Teaching: The Movies v. The Real World

Tom Moore is a tenth grade history teacher in the Bronx and his op-ed in today’s New York Times deconstructs the Hollywood image of teacher as hero/martyr

In analyzing the recent film “Freedom Writers,” Moore argues that the “dangerous message such films promote is that what schools really need are heroes. This is the Myth of the Great Teacher. Films like “Freedom Writers” portray teachers more as missionaries than professionals, eager to give up their lives and comfort for the benefit of others, without need of compensation.”

While there’s plenty of room for more love and idealism in the classroom, martrydom is not the answer to the problems teachers and students face in schools. Moore says he doesn’t expect to be thought of as a hero for doing his job. What he wants is to be respected, supported, trusted and paid.

Moore says that “every day teachers are blamed for what the system they’re just a part of doesn’t provide: safe, adequately staffed schools with the highest expectations for all students.”

He’s right, of course, but here he seriously downplays the responsibilities that teachers share as part of the system.

It’s true that “one maverick teacher, no matter how idealistic, perky or self-sacrificing” will not transform the system, collective action among teachers choosing to work in the interest of students (as opposed to the corporations and the state) could turn the system upside down.

The New York Times

January 19, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Classroom Distinctions
By TOM MOORE

IN the past year or so I have seen Matthew Perry drink 30 cartons of milk, Ted Danson explain the difference between a rook and a pawn, and Hilary Swank remind us that white teachers still can’t dance or jive talk. In other words, I have been confronted by distorted images of my own profession — teaching. Teaching the post-desegregation urban poor, to be precise.

Although my friends and family (who should all know better) continue to ask me whether my job is similar to these movies, I find it hard to recognize myself or my students in them.

So what are these films really about? And what do they teach us about teachers? Are we heroes, villains, bullies, fools? The time has come to set the class record straight.

At the beginning of Ms. Swank’s new movie, “Freedom Writers,” her character, a teacher named Erin Gruwell, walks into her Long Beach, Calif., classroom, and the camera pans across the room to show us what we are supposed to believe is a terribly shabby learning environment. Any experienced educator will have already noted that not only does she have the right key to get into the room but, unlike the seventh-grade science teacher in my current school, she has a door to put the key into. The worst thing about Ms. Gruwell’s classroom seems to be graffiti on the desks, and crooked blinds.

I felt like shouting, Hey, at least you have blinds! My first classroom didn’t, but it did have a family of pigeons living next to the window, whose pane was a cracked piece of plastic. During the winter, snowflakes blew in. The pigeons competed with the mice and cockroaches for the students’ attention.

This is not to say that all schools in poor neighborhoods are a shambles, or that teaching in a real school is impossible. In fact, thousands of teachers in New York City somehow manage to teach every day, many of them in schools more underfinanced and chaotic than anything you’ve seen in movies or on television (except perhaps the most recent season of “The Wire”).

Ms. Gruwell’s students might backtalk, but first they listen to what she says. And when she raises her inflection just slightly, the class falls silent. Many of the students I’ve known won’t sit down unless they’re repeatedly asked to (maybe not even then), and they don’t listen just because the teacher is speaking; even “good teachers” are occasionally drowned out by the din of 30 students simultaneously using language that would easily earn a movie an NC-17 rating.

When a fight breaks out during an English lesson, Ms. Gruwell steps into the hallway and a security guard immediately materializes to break it up. Forget the teacher — this guy was the hero of the movie for me.

If I were to step out into the hallway during a fight, the only people I’d see would be some students who’d heard there was a fight in my room. I’d be wasting my time waiting for a security guard. The handful of guards where I work are responsible for the safety of five floors, six exits, two yards and four schools jammed into my building.

Although personal safety is at the top of both teachers’ and students’ lists of grievances, the people in charge of real schools don’t take it as seriously as the people in charge of movie schools seem to.

The great misconception of these films is not that actual schools are more chaotic and decrepit — many schools in poor neighborhoods are clean and orderly yet still don’t have enough teachers or money for supplies. No, the most dangerous message such films promote is that what schools really need are heroes. This is the Myth of the Great Teacher.

Films like “Freedom Writers” portray teachers more as missionaries than professionals, eager to give up their lives and comfort for the benefit of others, without need of compensation. Ms. Gruwell sacrifices money, time and even her marriage for her job.

Her behavior is not represented as obsessive or self-destructive, but driven — necessary, even. She is forced into making these sacrifices by the aggressive neglect of the school’s administrators, who won’t even let her take books from the bookroom. The film applauds Ms. Gruwell’s dedication, but also implies that she has no other choice. In order to be a good teacher, she has to be a hero.

“Freedom Writers,” like all teacher movies this side of “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” is presented as a celebration of teaching, but its message is that poor students need only love, idealism and martyrdom.

I won’t argue the need for more of the first two, but I’m always surprised at how, once a Ms. Gruwell wins over a class with clowning, tears, rewards and motivational speeches, there is nothing those kids can’t do. It is as if all the previously insurmountable obstacles students face could be erased by a 10-minute pep talk or a fancy dinner. This trivializes not only the difficulties many real students must overcome, but also the hard-earned skill and tireless effort real teachers must use to help those students succeed.

Every year young people enter the teaching profession hoping to emulate the teachers they’ve seen in films. (Maybe in the back of my mind I felt that I could be an inspiring teacher like Howard Hesseman or Gabe Kaplan.) But when you’re confronted with the reality of teaching not just one class of misunderstood teenagers (the common television and movie conceit) but four or five every day, and dealing with parents, administrators, mentors, grades, attendance records, standardized tests and individual education plans for children with learning disabilities, not to mention multiple daily lesson plans — all without being able to count on the support of your superiors — it becomes harder to measure up to the heroic movie teachers you thought you might be.

It’s no surprise that half the teachers in poor urban schools, like Erin Gruwell herself, quit within five years. (Ms. Gruwell now heads a foundation.)

I don’t expect to be thought of as a hero for doing my job. I do expect to be respected, supported, trusted and paid. And while I don’t anticipate that Hollywood will stop producing movies about gold-hearted mavericks who play by their own rules and show the suits how to get the job done, I do hope that these movies will be kept in perspective.

While no one believes that hospitals are really like “ER” or that doctors are anything like “House,” no one blames doctors for the failure of the health care system. From No Child Left Behind to City Hall, teachers are accused of being incompetent and underqualified, while their appeals for better and safer workplaces are systematically ignored.

Every day teachers are blamed for what the system they’re just a part of doesn’t provide: safe, adequately staffed schools with the highest expectations for all students. But that’s not something one maverick teacher, no matter how idealistic, perky or self-sacrificing, can accomplish.

Tom Moore, a 10th-grade history teacher at a public school in the Bronx, is writing a book about his teaching experiences.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Rouge Forum Conference Update – The Wars Left Behind: Education for Action

NoBloodForOil.jpg
Dear Friends,

We focus once again this week on the Rouge Forum Conference in Detroit, March 1 to 4, at Wayne State University. This will be the key gathering of educational activists in the US this year, bringing together test resisters, anti-war activists, community activists, literacy and social studies specialists, students, parents, profs, and k12 educators. We expect participants from the UK, Japan, China, South Africa, Canada, and even Brooklyn.

Spread the word. Nothing works better than a call or email from a friend.

Among the presenters: Patrick Shannon, Susan Ohanian, George Schmidt, Dave Hill, Steven Strauss, Adam Renner, and many others.

As we have had five requests to extend the due date for proposals, we will accept proposals until Saturday morning, January 20, as the review committee must meet and make decisions, as well as the schedule, then. We continue to ask for donations, but no one will be turned away for fees. Many thanks to those who have donated already.

This link represents some of the work that members of the Rouge Forum are initiating for strategic planning in San Diego. The template could be used nearly anywhere.

On this Martin Luther King Holiday, we highlight his speech, “Beyond Vietnam—A Time to Break the Silence,” one speech that it is hard to turn into its own opposite, even though many of the MLK celebrations reflect everything that King set out to oppose, as in the militarized march led by the JROTC in San Diego.

We also recommend the film, Deacons For Defense, as a collateral discussion piece.

Here is Professor Michael Klare, author of Resource Wars, on Energo-Fascism.

This article is but one of many incisive pieces linked to the No Blood For Oil web page, a remarkable resource for educators.

We note with great sadness the death of South African writer, intellectual, and activist, Jimmy Seephe, a dear friend. We will have an appreciation of his life next week.

From Rethinking to Reacting -A Call for a Resistance Revolution in Teacher Education

From Rethinking to Reacting
A Call for a Resistance Revolution in Teacher Education-
Beginning the Fall Semester, 2007

Four Arrows, aka Don Trent Jacobs

This is a call for all teacher-educators and their teacher candidates to
revolt, beginning with the Fall school semester just ahead. No more research
articles that show how current practices are failing. No more complaining
about policies that diminish authentic teaching and learning. No more
“rethinking schools.” It is time to resist. I am sending this communiqué to as
many forums as possible so you will not be acting alone, unless we have all
lost our courage completely.

The strategy for the revolution I am calling for is triple-tiered. First,
resist all standardized measurement protocols. This includes standing firmly
against No Child Left Behind, against the National Council of Accreditation
for Teacher Education (NCATE) and against letter or numerical grading
policies. Second, emphasize social and ecological justice in all classroom
activities and assignments in spite of the arguments against so doing. This
includes, where appropriate, encouraging students to consider possibilities of
criminal wrongdoing by the U.S. government with regards to the suppression of
environmental science relative to global warming; complicity in the events of
September 11, 2001; and deceit in its actions relating to the Iraq war. Third,
do your best to implement at least one part of the vision or mission statement
adopted by your university or College of Education. Pay special attention to
the one that is probably NOT being followed.

It is important that all revolutionary resistance be supported by good
educational research. This will give confidence to your actions in the face of
opposition. I will do this in my own College of Education at Northern Arizona
University beginning with the submission of my “Methods for Teaching Social
Studies” syllabus in August. In it I will clearly state my disagreement with
Education Secretary Margaret Spelling’s recent statement that No Child Left
Behind is “nearly perfect.” I will state my intentions regarding class
inquiries about deceptions surrounding 9/11 by quoting similar material from
Professor David Smith’s book, Trying to Teach in a Season of Great Untruth:
Globalization, Empire and the Crises of Pedagogy. I will refer to a resolution
recently passed by the College and University Faculty Assembly of the National
Council for the Social Studies at its annual conference in Washington, DC,
November 30, 2006, where NCSS and the American Historical Association urged
its members “to take a public stand as citizens on behalf of the values and
goals taught in social studies and necessary to the practice of our
profession; and to do whatever they can to bring the Iraq war to a speedy
conclusion.” I will restate Postman and Weingartner’s precepts for good
learning, including the need for a keen sense of relevance, open-mindedness,
and an emphasis on the importance of inquiry.

Under “grading policy” for my syllabus, I will state simply that this will be
“negotiated” the first day of class. However, in terms of our revolutionary
strategy, I will share with you my plans for this negotiation. First I will
explain that I do not believe in grading. I will refer to the abundant studies
that show that grading generally depresses creativity, gets in the way of
complex learning and undermines genuine interest in the subject. I will say
that in previous years the class and I agreed on giving everyone “Bs” if they
missed no more than three classes, agreeing that the material would be too
difficult to master in one semester. One student appealed nonetheless. Against
all logic, the consumerism mentality of the system gave in and the student was
given the “A.” Thus, this year everyone get’s the “A” grade. The very fact
that the students will be thinking critically might warrant a “superior”
rating, although the whole affair if somehwhat ridiculous. I suspect that
there will be a class consensus to support this policy, although the college
at large will be appalled in spite of the fact that grade inflation at the
College of Education is such that around 89 percent of the teacher candidates
are somehow “A” students anyway.

My stand against NCATE will be especially challenging since my college is in
the early stages of preparing for its first NCATE accreditation and most
faculty will have implementation responsibilities. However, in addition to
standing by those conclusions of educators who write about how NCATE
trivializes the truly important dimensions of teaching and learning, I will
also stand against NCATE because of its recent decision to end its support for
“social justice” in teacher education because they believe it is not more than
a political position.

In fact, the “social justice” imperative for teacher education is a
foundation for this revolt. Thus, I will devote a little space here to talk
about why NCATE removed this language from its list of dispositions and why
the many arguments against university vision statements that refer to social
justice are flimsey. If it is wrong or “political” for universities to support
social justice then the notion of an Internal Review Board for protecting
human subjects should also be criticized. IRB policies stem from the 1979
Belmont Report and the concerns for the protection of human life and values
expressed therein. If IRBs can structure justice into research ethics, teacher
education can include it in its guidelines.

In fact, all of the arguments against universities using “social justice” as
a goal are insufficient. Moral relativity no longer has a leg to stand upon.
The complaint by libertarians that social justice implementation violates its
non-aggression principle does not ultimately hold water when referring to an
educational approach, not some form of coersion or violence. The concern that
social justice may be unfeasible economically is but a reflection of a way of
thinking guided by an almost exclusive focus on quarterly profit and loss
statements. Saying that the subject only applies to the social sciences is not
accurate, for “word problems” in math and applications in science are
excellent ways to bring forth both awareness and solutions to social and
ecological problems.

Finally, the objection that no one can agree on a definition is also bogus. It
is easy to see the common theme in all of the definitions that have been
offered. “Social justice” is large enough to bring together a variety of
perspectives on ways to move toward a world in which we treat one another with
love and compassion and where we recognize one another’s value and the
interconnections we all have. If the meaning or goals of education have
nothing to do with the creation or maintenance of a healthy society, then and
only then would I be willing to call off the social justice agenda for
educators and retreat from my own call for a revolution of resistance
beginning this Fall.

The third and final tier I ask that we address in this revolt of resistance
relates to honoring or redefining, if necessary, your university or college’s
vision and mission statements. Not many visions truly support the
corporatization and militarization of education that currently exists and most
do make a commitment to the idea of “social justice” even if they have gone to
great lengths to avoid using the phrase. A brief look at such statements for
universities that are posted on the web reveals a clear mandate for the kind
of education that requires challenging the false rationales for the “tougher
standards” movement, for questioning corporate approaches to teaching and
learning, and for making an authentic commitment to social and ecological
justice in a contemporary world:

• “We support quality of life for our consituents.
• “To engage the global community.
• “To prepare educators to work in diverse communities.
• “We will address equity in students.
• “To improve the lives of individuals in complex societies.
• “ To prepare our students for community service.
• “To enhance commitment to the principles of democracy.

Even where vision statements are sorely lacking in such language, the
universities that claim them still use phrases like “collaborative
participation” or a “caring environment.” At NAU’s College of Education, our
vision is “preparing educational professionals who are committed to creating
the schools for tomorrow.” It would not take much interpretative prowess to
make a connection between the agenda for our revolt and the vision of the
organization. With virtually every life system in our world being in decline,
what kind of schools for tomorrow might be envisioned that do not emphasize
challenging the status quo? Making the connection will you to use the vision
statement to support your “civil disobedience” with regards to procedures that
are barriers to authentic authentic work toward fulfilling the vision.

If the vision statements do not adequately serve to support your actions, have
a look at the university’s strategic plan. For example, Northern Arizona
University’s new strategic plans calls for achieving “multi-cultural
understanding as a priority of educational civic life.” One of its seven goals
is to “become the nation’s leading university serving Native Americans.” The
College of Education’s vision refers to its “long standing commitment to
Native American students.” Contradictions abound here and I plan on using my
own text for my courses as a result- a recent University of Texas Press
publication entitled, Unlearning the Language of Conquest: Scholars Expose
Anti-Indianism in America to help rectify them. For but one example, the
university boasts about its “majestic San Francisco Peaks” in its faculty
recruitment ads and about skiing its slopes in recruitment efforts aimed at
students. Yet all of the twenty-three Arizona Indian tribes, who hold the
Peaks to be sacred spiritual grounds, have passionately fought against using
recyled waste water to create artificial snow on their sacred lands while NAU
has refused to take an official position on the subject in support of the
Native people.

Each of our colleges of education, perhaps each of us ourselves, are guilty of
such hypocrisy somewhere along the line. In the Fall of 2007, it is time to
put ourselves back in balance through an action that will move our “rethinking
” of schools to something more practical. The revolt just might catch on.

CEOs pocket more by Jan 2 than average worker does in the entire year

Today the Canadian Centre on Policy Alternatives released Timing is Everything: Comparing the earnings of Canada’s highest-paid CEOs and the rest of us by CCPA research associate Hugh Mackenzie.

The study finds that by 9:46AM on January 2nd Canada’s 100 highest-paid CEOs will have reaped, on average, $38,010 in pay. That equals the average annual earnings of workers in Canada.

By 6:00 they will have pocketed nearly $70,000.

Most outrageous comments of 2006

From MediaMatters.org: The Most outrageous comments of 2006

Summary:

How extreme were conservative commentators in their remarks this year? How about calls to nuke the Middle East and an allegation that a “gay … mafia” used the congressional page program as its own “personal preserve.” Right-wing rhetoric documented by Media Matters for America included the nonsensical (including Rush Limbaugh’s claim that America’s “obesity crisis” is caused by, among other things, our failure to “teach [the poor] how to butcher a — slaughter a cow to get the butter, we gave them the butter”), the offensive (such as right-wing pundit Debbie Schlussel’s question about “Barack Hussein Obama”: is he “a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?”), and the simply bizarre (such as William A. Donohue’s claim that some Hollywood stars would “sodomize their own mother in a movie”). Since there were so many outrageous statements, we included a list of honorable mentions along with the top 11, which, if not for Ann Coulter, we might have limited to 10.

The top 11 (in chronological order):

William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights: “Well, look, there are people in Hollywood, not all of them, but there are some people who are nothing more than harlots. They will do anything for the buck. They wouldn’t care. If you asked them to sodomize their own mother in a movie, they would do so, and they would do it with a smile on their face.” [2/9/06]

Fox News host John Gibson: “Do your duty. Make more babies. That’s a lesson drawn out of two interesting stories over the last couple of days. First, a story yesterday that half of the kids in this country under five years old are minorities. By far, the greatest number are Hispanic. You know what that means? Twenty-five years and the majority of the population is Hispanic. Why is that? Well, Hispanics are having more kids than others. Notably, the ones Hispanics call ‘gabachos’ — white people — are having fewer.” [5/11/06]

Right-wing pundit Ann Coulter on The New York Times’ decision to report on the Bush administration’s warrantless domestic wiretapping program and a Treasury Department financial transaction tracking program: The Times had done “something that could have gotten them executed, certainly did get [Julius and Ethel] Rosenberg[] executed.” [7/12/06]

Coulter responding to Hardball host Chris Matthews’ question, “How do you know that [former President] Bill Clinton’s gay?”: “I don’t know if he’s gay. But [former Vice President] Al Gore — total fag.” [7/27/06]

Nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage: “That’s why the department store dummy named Wolf Blitzer, a Jew who was born in Israel, will do the astonishing act of being the type that would stick Jewish children into a gas chamber to stay alive another day. He’s probably the most despicable man in the media next to Larry King, who takes a close runner-up by the hair of a nose. The two of them together look like the type that would have pushed Jewish children into the oven to stay alive one more day to entertain the Nazis.” [8/7/06]

Coulter on Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), an African-American: “Congresswoman Maxine Waters had parachuted into Connecticut earlier in the week to campaign against [Sen. Joseph I.] Lieberman because he once expressed reservations about affirmative action, without which she would not have a job that didn’t involve wearing a paper hat. Waters also considers Joe ‘soft’ on the issue of the CIA inventing crack cocaine and AIDS to kill all the black people in America.” [8/9/06]

Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh, blaming America’s “obesity crisis” on “the left,” “liberal government,” and “food stamps”: “Because we are sympathetic, we are compassionate people, we have responded by letting our government literally feed these people to the point of obesity. At least here in America, didn’t teach them how to fish, we gave them the fish. Didn’t teach them how to butcher a — slaughter a cow to get the butter, we gave them the butter. The real bloat here, as we know, is in — is in government.” [8/29/06]

Coulter on Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI): “They Shot the Wrong Lincoln.” [8/30/06]

Conservative pundit and former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan: “Look, [Rep. Jim] Kolbe [R-AZ] is gay. He is an out-of-the-closet gay. [Rep. Mark] Foley [R-FL] was gay. The House clerk who was in charge of the pages [Jeff Trandahl] was gay. Foley’s administrative assistant, Mr. [Kirk] Fordham, The New York Times tell us, was gay. You hear about a lot of others. What’s going on here, Joe [Scarborough, MSNBC host], is basically these, this little mafia in there looked upon the pages, I guess, as their — sort of their personal preserve. And it stinks to high heaven what was done. And it stinks to high heaven that it was not exposed and these types of people, thrown out by the Republican Party.” [10/9/06]

CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck to Rep.-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN): “OK. No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. … With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, ‘Let’s cut and run.’ And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, ‘Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.’ ” [11/14/06]

Right-wing pundit Debbie Schlussel on Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL): So, even if he identifies strongly as a Christian … is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father’s heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?” [12/18/06]

Honorable mentions (also in chronological order):

Beck: “Cindy Sheehan. That’s a pretty big prostitute there, you know what I mean?” [1/10/06]

Republican strategist Mary Matalin: “I mean, you know, I think these civil rights leaders are nothing more than racists. And they’re keeping constituency, they’re keeping their neighborhoods and their African-American brothers enslaved, if you will, by continuing to let them think that they’re — or forced to think that they’re victims, that the whole system is against them.” [2/8/06]

Pat Robertson, host of the Christian Broadcasting Network’s The 700 Club: “But it does seem that with the current makeup of the court, they still don’t have as many judges as would be needed to overturn Roe [v. Wade]. They need one more, and I dare say before the end of this year there will be another vacancy on the court.” [3/7/06]

Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and host of the daily Christian radio show The Albert Mohler Program: “Well, I would have to say as a Christian that I believe any belief system, any world view, whether it’s Zen Buddhism or Hinduism or dialectical materialism for that matter, Marxism, that keeps persons captive and keeps them from coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, yes, is a demonstration of satanic power.” [3/17/06]

Nationally syndicated radio host Neal Boortz on Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s (D-GA) hairstyle: “She looks like a ghetto slut. … It looks like an explosion in a Brillo pad factory. … She looks like Tina Turner peeing on an electric fence. … She looks like a shih tzu!” [3/31/06]

Boortz on McKinney’s hairstyle (again): “I saw Cynthia McKinney’s hairdo yesterday — saw it on TV. I don’t blame that cop for stopping her. It looked like a welfare drag queen was trying to sneak into the Longworth House Office Building. That hairdo is ghetto trash. I don’t blame them for stopping her.” [3/31/06]

Limbaugh discussing a videotape released by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the then-leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq: “[I]t sounds just like the DNC [Democratic National Committee] is writing his scripts now.” (4/26/06)

Beck: “Blowing up Iran. I say we nuke the bastards. In fact, it doesn’t have to be Iran, it can be everywhere, anyplace that disagrees with me.” [5/11/06]

Jonathan Hoenig, managing member of Capitalistpig Asset Management LLC, on Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto: “I think when it comes to Iran, the problem is we haven’t been forceful enough. I mean if you — frankly, if you want to see the Dow go up, let’s get the bombers in the air and neutralize this Iranian threat.” [6/5/06]

Fox host Geraldo Rivera: “I’ve known [Sen.] John Kerry [D-MA] for over 35 years. Unlike me, he is a combat veteran, so he gets some props. But in the last 35 years, I’ve seen a hell of a lot more combat than John Kerry. And for a smart man like that in a political ploy to set a date certain only aids and abets the enemy, and the Democrats are at their own self-destructive behavior once again.” [6/22/06]

Savage: “I don’t know why we don’t use a bunker-buster bomb when he comes to the U.N. and just take [Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] out with everyone in there.” [7/21/06]

Boortz: “I want you to think for think for a moment of how incompetent and stupid and worthless, how — that’s right, I used those words — how incompetent, how ignorant, how worthless is an adult that can’t earn more than the minimum wage? You have to really, really, really be a pretty pathetic human being to not be able to earn more than the human wage. Uh — human, the minimum wage.” [8/3/06]

Syndicated columnist and Fox News host Cal Thomas on businessman Ned Lamont’s victory in Connecticut’s Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate: “It completes the capture of the Democratic Party by its Taliban wing. … [T]hey have now morphed into Taliban Democrats because they are willing to ‘kill’ one of their own, if he does not conform to the narrow and rigid agenda of the party’s kook fringe.” [8/10/06]

Fox News host Sean Hannity, two months before the November midterm elections: “This is the moment to say that there are things in life worth fighting and dying for and one of ’em is making sure [Rep.] Nancy Pelosi [D-CA] doesn’t become the [House] speaker.” [8/29/06]

Beck: “The Middle East is being overrun by 10th-century barbarians. That’s what I thought at 5 o’clock this morning, and I thought, ‘Oh, geez, what — what is this?’ If they take over — the barbarians storm the gate and take over the Middle East (this is what I’m thinking at 5 o’clock in the morning) — we’re going to have to nuke the whole place.” [9/12/06]

Savage: “My fear is that if the Democrats win [in the November midterm elections], and I’m afraid that they might, you’re going to see America melt down faster that you could ever imagine. It will happen overnight, and it could lead to the breakup of the United States of America, the way the Soviet Union broke up.” [10/13/06]

Republican pollster Frank Luntz on Nancy Pelosi’s appearance: “I always use the line for Nancy Pelosi, ‘You get one shot at a facelift. If it doesn’t work the first time, let it go.’ ” [10/31/06]

Limbaugh on the Middle East: “Fine, just blow the place up.” [11/27/06]

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly (on his radio show): “Do I care if the Sunnis and Shiites kill each other in Iraq? No. I don’t care. Let’s get our people out of there. Let them kill each other. Maybe they’ll all kill each other, and then we can have a decent country in Iraq.” [12/5/06]

New York Post columnist Ralph Peters on Iraq Study Group co-chairman James Baker: “The difference is that [Pontius] Pilate just wanted to wash his hands of an annoyance, while Baker would wash his hands in the blood of our troops.” [12/7/06]

Conservative syndicated radio host Michael Medved on the animated movie Happy Feet: The film contains “a whole subtext, as there so often is, about homosexuality.” [12/11/06]

Fox captions

Additionally, although these are not examples of specific conservative commentators making outrageous comments, we would be remiss if we did not mention that Fox News made a regular practice of attacking Democrats or repeating Republican talking points in on-screen text during its coverage of political issues. Some examples:

“All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?” [2/23/06]

“Attacking Capitalism: Have Dems Declared War on America?” [2/18/06]

“Dems Helping the Enemy?” [5/22/06]

“A Lamont Win, Bad News for Democracy in Mideast?”

“Have the Democrats Forgotten the Lessons of 9/11?”

“Is the Democratic Party Soft on Terror?” [8/8/06]

“The #1 President on Mideast Matters: George W Bush?” [8/14/06]

“Is the Liberal Media Helping to Fuel Terror?” [8/16/06]

— M.M.

Posted to the web on Friday December 22, 2006 at 6:12 PM EST

I Can’t Stand it…R.I.P. James Brown: The Godfather of Soul, Mr. Dynamite, Soul Brother No. 1, Minister of Super Heavy Funk

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James Brown died this morning in Atlanta’s Emory Crawford Long Hospital from complications from pneumonia.

The New York Times obituary by Jon Parelles.

Photo gallery from The New York Times.

It’s Star Time—Watch the “Hardest Working Man in Show Business”:

“Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”

“Sex Machine”

“I Feel Good”

This is the famous James Brown concert that was broadcast live on WGBH TV in Boston less than 24 hours after the assasination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: James Brown medley (Boston, April 5, 1968)

L.A. Style: “James Brown is Dead”

Download James Brown concert (MP3) here.

Listent to Terry Gross interview with James Brown from Fresh Air (February 2, 2005) here.