Bob McAlister sent me this heads-up about an entry on his blog:
Brad: I hope that my latest post on Ravenel (Leave the stones on the ground) gets passed around somehow for one reason: I want Ravenel to see it. You never know what God will do with something as innocuous
as a blog.
While I urge you to go to his blog and read it there and comment, for you slackers, here’s the full text of the post:
Leave the stones on the ground
They’re picking up the stones.
Now that The State has confirmed Thomas Ravenel is entering a drug treatment
program, bloggers and partisan alike will be aiming for his head. Count me out. I did not support him and do not know him, but I’m not fit to condemn him. Neither is anyone else.
Condemn his actions? Yes. Express outrage that he violated a public trust? Yes. But condemn a fallen man? No. Every individual is capable of doing terrible things.
If he is an addict and did what he is accused of, he should resign from office and take his punishment. But he should also understand that God’s grace and forgiveness await him if only he accepts it, and that a new life filled with infinite possibilities can be his future.
That’s my hope and prayer for him. As for the stone throwers, Jesus has a message for you (John 8:7). Look it up.
I agree. Thomas Ravenel seeks healing, and may God grant it to him. In the meantime, the criminal justice system should grind on, and should deal with him as it would with anyone.
And yes, most certainly, now that he has made this acknowledgment, he should resign so that a permanent treasurer can take his place.
Related Posts
Does that mean no more Ravenel-bashing threads from you?
Stop the presses! A hardcore Republican partisan declines to criticize one of his party’s elected officials.
What’s next? “Dog bites man?”
Brad gets it right. The bottom line is that by checking into a facility, he admits he has a drug problem. He is no Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears, but an elected official. He does not get off so easy by just “checking in to a facility for treatment”. If he had any of those “values” that he touted in the election, he would vacate his office immediately, and turn the Treasurer’s office over to a responsible adult, or at least what qualifies as adult in this state.
What an embarassment.
I don’t want to get libelous or anything,but back in the day,when you saw someone with eyes like McAlister’s,it meant they’d scored some good acid.Could this be why he’s so forgiving?
I’m waiting for the Breaking News-“Friends of Ravenel”,Special Report.
“Every individual is capable of doing terrible things.”
“As for the stone throwers, Jesus has a message for you.”
As an individual, was Jesus then capable of terrible things?
No, not he, nor my paternal grandmother, nor a decent number of people I have been lucky enough to know.
Good christian people will do exactly what McAlister has said they should…they’ll forgive Ravenel, and acknowledge in their hearts that he is a fallen man in a world full of fallen men.
However, on top of having a drug problem and being a fallen man in that regard…everything I have read has indicated that Ravenel is just a huge jerk. He apparently is rude, crude, arrogant and boorish.
At some point, chickens gotta come home to roost. Not everyone one in this world is going to take the christian view of Ravenels’ behaviour, and when you’re a huge jerk, there are naturally going to be some folks you offended who take the opportunity of your fall to piss on your grave, figuratively speaking of course. Bottom line, after the way he’s acted, he’s got to expect some of this harsh treatment he’s receiving. Maybe he’ll get that point, and maybe he won’t. My experience has been that a person that has been a complete butthole has to be broken down completely before they repent and become a changed person. I don’t have any way of knowing, but I’ve seen enough unrepentent, unbroken, arrogant people go to rehab only for what it will gain them in terms of leniency with the judge that I fear that may be Ravenels reason for going. I simply ask you this: Do you think he’d have gone to rehab if he hadn’t been caught? It reminds me of the guy in Irmo who was arrested a couple of years ago for a murder he’d committed in the fifties. It was on Forensic Files I think…this guy had raped a woman and killed a policeman while on a crime spree, and was caught 40 years later in his seventies in Irmo…just loving life, playing golf etc etc. He had no intention of coming clean. I hate to think it, but Ravenel may be the same way. He’d likely never have come clean on his own. Ed
Brad: I usually don’t bother with idiots like Preston, even on my own blog. Just for the record: I have never–ever–used cocaine or any other illicit drug in 58 years on planet earth. But I have done other stupid things that remind me I’m a sinner in need of a savior. Thank God I found Him. His name is Jesus. As for my eyes: I think they’re sexy. In response to LexWolf: I concluded after 15 years of prison ministry that most prisoners are Democrats.
By the way…I use the word “piss” in my above post as the bible uses it. It is used in Old Testament scripture to describe who some of the folks intended to kill…”everyone that pisseth against the wall” is the way scripture says it in King James English. You could look it up. Ed
Just to clarify, of course when those old codgers in the Old Testament said they intended to kill “everyone who pisseth against the wall” they meant that they intended to kill all the menfolk. I think this was pretty much how you laid total waste to your enemies and ensured they could not make a comeback, way back then. Much like when the Cowboys stomp on the Redskins today. Ed
“In response to LexWolf: I concluded after 15 years of prison ministry that most prisoners are Democrats.”
Bob,
that should be in response to RTH, yes? I’ve always known that the Dems have a far higher propensity for corruption and jail-landing behavior.
I think Thomas Ravenel should go to the local treatment center here instead of the most expensive and exclusive in the US.
“In response to LexWolf: I concluded after 15 years of prison ministry that most prisoners are Democrats.”
Bob,
This is just pure speculation. There’s no doubt at all that far, far more Republicans than Democrats have been implicated in political scandals in recent years: (Ravenel, Scooter, Delay, Foley, Cunningham and on and on). Bob McCalister has become just another neo-con shill ruthlessly and without facts attacking the dems at every turn. We really don’t need a middle-aged balding white guy Ann Coulter wannabe (who can’t even get blogger names right) to dish out unsubstantiated slander nonsense.
Just a reminder Bob, Republicans have controlled virtually everything in SC for 20 years and where has it gotten us? We stand at the bottom of the barrel in just about every statistical category. Compared to a progressive state like Massachusetts we’re a virtual third world country. Thanks to Ravenel appoligists like Bob McCalister we’re likely to remain that way.
It’s funny how so many “good Christian” Republicans can’t find forgiveness nor sympathy for President Clinton.
They don’t even try but continue to revel in fabrications, exaggerations and lies.
This type of brain-dead, viciously partisan, self-evidently false generalization is why I don’t even bother to read McAlister’s self-serving, self-righteous drivel.
If McAlister and his ilk weren’t in charge of this state’s government it would be amusing to listen to their cockeyed view of life. The Dem State Party Chair justifiably criticizes the Sanford’s appointment of Wingate and you’d think that her GOP counterpart had never made similar– if not more virulent– attacks on Dems.
Switch Ravenel’s party affiliation and you’d had a lynching party. Instead of “forgiveness,” and “innocent until proven guilty” the party line would be variations on the McAlister’s slander.
Should I start listing the names of Rethuglicans who’re under investigation, indictment or been convicted during the last six years? And, then there’s Mark Foley who was allowed to resign after others– besides the House Rethuglican leadership– found out about his interest in male, teen-aged interns.
It’s bad enough that South Carolinians are subjected to the misinformation, disinformation and lies spread by the Rethuglican Party structure (and parroted by their elected officials) but one of their most unbalanced partisans is given a soapbox blog unanswered by partisan views from the other side. To ice the cake, Brad, McAlister’s pal, gives him ink beyond the blogosphere every Sunday or Monday in The State.
Mr. McAlister,
I must take issue with your last post. You follow Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment and refrain from bashing Ravenel, fine. You did however, “cast a stone” at me, calling me an “idiot”. The “he” in my post is Thomas Ravenel, not you. What exactly is idiotic about my statement? For all intents and purposes, we agree that Ravenel should resign immediately.
You go on and package your post in folksy, preachy kitsch, all the while, personally insulting me. Your duplicitous comments are amazing, in that you insult me in the same paragraph that you cite Jesus. What you have done requires a special kind of brazeness.
Again, reread my post and see that I am not refering to you at all. I only take issue with the behavior of an elected official. I believe that is my right, as he works for me. You do not know me, so please refrain from making it personal.
Preston
Preston,
If you read my comment,I think you’ll see that he was referring to me.He has problems with names.He also ran a prison “ministry”.He was convinced that most of the felons in his flock were Democrats.I assume he was bringing them absentee ballots.
I shudder to think what epithets Mr. McAlister would be flinging about if he hadn’t “found Jesus.”
Hey, I’m not mean to Thomas Ravenel. Whoever put this up is being mean to Thomas Ravenel.
Do you think people are now going to think I wasn’t telling the truth in this post?
You’d all probably do best to remember that Bob, and to a lesser degree (but still present) Brad like to use irony to provoke people to a response.
I can only adjust to people like Ed, who claims to be a Christian, but who wants to “screw” everyone who disagrees with him or call them “artsy-fartsy” for appreciating aspects of life that he doesn’t appreciate–by cutting him a lot more slack than I have to cut for Brad or Bob. So all of you can lighten up. If we can put up with Ed, Bud, and RTH, then we can put up with Bob and Brad.
Herb, what I find most ironic is that Bob refers to himself as a Christian, and says that some sort of Christian principle led him to make excuses for Ravenel. Christianity had nothing to do with it, of course, it’s that no Republican can do wrong in his eyes. If Bob really didn’t want to throw stones, he wouldn’t just give a pass to Ravenel, he’d give a pass to people who criticize Ravenel. I mean, people who criticize Ravenel aren’t even doing anything wrong, but Bob doesn’t refrain from hurling stones at them.
Not throwing stones means not throwing stones at anyone, it doesn’t mean attacking your enemies and making excuses for your friend. Even the heathen do that.
Hal, Bob’s marriage of Christianity to the Republican party bothers me, I suspect, as much as it does you. But as far as I can tell, he treats those who disagree with him a lot more respect than the regular anonymous bloggers do here.
Herb, you’re going to have to point out Mr. McAlister’s “use of irony to provoke.”
Surely, you’re not referring to his dishonest, hypocritical and excreable abuse of Christianity to further partisan political goals for the GOP?
Well, RTH, this comes as close as I can find in a hurry right now:
Bob is surely wrong here–he puts his finger on part of a truth, pointing out the radical nature of some Muslims,and conveniently ignores the “silent majority” of Muslims out there. Not too brilliant, especially since Christians are famous for the same thing—silence, when they should speak up.
I was just in the U.K. for several days on business—took time to walk in a park, and was able to interact with some Pakistanis—people, just like us. And I found myself much more able to converse with them about God and the world than I find it often here. Yes, Bob, they are out there.
But does that make Bob a hypocrite? A misuse of Christianity for partisan purposes? Misguided, perhaps, but hypocrite is a pretty strong word.
On the other hand, Bob can be critical of our evangelical community when he wants to be, as in the following:
But you say:
So now the ball’s in your court. Prove that last statement. I think you’ve gone too far, but I’ll admit it if you can prove it.
How many more egregious examples do you need, Herb?
BTW, it’s Monday so Mr. McAlister gets his weekly plug on the editorial page.
Just today I read Brad’s message to this blog’s readers and laughed out loud.
In my book, Bob McAlister is a living/breathing example of the “pathology” that Brad supposedly is out to ban from this blog.
I suppose that Brad and Herb think that I am also. I couldn’t care less. I’m just pointing out that Mr. McAlsiter’s blatant partisanship is saluted by Brad as some sort of noble forebearance while criticism of either Wingate or Ravenel is deemed poor sportsmanship.
OK, but I take that as tongue in cheek, quite honestly. Actually that was one of the examples I thought was intended to provoke a reaction; I don’t take Bob seriously–not here–he’s too smart for that. Besides, having visited a few prisons myself, I’m pretty sure Bob knows that there are a lot of people, including a lot of Republicans, who don’t go to prison because they have money and a good lawyer.
At least I think he is smarter than that, but he’ll have to defend himself, I guess, if he wants to.
He’d have to be stupider than a sack of hammers to actually believe that statement. Hence my conclusion that he’s hypocritical and dishonest.
You’re exercising a lot of good Christian charity (not to mention imagination) to believe the statement “tongue in cheek.”
I can’t wait to read Mr. McAlister’s justification of Bush’s commutating Scooter Libby’s prison time.
Herb, I would say that Bob’s only clear use of irony to provoke a response is his claim to be a Christian. That is, if being a Christian means acting like a Christian, rather than simply reciting a formula.
It is absolutely incredible to me that you challenge Ready to Hurl to prove Bob’s use of Christianity to further partisan goals for the Republican Party, when that is the subject of this post.
I’ll say it again. Bob pretends to be a Christian, and pretends that as a Christian he is following Jesus’s injunction not to cast stones at sinners when he gives Ravenel a pass for his drug use and for his betrayal of the people of the state, and for his hypocrisy. Obviously, his motivation does not arise from any Christian teaching, because he attacks people who criticize Ravenel for his betrayal. If Bob were really a Christian, he would refrain from casting stones at Ms. Fowler, who, after all, didn’t even do anything wrong.
Jesus said not to cast the first stone. That means not to cast the first stone at anyone. If Bob were a Christian, he would follow Christ’s teaching. Instead, Bob attacks Democrats and makes excuses for Republicans, and cnynically and hypocritically pretends to be using Christ’s teachings as a guide for his actions.
OK, I give up. Bob McAlister is the devil incarnate. I’m glad to know that, so I can keep an eye out for him. Except that I doubt he would get the same treatment from you guys if he were on the other end of the spectrum, i.e., if he were working for the Democrats.
Which makes me wonder if there is more than one hypocrite out there, if that is what Bob is?
Projecting feelings makes no one a hypocrite. Being a judge of others very often does. At which you are a professional, M.R., Mike Toreno, C.H., Luke Cage, or whatever other names you go under. You profess to know, not only what people think, but why they think it, and pronounce your sentence upon them. In other words, you play God. I would suggest that is a very hard job to do, even though you are convinced that you are up to it. Well, have a happy time trying. Someday it will end, I can assure you.
As if anyone has thrown more stones on this blog than Luke Cage/alias M.R. has. Your calling Brad a liar is only a continued chapter in the same story. While you are at it, you might want to take the beam out of your eye so you can throw more accurately.