Category: Politics

This comes via a friend, and I thought the sentiment was quite nice. Please click on the PDF links. The images are funny. — Thursday, September 9th PRESS RELEASE REAL World Citizens A Dutch appeal to all New Yorkers to keep leading by example as the World’s center of diversity. In May 2010 a new initiative, REAL Dutch, was launched in anticipation of the controversial participation of Geert Wilder’s right-wing PVV party in parliamentary elections. A series of posters was spread on the streets and in the media to show how muslimas are just as much Dutch as any other…

So what's the difference? It is this. Some expressions of bigotry are permissible in this country and some aren't. One had best keep your anti-black racism to yourself — or pretend it's just about Obama as the Limbaughs and right-wingers do. Same with Jews, where, as the Thomas case demonstrates, expressing disdain for Israel, let alone Jews, can be a career killer. But it's still okay to express open prejudice towards gays and lesbians, Latino immigrants (legal or illegal) and, above all, Muslims and Arabs. [From Jeff Goldberg Defends Marty Peretz — But Not That Bigot, Helen Thomas] islamophobia, anti-Muslim

Quiz: Blaming America for 9/11. It turns out that a number of prominent conservatives have also criticized America regarding the horrific terrorist attacks on 9/11. But somehow their critiques have escaped conservative rebuke, while critiques from others have been slammed. via Center for American Progress

A reader writes: In a country founded by Washington, Adams, Paine, Hale, and Jefferson, how can we have reached a point where it has become a slur to call someone an “anti-colonialist”? [From Question For The Day]

humor

The Case for Calling Them Nitwits – Magazine – The Atlantic. They blow each other up by mistake. They bungle even simple schemes. They get intimate with cows and donkeys. Our terrorist enemies trade on the perception that they’re well trained and religiously devout, but in fact, many are fools and perverts who are far less organized and sophisticated than we imagine. Can being more realistic about who our foes actually are help us stop the truly dangerous ones?

Eschaton. But our media has created an environment which has made anti-Muslim bigotry perfectly acceptable, in fact an honest expression of deep heartland values. So people say he’s a Muslim.