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Home Front: WoT
Asshat Semi-Apologizes For Tillman Column...
2004-04-30
Man Admits Article Was "Insensitive"
Gee, ya THINK, Dickless?...
AMHERST, Mass. -- A University of Massachusetts at Amherst graduate student is apologizing to Pat Tillman's family.
He didn?t really, read on...
Rene Gonzalez had written a column for the campus paper saying the football player-turned-soldier who died in combat in Afghanistan wasn?t a hero -- but a "G.I. Joe guy who got what was coming to him."
Little piece of used condom didn?t have the balls to stand up and say it to anyone?s face..
Gonzalez said in an e-mail to a Boston TV station that he was trying to say Tillman's celebrity had factored into his being labeled a hero.
...No, you were trying to say that you had zero respect and honor for a man who had the guts to go after the people who want YOU dead...and you succeeded quite nicely.
Tillman's celebrity simply made his heroism more widely known.
He admits he tried to prove his point in an "insensitive way" ...
...Like Stalin was "insensitive"...
... and that the article wasn't worth publishing.
TRANSLATION: "But I'm a LLL post-grad - I CAN'T be wrong!!!
The school's president issued a statement calling Gonzalez's column "a disgusting, arrogant and intellectually immature attack" on Tillman.
I never thought I'd say THIS, but bravo for a college president..
The paper ran a letter to readers today saying the column didn't express the paper's views.
...That's putting it mildly...
The only way 'm going to accept any kind of apology from this weasel is when he stands up in front of a TV camera and then says his piece...but even then I'll know that he?s only saying it because he sees his future circling the drain.
Asshat.

Mike
Posted by:Mike Kozlowski

#21  I'm stunned to this day how many people in public life still don't understand the First Amendment. I am going to do whatever I can to see that Mr. Gonzalez is able to get an attorney to pursue his First Amendment rights in this case because he will win.

I’m stunned that you are so ignorant about the First Amendment, and about lawsuits. Lawyers usually take on cases because they want to win -- this one would be a dead loser. There is no prior restraint by Government, or other First Amendment violation going on here. What you object to, is what you profess to admire, unfettered exercise of that First Amendment right known as expressions of contempt -- in this case directed toward some piece of moronic filth called Rene Gonzalez.
Posted by: cingold   2004-05-05 12:06:45 AM  

#20  Rene Gonzalez is as entitled to his viewpoint as you are to yours. The First
Amendment protects ALL free speech; especially free political speech. I
don't like what Gonzalez said about Mr. Tillman either. But he should be
allowed to question people's motivation to "blindly" follow President Bush
and his military campaign in Iraq. He's allowed to guess the motivation of
Mr. Tillman to join the army and turn down an NFL contract and not come up
with the same answer that everyone else does. Vietnam taught Americans that
they have a right to question the government's activities and not just
blindly follow them. We are NOT one nation under one patriotic viewpoint.

Even hate speech is protected by the Supreme Court (R.A.V. vs City of St.
Paul 112 S .Ct. 2538). The Constitution protects all kinds of speech
because the framers realized the value of debate in a free society (however
offending that speech is to anyone). You are entitled to disagree with Mr.
Gonzalez and blast away back at him in an op-ed piece like you have. The
public can certainly trash Mr. Gonzalez all they want. But the UMass
President is not allowed to pressure Mr. Gonzalez into making an apology for
something he wrote, just because he happens to disagree with the viewpoint
and is in a position of power to do something about it. That is against the
law of the land.

I'm stunned to this day how many people in public life still don't
understand the First Amendment. I am going to do whatever I can to see that
Mr. Gonzalez is able to get an attorney to pursue his First Amendment rights
in this case because he will win.

The moment anyone has the right to singlehandedly silence dissent in a
society, that's when all the freedom the military is out there
defending, is all for naught. The real dishonor to Mr. Tillman's memory is
not Rene Gonzalez, its people like UMass President James Wilson.
Posted by: Anonymous4731   2004-05-04 11:41:33 PM  

#19  The website of the college paper crashed after this uproar started & is still inaccessible.
Posted by: Tresho   2004-05-01 1:19:24 AM  

#18  The paper ran a letter to readers today saying the column didn't express the paper's views.

True, it was just the editorial staff that loved it. The guy who runs the copy down to the print shop didn't like it...
Posted by: Pappy   2004-04-30 11:14:10 PM  

#17  Man, that Rene Gonzales dude is giving all puertorricans a bad name. As a born and raised p-rican, I despise him and his comments and I'm sure a lot of people in the island feel the same way. This I know, in my hometonw, Rene Gonzales will be the pendejo!! Pat Tillman wan an honorable man. Rene Gonzales will always be a creep and a jerk.
Posted by: Will   2004-04-30 9:16:00 PM  

#16  And in other news, another LLL columnist has a "Screw 'em" moment. Shrieking harpy Heather Mallick sez, "I pledge allegiance to my paycheque".
Posted by: Cthulhu Akbar   2004-04-30 1:45:06 PM  

#15  Jonah Goldberg also heaped on the school paper for publishing this crap. Their apology was nonsense...all the 1st amendment BS and that they have to publish things that provoke, etc. Well this same paper would not publish David Horowitz's anti-slave reparations advertisements (not even editorial content). They only care about the 1st amendment when it protects speech that they implicitly or expllicitly support.
Posted by: remote man   2004-04-30 1:00:41 PM  

#14  FYI Sofia - the deed has been done! thanks for the contact info.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam   2004-04-30 12:47:30 PM  

#13  Thanks Sofia - I'm sending it from my "rantburg" email account now!!!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam   2004-04-30 12:37:48 PM  

#12  As a contrast, I'd like to share this article, which appeared in the teen-produced section of our local paper today.
Posted by: Cthulhu Akbar   2004-04-30 12:31:39 PM  

#11  Cthulhu (nice handle), you are absolutely right. Didn't someone post something on Rantburg about this type of shit being discussed in Democratic Underground?

I dont think you have to go far to find a lot of little pissants like Rene of all shapes, sizes, and ages in the media, universities, etc....
Posted by: CrazyFool   2004-04-30 12:25:45 PM  

#10  If the article wasn't worth publishing, I have a suggested alternate use for his hard copy:

1) Start by folding it irregularly about 5 or six times so you get a lot of nice, sharp corners.

2) Shove it up Rene's rooty-poo candy ass.

Posted by: eLarson   2004-04-30 11:46:20 AM  

#9  Yosemite Sam asked yesterday how to get the info on this spineless, dickless twerp to Hugh Hewitt and/or Sean Hannity -

hhewitt@hughhewitt.com, www.hughhewitt.com

www.hannity.com/contact, 800-941-7326

Sofia the Librarian
Posted by: Sofia   2004-04-30 11:12:19 AM  

#8  Don't just dump a bunch of bile and hatred on ol' Snaggletooth here. Spread it around to his peers. The fact is, he felt comfortable writing and submitting this article. The entire depraved culture in which he is immersed needs an ass-beating.
Posted by: Cthulhu Akbar   2004-04-30 10:18:43 AM  

#7  I think he will suffer shame, and I think it will only intensify as he grows older. Oh sure, right now he's probably the little mini-celeb in his own circles, and the only regret he has right now is re: his saftey. But the long term burden of shame will be far more painful than any beating could ever be. The burden will just get heavier and harder to bear each year that goes by. And there is absolutely NOTHING he can do to remove it...it's a nonoperable cancer.

I'd feel sorry for him, but as PD said, he is going to learn the meaning of his own words "got what's coming to him".
Posted by: B   2004-04-30 9:23:59 AM  

#6  This is disappointing. If there's anything worse than an arrogant young Commie student of Bogus Studies who's consumed with penis envy, it's a spineless sniveling arrogant young Commie student of Bogus Studies who's consumed with penis envy.
Posted by: Angie Schultz   2004-04-30 9:19:34 AM  

#5  He needs to do a real fess-up. This doesn't qualify. He's still an arrogant little pissant who's never known fear or want or anything else substantially negative - thanks to people like Pat Tillman. Prolly thinks he's being picked on, since Victimology 101 has been part of his CV.

He went medievel on someone whose shoes he was not fit to lick. In the same venal manner, perhaps we should put him in the stocks for a week in front of the Admin Bldg so he can come to understand and appreciate what has been handed to him on a silver platter. And it might, just might, give him a taste of the pain he dealt out so casually to the Tillman family.

There is no end to the consequences to a society when shame and retribution have been discarded as valid punishments for egregious offense.
Posted by: .com   2004-04-30 8:51:04 AM  

#4  what's ironic is this asshat is only beginning to learn the meaning of got what was coming to him.
Posted by: PlanetDan   2004-04-30 7:05:42 AM  

#3  "and that the article wasn't worth publishing"

weak. It wasn't worth publishing - but it was worth writing...is that it?

I'd wish this brat ill will, but I've decided he's not worth the negative energy. I just feel so sorry for the Tillman family, having to endure such additional pain.
Posted by: B   2004-04-30 3:39:27 AM  

#2  Gonzalez screwed up so badly even a MASSACHUSETSS college president sez he was wrong.

Whenever you get a college president froma super liberal state saying you were wrong, by God, you are wrong!
Posted by: badanov   2004-04-30 1:28:48 AM  

#1   On the other hand,Mr. Gonzalez looks to have a fine future as a New York Times writer.
Posted by: Stephen   2004-04-30 1:01:05 AM  

00:00