Class Acts

Eric Renderking Fisk - April 21st, 2009   Bookmark and Share

Just last night I was reading an articles about Janeane Garofalo while doing an article about the National Tea Party Rallies that happened this past week. There were a handful I wanted to quote in reference to her comments on the Keith Olbermann show and her low-brow opinions about this new movement.

There's one article that's standing out in my mind that has nothing to do with the events of last week though. What's forefront in my thoughts is an blog entry someone wrote on Entertainment Weekly about how Ms. Garofalo snubbed Rush Limbaugh and former Second Lady, Lynn Cheney during their visit to the set of "24.". The question is whether or not her behavior was appropriate and what would you do in a similar situation...

Janeane Garofalo snubs Rush Limbaugh, Lynne Cheney on '24' set: Right on

Apr 17, 2009, 03:59 PM | by Simon Vozick-Levinson

Categories: Current Affairs, Television, To Care or Not to Care

 Janeane Garofalo drew a fair amount of unwarranted flack a couple years ago when she dared to take a role on 24, a show whose torture-filled plotlines don't quite match up with her own well-known progressive views. Now that same old non-issue is back in the news because Garofalo has told The Village Voice that she snubbed such fine Americans as Rush Limbaugh and Lynne Cheney when they visited the set of 24. "I refused to have my picture taken with them or meet them or anything," Garofalo recalled. "When somebody came to me privately and said 'do you want to meet them?', I said absolutely not." Good for her! The fact that Garofalo acts in an apparently right-leaning fictional television show does not obligate her to get pals-y in real life with the likes of Limbaugh and Cheney.

In fact, it sounds to me like Garofalo was far nicer than she needed to be. She told the Voice that she "didn't want to make a scene out of it" when Limbaugh and Cheney arrived: "I would never have made a big show of it and embarrassed people who worked there." Let me tell you, if I was offered the opportunity to greet Rush Limbaugh, I don't know if I'd be able to muster that kind of polite restraint. Gawker, meanwhile, actually faults Garofalo for not making a bigger scene: "But, hey, at least Garofalo mounted a private act of semi-defiance, which may or may not have been noticed, in between cashing paychecks." Yes, Gawker, your liberal activist cred is soooo much more impressive and purer than Janeane Garofalo's. Holier-than-thou FAIL.

I guess Garofalo is just damned if she does, damned if she doesn't for some people. What do you think? Should she have done something differently when Rush and Lynne graced her with their presences? Do you even care about this?


Not even 12 hours pass before I had a similar situation thanks to a barn fire...

A couple who are close to my family - essentially a third set of grandparents to my two sons - run a small farm in my new home town. They've been raising live-stock for a while and I helped them raise a barn a few short years ago.  This is one of my fondest memories of the group we belonged to and all the people who helped that day.

With out getting into the details, my family and I left this organization because of some troubling behavior with it's leader. Those issues include raising money to for a major project then not using that money what it was raised for, putting people in positions of leadership when they've proven they shouldn't while those who put in their time continued to get ignored. Making excuses about how he wouldn't allow a devoted couple to renew their vows in his organization because they're 'creepy and weird..." There was a lot of other sleaze behavior that's as obvious as the fedora on my head that just became too much to be ignored and when I went to talk to this leader about this, he started in with a lengthy lecture about he's persecuted like Christ.

No, really... persecuted. Like Christ.

Ren -When I realized that there's no talking to this guy and that I was part of the problem by being one of his enablers, I pulled my family out. THEN I heard about the comments made by this guy about me personally and about you the audience of The Fedora Chronicles and the members of The Electric Speakeasy. None of the comments that got back to me have been kind or sound like someone who's supposed to be "Christ-like", someone who is supposed to be an example to follow, and I would love nothing more then invite this guy's melon to a game of baseball and lay him out on the ground. If there's one thing you don't do besides touch my lid is talk badly about my family and friends. And you people are my family and friends.

And here I am showing up to help these people who have been a part of my life for more then 5 years now, who were there for me when my second son was born and I was there for them when we raised this barn and I'm there helping after it burned. [My hand in putting the barn up had nothing to do with the fire...or so I'm told.] I'm not just there to help physically but to be there emotionally while rebuilding bridges. Some of the arguments that ruined some of the bridges between us were about this so called "leader" of the organization we used to belong to.

And here's "Christ Lite" "helping out."

A short while after I arrive I'm standing there talking to someone else with my arms folded and "Christ Lite" comes up from behind and puts his arm around me and asks me how I'm doing in his usual over-powering, manipulative way. There's the sense of trying to be controlled and overwhelmed. There's this sickly sweet voice in me ear asking me how I'm doing, as if trying to sooth me over and pretend everything's alright. One of the things I heard from other people who have left Christ-Lite's organization is that he tries to intimidate and overpower people by coming up from behind and paws them. He's freaked out more then a few people that I've spoken to over the years. It's a power-play, manipulative.

The urge to deck this character was too strong. Almost...

Who does this? Who walks up behind someone else that you know is pissed at you, and puts an arm around them and talks sickly sweet? Seriously?

What do you do if someone who angered you did that? What should I have done, keeping in mind that there were other people around at that moment - some who knew very well about the drama, and people whom I just met.

I wanted to lay this guy out in the dirt with my bare hands and fit him for in a pine over-coat. There were moments in the past few years that I wanted to just deck this guy and just deal with the consequences afterwards. I really wanted to just see the reaction after my fist makes that iconic cracking sound against his mouth. After hearing what this guy said about my relationship with my wife ("Imagine what it must be being married to that," that meaning me,) and some of you who read these pages and participate in our forum (So many of you pagans, atheists and sodomite have no business participating in a forum run by a so-called 'Christian.') There were so many things going through my mind that my head was swelling and about to explode. I wanted to tell him to take his arm off me, knowing that there would be others colorful words used so I just gave the infamous Death Glare.

While my arms were still folded, he took off his arm from around my neck and shoulder and walked off. He tried to make small talk later, but I wasn't biting his hook.

Ren Sarcasm DrunkThis is when I'm reminded of the article I read the night before, about Ms. Garofalo snubbing guests on the set of "24," and the reactions people posted about what she "should have done."

So, that's the question, what would you do if you were face to face to someone diametrically opposed to you such as Garofalo and Limbaugh, or side by side with someone who's said things about you and put his arm around you such as a total con-artist like Christ-Lite . Keep in mind that what you think you would do isn't always what you would actually do once presented with the actual opportunity. Right now you're thinking calmly and rationally - unless you're a drama queen that likes to get pumped up and angry over hypothetical scenarios. When you're actually there, in the moment, there are other variables that are in play, like your adrenaline, emotions other people watching.

Right now while you're in the comfort of you own home or other safe space you think you would throttle someone who's torqued you off with out thinking of the consequence. Repercussions don't seem to make an appearance in a day-dream or fantasy. But when you're there, there are thoughts that should come to mind - such as how are you going to explain this to the police or the coroner. Explain to your defense lawyer before the hearing why you man-handled or went fisticuffs (or Fisk-To-Cuffs in my case) with someone over something that happened a while ago or over the course of a few years.

Some people do deserve occasional beatings or a throw-down in public with their bloodied faces in the dirt. There are times when I had every right to give someone a beating, almost as often as I deserved to take one. But there's those words that haunt me again: Consequence and Repercussions. I could easily pound someone into sausage, but I have more to lose and less to gain in a an unprovoked fight.

What occurred to me at that moment is that I would rather spend the rest of my life wondering what could have said I said or should of done instead of spending the rest of my life regretting how I reacted. I couldn't take back the fist I flung I or words I spoke. or the words I used. Just as you can't unring a bell, there are some that should never be rung in the first place.

... Keep in mind, I'm also the webmaster of a website. There are worse things I could do then throw a punch.

How about you, what would you do?

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