[RC] Fwd: Best of the Web Today - January 28, 2011-Civility-Calling for the beheading of Sarah Palin

[David R. Block]

Title: WSJ.com - Best of the Web Today Mail HTML - 1 colmn

Wait a minute, the narrative is that SHE is doing things like that. But if it can be said against her, then it must be OK. Gotta have that equality, doncha know. Signed, Confused in Dallas   "I don't understand why the same newspaper commentators who bemoan the terrible education given to poor people are always so eager to have those poor people get out and vote."--P. J. O'Rourke -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Best of the Web Today - January 28, 2011 Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:36:51 -0500 From: WSJ.com Editors <acc...@interactive.wsj.com> Reply-To: opinionjour...@wsj.com To: david.r.bl...@verizon.net   Online Journal E-Mail Center    January 28, 2011 -- 3:31 p.m. EST See all of today's editorials and op-eds, video interviews and commentary on Opinion Journal. VIEW TODAY'S FULL COLUMN FORMAT THIS COLUMN FOR PRINTING Curt Olds, the Lord High Executioner Eliminatoinist rhetoric against Sarah Palin: a production of the Missoula Children's Theater. By JAMES TARANTO advertisement For some perspective on the recent "debate" over "civility" and "eliminationist rhetoric," let's turn to Montana, home of the Missoula Children's Theater. A recent production there gets a bad review today in a letter to the editor of the Missoulian, the local daily: Open letter to MCT director Curt Olds: First I would like to compliment you and the entire staff of "The Mikado" on the beautiful sets, costuming and professional performance we experienced on Sunday, Jan. 23. However, I must call you on something that was inserted into the play which I am almost positive was not in the original book. The comments made in such a cavalier and oh-so-humorous way were uncalled for. Now, I realize you play to a mostly liberal audience in Missoula and so, I am sure, felt comfortable in your calling for the beheading of Sarah Palin. I am painfully aware that most in the audience tittered with laughter and clapped because "no one would miss her" but there were some in your audience who took great offense to this "uncivil tone" about another human being. We are in the midst of a crisis that took place in Tucson where many started pointing fingers at that horrible right wing with all their hatred and targeting and standing for the second amendment and on and on and on. So, here we are in a lovely play with beautiful voices serenading us and we have to hear that it is okay to call for the killing of Sarah Palin because we don't like her and no one would miss her. Unbelievable. As a professional you should be ashamed of yourself, the audience should be ashamed of themselves and I am ashamed of myself for not standing up and leaving at that very moment. I would like to see an apology from you not because I want to hinder free-speech but for the hypocrisy this so clearly shows. Rory Page, Clinton Well, perhaps Olds made a clerical error and one of Andrew Sullivan's works got into the Arthur Sullivan file. Associated Press Off with her head! In all seriousness, though, like much of what we have been writing about in the past few weeks, this incident is shocking but not surprising. For all the bogus accusations being thrown at Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, genuinely hateful political rhetoric is commonplace in the art world, even in art that is not overtly political. The Missoula incident reminds us of an experience we had in 2005 and wrote about for The Wall Street Journal in 2008. At the invitation of our then-girlfriend, we attended a reading of poems from a book her mother had edited. The poet who served as mistress of ceremonies, Daniela Gioseffi, hijacked the event and turned it into an anti-Republican hate rally. Her rhetoric was not eliminationist--that is, she didn't call for anyone's death--but it was dehumanizing: "You can't be politically disengaged and be human." Podcast James Taranto on the left's hateful rhetoric. VIEW TODAY'S FULL COLUMN FORMAT THIS COLUMN FOR PRINTING  ALSO ON THE EDITORIAL PAGE • Noonan: An Unserious Speech Misses the Mark • John B. Taylor: A Two-Track Plan to Restore Growth • Strassel: Cap and Trade Returns from the Grave  OPINION VIDEO CENTER Opinion Journal: The Egyptian Street Global View Columnist Bret Stephens and Matthew Kaminski of the editorial board... Opinion Journal: Wallison: Why I Dissented Peter Wallison of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission blames federal... See all Opinion Videos TODAY'S MOST POPULAR: OPINION 1. Opinion: Henninger: A Presidency to Nowhere 2. Opinion: Noonan: An Unserious Speech Misses the Mark 3. Opinion: Best of the Web Today: The Politics of Bloodlust 4. Opinion: After You, Mr. Ryan 5. Opinion: Strassel: Cap and Trade Returns from the Grave MORE TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIRECTLY from this list, click here. Your request will take effect within 48 hours. TO VIEW OR CHANGE any of your e-mail settings, click here. You are currently subscribed as david.r.bl...@verizon.net FOR FURTHER ASSISTANCE, please contact Customer Service at 1-800-JOURNAL (1-800-568-7625) between the hours of 7 am - 10 pm Monday - Friday ET and 8 am - 3 pm Saturday ET or e-mail onlinejour...@wsj.com. Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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