I don't know why it is that so many people feel obliged to sugercoat the life of a man like Jesse Helms upon his passage: to read about Helms' life even in organs like the New York Times, one would think he were a man of honor in spite of having a few flaws, when in truth Jesse Helms was nothing more than a power-hungry, vicious, ignorant, Bible-thumping racist and homophobe who just happened to have a talent for exciting the same prejudices in large numbers of white voters in North Carolina.
Fortunately, not everyone is willing to abide by such hypocrisy: Christopher Hitchens sets the record straight - the world is a better place without the worthless bastard's presence in it, and the only thing to be sad about is that Helms didn't die much sooner.
Helms is a blessed man. He was scheduled initially to on the very KAL flight that got shot down by the Russkies.
Posted by: Won Joon Choe | July 08, 2008 at 03:27 PM
P.S. I am glad that you now have a moderated Comments forum, and I will almost certainly do that if I ever Blog on my own.
Posted by: Won Joon Choe | July 08, 2008 at 03:31 PM
Just one tiny disagreement. And that is whether the guy was ignorant. I would say he knew exactly what he was doing, when he was doing it, all the time.
Posted by: slam | July 11, 2008 at 03:55 PM
"He was scheduled initially to on the very KAL flight that got shot down by the Russkies."
Evidently Satan protects his children ...
"I would say he knew exactly what he was doing, when he was doing it, all the time."
As far as politics is concerned, I'd say you were right. The domain of Helms' ignorance only encompassed that portion of life which is unrelated to hate and violence: on those two topics he could have written encyclopedias.
Posted by: Abiola | July 11, 2008 at 06:18 PM