Political Rants

(Update: admittedly this isn't one of my better posts. I hate to make too many excuses for myself, but being in Japan it's tough to keep up on some of this stuff. I do an alright job, but I'm not exposed to the 24 hour news cycle, and tend to miss out on things, or end up saying things in this blog that have probably been repeated ad-infinitum. After reading only a few articles, I wrote this at work, when it was just me and my lap top. Since getting to the internet cafe and doing a little internet surfing, and am thinking this is both probably ill-informed and redundant. I'm posting it anyway because I went through the trouble of writing it. I'm not trying to pre-empt any criticisms though--criticize away. Tell me where I went wrong.)

I'm combining two rants today. First of all CNN had this article about the politicalization of Coretta Scott King's funeral, which was absolutely ridiculous.

To Quote briefly: "what struck me also was how quickly this became an item within the other side, within the political right. And within hours, I think when the funeral was still going on, this popped up as the headline on "The Drudge Report," which often begins the transmission through particularly conservative media.
On "Hannity & Colmes" last night on Fox, it was the lead item. And Rush Limbaugh on his Web site went off on Joseph Lowery, whose piece he played, and called it -- and this was really the key, as you mentioned in your intro to this, "a Wellstone moment."... After the funeral yesterday, Kate O'Beirne, a prominent conservative writer, said liberals don't know how to keep politics out of their funerals....I think on appropriateness grounds, you probably would be a lot more subtle. I mean, this -- the idea of civil rights in America has become now a consensus. There is nobody arguing that Martin Luther King was on the wrong side of history. And probably if you want to make your political points about the president, there are other venues to do it".
And "We're now in early February. The idea that this is going to have some political implication, you have to really be overcommitted to endless analysis.
I do, however, think that in a more subtle way, this actually rebounds to the credit of President Bush. I mean, he came to the funeral, changed his plans, made a gracious speech. And I think for people who are not politically committed -- I mean, if you don't like George Bush, this was fine. If you like George Bush, this was horrible."

First of all, anyone who's read Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them" knows the Wellstone funeral was greatly exaggerated. (Don't roll your eyes at me, go read the book if you doubt it.)

Secondly I don't know how many of you remember this, but in the lead up to the Iraq War, Coretta King told CNN that she didn't usually like to put words in her dead husband's mouth, but given everything that he stood for, she was sure he would have been against the Iraq War. (Update: found a link to the transcript of that conversation here). Not to mention the King family was, as Carter pointed out, illegally wire-tapped.

Is everyone supposed to ignore this? Just sit at the funeral and pretend the King family wasn't opposed to the war or victims of illegal wire-tapping?

The idea of a funeral like this being politicized is ridiculous. When Reagan died, did they not mention he was a conservative? When Gandhi died, I'm sure somewhat might have mentioned he was a pacifist. When King dies, you talk about, what? What a great home maker she was? Of course you talk about her struggles.

If you ask me Bush had a lot of nerve even showing up to this funeral. As for "...he came to the funeral, changed his plans, made a gracious speech." Oh, I don't know, maybe politics had a little bit to do with that? I'm sure he thought it was a great photo opportunity.

My Two Cents on the Danish Cartoon Controversy

I was going to hold off on writing about this, because I figured we’re all on the same page anyway, so what’s the point? I mean, writing a blog post ranting against Islamic extremism is like ranting against AIDS. We’re all against it anway, so I’d just be wasting my time.

And then I was going to hold off on writing this because Matt Lind had a good post nailing this thing already, so I figured the job was done.

And then I thought, “What the Hell, I’ll just indulge myself. If I jot a few thoughts down and get this off my mind, maybe it will make me feel better.” So here I go:

Like many of us, I have two sides. The conservative me (which I like to refer to as my dark side) and the liberal me. As it happens, both of me are passionately committed to free speech.

The conservative me hates everyone who’s different than I am, so he says, “It’s bad enough that they don’t have freedom of speech in their own countries, but they think they can stop freedom of speech in the whole world? And Muslims protesting outside the Danish Embassy want to kill the people who made this cartoon? Over a cartoon? And as for the Muslims living in the West, they can go back to where they came from if they don’t like our freedom of speech laws.”
I also remember what my 8th grade bible teacher told us. “Muslims take advantage of our religious freedom laws to come and live here, but they don’t allow freedom to anyone else.” And I also think to myself, “all this time I’ve been defending Islam, but those conservatives have it right. It really is inherently a violent, intolerant, religion.” (Conservative me is a bit of an asshole).

Then the liberal me chimes in. “Yes, but remember every religion has extremists, and Christianity is no exception. Remember “The Life of Brian” was banned in Ireland? Remember the protests against “The Last Temptation of Christ”? The fire bombings in the theaters in France, and the crazy protester in America who drove a bus into a theater lobby?”

Of course, to my knowledge, no one was outside the American embassy demanding that Paul Schrader be ritually killed according to religious law, but still, good point liberal me.

However, I don’t think there’s any denying that if you look at the past 25 years, the Muslim world has a much worse track record. And this is a problem that they’re going to have to deal with.

Bush has repeatedly said that “The terrorists are against us because they hate freedom.” Are the Muslims trying to prove him right? I’m almost starting to believe Bush now. (Conservative me that is).

The Muslim world has legitimate grievances against US foreign policy, but they need to get their priorities straight if they want that stuff on the negotiating table. As for the cartoons? We’re not giving up our freedom and going back to the dark ages, thank you very much. We’ve been there and we didn’t like it. You can have your theocracy in the middle east if you want, but you don’t control the press in Denmark. We’re sorry if that offends you, but that’s life. You can’t expect to go through life without ever seeing anything that offends you. Grow up.

So put your time and energy into something else: the refugees in Palestine, the children killed by American bombs in Iraq, the mess in Chechnya. We’re with you on that. (Some of us are).
And the headscarf ban in French Schools is a blatant affront to Religious freedom. We’re with you on that one as well.

I understand the editor of an Iranian newspaper is testing the limits of Western free speech by sponsoring a contest for the best Holocaust cartoon. Okay. Somewhat childish sir, but you’re point is well taken. At least I give you props for trying to continue the battle of ideas. I think this is a lot more productive than terrorism and bombing each other.

If we’re going to fight Islamic extremism, let’s fight it the Danish way instead of the Bush way. No more bombing, invading, and/ or occupying foreign countries. Let’s get them with satire.

Here’s what I propose: support Danish freedom of the Press by looking at, (or possibly linking to) the offending cartoons in question.

Next, as soon as I get back home, I’m going to find and read a copy of “The Satanic Verses”. I figure if Rushdie can spend his whole life in hiding because of this book, the least I can do is read it.

Lastly, just to be far, read or watch “The Last Temptation of Christ”. It’s not a great movie, but it’s the principle of the thing. (I’m told the book is better, so I’m adding that to my reading list).

Who’s with me?

Link of the Day
Okay, now fair play, here's an article via Tom Tomorrow which says that " a leading Jyllands-Posten editor rejected publication of satirical cartoons depicting Jesus Christ. "