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*WARNING* Liberals may find one offensive. Don't open if you are going to get all butt hurt.

George Walker Bush depicted as The Joker and published in Vanity Fair

OR....

President Barack Hussein Obama depicted as The Joker on some freeway overpass in L.A. and picked up by Internet bloggers.

I don't know, which one IS more offensive? What do you think? Wouldn't you like to share your opinion?

I don't have a problem with either one of them. What surprises me is that some find the latter offensive. Why? And don't give me this bullshit liberal crap about how it is perceived. Obama is fair game just like every other president ever elected to office.

The second one is offensive because of the added caption. If the first one had a caption that said Nazi or Fascist would you be offended.
I would bet the original Obama one had no caption. That caption is what makes it offensive. It was probably added by the same wing nut group that claims Obama was born in Ghana. That's offensive and more than a little racist.

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I don't have a problem with either one of them. What surprises me is that some find the latter offensive. Why? And don't give me this bullshit liberal crap about how it is perceived. Obama is fair game just like every other president ever elected to office.

Well, the lie in the second one is offensive, but the political speech is constitutionally protected, and the photo is more or less that.

Who put up these two photos, anyhow? The Discordians?

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*WARNING* Liberals may find one offensive. Don't open if you are going to get all butt hurt.

George Walker Bush depicted as The Joker and published in Vanity Fair

OR....

President Barack Hussein Obama depicted as The Joker on some freeway overpass in L.A. and picked up by Internet bloggers.

Get over your self. You posted this just to be provocative. That's my liberal crap answer. When you post stuff like this with your inane comments you come across as a closet bigot. This isn't the first time you have posted something slightly suggestive of racism. In every instance you try to come across as being fair. You try too hard to appear to be fair after you know you haven't.

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The second one is offensive because of the added caption. If the first one had a caption that said Nazi or Fascist would you be offended.
I would bet the original Obama one had no caption. That caption is what makes it offensive. It was probably added by the same wing nut group that claims Obama was born in Ghana. That's offensive and more than a little racist.

Not seeing the forest because the trees are in the way? The added caption on the Obama Joker is moot if you read the Vanity Fair's Politics & Power blog where the Bush Joker was published. The end justifies the mean in both cases. Freedom of expression. The shock value should be secondary. Like I stated, the moment he was elected he is to be depicted fair, balanced, and just as importantly, skewed. All president have to endure this. Let me rephrase that, every president has had to endure this. It has always been this way. And rightly so. You fell into the caption instead of the big picture. Contempt prior to investigation is bias.

Vanity's Fair's comic book depiction was that of Bush being a villain leaning to the right of the drawing and symbolizing that the joke is on us. Obama's depiction of the The Joker requires no more creative of thinking. His face is to the left and not centered. As with the Bush drawing, Obama's The Joker theme is two-fold as well. The villain as well as the joke is on us. If it was good enough for liberals for Bush than you [liberals] just have to take your medicine on the Obama's Joker poster. Anyway, it's art as well. All "good" art creates the ability to think and the ability to stir up emotions of all types.

Christ, I'm a conservative Independent with a degree in the liberal arts and I'm having to explain basic liberal arts to a bunch of dumbass self-centered control freak liberals that wouldn't know how to dress for a job interview if their families depended on it (hint: a slur on socialism for you lazy dimwit creative thinkers, which constitutes socialism in a nutshell).

Also, pulling the race card is a limp dick on this and is becoming an old tired argument where Obama is concerned. He is going to take criticism and race is not a factor. Especially since the president is half white and raised by his white mother and grandparents. I'm half Italian. Does that make me a WOP? Or a white racist? I was raised by my white mother. That makes me Italian. Right? Of course it does because Obama is black. Pft!

And most importantly you so-called creative thinking liberals are basing your assumption that the Obama artist is white. Nice burn. At the time of this post nobody officially knows who created that Obama poster, which means somebody here is basing their opinions on their own racism and their cop-out "perception" excuse to save one's own face. No pun intended.

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Christ, I'm a conservative Independent with a degree in the liberal arts and I'm having to explain basic liberal arts to a bunch of dumbass self-centered control freak liberals that wouldn't know how to dress for a job interview if their families depended on it (hint: a slur on socialism for you lazy dimwit creative thinkers, which constitutes socialism in a nutshell).

So your telling us that you are an undergraduate after all..

No, I'm pointing out you quoted yourself and can't understand how to use an Internet forum. You must have taken graduate level courses.

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Freedom of expression.

Lamont, we are all for freedom of expression. However, there are times here on the forum when we feel that members abuse the hospitality we offer. When we (that's John Atkinson and I) decide that the line has been crossed, and the overall atmosphere of the forum made to look and feel bad, we'll just delete the post, ask that you don't cross the line again, and hope that we can all move forward.

I haven't looked at the links you've provided, but I really don't care what they do at Vanity Fair. My concern is with Stereophile and this forum.

What bothers me in all of this is the level of angst and the division of the two parties. The fact that it has become less us, but us vs the "enemy", who ever the "other side" is.

The fact is that in government we are hoping that elected people will solve problems for the good of the whole, but what we define as "the problem" gets skewed by "positions" of what people think government "should do". I think it is fair to say that we have gone well beyond trying to make the playing field level with equal opportunity. (I thought better of even adding that here.) The reality is that maybe we have run out of enough opportunities for those who want one.

So, now with all the diverse opinions on social engineering, neither side seems to have solved any problems so now "our leader(s)" are now open game for anything. Now, we have problems that are beyond the magnitude that anyone could have imagined, and subsequently even on a global scale. (Gee, a global economy.)

We love to try and pin the blame on someone, it doesn't matter if it is your favorite sports team tanking or "your" or "my" President or Party not succeeding at "fixing the perceived problem".

Now, with it down to "money", it is really going to get ugly and when the "honeymoon" comes to a close (the first 100 days) when you haven't solved what you said were the "creations of the other guy", well now comes payback time. So, the billboards go up and with the internet and free speech we let'r rip at will!

The problem IMHO is that the brightest of the bright will not run due to the negative political climate and you can decide what we are left with. WE hope that on elected officials' staffs, the brightest of the bright will appear to "guide" our leaders(?) and help them not make things worse, at best.

Do we deserve better government than we elect? And, why do we not make a concerted effort to elect better people at the local level that could rise in politics to national positons and make a real difference? (We have local trouble here of a magnitude that I have not ever seen growing up in Chicago in the '50s and '60s, other than a national convention that was pretty wacky.

Until it becomes more US, and mean it, and not more "what's in it for me", I worry. I am beginning to see the glass less than half full. I fear for my 14 year old son. I am not sure we are leaving him much of a world.

Let civility reign. One can dream. I ignore all of it and take no part in it. No good will come out of it.

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Freedom of expression.

Lamont, we are all for freedom of expression. However, there are times here on the forum when we feel that members abuse the hospitality we offer. When we (that's John Atkinson and I) decide that the line has been crossed, and the overall atmosphere of the forum made to look and feel bad, we'll just delete the post, ask that you don't cross the line again, and hope that we can all move forward.

I haven't looked at the links you've provided, but I really don't care what they do at Vanity Fair. My concern is with Stereophile and this forum.

Fair enough. Respect.

Not seeing the forest for the trees is something you are quite good at. You very nicely sidestepped and ignored what I wrote. You haven't responded to my comment about adding a caption. That is where you are not seeing the forest for the trees.
So you are half Italian, BFD. What's the other half? More than likely you are descended from European immigrants on both sides.
Bringing up partial Italian ancestry as a means of softening a provocative situation that you deliberately caused is nothing but cowardice.
It's not necessary to explain any of the "soft sciences" as "Liberal Arts" surely is. It's nothing more than opinion based on opinion. That's why it's called "soft science".

I did respond to your bullshit. In one sentence. I also took a shit on your post but you'll never find it.

As usual you can't respond in a civil manner. Foul language and implied threats are your response to a simple question. The implications behind my question have been answered.

I would bet large amounts of money you only get foul and threatening on the internet. The post of yours I'm responding to is a perfect example of something you wouldn't say to someone in person.

Excuse me. I responded to your question in one sentence. You may find it in my post regarding the matter. I have insulted you. You may challenge me to a duel. You may even have your choice of weapon, sire. Shall we meet at first light at Liberty Square?

Feel better, Barbara?

Anybody else going to start crying?

First of all my name is not Barbara. Calling me that is an insult. I have gone out of my way not to insult you on several occasions when you clearly deserved it. Don't joke about meeting me on a field of honor as I'm certain you have none. Frankly, I don't believe you would survive such a meeting.

If you are suggesting I complained about your incredible stupidity and unwarranted arrogance you are wrong as usual.
You can't even take your lumps like a man. Nobody cried about anything. Whatever came down on you was strictly your own doing. Why don't you just fess up apologize and stop acting like a puppy that just got swatted with a newspaper. On second thought, forget the apology. Apologies from your kind are neither truthful or sincere.

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Excuse me. I responded to your question in one sentence. You may find it in my post regarding the matter. I have insulted you. You may challenge me to a duel. You may even have your choice of weapon, sire. Shall we meet at first light at Liberty Square?

Feel better, Barbara?

Anybody else going to start crying?

Reacting like a barbarian only suggests that you are one. Perhaps you might rethink your liberal-arts ways.

Oh, and when you drop the rock, it still smacks into your foot.

Feel better, Dorothy?

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So you are half Italian, BFD. What's the other half?

His other half is Scallion. He's an Italian Scallion (playing Rocky music)

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So you are half Italian, BFD. What's the other half?

His other half is Scallion. He's an Italian Scallion (playing Rocky music)

I'd say, actually, his other half is rapper. That makes him, accurately enough, a rapscallion.

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Feel better, Dorothy?

Anibal et porto!

I'm like Obama. I'm half WOP and half white. That makes me Italian.

Here's pie in your face, JoeE:

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Bored during his winter school break, Firas Alkhateeb, a senior history major at the University of Illinois, crafted the picture of Obama with the recognizable clown makeup using Adobe's Photoshop software.

This jackass, who isn't white or even a racist (cough), created the image and posted it on a fake Time magazine cover on Flikr. Some other asshole downloaded the image, removed the Time theme and added a line, "Socialism" under it then posted it around LA. The jackass is offended by the asshole for putting "socialism" under it. Get this, the jackass infringes copyrights of Time, seditionalistly depicted "The Next President" as The Joker, and is appalled that somebody took his image and added "Socialism" under it.

I'm telling ya a president just doesn't stand a chance with the Internet....

Poor Obama, with friends like, Firas Alkhateeb, who needs enemies?

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"After Obama was elected, you had all of these people who basically saw him as the second coming of Christ...From my perspective, there wasn't much substance to him." -- Firas Alkhateeb

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Here's pie in your face, JoeE:

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Bored during his winter school break, Firas Alkhateeb, a senior history major at the University of Illinois, crafted the picture of Obama with the recognizable clown makeup using Adobe's Photoshop software.

This jackass, who isn't white or even a racist (cough), created the image and posted it on a fake Time magazine cover on Flikr. Some other asshole downloaded the image, removed the Time theme and added a line, "Socialism" under it then posted it around LA. The jackass is offended by the asshole for putting "socialism" under it. Get this, the jackass infringes copyrights of Time, seditionalistly depicted "The Next President" as The Joker, and is appalled that somebody took his image and added "Socialism" under it.

I'm telling ya a president just doesn't stand a chance with the Internet....

Poor Obama, with friends like, Firas Alkhateeb, who needs enemies?

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"After Obama was elected, you had all of these people who basically saw him as the second coming of Christ...From my perspective, there wasn't much substance to him." -- Firas Alkhateeb

There is no pie on or in my face. What I said was the caption made it offensive. I doubt you would have posted it had the caption not been added.