Just thought I'd take a moment to say toodle-oo to Jesse Helms, who finally died this week at the age of 86.
Normally, I don't wish death on anyone, but throughout his term in the US Senate, Helms consistently proved himself to be a horrible, horrible man, an unapologetic racist, a sneering homophobe, a small-minded scumwad all too willing to exploit the worst in human nature for his own benefit.
He came to the senate by way of a campaign frankly targeted towards white supremacists, and while in office, bitterly fought anything he suspected would benefit niggers or faggots or pinkos or those stringy-haired feminists. He grew up in a segregated society, and he tried to hold firm to his childhood ideal even as the world shifted around him. He had no intention of becoming a better human being, and he never did.
What's truly disturbing is, this guy had power. He wasn't some fringe lunatic, he was a powerful and feared political force, and all presidents and players had to pay him respect, bowing before a man who proudly filibustered against a holiday honoring Martin Luther King, who supported apartheid and wanted a similar policy enacted in the US, who made a point of singing Dixie to a black colleague just to make her cry.
He was a pathetic excuse for a human being, and the fact that he was tolerated for so long, his opinions sought and influence courted, shames the nation.
