The bizarre Amy Bishop story
Posted by Richard on February 18, 2010
UPDATE: Corrected the four instances, including the title, where I somehow managed to rename Ms. Bishop "Hunt." My only explanation is that I had "Hunt" on my mind due to the convergence of Huntsville and Delahunt — that, and my Old-timer's Disease.
For those of you who haven't kept up with the story of Amy Bishop, the sociopathic professor who shot three fellow faculty members at the University of Alabama at Huntsville last Friday, James Taranto has a nice summary of her bizarre history. (Read the rest of the post, too. Like most of his Best of the Web Today articles, there's some interesting and very funny stuff.)
For additional details about Bishop's earlier shooting of her brother (and the pass she was given on that, apparently by the about-to-retire Representative Bill Delahunt), check this JammieWearingFool post. For much more about Bishop, check the links at Beltway Blips.
For a classic example of leftist spinning, check out this Mediaelites post. It begins by dismissing the characterization of Bishop as a socialist by claiming that it's based on "one lone, anonymous comment left on Dr. Amy Bishop’s RateMyProfessor.com profile." Well, it's not the only evidence that she's a hard-core leftist (sorry, I've lost the link, but the Beltway Blips link or a Google search should turn up some of the other evidence). But before dissing the source, Mediaelites might note that this "lone, anonymous comment" praises her class and is by far the most positive assessment of the five you posted. So it's not like this "lone, anonymous comment" was an attack or criticism — shouldn't that be a factor in considering whether its a "right-wing smear" or not?
Mediaelites then proceeds to quote from Bishop's husband's complaint about something to the FTC (no context is provided):
The government is not allowed to intrude on us without a court order. These companies (often foreign or foreign owned) should not have more rights to us than our own Government. The Constitution protects us from the Government, what protects us from these voyeurs?
High priced lobbyists are not a replacement for democracy. Our privacy needs armor plated protection.
“By the people … for the people …”
not
“Buy the people … for the Corporations …”
And based on that, Mediaelites argues that maybe Bishop and her husband aren't socialists, but right-wing libertarians!
They’re much more in line with the beliefs of the libertarians who currently support that Frankenstein of Bircher and Reaganite ideologies, the Tea Party Movement.
Um, yeah, right. Because everyone knows that people who rail against corporations (in some context Medialites declines to provide) are more likely to be libertarians than socialists. And libertarians, being so generally illiterate and ignorant of the meaning of "rights," are inclined to use such absurd phrases as "more rights to us than our own Government."
Nice try, dumbass.
Olivia said
Her name is Amy Bishop, FYI.
rgcombs said
Well, that was dumb. And embarrassing. Clearly, I need to proofread carefully before posting.
All fixed now. Thanks for the heads-up!