Jesse Helms died yesterday.
He was representative of the virulent racism, homophobia, and hypocritical mendaciousness that’s all too common in politicians and the American body politic. It is only fitting that he died on Independence Day, as he serves to remind us of a part of ourselves (as a nation) and of the ugly caricature that we may yet shed.
While the American media and fellow politicians go into full hagiography mode, out of respect for the dead, naturally, let’s not whitewash what this man really was. So leave it up to a British publication to really get his obit right.
You cannot disapprove of racism, homophobia and hypocrisy and eat animals at the same time. That just makes no sense.
You’re right, and you’ve convinced me to now approve of all those things.
To mesiu: ‘Quoi?’
Allow me to translate: ‘Huh?
Or to put it another way, “Wow, that apple sure tasted like an orange to me…”
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Helms was a blight; close to the nadir of what we, as human beings, can be. Good riddance.