Ex-NBA Player Paul Shirley To Haiti: 'Maybe Use A Condom Once In A While'

[Are_grits_groceries]

Paul Shirley, the former NBA player who still plays pro basketball, penned a long letter today about Haiti and the consequences of its earthquake, in which he seems to hold most Haitians accountable for the dire state of the nation.

He begins the letter by stating that he has not donated to relief efforts in Haiti and "probably will not... for the same reason that I don't give money to homeless men on the street." Shirley proceeds to criticize the country and its citizens, before pausing to ask, "Shouldn't much of the responsibility for the disaster lie with the victims of that disaster?"

Later in the letter, Shirley dedicates a special address specifically to Haitians:

Dear Haitians -

First of all, kudos on developing the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Your commitment to human rights, infrastructure, and birth control should be applauded.

As we prepare to assist you in this difficult time, a polite request: If it's possible, could you not re-build your island home in the image of its predecessor? Could you not resort to the creation of flimsy shanty- and shack-towns? And could some of you maybe use a condom once in a while?

Sincerely,

The Rest of the World

The rest of his letter: http://www.flipcollective.com/2010/01/26/if-you-rebuild-it-they-will-come-by-paul-shirley/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/26/paul-shirley-to-haiti-may_n_437725.html

Maybe he and Andre Bauer can get together. Teh Stupid would reach critical mass.

[Syrinx]

1. never heard of him

And while I think there may be a germ of good advice in there, he sounds like a real dick.

But I don't want to be too harsh, because his Wikipedia entry quotes him as saying that the Patriot Act would put "the US on a fast-track to an Orwellian destiny"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Shirley

[live love laugh]

24. Me either so I googled him. Here's a pic

and more smut:

I don’t mean in any way that the Haitians deserved their collective fate. And I understand that it is difficult to plan for the aftermath of an earthquake. However, it is not outside the realm of imagination to think that the citizens of a country might be able to: A) avoid putting themselves into a situation that might result in such catastrophic loss of life. And B) provide for their own aid, in the event of such a catastrophe.

Imagine that I’m a caveman. Imagine that I’ve chosen to build my house out of balsa wood, and that I’m building it next to a roaring river because I’ve decided it will make harvesting fish that much easier. Then, imagine that my hut is destroyed by a flood. Imagining what would happen next is easier than imagining me carrying a caveman’s club. If I were lucky enough to survive the roaring waters that took my hut, my tribesmen would say, “Building next to the river was pretty dumb, wasn’t it?.” Or, if I weren’t so lucky, they’d say, “At least we don’t have to worry about that moron anymore.” Sure, you think, but those are cavemen. We’re more civilized now – we help each other, even when we make mistakes. True enough. But what about when people repeat their mistakes? And what about when they do things that obviously act against their own self-interests?

I recoil at the notion that I’m SUPPOSED to do something. I would like to help, but only if I feel that my assistance is deserved and justified. If I perceive that I am being told to feel a certain way, and if I can point to a pattern of mistakes made in similar situations, I lose interest. Later in his essay, Shirley admits, “children cannot very well control their destinies”. The same could be said for parents born into a cycle of poverty.

[donco6]

31. Wow. He's white. Who'd a thunk? n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

36. I thought the EXACT SAME thing before I clicked on this thread! -nt

[closeupready]

46. AND 32. While most of us learned kindness by 12 or so, he still has a lot left to learn.

I guess for some people, 32 is the new 12?

[Dappleganger]

35. "Imagine I'm a caveman"

Dude, so much racism in that head even a caveman couldn't do it!

[joeybee12]

42. Imagine? Well, he thinks like one, so it's not hard to imagine him as

a neanderthal.

[closeupready]

48. Like saying, "imagine I'm posting to DU"

Don't have to imagine facts.

[guitar man]

44. good gawd

"I recoil at the notion that I’m SUPPOSED to do something. I would like to help, but only if I feel that my assistance is deserved and justified."

I'll remind you of that should you be running around on fire hollering for help while I'm stepping up to the urinal to take a piss :grr:

"Imagine that I’m a caveman"

Doesn't take any imagination at all :eyes:

"But what about when people repeat their mistakes?"

Reagan, Bush I, Bush II ?

[Jamastiene]

2. What an asshole.

Too bad his dad didn't use a condom, his mom didn't use birth control pills AND a IUD just to be sure. Look what HIS parents spawned. What an asshole.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. Condoms prevent earthquakes? Who knew?

And if more residents of Naples would use them, then maybe Vesuvius won't blow up.

Genius.

:hi:

[cali]

4. Dear Asswipe Shirley: Have fun with your new found

ignominy. Now why don't you and Andre Bauer get a room.

[saltpoint]

5. What rate of condom use by the people of Haiti would forestall an earthquake?

Mr. Shirley doesn't say.

[Behind the Aegis]

6. Asshole!

Sounds like the ASSHOLES who said the same (similar) thing about New Orleans!

BtA to PS....hey dipshit! Maybe the air is too thin for you up there, you fucking freak of nature (6'10"). Oh wait, that might be insensitive to your height. Well, as a "vertically challenged American" (short), please take this up with me in person. I would so appreciate not having to strain punching you in your nuts (brain).

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. 
[link:www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules.html|Click
here] to review the message board rules.

[saltpoint]

8. Your post seems, oh, I don't know, flamingly racist.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[zalinda]

12. We would have plenty of money

to help ourselves and neighbors, if the wars were stopped. Most of YOUR tax money is going to fund the war, not help people.

zalinda

[zbdent]

13. Red Cross and 9/11 families ...

wasn't it a RW talking (d*ck)head who publicly announced hatred for the "9/11 widows" for whining?

But, whenever he needed to smack down any questions, Bush whipped out the "9/11" card ...

[Are_grits_groceries]

15. Ann Coulter was the idiot

who slammed the 9/11 widows.

[Bucky]

16. SB Nation: "Shirley is really gearing up to run for governor in South Carolina"

http://www.sbnation.com/2010/1/26/1270785/paul-shirley-haiti-dont-help

[saltpoint]

17. And do you mean "more widely held than not" or literally, "wider than not"?

Because an opinion or viewpoint widely held suggests significant support across a population, where "wider than not feeling" sounds like a review of a porn film, and not a very good one at that.

In any event the Red Cross is not the only relief organization engaged in the relief effort for Haiti and the people there trying to survive in the streets without resource for self-rescue are dependent upon the supplies which reach them in large part owed to the work of those relief agencies. As to the least of these, then so unto me, etc.

Would it be presumptuous on the part of the entire world to think that were you or your family similarly victimized by a storm or earthquake that you would not be deserving of assistance, or in so accepting assistance render yourself subject to the conditions and judgments of others?

[JTFrog]

18. Spend some of that cash on grammar and spelling lessons.

English obviously isn't a required course at Baggers and Birthers U.

[Fumesucker]

19. Welcome to DU!

Enjoy your brief stay.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[live love laugh]

25. Soooo...not only don't you want to give you don't want the gov't to give?

You're a selfish low life.

Really.

I wish you the same fate as the Haitians.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

10. Shirley, you can't be serious!

:hide:

[Juche]

11. The world will always have human shit in it

I'm tired of being outraged every time I find out one of the 7 billion people on earth is an asshole.

The good people outnumber him, that should give me consolation.

[TheWatcher]

21. "The good people outnumber him, that should give me consolation."

Are you sure about that?

[raccoon]

52. Well said! nt

[Bucky]

14. I wonder what goes through someone's mind before publishing useless hateful crap like this.

Was he thinking, "Gee, the world is simply paying too much attention to Haiti and not enough to me?"

I think we have an example here of a mind that can't handle other people's suffering and is used to driving past it and tuning it out. When he can't tune out the truth, he blames the victim. I wonder if he knows how much pressure our government has put on keeping Haiti under the thumb of militant dictators in the past decade, how hard Bush's administration worked to push the last elected Haitian president, Aristide, out of office. Obviously Haiti is, ultimately, responsible for its own condition, but it's hardly solely responsible. He makes it sound like the earthquake is a logical consequence of its mismanagement.

[quinnox]

20. Wow, Haiti is driving them out of the sewer

Robertson, Limbaugh and now this guy all have felt the need to insult the poor people of Haiti.

This one takes the cake, first he compares all the Haiti people to homeless bums, then says they are to blame for the earthquake, and then goes on to say he won't give them a dime even though he is a wealthy ex_NBA player.

The condom comment is just rubbing salt in the wound with the rest of his statement, it sounds like he regrets Haiti people procreate at all and that they should all die off.

Now Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh have some competition in the most scummy comments regarding Haiti, step up Coulter and Malkin, you need to show your still relevant!

[Blue_Tires]

30. Incidents like this always do...

Topics like famine/warfare/disease in Africa, the Tsunami in south Asia, Katrina in New Orleans, economic turmoil in Detroit, etc...Some people are more skillful than others at dressing up their words, but the underlying themes are always the same:

"Victims of (insert a tragedy) are undeserving of OUR help because..."

1. "...they are violent savage criminals who cannot govern themselves..."
2. "...god is punishing them for their heathen immoral ways..."
3. "...they need to learn to help themselves and get jobs and stop being so goddamned lazy..."
4. "...politically, they have a long history of voting left/not wanting to be a U.S. toady..."
5. "...they shouldn't even be LIVING in a place where natural disasters happpen! What happens the next time an act of god strikes??"

[Berry Cool]

33. And you know, they could've saved themselves a lot of verbiage by simply writing:

"...they are black."

[butterfly77]

47. aren't these the same people..

who don't believe in abortion?

[TheWatcher]

22. If only this never was asshole's parents had used condoms we might not have to read this right now.

Nothing worse than a complete waste of space who thinks he matters.

Go bounce a ball on a Freeway, Paul.

Do the world a favor.

[Monk06]

26. If you don't want people to think you are a member of the Arian Nations

Don't talk and dress like one

[tanyev]

27. You go see if you can have a chat with the pope about that, dumbass.

[Blue_Tires]

28. what a jerkoff...

the irony of it is he's supposedly a worldly, well-traveled, well-read person...but clearly his knowledge is a mile wide and an inch deep, because he has the overly-simplistic worldview of a ninth-grader...

but of course, I've seen his type of spiel many times before, so it's easy to read between the lines...

[rurallib]

29. My daughter was in some classes with Shirley at Iowa State

she did not know him at all. She said he seemed like a decent person. Mostly, he was tall. And pretty smart at least in school. I believehe graduated in 4 years as an engineer.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

32. Who the fuck is Paul Shirley?

I followed the NBA for years and never heard of him. Who the fuck would care what he has to say?

[peekaloo]

34. stick a dick in his ear

preferably one without a condom.

[Dappleganger]

37. They should fire him.

[devilgrrl]

38. Will Paul Shirley will be a 1st round draft choice in the new 'All-White' Basketball league?

He ought to be!

:puke:

[Viking12]

39. LOL, this loser got cut by the Timberwolves

Perennially the WORST team in the NBA. Rookies go there and are never heard from again, veterans go there to die a slow and painful basketball death.

[rucky]

40. Same with your dad, Shirley!

[pipi_k]

41. Why is it that assholes always think they have the right to speak for the rest of the world?

Also...what makes this idiot think the Haitian people "developed the poorest country in the Western hemisphere"?

Like they purposely set out to do it.


good lord, why isn't there a farm or uncharted island we can send these morons?

[Uben]

43. Hmmm? Eat or buy a condom

What imaginary world does this asshole live in?

ON SALE NOW: Earthquake prevention condoms! Get yours now!

[closeupready]

45. What a total asshole.

:nuke: :mad:

[Karmadillo]

49. Yet more proof education in the USA needs more funding, not more cuts.

nt

[KansDem]

50. This is why I've never understood why we make professional athletes into "role models"

...or even care about what they say.

They can only run faster, jump higher, or throw a ball better than the rest of us, and they don't need to develop their intellects, compassion, or understanding of the world about them to do so.

They entertain...that's all.

[MinM]

51. Is this his audition for that all white basketball league?