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Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
I fail to see how the fact that she is "nothing more than a semen repository for half the men in her town." and that "She is poor white trash." has ANYTHING to do with Walter Smothers' killing of Dennis Brooks, Jr. However, that's probably part of the problem here - that dullards and generally unintelligent people believe that because of those things, she deserves to be jailed for life. It doesn't matter that the defense's case blaming Harris is the most ridiculous story concocted in the last 50 years - clearly, she must suffer and be punished for being poor white trash, and throwing her in jail for life for casting a spell on Smothers and causing him to commit the murder is good enough. Pinning it on her solves the problem that a woman like her must pay for her indiscretions somehow. Basically, anyone who believes that Deion Harris cast a spell on Smothers and is therefore responsible for the killing instead of Smothers himself is one of the dumbest, most ignorant morons I've ever seen in my life. I know that southern people have generally lower IQ's and due to that and their lack of education past eighth grade causes them to have very poor judgement, but even this is ridiculous. Not even the southern stereotype, when true, is enough to account for the amazing lack of insight into this case by the jurors and people like "Makeme Sick" who posted above. Well man, you do indeed make me sick. It's the biggest crock of shit to somehow be able to equate her actions with her being fully culpable for this murder. Hell, even partially. Smothers demonstrated RIGHT IN FRONT of her that he was ruthless and completely capable of vicious murder, and you expect her to go against his orders when he's armed with the weapon he just used to kill? That's insanity. Anyone with the nerve to say "no, I'm not going to help get rid of the body and I'm not going along with this" wouldn't be a hero, they would be dead right now first of all, and a lunatic for angering Smothers even further. Once she was away from Smothers, she had no problem relaying all the details of the incident to authorities. Thats all anyone could reasonably expect of her in that situation.
Anyone and everyone who truly believes that Harris is actually responsible for this murder, and that she deserves any more time in jail than she has already done, is an ignorant, sexist, bigoted idiot. Blaming her for this murder demonstrates amazing pent up hatred for women at the bottom of this country's socio-econmic class. There's no explanation beyond that, because believing the story that she cast a spell to force Smothers to commit the murder is ridiculous and beyond comprehension. You have to be an insane, ignorant as hell redneck to believe that pile of shit.
Harris is certainly not the first minority in this country to be blamed for a crime that they had no major part in. Nor will she be the last. And that travesty of justice, committed by scumbag prosecutors and backed up by scumbag jurors, is the real crime in this whole story at this point. Discrimination is alive and well in this country, particularly in the rural backwoods portions of it, and continues to be a tool of our "injustice" department. Wake up, people, this could happen to anyone at any time. You, too, could be in the wrong place at the wrong time and have a madman force you to cooperate in a murder coverup at gunpoint - and if you're in the south, and not a rich white man, you could rot in jail forever, too. Disgusting.
I hope and expect everyone who takes part in injustices like this rots in hell. There's a special place saved for you, I'm sure of it.
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
Tim McDonald, your wife was nothing more than a semen repository for half the men in her town. She is poor white trash. She is a lying, drug abusing, murdering, filthy whore. Tim McDonald, Dennis Brooks Jr. was "the boys" name. Dennis Brooks Jr. will never have a family or be able to complete college, and to live and die his own life on his own terms. Your wife took that away from the young man on that unfortunate July night when she and her drug addled defendants tortured him and took his life from him and the rest of his family and society. You should go to your ex wife and your biological children on hands and knees begging them to forgive you for your failings as a husband, father, and caregiver. You were cut from the same cloth as your new wife, it only took a lot longer for your mental illness to come to fruition. You are a sick piece of shit.
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
Thanks for a wonderful letter, Ms. Shayne!
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
My apologies to Vince Layne for apparently punching his sacred cow with my offhand comment about the 1980's alternative rock scene in my memorial to Charlie Louvin, but the irony that I was working on a story proposal about one element of the current local music scene right before I read his letter does not escape me.
Actually, Vince, you kind of proved my point by mentioning Nirvana, Sonic Youth, etc. The "scene" of eighties morphed into an entirely different beast as the nineties began, with some bands hitting the bigtime, other bands that we all thought would be big disappearing (The Replacements and Jason and the Scorchers anyone?) and a different scene with new bands and faces taking over at the grassroots level. And of course the "scene" of the nineties is now gone and has been replaced with the next wave (or two or three successive waves). But even though the music rolls on, that doesn't mean that one can't experience some disappointment when a particular "scene" you've invested yourself into subsides.
As for local shows, I'll freely admit I don't hit as many as I used to, middle age does catch up to you. But come to think of it I've never seen Vince Layne at any local shows! However I suspect that this has more to do with me not knowing what you look like, than you're actual absence.
And as for myself, I make no claim to "hipness." I'm actually a pretty nerdy, geeky guy, but as for the music of the Louvin Brothers or all other great music - old or new - that is where soul of true hipness does reside.
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
My apologies to Vince Layne for apparently punching his sacred cow with my offhand comment about the 1980's alternative rock scene in my memorial to Charlie Louvin, but the irony that I was working on a story proposal about one element of the current local music scene right before I read his letter does not escape me.
Actually, Vince, you kind of proved my point by mentioning Nirvana, Sonic Youth, etc. The "scene" of eighties morphed into an entirely different beast as the nineties began, with some bands hitting the bigtime, other bands that we all thought would be big disappearing (The Replacements and Jason and the Scorchers anyone?) and a different scene with new bands and faces taking over at the grassroots level. And of course the "scene" of the nineties is now gone and has been replaced with the next wave (or two or three successive waves). But even though the music rolls on, that doesn't mean that one can't experience some disappointment when a particular "scene" you've invested yourself into subsides.
As for local shows, I'll freely admit I don't hit as many as I used to, middle age does catch up to you. But come to think of it I've never seen Vince Layne at any local shows! However I suspect that this has more to do with me not knowing what you look like, than you're actual absence.
And as for myself, I make no claim to "hipness." I'm actually a pretty nerdy, geeky guy, but as for the music of the Louvin Brothers or all other great music - old or new - that is where soul of true hipness does reside.
Randy Fox
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
The saddest part of the situation is those with the sheepskin get the jobs, those with REAL experience, learned hands-on, with no degree, don't. I do not have a college degree, but at least I can read and write and pass a test that isn't multiple-guess. I can also put together sentences that make sense. I cringe at the current generation of "news reporters." Today's students are not ready to enter the real world and take real responsibility for their "I want it, I want it all, and I want it now" attitude.
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
I'd just like to clarify an assumption on your editors part- I'm not christian, I'm a Daoist. I just don't have much tolerance for intolerance; from ANY community. Religious institutions should have the right to exclude those who don't adhere to their beliefs.
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
I have been reading the "Scene" since moving to Nashville (The Country Hall of Fame City) from Cleveland, OH (The Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame City) in 1994. I am a very open-minded gal who was ALWAYS raised to "never judge a book by its cover", "It's whats in the inside that counts", etc. Basically, my Folks are extremely wonderful people who are always giving and live life the way they tought us...everyone is different, but whether you are rich, poor, thin, fat, gay, straight, handicapped or not, black, white or red we are all the same---HUMAN BEINGS!! I have been becoming a bit disappointed in your paper. I used to have journalistic faith in your writters, but more and more I see such hatred that it is "as thick as pea-soup"!! This is not what you stand for, is it??? Like my parents taught, everyone has a right to an opinion...yes, even those on the right. In the "Boner Awards" article this past week the leanings of yours were not even the closest bit hidden. I certainly don't agree with what you quoted those people as saying...but it sure seemed as though you only were giving your opinions about them. So, were they quoted fairly? Were they taken out of context? Did you even give one bad boner award to someone on the "Left"?? No!! As a liberal I am embarrassed by the one-sidedness of this and many other articles. Can you go back a little to the way you were say in the 1990's?? Fairness makes you look soooo very much better than so full of open hate. I mean, heck, I even watched Sarah Palin's Alaska show on T.V. (keep your enemies close and all that) I can't stand to say it, but she seemed pretty damn cool!! She sure has it heads and tails over many men in the outdoors that I know!! And she sure is NOT anti-Gay...many of her close family members were gays and lesbians and seemed to be very close to her. So, in the words of John Lennon, "Give Peace a Chance" and it will go a long way for you!! Thanks for REALLY LISTENING TO A FAN AND LONG TIME READER!!! Ms. Julie Ford
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
I really appreciated the Nashville Scene's articles on the Dr. Asa Andrew story back in September. But, has there been any follow-up by the Nashville Scene in regards to this story? Supposedly he was being brought up on charges by the TN Chiropractic Board on November 4, but the story just seems to have petered out. What's the deal?
An interested observer
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
Lesson Learned!
I guess hindsight is 20/20. Maybe not a clear, crisp 20/20, but lesson learned! More and more of us, Americans, are learning that corruption runs deep within this country, the leaders of Congress, their family member's tapped into key positions of FDA, CDC, military, those in control of oil fields and private interests, The Federal Reserve, the corporation called American or United States of America. And just because the lady smiling at you, or gentleman smiling at you, pitching an elective procedure that practically guarantees you a perfect gift of sight, 20/20 vision, aka LASIK elective surgery, means absolutely nothing in today's corrupt and egregious society!!
Especially with physicians, you have to really interview them instead of take their suggestions and experiences as "truth or gold." It's not...usually it's just barely better than the worst "used car salesman pitch." That's how lacking our physicians in this country have become (women, men, black, white, Chinese, Greek, Italian, Jewish, whatever...corruption runs deep in every form that lusts power and love for money).
And this doctor that ruined your vision, is no different. Trying to sue you and shut you up to protect his love and greed for his blood money, derrived from LASIK, lying and teaching his staff how to lie to patients, filing not one mandatory FDA Medwatch for each eye being permanently injured, while he continues to tell himself every Sunday in church "that he is a good man, a good ethical doctor, providing an honest service to his patients..." While the truth be told, he is NO different in nature than the drug lords beheading innocent victims, nor is he or his staff different than the South African diamond mind lords and the blood money that they have earned whether they are killing people to earn a hefty living to better themselves off of the misery of the people that suffer a death, or a slow death from having their ruined vision and quality of life stolen from them, by someone who looked like a "good person, a doctor, someone who swore to protect the patient and not the blood bath LASIK industry..."
Again, we had to have our "quality of vision robbed of us," so we could clearly see how corrupt, demonic and egregious LASIK doctors have become. They will lie daily and tell you that you suffer "temporary side effects," to avoid being sued, their career ended, and to avoid facing a criminal courtroom for having daily violated "the Medical Hippocratic Oath" they swore so long ago...
From now on, it's criminal intent! It's criminal what is happening, and these doctors should know that "one patient at a time, with our video recording Iphone 4g's and HTC phones, we will record the lies, present the crime to a criminal court and let the judge decide if these lies are worthy of fines, suspensions and possibly jail time/criminal prosecutions..."
The time is coming...LASIK Doctors, you will be in jail for your actions!
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
themigrainedoctor:
What is wrong with the nervous system or what is triggering the nervous system to react in an aberrant fashion?
It would be amazing to find out so many people with migraines simply have a disorder.
I guess people with gut issues simply have a gut disorder...?
Everyone with arthritis simply have a musculo-skeletal disorder?
Doubt it... :))
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
Migraines are a disorder of the nervous system. Foot baths, lotions and potions are not going to correct the cause. You need to find out what is wrong with the nervous system before you can find and effective treatment of migraines. http://www.themigrainedoctor.com
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
RE: Preventive medicine vs. Big Pharma
Martin Holsinger, you're right about niacin. There's a great deal of corroborating evidence at cholesterolscore.com about niacin therapy.
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
The Brian Mayes' nurse must to listen the Nasville group The Dead Weather ( Alison Mosshart, Dean Fertita and the two Jack).. They are Yes.Great. Blue Blood Blues singing a ballad to our favourite dreams of ilness: Doctors, Hospitals, Drugs and Graves. And the Chinese Plain Truth: Medicine is a Fraud for the Living Corpses.
-Daniel de Culla
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
To clarify a bit, my $1100 eye exam happened at a hospital opthamology clinic, where I have been getting treatment for glaucoma and, now, cataracts, and it quite took me by surprise, because they have generally been much more reasonable with their charges--for a hospital, anyway!
I initially went to this hospital almost two years ago with a seriously irregular heartbeat. I had just come from a local public clinic, where the MD in charge did an EKG and told me to get my ass to the hospital, and charged me $90. At the emergency room, they gave me an EKG and some pharmaceuticals to calm my hard-beating heart down, and charged me...the magic number, $1100!
So yeah, I'm in debt up to my ears over this whole episode--$30K for a long weekend in the hospital, which, fortunately, they're letting us pay off at a rate we can afford--but, even though low income, we aren't eligible for Tenncare because we own our own home. It's paid for; if we had to rent, our expenses would be a whole lot higher, and we would really be in trouble. Go figure....
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
You seem to be so scared of the Islamic growth that you and many others like you feel it is their obligation to once again take the help of scare tactics like george Bush and other like minded people who killed innocent civilians in Iraq recently. How studpid do you think the world is Vijay. I am Indian living overseas and I have seen the racism and hatred that is widepsread in India not only against muslims but dont forget against your very own Hindus who have been so articulately divided into caste systems. Yeah I can see you red faced now that I have exposed the hypocrisy of your religion that believes that the Harijans are from the feet of the god brahma and hence are untouchables.
I dont think you need to worry about Muslim reformation or Muslims invading US or anything else of that effect but go home where you are from and fix the problems in your religion and culture rather than preaching about Islam a religion you know nothing about. You may be able to do something about the situation there. Muslims and Christians have lone lived in peace and will continue to do so. All the crusades could not destroy this relationship so 9/11 or the extreme jihadists will not be able to either. HAlf of the facts you have given are false and it shows that you are ill informed and ignorant. So you may have got some idiots' votes buthey again like minded people think alike and I dont blame them.
So my dear friend the enemy is not Islam but some people like you who are on a self destructive mission to nowhere. Remember no amount of Quran burning will bring this religion down...thats just a silly idea like weapons of mass destruction.
I Khan
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
... and " the sillies will see God " as said Victor Hugo. What of nonsenses we have to listen when there's an one plain truth: "When in doubt, fuck it. When not in doubt, get in doubt" ( POEE )
"What not wanted worms, christians eat"
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
The Enemy is Islamic Imperialism
An answer to Matt Pulle (the unedited piece)
To Matt Pulle in response to the article “The Enemy is Us”: Unless you were in prison, or under house arrest, or living outside of Nashville, you would have seen my billboards demanding that we defeat Universal Jihad. Somehow, those billboards—which were seen every day by nearly three hundred thousand people—seem to have escaped your notice. You did not bother to mention my candidacy for the United States Congress, even though I received 3,100 votes, because you are an elitist, and because you cannot dismiss me as just an uninformed Southern politician who has only hearsay experience with Islam. I lived in Islamic countries, visited many of them, and grew up in a city in India where nearly half the population is Muslim. I was in Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
I have been concerned about Islamic imperialism since 1979, 22 years before the September 11th, 2001 attacks.
You mention three Nashvillians with extraordinary careers. I salute their professional achievements. When such persons visit Islamic nations, of course, they are well received because they represent the only real super power on Earth. When you visit an Islamic country in official capacity, or any foreign nation for that matter, you see through a set of colored glasses; "reality" is defined for you by your hosts.
In your article, you mention nothing about the Quran, the Sira, and Hadith: the trilogy of Islam. You did not interview apostates who have left Islam and so are living under Fatwahs. There are born-Muslims, some of whom have memorized the entire Quran—call hafiz—born to people who are deeply religious or Ayatollahs or Imams, and who yet have left Islam and become vocal critics.
You did not interview a single person who is holding an opposing view. Your understanding is totally ahistorical. Perhaps you don't even know that there are Muslims (not in Islamic nations, mind you) in England, France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark demanding Sharia.
You seem to have forgotten about the London, Madrid, and Mumbai bombings.
You may not know what is happening in Kashmir. You are not aware, or you deliberately ignore, that Kashmir, and what is now Pakistan, were once Hindu nations. Afghanistan was Buddhist, Iran was Zoroastrian, Turkey was Christian, Egypt was Christian, Lebanon was Christian.
Out of 22 or so active conflicts in the world, 20 involve Muslims. Islam has bloody borders. The Muslim mosques are centers of political power, not just places of worship.
Let us address that problematic word "religion." What is religion? How do you define it? Who is the authority that defines what is religion? According to Islam and Muslims, two billion Hindus and Buddhists do not have a religion. They may have a culture. But Hinduism and Buddhism are not religions according Muslims. So, whose definition do you accept?
Professor Alfred North Whitehead, Harvard philosopher, said that "Religion is what the individual does in his solitariness." You do not have to accept professor Whitehead's definition. But unless you define the world "religion," it would be prudent not to use it so recklessly.
So what is religion? I think it is safe to say, each religion must have an exit policy, or it is not a religion but a trap. If you leave Hinduism (as I did) or Buddhism or Christianity, you will not be murdered. In Islam, apostates are murdered.
Religion tolerates criticism. Islam does not. Religions should be primarily interested in transforming the individuals to be better human beings, not in imperial conquest.
That which has no exit policy for its followers except death, that which is not open any form of criticism or self-criticism, that which is in violent and perennial conflict with every other metaphysical system, that which seeks imperial conquest of every other nation is not a religion. It is an imperialist ideology.
Do you know that according to Islam, the value of the life of a Hindu woman is 6.25 cents on a dollar when compared with the value of the life of a male Arab Muslim? Is that what you defend as "religion"?
In infidel countries such as United States, where Islam has no political power yet--Barack Hussein Obama might be a crypto-Muslim, not yet an open adherent--all mosques are started as "moderates" in the beginning. In a later stage they always are taken over by the young and more extreme elements. That is a historical fact. If you have any doubts, please go visit mosques in England or Germany or France or Netherlands.
Muslims never assimilate into the host society. After a thousand years of co-existence in India, in 1947, Muslims wanted their own country—Pakistan. Now the major exports of Pakistan are terrorism, illegal immigration, and Sharia law. Such experience is not limited to India. It is true in Cyprus, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan.
In Iran, the Zoroastrian faith, in Afghanistan, Buddhism, and in Pakistan, Hinduism have been completely annihilated. Let us ask ourselves a question: would you rather have a Buddhist Afghanistan or Talibanized Afghanistan? Would you prefer to have the Dalai Lama or Bin Laden as your next door neighbor, if you had to choose between the two?
Islam does not assimilate.
The Quran is not only a religious treatise. It is also a political document. As a political document it is incompatible with the United States Constitution.
For all six billion infidels (non-Muslims), the Quran is nothing but a political document that demands the suppression and destruction all forms of ideological, philosophical, theological, and political pluralism.
The U.S. Constitution defends pluralism. The Quran orders to annihilate it.
There is no doctrine of separation of church and state in Islam. Americans will have to address the issue of incompatibility of the Quran and the U.S. Constitution--if not today, ten or a hundred years from now. But it will come.
You interview three eminent individuals. Eminent they may be, but they certainly are not scholars of Islam. They have not been subjected under Islamic rule. Their privileged position itself is a handicap to anything approaching real understanding of the issues. They cannot see the subject from the eyes of the victim.
As I write these words, sixty thousand Sikhs in Indian Kashmir are being told to convert to Islam or leave the Kashmir Valley, the land of their ancestors for thousands of years.
Do not accuse me of being another "Southern conservative politician" who has no knowledge of Islam. I was liberal most of my life. I supported, worked for, and contributed to the campaigns of Gore, Bredesen, Clement, and, yes, even Cooper. I consider myself a rationalist and embrace empiricist epistemologies. I left the Left (and liberalism) because of liberals' intellectual dishonesty in addressing the question of Islamic imperialism and hegemony. I left the Left because I reject their elitist arrogance: that the Leftist elites, know everything (what is good for everyone), and everyone else is illiberal and anti-intellectual.
You cherry-picked those people who you thought would fit and support your pre-conceived ideas of Islam. If you bothered to call me or several other individuals who have been actively resisting the growth of Islamic hegemony in Tennessee, I would have been happy to have informed you of the fallacies you filled your article with.
The enemy is not us. The enemy is Islamic imperialism. It is time for a great Muslim reformation. Surely it can begin in the great state of Tennessee. And Middle Tennessee Muslims can surely be in the vanguards of such a movement
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
I have to agree with Mr. Wishnow. I have been in Nashville for three years and have been amazed at some of my experiences. While there are lovely people here that I care deeply about, I am absolutely shocked by most of the political rhetoric i see. I think Nashville is very fortunate to have Karl Dean as their mayor but the people running for governor come straight out of a 1950's stereotype of the ignorant southerner. When I first arrived and was looking for a house to rent I was quizzed in depth by one local couple about my religious beliefs, only to be told they would not rent to me because I'm not christian. When I share these experiences with friends around the country they cannot imagine why I am here.
Respectfully,
Lynn Wilson, M.Ed.
Re: “Love/Hate Mail”
I was very gratified to see Assistant District Attorney Jeff Burks' response to Brantley Hargrove's well-written, but very biased and one-sided discussion of Cyntoia Brown's execution of Johnny Allen.
As someone who, many years ago, worked with drug-addicted and violent offenders, I knew others like Ms. Brown. They had the same veneer of superficial charm masking a propensity for violence they could barely control.
Hargrove's badly strained attempt to characterize Cyntoia's act as "impulsive" fell flat. It simply made no sense. When rolling out this "self-defense" theory for the television cameras, Cyntoia had trouble keeping a straight face. There was no reliving of terror and fear, simply a calm retelling, as if she were recalling cribbed notes she'd made to herself.
The best explanation for her act is the simplest one. Out plying one of her trades, she found herself in bed next to a sleeping Mr. Allen, and recognized a situation with a lot of potential for profit. Killing Allen wasn't impulsive at all. To a juvenile psychopath, it provided a neat solution to the problem of incapacitating Mr. Allen so his house could be looted. Plus, it would give her additional street cred. She probably figured (wrongly) that if ever caught, she'd have to do a brief stint in juvy.
Cyntoia's subsequent actions were not those of a highly intelligent, frantic person terrified after an "impulsive" act of self-defense. Rather, they were the standard chillingly stupid and completely amoral actions of the teen psychopath. Recruit some help, go in, loot the dead dude's stuff. One of the reasons psychopaths get caught is that they don't have the standard fear mechanism.
Attempts to present Cyntoia as "intelligent" and "attractive" seem equally strained, just as Hargrove's very selective rendering of Mr. Allen's background was designed to dehumanize him.
I congratulate Mr. Burks for putting Cyntoia Brown where she belongs --- safely behind bars for a long, long time. And I'm grateful that he came forward to confront Mr. Hargrove's sympathy piece with some important facts.