January 30th

 

Once again there are no right-wing columnists in the morning paper so I have the opportunity to aim at targets of convenience.  It is tempting to go after Governor (as she insists on being called) Sarah Palin who embarrassed herself yet again in front of a large TV audience. It will be impossible this time to blame “the mainstream media” for her humiliation. She has truly become a pathetic figure. In her case we don’t have to worry about any part of the body-politic ever being in her care.

But then there is John McCain; he picked Ms. Palin to be his Vice Presidential running mate back in 2007. McCain is still in a position where similar bad judgment can damage the country. As a result of McCain’s selection Sarah Palin could, right now, be President of the United States. McCain has never admitted that Palin was a poor choice for Vice President. For McCain as for most other candidates it’s about winning the election, it isn’t about the country. The typical candidate, skilled at sophistry, excuses anything that will help him win on the basis that his winning is necessary for the country’s wellbeing.

McCain was a genuine Vietnam War hero. He was a prisoner of war for nearly six years and was repeatedly tortured. To his eternal credit he has insisted that his country not use many of the methods for questioning prisoners favored by his right-wing colleagues. Still, when he returned to this country he divorced his wife who had been badly crippled in an auto accident while he was a prisoner and indulged himself in an orgy of skirt-chasing. This ended, assuming that it has ended, only when he married his current wife, a very pretty blonde multi-millionaire heiress, eighteen years his junior, whose fortune secured his political future.

McCain, with acolytes Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte, have tried repeatedly to blame the administration, preferably Secretary Clinton, for the disaster at Benghazi where our Ambassador and three guards were murdered. Clinton has said that she was at fault for not increasing security when that was requested. Short of invading Libya it is difficult to see what protection even a company of marines could supply against a large number of dedicated attackers willing to get into the compound at any cost. Our embassies are by tradition United States territory but they exist at the pleasure of the host country. Iran’s takeover of our embassy in Tehran in 1979 is evidence that countries can ignore this convention. The Benghazi incident is evidence that rather than provide solutions McCain and other politicians would prefer to use this tragedy to further their political agendas.

January 29^th

 

Today I have no response to right-wing columnists because there weren’t any right-wing columns published in the morning paper. So I’ll comment here about the recent problems with police.

The police have a difficult and dangerous job. Any routine traffic stop could result in an occupant jumping out of their car and shooting the arresting officer. Two NYC police officers sitting in their cruiser were ambushed and murdered in NYC. No one doubts that uniformed police officers are nervous much of the time and nervous for good reason.

Unfortunately this nervousness can easily lead to panic if the officer is not well trained. Two instances demonstrate this: the first is the very well documented killing of a black teenager in Ferguson MO. You may remember that this very large black teenager was warned by a patrolling policeman to leave the middle of the street where he was walking and get on the sidewalk. Instead this huge (6’3” 280 lbs.) kid reaches into the patrol car punching the patrolman in the face and grabbing for his gun. This white officer has now been severely disrespected by a teen ager.  He calls for “backup” as he should. But before the assistance can arrive, fearing this enormous kid will get away, he leaves his patrol car and goes after his assailant.  The young man turns back toward the policeman and the officer shoots him seven times, finally killing him. At the very least this officer should have waited for the backup he called for. (Other problems involve the Ferguson police department: Why, if they had up-armored vehicles which they deployed to intimidate the crowds, didn’t they have Tasers? And why was this victims’ body left uncovered in the street for hours after the shooting?) It seems to me that if you have to shoot someone seven time before killing him you are too panic stricken to be trusted with a gun or a police uniform. This officer was, quite simply, not adequately trained.

We move to the traffic stop of a Jaguar: Two Officers leave their patrol car and approach the stopped car which contains two black men. One officer, approaching the passenger’s side and notices a gun in an open glove compartment. The dashboard camera on the now vacant patrol car catches the result. The driver’s side officer immediately draws his weapon and screaming invective at the driver orders him out of the car and the kills him in a hail of bullets before he can fully emerge. Once again we have a panicked policeman murdering a citizen.

The answer is better training. The better colleges admit perhaps thirty percent of their applicants. What is the failure rate in police academies? The salary offered should attract the best and the training should be rigorous enough to wash out those who can’t do the job without becoming panic stricken.

January 29^th

Today we have Thomas Sowell giving vent to what he calls “Random thoughts on (the) passing scene.” His first “random thought” accuses Obama of “complicity in moving Iran toward nuclear bombs.” Obama and Iran are talking about restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in return for our reducing sanctions. For Sowell this means that we are encouraging a “potentially suicidal foreign policy.” Maybe he sees Senator McCain’s “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” as a preferable policy?

He manages to slam teachers’ unions for the poor performance of our students compared with those of other nationalities while neglecting to mention that the starting salary for an elementary teacher in Germany is $46,456 compared with about $35,000 in this country. Sowell is an economist and sometimes he should know you get what you pay for.

Sowell points out quite rightfully that blacks are murdering blacks in grotesquely large numbers. But then he uses that as a reason to be unconcerned about police murdering blacks.  Those killings account for less than one percent of black murders. At what point would it begin to matter to you Thomas, at one percent, three percent, ten percent? I watched a video of five NYC police, including a sergeant, swarm an unarmed black man take him to the ground, grind his face into the sidewalk and kill him. His crime was selling individual cigarettes. You would excuse that because somewhere in the city a black man has killed another black man?

Then he slams Mayor de Blasio for going to the funerals of two police officers recently murdered. Sowell says the Mayor wasn’t wanted at these funerals. Wasn’t wanted by whom Thomas? Some cops who turned their backs on him because he objected to the murder I just described? No, they wanted him there so they could express their childish disrespect and politicize what should have been a solemn occasion. A smart political type like you recognizes that you can demonize de Blasio if he goes to these funerals or demonize him if he doesn’t. So he’s a “despicable human being” for politicizing these funerals?  What are you doing with your comments?

 

 

January 27^th

 Today we have a column by Cal Thomas on the issue of abortion legislation. Cal is the perfect conservative to write about this issue; he is an old (72) white male. At issue is the rebellion of republican women when faced with voting for a bill which required raped women to report that crime to police to be eligible for an abortion. It does remind one of Todd Akins’ comments about “legitimate rape” wherein he claims that the female body has ways to “shut down that whole thing.” Meaning of course if the woman fights her assailant hard enough she won’t get pregnant. Akins was leading in the polls at the time but hopeless lack of compassion, political smarts and biological knowledge lost him the election. These republican women, unwilling to support this version of Akins’ insanity, sabotaged the bill.  

Why were only women republicans this savvy politically? Is it possible that these republican women were also tired of men grabbing at issues about women’s bodies that should be left to women and their physicians? The 20 week limit proposed by this bill is based on the assumption that after 20 weeks the fetus can feel pain. The evidence for that is disputed. What isn’t disputed is that many developmental problems do not manifest themselves until after 20 weeks. The hydrocephalic fetus diagnosed at 25 weeks will, if carried to term carry hospital bills that would be unpayable even for the fabled top one percent. So why don’t our conservative friends, so concerned with “life,” initiate bills that would provide free medical care for the first five years of life for all infants? Conservatives are all for legally deciding the abortion issue as long as they don’t have to deal with any of the consequences.

 

January 26^th

 

Today we have that noted conservative Patrick J. Buchanan writing about why the Muslims hate us. This question has provided, and will continue to provide, fodder for the commentariate on both the right and left for many years to come.  Now to the issue at hand: Pat claims that terror against “occupiers” has always been a weapon used by those who wanted to rid themselves of these intruders; he cites the Irgun, Mau-Mau, FLN and many other terrorist groups as evidence.

He is right of course, but there is an important difference. These Muslims are killing far more of their co-religionists than they are killing occupiers. I don’t recall that the Irgun particularly targeted less extreme Jews when they were driving out the British.  He points out the fact that Muslims reject our values, that they do not believe that “all religions are equal.” Well, neither do Christians Pat. Do you really believe that the typical Catholic priest would declare Scientology the equivalent of Catholicism?

These Muslims are fighting for supremacy over other Muslims in much the same way just four and a half centuries ago, Bloody Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon burned 280 Christians at the stake because their form of worship was offensive to her. Who knows, perhaps in another 450 years Muslims will stop killing Muslims. Some of their rage is certainly aimed at us for desecrating their holy places but it is equally directed at other Muslims whom they see as rivals for the favor of their God. If all Christians would leave Muslim areas, Muslims would still kill Muslims at the same rate they’re killing them now.

 

 

January 25^th

Whatever would I do without George Will? He is incredibly generous in providing misrepresentations in his columns for me to target so I’ll get right at it.

 Bernie Sanders, senator from Vermont and an avowed socialist, whom Will currently vilifies, begins by claiming Europe’s social democracies have some admirable policies.  But Will counters that the European Union has a 10% unemployment rate.  Greece, with a 25% unemployment rate, may be on its way out of the EU after today’s election. And Germany with 80 million people has a 5 percent unemployment rate so citing 10 percent unemployment for “social democracies“ is a tad misleading. Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway are all well below 10 percent and they, and Germany, all have far more progressive human support systems than we have, although we do have more millionaires per capita; Will does not brag about that.

Senator Bernie Sanders’ third party candidacy could have problems getting on enough ballots. Will points out that Governor George Wallace “with a shoestring budget and a negligible staff, ignite(d) a conflagration of grass roots support.” He got that support because his segregationist opinions appealed to the bigotry that still governed the views of many Americans in the mid-60s. His famous line, “Segregation today, tomorrow and forever” struck a chord with many. SCOTUS had only recently struck down the anti-miscegenation laws. It does surprise me that Will would use Wallace’s 1967 appeal to bigotry as evidence that a third party candidacy can get on the ballot now. Of course we have matured a trifle since the mid- 1960s; if poor Wallace knew we had a black president he wouldn’t just turn over in his grave, he would be spinning in it!

A further oversimplification is Will’s contention that colleges raise tuition to capture more subsidizing federal dollars now available. Unfortunately for Will’s argument the federal subsidies never fully cover tuition increases so the student must borrow more and more money. If Will were right, student indebtedness would be decreasing, but it is increasing and increasing dramatically. There are many reasons for tuition increases but chasing federal subsidies is not among them.

 

 

January 23^rd

Today we have a column by Dana Milbank who devotes his efforts to encouraging us to be more afraid of Muslim extremists. He claims that Obama in his State of the Union speech did not sufficiently warn us of this risk; indeed this criticism is also directed at the Republican Party and the general population none of whom see the risk as important as he does. He is concerned that Obama was halfway through his speech before he mentioned, “…the challenges beyond our shores…” Milbank does not appear to be an Obama fan; Obama is described as, “full of swagger” and later he reminds us that Obama, “taunted republicans” by reminding them that he won his last two elections. Milbank, noted for taking events out of context, doesn’t mention that Obama’s comments on winning his last two elections came after republican applause when he observed that he wouldn’t be running for office again.

I would agree that we are not much concerned about terrorism striking this country even though terrorists are making massive inroads overseas. Note that the Yemini government has resigned. It is certainly true that the Republican Party which now has complete control of the country’s purse talks of defunding the Department of Homeland Security as punishment for Obama’s immigration policies. It is obvious that these people put their party’s interests well ahead of the country’s safety. Their next objective was to be a bill banning abortions but women in their own party revolted and the bill was confined to limiting how government funds could be used for abortion.  Both parties are willing to make symbolic gestures to appease their base. Obama proposes increasing the capital gains tax which has no chance of passing while republicans push legislation they know Obama will veto.

So, why the lethargy toward Muslim extremists? Maybe it’s a sense of proportion. For the most part these extremists have just been killing each other. In this country we kill over 30 thousand people a year in automobile accidents. That’s about ten times as many as were killed in the 9/11 attack.. My guess is that the folks in this country recognize that Islamic extremists are less a threat to them than a trip to the grocery store and they react accordingly.

 

 

January 22^nd

 

The local paper has not carried any utterly absurd columns from the right-wing commentariate today so I can comment on the issue of my choice.

Today’s topic is freedom of religion: you don’t have it, really you don’t. Article One in the Bill of Rights says that the government cannot impose a particular religion on us or make laws restricting the “free expression” of belief. There is a long and interesting history of cases before SCOTUS about just what this means: Can you put a crèche with the baby Jesus and the Magi on the courthouse lawn? Well, probably not. But we do distribute Bibles to all new members of Congress.  The Bible in question is the Jefferson edition. This is a unique Bible. I have a copy and you can get one too if you’re interested. Jefferson adapted his Bible which consisted of just portions of the New Testament. He left out all of the miracles attributed to Jesus because he thought that no intelligent man could possibly believe them. For the ethical lessons to survive he thought the miracles would have to go. He was wrong of course; he was wrong about other things as well… but that’s another story.

So, bottom line, if you want to go into the woods and mimic the Druids who venerated trees you go right ahead. No one will stop you. However, (Isn’t there always a “however” to screw things up?) if your religion allows you more than one wife that would be a non-starter. Just ask the Mormons who had to have an Epiphany and renounce plural marriage to get Utah into the Union. Their “plural marriage” didn’t allow women to have multiple husbands, just husbands to have multiple wives. Many religions, Catholic, Orthodox Judaism, Muslim all place women in an inferior position. It seems your religious freedom stops when it conflicts with state or federal law; it certainly isn’t absolute; but then nothing is.

 

January 21st

Herewith we welcome Thomas Sowell and his column of the day. He tells us that he hopes Republicans do not pick a “rookie” senator because of the multiple disasters at home and abroad produced by the rookie Obama. Indeed what a disaster to have unemployment just over 5.5%   The Dow Industrial Average moved from 10,700 when the rookie took office and now it’s about 16,700. Or, as an economist maybe the GDP might be of interest; it was 12,368 trillion when the rookie started and now it’s at 17,600 trillion. What a disaster this rookie has caused in his six years. Sir, you should hope for a rookie this capable. Good luck with that.

Then we have your previous presidential heroes: Ronald Reagan who presided briefly (thank heaven) over a 10+ percent unemployment rate caused by those socialists in congress I’m sure; or perhaps Teddy Roosevelt whose treatment of captive Pilipino insurgents introduced waterboarding to our vocabulary. You must be so proud that Teddy was a Republican although with his trust busting I doubt he could get the republican nomination today.

Maybe your choice of Scott Walker, the Governor of Wisconsin, would be interesting. I can’t wait to hear him explain why he exempted police and firefighter’s unions from destruction under Act 10. Bobby Jindal is a great choice too. I saw him arguing with an official in England about the fabled “no go” areas of some English cities, Birmingham to be specific. Fox News’ commentators had trumpeted these so called no go zones every chance they got until, at long last, they admitted that they didn’t exist. Poor Bobby, he didn’t hear Fox News’ retraction. Live by Fox; die by Fox. I’m afraid Bobby’s silliness on the issue of no go zones just makes him look ridiculous. Not a good position for a republican candidate, not an unusual position of course but not a good one as your last nominee can attest.

January 20^th  

Today Mona Charen has delivered herself of some comments in her column that deserve a response other than laughter. She claims that G.W. Bush was “mocked” for saying “they hate our freedom.” No he wasn’t “mocked”; he was wrong. (Do look up the meaning of mocked.) It wasn’t our freedom they hated; it was what we did with it.  Christian armies invading Muslim countries yet again really can open old wounds. You do remember the photo of a senior official, Donald Rumsfeld, in a Republican administration shaking hands with Saddam Hussein. Maybe Rumsfeld was a liberal back in 1983. You’re old enough to remember that.

As to the liberals making nice with the Soviets you do remember eight years of Eisenhower; eight years of Nixon-Ford. (It might have been Nixon-Agnew except that fine conservative resigned to avoid prosecution for taking bribes. You conservatives really know how to pick ‘em.) Then there were eight years of Ronald Reagan; and four years of George Bush. I guess there were plenty of right-wingers appeasing the Soviets during the cold war. During most of this time we had planes in the air loaded with hydrogen bombs regardless of which party was in power. Before that, in 1945 we had planes loaded with atomic bombs ready to take off from English airfields if the Soviets tried to move into disputed territory…they didn’t. Harry Truman also blocked the North Korean-Chinese invasion that attempted takeover South Korea. Dear old Harry, just another bleeding heart, appeasing, liberal.

Your attempts to blame liberals for all the ills the world faces are so badly overdrawn that almost anyone with even rudimentary historical knowledge will find much of what you write simply silly. Your clientele won’t bother to look very closely because you’re feeding them just what they want to read so I’m sure your checks will continue to arrive on time. And for a conservative that is the bottom line, isn’t it?

January 19th, Martin Luther King Day.

I am Charlie!!. Well, no I’m not. Is there a connection between MLK and the satirical magazine of cartoons that attacks all religions? MLK was a deeply religious man. Yes I know about his transgressions but they apparently did not involve hate. Indeed given that the NRA was pushing the availability of hand guns and second amendment rights the assassination of King could easily have led to a bloodbath far beyond the riots that did occur.

So Charlie attacks all religions; really? There are lots of religions that are unconnected to formal churches. What about super-patriots? The jingoists who make a religion of their patriotism? Or perhaps the gun huggers for whom a cross will be a pair of cocked pistols? The point is that religions come in many forms. Charlie satirizes only traditional organized religions. Well, good for them; keeps them out of serious trouble. Imagine if they satirized the Marseillaise, I wonder if the French would be so accepting of that satirizing. I doubt it.

January 16^th. Today I respond to a letter to the editor in our local paper, The Traverse City Record-Eagle. The writer is commiserating with a woman totally incapacitated by the over- whelming grief occasioned by her abortion. She is at a counselling center for women who have had abortions and need psychological help dealing their guilt. The writer claims that post abortion suicide rates for women increase substantially.

There is no credible evidence for any post abortion stress disorder nor is the suicide rate higher for women who have had abortions than for women enduring other similar events such as a normal birth. The American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology in London have all found no well-designed study showing such an increase. They have all concluded that of those studies that do show an increase many are so designed so as to produce the desired results for political purposes.

Look at the websites that push the issue of an abortion related stress disorder. Nearly all of these are sponsored by church related groups. The goal of this anti-abortion movement is to stop all abortions and if that requires piling guilt on any woman thinking of an abortion until her health breaks so be it!

These people truly believe that a fertilized human egg is a human being. I wonder if they think that eating acorns destroys oak forests.

January 15, 2015

January 15, 2015


Today, January 15^th, we examine a January 15 column by George Will, a famous right-wing intellectual. Mr. Will titles his effort, “The catechism of the keystone XL pipeline,” and he uses it to snarkily remark on President Obama’s apparent obtuseness about comprehending the splendid economic opportunity the pipeline presents for employment. He points out that Obama said that the pipeline would move oil to be sold everywhere else. “…that doesn’t have an impact on U.S. gas prices.” This egregious error was finally corrected some weeks later when Obama “said, correctly that keystone would have a ‘nominal’ impact on oil prices.” This is a distinction with a very minimal difference and it amounts to nonsense when the collapse in the price of oil is considered, a collapse well underway before Will’s column appeared.

Then we have the issue of jobs: Obama maintains that the pipeline jobs are temporary.  Mr. Will asserts that, “outside of government,…all jobs are ‘temporary.’” Oh, come now, Mr. Will; how long have you made a comfortable living as a columnist/speaker? You began about 1976 and continue to this day, would you call that a “temporary job”?

He points out that Borders had 10,700 employees until Amazon came along. Of course he does manage to mention that Amazon employees 150,000 people. That seems like a fair trade but not apparently to Mr. Will. One government agency (Note that Mr. Will appears to credit the accuracy of government bureaucrats when their figures support his position.) has estimated 42,100 jobs will be created.  How many of these are well paying construction jobs and how many are minimum wage ancillary jobs Mr. Will does not tell us; no need to mention potentially embarrassing data.

Once the pipeline is completed and the construction process stops, how many jobs will be required to maintain the pipeline? Mr. Will is silent about that, possibly because, according to him, all jobs are temporary anyway. One estimate is that 50 jobs will remain after the construction phase finishes. It’s easy to see why Mr. Will left that number out this estimate.

So should the pipeline be approved? Of course it should be approved…certainly not for the reasons given by Mr. Will. The jobs data are not compelling, what is compelling is that the pipeline is a far less risky way to get this sludge form the Canadian border to the gulf than the present methods of rail and truck transport. The pipeline will be less hazardous to the health of this country and the planet than any other method of transport. Ideally we wouldn’t need to transport it at all because no one would want it, but that ideal day is not now.