Here's the interesting part about Psalm 109:8- it's actually written by King David- and is directed at a large group of people trying to depose him (including Judas).
Psalm 109-
1 O God, whom I praise,
do not remain silent,
2 for wicked and deceitful men
have opened their mouths against me;
they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
3 With words of hatred they surround me;
they attack me without cause.
4 In return for my friendship they accuse me,
but I am a man of prayer.
[...]
16 For he never thought of doing a kindness,
but hounded to death the poor
and the needy and the brokenhearted.
It's like the dickward that got the "man shall not lie with another man" verse tattooed on his body without noting that the very next verse is "man shall make no mark upon his body".
On the one hand, I think there are several reasons this Psalm 109:8 meme is inappropriate and reckless, but not because it's some obviously coded threat against the President. As far as we know, it isn't.
If it said, "Pray for Obama — Psalm 109:8-9," then yeah, but it doesn't say that, and it seems a little premature to make generalizations and condemnations of whole groups of people over a line they 1.) probably don't all interpret the same way, and 2.) does not actually, on its own, necessarily suggest anything sinister.
I also worry whether this kind of media attention doesn't actually worsen the "Someone's Going To Try And Kill Barack Obama" hysteria.
I'm sure CafePress yanked it for business/PR reasons, which I can understand, but censorship — even of the most questionable things — leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
@Cunning_Linguist: Yes, that is correct. I don't really have an issue with CafePress' decision, I'm sure they have investors or shareholders or whomever to deal with and could do without the PR headache. So it's understandable — and well within their rights as a private business — to yank the merch.
I'm more concerned about the lynch mob demanding for anyone sporting a Psalm 109:8 t-shirt, bumper sticker, etc. to get thrown in jail.
@Magister: I had seen that, actually, and to be perfectly honest, it was an element of Gawker's coverage that sort of concerned me.
John linked to it rather glibly, and unless readers clicked through and read the original article, it wasn't immediately apparent that even legal experts are saying, "Wait a minute, don't jump to conclusions here just yet."
Note to everyone who said something to the effect of "this is just like the stuff they sold when Bush was in office": check your thesauruses. 'Impeach' does not mean the same thing as 'assassinate.'
@Lysergic Asset: How about this shirt? A little more direct then the Psalm 109 shirt, don't you think? CafePress sold ths one for a while but discontinued it, as they should have. Google is a wonderful thing.
Worth noting that Kennedy never had an approval rating below 50% and was arguably the second-worst president in recorded history, assassination or no assassination. Bay of Pigs FAIL.
@Botswana Meat Commission FC: That just makes me sad. But it certainly explains the odd arguments you hear about how we need to reduce spending in order to create jobs. I guess people think the job fairy is just waiting for us to show fiscal discipline before she rewards us with a wave of her magic employment wand.
It's not "fiscal responsibility" so much as "ensuring that paper money continues to have a value." The idea that it would be prudent, or even possible, to continue sustained deficits at these levels is ludicrous.
But that FDR meme/analogy/point your friends must think is super strong is even weaker than you'd think. FDR didn't inherit his office with massive deficits - he was able to take them on to fund World War II. Considering there continued to be recessions throughout the New Deal until WWII wiped out the world's manufacturing base and population of working-age males in foreign, competing countries, the Keynesian approach is hardly ratified by FDR's enduring influence on American monetary policy.
Of course, you're tired of hearing this argument, so let's just gleefully watch the dollar collapse a few years and see where it gets us. Okay? Then we can declare this stupid referendum over and start dealing with the unpleasant realities of a depleted planet with nearly 7 billion hungry humans on it.
@Unsolicited Advice: Yes, we should worry about theoretical inflation far in the future while ignoring the VERY REAL immediate threat of deflation and stagnant job growth.
And Keynes did not urge governments to just run endless deficits. He said governments should build up surpluses when economic growth was strong and then use government spending to spur demand when the economy is stagnant.
@Unsolicited Advice: The idea that it would be prudent, or even possible, to continue sustained deficits at these levels is ludicrous.
Agreed in principle, but it's a matter of timing, don't you think? Massive long term deficits will kill us, but the government had to run up massive short term deficits in order to prevent the economy from completely and utterly disappearing into the abyss, which was money well-spent even if it did postpone the comeuppance that a few asshole finance people so richly deserve.
If federal largesse is the one leg propping up the economy at the moment, it seems incredibly counterproductive to kick that leg out in the name of fiscal responsibility before the private sector has come back strong enough, wouldn't you say? We committed (half-heartedly, I'm sad to admit) to a Keynesian approach with the stimulus. Since we have already spent or are committed to spending that money, don't we owe it to ourselves to let that program play out? Any drastic deficit-reduction measures we take will have the opposite effect of the stimulus, making those many billions of dollars a total waste (ironically, this would be supremely fiscally irresponsible).
Besides, some of our current deficit will disappear simply as a result of higher tax revenues and expiring stimulus spending once the economy picks back up in earnest anyway, no?
No, these t-shirts are not funny or sarcastic. They are in bad taste. Real or idle death threats are against the law, no matter who the president or vice president is, or which party he/she came from. They are also cowardly and un-Christian. [www.law.cornell.edu]
Freedom of speech is not absolute. [en.wikipedia.org]
OK, as much as I like the sizzle of a story as written above, it's not quite accurate.
Cafe Press lets anyone create images and sell them to people too lazy to waddle on down to the local swap meet.
So, it's more a situation where a wingnut frothed himself into a tizzy, then went crazy(ier) with Cafe Press' template function.
Because true patriots try exploiting for gain the assassination of the President of the United States.
This is supported by the fact that the last RedState denizen who did the same thing had his items disappear, presumably by Cafe Press. Watch the same one happen here, then poor Cafe Press having to create some sort of macro to play Whack-a-Wingnut automatically.
Can't wait until Thankgiving break begins, because once all these guys get back home, cloistered together with their kin, they'll do what they do best: incest.
on the plus side, their "prayers" have yet to yield much in the way of political destruction. they might as well say "step on sidewalk cracks for obama".
Evangelical Christians: All the trappings of religion without the least inclination toward love, forbearance or even tolerance of other viewpoints. In other words, it's everything that disgusted Christ.
@Mediahohoho: Which psalm was the one about cutting taxes on the wealthy? That's all I ever hear from the "Christians" that I know. The only thing uniting republicans at the moment is their love of tax cuts and hatred of the Welfare Queens. Neither of which strikes me as terribly "Jesusy."
@Mediahohoho: They persecute anyone who disagrees with them mercilessly, and then cry about their victimization. Carrie Prejean being the latest victimcrite who's been hoisted on her own vibrating petard.
There were so many people wishing death upon Bush that I don't blame CafePress for continuing to sell this dreck. My biggest problem is the completely disengenuous use of the Bible to justify wanting to kill the president. "I'm a Christian and I'm citing the Bible, so mine is a holy and pious wish for the death of the president and the suffering of his children."
I never wanted Bush to die. But I would have reveled in his impeachment. He's someone's dad, someone's husband and son...I just didn't want him in charge of the country. He had no blessed clue what he was doing, and he made deadly, deadly mistakes.
@Trai_Dep: Shit, death threats against Bush were easy to find, and they weren't anywhere near as subtle as the CafePress t-shirt. Try any of these, but make sure you scroll down to see the video of John Kerry saying he could've gone to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and killed the real bird with one stone. Credible enough? - [www.binscorner.com]
@mimigoliath: You're a compassionate person. I also advocated loudly for the continued health of the 43rd. But mainly out of the selfish motivation of not wanting to see a martyr made of such a bumbling fool. Personally, since impeachment is an impossibility, I just believe he and his ilk should be shunned by decent society. Especially Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Addington, Yoo, Gonzalez, Wolfowitz, Feith, and Libby (off the top of my head). Just walk out of the room whenever they arrive, everyone. Never point another camera or microphone at any of them. Deadly fools every single one of them.
@fuckingoldman: OK, but with respect, reread my passage, noting "reputable person or group". A bunch of protesters aiming for noteriety don't make that cut.
These false equivalencies are common. But, as others have noted in this thread, several attention-seeking, unaffiliated protesters don't come anywhere close to what's happening now. I could rehash (if you genuinely don't know what I'm referring to, I'll be glad to add more), but others have said it better than I.
But I'll bake you a cookie either way, since we're having a nice conversation here. :)
@Trai_Dep: Respect. I think the people in the pictures I posted were as "reputable" as any of the idiots buying the shirt. In case you missed it, I don't agree with either group of morons. My point is showing that both sides play these stupid games, and then cry foul when it happens to their side. Can't do that. I'm not talking about the guys going to rallies with guns, this post was anout the shirts. Don't forget the special ingredients! *smile*
@fuckingoldman: Yeah, but these Lefty protester's claims weren't amplified by an entire news network as being credible 24/7, their meet-ups weren't organized by the DNC, they didn't show up at Bush events armed with loaded assault rifles (then idolized by CNN/ABC...) and the Secret Service didn't note there was a 400% increase in credible threats compared to the Clinton/Gore days.
This all aside from the whole, Let's Lynch Them Uppity People thing.
Context, my friend. Context. They're barely passingly comparable, taken in context.
@Trai_Dep: I can't argue the Fox News coverage and people showing up armed. The only thing I'm not sure about is if the DNC organized anti-war (in essence anti-Bush) rallies.
You make very good points, but I still think I have a valid point in that both sides play stupid games.
07:44 PM
The equivalent of kicking a guy out of your party and he retorts, "Whatever dude, I was leaving anyway."
06:28 PM
Psalm 109-
1 O God, whom I praise,
do not remain silent,
2 for wicked and deceitful men
have opened their mouths against me;
they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
3 With words of hatred they surround me;
they attack me without cause.
4 In return for my friendship they accuse me,
but I am a man of prayer.
[...]
16 For he never thought of doing a kindness,
but hounded to death the poor
and the needy and the brokenhearted.
It's like the dickward that got the "man shall not lie with another man" verse tattooed on his body without noting that the very next verse is "man shall make no mark upon his body".
Douches all.
05:42 PM
On the one hand, I think there are several reasons this Psalm 109:8 meme is inappropriate and reckless, but not because it's some obviously coded threat against the President. As far as we know, it isn't.
If it said, "Pray for Obama — Psalm 109:8-9," then yeah, but it doesn't say that, and it seems a little premature to make generalizations and condemnations of whole groups of people over a line they 1.) probably don't all interpret the same way, and 2.) does not actually, on its own, necessarily suggest anything sinister.
I also worry whether this kind of media attention doesn't actually worsen the "Someone's Going To Try And Kill Barack Obama" hysteria.
I'm sure CafePress yanked it for business/PR reasons, which I can understand, but censorship — even of the most questionable things — leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
05:53 PM
06:00 PM
I'm more concerned about the lynch mob demanding for anyone sporting a Psalm 109:8 t-shirt, bumper sticker, etc. to get thrown in jail.
06:15 PM
06:18 PM
John linked to it rather glibly, and unless readers clicked through and read the original article, it wasn't immediately apparent that even legal experts are saying, "Wait a minute, don't jump to conclusions here just yet."
05:28 PM
06:07 PM
@Lysergic Asset: How about this shirt? A little more direct then the Psalm 109 shirt, don't you think? CafePress sold ths one for a while but discontinued it, as they should have. Google is a wonderful thing.
06:11 PM
#tips
05:25 PM
05:37 PM
05:50 PM
05:16 PM
05:41 PM
Douchebags.
04:19 PM
03:44 PM
03:56 PM
04:03 PM
04:24 PM
04:34 PM
@Kakapo: et voila! This is what you call "ironic"...
04:45 PM
06:32 PM
#tips
03:42 PM
But that FDR meme/analogy/point your friends must think is super strong is even weaker than you'd think. FDR didn't inherit his office with massive deficits - he was able to take them on to fund World War II. Considering there continued to be recessions throughout the New Deal until WWII wiped out the world's manufacturing base and population of working-age males in foreign, competing countries, the Keynesian approach is hardly ratified by FDR's enduring influence on American monetary policy.
Of course, you're tired of hearing this argument, so let's just gleefully watch the dollar collapse a few years and see where it gets us. Okay? Then we can declare this stupid referendum over and start dealing with the unpleasant realities of a depleted planet with nearly 7 billion hungry humans on it.
04:12 PM
And Keynes did not urge governments to just run endless deficits. He said governments should build up surpluses when economic growth was strong and then use government spending to spur demand when the economy is stagnant.
04:23 PM
Agreed in principle, but it's a matter of timing, don't you think? Massive long term deficits will kill us, but the government had to run up massive short term deficits in order to prevent the economy from completely and utterly disappearing into the abyss, which was money well-spent even if it did postpone the comeuppance that a few asshole finance people so richly deserve.
If federal largesse is the one leg propping up the economy at the moment, it seems incredibly counterproductive to kick that leg out in the name of fiscal responsibility before the private sector has come back strong enough, wouldn't you say? We committed (half-heartedly, I'm sad to admit) to a Keynesian approach with the stimulus. Since we have already spent or are committed to spending that money, don't we owe it to ourselves to let that program play out? Any drastic deficit-reduction measures we take will have the opposite effect of the stimulus, making those many billions of dollars a total waste (ironically, this would be supremely fiscally irresponsible).
Besides, some of our current deficit will disappear simply as a result of higher tax revenues and expiring stimulus spending once the economy picks back up in earnest anyway, no?
09:52 AM
[www.law.cornell.edu]
Freedom of speech is not absolute. [en.wikipedia.org]
11/19/09
Cafe Press lets anyone create images and sell them to people too lazy to waddle on down to the local swap meet.
So, it's more a situation where a wingnut frothed himself into a tizzy, then went crazy(ier) with Cafe Press' template function.
Because true patriots try exploiting for gain the assassination of the President of the United States.
This is supported by the fact that the last RedState denizen who did the same thing had his items disappear, presumably by Cafe Press. Watch the same one happen here, then poor Cafe Press having to create some sort of macro to play Whack-a-Wingnut automatically.
Can't wait until Thankgiving break begins, because once all these guys get back home, cloistered together with their kin, they'll do what they do best: incest.
11/19/09
Yes. Yes. Oh GODS YES!
(Comment about Thanksgiving still stands, though)
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
What you said.
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
#tips
11/19/09
@Mediahohoho:
#tips
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
I never wanted Bush to die. But I would have reveled in his impeachment. He's someone's dad, someone's husband and son...I just didn't want him in charge of the country. He had no blessed clue what he was doing, and he made deadly, deadly mistakes.
11/19/09
G'head, I'll give you a cookie if you can.
11/19/09
This time I'd like sugar cookies with extra weed.
12:29 AM
02:35 AM
These false equivalencies are common. But, as others have noted in this thread, several attention-seeking, unaffiliated protesters don't come anywhere close to what's happening now. I could rehash (if you genuinely don't know what I'm referring to, I'll be glad to add more), but others have said it better than I.
But I'll bake you a cookie either way, since we're having a nice conversation here. :)
09:10 AM
12:38 PM
This all aside from the whole, Let's Lynch Them Uppity People thing.
Context, my friend. Context. They're barely passingly comparable, taken in context.
01:28 PM
You make very good points, but I still think I have a valid point in that both sides play stupid games.