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Friday, May 12, 2006

Old Ladies, Red Hats

Posted by on May 12 at 14:09 PM

RedHats.jpg

Today in Portland—old ladies everywhere you turn, all wearing purple. And red hats, which don’t go and don’t suit them.


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Hey Dan,


With all the nonsense about the Weakly's cover story, you missed that "News" coverage in Seattle Weakly of the Jew hater Rachel Corrie.


The Weakly is doing the typical "Saint Rachel" angle on the activist. I loved the Stranger's funny saint Rachel illustration and Eli's story ending with "Was it worth dying to save a dentist's house?".


Please do another anti-Rachel Corrie story to counter the hagiography in this week's Seattle Weakly. That Rachel Corrie play is comming soon to the Rep and we're counting on The Stranger to help rip apart the phoney image of "our very own activist saint."


There are plenty of Israeli Rachel's murdered by suicide bombs, where's the plays about them?

Ah the red hat ladies. We got them all the time at Ride the Ducks last summer. They're nuts but they tip well.

The Rachel Corrie play is really bad so it'll bomb on it's own.


It'd be nice to read more in The Stranger about Rachel Corrie from the Israeli perspective.

"Jew Hater", huh? You are a real piece of work - centuries of oppression are NOT a license to oppress, Fuck you very much.

red hats...it's a sex thing...like those stupid backpocket bandana tricks

They're everywhere...

http://www.redhatsociety.com/

Eli's coverage in The Stranger of Rachel Corrie was a refresing break from the usual pro-palestinian view. Eli showed the muddled thinking of these activists, and how senseless Rachel's death was simply to save the house of one dentist.


Jew hater may be too strong, but activists like Rachel are no friend to Israel. This story in the Seattle Weekly makes it sound like the government of Israel is not cooperating with the investigation.


Eli's story in the Stranger placed the blame where it belongs, on Rachel herself and the activist community.

The Red Hat Society is a pack of bitches. They were nothing but trouble when I was in the cruise industry.

...given their current policies, I'm no friend of Israel, either (and I'm half Jewish) - does that make me anti-Semitic?

Enquiring minds want to know...

Dan,


I've also enjoyed The Stranger's take on the whole Rachel Corrie phenomenon. Could you start a thread about the Seattle Weekly story? It's pretty bad, much worse than the band cover photo thing.


I'm sick of hippy Seattle liberals making Rachel Corrie into a saint. I also liked Eli's "was a dentist's house worth dying for" angle on the activists.

Rachael Corrie had more integrity and guts than pretty much the entire posting population here put together.

She put her money where her mouth was, which is more than the anonymous dickheads in venues like this can say.

Some things are worth dying for - including a dentist's house.

I don't know shit about this Rachel Corrie but if the bitch ain't wearing a red motherfuckin' hat, then y'all need to take it somewheres else.

This is the thread for shitting all over old ladies in red hats (no bukake intended).

Word. If you rock one to the left, that mean you under the 6, rock it to the right, you under the 5. Seven Fo' til da world blow. Red Hat Bat Brigade Hoodshit.

The Stranger pretty much hates Rachel Corrie so you should go to one of the liberal hippy blogs if you want sympathy.


Also if Rachel Corrie is so great instead of holding hands around Green Lake, why don't Seattle Liberals go to Fort Lewis and stand in front of a tank themselves?


The Stranger is pro-Israel and proud.


Thanks Dan!

ah, the red hat society ... old broads trying to be "fun" and "quirky". my spitfire 63-year-old aunt was asked to join a year ago. her answer: "why the hell would i want to join a group of old bitches who think its fun to wear ugly hats?" i think that pretty much sums it up.

I love the Stranger blog!


Posters here call Rachel Corrie a jew hating bitch, shit on red hat grannies.


It's like Comedy Central unplugged!

Speaking of grannies in hats...

Only my grandmother and her sister survived the holocaust. The other five-dozen members of my family were killed in concentration camps.

However, I am appalled by the actions of Israel and am proud of Rachel Corrie. She left the safety of her homeland to stand with those who live in constant peril.

Activists' tactics disenchant some people, but the spirit of self service and sacrifice is the human race's greatest hope for evolution.

I forgot to add that the ones seen wearing pink hats are still just prospects. Full blown membership is only granted after several initiation rituals culminating in the murder of an enemy of The Red Hat Brigade, like The Blue Bonnets.

The Blue Bonnets ain't to be fucked with either, but that's a whole other fucked up story, yo. Them bitches have been at war with the Red Hats since time immemorial. Like "after the earth's crust hardened" type shit. Motherfuckers already forgot what they fightin' over, it's been so long.

Watch your back. The Botanical Gardens ain't safe no more.

I said nothing disrespectful about the old ladies in their red hats. One commentor did. Shame on him.

I think it's cute and harmless—much less offensive a sight than, say, a bear party.

The Red Hat thing came from WWII. In both Denmark & Norway, occupied by the Nazis, old women who were opposed to the Nazis, but couldn't speak out for fear of retribution, would wear a red hat on Fridays as a signal to others. That way, they could see how many people that felt the way they did.

(sidenote: Nazi Germany not only found many sympathizers throughout the countries they conquered, but also men willing & able to join the Wehrmacht's ranks. The Resistance in these countries not only had to fight the German Nazis, but their own Nazi countrymen.)

The women today are doing the same thing as a way of showing their resistance to Bush & Co & his crazy wars.

stop threadjacking and take your posts to the forums http://forums.thestranger.com

as for grannies in hats, at least they don't have rabies; that would be much worse.

I love the Stranger, but Israel can lick my salty balls. Fuck Israel, yay Rachel Corrie, but most of all, hoo frickin rah for old ladies in red hats!

Dan,


Your posting said Red Hats "don't go and don't suit them"


Was that supposed to be a complement?


You might choose your words better next time? Something like Red Hats "which are cute as a button."

If the hats were originally an anti-Nazi protest, perhaps the red hats today are a sign of solidarity with the struggles of Israel and the Jewish people?


It's good to know that so many in Portland are aware that the dangers of Nazism are with us today, and stand with Israel.


I'll tell my elderly friends about this movement, young people can wear red hats too as an anti-Nazi pro Israel sign.

We'll all wear our red hats with pride!

HUH?

I think Dan was alluding to a poem about "when i am old, i will wear purple and it won't go and it won't suit me..."

not sure exactly how it goes, but it's on my mom's bathroom wall.

Shoshanna,

You're an idiot. Really.

No shit! You must be out of your fucking mind if you're planning to wear the redhat without even being a member.

Don't say you weren't warned.

Idiot.

Shoshana, as much as you like to think that the Nazi Holocaust was for Jews Only, let me remind you that a sixth of those killed in the concetration camps weren't Jews but either Gypsies, communists, homosexuals, people with disabilities, as well as white Christians who helped any of the above.

One thing that I find despicable about Israel & it's supporters is that they have nothing against the idea of genocide. They just don't like the genocide of Jews. Why aren't you trumpeting the rights of Gypsies, eh? They were slaughtered as gleefully as the Jews. What about the communists & homosexuals?

We all know that the term "Never Again" doesn't mean millions of people will be killed while the world stands by. It just means that _Jews_ will never be slaughtered while the world stands by. The rest of the world can go fuck itself. Where was Israel when Pol Pot was killing 20% of his population? Or how about more recent events in Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur? You know where: Doing abso-fucking-lutely nothing.

So, with all due respect, Shoshana, please take your sanctimonious tone & shove it up your ass. It's easy to recognize the evil bastards of yesterday. ("Oooooo! Bad Nazis!") It's very quite another to be able to recognize the evil bastards that walk around today.

While I'm no fan of Hamas, I do recognize that they feel their lives & livelihoods are threated, just as Israel feels. And thus both feel that it is in their right to do whatever is neccesary to secure it, which means killing, killing, killling.... (& don't give me that crap about Israeli troops doing their best to avoid killing civilians. The mass graves of Lebanon tell a different story.)

Standing against Nazis is pretty easy, now that everyone knows who they are. But Israel continues the wonderful Nazi tradition of oppression, bigotry & murder.

It's cool that red hats began as an anti-Nazi protest. Good to see people still know of the dangers of forgetting the past.


Pro Rachel Corrie types, please take another look at the Eli Sander's story. If you're looking for sympathy for American activists who support Palestinian terriorist organizations like the one Corrie belonged to, then run don't walk to Seattle Weakly and read their pro Rachel Corrie coverage.


The Stranger has been more even handed, and resisted all the Saint Rachel crap. The Stranger even ran a funny cartoon of Rachel Corrie as a saint with a megaphone.


Rachel Corrie was a confused liberal activist who got in over her head and died trying to save a dentist's house.


Rachel Corrie didn't belong to any Palestinian "Terror Organization".

Guilt by association - like the Israeli government's policy of collective punishment - is the behavior of fascists.

Being opposed to militant Zionism and/or Israeli Government policy doesn't make someone anti-Semitic.

to dave bowman: while wearing red hats as a sign of anti-nazi protest may have occured in denmark and norway during wwII, the current red hat society is not a bunch of activist anti-bush grannies. far from it. read their website:
http://www.redhatsociety.com

Thank you, Deadair. How the fuck did this thread turn so sour?

I think the Stranger should do a piece on the red hat ladies. And ask them why they chose purple as the coordinating color. I keep begging my grandmother to join, just so that she can report back.

Read Seattle Weakly if you want cutsie lifestyle stories about the elderly and gardening. Seattle Weakly is for people like your grandmother. It's written by old people for old people.


I love the sour tone of The Stranger.


Cutsie:
I should have said "turned south." I was just referring to the ADD nature of the post. I like the sour tone.

And I don't want a SW lifestyle-type article. I made the suggestion because I'd love to see how the Stranger would cover those crazy old bats.

i have no idea about the red hats politics, but when my grandpa died, joining the red hats was the only thing that kept my grandma together. lots of times, older women get extremely depressed after their husbands die, and organizations like this help a lot.

Congratulations on the craziest comment mash-up of all time. Seattle needs to take a hand full of Ritalin.

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