Here’s video from Noblesville, Indiana two nights ago, when Sarah Palin came for a book signing. And you know what? I am going to go ahead and risk alienating possible readers of this site by saying this is a TOTAL EMBARASSMENT.
They’re mad, apparently, because Borders bookstore promised the first 1000 people wristbands, and Sarah only signed books (up to two each!) for SEVEN HUNDRED PEOPLE.
So what do they do? They shout at her as she’s leaving to “SIGN OUR BOOKS!” like a bunch of freaking three year olds.
Look – I get that it was probably frustrating to wait in line and THINK you’re going to get a book signed, and then not get it signed. I get that. That would suck. But behaving like THIS? Totally ridiculous, and totally not in keeping with a conservative makeover.
You guys know that I get reeeeally excited about meeting influential people in politics. I still get the glees every time I see our Governor, and I probably always will. But you know what? When I heard that people were CAMPING OUT the night before for Sarah Palin, I thought to myself, “Self – I wouldn’t mind meeting Sarah, but there is no way in hell that I’m going to stand outside for hours to do it. NO ONE is worth that kind of effort.”
And I mean that. Even if Robbie Williams himself (and if you’re a Mock Dock follower, you know this is saying something) were here to sign album copies, I would not camp out for hours to meet him. Because when all is said and done, he’s just a person. He’s a regular red-blooded person. I will never understand the kind of fanatacism that drives people to this kind of behavior.
So here’s a lesson to Palin fans who were in that Noblesville crowd. GROW UP. She’s not a superhero. Maybe she got a hand cramp. Maybe she was just plain exhausted and sick and tired of hearing people gush over her all day. I wouldn’t blame her a bit. But yelling at her for ONLY signing 1400 books is totally lame.
GAWD.
She did have her youngest with her (not sure his exact age, but he was an infant during the campaigning, so around two years old maybe) and the book signing was 6-9pm (and I believe she stayed later than that).
The only time I stood in line was for my grandson as he wanted the new XBox or something like that. Stood in line from 2 am until almost opening time for the store which was 8 am. Was pretty close to the front of the line and they were only going to hand out 50 tickets we found out about 1/2 before 8. I was easily going to get a ticket to get in.
Well that was until a bunch of cars pulled up and out came about 25 black people and walk right to the front of the line. Management could have cared less as they were also black. Sure they called them to let them know what time to show up for the tickets. Never do that again.
I’m not entirely sure what being black had to do with your story, but I would be frustrated by anyone cutting in line — regardless of color, race, or creed.
One of the HUGE problems with this country today…Many people think they are ENTITLED to more than they really are….and when they don’t get what they want, they act like a bunch of spoiled brats…Conservative AND Liberal.
Michael, I teach high school. You couldn’t be more right. I see it everyday in my students. The sad thing is that entitlement is usually bred by their parents.
I don’t stand in line for hours on end for people OR things. Just not worth it.
Rachel is absolutely correct on all counts. I was going to make both comments:
1 Entitlement
2 The irrelevance of the race of the people in DM’s story.
DM, you’re prejudice is showing.
Dammit.
Typo.
*your*
Dammit.
Why is DM continually allowed to say this blatantly racist crap?? On the post on the Mockdock of the black woman wearing the belly bearing outfit, the said “to be honest they all look the same to me”. Hmmm seems he was saying all black people look the same. This is just one of several OBVIOUSLY racist things he has said, and hasn’t been told to shut it up or he won’t be allowed to post. Can’t take you guys too seriously if you let him say crap like that. Especially when you have threatened to not allow others to post because of namecalling.
I have called this out before and basically got no response. Seems now that the conservative readers are noticing, maybe you will pay attention?
Sarah – I don’t particularly like what DM insinuates in his/her messages either, but the fact of the matter is, he/she is not saying anything blatantly or outright offensive. We’re not going to start censoring what people MIGHT mean by their comments here.
There’s a huge difference, for example, in saying, “25 black people cut in line” and “I think black people suck” or using the n-word or something. The latter two examples are blatant racism. The first? Well, it’s stating a fact that DM happened to witness. Is it a relevant fact? I don’t think so, and obviously neither do others here. But I’m not going to delete it just because I think it’s irrelevant. I’d rather DM start to get the message from the other readers here – peer pressure, if you will.
To sum, I agree with your sentiments. I’m just not as quick as you are to want to silence someone just because they display their prejudices.
Hey! Sarah called me a conservative reader! Thanks, Sarah!
Not that it’s hard to figure out, but it’s nice to hear.
Happy Eid, everybody!
Well actually he/she once said that the black race was inferior either on here or the mockdock. How do you feel about that? Is that blatant enough for you?
I feel that it’s sick and wrong, personally. But I don’t recall seeing anything that blatant. If I’d have seen it, I would have likely said, “Hey – you know what? That’s inappropriate. If you want to say stuff like that, please take it somewhere else.” And then if there was a repeat, we’d deal with it.
That said, I’ve been personally offended by lots of comments here that I’ll never delete. This is something I thought liberals were good at – that whole tolerance and compassion for other viewpoints thing. I don’t like the idea of censorship and want to avoid it whenever possible. It’s a lot better, I think, to allow people to show their own stupidity than it is for me to cover it up.
We’ve only banned one person here ever, and that’s because he namecalled others here on our site and didn’t contribute jacksquat. DM has contributed to many discussions in a positive way. If he/she has prejudices, that sucks, but it doesn’t warrant being silenced.
Tolerance huh? Well, you can make a joke of it if you would like, but tolerating bigotry isn’t something I go by in life. Nor do any of my friends, liberal or conservative. Its too bad that you are so nonchalant about the hate talk DM spews, and that is precisely what it is. If he is that open about saying things like that in conversations where it isn’t even on the topic, I can’t fathom what he would say outside of this area. I am all for being open about your opinions and stances, but when you are insulting a whole race of people? That is not something that will help further any conversation.
Question: Should the Westboro Baptist folks be denied their free speech as well? You don’t get more hateful than that, and yet, because this is a free country, they are allowed to spew their radical nonsense near the funerals of soldiers. Do I hope they rot in hell? Yup – I do. But this is still America.
You may decide to ban whoever you’d like when and if you choose to run your own blog. I appreciate your passion and your COMpassion – you know I do – but we’re going to have to agree to disagree on how Daisy and I choose to moderate our own comments.
And thats fine. If you want to keep it this way, and only include people that follow exactly what you believe then it will work out great. If you want to include others that disagree but would like to engage in conversations with you, it would do you well to call people out on that stuff. I am not even saying ban him, all I am saying is that I DID see someone get banned, yet DM has continually been allowed to say this stuff without even a slap on the wrist. Its just disheartening to see him say something like that and have it be ignored. Not that you guys care if I’m around or not, but I don’t feel comfortable posting in a forum where racism isn’t called out by the moderators. Doesn’t feel like a safe place to me.
It’s not ignored, though. You and plenty of others in this post called him/her out on it. We don’t always comment on every post we write!
Surely you see the difference between DM and Elmo, who called everyone on this site totally disgusting names outright. DM may be so unaware of his/her own prejudices that he/she doesn’t even realize how offensive it sounds. The point is – it wasn’t the same kind of blatant name calling as the person who got banned used. And by the way, I don’t remember you criticizing Elmo (although granted, his outrageousness had nothing to do with race, which I know is your hot button.)
I don’t understand how you can criticize us for “only wanting to include people that follow exactly what we believe” and in the next breath criticize us for allowing DM’s comments, which we DON’T agree with, to stand. Whaaa?
SAFE? Really, Sarah? Here’s a head scratcher for you: where have you been every time we’ve been crucified by a leftist commenter? Or when a commenter goes offline and harasses us personally? Because I don’t think I’ve ever seen you come to our aid – you know – as that whole minority called “woman” to be SAFE on this site.
Interesting how you get to pick and choose WHAT is offensive and think that everyone else should live according to that “what’s offensive to Sarah” rule book. It’s typical of the liberal stance. Victimization at its best when, in actuality, you don’t give two craps if someone calls US whatever the insult du jour is…I just can’t recall a time when you’ve been so adamant about defending, well, us right-wing bitches.
The thing is – we don’t need to be defended, because we hold dear the notion that comments by ignorant people speak for themselves. And for the most part, I think our readers/commenters/US do a pretty good job in moderating the people who get out of hand out here or may not be playing nice in the sandbox. We HAVE smacked down some racist/sexist crazies in our short tenure. But we are not in the business of censoring everyone that YOU may deem offensive. Hell, if we did that – this site would be a blank screen. And if I actually thought I had that kind of power, I’d be able to squelch pretty much 3/4 of the Obama administration, as I find most of them extremely offensive…
Well he DOES agree with you politically and you have had many conversations with him, which is what I was referring to on having people agree with what you believe. I don’t mean on every single point you agree, but on many fundamental things, you do.
As for Elmo, there was definitely more than enough people calling him out, including you! My issue is that not many people HAVE called out DM, and I feel like one of the few. Another thing that worries me is how serious DM is, and how much anger there seems to be. Elmo just seemed like a joke, but I do agree with you not allowing him to post-he halted any conversation that would have occurred.
And I actually was just planning on commenting on another post in which another “liberal” made a complete ass of him or herself by being rude, namecalling, and generally mean about their reply.
Sarah – sweet, sweet naive Sarah. If you think someone like Elmo was harmless and funny (a ‘joke’), then you’re more wet behind the ears than I thought.
Way to delineate according to your OWN political prejudices. Wow.
Oh I never said that they were funny. If he is the one i am thinking of, he had a blog of his own right? He seemed very mentally unstable and the way he talked was worrisome. I’m saying that the way he presented himself was a joke, not in a funny way. Trust me, I don’t take the way he talked lightly and I am glad you took action and eliminated him from writing on here. Sorry if you feel I haven’t stood up for others in the past, I just decided to comment on something that seems to not have gotten much air time. I am not trying to ignore the stuff you two have had to deal with as women or as blog moderators.
So by my initial statement, it did seem like I wasn’t taking him seriously enough, sorry. I was, I just meant that it was pretty clear that he was unstable, and DM just inserts it in at random times that I wouldn’t think would elicit such comments.
You’re definitely right about that, Sarah! “Unstable” is probably waaaay too nice of a description for Elmo.
I will try to pay more attention to comments like the one DM posted above, if nothing else than to try and figure out the basis for them. Because yeah – it rubbed me wrong too. I just didn’t comment back, because I saw that others had beaten me to it.
Elmo is not the issue here….not drawing a line on this kind of crap sabbotages the good and productive efforts of the site owners and the site’s mission statement. Dam whats really in your heart and mind , it’s bad business and dammaging to the brand you are building here to allow comments that would unfairly insult a Michael Steele and his family for example, should he be quietly following. You guys are hanigng out with Govenors for goodness sakes, there are plenty of KKK sites around for DM to get off on, I’m sure he/she is already on them…. Major Dawg, Laurel, Rachel, QC, BB,others on this site -total class acts… “And out came 25 black people who walked right to the front of the line”…sh******t to not call that kind of stuff out as you grow will get noticed, and it doesnt mean you have to love everybody if you do and you can set limits with out censoring, thats all Sarah’s saying. She’s in your corner, wants to see you win and is absoltuey right about this.
JDN. Well said and point taken.
Thank you JDN, I appreciate everything you said! Very well put