The Commentariat -- March 4, 2012
Updated: My column in in the New York Times eXaminer is titled "Joe Nocera's Phony Defense of Bipartisanship." My next column, which I haven't written yet, will be is titled "Frank Bruni's Phony Defense of Bipartisanship." The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here.
** "Whitewashing Gay History." Frank Rich: "Liberals applaud themselves for championing gay marriage. But there are ghosts at the wedding."
Ricardo Lopez & Kim Geiger of the Los Angeles Times: "In what was surely a rare move for the conservative radio host, Rush Limbaugh apologized Saturday to the Georgetown University law school student he called a 'slut' and 'prostitute' earlier in the week. The apology, posted to his website, said he did not mean to make a 'personal attack' against Sandra Fluke." The article doesn't mention, nor does Rush's post, that he carried on these denigrating comments for days. Here's a portion of Rush's "apology":
I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? ... My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.
CW Translation: I'm losing my sponsors, for Christ's sake! And about those word choices -- I just couldn't think of another way to say 'slut,' 'prostitute' and 'round-heels.' Hope you like 'personal sexual recreational activities' better. BTW, Rick Santorum, I'm not the one who's 'absurd'; Ms. Fluke is. She should act more responsibly, the way I do. Never mind my constant lies, intemperate language & vilification of others, the four wives, the Oxycontin habit & the illegal drug deals.
... Maureen Dowd: "Rush and Newt Gingrich can play the studs, marrying again and again until they find the perfect adoring young wife. But women pressing for health care rights are denigrated as sluts."
We kind of got our Irish up when leaders in government seemed to be assigning an authoritative voice to Catholic groups that are not the bishops. If you want an authoritative voice, go to the bishops. They’re the ones that speak for the truths of the faith. -- Cardinal Timothy Dolan
Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth. -- St. Augustine of Hippo ...
... This Is All We Need. Tim Stelloh & Andy Newman of the New York Times: "Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan told Roman Catholics on Saturday that in an era when the church was fighting the government on several fronts, they needed to make their voices heard more clearly in the political sphere." Read the whole article.
It’s state-sanctioned abuse. It borders on a definition of rape. Many states describe rape as putting any object into an orifice against a person’s will. Well, that’s what this is. A woman is coerced to do this, just as I’m coerced. The state of Texas is waging war on women and their families. The new law is demeaning and disrespectful to the women of Texas, and insulting to the doctors and nurses who care for them. -- Dr. Curtis Boyd, a Texas physician, on the new Texas law requiring women who want abortions to submit to transvaginal ultrasound probe, listen to the fetal heartbeat, view the fetus on an ultrasound screen, go to anti-abortion "crisis" centers, & listen to their doctors read "a politicized list of so-called dangers of abortion" ...
... Nicholas Kristof: "If Texas legislators wanted to reduce abortions, the obvious approach would be to reduce unwanted pregnancies. The small proportion of women and girls who aren’t using contraceptives account for half of all abortions in America.... Yet Texas has some of the weakest sex-education programs in the nation, and last year it cut spending for family planning by 66 percent."
** "Innocence Is Not Enough." In a New York Times op-ed, lawyer & former New York Times reporter Raymond Bonner recounts the case of Edward Lee Elmore, a man who served 30 years in prison, much of the time "under the threat of imminent execution," for a rape and murder he did not commit....
... Naomi Wolf in Al Jazeera: "... while Obama should continue to apologise for the Quran burnings, we must understand that Afghans' rage is a response to an even deeper, rawer wound. Obama should also apologise for kidnapping Afghans; for holding them at Bagram without due process of law; for forcing them into cages, each reportedly holding up to 30 prisoners; for denying them Red Cross/Red Crescent visits; for illegally confiscating family letters; for torturing and sexually abusing them; and for casting a pall of fear over the country. The Quran forbids that kind of injustice and cruelty. So does the Bible." Thanks to reader Victoria for the link.
Right Wing World
Newt & Callista Make Plans for Lent. For those who think all is well with "traditional Republican wives," even among those of the Roman Catholic persuasion, kept barefoot in Manolos and strangely not pregnant, our thanks go to Nicole Belle of Crooks and Liars and my friend Kate M. for setting us straight:
... If you need a translation, Belle obliges. Warning: clicking on the audio will throw you to Crooks & Liars, & I can't figure out how to disable that fun feature.
News Ledes
Richmond Times-Dispatch: "Thirty-one women's-rights demonstrators were arrested this afternoon in a protest at the state Capitol that drew hundreds of protesters and Virginia State Police in riot gear.... The demonstration came after the General Assembly approved hotly disputed legislation that requires women to have an ultrasound before getting an abortion."
New York Times: "Russian voters overwhelmingly granted Vladimir V. Putin a six-year term as president on Sunday, a widely expected outcome that set the stage for a far more suspenseful post-election confrontation between the freshly emboldened leader and an opposition movement that has repeatedly rallied tens of thousands of protesters."
Here's the Washington Post's report on President Obama's speech before AIPAC.
Washington Post: "House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R) endorsed Mitt Romney for president on Sunday, becoming the first member of GOP leadership to back the GOP frontrunner."
Haaretz: Israeli "President Shimon Peres will meet with President Barack Obama in the U.S. capital on Sunday. Peres will also tell delegates of pro-Israel lobby AIPAC that Israel is not rushing into a war, but will defend itself if it has to."
AP: "While scattered damage was reported elsewhere, the worst destruction was in Limestone and Madison counties [Alabama], where 190 homes were damaged or destroyed."
Washington Post: "Complaints of vote-rigging were starting to pile up Sunday, even as an intensely watched presidential election is underway across Russia’s nine time zones."
Share Article
Reader Comments (7)
Naomi Wolf has an interesting take on the NYT (massive fail at) so called reporting on the burning of Korans in today's al jazeera english.
And as long as we let personal beliefs, rooted in a who-knows-how contorted psychology drive public policy it will only get worse.
Both Mr. Santorum and a prominent conservative pundit, who writes for Washington paper with national reach, for instance, have children who have chromosomal damage. Whether they chose that end for their families or not is a very private matter. But that they believe everyone should be forced to follow the same tragic path in their own reproductive lives is a very public one and offers a hint of their massive arrogance.
Though Mr. Santorum and his ilk miss all the large hints (like tornadoes and those billions of galaxies--just look up, guys) man (I'm being gender-specific here) is hardly the measure of all things. That Mr. Santorum or anyone else, whether they run for office, talk on the radio or write for a newspaper, thinks his own experience should be everyone else's is manifestly and frighteningly absurd.
Think that's what Ricky meant?
Everyone say a prayer for President Obama. Netanyahu is coming to town with the objective of writing American foreign policy. He has plenty of supporters. Netanyahu has the support of Aipac the Israeli lobby, fourteen thousand at a convention of Israel supporters, Lindsey Graham and thirty two members of Congress, plus Romney, Gingrich and Santorum.
Last time here, Netanyahu did all he could to embarrass the President and the Republicans used Israeli foreign policy to attack the President.
President Obama has on his side the necessity for an American foreign policy dedicated to the best interests of America, not Israel. When they coincide, that's fine.
America's policy vs. Iran is America's business and must not be dictated by Israel.
This is a defining moment for President Obama.
I was procrastinating writing a Central American immigration research paper and created a fairly accurate comic strip of today's U.S. propaganda machine. After completing my artwork, I realized it could serve pretty well as a visual interpretation of the effects of 'Right Wing World' mania on the mentally-unprepared observer.
Amusez-vous bien !
http://s3.amazonaws.com/stripgenerator/strip/21/36/26/00/00/full.png
@Ken Winkes. Thanks for writing. I think it must be hard for religious people to separate morality and religion. As someone who was reared in a secular environment, I have never had the experience of thinking, "This is what god would want me to do." I think my moral values are just as strong and even more valid than are those of Rick Santorum & George Will, but they're also not confused with "Do as I say/do" or "Do as god would wish."
While I suppose like most people my age I have developed an intricate moral system, it mostly is based on the Golden Rule, which I see as secular and universal. Religious Christians would do well to follow what are commonly called the Love Commandments -- "Love thy god above all others & love thy neighbor as thyself," the second being a version of the Golden Rule. That breakdown, attributed to Jesus in the NT, I think neatly separates the religious from the secular. Somewhere along the way, the Santorums & Wills of this world failed to understand, or decided not to honor, that distinction, and we are all the worse for it.
I just got thru reading the NYT story on the evolution of Santorum's beliefs, and it appears to me that he got religion mixed up in his psyche with sex and romantic love. I'd have to ask a psychiatrist about it, but -- to put it delicately -- I suspect Santorum confuses sexual fulfillment with religious transcendence -- if you know what I mean. The trouble is, he thinks everybody else should, too. He really wants to get into our bedrooms. This is "I like to watch" on a national scale. Creepy-scary.
Bravo Marie,
I read a profile of santorum recently, wish I could remember where, but the part that made an impression on me was one of his instructors at Penn State remembered him as not the moral crusader we see now, but a student keen on political process. I haven't read the NYT piece but I suspect it has to less to do with a "true" moral conviction than with a twisted desire to win at all costs.
I grew up in a Catholic family. I survived it mostly because the hypocrisy was so blatant. One of our parish priests was a drunk for Christ's sake!..lol. Thankfully I somehow never bought any of it, even though my parents were devout and wore their pro life pins in the 80's.
Pierce is right, Santorum is nothing but a colossal Dick.
I meant to say:
I haven't read the NYT piece but I suspect Santorums motivation has to less to do with a "true" moral conviction than with a twisted desire to win at all costs.