Are You A Sexpat Or Do You Ride The Backwards Morality Train?

[Greenside]

At 82 and still working hard for causes he believes in, it's hard not to admire the drive of this man. Predictably, the security was tight so no chance to get close but I'll be a very happy man if I can last another twenty years and still be half as active and on the ball.

More pictures here (as I do them)

[getgoin]

Good shots! We have one of the greatest Presidents of the US in our midst, too bad many never realized it.

Edited November 15, 2009 by getgoin

[Jingthing]

Yes, he is a very good man and a good example for all humanity. Now I am afraid we must brace ourselves for the inevitable anti-Carter political rants. Oh well.

[Ulysses G.]

Our greatest President should partner up with our greatest Vice President in 2012. Vote Carter/Quayle.

Dan Quayle

Edited November 15, 2009 by Ulysses G.

[britmaveric]

A Nut through and through however I can't fault him on his home building initiatives.

[Ulysses G.]

What was the deal with Jimmy Carter and the killer rabbit?

November 10, 1995 Dear Cecil:

What's the straight dope on Jimmy Carter's once being attacked by a killer rabbit? I hear there are actually photos of Carter swinging for his life at this rabbit, but his people refused to release them because "some facts about the president must remain forever wrapped in obscurity." What the hel_l is going on?

— Donald Lilly, North Hollywood, California

Dear Donald:

Well, right now I'd say it's pretty quiet, which is about what you'd figure, seeing as how the killer rabbit thing happened in 1979. Not that stories about feckless good ol' boy presidents don't have their pertinence these days. Say what you will about Bill Clinton's PR problems, though, Jimmy Carter was in a class by himself. Nice man, but he was one president whose image a couple accusations from bimboes would have probably improved.

The rabbit incident happened on April 20 while Carter was taking a few days off in Plains, Georgia. He was fishing from a canoe in a pond when he spotted the fateful rabbit swimming toward him. It was never precisely determined what the rabbit's problem was. Carter, always trying to look at things from the other guy's point of view, later speculated that it was fleeing a predator. Whatever the case, it was definitely a troubled rabbit. "It was hissing menacingly, its teeth flashing and nostrils flared and making straight for the president," a press account said.

The Secret Service having been caught flatfooted--I'll grant you an amphibious rabbit assault is a tough thing to defend against--the president did what he could to protect himself. Initially it was reported that he had hit the rabbit with his paddle. Realizing this would not play well with the Rabbit Lovers Guild, Carter later clarified that he had merely splashed water at the rabbit, which then swam off toward shore. A White House photographer, ever alert to history's pivotal moments, snapped a picture of the encounter for posterity.

Good thing, too. Carter's own staff was skeptical when he told the rabbit story back at the White House. Some ventured the opinion that rabbits couldn't swim, didn't attack people, and sure weren't about to take on a sitting president, even if it was Jimmy Carter. Miffed, Jimmy ordered up a print of the aforementioned photo, but this failed to resolve the issue. The picture showed the president with his paddle raised, and there was something in the water, "but you couldn't tell what it was," an anonymous staffer was quoted as saying. The average politician would have said, goddamit, I'm president of the United States and I say it was a rabbit. But Carter was not that kind of guy. He ordered a blowup made, establishing at last that his attacker was, well, a bunny, or "swamp rabbit," to use press secretary Jody Powell's somewhat fiercer sounding term.

OK, not one of the shining moments of Carter's career, but so far not a major train wreck, inasmuch as nobody outside the White House knew anything about it. Jody Powell took care of that problem the following August when he told the rabbit story to Associated Press reporter Brooks Jackson over a cup of tea. Powell ought to have known that you cannot tell anything to reporters in August because there is nothing else to write about and they will make any fool thing into a front page scandal. Which is exactly what happened. The Washington Post put the bunny story on page one complete with a cartoon takeoff of the famous "Jaws" movie poster entitled "Paws." The media ran with the story for a week, the worst aspect from Carter's perspective undoubtedly being the columnists, who basically all said, yeah, it's just a rabbit, but it shows you the kind of president we've got here. The administration refused to release the photos, although I seem to recall that Reagan's people later found and leaked them. Carter's subsequent drubbing at the polls was a foregone conclusion, hostage crisis or not. Lesson for life #1: if it moves, kill it. Lesson for life #2: if you can't kill it, for God's sake don't talk about it to the Associated Press.

RABBIT REDUX

Dear Cecil:

I have a theory that should put to rest this President Carter/killer rabbit thing once and for all. I propose that the president's antagonist was not a rabbit but a nutria (Myocastor coypus). The world's largest rodent, the nutria is semiaquatic with webbed hind feet and is very aggressive. Native to South America and valued for its durable fur, the nutria was introduced into the southern United States in the last century and quickly became a well-established pest species. A partially submerged nutria (a lightning-fast swimmer) would look very similar to a rabbit. Its lack of long, rabbitlike ears could easily be overlooked in the fog of battle.

I hope this serves to partially rehabilitate the much-maligned 39th president. --Thomas Canaday, San Francisco, California

Cecil replies:

You think being attacked by the "world's largest rodent" is an improvement? Then again, it had to give Carter a taste of what it would be like fending off Alfonse D'Amato.

Incidentally, the nutria isn't the world's largest rodent. The honor, such as it is, goes to the capybara, 110 pounds of pure ugly. Jimmy should count his blessings.

— Cecil Adams

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[bungalowbill]

Saw him at "The House" restaurant today at lunchtime.

[elektrified]

Good shots! We have one of the greatest Presidents of the US in our midst, too bad many never realized it.

No one ever will realize it. History is what it is. He was probably the most honest, yet ineffective, incapable president. Having said that, he is a great humanitarian.

[gotlost]

A Great Humanitarian as a President a complete tosser.

[MILT]

A Nut through and through however I can't fault him on his home building initiatives.

I suppose it takes one to know one?

[gotlost]

A Nut through and through however I can't fault him on his home building initiatives.

I suppose it takes one to know one?

Obviously you do not recall history to well, he got are buts kicked in Iran and we are still paying for that one.

[Ulysses G.]

I'm sorry, Jimmy has his good points but, Carter was never much of a President and he still interfers in American politics and sticks his foot in his mouth on a regular basis. Recently he claimed that Americans do not support Obama's health plan because they are "racist".

Concerning his "honesty", some people feel that when it comes to bigotry, Jimmy is trying to cover up his own past by accusing others. It is not only Jews that he has had problems with.

He needs to do good works and build more houses for the poor and keep his nose out of politics which he has never been very good at anyway.

Jimmy Carter's Race Problem

09-21-2009 • NRO

In his 1982 book, Keeping Faith, Carter disingenuously said he "was not directly involved in the early struggles to end racial discrimination." No kidding — in fact, he directly and unambiguously supported segregation. When Carter returned to Plains, Georgia, to become a peanut farmer after serving in the Navy, he became a member of the Sumter County School Board, which didnot implement the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision handed down by the Supreme Court. Instead, the board continued to segregate school children on the streets of Carter's hometown.

As Laughlin McDonald, director of the ACLU's Voting Project, relates in his book A Voting Rights Odyssey: Black Enfranchisement in Georgia, Carter's board tried to stop the construction of a new "Elementary Negro School" in 1956. Local white citizens had complained that the school would be "too close" to a white school. As a result, "the children, both colored and white, would have to travel the same streets and roads in order to reach their respective schools." The prospect of black and white children commingling on the streets on their way to school was apparently so horrible to Carter that he requested that the state school board stop construction of the black school until a new site could be found. The state board turned down Carter's request because of "the staggering cost." Carter and the rest of the Sumter County School Board then reassured parents at a meeting on October 5, 1956, that the board "would do everything in its power to minimize simultaneous traffic between white and colored students in route to and from school."

I am not aware that Rep. Joe Wilson has ever supported segregation or engaged in the same type of reprehensible, racist behavior. The idea that opposition to Obama's policies reflects "racism" is absurd; even the White House has rejected it. All of this raises a larger issue about Carter's remarks. When he makes such a claim, is he projecting his own inner racial beliefs? Is he so guilt-ridden over his past racist behavior that he wants to make amends to the race-baiters that today populate the Left? Or is he just cynically helping them score political points?

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/058042...ace-problem.htm

Edited November 16, 2009 by Ulysses G.

[amexpat]

I used to hunt in the US when I was a lad. I remember being warned that healthy rabbits run away, so if one comes toward you or seems unafraid, get away from it because:

"Tularemia, or rabbit fever, is an infectious disease having such severe symptoms as chills, fever, vomiting, and prostration, all of which develop about three days after the specific germ has invaded the tissues."

[Mestizo]

An article in the Nation:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/30116...-to-build-house

... says that Trisha Yearwood is also here. Any idea where they can be seen?

-Mestizo

[gotlost]

How about on Loi Kroh RD top end by the moat?

[tomahawk]

I am signed up to assist at the habitat for humanity project and was excited to learn Trisha Yearwood and Jet Li are going to be there. I also see alleged President Carter will be there, but as it is for a good cause I will go anyway.

[purplehaze]

I am signed up to assist at the habitat for humanity project and was excited to learn Trisha Yearwood and Jet Li are going to be there. I also see alleged President Carter will be there, but as it is for a good cause I will go anyway.

No doubt a few more star stalkers will sign up.

[earlofwindermere]

A little follow-up on this project...

Apparently very few of the families awarded the homes have moved in as the homes are not yet finished.

I was talking with one family yesterday who are recipients. From what they told me, nearly all the families also work in the city (mostly near the airport). Since their new homes are nearly a 35-45 min bike ride out of the city, many are not even planning to live in the homes. They're going to rent them out to people who live in that area.

I guess this is another example of how foreigners come in and try to do some good without knowing the full story. What a shame.

[Ulysses G.]

Amazing Thailand!

[Puwa]

Most big housing programs make that same mistake. Too bad, because Habitat has a much better method than something like "Ban Ua Aa-thorn." The best in Thailand is Ban Mankong, which improves people's housing on the land the already occupy.