How Symbolic

A couple of months ago, the conservatives were foaming-at-the-mouth mad at Miller Brewing for being the corporate sponsors of the Folsom Street Festival. Led by Sykes and McBride, they were supposedly outraged about an advertisement for the event that had a group of leather-bound people doing a parody of the Last Supper. They claimed their righteous indignation came from having this group mock a painting of a Biblical story, and started a boycott of Miller products until Miller finally offered up an apology. The moral of the story appeared to be that everyone has the freedom of speech, unless it mocks their religion.

Apparently, that moral only applies to their religion. Today, Charlie Sykes posts on his website a posting that was originally posted by another right-wing blogger. The essence of the post is their umbrage at this bumper sticker:

Apparently, they feel threatened by peaceful coexistence.

Anyway, this other blogger photoshopped this bumper sticker into another form. (Due to the reprehensible nature of the photoshopped sticker, Whallah! is choosing not to post it, but if you really need to, you can find it on Charlie's site.) The gist is that two symbols of the original, the e and the Star of David are changed to the Sickle and Hammer and a swastika, respectively.

Yes, you read that right. They changed the Jewish icon, the Star of David, into a swastika, the symbol of Nazism, which hates the Jews, and tried to eradicate them in the Holocaust.

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Now, Whallah! recognizes the fact that everyone has a right to free speech. Whallah! also has it on a good, reliable authority, that the original author is a respected, if not affable person, who can say dumb things at times. Then again, who doesn't say things they later regret? I would not begin to speculate if the original author meant this maliciously, but would rather prefer the opinion of my friend that feels it was just an awkward blunder to prove some point.

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Likewise, even Charlie has the right to free speech, even though he doesn't feel the same to others. But it has to be noted the Journal Broadcast Group, which is affiliated with the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal, TMJ4, and 620TMJ radio, pays Charlie his salary to do this, pays for the site, and provides the technical support for him to do this. Does this mean that the Journal advocates this? Should we boycott the Journal, Channel 4 and the radio station until they apologize for this perceived bit of anti-Semitism?

I would vote no, but then again, I don't have the hypocrisy and the selective outrage thing down pat like those in the right-wing media. And besides, how else can Whallah! continue to monitor their foolish antics?

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For a different perspective of the same issue, check out Pundit Nation.