Year: 2014
I’m sure he would zip his lip if this opportunity presents itself again, but the damage is already done and Stephen A. Smith is in a bowl of hot water over comments he made about domestic abuse.
For those who haven’t heard, Smith’s conclusion on the matter was basically this: He is against domestic abuse, but he is not going to blame the man alone. He thinks the woman has some responsibility in preventing her own abuse.
Smith of ESPN Sports and his co-host Skip Bayless, were discussing the events surrounding the NFL’s 2 game suspension of Ray Rice. Rice was caught on camera knocking out his significant other, and so, Smith’s discussion of the matter began. But the part of Smith’s take that is causing waves nationwide is where he said, “it’s not about him, then. It’s about you,” referring to the woman being abused.
Here’s the full transcript of Smith’s reasoning;
It’s not about him, then. It’s about you, and here’s what I mean by that.
We keep talking about the guys. We know you have no business putting your hands on a woman. I don’t know how many times I got to reiterate that. But as a man who was raised by women, see I know what I’m going to do if somebody touches a female member of my family. I know what I’m going to do, I know what my boys are going to do. I know what, I’m going to have to remind myself that I work for the Worldwide Leader, I’m going to have to get law enforcement officials involved because of what I’m going to be tempted to do. But what I’ve tried to employ the female members of my family, some of who you all met and talked to and what have you, is that again, and this what, I’ve done this all my life, let’s make sure we don’t do anything to provoke wrong actions, because if I come, or somebody else come, whether it’s law enforcement officials, your brother or the fellas that you know, if we come after somebody has put their hands on you, it doesn’t negate the fact that they already put their hands on you. So let’s try to make sure that we can do our part in making sure that that doesn’t happen.
Now you got some dudes that are just horrible and they’re going to do it anyway, and there’s never an excuse to put your hands on a woman. But domestic violence or whatever the case may be, with men putting their hands on women, is obviously a very real, real issue in our society. And I think that just talking about what guys shouldn’t do, we got to also make sure that you can do your part to do whatever you can do to make, to try to make sure it doesn’t happen.
We know they’re wrong. We know they’re criminals. We know they probably deserve to be in jail. In Ray Rice’s case, he probably deserves more than a 2-game suspension which we both acknowledged. But at the same time, we also have to make sure that we learn as much as we can about elements of provocation. Not that there’s real provocation, but the elements of provocation, you got to make sure that you address them, because we’ve got to do is do what we can to try to prevent the situation from happening in any way. And I don’t think that’s broached enough, is all I’m saying. No point of blame.
After the backlash started, Smith went on twitter to try and clarify his words, even saying he was sorry for the misunderstanding. But the damage was already done. Trying to calm the storm, Smith said;
Upon hearing what I had to say, although admitting I could have been more articulate on the matter, let me be clear: I don’t understand how on earth someone could interpret that I somehow was saying women are to blame for domestic violence.
But what about addressing women on how they can help prevent the obvious wrong being done upon them? In no way was accusing a women of being wrong. I was simply saying that preventative measures always need to be addressed because there’s only but so much that can be done after the fact, once he damage is already done.
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I share your feelings sir, and then I shared them on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest! These Republicans/Teaparty members are thorns in the flesh of America’s progress!
Mr. King took to twitter and expressed his frustrations with the hypocrisy that is the Republicans Teaparty members in this country. The same folks who call themselves “Christians,” but are quick to turn their backs on the least amoungst us – the kids crossing the borders trying to escape the turmoil in their country!
What would Jesus do?
These are Stephen King’s Tweets;
But, of course you know what was coming. The people King referred to in his tweets decided to defend their hate for the children trying to escape the hardships in their countries. They were not kind to King at all…!
And they didn’t stop there, they continued. But you’ll have to see his twitter feed if you want to know what other crazy things they said to King because of his tweets. I have reached my crazy tweets limit for today!
I guess we should thank Israel for their kindness in allowing the innocent residents of Gaza – the ones still alive – to pull their dead from the rubble. Instead of a 12 hour cease fire, Israel gave the poor souls an additional 4 hours to prepare for more bloodshed!
Thousands of Gaza residents who fled the violence streamed back to devastated border areas during Saturday’s truce to find large-scale destruction: fighting pulverized scores of homes, wreckage blocked roads and power cables dangled in the streets.
In the northern town of Beit Hanoun, Siham Kafarneh, 37, sat on the steps of a small grocery, weeping. The mother of eight said the home she had spent 10 years saving up for and moved into two months earlier had been destroyed.
“Nothing is left. Everything I have is gone,” she said.
Across Gaza, more than 130 bodies were pulled from the rubble Saturday, officials said. In southern Gaza, 20 members of an extended family were killed before the start of the lull when a tank shell hit a building where they had sought refuge, Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra said.
Israel launched a major air campaign in Gaza on July 8 and later sent ground troops into the Hamas-ruled territory in an operation it said was aimed at halting Palestinian rocket fire and destroying cross-border tunnels used for attacks.
She is simply “Heaven!”
So apparently there is this program called “Naked Dating.” And this is apparently the promo they did for YouTube. This promo is apparently called “Naked Dancing.”
Now I’m not talking bad about the show, I’m all for freedom of expression but… OMG!
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Fox “News” and the Republicans would tell you different, but facts are facts!
In this week’s address, president Obama called on congress to close the tax loophole that allow some American companies to adopt the leaching mentality. The leachers sell their products to the American people, collect huge amounts in profit, but avoid paying taxes on their income by claiming overseas tax status.
Walgreens, the company that calls itself “the pharmacy America trusts,” is one of these companies, currently considering moving their operations to foreign shores to avoid paying taxes here in America.
The President;
Even as corporate profits are as high as ever, a small but growing group of big corporations are fleeing the country to get out of paying taxes. They’re keeping most of their business inside the United States, but they’re basically renouncing their citizenship and declaring that they’re based somewhere else, just to avoid paying their fair share.
I want to be clear: this is only a few big corporations so far. The vast majority of American businesses pay their taxes right here in the United States. But when some companies cherrypick their taxes, it damages the country’s finances. It adds to the deficit. It makes it harder to invest in the things that will keep America strong, and it sticks you with the tab for what they stash offshore. Right now, a loophole in our tax laws makes this totally legal – and I think that’s totally wrong. You don’t get to pick which rules you play by, or which tax rate you pay, and neither should these companies.
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… for YouTube!
Arizona Senator John McCain has been upset with President Obama since Obama kicked his butt in the 2008 presidential elections. So every chance he gets, McCain tries to chastised the president even when it’s clearly not warranted.
In his last appearance on CNN, McCain blamed Obama for everything that has gone wrong in the world, claiming the world is in “greater turmoil than at any time in my lifetime” and it is a “direct result of an absence of American leadership.”
CNN’S Fareed Zakaria rightfully disagreed, and took a moment to gently slam McCain in this Washington Post op-ed, by giving the senator a history lesson on all of the arguably much worse wars and struggles that occurred after McCain was born by before Barack Obama became president.
Last night, Zakaria sat down for an interview with his “future boss” Jon Stewart to elaborate on what he meant. Citing the Cold War, the war in Vietnam and the 1973 war between Israel and Egypt, Zakaria tried to give McCain some perspective.
When Stewart brought up the Civil War as yet another example, Zakaria replied, “You might have forgotten, that wasn’t in McCain’s lifetime… Though I can understand the mistake.”
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Usually, I disagree with just about everything conservatives say. Their way of thinking is on a level I really cannot stoop to. And believe me, I’ve tried. It has always been my intention to understand their reasoning or lack thereof, but it has finally dawned on me that I simply cannot do it.
That is why I was baffled when I found myself agreeing with a conservative judge who proposed an old fashioned and rather draconian way of executing death row inmates – the firing squad.
Now hold on, hear me out a second. No, I have not figured out a way to understand the conservative way of thinking, like I stated earlier, that’s impossible for me to do. What I think has happened in this case is the conservative judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, has elevated his thinking to my level.
What do I mean by that? Well it’s simple. I’ve always believed that the death penalty and executions, are horrible aways for a civilized society to deal with those who have committed unthinkable crimes. I would like to think that we call ourselves “civilized” for a reason. I have no problems with locking these folks up for the rest of their lives, but putting someone to death, no matter the way we choose to do it, seems rather primitive.
That is why I agree with the judge. Not because I agree with the method he proposed, I don’t. But rather because I agree with the message that method sends – that the death penalty is a “brutal” act.
In his dissent in the Arizona death penalty case of Joseph Rudolph Wood III, Chef Judge Alex Kozinski wrote;
“Using drugs meant for individuals with medical needs to carry out executions is a misguided effort to mask the brutality of executions by making them look serene and beautiful — like something any one of us might experience in our final moments.
“But executions are, in fact, brutal, savage events, and nothing the state tries to do can mask that reality. Nor should we. If we as a society want to carry out executions, we should be willing to face the fact that the state is committing a horrendous brutality on our behalf.”
Indeed. Why try to mask the killing of a human being by making the process look like a medical procedure. If you are serious about what you want to do with the inmate and your “civilized” morals are okay with killing that person, then show the execution for what it really is, a brutal Savage event. Maybe then we will see just how barbaric we really are and maybe, just maybe we will change.