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Opinionated chemist, troublemaker, blogger on national and Delaware politics.

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Shakespearean Comedy

July 19th, 2010 • Related • Filed Under
By Unstable Isotope

This weekend Sarah Palin managed to hit the trifecta of dumb, showing her religious intolerance, her mangled English and her arrogance all within a few hours. Palin sent some tweets stepping in a controversy ginned up by the right wing about building an Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City.

Echoing the bigoted and right-wing contortions of the National Republican Trust PAC and disgraced Tea Party leader Mark Williams, Sarah Palin has sent the world of Twitter on fire this afternoon, with a series of incendiary Tweets about the proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center

She pulled down one of them after concocting the word “refudiate” and then used the word “refute” incorrectly.

Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate

Peaceful New Yorkers, pls refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real.

She then pulled the second attempt down and took a third swipe at it.

Peace-seeking Muslims pls understand. Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing

In the course of 3 tweets she managed to make up a new word, use a word incorrectly, blame all Muslims for 9/11 and imply the people wanting to build an Islamic Center are not peaceful and must repudiate something. Way to show your intolerance, Sarah. She’s just proving to me why she should never, ever be near the presidency. She’s dangerously ignorant.

Obviously Palin got a lot of feedback, because here’s the last tweet she sent, comparing herself and George W. Bush to Shakespeare:

‘Refudiate,’ ‘misunderestimate,’ ‘wee-wee’d up.’ English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!’

I really don’t feel like celebrating her aggressive ignorance. The fact that she’s a media darling really depresses me.

There Are 26 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Unstable Isotope on 19 July 2010 at 8:48 am:

    Steve Benen, stop holding back. Tell us how you really feel.

    In terms of analysis, it’s hard to know where to start with such painful, abject stupidity, but it’s worth noting Palin’s framing of the issue: as she sees it, there’s a burden here, and it rests on “peaceful,” mainstream, law-abiding Muslim Americans. They’ve done nothing wrong, but Palin nevertheless expects them to accommodate the ignorance and hatred of the closed-minded by “refudiating” a proposal to build a community center committed to respect, healing, and tolerance.

    The implication isn’t subtle — some Muslims want to build the facility in Manhattan, but peaceful Muslims should oppose it. In her twisted little mind, Palin thinks those fighting radicalism deserve our fear and mistrust, while bigots deserve our understanding.

    Sarah Palin is a small, sad extremist, who embarrasses herself on a nearly daily basis, but yesterday’s display was genuinely pathetic, even for her.

  2. Comment by Miscreant on 19 July 2010 at 8:49 am:

    Well done, UI. It’s comforting to know there is someone out there that’s willing to dedicate the time and effort to spell and grammar checking Palin’s tweets. I feel informed, and safer now.

    Please, carry on.

  3. Comment by Geezer on 19 July 2010 at 8:56 am:

    Well done, Miscreant. It’s comforting to know there is someone out there’s WHO’s willing to dedicate the time and effort to pointing out that the people who post at Delaware Liberal are, y’know, liberal. I feel informed and safer now.

  4. Comment by Rebecca on 19 July 2010 at 9:09 am:

    What a total freak! Her candidacy for VP sums up the Republican attitude to governance. They simply believe there shouldn’t be any. At least none that is competent.

  5. Comment by jason330 on 19 July 2010 at 9:26 am:

    The 40 character twitter limit heart stabs refudiation. Palin’s stupidity is the sort that needs to meander.

  6. Pingback by DelawareLiberal Attacks Palin, Supports Ground Zero Mosque | Delmarva Dealings on 19 July 2010 at 11:01 am:

    [...] to “Unstable Isotope”, Palin is “intolerant” and just plain stupid.  I’ll admit that spelling errors piss me off too (particularly my own), but I hardly think [...]

  7. Comment by a.price on 19 July 2010 at 11:06 am:

    why does anyone still give this pig any attention?

  8. Comment by jason330 on 19 July 2010 at 11:31 am:

    Speaking Up: The Sarah Palin Story, a biography of Sarah Palin aimed at 9-12 year olds and written by Kim Washburn was slated to pub in October, but has been delayed “indefinitely,” according to the Associated Press. The bio was slated to be part of a series of biographies targeted at the 9-12 age group.
    Cheryl Lundberg, Zondervan’s director of customer service, told the AP that it was decided that October was not an optimal time for publication, and she had no information about when the title would be rescheduled. Washburn was surprised by the delay, which was announced Friday

  9. Comment by liberalgeek on 19 July 2010 at 11:36 am:

    Dear mosque opponents:

    Please tell me your rules.

    How close to ground zero can mosques be built? 10 blocks? 20?

    Does this number change with each passing year?

    Are all Muslims forbidden from building structures within that range or is it limited to Sunni’s or Shi’a?

    Are there any places in the world that a Christian church should be forbidden?

  10. Comment by Unstable Isotope on 19 July 2010 at 11:42 am:

    Also,

    Give your reasoning for telling the people of New York City where things should be built after the city has reviewed and approved it?

  11. Comment by Geezer on 19 July 2010 at 11:46 am:

    Wouldn’t we all have been safer if we had placed a mosque INSIDE one of the towers?

  12. Comment by liberalgeek on 19 July 2010 at 11:49 am:

    Not really. Remember, Dr. Tiller was killed by a Christian in a church. The fanatics only consider it collateral damage.

  13. Comment by anon on 19 July 2010 at 11:50 am:

    In the months after 9/11 I recall somebody floating the idea of rebuilding the towers with a mosque at the top. I’m not sure that would really be a deterrent though. The terrorists would just consider them a different kind of infidel.

  14. Comment by Geezer on 19 July 2010 at 12:02 pm:

    Yeah, you guys are probably right — logic has no place in their thinking. I’m actually mind-boggled that the anti-mosque argument boils down to, “It hurts our feelings!” This from the supposed tough-guy faction of the GOP.

  15. Comment by jason330 on 19 July 2010 at 12:12 pm:

    Turn on your heart stab! Let it whine wherever you go, let it make a pissy moan for all the world to hear!!

  16. Comment by anon on 19 July 2010 at 12:19 pm:

    This is way too much fun, and not entirely off topic:

    The Shakespearean Insulter

  17. Comment by MJ on 19 July 2010 at 12:37 pm:

    She was using the Dan Quayle/George W thesaurus.

  18. Comment by Miscreant on 19 July 2010 at 1:10 pm:

    “It’s comforting to know there is someone out there’s WHO’s willing to dedicate the time and effort to pointing out that the people who post at Delaware Liberal are, y’know, liberal. I feel informed and safer now.”

    Thanks for correcting my grammar, Geezer. I feel informed. I really thought the fact that there are Liberals here is obvious, so there was no need to point that out. It just amuses me that the attention paid to Palin seems a bit obsessive.

    “Are there any places in the world that a Christian church should be forbidden?”

    Perhaps here, Geek:

    http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66G18D20100717

  19. Comment by liberalgeek on 19 July 2010 at 1:19 pm:

    Mis – Do you think that Christian groups are going to decide that this sort of violence means that they should just bail? I have spent enough time with evangelicals to know that they see incidents like this as an indication that there are a number of people that need to be saved.

  20. Comment by Miscreant on 19 July 2010 at 3:53 pm:

    “Mis – Do you think that Christian groups are going to decide that this sort of violence means that they should just bail?”

    Absolutely not. History has proved that for centuries. That, and I dated a couple of *Jesus Freaks* back in the 70’s (sisters!), both of whom went to extreme measures to get me “saved”. Talk about embarking on a lost cause, against impossible odds.

    Good times, though.

  21. Comment by liberalgeek on 19 July 2010 at 3:59 pm:

    Good times, indeed.

    So my question stands. Seriously, where has Christianity decided that it is inappropriate to place a church? (the answer is nowhere)

    But Allah forbid that a Muslim, a Sikh, a Mormon, a Jew, a Hare Krishna or a Buddhist ask for the same rights.

    And when the hell did Alaska qualify as “The Heartland”? It is more like the nether-regions.

  22. Comment by ek on 19 July 2010 at 7:27 pm:

    lg, those nether-regions would be the cold jumbly-bits, wouldn’t they?

  23. Comment by ek on 19 July 2010 at 7:32 pm:

    Edgar Allan Poe liked to make up words, and, like Shakespeare, was brilliant. I don’t think I would have wanted him to be President, either.

  24. Comment by WilmingtonDeDem on 20 July 2010 at 1:37 pm:

    @MJ, that was a great comment.

    I’m not sure what amazes me more, that people actually read Sarah Palin’s tweets in the first place, or that people actually analyze them. They must have the same analysis each time: What are we reading and what is she thinking?

  25. Comment by liberalgeek on 20 July 2010 at 1:51 pm:

    I think Sarah Palin represents a block of people in this country that know very little more than what the talking points of the day are. In that way, skewering her is like skewering the people that are emphatically wrong most of the time.

  26. Comment by Brian Shields on 21 July 2010 at 11:04 am:

    It has morphed into a #ShakesPalin hash tag, where people are quoting Shakespeare with a Palin spin, as well as a satirical @ShakesPalin account sharing the efforts to make her look silly.

    I love it.