University forced to pull boxes of Obama 'disappoint-mints'

www.dailymail.co.uk...

Officials were forced to pull the product after Democratic state Rep Joe Armstrong visited the bookstore and told the manager he found the mints offensive.

It's satire, and it was deemed okay when the store sold Bush-mints yet now, somehow, it's unacceptable.

Senator Armstrong also said that since the mints were not educational material, there was no breech of the First Amendment.
He told the Sentinel: 'With a book or something of that nature, then fine, but that (the mints) is sort of a discretionary product they have. It wasn't viewpoint neutral. Very specifically insulting to the president.'

Glenn Reynolds, who teaches constitutional law at the University, said: 'Let me make very clear, there is no candy exception to the First Amendment.
'Free speech is free speech. If you make fun of the president in a mint, it is just as much free speech as it is if you make fun of the president in a political cartoon.
'While citizens have the right to express disapproval of a message on a tin can of breath mints, that opinion has more heft when it's coming from a government official.'

The company that sells the mints, Unemployed Philosopher's Guild, sells more than 25 different varieties of mints on their website, including ones that poke fun of Sarah Palin and Bush.

I find it disturbing and odd that 'our representatives' are completely ignorant to their own government,
it seems 'position' occupancy doesnt require knowledge and understanding at all.

Actually sounds clever. I'll have some of them.

Originally posted by HappilyEverAfter
Officials were forced to pull the product after Democratic state Rep Joe Armstrong visited the bookstore and told the manager he found the mints offensive.

SO WHAT?

I find censorship in any form offensive.

reply to post by HappilyEverAfter


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/cf8fcc216864.jpg[/atsimg]

They can force them to be pulled from the store.

However, they cannot pull the hilarity, or the sad truthful irony, out of the product.


ETA: This ban will most likely create a huge boost in sales.
The company making these could not have asked for any better advertising.

No educational value?

How about this, most americans who voted for obama are disapointed.

Maybe they should add a statistic as so: 82% disappoint-mints?

(not a real stat, i would assume I'm not far off though)

This senator is a complete idiot and has no idea what the first amendment means. They should push this into the courts just so this senator's idiocy can made public to everyone.

How about Entitle-mints?

Obama is gonna make change and show us freedom-NOT

I live in Tennessee and this is at the UT Knoxville campus which is a desireable state school to attend in TN and has a huge sports legacy. THe state representative thqat threw a hissy fit about the mints is a DEMOCRAT. NEvermind they6 sold mints making fun of republicans...that was ok...but to make fun of the savior of the world Obama...how dare they??? THe only reason they took the mints off the sale block was because they are a state funded school....but then there is that whole 1st ammendment thing...which protects your freedom of speech. I would have told him to go fly a kite and see you in court. The publicity the mint company is getting from this will be great though...im considering ordering a few tins of mints from them.

Oh dear, these highly satirical candies hurt my emotional insidey parts. Oh me, oh my.


Senator Armstrong should count himself lucky I wasn't the manager of that bookstore; I might have exercised my first amendment rights quite vehemently that day and then would have thrown the tin at his head.

I can't see how any response other than "Go f* yourself!" would have been appropriate to this situation: was anybody really worried about losing funding over mints? if they were, and had they been right, then I think that proves the problem is with our high and mightily ego-inflated leaders knowing they think much more highly of themselves then they should.

Hoping the company will add this Rep to the product line after his hissy fit. The guy is a joke if he thinks it's acceptable to censor people.

I live in Knoxville and if I had known about this prior, I would have went and bought several to show my support. I called the campus bookstore and offered my support.

This is a screwed up state.

store.thenationmart.com...

As of now, it looks like the 'Disappoint-Mints' are their highest priced mints, at $4.

They do have a few other interesting mints also.

reply to post by HappilyEverAfter


Armstrong is a tool. Candy Exception. My God, what a complete and utter asshat.

When I was in college every weekend there was an anti-Bush or anti-Conservative rally of some sort. Sigh. This country sucks.

The mints are actually very witty, they make fun of anyone and everyone.

I have the right to offend you.

and so do mints.

obama and bush are both nastyass-mints

I haven't had one yet but I'm disappointed. These things really work!