Being anti-war makes you say incredibly stupid things

[DrDetroit]

Last night, the taxpayer-supported radical-left radio Pacifica last night, and "Democracy Now" was replaying their favorite speeches from the anti-liberation rally on Saturday.

One man went on an extended rant about how he's like to take George Bush and "that little bow-tied Tucker Carlson" on a bus trip to "the hood" and leave them there. "I’d show them how the other side of the tracks carries the weight of the world on our shoulders and how society seems to be holding us down with the force of a boulder."

The speaker was pro basketball player Etan Thomas, Washington Wizards power forward and "poetry slam" promoter. First question: who does he mean when he talks about "society...holding us down with a boulder"?

He re-signed with the Wizards last year for six years, $36 million.

What is it about being anti-US and anti-war that makes people get "stuck on stupid?"

[DiT]

let me tell you about Etan Thomas.
he's a fucking punk Louie Farrakhan wanna be shit stirring loud mouth.
he played HS ball here in Tulsa and you could see he was going to be one of those "whitey trying to suppress the black man" rhetoric spewing assholes just from the few secs of TV time he'd get because of his basketball skills.
this doesn't surprise me a bit.

[Bizzarofelice]

Being anti-war makes you say incredibly stupid things

Stupid things like "Nobody cares"

[DrDetroit]

RACK DiT's insight.

[BSmack]

Etan Thomas played 4 years in Syracuse. He was a monster on defense. He held Georgetown down with a boulder more than once. Never heard a bad thing about him in the four years he played.

What is it about being pro-Bush that makes people draw stupid analogies between Thomas signing a 6 year NBA deal and his comments regarding the condition of ALL of black America?

[DrDetroit]

Wow, B, are you blind or do you deny the obvious or both?

This guy is whining about blacks being held down but he just signed a very rich NBA deal. The irony is blinding, maybe that's why you're denying it.

[Risa]

maybe Bush should live on the other side of the tracks. that's what rich folks with a 'social conscious' (grimace) (shudder) do.

there's method to some bullshit like 'the simple life'.

you can't know where someone else has been, unless you try to walk in their shoes. you won't know everything -- you won't be an expert and shouldn't take yourself as one, afterwards -- but you'll get an idea. :?

we need to get rid of the oligarchy running this country.

[Risa]

Wow, B, are you blind or do you deny the obvious or both?

This guy is whining about blacks being held down but he just signed a very rich NBA deal. The irony is blinding, maybe that's why you're denying it.

irony that it takes basketball to make a man millions? :?

look, what's one man being paid millions of dollars to do something very few people can do -- white or black -- have to do with millions of other people who will never get a sniff of even a tenth of what he just signed for?

that's like saying, 'harry belafonte got his own tv show in the 50s, everything's cool now'. it wasn't. and isn't.

'jack johnson can screw any white woman he wants; they have to make up laws against him, instead of just lynching him outright -- everything's cool now.' it wasn't, and isn't.

'madame c. j. walker is the first female self made millionaire; she still can't go into whatever restaurants she wants, or stay in whatever hotels she wants, or buy a house in certain neighborhoods.. but she's got money, so everything's cool for everybody else. shut up.'


ethan does sound like a hot head, but bsmack is right -- his contract has zero to do with anything.

what would have anything to do with anything, is how he grew up. was he poor? or was he affluent? or was he strictly middle class? did he himself live what he asks Bush to live, or not?

the contract is irrelevant.

[DrDetroit]

You do not have to "walk in someone else's shoes" to draw judgments of right and wrong. That's simply an effort to excuse bad behavior by telling those who condemn or criticize bad behavcior that "they just don't understand." :roll:

[DrDetroit]

irony that it takes basketball to make a man millions? :?

No, the irnoy that this guy thinks blacks are held down yet he just signed a very rich NBA contract.

look, what's one man being paid millions of dollars to do something very few people can do -- white or black -- have to do with millions of other people who will never get a sniff of even a tenth of what he just signed for?

Uh, nothing. And no one was suggesting it was, except B.

[DiT]

Etan Thomas played 4 years in Syracuse. He was a monster on defense. He held Georgetown down with a boulder more than once. Never heard a bad thing about him in the four years he played.

What is it about being pro-Bush that makes people draw stupid analogies between Thomas signing a 6 year NBA deal and his comments regarding the condition of ALL of black America?

he was a monster on D in HS as well but it doesn't mean his political insight is worth a turd :P

[Risa]

Detroit, again: his just signing a contract for millions to do what very few people -- white or black -- can do is irrelevant. believe it or not, he's earned that money.

he's a paid entertainer. there's a world of difference between a paid entertainer, whose living is not guaranteed if he can no longer entertain, and someone like that Johnson dude who headed BET, who alo earned his money but did so in a way that is more accessible to more people.

The world has room for many more Johnsons, than Thomas', money wise. And yet the world is filled with more Thomas' than Johnsons, removing hard dollars from the equation. Johnson owned his own life. Thomas' life is owed to others.

If Thomas is an upper class black for whom nepotism and cronyism guaranteed his place, and yet he still called out Bush to go to the hood, THAT would be irony.

But Thomas isn't any of those things.


You can damn Thomas, but not for his contract.

[BSmack]

Etan Thomas played 4 years in Syracuse. He was a monster on defense. He held Georgetown down with a boulder more than once. Never heard a bad thing about him in the four years he played.

What is it about being pro-Bush that makes people draw stupid analogies between Thomas signing a 6 year NBA deal and his comments regarding the condition of ALL of black America?

he was a monster on D in HS as well but it doesn't mean his political insight is worth a turd :P

No, but a good rebounder is still worth more in a debate than what Detard brings. And Etan was one of the great shot blockers in SU history.

I was just sayin there were some bad guys at SU over the years and Etan wasn't one of them.

[DrDetroit]

Detroit, again: his just signing a contract for millions to do what very few people -- white or black -- can do is irrelevant. believe it or not, he's earned that money.

No one, except you and B, are drawing that connection.

The point is that laugher that this guy is being held down by the force of a boulder despite just signing a monster contract.

[DrDetroit]

It's funny that B would go there despite being trashed yesterday re: CAFE and traffic fatalities. Rather than argue about the attribution of increased traffic fatalities to CAFE standards, B wanted to talk about blaming accidents on driver error. Bwahahahahaha!!!

[DiT]

Etan Thomas played 4 years in Syracuse. He was a monster on defense. He held Georgetown down with a boulder more than once. Never heard a bad thing about him in the four years he played.

What is it about being pro-Bush that makes people draw stupid analogies between Thomas signing a 6 year NBA deal and his comments regarding the condition of ALL of black America?

he was a monster on D in HS as well but it doesn't mean his political insight is worth a turd :P

No, but a good rebounder is still worth more in a debate than what Detard brings. And Etan was one of the great shot blockers in SU history.

I was just sayin there were some bad guys at SU over the years and Etan wasn't one of them.

his HS lines read like 20 pts 24 rbs 10 blks every game.

[Risa]

Detroit, again: his just signing a contract for millions to do what very few people -- white or black -- can do is irrelevant. believe it or not, he's earned that money.

No one, except you and B, are drawing that connection.

Then, B and I are correct.


You're the stat man. What are the stats for real people, making real money?

What does the job situation look like?

How much do blacks make for every white dollar?
To reverse it, how much do whites make for every black dollar?

Just how out of the norm is Thomas? and why not admit that what he does for a living, what he signed a contract for, is unique and not within reach of the majority of anyone?

The point is that laugher that this guy is being held down by the force of a boulder despite just signing a monster contract.

He wasn't talking about himself, Detroit.

He said blacks.




I don't understand you, sometimes. :?

[DiT]

Detroit, again: his just signing a contract for millions to do what very few people -- white or black -- can do is irrelevant. believe it or not, he's earned that money.

No one, except you and B, are drawing that connection.

Then, B and I are correct.


You're the stat man. What are the stats for real people, making real money?

What does the job situation look like?

How much do blacks make for every white dollar?
To reverse it, how much do whites make for every black dollar?

Just how out of the norm is Thomas? and why not admit that what he does for a living, what he signed a contract for, is unique and not within reach of the majority of anyone?

The point is that laugher that this guy is being held down by the force of a boulder despite just signing a monster contract.

He wasn't talking about himself, Detroit.

He said blacks.




I don't understand you, sometimes. :?

uhhhhh,he is black and therefore by saying blacks are being held down he was including himself.

[BSmack]

uhhhhh,he is black and therefore by saying blacks are being held down he was including himself.

That does not necessarily follow. Just because Thomas got over doesn't mean he can't speak for those who didn't get over. That would be like saying Donald Trump can't comment on white poverty because he's a billionaire.

[DrDetroit]

Risa:

Then, B and I are correct.

Well, props for being correct on the self-evident. Don't hurt yourself.

He wasn't talking about himself, Detroit.

He said blacks.

He's not black?

[DrDetroit]

uhhhhh,he is black and therefore by saying blacks are being held down he was including himself.

That does not necessarily follow. Just because Thomas got over doesn't mean he can't speak for those who didn't get over. That would be like saying Donald Trump can't comment on white poverty because he's a billionaire.

Uh, B, he was including himself, otherwise he would have exempted himself and all others who have gotten over. But he did not exempt himself.

"I’d show them how the other side of the tracks carries the weight of the world on our shoulders and how society seems to be holding us down with the force of a boulder."

He explicitly includes himself.

Also don't you make that argument, B? That rich whites, like Bush/Cheney, cannot possibly understand or empathize with the poor because they are rich?

[DiT]

uhhhhh,he is black and therefore by saying blacks are being held down he was including himself.

That does not necessarily follow. Just because Thomas got over doesn't mean he can't speak for those who didn't get over. That would be like saying Donald Trump can't comment on white poverty because he's a billionaire.

what he said isn't necessarily true of himself but his generalizing would have included him.
he should have said "some of us" to be more accurate.
wouldn't you agree?

[DiT]

for the record,he did go to school in the roughest and most poverty stricken part of Tulsa where gang activity and murders take place mere feet off school grounds.
it doesn't mean he lived in that area though because it was a magnet school and anyone can go there.

[Cicero]

Etan Thomas will forever and always be a nig in my eyes.

[BSmack]

uhhhhh,he is black and therefore by saying blacks are being held down he was including himself.

That does not necessarily follow. Just because Thomas got over doesn't mean he can't speak for those who didn't get over. That would be like saying Donald Trump can't comment on white poverty because he's a billionaire.

what he said isn't necessarily true of himself but his generalizing would have included him. he should have said "some of us" to be more accurate.
wouldn't you agree?

Only if we are awarding style points. The substance of what he's saying is more relevant. And, if you look beyond the seeming contradiction of a multimillionare speaking about economic oppression, he does have some points. Did you read what he said?

ETAN THOMAS: Giving all honor, thanks and praises to God for courage and wisdom, this is a very important rally. I'd like to thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts, feelings and concerns regarding a tremendous problem that we are currently facing. This problem is universal, transcending race, economic background, religion, and culture, and this problem is none other than the current administration which has set up shop in the White House.

In fact, I'd like to take some of these cats on a field trip. I want to get big yellow buses with no air conditioner and no seatbelts and round up Bill O'Reilly, Pat Buchanan, Trent Lott, Sean Hannity, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Bush Jr. and Bush Sr., John Ashcroft, Giuliani, Ed Gillespie, Katherine Harris, that little bow-tied Tucker Carlson and any other right-wing conservative Republicans I can think of, and take them all on a trip to the ‘hood. Not to do no 30-minute documentary. I mean, I want to drop them off and leave them there, let them become one with the other side of the tracks, get them four mouths to feed and no welfare, have scare tactics run through them like a laxative, criticizing them for needing assistance.

I’d show them working families that make too much to receive welfare but not enough to make ends meet. I’d employ them with jobs with little security, let them know how it feels to be an employee at will, able to be fired at the drop of a hat. I’d take away their opportunities, then try their children as adults, sending their 13-year-old babies to life in prison. I’d sell them dreams of hopelessness while spoon-feeding their young with a daily dose of inferior education. I’d tell them no child shall be left behind, then take more money out of their schools, tell them to show and prove themselves on standardized exams testing their knowledge on things that they haven’t been taught, and then I’d call them inferior.

I’d soak into their interior notions of endless possibilities. I’d paint pictures of assisted productivity if they only agreed to be all they can be, dress them up with fatigues and boots with promises of pots of gold at the end of rainbows, free education to waste terrain on those who finish their bid. Then I’d close the lid on that barrel of fool’s gold by starting a war, sending their children into the midst of a hostile situation, and while they're worried about their babies being murdered and slain in foreign lands, I’d grace them with the pain of being sick and unable to get medicine.

Give them health benefits that barely cover the common cold. John Q. would become their reality as HMOs introduce them to the world of inferior care, filling their lungs with inadequate air, penny pinching at the expense of patients, doctors practicing medicine in an intricate web of rationing and regulations. Patients wander the maze of managed bureaucracy, costs rise and quality quickly deteriorates, but they say that managed care is cheaper. They’ll say that free choice in medicine will defeat the overall productivity, and as co-payments are steadily rising, I'll make their grandparents have to choose between buying their medicine and paying their rent.

Then I'd feed them hypocritical lines of being pro-life as the only Christian way to be. Then very contradictingly, I’d fight for the spread of the death penalty, as if thou shall not kill applies to babies but not to criminals.

Then I’d introduce them to those sworn to protect and serve, creating a curb in their trust in the law. I’d show them the nightsticks and plungers, the pepper spray and stun guns, the mace and magnums that they’d soon become acquainted with, the shakedowns and illegal search and seizures, the planted evidence, being stopped for no reason. Harassment ain’t even the half of it. Forty-one shots to two raised hands, cell phones and wallets that are confused with illegal contrabands. I’d introduce them to pigs who love making their guns click like wine glasses. Everlasting targets surrounded by bullets, making them a walking bull's eye, a living piñata, held at the mercy of police brutality, and then we’ll see if they finally weren’t aware of the truth, if their eyes weren’t finally open like a box of Pandora.

I’d show them how the other side of the tracks carries the weight of the world on our shoulders and how society seems to be holding us down with the force of a boulder. The bird of democracy flew the coop back in Florida. See, for some, and justice comes in packs like wolves in sheep's clothing. T.K.O.d by the right hooks of life, many are left staggering under the weight of the day, leaning against the ropes of hope. When your dreams have fallen on barren ground, it becomes difficult to keep pushing yourself forward like a train, administering pain like a doctor with a needle, their sequels continue more lethal than injections.

They keep telling us all is equal. I’d tell them that instead of giving tax breaks to the rich, financing corporate mergers and leading us into unnecessary wars and under-table dealings with Enron and Halliburton, maybe they can work on making society more peaceful. Instead, they take more and more money out of inner city schools, give up on the idea of rehabilitation and build more prisons for poor people. With unemployment continuing to rise like a deficit, it's no wonder why so many think that crime pays.

Maybe this trip will make them see the error of their ways. Or maybe next time, we'll just all get out and vote. And as far as their stay in the White House, tell them that numbered are their days.

[Tom In VA]

Not really. It completely ignores reality.

[DrDetroit]

"I’d show them how the other side of the tracks carries the weight of the world on our shoulders and how society seems to be holding us down with the force of a boulder."

If that is not including himself as part of the group he is talking about, well, what is?

STFU, B.

[BSmack]

"I’d show them how the other side of the tracks carries the weight of the world on our shoulders and how society seems to be holding us down with the force of a boulder."

If that is not including himself as part of the group he is talking about, well, what is?

STFU, B.

We've covered this ground. Obviously, you're not capable of adding anything new to this debate.

[DrDetroit]

Sorry, B, but you conditionalized your agreement with DiT...errr...me, that this idiot was including himself in his remarks. That is unconditionally true. Hence, it was necessary to highlight his comments to demonstrate just that.

Of his other points...what, specifically, do you find particularly noteworthy?

I see the usual "they're rich, they can't possibly understand the poor" schtick. The typical complaints about incarceration that offer no enlightening thoughts. Oh, yes, the "stolen election" and the "tax cuts for the rich" nonsense.

In fact, according to this guy, Bush has the power to make choices for people, to choose whether they commit crime, enlist in the services, or pursue an education. I see that Bush is also taking money from inner city schools??

Please, the only enlightening aspect of this crap is that this guy is just another whining dipshit crying that everyone but he is responsible for something or another.

[Turdmaker]

Cicero wrote:

Etan Thomas will forever and always be a nig in my eyes.

Nice, verrrrry nice.

[DiT]

bri,he made a couple of decent points amid that dramatic,overly stated, pity-party, meandering mess.
very little,if any of which even applies to him.
this guy was an OUTSTANDING basketball player here and I followed his team very closely.
Ryan Humphrey (who went to OU and Notre Dame) and him were teammates and they flat out dominated every team they played.
one night they blocked 22 shots between the two of them.
I watched them every time they were on TV because they were men among boys.
the news comes on and I see Etan is going to be on for some reason (I assumed basketball).
he was giving some sort of speech for Black something day at school and you could right away
he was going for the dramatic, shock value effect with a minister-like sermon.
keep in mind I was a fan of this kids basketball skills but when he opened his mouth I couldn't have disliked him more as person.
he's still a good hooper.
he's still a punk:)