Paul Shirley, one time decent basketball player and full time major league douchebag, has penned perhaps the most offensive thing ever written.
And that's including Mein Kampf and Leviticus.
In the wake of one of the worst humanitarian crisis in modern history, the loathsome Shirley thought it would be a good idea to lecture Haitians on being poor, living in an earthquake zone, and having too many children. Equating Haitians to 'homeless people on the street', Shirley says he won't donate to Haiti because 'I don't think the people of Haiti will do much with my money either'.
Instead of sympathy, Shirley would like Haitians to read the following letter from him posted on www.flipcollective.com:
Dear Haitians -
First of all, kudos on developing the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Your commitment to human rights, infrastructure, and birth control should be applauded.As we prepare to assist you in this difficult time, a polite request: If it's possible, could you not re-build your island home in the image of its predecessor? Could you not resort to the creation of flimsy shanty- and shack-towns? And could some of you maybe use a condom once in a while?
Sincerely,
The Rest of the World
Shirley's diatribe is much like a Sarah Palin speech -- full of words and ideas but without any semblance of logic or rationale. It's kind of like a nasty school boy explaining why it's OK to torture animals and smaller children (because they are weak and deserve it).
Shirley believes that Haitians should be blamed for their predicament because, well, they chose to live in Haiti:
If forced to do so through logic-colored glasses, no one would look at Haiti and think, "You know what? It was a great idea to put 10 million people on half of an island. The place is routinely battered by hurricanes (in 2008, $900 million was lost/spent on recovery from them), it holds the aforementioned title of poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, and it happens to sit on a tectonic fault line."
You could probably ascribe this logic to celebrities who have chosen to live in mudslide prone Malibu, but not to an island of former slaves who have been subjected to hundreds of years of imperial violence, robbery and exploitation. Haiti is not poor because it wants to be. It is poor because the West made it so. We've also been committed to installing vicious dictators to ensure favorable trading policy with the island in recent times, so the argument that they should 'stop blaming the past' is equally ridiculous. Yes, they could do more to stamp out greed, corruption and human rights abuses. But then so should we, so it's kind of meaningless.
Did Shirley say anything similar about 9/11? Did the dead have it coming because they chose to work in buildings that were prone to attack from errant passenger jets? Did they deserve to burn to death because they lived in America, the country responsible for preemptively invading two Muslim nations and exploiting others for oil?
The notion is simply ridiculous -- innocent people don't deserve to die because their country does bad things. But then Shirley is a ridiculous person.
Going through Shirley's attempt at a thoughtful article (on his twitter page, he wrote: "Remember - only trying to make ppl think") is like listening to Michelle Malkin extol the virtues of racial profiling -- painful and slightly embarrassing.
But it's worth it in order to 1. Debunk his vicious lies, and 2. Stop the man from ever being paid to write again.
Shirley writes a weekly column for ESPN.com on popular music, and is presumably paid for his services. As a decent and reputable company, ESPN should immediately take Shirley off their payroll and never let him publish under their brand again. You can contact ESPN here.
Ultimately, his rant is an insight into the twisted mind of a sociopath, and someone, preferably a family member, really should check in on him before he does himself or another person some damage.
And in the mean time, any company paying him to write should stop.
Update: ESPN has just fired Paul Shirley.
Update: ESPN has just fired Paul Shirley. Amen.
Ben Cohen is the Editor of TheDailyBanter.com and founder of BanterMediaGroup.com
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Free speech does not mean you are protected from the consequences of your words. Free speech is Shirley's ability to post his blog and not have the government shut down the web site. It does not mean, however, that he should be immune from any action or criticism following the posting of his blog.
Just as radio personalities are liable for the words they say on the air, anyone who is paid to write is liable for what he or she writes in any public forum. ESPN was correct in firing Shirley for his offensive diatribe.
You libs are all about free speech until you hear something yo don't like.
"perhaps the most offensive thing ever written."
Laughable.
"And that's including Mein Kampf and Leviticus."
There's that liberal tolerance of religion.
"What is alarming, I think, is the sometimes illogical frenzy toward casting those affected by the earthquake as helpless, innocent souls who were placed on the island of Hispaniola by an invisible force."
So.....he really thinks Haitians elected to move to Hispaniola, unaware of the fact that socipaths like himself depopulated the island's original inhabitants with genocide and then repopulated it with slaves.....who were in fact placed on the island... Oh God.
WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?
WHERE ARE THE NEWS COLUMNS?
WHERE IS THE MEDIA?
I guess an op-ed is more outrageous.
How phoney !
So you think it's OK to mock the Bible and laugh about the Holocaust/Mein Kampf but you are upset about Shirley's letter to Haiti?
Awesome consistency on the part of liberals, as always. Mock a Haitian, get fired. Mock religious people/Jews and the liberals chuckle...
and when it comes to biblical fairy tales up against real people suffering- yeah, i'd say the haitian thing is much worse.
Comparing Hitler's plan for exterminating Jews it to the Torah (Leviticus) is what he was talking about, genius.
If, at any time, any desperately poor, living citizens of the Bible are decimated by an earthquake, you can be sure we will be outraged as well if Mr. Shirley mocks them. Likewise "religious people," whatever that means. And as for "mocking the Bible," well, the Bible is a book, not an island full of descendants of slaves who have been kept in poverty and exploited for over 200 years. If you don't see the difference, you don't see much at all.
In the meantime, being offended by Mr. Shirley's horrific comments about the desperately poor people of Haiti who are suffering in a way that entitled Americans will never, ever have to, has nothing to do with being "liberal," it has to do with being a human being capable of empathy. There's a medical term for people whose pathology is derived from an almost-total lack of empathy or identification with their fellow man. You might look it up.
I'm still blown away by this comment. Have a look at the amount of UN aid that comprises Haiti's government expenditure. The reality is the inverse of what you present it to be.
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this time for this reason seem good enough for me.