A&E Suspends Phil Robertson Indefinitely

[AtticaFish]

Still unsure why this thread (or the whole media coverage) has turned into as a religious issue, no one is trying to deny him of his right to practice religion how he wishes to do so.......... you are being fed what the media wants you to eat and chewing on it. Stop watching the news and stand back and think about the whole situation for a second with the gay rights and christian blinders taken away.

This is more about free speech and A&E's decision on what to do about it. The reason any of this came up and in the lime light was because he made statements about his opinion and personal thoughts outside of the workplace. By his rights, he is absolutely permitted to say those things. But if his employer does not agree and does not like those statements, THEY have every right to fire that employee. Am i not correct? That is the workplace we all have to deal with, like it or not.

Is A&E correct in suspending him? Well, if it was my work, i'd be lucky if i had a job by Monday morning. How about any of you? In a way i do not blame A&E for trying to distance them selves, they want to make money. BUT i also agree that the Robertson's should give A&E the middle finger for trying to manipulate and silence them. They knew damn well what their family was all about when they signed the contracts to follow them around with cameras shoved up their back sides.

I will refer back to post #2 of this thread....... It is Horse **** that WE ARE SILENCED by our opinion even if WE CHOOSE NOT TO JUDGE OTHERS by our feelings.

 

[papaperch]

Attica - if it were a strictly money decision. Would not the executives side with the vast majority. Gays make up around 2.9 % of our population. I do not know the exact percentage of Christians. But I am willing to assume that it hovers around 50 % or well above that.

Factor in that every major document of our country is rife with references to the almighty. Our documents do NOT guarantee freedom from religion. They only state that government will not establish a national religion or favor one over another.

From a bible perspective Phil erred in judging. There are several references in the bible that state that judgement is the sole right of God not any man. The most explicit is " Judge not lest you be judged ".

In order for socialism to have a chance to come to power. The secular progressives must accomplish these aims :
1. Destroy or discredit religion ( government is the only religion the masses need )
2. Break down and destroy the family unit ( government shall be our family )
3. Alter the country's history to suit their version ( teach that the US is the only thing wrong with the world )
4. Turn the economy into a failure by assailing success and rewarding failure. ( create governmental dependency )
5. Secure control over the media. ( best way to distort the truth is to publish lies as fact over and over )
6. Never let any crisis go to waste ( prove that government has all the answers )

Can anyone deny that these six principles are not being employed every day ?

These are not my opinions this is what any leftist is taught. Look into the Soviet Unions take over of eastern Europe. Some of us older fellas have a dim view of where this country is headed. Because we have a vivid memory of what it used to be like here. As we die off so will the memories. Unless our true history is preserved.

That is why so many small things at first seem not to amount to much. Turn into turning points in history. Socialism and or communism has not worked any where in history or any place. Communist China HAD to use capitalism to preserve itself. Their stringent old economical policies were leading them down the same path that Cuba and North Korea have suffered under.

Lastly while I am not blind to the faults of our system. I also am aware of what makes our country so special and unique. This country is the very first one. That guaranteed a CHANCE for success. It mattered not who your family name was but relied solely on your own ingenuity and drive.May not seem much to one born to this. But to those that were born under different circumstances flocked to this country.

 

[Jig Man]

My company has strict rules in the work place, but they stay out of our private lives. Maybe I'm wrong, but after reading the interview, I don't see how he attacked the gay community. But then I'm not the one butt hurt over it....No doubt in my mind its about freedom of speech.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Attending school, especially public, is an intro into the real world beyond the shelter of family & friends. From a male perspective, we learn to respect and maybe envy power, aka those who can kick our a**. If lesser endowed, we envy those that can afford nice gear, travel vacations, cars, prettiest gals, etc.

So as grownups, we tend to measure a person's worth by their achievements, primarily evidenced by displays of money and power. More is better is the standard in a culture that defines success by the amassing of wealth. And money = power.

None among us want government to infringe on what we consider our entitled freedoms or the assets we worked hard for. Certainly, to use a Bush phrase, the "have mores" are no different and want to continue maximizing their incomes and reducing their tax liability. But are they entitled to buy politicians and media to further their goals? Is it OK to be above the law, like Wall St. bankers who knowingly engaged in the commerce of worthless commodities and profited from the ensuing economic collapse? I didn't know what a "credit default swap" was until recently, and info on the actual perpetrators of our economic slide is buried much deeper than TV news.

What we have in common here - crafting our own jigs - perhaps defines a common thread in our character - that we practice success, or not, by our own efforts. But I think its regrettable that so many appear to allow no "crisis go to waste" to distract from larger issues. Most regrettable is the apparently successful media blitz to destroy the credibility of government, which consequently appears to be continually losing ground as the defender of rights for the many.

OK, think I'm done soapboxing on a public forum.

 

[papaperch]

Does not government destroy its own credibility ? By saying over and over and over " if you like your Health Care Plan you can keep your Health Care Plan period ". Did the media force our president to keep promising that ? When it has been proven that he was aware of what the real truth was. But the need to be re-elected outweighed the need to be truthful.

The media is all a part of what I described in my previous post. They gloss over the present administration's faults because they are so heavily invested in the progressive liberal cause. Because that was what all our present journalists were taught in college.

President Obama popularity and approval ratings are dropping like a lead balloon because his lies are catching up with him. The cold hard truth is now smacking people in the face and they resent it.

Mr Hawn look up who most profited on Wall Street the most. Every last one of them were heavy Obama donors.Especially certain " green " companies who had no public desire for their products. But they were heavily financed by our tax dollars and when they SHOCK declared bankruptcy and closed their doors. Capitalism is the worlds most successful economic platform. What is being employed right now is " crony capitalism " which stinks.



Can anyone imagine being in a classroom for whatever subject and the instructor announces everyone will pass this class with a grade of " C "? Regardless if you sacrifice and work your tail off or you do absolutely nothing. The result is going to be the same. Lets be honest here not one of us are going to work at it. We will all take it as easy as they make it for us. That in a nutshell is why capitalism works and these other " utopias " do not.

 

[chill49]

I may get slammed here but my little 2 cents worth. I have not watched TV in over 2 years and don't feel like I have missed anything. I know Football season is here but what if we turned our cables off for just one month wonder what would happen???
Doesn't FREEDOM OF SPEECH mean anything anymore. What have we not been fighting for since 1776.
What he said seems to me he has a right to say right are wrong.
I don't totally agree with everything he said but I don't walk in his shoes and he don't walk in mine.

A&E is wrong just this dumb old Hillbilly's thought's

 

[AtticaFish]

chill49 - Your simple explanation rings true with me, no slam here. It always amazes me (and confuses me) how easily some minor wordplay can turn into huge dramatic issues. It happens as far up as politics, the media, city commerce, youth sports and right down to the common members of this site. I am amazed at the soap opera that can go on at times behind the scenes.

 

[redman]

Great thing about the U.S. of A. Even hillbilly's and Indians can speak there peace. Just old Duck Hunters that have TV shows are held back. Mylie Cyrus Can act like a floosie on stage and get rave reviews but a Godly Man can't spread the word of God and Hope and Change that it can bring without being shot down. Now that's what I called messed up.

Redman

 

[Hawnjigs]

PapaP, don't take this as a personal refutation, but as another source of stats.

Wall St. presidential campaign contributions:
Obama $20 billion
Romney $88 billion
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/sectorall.php?cycle=2012

One of the primary sources of news for conservative Americans is Fox News(parent News Corp also publishes the Wall St. Journal), primarily owned by Australian Rupert Murdoch. Second largest shareholder (7%) is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a Saudi national who is also the primary shareholder (14.9%) of Wall St. giant Citigroup, which received $45 billion in bailout money and $2.5 TRILLION in low(less than 1%) interest loans from the Fed.

Crony capitalism of course is bizness as usual. Citizens United effectively opened the flood gates of private sector influence $ into gov administration. And indeed, we could pursue the tenets of free enterprise capitalism by ending corporate welfare subsidies.

 

[JSC]

We have gone in all knd of different directions .. which is good to "Air " some things out and get the "Gray Matter" to working.
A&E acted along with the "Status Quo" .. we know where they stand .. Phil was chosen to try and be made an example before his millions of viewers that A&E knows best (WRONG) another "Feather In Their Hat" with those that would do us in.

Been watching and doing what I could as all this has happened during my life time .. people who thought I was a "Kook" years ago have come back and said I was right .. I was only correct because I had read every thing I could get my hands on concerning the transformation of this nation. It was All Spelled Out In A Letter That Was Sent To ALL Of His Consituents In The USA By Joseph Stalin In 1932 (I first saw it in the "50s) ... And it has come about.
All of this "Mess" has been a direct results of that letter. (the list of 6 items PP gave are part of it)
THIS IS ALL MY OPINION..

 

[Radtexan]

PapaP, don't take this as a personal refutation, but as another source of stats.

Wall St. presidential campaign contributions:
Obama $20 billion
Romney $88 billion
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/sectorall.php?cycle=2012

One of the primary sources of news for conservative Americans is Fox News(parent News Corp also publishes the Wall St. Journal), primarily owned by Australian Rupert Murdoch. Second largest shareholder (7%) is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a Saudi national who is also the primary shareholder (14.9%) of Wall St. giant Citigroup, which received $45 billion in bailout money and $2.5 TRILLION in low(less than 1%) interest loans from the Fed.

Crony capitalism of course is bizness as usual. Citizens United effectively opened the flood gates of private sector influence $ into gov administration. And indeed, we could pursue the tenets of free enterprise capitalism by ending corporate welfare subsidies.

What does any of this have to do with the freedom of expression debate,or how differently people that espouse Christian/moral/conservative values are treated with hate and "run out of town" While most of the pop culture/celebrities/ and groups that demand tolerance can say and do almost anything and are put on pedestals for all the world to see ?

 

[Hawnjigs]

RadT, 99% Americans are under assault by a relentless force hammering their obscene wealth hoarding and power lust agendas. They are able to buy government and the best tactical advice on how to make US allow it. Creating media heroes & villains and inflammatory issues are a diversion. If a constant stream of Robertsons, Benghazi, ACA rollout, government off our backs, fast & furious, gov shutdown, Obama communist-socialist-tyrant-Kenyan-Muslim etc., capture our attention we don't notice the behind the scenes whittling away at our real assets, like healthy food, clean air & water, and the ability to earn a living by hard honest work.

Sorry, thought I could post occasional reminders of larger issues, but think I'm wasting your & my time.

 

[AtticaFish]

I have a great amount of respect for all of you, you should already know and understand that through our personal and public conversations. There is some facts to all your responses, but a lot of it is pure emotion. Render it down with some heat over cast iron and it is political preference. I believe you are falling prey to the media and what they want you to make opinions about. This whole thing has nothing to do with politics or religion from what i have read in the original article. It was ALL opinion based. The guy from GQ who wrote it should never been aloud to publish it in the first place as is without the permission of the family with all the cuss words in it. Goes against how the family is right there. Or else the family should have never agreed to the interview since the magazine substance goes WAY AGAINST any of their social beliefs. I truly believe that the Robertson family will be even more liked and respected IF they just keep quiet and say it is not their problem. If they try to push it as a right wing statement, they lost me. I could care less if they are right handed or left handed - they are funny people. It is entertainment. Comes down to something personal he said that political and religious parties turned into their own stories that they could jump all over and make their own problem so they could get support and snowball it into an 'issue' that would gain them more supporters. It is bending the truth. It is politics. Again - It is horse ****!

Both sides are to blame. From what i have seen so far, the conservative party is making sure that "Never let any crisis go to waste" is happening. The first well know person i heard of commenting about the issue was Palin and Jindal...... wonder why? Give it another couple years and we will all see why i bet. The liberal side got it started (hidden behind non-profit groups who were offended) by changing his words around as if he made insulting comments. Who is to blame? BOTH. ALL.

Numbers, political contributions, statistics, & leftist rules can and should be considered meaningless since this is all an emotional & personal topic. Perhaps there are only 3% who are gay/lesbian in our country, but there are many many more % than that who do not care one way or the other. As i mentioned, i have both friends and family who 'bat for the same team' and i could care less. I love my wife and family, that is what matters to me and my heart and soul and cobbled together beliefs. If others love some other God, race, animal, fish specie, color, flavor of ice cream, dog breed, car manufacture, music genre...... that is their choice. I do not see a tipping point as long as we keep our heads above the media and still talk to each other one on one as we are here. Even if it is through a computer screen as long as we put our true feeling behind every word we say.

 

[papaperch]

Still trying to get a grip on how Fox by itself . Outweighs vast majority of teachers and professors who are liberal progressives, all of the rest of the networks cable and air broadcast. All of Hollywood's major studios and almost the entire printed media both daily newspapers and periodicals.

Ed Mathews , on MSNBC , stated he could tell by the crease in Obama's pants, that Obama was going to make a great president.
Yes sir that is surely objective journalism. The " free press " "fifth estate " is supposed to be the watchdog that protects our freedoms. Not jump in bed with any administration and help promote the agenda that government is dishing out.

Wealth is now obscene ? What amount of wealth is considered obscene and who has the right to determine that amount ?
Lots of people think that the ONLY way to amass wealth is to steal from the poor. Of course this alluded to everyday.
Pray tell if the poor have no money how can anyone steal anything from them ? Steve Jobs did not become wealthy selling his Apple products to the " homeless ".

The American economy is not a pie. In that if you get a big piece someone else loses out or their piece becomes smaller. Actually the reverse is true. The more wealth created by a vibrant economy creates more wealthy people not less.

Lastly Americans are not power hungry by nature. Best proof I can offer is our two biggest enemies of WWII. Both countries were dominated by autocratic rulers for centuries. Both now are thriving under democratic rule. Add to the fact what the Marshall plan accomplished at the end of WWII to rebuild Europe.

When Americans die and the government is somehow involved . I do not think that trying to find out what happened and why is it a diversion. I can't speak for anyone else but this is why your posts at times really confuse me ?

All I know is the vast majority of us are descended from people who emigrated here. They all took a huge gamble so that their prodigy could enjoy freedom from oppression. Along with that freedom a chance of success on a level they could not even dream about in the " old country ." Now a portion of their prodigy want to surrender freedoms for security.

I think recent immigrants have a better grasp on what America is and has to offer. Than some of her natural born countrymen.

 

[Hawnjigs]

My friend Dwight came over today to harvest some of our avos & chili peppers. He is the smartest guy I know, and advised today that I should research beyond the Wall St-mega corp-Fed conglomerate to get to the top of the food chain. He dropped two names, Israel and Rothchild.

When does wealth and power become obscene? How about a hostile takeover of a thriving bizness, saddling it with loan debt till bankrupt & looting all the assets with impunity? How about a family bizness whose owners are personally worth over $100 BILLION firing workers for organizing to get a raise from $8.81 / hour? How about starting a war based on fabricated intel for private sector profiteering? How about fraudulent bankers crashing our economy and not only escaping prosecution but being rewarded for failure with OUR tax contributions?

Best I can offer about diversions is that the view from the outside is different from the one within the structure of a chosen media.

 

[papaperch]

So if the source of all evil is the USA ? Who are the good guys ?

 

[Hawnjigs]

PapaP, its taken me most of this lifetime to care enuf to find out, and I hope to continue. Right now, I'm searching out the bad guys, and diverting from my life's work of making others feel good, one person at a time.

WE are the good guys!!! The measure of good in a person is the # of people beyond themselves that they truly in their heart care about.

Evil is not restrained by geographical boundaries, but resides in all of us. The measure of evil could be the # of others a person victimizes for personal gain. Evil will often disguise itself to avoid detection - diversion is one of its tactics.

In a larger view, good and evil persons will tend to separately team together to more effectively pursue their charitable or greed driven agendas. Unfortunately, good people will often be used by evil thru deception or by survival necessity. And evil will infiltrate any organization that thwarts its goals.

For a much larger view, consider this:
The GDP of the USA is pushing $16 trillion, and the entire world approx 4x that.
The Rothchild personal fortune is estimated at $500 trillion.

 

[AtticaFish]

You all lost me how this conversation came out of the original topic. A rolling stone gathers no moss.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Sorry, my bad. Think I'm done.

 

[AtticaFish]

Nothing bad done by any of the posts..... we have the freedom to say what we want.

All the conspiracy theories, backroom deals, hidden agendas, party bias media reports......... just too much for my brain to comprehend.