"We don't want it to distract from his message," said press secretary Rachel Mills. "Now is the time when people need to be listening to him on economic issues."
Mills, who was present at the taping, did elaborate on the "queer" line. "I heard him say 'weird,' " she wrote in an e-mail. "In any case, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Queer as Folk … it's not exactly a shocking term if that's what he did say."
Mills also noted that Cohen's people were "very deceptive in their tactics." At the time, she thought they were "legitimate," but now confesses to some concern. "I'm familiar with his work, so you can imagine how I feel about it," she said.
March 18, 2009
"This guy is a queer!"
Ron Paul quote from the new Sacha Baron Cohen movie. A spokeswoman defends the elfin libertarian:
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61 comments:
Uh Oh, Andrew Sullivan lost one of his heroes.
This is too funny for words. Cohen plays every social mask so well he always seems to be for real. I bet he could get Blago to accept bribes on camera. Cohen is dangerous in a wonderful way.
I'm having a hard time believing that any politician, even Ron Paul, would have said queer for the cameras like that- weird sounds much more believable to me.
How on earth does this guy "Cohen" keep getting people to fall for his stuff?
Queer is now a respectable term. Ask the queers.
In fact it's now worse to say that someone "is queer" that to say that the person is "a queer."
Queer Studies. It's an academic niche. Look it up.
It's really hard to keep up, isn't it.
At least he didn't quote Spicoli from Fast Times.
Sounds like RP did what pretty much anyone would do in that situation. I'd have to see the actual video to be able to determine whether the use of the word "queer" was some indication of hatred toward homosexuals or just a reaction to being pissed off at the situation.
David, it all depends on who says queer. Kind of like the n word. We can call each other queers but no one else can. Also we can call each other faggots but straighties can't.
How about queen or is that too 1970?
Unless you're a comic. Then you can faggot this and fag that and get away with it. Fag.
Should've called him stiff.
Which reminds me of something off topic. I can listen to Adam Carolla talk about nothing for an hour and half pay attention and never get pissed off, but I can't listen to Bill Maher (who I agree with on a lot of things) for ten minutes without wanting to throttle the guy.
And you can call anyone a cocksucker these days. That's one of the strangest insults because who doesn't like a cocksucker?
He should have called him a retard.
That's ok again.
Yes, correct, anyone can be called cocksucker. And yes, everyone loves a cocksucker. I mean who couldn't? It is like not liking a cute little puppy.
Queen is completely fine Hoosier as some gays are really big old queens. Nancy, which is a 50's term, is fine to call gays who are queens-also calling a queen a big old Mary is fine too. Troll is a fine term as well which identifies the older queens that tend to be kind of creepy.
What else do you all need to know?
The term Queer always meant someone/something different from the normal. That Gay people suffered from that attitude of rejection so long was wrong and cruel. As a straighty, I apologise for me and my friends. Now what can we call you in jest that is acceptable and still identify your different way of relating to people?
Forgot to mention. Nice line "elfin libertarian".
Gays tend to refer to each other as "girl" and "she" quite ofen too.
I am fine with that.
Titus is an ageist.
Titus-
Ok, I get it. I have two gay nephews.I would never call them or anyone else a queer. My daddy taught me well. But since queer studies is pretty much everywhere in cutting edge academia, what should I say if discussing such? Like I say, it's hard to keep up.
I am not a fan of gender studies. One of my gay nephews could have been a brilliant physicist or a world class French horn player. He majored in gender studies. I understand why he did so--he was trying to build a context for himself and his life. But we lost a great scientist or musician.
If you are a cool straighty you can call also a fag or queer.
I think the queer studies came about as a way to take the word back. I never took a queer studies course but I think that is how it came about. Similar to when all of the rappers starting to you the N word. They wanted to take it back from the racists that had used it in the past. Personally, I have heard enough of it. Got it, you took it back, now please move on. Similar to the queer word, ok, you used it, you made your point, move on.
"Personally, I have heard enough of it. Got it, you took it back, now please move on. Similar to the queer word, ok, you used it, you made your point, move on."
Seems that way to me too.
Re elfin libertarian, I realize Paul describes himself as such, but I still don't buy it. You can't be a libertarian and against free trade, as Paul is; he strikes me more as a Buchananite isolationist populist.
My straight friends call me a fag and queer all the time. But there is nothing behind it. It doesn't bother me.
It is the way someone uses or says faggot. If I was walking down the street and someone said faggot or queer while driving back that would sting. But if I was with dinner and one of my straight friends called me a faggot I wouldn't think anyting of it. As a matter of fact, one of them called me a fag today. It usually is in response to something faggy that I just did.
@David
I don't think that correlation would stand statistical scrutiny. And even if it did, that's the price of freedom.
David said...
"He majored in gender studies. I understand why he did so--he was trying to build a context for himself and his life."
Oh my lord. I realize that by writing it you aren't endorsing it, so this isn't a criticism aimed at you, David, but what in the world does that kind of narcissistic claptrap mean? I don't understand how people can even speak in that kind of terminology while keeping a straight face, let alone take it seriously.
I am not a cool straighty. I was once cool but I am no longer cool and it's just fine with me. (Actually my kids sometimes will still call me a Cool Dad and I suck that right up.)
Chris: I wasn't speaking statistically. I was speaking personally.
I still am not a fan of gender studies because of some of the silliness that it involves. I doubt that it encourages rigorous thinking. (Though my nephew is a rigorous thinker. He was pretty much born that way and confirmed by his parents. Even gender studies could not ruin his intellectual capacity.)
He should have used the word "Homo" , and then no problem.
http://twitter.com/maxinesplace
I have heard that the law of comparative demand is the only non-trivial insight an economist ever had. I'm not sure I agree with this. Free trade has obvious value in a utilitarian calculus, but there is an alternative thesis: if you have more bargaining power in a transaction, extract a better deal.
"Queer" is SO gay. Ron Paul needs to catch up on his slang. Maybe if he had said "flamer" it would have been charming, but who listens to Ron Paul anymore? After what he did in the Presidential campaign and its aftermath he's dead as a serious politician.
Simon: The guy was 18 years old. Smarter than just about everyone he ever met. Gay in a straight world. It was pretty damn confusing, for sure. So he decided to study the nature and consequence of gender. I am sure that he greatly improved every class he was in. (I had absolutely no vote, though I would have rather seen him major in history or something.) But his gayness was the biggest thing in his life and he had to figure it out. I don't think that's claptrap. I tried to figure myself out through four years or drinking and trying to get laid. Maybe gender studies isn't so bad after all (except for the conforming way in which it seems to be taught.)
Figuring out who you are and how you fit in to the world is a major undertaking for most people. Maybe, Simon, you knew exactly who you were all along. Good for you if you did.
Ron Paul is a hypocritical ass. Apparently a real moron as well.
1. RP is 73 years old. He's not frail, but playing tricks like this on older folks isn't exactly a cool thing to do.
2. Has Cohen ever tried to trick a "liberal" into, for instance, revealing that they aren't really all that liberal? Isn't what he does just a cheap joke, even if it takes some work to set up?
3. This probably isn't related to other efforts, but others have worked to smear RP, such as Jim Kirchick. I don't support a lot of the things that RP supports, but it's undeniable that some of the things he supports would cost some very powerful people a great deal of money.
Thanks to Althouse for once again failing to understand the backstory of something and thus yet again giving me the opportunity to make points that actually matter.
If Cohen can't be described as "queer" who can?
Chris said...
Forgot to mention. Nice line "elfin libertarian".
The funny thing is looks and voice can be deceiving. Ron Paul was an Olympic-quality track athlete who may well have been in the 1956 Olympics in 200 and 400M events, but for a major knee injury.
"Ron was a track star in high school, winning state as a junior in the 220-yard dash and in the 440. He ran the 100 in 9.8, and that was pretty fast for the early 1950s. He was also on the wrestling team. He was president of the student council and an honor student while working and participating in sports.
A serious knee injury took him out of major track (he beat 2 of the men who went to the Olympics in the months before his knee blew)"
9.8 is damn fast for a white guy. And most black sprinters, too. A 9.8 in HS should get whittled down further in college by as much as 0.5 seconds with training and reaching full strength and development.
I never cracked 10.1 as a sprinter, except once, and that was wind-aided..
Now it's meters everywhere, and 100 meters is 109.4 yards. But in comparison the world record is only 9.69 seconds, and the last 9.4 yards are when you are up to full speed already.
______________
As for Pauls reaction - and choice of "queer"...he is from the land of steers and queers, and he is 74, now.
Mills also noted that Cohen's people were "very deceptive in their tactics." At the time, she thought they were "legitimate," but now confesses to some concern.
Good grief, I guess "Borat" hasn't opened yet on Planet Ron Paul.
Yesterday Obama's "concern," and now this dimwit. Why is the news suddenly full of morons who express "concern" in response to being completely pwned?
If Ron Paul wanted to go all the way, I'll bet Baron would have let him.
Rep. Paul did not do anything wrong. He was put in a stressful situation and reacted appropriately.
He wasn't passing judgment on all of the gay homosexuals of the world. He was making remarks about 1 specific individual who acted inappropriately.
A rose is a rose; call them as you like, and let's keep butchering the English language. Alas, it is a a progressive thing, good old GAY has now suffered the same fate as QUEER, nancy, and Fairy. And as for FAG or FAGGOT: fagging was the name given to the practice where a younger boy (a "FAG") acted as an unpaid servant for an older boy. There is a host of other words that have been buggered over the years, still a sodomite is a SODOMITE. They are not the Ancient and Noble Order of United Oddfellows.
David said...
"Figuring out who you are and how you fit in to the world is a major undertaking for most people. Maybe, Simon, you knew exactly who you were all along. Good for you if you did."
Of course I didn't. I was a kid. One has to ask, though, what kind of upbringing it takes -- what kind of formative cultural pressures one must be subjected to -- to conclude that one has to take a college course to answer such questions! My lord! What is wrong with these people? Life is an on the job training. The idea that you need to figure out who you are and how to fit into the world and what your "context" is before venturing forth into the world is idiotic therapy culture crap. Walk forth and live! Get on with it! These are questions that you will figure out along the way.
Life is not nearly as difficult as some people seem determined to con themselves into thinking it is. If you're gay, be gay. Or don't be, be celibate and miserable, whatever. If you're worried that people won't accept you, stay in the closet. If you don't like being in the closet, get over it and come out of the closet. Geez! What kind of jellyfish-for-a-brain allows their life to be consumed by anxiety over, and/or defined in terms of, whether you get hot for Booth or Bones!
Daryl said...
"He wasn't passing judgment on all of the gay homosexuals of the world."
The gay homosexuals? As opposed to what, the miserable homosexuals? The straight homosexuals?
In a five-minute scene, comedian Cohen tries—and fails—to seduce the Texas congressman and former Republican presidential candidate in a Washington hotel room.
Sounds to me like Ron Paul was making a factual statement based on his recent experience.
I think the revelations of the past year's campaign already established that Paul is either a racist or extremely tolerant of racism in his friends and followers. He may or may not be a homophobe, too. Who cares? How much of a defense is "I may be a bigot, but not against gay people"? The guy doesn't merit serious attention either way.
Screw this PC shit where gays, blacks - anyone - can tell anyone else how to talk. Saying "the n word" is juvenile and, please, tell me what words are off-limits for minorities to say about whites? Fuck that shit. Take away their freedom of speech and mine ain't far behind. So fuck the faggots, the niggas can shut the fuck up, and, if the PC whites don't like it, then those cracker-assed crackers can just try and stop me.
Are we clear, mothafuckas?
Oh - and I'm really glad Ann isn't a bitch about language,...
Revenant writes: I think the revelations of the past year's campaign
Which campaign are you referring to? The newsletters issue was already out there, it was revived in what appears to have been a coordinated attack.
There's a reason things like that or this happen while others are swept under the rug, and it usually boils down to either money or power.
LonewackoDotCom said...
"Revenant writes: 'I think the revelations of the past year's campaign' Which campaign are you referring to? "
Paul ran for the GOP nomination last year, an activity frequently known as "campaigning."
Simon, you must be smarter than everyone else. Lucky you.
Poofter: where does it fall on the spectrum of unacceptability?
Which campaign are you referring to? The newsletters issue was already out there, it was revived in what appears to have been a coordinated attack.
I have no doubt that the campaign to publicize the newsletters was a coordinated effort by Paul's opponents. That doesn't change the simple fact that Paul lent his name to disgusting racist bile for years.
Obviously, Simon isn't smarter than Revenant, who got my point even if he's battling Simon for the bottom of the heap otherwise.
Say, if Althouse is around, perhaps she could check with Insty to see if he knows where a video he's promoting (pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/73766) comes from.
I speculate here. Look, every "grassroots" movement needs a little help from the top.
Simon isn't smarter than Revenant
You're smart enough, Simon.
</obama>
Ron Paul:libertarian :: Lenin:constitutional democracy
It is appalling to me that this guy, who doesn't even favor free trade, is the face of libertarianism to many people. It's disgusting. It's a sham.
Sascha Baren Choen:Funny :: Ron Paul:libertarian
I think Cohen is funny, and brave. But he and Ron Paul are painful to watch in the same way.
"This guy is a queer!"
No, he's a schiksa loving Jew boy.
He plays a queer.
And what's with "elfin"? Ron Paul is at least 6' tall. Pretty tall elf.
He's not a libertarian Dennis Kucinich. Now there's a elf married to a fairy princess.
Maybe elfin is a reference to Ron Paul's face. Kinda like Michelle Obama is simian or Rush Limbaugh is porcine.
John Althouse Cohen must be some sort of relation. They are both brunette and .....Swarthy.
Most Cohens are related to each other in some manner, even though they all wanna deny it.
7M,
Brave?? Let's just say his targets are very carefully chosen. But everything he does has been done before. I thinks it's a "mean" brand of comedy. No thanks.
News Flash: Not everyone likes gay people, or white people, or Evangelical Christians, or Republicans, or etc.
I myself do not like borderline personality disordered people.
Trey
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