Opinion-makers: Who to read (and watch) today.
Sarah Palin. Photo credit: Jeff Geerling, www.lifeisaprayer.com
Whose fault is Sarah Palin?
Sarah Palins aren’t born – they’re created. But if that’s the case, then from whose forehead did she spring, fully formed? “It’s a horrifying thought: Is Sarah Palin progressives’ fault? Could it be that we brought this on ourselves?” asked The Nation‘s Betsey Reed asked, in response to an op-ed from Anna Holmes and Rebecca Traister in The New York Times that suggested precisely that. The problem, Holmes and Traister claim, is that progressive have done nothing to stop Palin from becoming “the 21st century symbol of American women in politics”. “Holmes and Traister have a point,” Reed agreed. “Democrats don’t do enough for women—either as constituents, as we saw with the heartbreaking abortion healthcare compromise, or as candidates.”
But Reed doesn’t exactly agree with the general sentiment: “But it’s not as if more assiduous Democratic efforts to recruit and support female candidates would have satisfied the same ‘appetite for female leadership’ that Palin does, thereby pre-empting her astonishing ascension. What Palin satisfies, rather, is an appetite for right-wing female leadership.” Ultimately, there’s not one single answer for whose to blame for Sarah Palin.
Americans are lazy, racist, and like to play sports on the toilet
“As anyone who has ever lost, I don’t know, three hours in front of one of those TV channels in the US devoted solely to infomercials knows, Americans are no slouches when it comes to advertising inventions one had heretofore never thought needed inventing,” Hadley Freeman observed in The Guardian. Things like the Potty Putter (“practice your putting on the potty!”), or the Better Marriage Blanket (which “absorbs flatulence molecules!”), or Nike’s new “automatic lacing system”. But there is still a vast, unexplored territory of inventions Americans never knew they needed and Freeman has a few suggestions, like a Glenn Beck translator. “Glenn Beck: what a hoot! But do you sometimes feel you haven’t got a clue what he’s on about? Worry no more! Get the new Glenn Beck Translator, a small electronic device that will explain to you that ‘communism’ and ‘fascism’ are the same thing in Beckspeak, and both mean ‘blanket words to cover my abject political ignorance’; that ‘socialism’ means ‘Stalinism’; and, adorably, that ‘racist’ means ‘not white’ (sample usage: ‘I’m not saying [Obama] doesn’t like white people. This guy is, I believe, a racist’).”
Orrin Hatch defends ‘mosque’
Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, who is up for re-election this year, has taken a rather brave stance – he’s come out in defense of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, the Islamic community center slated for construction near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In an interview with a Fox local news station in Salt Lake City, Hatch claimed that the groups certainly has the right to build there (in point of fact, no ne has really argued that they don’t), and likened the furore over the center to the controversy over the construction of a Mormon temple in Belmont, Mass. in 2000.
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I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened. All of us ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated, but this is not the case.
I know those opposing the NY Community Center continue to say that that the majority supports them, but as history has taught us the majority is not always right. Would women or non-whites have the vote if we listen to the majority of the day, would the non-whites have equal rights (and equal access to churches, housing, restaurants, hotels, retail stores, schools, colleges and yes water fountains) if we listen to the majority of the day? We all know the answer, a resounding, NO!
Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics and do what is right, not what is just popular with the majority. Some men comprehend discrimination by never have experiencing it in their lives, but the majority will only understand after it happens to them.
Benito wrote
September 7, 2010
19:42 GMT
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I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened. All of us ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated, but this is not the case.
I know those opposing the NY Community Center continue to say that that the majority supports them, but as history has taught us the majority is not always right. Would women or non-whites have the vote if we listen to the majority of the day, would the non-whites have equal rights (and equal access to churches, housing, restaurants, hotels, retail stores, schools, colleges and yes water fountains) if we listen to the majority of the day? We all know the answer, a resounding, NO!
Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics and do what is right, not what is just popular with the majority. Some men comprehend discrimination by never have experiencing it in their lives, but the majority will only understand after it happens to them.
Benito wrote
September 1, 2010
22:16 GMT
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