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Proof! FOX News has no sense of history (or humor)

Beck Outraged At Inauguration Benediction, Accuses Rev. Lowery Of Calling America 'Racist'»

Yesterday, civil rights leader Rev. Joseph Lowery delivered the benediction at President Obama's inauguration. At the end of the prayer, Lowery offered a light-hearted approach to a hopeful future absent of racial bigotry:
LOWERY: Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.
Right-wing talker Glenn Beck found Lowery's blessing way too much to handle, however. On his new Fox News show yesterday, Beck compared Lowery to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, accused him of calling all of America "racist," and asked, "Can you imagine anyone else saying something like that!?" Seeming to take personal offense at Lowry's benediction closing, Beck made sure to inform his viewers that he doesn't "hate minorities."

He then chastised Obama, saying he "was shocked" that Obama "actually smiled when he said this and shook your head." Watch it:

Comment: Amid the hysterical accusations of racism in the comments on the transcript of the benediction, voices of sanity reminds us how important it is to "remember the past":

By Gayathri on January 21, 2009 12:08 AM

He was just reversing an old saying....

"If you're white, you're alright
If you're brown, stick around
If you're yellow, you're mellow
But if you're black, get back"

and

By Runita Jones on January 21, 2009 1:10 AM
This whole issue shows that racism needs to be discussed fully to completely be healed. Right now, everyone just wants to pretend it didn't exist and that it doesn't still exist...after all we have an African American President.

Having an African American President will not solve the problems if we push what we don't want to see under the rug. That said, the quote used at the end of Rev. Lowry's speech is from a 1949 blues song called Get Back or Black, Brown and White. It was an indictment of the Jim Crow Laws which were enacted by southern state governments.

I am not of the generation that experienced Jim Crow, but I heard this version of the quote: "If you're black, get back; if you're brown,stick around; if you are white, you're alright". Sometimes the word light would be substituted for the word white. When this was the case, it would mean a light skinned black person. Rev. Lowery actually changed the wording and was praying, I believe, for a time when all vestiges of this way of thinking could be truly left behind us. He also implied that we are well on our way when he quoted Lift Every Voice And Sing, by James Weldon Johnson.


Snowman

Shivering Al Gore ice sculpture unveiled in Fairbanks, Alaska

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Al Gore can thank the Nobel Committee for honoring him with the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

He can also thank Fairbanks businessman Craig Compeau for what could be the farthest-north likeness of the former vice president: A 5-ton ice sculpture of a "shivering" Gore, created during a recent spell of bitterly cold weather in Alaska and aimed at confronting global-warming theories.

Eye 1

UK: Watching Big Brother Watching You

After being ticketed by a Police Community Support Officer - essentially a low level officer with oridinary citizen arrest powers - for riding his bicycle across the width of a sidewalk in order to lock it to a bike stand, the aptly named Rob O'Copp decided that the PCSOs in his hometown of Nottingham, UK needed some monitoring of their own. As a result, he formed the PCSO Watch Project and opened The Office of Community Sousveillance, declaring "We Are All Police Now."
Sousveillance

Family

UPS Man Delivers Daughter

Carol Stream, IL - A UPS deliveryman in Illinois says he handled his most unusual -- and most precious -- package when his wife unexpectedly gave birth in their living room.

Craig Ramirez, 34, of Carol Stream and his wife Lisa, 31, already have four children, so he thought it would be another routine labor when she woke him Saturday at 3:30 a.m. to go to the hospital, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday.

Cookie

Woman Attacks Man with Bagel

St. Petersburg, FL - Authorities say a St. Petersburg woman was charged with battery after hitting a man in the head with a bagel.

Police say 28-year-old Cassady C. Catolico was violating a temporary injunction filed last week by even going to see the victim early Sunday morning. She was also on probation from a 2006 criminal mischief case. Catolico was arrested and being held on $10,650 bail.

Mr. Potato

'Ann Coulter': Torture is 'good' and 'Christian-y'

'Ann Coulter' stopped by Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update Saturday, delivering a strongly-worded and hallucinatory defense of barely-in-office President George W. Bush.

Palette

Amazing! Psychiatrist knits anatomically correct woolly brain

knitted brain
© Barcroft Media Dr Norberg used different colours to represent parts of the notoriously complex organ
Psychiatrist Dr Karen Norberg, of National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, spent a year knitting an anatomically correct replica of the human brain.

Dr Norberg used different colours to represent parts of the notoriously complex organ.

The frontal cortex is cream and pale green, the visual cortex a mix of blue, purple and turquoise while the hippocampus is made up of baby pink wool.

The two sides of the nine inch brain - one and a half times life size - are joined together by a zip with the cerebellum knitted in blue and spinal cord trailing off in white strands of wool.

Cell Phone

Florida Girl Had 35,463 Texts In One Month

Clermont, FL - A Florida man said his quick-typing 14-year-old daughter has topped 35,000 text messages a month twice in the past year.

Brad Cox of Clermont said his daughter, Emilee, peaked with 35,463 text messages sent and received in June, averaging about 1,182 messages per day, the Orlando Sentinel (Florida) reported Wednesday.

Magic Wand

Stolen Ring Went 4,800 Miles In 20 Years

Mililani, Hawaii - A Hawaii police officer said a class ring that was stolen from his home in 1988 has been found at a pawn shop by police in Florida.

David Reyes, 47, of Mililani, Hawaii, said his ring was stolen from his home a few months after he graduated from California's Rio Hondo Police Academy in 1988 and during the ensuing years gave up hope of ever seeing the ring again, The Miami Herald reported Wednesday.

However, Reyes said he was contacted by a Hialeah, FL, police detective who "told me he had my ring. I couldn't even believe it," Reyes said. "I don't know how it got all the way across the country."

Smiley

"You Can't Fire Me, I'm Drunk!"

Peru's top court has ruled that workers cannot be fired for being drunk on the job, a decision that was criticized by the government on Wednesday for setting a dangerous precedent.

The Constitutional Tribunal ordered that Pablo Cayo be given his job back as a janitor for the municipality of Chorrillos, which fired him for being intoxicated at work.

The firing was excessive because even though Cayo was drunk, he did not offend or hurt anybody, Fernando Calle, one of the justices, said on Wednesday.