Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Politics Campfield Responds to Controversy Via Blog
Posted by Jonathan Meador on Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 5:42 AM
In the annals of cognitive dissonance, few would be better apt to claim a prize for Best Doublethink than Tennessee Sen. Stacey Campfield, who has responded to criticism over his so-quaint-they're-dangerous remarks on AIDS via his blog by accusing others of the very thing he is guilty of himself.
Here's a lengthy excerpt from a blog post (playfully titled "More fun than a barrel of monkeys") in which Campfield again bends space-time seemingly in his favor, detailing his getting kicked out of a Knoxville restaurant for being a discriminatory blowhard:
As you may have read I was asked to leave a restaurant in Knoxville because my beliefs did not support the owners beliefs on homosexuality. I had not said anything. I was just standing there waiting for a table when the owner came up and started yelling at me calling me names and telling me they were not going to serve me because of my alleged beliefs saying I hate gays. I said in as calm a way as I could that I don't hate gays and the things I have said were backed up by the CDC. I offered to send her the links.I have been quite open and clear on my beliefs and have backed them up with facts from the CDC and others. Unfortunately some people do not let facts get in the way of their prejudice.
She looked confused on what to do for a second then she started to yell and call me names again so I figured it was better to just leave. As Jesus said, "If you are not welcomed in a town shake the dust off your feet and move on". My friends and I went to latitude 35 and had a good breakfast.
The cries of "Ha ha. we showed him!" fall flat to me. It is not I who lost out. My friends and I still had a good meal. We just gave our money to a more gracious host.
What was showed was a lack of professionalism. In my legislative role I have always had an open door to any of my constituency. Gay rights groups have been in my office several times and I would like to think that even though we may disagree on some issues I have always treated them graciously.
Professionalism. Right.
The above emphasis is Pith's, meant to highlight Campfield's amazing capacity for chiding others for letting ideology get in the way of facts while being guilty of the same.
We're not sure which CDC Campfield is referring to, but for sake of argument, we'll assume it's the Center for Disease Control, whose own website not only reveals that AIDS didn't come from "some guy who screwed a monkey," but that you can get it from regular, God-fearing vaginal intercourse as well, because it's the most common form of HIV-AIDS transmission in the world.
But Campfield does more than cherry-pick his CDC stats. His other notable citations are a Christian apologetics website called The Road to Emmaus; the pro-life/anti-choice site Life Site News, a propaganda organ for the fear-mongering Campaign Life Coalition; and a letter to the editor of The Straight Dope from 1988.
Facts, of course, mean very little to people like Campfield, except for when they're not really facts at all yet retain an overall shape of truthiness to further a fact-averse agenda.
He goes on to show how multicultural he is by relating this anecdote about lunch counters:
In the '60s my grandfather sat at the lunch counters with the blacks in Knoxville to help break up the segregation of the races. I guess some people still support segregation. Just segregation of thought. Some people have told me my civil rights were violated under the 1964 civil rights act in that a person can not be denied service based on their religious beliefs. (I am catholic and the catholic church does not support the act of homosexuality) I had not thought about that much.I just figured this is just another example of the open minded tolerant left. They claim tolerances for divergent points of view.....Until someone actually has one. Then they don't know how to handle it.
Oh! Playing the "politically correct" card, eh? Suave, Campfield. Tres suave. And comparing yourself to blacks in the civil rights era? Simply magnificent.
Knoxville, you've come a long way, baby.
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Comments (7)
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Stacey is a prime representative of Republicans in 2012: willfully ignorant, unapologetically bigoted.
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Actually, Meador, you're on an ambiguous route. If you use a link you cited to the CDC and then click "Origins," you find that HIV was traced to chimps. Aha! Using previous knowledge (not mentioned in link) about green monkeys and their version, SIV, which they are immune to, and knowing that researchers infected macaques with green monkey SIV and the macaques died, and knowing that HIV is in constant mutation, then it would be reasonable to assume that SIV is too. Back to the chimps. Everybody knows by now that chimps hunt and kill and eat monkeys. Sure, you knew that, didn't you? So it's entirely possible, and even probable, that the original HIV in chimps is mutated SIV from green monkeys eaten by the chimps. How was the HIV transferred to humans? Some guy ate a chimp, was bitten by a chimp, screwed a chimp, or kissed a chimp. Off current knowledge it's the only theory that makes sense.
I wonder which Nashville restaurant will skyrocket its sales by becoming the first to refuse service to Campfield — or even announcing pre-emptively that Campfield will be turned away if he shows up.
The restaurant was a good start. Now if we can just kick him out of our state..
I may be wrong but isn't his claim that his civil rights were violated false? A business owner can refuse service to any individual, but cannot discriminate against a class of people, e.g. racial, religious, ethnic, etc. As long as the restaurant does not refuse service to all Catholics, they are on safe legal ground, right? Any lawyers care to weigh in?
Growing up in Knoxville in the 60's I do not recall much in the way of lunch counter sit-ins. This may be why ....
http://www.tba.org/journal_new/index.php/c…
Knoxville. Believing the atmosphere in Knoxville was more congenial between whites and blacks than in other cities, Knoxville College President Dr. James Colston asked his students not to protest until he could try negotiating with city leaders. Mayor John Duncan Sr. was easily convinced and, along with other city leaders, negotiated with merchants in the spring of 1960 for desegregation. He took a delegation of Knoxville Chamber of Commerce representatives and two Knoxville College student leaders, to the New York headquarters of some chain stores to ask them to order their Knoxville branches to desegregate their eating facilities. The executives refused to meet with them. In May the Knoxville merchants announced they would not desegregate. So on June 9, 1960, feeling they had no choice, students began sitting in. Duncan continued his support of lunch counter integration and directed police officers to protect the rights of sit-in protesters. In such an atmosphere Knoxville’s sit-ins were peaceful. By July 12, after barely a month of lunch-counter protests, downtown merchants changed their stand, and desegregation of downtown eating facilities became a reality.[6 . “Sit-ins, Knoxville,” Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture (http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegall…).]
maybe, maybe stacey can be served at any mexican restaurant, as long he wears his''luchador'' mask, and entertain the rest of customers.. we know hes a clown, it must not be hard for him to act like a total jack ass,,,that bloody bigot...
