The Goat Pen

no one was singing the blues."

I guess Phil has never heard of, you know, The Blues.

those comments aren't surprising to me

what is surprising is that they didn't sit down with him a long time ago and tell him what he could and couldn't talk about during an interview.

not that a 67 year old self made millionaire would give a shit anyways.

Like one of my wife's 8th grade teacher's stated: Slaves were happy. They were well-taken care of by their masters because of the investment their masters had made in them.

That is true. In the Patriot with Mel Gibson, his "help" worked the fields and had a "fair" share.

riiiiiiiiggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhht

Like in Gone With the Wind when Mammy and Sissy saw Rhett and Scarlett's new house, Sissy exclaimed "Lawsie, we rich now!"

It was idiotic to suspend Phil. I think his statements were pure jackassery, but it's not like they were surprising. They suspended him because they are trying to save the soap they're selling.

I never watched the show that much, but they did entertain me. The comments will make me more hesitant to ever tune in again...and that's where the transaction the lie, not with the network suspending him. Shit, people can still watch Charlie Sheen shows, listen to R. Kelly music and watch Mel Gibson flicks...or decide not to.

True, but Mel Gipson has paid a big price in terms of opportunity and pay

And that was the public driving that.

I'm not sweating the suspension, really, but I think it was simply damage control by A&E and not them making a statement about what they felt was truly right or wrong. As a result, I'm not inclined to voice any support of their decision.

Turn on A&E right now. Duck Dynasty Marathon. Gotta pay the bills I guess.

I watched about 5 episodes in a row on demand with the young 'un a couple of years ago. The first couple were kinda amusing, the next couple were the same as the first two and therefor less amusing and by the fifth one, I knew I'd never watch it again, and I haven't and never will. It's swill at best, and now that I know the old man (and all the rest of them too, I'm sure) are homophobic christian nutbags, I have even more reason to hope their golden goose (or in their case, duck) is cooked due to their own backwards ass redneckism. I really do enjoy seeing people like that piss away a good thing b/c of their own sheer stupidity and religious-based bigotry, no matter how much they try to cloak it in the teachings of JEEEE-SUSSSS, as if that makes it "OK"...

here is my thing on it though - while I'm the last guy to be all religious, A&E knew that's what the family was like, its part of the attraction to the show, and the guy isn't someone who is standing up saying gays can't have rights or should be cast out, he just said what most of us have said at some point in our life - I like pussy, not man ass - now the rest of it is his religious doctrine, no different than the pope or Billy Graham or anyone else who buys into that nonsense - that the bible says gays and a host of other undesirables will not get into heaven unless they change their ways. I don't see Christianity adapting to the popularity of gay culture.

That should come as no shock to anyone - bible belters have been preaching that for years.

To be honest, and this must be a generational thing, I'm actually surprised at how much power there is (and effort to appease) the gay community.

Back in the 80's we would have just said "fags" and rolled our eyes at all this complaining. I'm turning into a dinosaur.

I really can't defend the pre-Jim Crow laws statements but I will say that if I had to guess, he really wasn't in tune with all the stuff going on outside the little village of West Monroe , LA. As he said, I suspect he worked hand in hand with his black neighbors, and if you look at studies back them, literacy and out of wedlock rates were about the same for whites as it was African Americans in those rural areas. Not to say it was good - just pretty much the same. At 67 he is still too young to be able to plead complete ignorance but I don't think his statements went beyond his perception of what happened in a 20 square mile radius.

People love gossip and ostracizing someone for something. It gives the mass herd a little tingle of pleasure in the nodes of their brains that still think its 10,000 BC and they should cleanse the tribe of bad genes every now and then.

I am actually a bit surprised that A&E took any action at all beyond just saying that as a network they don't agree. The peak for that show is already past it and I doubt that the mainstream was even still watching it regularly, but it'll continue to have a solid following for a cable network like A&E but it's pretty much all people who will side with the Robertsons and agree with them. Also if the Robertson's get pissed I doubt that A&E has a contractual stranglehold since its based on their own personas, so they could easily say fuck you A&E, and another network would hire the.

I would like to hear what Uncle Si has to say about it, Jack.

Never watched it, doubt I ever will...don't know them and they don't know me...therefore, fuck it...

I will say this...if they thought they would not like the answer, maybe they shouldn't have asked the question?

Maybe this is what A&E needed cause they know the show had peaked and well any publicity is good.

Ya'll are right, there is always going to be a healthy population of dumb fuck christian homophobes out there who will support some other dumb fuck christian homophobe just out of solidarity. I'm just glad I'm not in that population, as I'm sure they're glad they're not in mine...

I still don't get the outrage. You can't change old peoples opinions. They are set in stone no matter what todays PC society says. I shook my head every day at my Grandpa who hated black people. Why did he hate them, because he was robbed twice when he owned his pharmacy in Newport. Old peoples opinions are set in concrete. It's how they were raised. Thankfully those times are finally changing as time goes by. Whatever Phil said, I really don't give a fuck. His opinion is his, as it is every talking head in the media trying to make a big deal out of an old coots name to grab some ratings. What a fucking waste of time.

I've been watching Predator for the past hour or so. I've forgotten what a cool movie that was. When Arnold covers himself in mud and lights that torch, its good cinematography - at least I think that's the right word.