Re: Jim Geraghty on "Blood Libel"

> http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/256955/term-blood-libel-more-common-you-might-think

> Andrew Sullivan, October 10, 2008:
> A couple of obvious thoughts. Paladino speaks of “perverts who target 
> our children and seek to destroy their lives.” This is the gay 
> equivalent of the medieval (and Islamist) blood-libel against Jews.

Note the careful qualification there (the "equivalent of", etc.).

> From the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, September 30, 2009:

> He criticized former Alaska Governor and vice presidential candidate 
> Sarah Palin for saying that she was “all for” profiling against 
> Muslims.
> “We’re not painting all Jews as thieves for Madoff’s economic 
> crimes,” said Weinstein, comparing Palin’s comments to a “blood 
> libel.”

Good grief.  Comparing mere profiling -- which everyone does -- to any 
sort of "libel", much less a "blood libel" is simply way over-the-top. 
This is hardly a defense of Palin's own use of the term.

> During the recount in 2000:
> Florida Democrat Peter Deutsch last night on Crossfire:
> Let me just talk a little bit about the whole, I guess, spin from the 
> Republicans about — which has been to me the absolute most — the 
> worst statements I have ever heard probably in my life about anything. I 
> mean, almost a blood libel by the Republicans towards Al Gore, saying 
> that he was trying to stop men and women in uniform that are serving 
> this country from voting. That is the most absurd thing and absolutely 
> has no basis in fact at all.

Yes, this too is way over-the-top -- but what do you expect from a talk 
show with a name like Crossfire?  Again, this is hardly a defense of 
Palin's use of the term -- especially given that she used it in a 
carefully prepared speech at a time when *actual blood* was in the news.

Etc., etc., etc.

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