'm going to call him next show, I would encourage you to do it to, it's a fun way to help people AND screw with the religious right at the same time!
He's embracing eugenics, the racist pseudo-science which was once popular around the world before World War II. Many retarded people were sterilized. In the US, there were was the "nordic" movement which postulated that Whites from Northern Europe were genetically "fitter" than other groups. Even Eastern Europeans were viewed as "feeble-minded". And of course, this movement was a big influence on Nazi Germany. You know what they say about those who ignore the lessons of history..
It makes my head spin that a major commentator in this country would embrace such nonsense. The Republican war on science has gone off the deep end.
Otay @ 56:
Doh! That was Michael Weiner Savage. A different wingnut.
I guess the Irish don't count who were driven out of the British Isles. Same for the Jews. Or all the people in debtors' prison who were dumped in Maryland and the South.
But, oops, wasn't there something about the Pilgrims and religious freedom? What a clueless, barbarian dipstick pandering to the white trash.
Satire?
Conservatives need to read a fucking book.
God how I wish we could offer all these right-wing pundits a cruise, where we could promise (lie, of course) them they'd hang out with all the biggies--Rummy, Cheney, Reagan's corpse, etc. Then once all aboard, full steam ahead, up along Somalia to troll for a pirate attack or two. If they make it that far, off into the Gulf for a little brush with the Iranians...
If any got out alive, then maybe I'd listen to his show for a week.
Now, let's see. What other nation once tried to assert its own (imagined)genetic superiority?? Wait, wait, don't tell me. It'll come to me in a minute! I know it was some country in Europe - it's leader was a guy with this goofy little mustache - Adolph or something his name was. Damn! I know it'll come to me later.
Then W is the proof of his argument? Please.
Three things that we all, evolutionist & IDer alike, should do well to remember, especially when talking about our own species:
GENES MAKE PROTEINS, NOT BEHAVIOR.
BEHAVIOR IS A STATISTICAL PHENOMENA, IT HAS RANGE.
STATISTICAL CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION.
DNA encodes many things, including statistically significant tendencies for behavior, but not the behavior of all individuals of a species, especially those with advanced cerebral functions.
Human behaviors have little to do directly with genetics. Using the so-called Gay Gene as an example:
Not all carriers of the so-called Gay Gene exhibit sexual desire or behavior for members of their own gender.
Not all people who do exhibit sexual desire or behavior for members of their own gender are carriers of the gene.
There is a positive statistical correlation between gene carrier & described behavior.
Whether there is any causal element between gene & behavior is unclear.
There is no direct causal relationship as evidenced by the range of behaviors exhibited by those carrying & not carrying that specific gene.
Our evolution as the carrier of a powerful, adaptable & general purpose computer, the cerebellum biased brain, allows us a range of behavioral potential far beyond that of the more pre-programmed, instinctual, brains of other animals.
Is this moron completely ignorant of the Bantu migrations in Africa? Or the pioneering role of many African Americans, including the founder of the Washington Territories, George Washington Bush?
Someone more stupid & evil than Michael Medved & Ben Stein put together!
http://tarobb.blogspot.com/2008/04/trap-is-set.html
Medved is Sludge.
Most people know that by now. He's just digging himself a deeper, more comfy hole in his personal little cistern.
*
Someone more stupid & evil than Ben Stein & Michael Medved put together.
http://tarobb.blogspot.com/2008/04/trap-is-set.html
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is an evil Jewish trap to convince innocent Christians that race mixing is OK.
This is on an intellectual par with Cliff Clavin on Cheers insisting that men were naturally superior to women: "In fact, DNA stands for 'Dames are Not Aggressors.'"
Come to think of it, I think Cliff's smarter than Medved.
I should point out that what Mr. Medved is doing is exactly the kind of thing that happened during the Nazi movement.
Make enemies.
Weaken the economy.
Allow destruction of an important landmark or city.
Foster bigotry and ethnocentrism.
Replace news with propaganda.
Puppet politicians.
Create a large standing army.
Limit education.
Those are the things that happened in Nazi Germany. They are the things that are happening in America.
Look up Prescott Bush. Little Georgy, the chimp, is making sure that evil man's dream is coming true.
Don't wait until there are riots in the street, or when citizens start vanishing.
Any self-respecting member of Medved's synagogue should confront him over his Hitler-like argument that the U.S. of A. is the master race.
He is the LOWEST and COMMON.
"American superiority" is "genetic"? So we can't help being superior? Golly gee, that must be why everything is so swell here in the USofA. The evidence is plain to see - things couldn't be better, right? This "superiority" makes us invincible, turns everything we touch to gold and is why we are a world leader.
Right. Medved is an insufferable moron, but dangerous. Numinous at 119 is correct.
This guy also refers to the Civil War as 'the war of northern agression'. as part of his regular patois.
I guess Medved supports inbreeding.
Medved looks like a product of inbreeding.
Medved was an arrogant film critic who doesn't realize what every seventh grader knows: we are all derived from ancestors of continental Africa... even him and his twisted views.
I actually had a tiny bit of respect for this asshole. It's totally gone now. Thanks C&L for keeping us up to date on these jerks.
MsJoanne @ 17:
Actually, Hitler made comments regarding Americans (of European heritage) that are strikingly similar.
Medved also has a soft spot for holocaust revisionism:
http://daltonator.net/durandal/blog/?p=62
These guys , all of em , all the far right and the neocon are like the Nazis in more ways than one , their MO is right out of Hitlers play book and these people are cowards , without morals , without ethics , without conscience and their minds are completely warped , there ought to be a purge to eliminate them , they are treasonous saboteurs and as anti American as you can get . Worry about Bin Laden and the " terrorists " ? Hell no ! Worry about these guys , they are by far the bigger danger !
Do I understand this correctly?? A third tier tv and movie critic is now writing columns about Eugenics?? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Conservatives is so stupid. - Yoesemite Sam.
no offence to retards but madved is a retard.
You look at this mother fucker and tell me he comes from a superior gene.To me he seems his parents were closly related.God do i hate these right wing bastards.They are truely the source of all the problems facing the world today.
The good news is that Medved is shunned like a pariah from the MSM, the one's I read or watch anyway. They know he is a homophobic racist nutcase. I loathe the way he speaks on behalf of all Jews: How dare he assert that he represents all of Jewry? He makes me ashamed of being a Jew. He disgusts me beyond expression.
a scientific paper on genetics from a former flunkie of siskel and ebert. you should take this whole story off the internet, it might be more dangerous to even "legitamize & energize" this idiot by acknowleding him as a journalist. He is a low life.
TNliberal @ 128:
Actually not, the platform of the nazi party regarding America was one of playing lip service to the American nazi sympathizers. While at the same time playing the card at home of how "whites" in America were mostly of the emigrant kind, the ones who could not hack it when things were tough in the motherland and thus they were not "as good."
Then again, the nazi racial approach was one based on bullshit and myth. Hitler himself was part Jewish, so talk about self hate by that jackass....
Ironically the only American white supremacist I have ever interacted with, was a neo nazi jackass of slavic descent. I tried to explain him how in the old days he would have been gas chamber fodder to the people he professes admiration for, but I guess his 2 neurons could not cope with so much information.
Jackasses
wingnutsrscrubs @ 136:
Please do not refer to the bullshit this idiot spewed as "scientific paper." It gives it waaay too much legitimacy!
PZ MIERS over at also said this about Medved;
snip
As is usual for Medved, a dullard incapable of any kind of thought beyond the superficial, he doesn't think his thesis through. Wouldn't this imply that Moslem immigrants to Europe, with their risk-taking willingness to move to new environments, are their true hope for the future? That the old blue-bloods of this country are less fit than, say, the Nisei? And if the descendants of African slaves are not successful go-getters because their arrival was coerced, what about the immigrants who were fleeing religious persecution, or all the Americans who are descended from indentured servants? Are there no successful entrepreneurs in Europe or Asia or Africa? Should we give extra bonus points to the descendants of nomadic tribes of warriors, like the Germans? It's a very peculiarly narrow view of a kind of simplistic genetic determinism that ignores the complexities and the varieties of ways people got here to promote a ridiculous premise.
And it just gets sillier.
Senators Obama, Clinton and other leaders who seek to enlarge the scope of government face more formidable obstacles than they realize. Their desire to impose a European-style welfare state and a command-and-control economy not only contradicts our proudest political and economic traditions, but the new revelations about American DNA suggest that such ill-starred schemes may go against our very nature.
Uh, what? Republican policies are now part of our genetic nature, and the Democrats will be defeated by our capitalist genes?
This is Michael Medved of the Discovery Institute, an organization that has recently been raving about the evils of eugenics and the soulless Darwinian view of nature. Yet here he is, spouting off the kind of smug, invalid, pseudo-biological jingo that belongs in the Gilded Age and would be comfortable in the mouth of a robber baron trying to justify a war in Latin America. It's nothing but handwaving rationalizations for an intrinsic superiority to our tribe, with a complete absence of evidence.
By Medved's logic, I have superior genes to him because I, a descendant of emigrants (who themselves had superior genes according to Medved), chose to emigrate from the U.S. So if you want Medved to show himself to be my genetic equal, you should encourage him to emigrate as well. (Ain't my wife lucky? ;) )
holy
crap
I guess they'll have to change their attitude towards "illegal aliens" now, since they're clearly supermen.
That's some fantastic logical acrobatics from a guy trying to say "we're better than black people." So having political strife, ecological disaster or general food and joblessness in your homeland is a sign of genetic superiority? Still, I'm intrigued by his notion of Americans as Aryan supermen. Does he have a newsletter I can subscribe to?
medved is nuts. he must be snarfing his mustache again. you DON'T want to know where that thing has been over the last 40 years.
Michael Medved reminds me of someone's old spinster Aunt that has given up worring about her mustache. Either way he is a pussy with or without it.
Excuse me, but by that logic all stay-at-home Europeans and Africans should be genetically inferior to all Americans, excepts descendants of slaves.
How many Continents and/or ethnic groups can you insult in one diatribe?
I coudl talk about racism, but there's more to this story.
I guess according to Mike's model, we've taken some drastic turn genetically in the last twenty years. Americans are Risk takers? Cowering in your home, listening to right-wing media and worry about your social security check and how many percentage points come off of the capital gains of your diversified mutual funds is NOT risk taking. We do 50% of the world's military spending to feel "safe," and pee our pants every time a terrorist sneezes.
I think it shows one of the strange feel-good delusions of right-wing media. "If you just listen to my program, I'll tell you that your a brave dynamic American that doesn't need govt and isn't afraid of anything. In fact . . . Americans are the best in the world at absolutely everything. Anyone who doesn't agree with how awesome you are and how truthful I am about your greatness, obviously hates America."
Just to add to the condemnation of this idiot.... Look at your parents, look at your children. Yes they share some similarities, but there are plenty of differences. Genes are not tyrants; behavior changes from one individual to another; you might be more like a cousin than like a parent; you might be totally different from everyone you're closely related to; environment can easily shape just how "adventurous" you are -- desperation is quite a motivator; smart people can have really dumb kids and vice versa; nutrition (currently there is research into the nutritional circumstances of your maternal GRANDmother and how it plays out in your health), pollution, circumstances of birth (oxygen deprivation) can all affect how you turn out; biological processes respond to the environment, not just to DNA; education and a sense of efficacy in the world can change how confident you feel and your sense of confidence can change how you behave; an adventurous film reviewer can stretch beyond the boundaries of his education and become a flaming racist idiot; no genetic heritage of any sort confers moral superiority EVER. I'll repeat that, no genetic heritage of any sort confers moral superiority EVER. Read some Kant on how good characteristics without good will can become very bad indeed.
This is all well and good to discuss Medved on this site , but you should e-mail him at Michael Medved.com.
You would expect this kind of language from someone who represents himself as a "Chosen person" ordained by God, with regrets to all other mankind. Just to imply this takes, shall we say, chutzpah!
This past week another radical Zionist, Joe Lieberman said, "I think his (McBush) comment about bombing Iran has a certain ring to it." Bombing innocent men, women and children has a certain ring to it? It makes me glad that I'm a agnostic.
All those Puritans came to America on the Mayflower to escape religious persecution. In other words, rather than stand up to those that were persecuting them, they *ran away*. That's right... the Puritans were all pussies. So that pussy gene is now running through all descendants of Puritans.
OMG, Michael Medved is intrigued by a theory that claims the grooviest, most bitchen people on the planet are...well...errrr...just like Michael Medved.
Wow, who could've seen that one coming?
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