NRO defends Palin's "blood libel"...

[one_voice]

The Term ‘Blood Libel’: More Common Than You Might Think

The use of the term “blood libel” in non-Jewish contexts is out of bounds, eh?

Andrew Sullivan, October 10, 2008:

A couple of obvious thoughts. Paladino speaks of “perverts who target our children and seek to destroy their lives.” This is the gay equivalent of the medieval (and Islamist) blood-libel against Jews.

Ann Coulter’s column, October 30, 2008:

His expert pontificator on race was The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, who said the Pittsburgh hoax was “the blood libel against black men concerning the defilement of the flower of Caucasian womanhood. It’s been with us for hundreds of years and, apparently, is still with us.”


*snip*



In the grand scheme of things, the idea that Palin used a phrase associated with one particular, egregious and historically recurring false accusation to rebut a modern false accusation seems like little reason for outrage. For perspective on what really is worth outrage, the services for 9-year-old victim Christina Taylor Green are tomorrow.

UPDATE: Some more examples, from my side of the aisle:

Jed Babbin, September 8, 2004: “When, in April 1971, John Kerry testified to a Senate committee that “…war crimes committed in Southeast Asia not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command,” he said that the average American soldier who fought in Vietnam was a war criminal. Kerry’s statement was false, a blood libel that hangs in the air to this day.”

Michael Barone, November 15, 2004: “And the argument against Michael Dukakis, which he never effectively countered because there is no effective counter, is that giving furlough to people who have life without parole is a position that Dukakis defended over 11 years as governor of Massachusetts or governor candidate, is a crazy law, and he supported it over 11 years. You don’t have to be a racist to want a murderer, whatever his race, to stay in jail and not be allowed outside on the weekend. To say that the American people were racist and they just want black people in, is blood libel on the American people.”

*snip*

http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/256955/term-blood-libel-more-common-you-might-think

edited for spelling..

[sabra]

1. NRO shows they know how to use Google...

additionally this the first I have seen anyone use this phrase for just one person rather than a whole group/race....

[mmonk]

2. Poor Sarah. Every time she opens her mouth,

she says something that people have to "explain" and attempt to defend.

[eleny]

3. Well, the NRO can excuse the hell all out of me

I never heard this term before and I'm over 60 years old. And I haven't been living under a rock, either.

I have to agree with sabra who replied here that the NRO just proved it knows how to Google.

This is nothing more than a "move along, nothing to see here" dismissal that I'm not buying.

[one_voice]

4. LOL! Maybe they can excuse me too, cuz..

I've never heard the expression before. I had to look it up this morning. :blush:

This term was chosen intentionally. They knew it would stir up people, and Sarah can continue to play the victim.

[DCKit]

5. OK, but Sullivan and Robinson used the term in it's proper context.

SP used it to martyr herself.

Big difference.