You can’t just make shit up and say it’s true. Only the Alinskyite left gets to do that.
Case in point: The so-called Clint Eastwood “one-sentence editorial.” It goes like this:
This one sentence editorial appeared in the Peoria Journal Star . . . . .
“A pen in the hand of this president is far more dangerous than a gun in the hands of 200 million law-abiding citizens.”
Then Clint Eastwood added his words . .. . . .
“We Americans are so tired of being thought of as dumbasses by the rest of the world that we went to the polls this past November and removed all doubt.”Clint Eastwood
The “one sentence editorial” did in fact appear in the Peoria Journal Star. On February 9, 2013, the PJS printed a letter to the editor — NOT AN EDITORIAL — written by a woman named Camille Sanchez of Toluca, IL, consisting of the following:
A pen in the hand of this president is far more dangerous than a gun in the hands of 200 million law-abiding citizens.
Camille Sanchez
Toluca
I can find absolutely no reliable source stating that Clint Eastwood saw that letter (or had it brought to his attention) and responded, “We Americans are so tired of being thought of as dumbasses by the rest of the world that we went to the polls this past November and removed all doubt.”*
So I am led to the inescapable conclusion that a single right-wing website formulated the Franken-text in the first quote box above and then a whole potload of right-wing blogs proceeded blindly to cut and paste it without any attempt to determine whether or not it was true.
Again, the first part is absolutely true and documentable. A woman named Camille Sanchez wrote that sentence and it was published in the “Forum” section of the Peoria Journal-Star on February 9, 2013.
The rest of it appears to be made-up bullshit and the right-wing blogosphere eagerly rose to the bait and took it, hook, line and sinker.
It’s a damn shame that we have to sink to the level of the bastards who are destroying this country in order to kick them out. It would be cleaner to simply hang them all from the lampposts along Pennsylvania Avenue and have done.
There is a lesson here for right-wing bloggers: “If it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably bullshit.”
And we should never forget Ronald Reagan’s cautionary note: “Trust, but verify.”
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* Note that I do not disagree with the sentiment expressed, I just can’t find a reliable source for it being said by Clint Eastwood in relation to the letter by Ms. Sanchez, or even at all, for that matter. The only references I can find are either in conjunction with the Sanchez letter or stand alone without other attribution. Unless of course it’s a line from one of his movies, but I don’t have his movies memorized like I do Blazing Saddles or Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I’ll be happy to be corrected if someone has a verifiable reference, but like I say, so far I haven’t found one.