Parshall featured founding member of neo-Confederate hate group as guest American history expert
SUMMARY: While a guest on Janet Parshall's syndicated radio show, Thomas E. Woods Jr. -- a founding member of the neo-Confederate League of the South, classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a "hate group" -- misleadingly cited Thomas Jefferson's advocacy of castrating men caught engaging in "acts against nature." He also endorsed an online college espousing the views of the right-wing John Birch Society as an appropriate educational tool for those who want to avoid schools that are "brainwashing" children.
On the July 3 edition of Salem Radio Network's Janet Parshall's America, Parshall hosted Thomas E. Woods Jr., author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History (Regnery, 2004) and a founding member of the League of the South, which the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has classified as a "hate group." During the broadcast Woods misleadingly cited Thomas Jefferson's advocacy of castrating men caught engaging in "acts against nature" during a discussion in which Parshall and Woods argued against allowing gays in the military. Woods also endorsed an online college espousing the views of the right-wing John Birch Society as an appropriate educational tool for those who want to avoid schools that are "brainwashing" children.
The League of the South is a secessionist, neo-Confederate organization with approximately 9,000 members. The SPLC described the LOS as "rife with white supremacists and racist ideology." Michael Hill, who founded the LOS alongside Woods in 1988, wrote to members of his organization in 1998: "The day of Southern guilt is over -- THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT -- and let us not forget that salient fact. NO APOLOGIES FOR SLAVERY should be made. In both the Old and New Testaments slavery is sanctioned and regulated according to God's word. Thus, when practiced in accord with Holy Scripture, it is NOT A SIN. Our ancestors were not evil men because they held slaves. This issue is our Achilles Heel, and the only way to deal with it is to confront our accusers boldly and without guilt. After all, what we are really upholding is GOD'S WORD. Let us fear Him, and we'll fear no man."
During the broadcast, Parshall launched into a discussion on gays in the military. Answering a caller's question about the Founding Fathers' views of homosexuality, Parshall said:
PARSHALL: Well, and let's go back to some of the other issues. We do know, as a matter of fact, that in the days of the colonists, that if one was found to be a homosexual in the military they were to use the phrase, drummed out. And that's where that phrase comes from. So not only would they not have felt that that was an issue, they thought that it was so abhorrent, that you were removed from the military if you were found to be in that activity.
WOODS: That's right. Well, I mean, in fact, Jefferson was considered a liberal because he -- because he believed that the crime for, shall we say, acts against nature, should simply be -- well, I don't want to use the word. But instead of execution, he believed that there was a lesser, a lesser punishment that could be carried out against men who engaged in that type of behavior. So I mean, these are not liberals, you know, by any sense of the imagination on issues like this at all.
PARSHALL: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Woods misleadingly dismissed the idea that by proposing that sodomy be punishable by castration rather than death, Jefferson had proposed legislation that in fact was liberal for its time. His bill has been cited as evidence of the Founding Fathers' opposition to homosexuality by numerous Christian-right groups and figures -- including anti-gay "researcher" Paul Cameron; David Barton, former Texas Republican Party vice chairman and founder of the group WallBuilders; and the group Citizen Soldier -- without noting that Jefferson actually advocated liberalizing sodomy laws, not making them stricter.
Later during Parshall's broadcast, Woods responded to a caller's comment about "brainwashing" in schools by recommending Robert Welch University, an online college named after the founder of the John Birch Society and dedicated to, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, "infus[ing] into the mainstream the ideals of Robert Welch and the John Birch Society":
CALLER: I am worried about the brainwashing of our children in the public schools. It started in the colleges, and now it's working its way down into elementary, for Pete's sake --
PARSHALL: Sure is.
CALLER: Our child comes to us and he's saying his teacher says this is a fact, and he refers to a textbook. How can we counter that?
PARSHALL: Yeah, good question. Tom?
WOODS: Yeah that's true. I mean, in effect, you need to deal with this one -- one case, you know, case by case. But it's -- it's, you know, it's it's times like this that it's just -- I'm just reminded of how important the homeschooling movement is.
PARSHALL: It is.
WOODS: Yeah, but the thing is that I understand that, you know, it's easy for me to say that, but it's very hard for a lot of working families to engage in homeschooling. You know, I mean, it's easy for us to say, "Oh, just homeschool your children." It's hard for working families to do.
PARSHALL: Right, right.
WOODS: So, you know, what, what are they going to do instead? Well, at least -- you know, at least what you can do is have other sources in your home.
PARSHALL: Exactly.
WOODS: And, you can -- you can you know, in effect tell your children that -- you know, you don't want to scare them, but you have to, they have to at some point realize that we are in a, in effect a kind of a cultural war. I mean, there's no getting around that.
PARSHALL: Exactly.
WOODS: And that textbook authors are in on this. And in cases like this also, the Internet is, little by little, going to help get over the heads of -- go right over the heads of professional educators as we know them today because, for example, a place called Robert Welch University.org is putting together a whole new online college, that all of whose courses will be traditional American Constitutionalist type courses.
PARSHALL: Wow.
WOODS: And this way you can just -- you can just ignore all this other stuff.
The John Birch Society is a right-wing organization founded in 1958 that is noted for its regular promotion of conspiracies. Welch once circulated a letter alleging that former President Dwight Eisenhower was "a conscious, dedicated agent of the Communist Conspiracy." His 1956 book, The Politician, was even more strident. In it, he charged that Eisenhower's brother, Milton, was a secret communist agent who controlled President Eisenhower, former president Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and former CIA director Allan Dulles. William Buckley Jr. called Welch's charges "paranoid and idiotic libels."
The latest issue of the John Birch Society's magazine, The New American, alleges that the immigrant rights movement is a Trojan Horse for "hardcore Marxists," that an immigration bill passed by the Senate earlier this year would cause "more than 200 million immigrants in the next 20 years" to flood the U.S. -- a number that exceeds even a claim made in a Heritage Foundation study, the methodology and results of which have been questioned, as Media Matters for America has noted -- and that the U.S. and Mexican governments are conspiring to eliminate the border-watch group the Minuteman Project.
Woods's The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History offers a conservative take on history that even some conservatives have criticized. Los Angeles Times columnist and Weekly Standard contributing editor Max Boot called the book an "absurd manifesto" that describes "a Bizarro world where every state has the right to disregard any piece of federal legislation it doesn't like or even to secede."
That's all I have to say about that.
The trouble with citing the Bible in support of slavery is that it does not support slavery as it was practiced in the United States. If you suggested to antebellum slave owners that they should release their slaves after seven years of service I doubt you would get a warm reception. The statement that "In both the Old and New Testaments slavery is sanctioned and regulated according to God's word. Thus, when practiced in accord with Holy Scripture, it is NOT A SIN" is true to an extent. But how often was it actually practiced in accordance with Scripture? And if they wanted to invoke the O.T.-why didn't they organize society along O.T. lines full stop?
The core principle of all religion is irrationality: they ask you to believe the unbelievable. So not following this or that aspect of the Bible is just part of caprices of religious belief and its very malleable blinders.
...the Bible, well, I've got a Bible. And I'd like the 2 of them to submit to God's will and be my slaves. They don't have to worry. After their 16-hour workdays, I'll read them a germane Bible verse or two to reassure them that their enslavement to me is righteous in the eyes of God.
Oh, Lordy, they'll pick a bale of cotton...and we'll call that karma.
Slaves are a pain. You have to feed them, care for them, keep them healthy, provide shelter.
SO much better to have a "disposable" supply of dirt cheap labor, who are left to fend for themselves as far as survival is concerned, and if they get sick or injured, just throw them out and get ANOTHER desperate soul to do your work.
And don't forget to rail against workplace safety regulation, minimum wage, and complain that it's not ENOUGH that Social Security relieves business owners from providing pensions, that Social Security ALSO needs to be "privatized" ... which is to say, those that don't fall in line and behave "properly" will just DO WITHOUT.
Without "LIBERAL" policies in America, the Labor situation in America would be FAR superior to slavery for the owner class. That's why Republicans and Rightwingers are working so hard to UNDO "liberal" programs.
The GOAL? Labor in America: All the ADVANTAGES of Slavery, without any of the burdonsome responsibilities of ownership. DISPOSABLE laborers ... that's the ticket!
Slaves vs over seas workforce. This explains the over seas workers that manufacture the crap sold a Wal-Mart. These people literally work for daily change. Out of their earnings they have to pay for housing, food, medical care, clothing. Paying them is cheaper to owning slaves. Cheaper than providing good care for a family pet.
Two Christmases before O'Reilly made it his pet cause Mrs. Parshall was warning her listeners about the "War on Christmas." Could rehabilitation of the Confederacy in textbooks be the right's next cause?
SHEER INSANITY, but the Righties will by about anything.
If you want to watch a real funny clip of Parshall with Randi Rhodes go to; crooksandliars.com/posts/2006/01/02 scrowl down till their pictures come up and watch the clown Janet, make a horses ass out of herself. It's towards the end.
The Parshall/Rhodes debate was classic. I wish that everybody who has ever heard of Janet Parshall could see this snippet of video. It showed just how far off the rails and uninformed that Mrs. Parshall is.
Does every right wing nut case in America have a radio or television show? It's beginning to seem that way.
And isn't that special?
I can only imagine what they have as ads:
Lead ankle weights, so that you don't bob to the surface while swimming and then get burned at the stake?
Language tapes so that you can learn to speak backward and in tongues so that you then denounce your neighbor for casting spells on you?
Fireproof nightgowns?
Scarlet 'A' decals to put on the neighbors' cars?
I thought it might be fun to reply to this. For one thing, as a Catholic I do not hold that slavery is acceptable or sanctioned by the Bible; this happens to be why I have argued that on states' rights grounds the Northern states had the right to refuse to enforce the fugitive-slave laws. Just an oversight in the report above, I'm sure.
Funny that MM would cite the crazed warmonger Max Boot against me. Max Boot thinks we should offer free citizenship to anyone in the world who comes here and joins the U.S. Army, so they can fight all his wars. Why would a leftist want to cite Boot for any reason?
Oh, and I wiped the floor with Boot here: [link to amconmag.com]
On my association with the "hate group" the League of the South -- for goodness sake, I'd assume that a principled leftist would have nothing but contempt for the money-grubbing opportunist and phony Morris Dees. You still care about this guy? You and 17 others, I guess. If you want the truth about my association with the League (which you don't, I'm sure), see here: [link to blog.lewrockwell.com]
It is interesting to me, and reveals a great deal about the left, that you find it completely uninteresting that I skewer modern presidential war powers, as claimed by the Bush people, as obviously unconstitutional. I'm also at least as strong an opponent of the Iraq war as any of you are. Why would you not find that at least slightly interesting? I mean, not even slightly? Fascinating.
If you'd like to know about my views, click here ([link to www.lewrockwell.com] and look at the article titles. Surprised at all the antiwar pieces? I am morally certain that I am more consistently antiwar than anyone at MM.
Or why not examine my credentials, here: [link to www.thomasewoods.com]
My work, as you can see from my website, has been praised by the American Historical Review, the Journal of American History, the Journal of American Studies, Catholic Historical Review, Theological Studies, Choice, Journal of the Historical Society, Economic Affairs, Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, and scores of other mainstream journals.
My own work has appeared in the American Historical Review, the Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, American Studies, Catholic Social Science Review, Christian Science Monitor, Investor's Business Daily, and many scores of other periodicals. My book The Church Confronts Modernity was published by Columbia University Press.
I am currently at work on a book with a genuine leftist on the antiwar tradition in America. Since he understands that the main problem facing us today is not a 9,000-member secessionist group but the neoconservative domination of American foreign policy and its recipe for unending war, he recognizes that it might be a good thing to set aside other differences as we try to fight against this. Yes, when I was 21 years old I attended a meeting that led to the formation of the League of the South, which believes (with Thomas Jefferson) in the right of secession. Big deal. Tell me: you don't want to secede from George Bush's America? Allow yourself a single unconventional thought, I beg you. Isn't the left supposed to be able to break with the past and think original thoughts?
Still more human garbage. Parshall is total slime. Yeah, Randi Rhodes just smoked her on C-SPAN. She has no command of the facts or knowledge of history.
As for this neo-confederate slime, they 've got a right to exist just like the nazis had a right to march in Skokie almost 30 years ago. However, we've got a right and a duty to point out just what ignorant racist slime these loons are.
That goes for that nitwit, George Allen, too. Don't give me this "it's our heritage" crap. The German State of Bavaria doesn't include the swastika in their flag because it's part of their heritage. It's a shameful part of their history. The confederacy is the same thing. All anyone owes those bums is the truth.
The stars and bars belong in museums and behind the drummer at Skynyrd concerts. That's it.
It's a heritage that celebrates hatred or heritage of hatred for short. Their beloved confederates fought for the right to hold people against their will and to forced them to perform labor, sex acts whatever they dicided they wanted them to do. Escaping was punished by beatings, maimings, or death. Now I know that the mint julip parties had to be smoking, but that lifestyle of chivalry and quaint manners and custom was supported by one of the most hideous versions of slavery that has ever existed. Some will surely respond with well Africans themselves were slave catchers, holders, and sold other Africans for nothing but sheer greed. To that I say this - they were the scum of the earth as well. But on a side note many of the slaves that were held by other African tribes were eventually absorbed into the tribe , particulalry the women absucted in the awfull practice of bride kidnap.
With silly contradictions such as:
GE 1:3-5 On the first day, God created light, then separated light and darkness.
GE 1:14-19 The sun (which separates night and day) wasn't created until the fourth day.
"CALLER: Our child comes to us and he's saying his teacher says this is a fact, and he refers to a textbook. How can we counter that?"
What a moron. He is asking someone for general advice on how to counter something he doesn't believe is true?
Well, the way I normally do it, is that since I don't believe it's true, I must obviously have a different belief. That belief is based on facts. What I then do is present THOSE facts, and state my case.
Of course, that would be impossible in thise case, since most likely there are no facts to back up this nutcase's beliefs. What a bunch of idiots. I'm surprised they even managed to learn how to turn on the radio.
What's wrong with Ann Coulter's mom? Was James Earl Ray not available this week?
Calling people names who disagree with you or your position is a way to prove the old axiom, "It's better to have have half the people think you are an idiot, than to open your mouth and prove to all that half was right!
I am a Southern/Confederate Heritage supporter. My family is largely Cherokee, you know the people the US Government attempted to exterminate. I'm also a Christian Couselor and Private School administrator. We teach children of all races accurate history. We do not teach the Confederate Battle Flag is evil, we teach it was a soldiers flag, created to save lives and it served honorably in a terrible war. We don't teach that Slavery was the cause of the War, but that slavery was wrong then and now in the countries it still exist. We do teach that the War between the States was about economic issues as are almost every war in the history of mankind. We do teach there was a Negro Holocaust that no one ever mentions because it didn't happen in the South. It did happen on the "Middle Passage" between Africa and the NE US, usually Providence RI, where more than 2,000,000 Slaves lost their lives during the journey. They were starved, not given water, the women mistreated and then tossed overboard and killed or beaten if they objected in any way to the treatment they were sujected to. This was done on US flagged ships, it had/has nothing to do with the South. People are seldom taught that the institution of Slavery was legal in all 13 of the original States and originated in the NE when they enslaved Indians back in the 17th century.
I am also a disabled US Army Veteran wounded in Vietnam. I proudly fly the US Flag in a superior position over the State and Confederate National Flag at my home.
Of course the Confederate battle flag isn't in and of itself "evil" (just as it can't have "served honorably") as it is only an inanimate symbol. A powerful symbol it is, too. Do you teach your young charges about the associations that symbol acquired after the Civil War? What do you teach them about Jim Crow, lynchings, etc.?
"I am a Southern/Confederate Heritage supporter."
That explains why in your post you go through great lengths to talk about slavery and mass killings anywhere but in the south, and that "slavery wasn't the cause of the war", because I guess that would mean that the south was the cause of the war.
But I'm glad you're not biased!
And what exactly does it mean to be a "Southern/Confederate Heritage supporter"? I mean, in terms of the issues you actually support. Or is it like "supporting the troops" which basically just has taken the meaning of "well, I voted for Bush"?
Read it, all. The "Southern Heritage" poster has lots of company.