From Our "Bradlee Dean is a Dick" Department

I wish for every parent moments when you are more than just proud of your children. One of these came for me when I got a call from my son from inside Roane County High School saying he and his brother had walked out of the Bradlee Dean "concert" in the gym during school hours because of its overt racist and homophobic message. They were with about twenty other students who rose up in protest and went to one of their teacher's rooms. The principal was eventually reassigned as parents swarmed the school board meeting afterwards. It's my personal opinion that he was moved, not because the school board actually understood the issue of using school attendance to force a radical religious message onto other people's children, but because this was not the principal's first foray into such things as when he was told not to continue public address system prayers at football games.

Bradlee Dean's message is indefensible and full of hate justified by the worst possible interpretation of a snippet in the old testament. When on his radio show he recently praised Muslims for executing homosexuals, Rachel Maddow accused him of calling for the killing of homosexuals. Since reading his statements one sees that as the only possible interpretation of Dean's statements, Maddow was totally justified in her opinion. Bradlee Dean responded with a defamation lawsuit for hundreds of millions of dollars.

"Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America. This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination ... If America won't enforce the laws, God will raise up a foreign enemy to do just that."

Ignoring the grammatical errors and logical nonsense, I read that as praise for executing homosexuals and derision for America not doing the same. These people seize on valid criticism of their hateful message in order to play the victim and gain the publicity the need in order to feed on their fearful listeners. One has to ask how many of these homophobic right wing hatemongers are in fact homosexual, unable to face their own reality?

When my kids called from school I couldn't have been more proud, not just for their courage but they also told me that they could handle things without me. Of the 22 kids who walked out in protest there are a couple who have since come out. Twenty times that number of gay kids stayed in the room listening to a message that  could only lead them to self loathing. What a mean thing to force other people's children to endure.

The TPM Story

By the way...Bradlee doesn't look like that hair band picture any more. Think pudgy tattooed has been and you'll be more accurate.