Fresh Loaf

Quarterback Michael Vick allegedly killed and maimed dogs.

Wrestler Chris Benoit killed his family.

One of them is routinely called a thug.

One of them is not.

All I’m doing is saying.

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I would say that 80 to 90 percent of the people here in North Georgia are against any sort of bill to help these people. I am certainly out of the mainstream here. I find no fault in these people, and wonder how my “Christian” neighbors can carry such bitterness in their hearts.

— Aging Hipster on a Washington Post story about how Gainesville and Hall County have dealt with the area’s growing Latino population. The article’s most painful quotation: “And they don’t seem to feel any discomfort when they’re, like, six inches from your face and talking to each other in their language, either.”

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an anonymous editor monday around midnight reported the death of chris benoit’s wife on the the wikipedia more than 14 hours before the bodies were found.

adding to the confusion, the post came from stamford, ct, which is home to the headquarters of benoit’s employer, the wwe.

— James at Metroblogging Atlanta is a little freaked out that a Wikipedia contributor wrote about the death of WWE wrestler Chris Benoit’s wife 14 hours before her body was found by police. I’m freaked out by Wikipedia because I still don’t have an entry.

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It’s always a special pleasure to stumble onto great artists from the past whose reputations have faded from cultural memory, but whose work remains to let us know that they, like us, were moved by sexual beauty.

— It’s Friday. That means Gloria Brame is posting erotic art.

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According to Fayette County authorities, pro wrestler Chris Benoit placed Bibles next to his wife and child after he murdered them last weekend.

Will American journalists and bloggers use the placement of the Bibles to speculate about Benoit’s motives and whip up anti-Christian hysteria?

Of course not.

Only morons and anti-religious bigots would use the mere presence of Bibles to link an apparent murder-suicide to religion or global religious extremism.

Contrast the news coverage of and blogging about the Benoit family deaths with the Virginia Tech shooting.

After reports surfaced that Virginia Tech mass murderer Seung-Hui Cho had the phrase “Ismail Ax” written on his arm when he was found dead by police, right-wing talking heads and assorted cyberbigots immediately tried to connect the massacre to Islam. According to their idiot logic, “Ismail” is the Arabic spelling of Ishmael, therefore Cho was a Muslim extremist (examples: 1, 2, 3).

Among the speculators was Washington Post conservative columnist and Fox News talk-show staple Charles Krauthammer. “I suspect it has some more to do with Islamic terror and the inspiration than it does with the opening line of Moby Dick,” said Krauthammer on Fox.

Nevermind that Cho was raised a churchgoing Christian or that he’d suffered from mental illness. And nevermind that “Ismail” isn’t the Arabic spelling of anything (Arabic doesn’t use the Roman alphabet) or that he actually wrote “Ismael” instead of “Ismail” on the video package he mailed to NBC News.

When you’re a bigot, you see what you want to see. Imagine what these idiots would be saying if copies of the Quran were found in Benoit’s home.

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I grew up a fan of professional wrestling. As a kid, I lived and died with the Saturday night exploits of Mr. Wrestling II, Terry Funk, Dusty Rhodes, the Assassins and the other stars who were on TBS.

That was before pro rasslin’ changed and morphed into a comic book parody. But I always appreciated the modern-day throwbacks. And Chris Benoit was a throwback, someone who was actually schooled in the art of wrestling and knew the psychology of a pro wrestling match, how to ebb and flow and build suspense and drama. Not surprising, considering he trained in Stu Hart’s infamous “Dungeon,” the same place where Bret Hart and Owen Hart and dozens of others learned their craft.

Benoit, 40, who lived in Fayetteville, apparently killed his wife, Nancy, and their son, Daniel, over the weekend, then killed himself Monday. The district attorney told the AJC: “The details, when they come out, are going to prove a little bizarre.”

UPDATE: The AP just reported that Benoit strangled his wife, smothered his son and hung himself in his weight room. They also are investigating whether steroids may have been a factor.

A few years ago, I used to work out at a Gold’s Gym near the airport where a lot of professional wrestlers also worked out. I was on the treadmill when Benoit walked in with fellow wrestler Eddie Guerrero. Even though they were involved in an ongoing “feud” with one another, they spent two hours working out together. I felt like walking up to them and saying, “Hey, you’re fighting each other; you’re not supposed to be working out together in public!” The two wrestlers, who were good friends, had carried their wrestling feud from Japan to Ted Turner’s WCW to Vince McMahon’s WWE, and it resulted in some of the greatest pro wrestling matches ever.

Both Benoit and Guerrero would go on to hold the WWE’s heavyweight championship belt.

And both are now dead long before their time.

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