Originally Posted by JJ Gold
Internet?s Most Visited T-Shirt Company, tshirthell.com Brings Back Their Most Offensive Shirts After Possible Poisoning.
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 7, 2005?Las Vegas based internet company T-Shirt Hell.com made a name for itself by selling t-shirts that no other site would dare to offer. They had shirts that satirized 9/11; racial and religious stereotypes; even the recent Tsunami. Last month, they took down their most offensive shirts and went as far as to issue an apology. Today, those same shirts are available, again. Why the sudden change of heart, and change of heart, again?
Founder, Owner, and President Aaron Schwarz released the following statement: ?Towards the end of April I believe an attempt was made on my life. This was not an idle threat: this was a trip to the emergency room. The doctors tell me that whatever I ingested, it came close to killing me.?
?I believe the motivation behind the attack was the ?Worse Than Hell? section of my website.? said Schwarz. ?Someone was so offended; they decided I deserved to die or to at least be seriously hurt.? Unfortunately for Schwarz, the list of people with that motive, includes just about everyone on the planet. ?Who have I offended?? asked Schwarz. ?How much time do you have??
?I took down ?Worse Than Hell? because we needed some time to sort things out.? said Schwarz. ?I?m not the only person involved. I?ve got hundreds of employees. So, we took it down and I let everybody know what happened; that the stakes had been raised. Anybody who didn?t want to stay was free to go.? With the exception of one employee, everyone has decided to stick it out.
?I take great comfort from the fact that my employees stood behind me. We?ve also received an enormous amount of support from our fans. Most continued to shop with us while they called us cowards and sellouts. That was nice, too.
Schwarz is sticking with one change he announced last month: that is his desire to help those less fortunate than himself. ?Which is pretty much everybody.? jokes the millionaire entrepreneur. He is still going to donate up to 30% of his profits to charities that are involved with the groups, and events he satirizes on his site, as well as groups that support free speech.
"I?ve decided that I'm willing to be a martyr for freedom of speech and even though I may be risking my life, it?s a chance I?m willing to take for a philosophy I believe in." said Schwarz. "If people can?t take a joke, that?s their problem. What I do is comedy. I have no ill intentions, just a passionate, crude sense of humor. If someone wants to kill me over a funny t-shirt, so be it."
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