Cecil Nation Open Thread

Cecil vs. Colbert coming soon?

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Is he made of wood that weighs as much as a duck?

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people made of wood should not be allowed on the TV!

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Hey – I’ve just learned that my TV doesn’t float. Is that good or evil?

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Hey, don’t quit, Anonymous Admin Avatar. I gave you a “Thumbs Up!”

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Apparently they couldn’t get a satellite truck to Asheville soon enough to get Cecil on MSNBC last night, but Rachel Maddow did interview the legal director of the NC ACLU.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#34424043

My favorite moment came when she felt she had to point out that

“The City Attorney’s office over there in Asheville, there’s some smart people over there, and they know the law.”

Like, America had to be reassured that we’re not ALL the cast of “Idiocracy” out here in Asheville…

Thanks Matt, Chad, H.K., and David Morgan. Thanks a lot.

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What a disappointment. Cecil is a longtime investigative reporter and author who helped put our former sheriff behind bars in a federal prison. No one else was better suited to tell his story, yet after a big buildup MSNBC put on a personality-less attorney instead.

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I was disappointed that Rachel Maddow didn’t open the segment with Don Yelton & H.K. Edgerton sitting side-by-side at the piano singing Those Were The Days:

Boy, the way Glen Miller played. Songs that made the hit parade.
Guys like us, we had it made. Those were the days.

Didn’t need no welfare state. Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee, our old LaSalle ran great. Those were the days.

And you know who you were then, girls were girls and men were men.
Mister, we could use a man like George Wallace again.

People seemed to be content. Fifty dollars paid the rent.
Freaks were in a circus tent. Those were the days.

Take a little Sunday spin, go to watch the Tourists win.
Have yourself a dandy day that cost you under a fin.

Hair was short and skirts were long. Kate Smith really sold a song.
I don’t know just what went wrong. Those were the days…

My apologies to Jean Stapleton. Lyrics (most of them anyway) by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse.

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Wow – Hello, Daddy.

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I thought this was interesting — it’s taken from an email to Andrew Sullivan over at The Daily Dish and provides some valuable cultural perspective on this whole church-state-atheism thing to those of us who didn’t grow up in the deep south (or as a Southern Baptist):

“I was raised Southern Baptist (still practicing, or at least doing my best) in a county that had only one red light (still probably only has about 10 or so). One thing that most people who are not from the South, simply cannot fully appreciate about many parts of the South, is just how deeply religion permeates the culture. I don’t mean this in a bad way, it’s just that, for many people who live in very rural, small towns, the church, and their church family, is..simply put… a deeply significant part of who these people ARE. There are no museums or opera houses, concert halls, or live theater in these small towns. Just one generation ago, there were no counselors; the local church provides ALL of these functions. The local church pastor IS the counselor many turn to. The Christmas play is the ONLY “theater” many of these people have ever seen, or care to. This past year’s Easter pageant IS the concert outlet for them. Now this is not true everywhere in the South, you will find splendid museums in Nashville, and dozens of music and theater outlets in the megapolis of Atlanta, but small-town, rural areas that make up much of the South’s countryside are definitely like this. This is why, criticizing or challenging one’s religious beliefs in the South is tantamount to challenging their entire life and culture.”

When my partner Mike and I first moved to Asheville, we took my nephew over to the Fun Depot and I was taken aback by seeing the Ten Commandments inside up on a billboard. Not in a negative way (I am a practicing Christian) but I did think it odd coming from where I did — New York, DC, and Florida — where religion, culturally speaking, is a private matter and one’s professed beliefs (or lack thereof) certainly do not figure in to one’s qualification to hold public office.

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The idle threats are so we all jump and freak and get distracted. I plead guilty to over-reacting. If there IS any legal action filed, someone should immediately follow the money – it will almost certainly be paid for by the deepest racist groups or individuals in the South, is my prediction. It isn’t just religious types up in arms – there are still people out there who don’t recognize the authority of the US Constitution. They hope to re-ignite the Civil War. Like these business partners of H.K. Edgerton:

http://barberandcompany.com/barber_store/view_details?department_id=10&item_id=17033

I suspect that even the most partisan dirtbags out there know it would be like pouring their own money down the latrine to file any sort of lawsuit, and they are probably aware of how much they would have even other conservatives turn on them if they tried. This is a lose-lose for anyone who files. Doesn’t mean there aren’t some people stupid enough.

(* brought to you by Carl’s Jr.).

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