New York Magazine has a long but fascinating item about the rapid downfall of Eliot Spitzer.
I had not realized he was on his way to becoming an honorary Kennedy. For all the psychobabble about how he could throw his career away on some hookers, could it well be the guy has much more deep-rooted problems heretofore unknown? Missing- Sailing, Drowning Women & Rape (ah, never mind)
Sure appears that way.
This part jumped off the page.
Yet even as his gubernatorial hand grew stronger, signs of personal trouble were growing harder to ignore. Did Spitzer even want to be governor? Every time things were looking good, hed screw himself. One longtime close associate says that Spitzers drinking increased significantly. He definitely drank a lot more, even from two years ago, the aide says, and much more than when he was A.G. Hes a Scotch drinker.
Scotch, Tasty, Don't see a problem yet
Spitzer, says a friend, has always been attracted to rough-around-the-edges types, dese-dem-dose kinds of guys. If Spitzer could never be an authentic, old-school neighborhood guy, at least his money could buy himself a taste of the edgy, subterranean life. For years Spitzer had been recklessin his foulmouthed conversation, in his contempt for his adversaries, in his use of the power hed been given as attorney general. But when he found himself thwarted as governor, Spitzers recklessness sloshed over into his personal life.
#5
Note that WWN now bills itself as "the world's only reliable newspaper."
This closely mirrors my own long-running Rantburg description, "the most trusted voice in major media."
This post is dedicated to Fred and all who appreciate Louise Brooks and all the other fine wimminz who grace the Rantburg DS&TP each day. Hat Tip to Oraculations, enjoy!
#7
Seems convenient if someone thought they saw you coming out of the brothel you can say you were really depressed and almost killed yourself but changed your mind at the last minute. Thus turning an inquisition into an attempt to lift your spirits.
#8
I don't know, rj. If my wife ever caught me coming out of a brothel, I would be well advised to check into the euthanasia clinic immediately. At least at the clinic my death would be quick and relatively painless.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
03/18/2008 13:06 Comments ||
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#9
Dr. Steve's comments about milk cartons comes to mind.
#11
My point is you deny you were in the brother, telling them you were at the euthanisia clinic instead and perhaps just couldn't find a parking space at the clinic because for some reason there are a lot of extra cars in the lot.
#12
My comment: if my wife cuaght me going into a brothel (or playing hide the pickel with a classy dame named 'Kristen' or 'Victoria'), the only thing you'd ever read about me ever again would be on a milk carton.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/18/2008 19:07 Comments ||
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#13
Steve, your wife should reconsider.
Leaving the bloody remains to be found might be considered a public service message LOL
#14
This is pretty odd for the Swiss, actually. I go there (Switzerland, not the brothel) once a year and I can assure you that the Swiss are about the least eccentric ethnicity in Europe.
There is something both poignant and galling about the candidacy of Barack Obama.
Any American, regardless of party or race, has to find it heartening that the country has reached the point where a black candidate for president of the United States sweeps so many primaries in states where the overwhelming majority of the population is white.
We have all seen the crowds enthralled by Barack Obamas rhetoric and theatrical style.
Many of his supporters put their money where their mouths were, so that this recently arrived senator received more millions of dollars in donations than candidates who have been far more visible on the national stage for far more years.
Thats the good news. The bad news is that Barack Obama has been leading as much of a double life as Eliot Spitzer.
While talking about bringing us together and deploring divisive actions, Senator Obama has for 20 years been a member of a church whose minister, Jeremiah Wright, has said that God Bless America should be replaced by God damn America among many other wild and even obscene denunciations of American society, including blanket racist attacks on whites.
Nor was this an isolated example. Fox News Channel has played tapes of various sermons of Jeremiah Wright, and says that it has tapes with hours more of the same.
Wrights actions matched his words. He went with Louis Farrakhan to Libya and Farrakhan received an award from his church.
Sean Hannity began reporting on Jeremiah Wright back in April of 2007. But the mainstream media saw no evil, heard no evil, and spoke no evil.
Now that the facts have come out in a number of places, and can no longer be suppressed, many in the media are trying to spin these facts out of existence.
Spin number one is that Jeremiah Wrights words were taken out of context. Like most people who use this escape hatch, those who say this do not explain what the words mean when taken in context.
In just what context does God damn America mean something different?
Spin number two is that Barack Obama says he didnt hear the particular things that Jeremiah Wright said that are now causing so much comment.
It wasnt just an isolated remark. Nor were the enthusiastic responses of the churchgoers something which suggests that this anti-American attitude was news to them or something that they didnt agree with.
If Barack Obama was not in church that particular day, he belonged to that church for 20 years. He made a donation of more than $20,000 to that church.
In all that time, he never had a clue as to what kind of man Jeremiah Wright was? Give me a break!
You cant be with someone for 20 years, call him your mentor, and not know about his racist and anti-American views.
Neither Barack Obama nor his media spinmeisters can put this story behind him with some facile election-year rhetoric. If Senator Obama wants to run with the rabbits and hunt with the hounds, then at least let the rabbits and the hounds know that.
The fact that Obama talks differently than Jeremiah Wright does not mean that his track record is different. Barack Obamas voting record in the Senate is perfectly consistent with the far-left ideology and the grievance culture, just as his wifes statement that she was never proud of her country before is consistent with that ideology.
Senator Barack Obamas political success thus far has been a blow for equality. But equality has its down side.
Equality means that a black demagogue who has been exposed as a phony deserves exactly the same treatment as a white demagogue who has been exposed as a phony.
We dont need a president of the United States who got to the White House by talking one way, voting a very different way in the Senate, and who for 20 years followed a man whose words and deeds contradict Obamas carefully crafted election-year image.
#1
Sowell is an absolutely brilliant man who is almost invariably right in his analyses. "The Vision of the Anointed" was a great book. He calls the race hucksters out on a regular basis, and generally does so with quietly expressed amusement. If you want an example of why America should be patting itself on the back for the tremendous improvement in racial perception that has taken place in the country, you need look no further than Thomas Sowell.
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isnt all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing Gods work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinitys services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
Continued on Page 49
#3
You don't have to - just believe that BO is the rosetta stone for all those crazy uncles you just are not bright enough to understand: Joe, Mao, Ho, Jeremiah.
Otherwise you just end up like me, scratching your head thinking, "Wow what a incoherant rambling of a speech."
#4
Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Take a deep breath, Abu. Count to ten. Calm down, now, before you have a stroke. He's just a politician and he can't win.
OK. OK. But how about this??
This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children.
How about the American kids in California whose school budgets are gonna be slashed because they spend so much money on illegal aliens? Watcha gonna do about that, Hussein? Huh? You frickin' hypocrite!!! What???
#5
Here, Abu Uluque, dear. A cup of chamomile tea with valerian will help with that calming down thing... and if not I imagine I can dig up some valium somewhere. ;-)
#6
Probably good enough for the socialists and University-profs-for-world-govt to bring out the Kool-aid again;
however, many of the mainstreet crowd and the soccer moms and the NASCAR dads and the suburban quietists will get the feeling that 'something isn't quite right here'
#7
Thanks, TW. But I think my real problem is this:
Ideally, with a two party democracy, the party that is not in power is supposed to challenge the party that is in power. They are supposed to keep the other party honest. They are supposed to ask questions and maintain an honest discussion about the issues that face the nation. They are supposed to be the loyal opposition. The Democrats have failed. Election after election they nominate these losers. And even when they elected Bill Clinton it stank. He disgraced himself, he disgraced our country and he buckled in the face of threats from the likes of Osama bin Laden.
Some staunch Republicans might think that's a good thing but it's not. The problem is that it frees up the Republicans to nominate people like John McCain who has some very real problems of his own. It makes the Republicans less honest than they should be. It fails to give voters a viable alternative when we are unhappy the likes of Bush and McCain. Republicans and Democrats wink at each other while they're doling out the pork.
Yes, I believe in the way Bush has handled Iraq and I guess I have to trust him on Iran and Pakistan because I'm sure he knows things about these places that I don't. But on illegal immigration and trade with China I'm pretty sure he's wrong and he's wrong for the wrong reasons and it's very worrisome to me. But I have no alternative. I certainly can't turn to Obama.
It makes me frustrated and angry. I could use some of your tea but I guess I'll just go back to work and forget it for awhile.
#8
I don't think that's going to feed the bulldog. The things I saw that guy say on video are fairly damning and If he wants to associate himself with that, he's sunk. Of course there isn't anything he could have said to make me vote for him anyway, so I guess he's no worse off in that respect. The nuts will still vote for him at any rate.
"Obama's speech said Black racism is OK. And if you criticize it your are a racist. And that he is the Messiah who will "fix" racist blue collar whites. And that, oh by the way, AmeriKKKa is racist.
I did not have spiritual relations with that pastor.
It was a botched sermon.
I have a nightmare
I dunno, just guessing, but whatever its going to be, after several days of being beaten up over that crazy old uncle and the God damn America white America thing, Obama wants to make a big speech about race and faith. He was up until nearly dawn yesterday writing it. I entirely dont get it. Everyone knows its not possible for blacks to be racists. Maybe were going to get a guilt trip and a lecture about how we need to cut blacks some slack about that, because black racism is historically different from white racism, blah blah blah. . . .
Id say a failure would be a disaster for Obamas campaign and for race relations in this country, unless it manages to underscore the fact that racism is a two-way street, and racism is not the answer to racism. More likely, if he ends up being sidelined at the convention or crashes and burns in the general, hell be seen to have been done in by vindictive conservatives and goddamned white America, which will come out of this smeared as the racists because Obamas crazy old uncle of a pastor is a bigot with a bad case of verbal diarrhea.
Heres someone who thinks black racism is different, and has to be overlooked for the loftier goal of electing a black man president. We are the change we have been waiting for and all that. (Mental note for future reference: Andrew Sullivan is an apologist for racism.)
I have a sneaking suspicion Obamas going to punt more or less along those lines. He is about hope and change, everything will be new and different in his promised land. . . . What Im not expecting is anything MLK-worthy. The one thing the civil rights movement tragically has not been about in the last 40 years is living up to these words:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/18/2008 08:12 ||
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If, as some folks are arguing, hanging with Uncle Jeremiah is simply the price of doing politics in black Chicago, that makes the Senator not the change you can believe in but just the same-old-same-old. And at least a sliver of the electorate will find it hard to accept that even the political realities of Illinois require a man to raise his daughters in a church led by a vulgar kook who makes humping motions from the pulpit when he discusses Bill and Monica. Jeremiah Wright is not most Americans' idea of a pastor, and the longer he's in the spotlight the more he distances Obama from the electorate. Accepting (as everyone assures us) that the candidate himself is not an Afrocentric liberation theologist who believes every crackpot conspiracy of the last 70 years, every other explanation as to why Barack Obama spent two decades in the company of a profane race-baiter leaves the Senator looking either weak or weird. If he can wriggle out of this tonight, he's some kind of genius.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/18/2008 08:07 ||
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#1
Never underestimate the power of a Lib to obfuscate forests for trees for toothpicks. You see, it's all about context! /snark-off/
#2
The libs are looking for cover, not a resolution. All they want is enough cover for indulgences not true repentance. Remember, for party faithful, it's about how you feel, not about truth.
#3
"and the longer he's in the spotlight the more he distances Obama from the electorate."
Saw a comment on another board yesterday that the pastor has been shipped out of the country -- possibly to Africa. This, along with Obama scrubbing his website of any mention of his "uncle" leads me to believe he is hoping...see no evil, hear no evil.
#4
Well Andrew Sullivan now loves Obama even more than before,
"...(from his Atlantic Monthly blog) this searing, nuanced, gut-wrenching, loyal, and deeply, deeply Christian speech is the most honest speech on race in America in my adult lifetime. It is a speech we have all been waiting for for a generation. Its ability to embrace both the legitimate fears and resentments of whites and the understandable anger and dashed hopes of many blacks was, in my view, unique in recent American history.
And it was a reflection of faith - deep, hopeful, transcending faith in the promises of the Gospels. And it was about America - its unique promise, its historic purpose, and our duty to take up the burden to perfect this union - today, in our time, in our way.
I have never felt more convinced that this man's candidacy - not this man, his candidacy - and what he can bring us to achieve - is an historic opportunity. This was a testing; and he did not merely pass it by uttering safe bromides. He addressed the intimate, painful love he has for an imperfect and sometimes embittered man. And how that love enables him to see that man's faults and pain as well as his promise. This is what my faith is about. It is what the Gospels are about. This is a candidate who does not merely speak as a Christian. He acts like a Christian..."
#2
Should have listened to Excalibur - ended up looking at the picture of fat algoret in that stupid trendy 'work shirt under a suit coat' gettup and called it done.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Obama referred to this when he asserted in a March 14 statement, "I knew Reverend Wright as someone who served this nation with honor as a United States Marine, as a respected biblical scholar, and as someone who taught or lectured at seminaries across the country, from Union Theological Seminary to the University of Chicago." But the fact the liberal academy condescends to sponsor black liberation theology does not make it less peculiar to mainstream American Christians. Obama wants to talk about what Wright is, rather than what he says. But that way lies apolitical quicksand.
Well, he served as a Marine. He can't be all bad.
Well B.O., I assume that what a man is and what he says should be about one and the same, otherwise there is a problem. So why don't we talk about what he says and then you can tell me how that equates to what he is. But first, please allow me to go get a couple hits of LSD so I can follow the logic.
#2
The Sweetness and Light blog proves that Trinity United altered their "mission statement" to cover their racist agenda. Wright claims Rev. Moss as his mentor; Moss was co-pastor with Martin Luther King, at Ebenezer Baptist Church. All at once: REPARATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#3
For those who don't know, Wright gave an award to Lewis Farakhan. According to the Nation of Islam leader, blacks are circling the globe in huge spaceships, filled with "TNT." When it is time, the space-blacks will end "5000 years of white rule," and initiate "5000 years of black leadership." Elijah Muhammad wrote that in the "Muhammad Speaks" tract.
#4
Liberation theology has always been nothing more than Marxism hiding behind a Bible. This is just an ethnocentric twist on that.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/18/2008 6:04 Comments ||
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#5
Man is fallen. Any religion that does not challenge you to transform yourself is no religion at all. Any theology that assures you that all your problems are someone else's fault is a false one.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/18/2008 8:06 Comments ||
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#6
Sorry guys, but who gives a damn what a theologian says. Liberation Theology is total hogwash. Has it worked anywhere in the world? Ever?
#9
Liberation theology has always been nothing more than Marxism hiding behind a Bible. This is just an ethnocentric twist on that.
Liberation theology swept Latin America with renegade Catholic priests and nuns aiding rebels in the 80's and look what we have reaped from the seeds that were sown.
About the Army, I learned that it can be a hard -- and hardening -- environment, but by and large the people in it are just people. They are not uniquely tough by nature, though they become so through training and preparation and habit. And their toughness is leavened with a deep sense of common humanity -- a basic unquestioning take-them-as-they-are compassion rarely found in the "softer" cosmopolitan world of ambition and sophistication from which I hail.
There are human beings in the Army!
My kid was the one who found lost dogs for other people, came from a well-off (but certainly not elite) household, and shocked his mother and me by joining the Marine Reserves in 2000. At summer camp in 2004, he volunteered to go to Iraq and drove trucks thru 'meadows of mines' in Anbar.
He's now about to finish college and is talking about law school. I doubt he'll be an ambulance chaser.
Based on his time in the military, I believe there is no more egalitarian (democratic, classless) organization in the world today.
I read Frank Schaeffer's book shortly after the kid went off to Boot Camp - Keeping Faith - and Schaeffer could not believe his elite son joined the Marines. He went on to write the book, "Keeping Faith-A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps" (which I highly recommend) and "AWOL-The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes From Military Service and How It Hurts Our Country." which I have not read, but guess I need to!
Still ... it was in the WaPo....
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/18/2008 6:31 Comments ||
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#3
Yeah, the upper classes are often shocked to find that the military isn't full of bloodthirsty thugs. This is nothing new.
#4
Based on his time in the military, I believe there is no more egalitarian (democratic, classless) organization in the world today.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
- Henry V, Act 4, Scene 3, W. Shakespeare
By Ghassan Karam,
Ibn Rushd (Averroes) is considered to be the founding father of what became known as secularism or what is known as laicite in France or the concept of separation of church and state in the US model. It is ironic that one of the greatest Moslem philosophers of the 12th century has left an indelible mark on what has become a fundamental inviolable principle of modernity and democracy but the concept of the separation of state and religion is no where to be found in the Arab World, not even in Lebanon.
Some might argue that it is not very judicious, when the very existence of the state is in peril, to devote precious time and energy to a seemingly less urgent issue such as the abolition of sectarianism. Obviously we beg to differ. We are of the opinion that a certain outcome is always predicated on the basic structure that underlies the system in question. Furthermore, tinkering with peripheral issues will not result in a radically different result unless the underlying architecture is changed. The human tendency to concentrate on finding a remedy for symptoms rather than addressing the root causes of an issue has not served us well. The best that can be expected from a remedy that avoids the pain associated with adjustments to a new set of fundamentally different paradigm is to whitewash the problems for a while and to slow down the speed at which the abyss is being approached. Yet the inevitability of the crash is still there. On the other hand a radical redesign that addresses the major shortcomings and flaws in the current architecture will deal with the real problem at its root and will provide for a meaningful relief based on sound foundations.
A seminal structural flaw in the current Lebanese political system is the insistence that sectarian affiliation is the main qualification to fill electoral positions as well as appointed ones. Unless one happens to have been born of a certain sectarian belief then many positions are automatically considered to be out of reach for that individual. That is discrimination at its worst. This system essentially places an obstacle that an individual has no way of compensating for and it is also important to add that this so called characteristic that prevents the many from being considered for certain jobs is not related by the furthest stretch of the imagination to ones ability to perform that job well. In fact religious affiliation is as unrelated to job performance as the applicant's color of eyes, the number of cavities in their molars or the make of car that they drive. The mere act of requesting an individual to reveal ones sectarian observances is best viewed as an intrusion on ones right to privacy.
A political system that is built on this flawed concept enshrines the notion of religious discrimination, robs the state of the most qualified for various posts, results in unjust and inefficient decisions and winds up in generating a legacy of tensions and recriminations between the members of the same community.
Luckily enough for us in Lebanon, an agreement has been reached15 years ago which stipulates the dire need to create a just and sustainable political system in Lebanon by eliminating sectarianism at all levels. Let us start by electing to the presidency the person that has a deep abiding belief in Lebanon as a sovereign, democratic and modern state, a person who has a platform to initiate and help implement policies that will encourage the promotion of economic prosperity, individual freedoms, social justice and environmental sustainability.
None of these attributes is the monopoly of one sect and thus there ought to be no sectarian restraint on who is qualified to seek that office. It is imperative to build the new Lebanon on solid foundations. Nothing is more basic than the removal of the criteria of sectarian affiliation for those that want to seek the Lebanese presidency. To have a list of female and male candidates that belong to all religious affiliations in Lebanon will be the best demonstration of our love and commitment to this state.
And since demography is destiny the strongest advocate of secularism ought to be the Maronite Church whose followers will be totally marginalized politically over the next seventy five years under the current sectarian system. By adopting secularism the Christians would be in the enviable position of "hitting two birds with one stone": transform Lebanon to a modern democratic state and yet protect the future prospects of their fellow believers. Major historic decisions are taken by the wise and the courageous, does Bkirki has these qualities. The survival of Lebanon may depend on its response.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 19:30 ||
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By Robert Fisk
Beirut - Khaled looked at me with a broad smile. He was almost laughing. At one point, when I told him that he should abandon all thoughts of being a suicide bomber - that he could influence more people in this world by becoming a journalist - he put his head back and shot me a grin, world-weary for a man in his teens.
"You have your mission," he said. "And I have mine." His sisters looked at him in awe. He was their hero, their amanuensis and their teacher, their representative and their soon-to-be-martyred brother. Yes, he was handsome, young - just 18 - he was dressed in a black Giorgio Armani T-shirt, a small, carefully trimmed Spanish conquistador's beard, gelled hair. And he was ready to immolate himself.
What may be most telling about Obama's predicament may be found in his reference to his white grandmother her fear of black men on the streets and her stereotypical remarks about blacks. He said he cringed, but I'm betting he did more than that. Those remarks had to cut deep. A young boy who looks different from his immediate family is going to have identity issues of much greater magnitude than your run-of-the-mill "Who Am I?" questions all adolescents usually ask. His narrative of self-discovery and self-identification as an African American in Chicago begins there and the subtext is that his own source of emotional nourishment was polluted by a prejudice that was aimed indirectly at him. His grandmother his surrogate mother at that point rejected the black man he was becoming. The anger Obama heard in Rev. Wright's church may not have felt so alien after all.
I think this may explain a lot.
Please note, I said "explain," not "excuse." There's no excuse for judging people by the color of their skin. There's also no excuse for race-baiting, conspiracy theories, and just generally setting out to make a living off racial tension.
Consider what sorts of rejections and prejudice the guys in the 332nd Fighter Group experienced. I'd wager it was much worse, on a daily basis, than anything Barak and Michele Obama ever see. Those guys had more genuine cause to damn America than Jeremiah Wright is capable of imagining. It is to their credit that they took a higher road.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/18/2008 12:57 ||
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#1
His maternal grandmother was there. His maternal grandfather was there. Neither his paternal grandparents nor his father were. This is worse than any discrimination he could have faced from society at large, IMHO.
#3
See also FREEREPUBLIC > OBAMA'S BROTHER IN CHINA, + OBAMA SAYS US CANNOT IGNORE RACE.
Wel-l-l, for one, according to my late father and other relatives, a famous overseas Chinese actress whom recently passed on was the half-sister of my paternal grandfather. She was also suppos the [adopted?]daughter of a high-ranking TAIWANESE KMT OFFICIAL whom fled mainland China when the Commies took over. She visited Guam when I was lot younger, to visit my father and his relations, and was only introduced to me as my grandfather's half-sister, etc. CHALK IT UP TO FAMILY-CLAN SECRETS = FAMILY SKELETONS.
* ANCESTRY.com > EIGHT PERSONS OF LAST NAME "MENDIOLA" SERVED IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY DURING THE AMER CIVIL WAR - WHOM KNEW THAT GUAM FIRED ON FORT SUMTER???
#4
On a separate note, my family suppos has links to international royalty and other elites, but thats another long and complicated story(s).
E.G. PARIS HILTON AND ANNA NICOLE ARE RELATIONS TO ME, BUT DO THEY THEMSELVES KNOW OF THEIR
"TAIWAN/ASIA-PACIFIC CONNECTION"???
This line in Obama's speech didn't jump out at me, but it's rubbing some readers the wrong way:
I can no more disown [Reverend Wright] than I can my white grandmother a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
As one reader puts it, "Fair enough, but it certainly sounds like he is creating a moral equivalence between a grandmother, who he did not choose and he was blessed to have in his life, and a pastor who he sought out, who he felt some sort of spiritual inspiration from, and who he does not share any bloodlines with... The idea that his grandmother expressing fear of black men is in any way equivalent or should even be mentioned in the same context as Jeremiah Wright's racial diatribes is utterly ridiculous. I doubt if his grandmother ever got up in church on Sunday and loudly proclaimed her personal reservations about black men, nor did she blame them for all of her people's troubles."
As I type this, one of the lines on the bottom of the screen on CNN is "Obama: Can no more denounce Wright than his own grandmother."
ANOTHER UPDATE: Another reader noted, "The grandmother's comments happened long ago. Wright's hateful speech is recent. The two are not comparable."
Posted by: Mike ||
03/18/2008 12:52 ||
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#1
I knew she'd show up eventually. Another card for him to play when he needed to.
#3
Cripes, I read a piece by Jesse Jackson once where he confessed his relief when he turned to see that the person following him on the street at night was white and not black. I think Grandma may have been saying the same thing. And if a lot more people stated this obvious fact, perhaps we could collectively demand a code of conduct from our young people, black, white, hispanic, whatever, that we seemingly are unable to demand today.
#6
Jesus, you need to read the whole speech and find out what he was really talking about, it was a pretty realistic view of the racial anger on both sides, white and black. You guys seem way off, but I guess you're just looking at some snippers and commentary.
Normally I agree with comments here, but I definitely can tell tonight is anti-Obama night with 6+ articles attacking him on his speech.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
