Borat Sagdiyev (aka Sacha Baron Cohen) nearly incited a riot at a Virginia rodeo with his thoughts on the war in Iraq and his rousing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, ending with "your home in the grave." The line between parody and reality has grown thin enough that Cohen was easily able to disguise himself as an immigrant patriot in his black cowboy hat and American flag shirt. It wasn't until he launched into commentary like, "I hope you kill every man, woman and child in Iraq, down to the lizards," that the crowd began to suspect something was awry.
The Roanoke Times has set up a bulletin board for citizens to process their trauma. If you're looking for a little Sunday entertainment, I recommend it. You've got gems like this "the whole Roanoke Valley should drop HBO until they make a statement. We need to do this for the respect for men & ladies in our military and the kids that wittiness this fool" followed by this "Interesting statistic: in some states of the southern USA an impressive 75% of the population is functionally literate. That's quite some achievement - almost as good as China, at 90%."
And then you've got the compelling argument that all criticism of US leadership should be censored from media lest other "countires" laugh at us--ending with appeal, "this kind of behavior is not acceptable, and if you think it is, then you should take that "Proud to be an American" bumper sticker off your SUV." Not a problem.
As an aside, let me say that the more public bulletin boards I read about current events, the more I wonder whether the great experiment of democracy was a bit too idealistic.
Update: Oops--just saw that eponymous had this one before me. That's what I get for falling behind in my reading.
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