Sunday Roundup

I was wrong about the rightness of military action in Libya. Military action simply can’t remain defensive. Gaddafi’s son and three grandchildren were killed by a Nato strike. We are killing children. I get that Gaddafi has to be persuaded to release his powerful hold on Libya’s politics. The military approach only knows one way. Common Dreams has coverage.

When the only tool you own is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Well, there were children in this house that was targeted and struck by Nato bombs. I am reminded again that the pacifists are right. The May issue of Harpers has an interesting article by Nicholson Baker about pacifism and World War II (the good war example) and it is pretty persuasive.

Meanwhile – the mainstream media is turning on the radical right. Bob Schieffer called Trump a racist. Hm.. was that a hard call?

Common Dreams ran this cartoon that I think captures the situation.

NPR has spent the past decade trying to move to the right to appease the right winger ascendance, but you know, first they came for the blacks, and I said nothing because I wasn’t black, then they came for the gays, and I said nothing because I wasn’t gay, but now that the right-wingers are on the verge of cutting all funding to NPR and PBS, the systems have found their voice again. Boy, it’s a little late. You tossed folks like Bill Moyers off your network. Voices of dissent, voices of reason and compassion. No room for them. Like the Libyan attack story, some folks at the top of organizations simply can’t understand the complexity and nuance of the mission, they are simply bureaucrats who understanding programming, but can’t keep the values front and center.

So, the right-wingers have moved on from Barack’s birth certificate to his grades. Barack is no revolutionary. He is no socialist. He’s just a black guy in the white house. Some folks can’t stand the thought. I grew up in the segregated South. I have not forgotten what racism looks like.

McCain was born in Panama. Was that a problem when he ran for President?

George Romney, Mitt’s father, was born in Mexico. Was that a problem when he ran for President?

So, what is different about Barack Hussein Obama? Yes, that does not sound like an American name. The muslim-sounding middle name probably raises some racist thoughts, but I think it’s mainly skin color. We would like to think that we live in post-racial America. I don’t think that such a place exists.