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National Soros Radio is deeply deeply perturbed

Are We Laughing With Charles Ramsey?

Charles Ramsey, the Cleveland man who helped kidnapping victim Amanda Berry escape from her captor, became an instant Internet sensation. But our reaction to overnight Web celebrities like him, Antoine Dodson, Sweet Brown and Ted Williams deserves a longer look.

happyfeet (8ce051) — 5/7/2013 @ 8:36 pm

Some heroes are born, some are made, and some like McDonald’s.

Ted Williams was an overnight internet sensation?

nk (875f57) — 5/7/2013 @ 8:43 pm

err, “Web celebrity”

nk (875f57) — 5/7/2013 @ 8:44 pm

R.I.P. Ray Harryhausen, stop-motion special effects master

Icy (4b226c) — 5/7/2013 @ 8:47 pm

His folksy delivery adds to the enjoyment of the clip. You can admire him without guilt. Try.

AZ Bob (c11d35) — 5/7/2013 @ 8:47 pm

As horrible as this story is, Charles Ramsey helps us remember there are good people in this world. Plus, I really like the McDonald’s tweet.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/7/2013 @ 9:00 pm

Family members of the 3 alleged kidnappers are not supportive, and they are even raising concerns that make this story sound even creepier:

EXCLUSIVE: Son believes ‘abductor’ Ariel Castro chose his youngest victim Gina DeJesus, now 23, almost a decade ago because she was his daughter’s best friend.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/7/2013 @ 9:08 pm

I don’t think he’s talking about Ted Williams the baseball star. It was that guy with the cool advertising voice.

elissa (11728d) — 5/7/2013 @ 9:12 pm

to be clear that was a quote from the teaser on the National Soros Radio homepage what links to a navel-gazing story

i just don’t always link them cause of them being tax-subsidized fascist propaganda whores and all

happyfeet (8ce051) — 5/7/2013 @ 9:43 pm

Dodson and Brown and Ramsey are all up in our GIFs and all over the blogosphere because they’re not the type of people we’re used to seeing or hearing on our TVs. They’re actually not the type of people we’re used to seeing or hearing at all, which might explain why we get so silly when they make one of their infrequent forays into our national consciousness.

Speak for yourself, NPR dude. Some of us have regular contact with all kinds of people from all walks of life.

Patterico (de2a13) — 5/7/2013 @ 10:44 pm

His folksy delivery adds to the enjoyment of the clip. You can admire him without guilt. Try.

Yeah, he’s definitely the kind of guy who if you just sort of happened to fall in to talking to him, you would probably be more than willing to stick through the whole conversation just for the entertainment value. Obviously a really, really cool dude. He can come over to my place for ribs anytime. Heck, I’d even spring for a good steak just to have him hang around.

JVW (4826a9) — 5/7/2013 @ 11:08 pm

#10 – LOL. Typical liberals and all their diversity crap is just that.

Chris (614149) — 5/7/2013 @ 11:12 pm

10.

They’re actually not the type of people we’re used to seeing or hearing at all, which might explain why we get so silly when they make one of their infrequent forays into our national consciousness.

Speak for yourself, NPR dude. Some of us have regular contact with all kinds of people from all walks of life.

Comment by Patterico (de2a13) — 5/7/2013 @ 10:44 pm

These people must live in some sort of Ivy League bubble.

Steve57 (da9e0e) — 5/7/2013 @ 11:54 pm

As a white man I can count the number of times a wild eyed woman stranger ran into my arms for safety on well.

Let’s see. Never, divided by…

Carry the one…

papertiger (c2d6da) — 5/8/2013 @ 2:53 am

“Nothing at all exciting about him…until today.”

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 5/8/2013 @ 4:52 am

Honestly, I hope this guy ends up making a lot of money or a nice chunk from this all. Nobody likes to exploit a tragedy…but really…I believe it’s about time somebody got rewarded for doing the right thing!!!

Pamela (885d8d) — 5/8/2013 @ 6:45 am

Lifetime supply of McDonald’s has been suggested, and I believe, from the tweet DRJ linked, that McDonald’s will come up with something close to that for him.

nk (875f57) — 5/8/2013 @ 6:53 am

It is disgusting that our society so greatly valued only one talent: looking good on TV. One of my life goals is to never appear on TV.

SPQR (9b6a66) — 5/8/2013 @ 7:00 am

He seriously has some balls. He went to rescue the lady from someone nuts enough to keep hostages for 10 years rather than just calling the police and staying back. He seemed like a pretty cool guy on TV that would be awesome to have a beer with. Anyone crying racism because people are laughing at the guy is an idiot. He’s a funny dude, everyone that knows him probably thinks he’s a funny dude, and he seemed to be cracking jokes during the interview.

notsomsm (c66120) — 5/8/2013 @ 7:23 am

“I get a paycheck – give the reward money to the rescued women”

(when Anderson Cooper asked if he wanted a reward.)

SarahW (b0e533) — 5/8/2013 @ 7:38 am

notsomsm, did you notice how uncomfortable the interviewer got when Ramsey talked about being black? In contrast to Ramsey’s skinhead white neighbor in the background who was cracking up?

nk (875f57) — 5/8/2013 @ 7:38 am

I can readily believe the local police were lackadaisical about calls to the address, having seen the transcript of Berry’s 911 call.

Not only was the operator skeptical about the address of the call, she was initially just going to send a car whenever it became available (not priority) and was ready to hang up on the call – and did.

If Police were too slow to arrive, both Berry, the other women, and Ramsey himself were at risk from her vicious captor. Who knows what he might have done to any of them.

SarahW (b0e533) — 5/8/2013 @ 7:45 am

==did you notice how uncomfortable the interviewer got when Ramsey talked about being black? ==

I noticed that, too, nk. The reporter who had been cruising along the interview suddenly couldn’t wait to end it and literally cut Charles Ramsey off mid-sentence

elissa (320385) — 5/8/2013 @ 7:49 am

It wasn’t so much a matter of Ramsey talking about being black per se that made the interviewer skittish, as much as it was Ramsay saying that something was wrong or suspicious about a white woman welcoming the open arms of a black guy.

The whole story illustrates the sickness, grotesque dysfunction and nightmarish scenarios that exist out there, all made much worse by the monolithic ideology (eg, where over 90-plus percent of a community blindly buys into liberal cant) that roils parts of American society.

Mark (9ba6f2) — 5/8/2013 @ 7:58 am

I’d say the Cleveland police will have much more to account for than just the nearly botched 9-1-1 call response if some of the allegations that are coming out about what other neighbors saw turn out to be true. (Some are pretty unbelievable and I realize they may not be true and that some neighbors may just be saying things to get attention.) Still, Ramsey has apparently only lived there a year or so. Others apparently have lived in the vicinity of the house of horrors much longer, so I kinda believe there probably were some tip-offs over the years that were reported, but not acted on.

elissa (320385) — 5/8/2013 @ 8:00 am

The dance version is out!

Blue Ox (bf4380) — 5/8/2013 @ 8:15 am

I read about forcible miscarriages – don’t they mean abortions?

Amphipolis (d3e04f) — 5/8/2013 @ 8:28 am

FWIW miscarriages are abortions. But it’s a special crime to beat a woman, on top of the beating, to make her lose a pregnancy when you know or should know she’s pregnant. It’s not easy to beat a woman to that point except late in pregnancy with directed energy. Maybe he let them deliver and killed the infants.

SarahW (b0e533) — 5/8/2013 @ 9:34 am

He seriously has some balls. He went to rescue the lady from someone nuts enough to keep hostages for 10 years rather than just calling the police and staying back. He seemed like a pretty cool guy on TV that would be awesome to have a beer with. Anyone crying racism because people are laughing at the guy is an idiot. He’s a funny dude, everyone that knows him probably thinks he’s a funny dude, and he seemed to be cracking jokes during the interview.

Thank goodness he didn’t call police! I read several news stories about this case last night. It seems there are at least three known instances where someone saw/heard something disquieting at the kidnapper’s house and called police.

One incident was when a naked woman was seen crawling in the backyard. A second time when a woman was seen beating on the inside of a window. A third time when neighbors heard a woman give a ten-second scream that “curdled” their blood. The police came out and knocked on the door, then went away when nobody answered.

On another occasion the former bus-driver / kidnapper apparently left a child on the school-bus he drove. Police came out to his house and knocked on the door, but went away when nobody answered. They later determined he had no criminal intent and dropped the case.

Apparently all one has to do is ignore the police when one does evil things. They won’t attempt entry unless they witness a naked woman crawling in a backyard, or beating on a window, or screaming for help.

bonhomme (ef15eb) — 5/8/2013 @ 1:00 pm

Ok, that didn’t take long. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/cleveland-hero-charles-ramsey-8702415

nk (875f57) — 5/8/2013 @ 2:35 pm

I suspect there’s a lot to know about the Cleveland Police Department.

Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 5/8/2013 @ 3:34 pm

I didn’t think Ramsey was funny, I thought he was truthful and courageous!

Have you seen the map of the kidnaps? Good grief! They are all in the same vicinity, like a block apart. You’d think the PD would put 2 and 2 together at some point. Guess not.

Patricia (be0117) — 5/8/2013 @ 4:48 pm

I didn’t think he was “funny” except in ways he intended to be, understated and tongue in cheek, like “Never did anything exciting…until today”, with a little smirk.

I thought the “skinhead” in the background was smiling/laughing at things Ramsey meant to be a little on the humorous side, neighborhood talk.

I think he was using humor as an appropriate coping mechanism. The story is at a good point, after the rescue, so some levity is called for. But it is also still something making his head reel, “Heck, I had ribs with this guy never realizing what a psycho he was!” had it been a scene of tragedy with hostages killed, etc., it would have been different, he would have been different.

But I think it is hard to be accustomed to “street talk” and “professional talk” at the same time. At least it always was for me. I generally spoke on more of a vernacular to communicate with patients, which probably resulted in my sounding a bit ignorant at times, not using generally accepted jargon.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 5/8/2013 @ 5:01 pm

nk,

I guess Charles knew what he was talking about when he said he thought this was a domestic dispute.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/8/2013 @ 5:48 pm

And nobody was going to let him enjoy his moment in the sun for even two days. Oh well, that’s our media.

nk (875f57) — 5/8/2013 @ 7:00 pm

That’s our internet. Before the internet, the media would have enjoyed his moment as much as he did.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/8/2013 @ 7:02 pm

So, he was convicted of domestic abuse 10 years ago and has had no charges since then. Maybe he has successfully turned things around. Besides, he never claimed to be an Eagle Scout, just someone who went to help when he heard a woman screaming.

Painted Jaguar (a sockpuppet) (3d3f72) — 5/8/2013 @ 7:06 pm

How about we say he’s found redemption.

AZ Bob (c11d35) — 5/8/2013 @ 7:33 pm

You’re born with nothing,
and better off that way,
Soon as you’ve got something they send
someone to try and take it away,
…..
Nothing is forgotten or forgiven,
when it’s your last time around,
I got stuff running around ‘round my head
That I just can’t live down.

— Springsteen

nk (875f57) — 5/8/2013 @ 7:56 pm

Is Charles Ramsey the hero or is Angel Cordero?

DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/8/2013 @ 9:04 pm

40. Guess heroes are hard to come by these days.

We prefer celebrities.

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 5/8/2013 @ 9:15 pm

@ Comment by DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/8/2013 @ 9:04 pm

That story is dispicable, mean spirited, dangerous and stupid.

The lesson THOMAS DURANTE and RACHEL QUIGLEY want to teach is ; don’t you dare do the right thing because if you stand up we, the media vultures, will do our level best to destroy you.

Me I want to see THOMAS DURANTE and RACHEL QUIGLEY’s rap sheet. I want to know the gory details of their messy divorces. I want to know about how their estranged children despise them.
And their traffic tickets.

They I want them to piss off.

papertiger (c2d6da) — 5/9/2013 @ 2:29 am

Then, I want them to piss off.

papertiger (c2d6da) — 5/9/2013 @ 2:30 am

Did the kidnapper accuse another man to divert attention from himself?

DRJ (a83b8b) — 5/9/2013 @ 1:18 pm

Last year they were searching for Amanda Berry’s body two houses away, I think it was, from where she was being kept prisoner.

Does anyone know more about that?

Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 5/9/2013 @ 4:44 pm

NK, that’s from “Something in the Night,” if I’m not mistaken.

I know Bruce fashions himself a Woody Guthrie-ish lefty, but many of Bruce’s lyrical themes in albums such as Darkness on the Edge of Town are about self-determination and survival and individual fortitude. He also wrote a lot about how the world is a cruel, fallen place—which is definitely a conservative worldview.

My point being, Bruce may vote Democrat, but I think it is fair to say that thirty years ago when he was less consciously political, he was exploring conservative themes—even if he didn’t/doesn’t realize it.

Elephant Stone (65a34b) — 5/9/2013 @ 4:54 pm

Oh yes, I was a big fan. I wore out several copies his tapes playing them in the stereo I had in my car back then. His early albums from “Greetings from Asbury Park” all through “Nebraska” were awesome. “Born in the USA” was passable if you did not listen too closely to the lyrics, and I hoped he was coming back with “Tunnel of Love” which was also very good but his next two albums were pukesville. I can’t even remember them. I gave up on him after that. He changed and I changed too, I guess.

nk (875f57) — 5/9/2013 @ 5:55 pm

I did like his covers of Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, the music rose above his commentary.

nk (875f57) — 5/9/2013 @ 5:57 pm

5/7/2013

The Hero of Cleveland

48 Responses to “The Hero of Cleveland”

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