Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

It looks like Chris Christie is going to get into the race, which means we are in for a lot of fat jokes. Ain’t nothing you can do about that, the man is fat.

I believe that brings the number of candidates on the Republican side to 14, which makes it very hard to predict who their eventual nominee will be. However, some of those 14 need to be taken more seriously than others. I don’t think Christie will get the nomination, but he has to be considered more seriously than, for instance, Santorum, or Fiorina, or Carson.
Which is strange. There was a time in American history, and not so long ago, when something like his George Washington Bridge stunt would have ended any politicians career.
Let us review: because he was pissed off at the mayor of Ft. Lee, Christie had fake road workers go out and close two lanes of the George Washington bridge one day – during rush hour. He inconvenienced hundreds, maybe thousands, of motorists. Some of them may have had emergencies, critical appointments, meetings, flights or deadlines that they missed because of it. Just because Chris Christie was mad at the mayor of Ft. Lee.
Howard Dean’s presidential ambitions were crushed because he let loose with an enthusiastic yell the press thought was very comical. Michael Dukakis lost because he looked kind of ridiculous in a tank, with a helmet. Ed Muskie got a bit teary eyed in a speech, because reporters had been seriously out of line attacking his wife. That was it for him.
Of course, it might be the IOKIYAAR (It’s O.K. if you are a Republican) factor But I think it’s also a different era. Once, politicians were held to very strict standards. Now, not so much.

p.s. my prediction is that the Republican nominee will be either Marco Rubio or George Pataki. I’ll give my reasons in a future column, if it looks like I’m going to turn out to be right.

Freedom of speech is one of the most important values a free society can have. In fact, without free speech, it’s not a free society. So, I think people should be able to hang the confederate flag in front of their own house, they should be able to wear it as a T-Shirt or have it as a beach blanket.
As John Oliver said, it helps the rest of us to identify the worst people in the world. He may have been overstating the case a bit. Those who display swastikas are worse.
I’m glad, though, that South Carolina has removed it from their statehouse grounds, and Alabama seems to be following suit. I am glad that Wal-Mart has agreed to stop selling Confederate flag merchandise, although I suspect that might just be temporary, and I’m glad Amazon did so, too, although it took a swift and voluminous public reaction to shame them into it.
Glad, but surprised. This seems too easy. Usually, the forces of the old guard put up a much stronger, bitterer, and stupider fight. What happened? Here are some of the possibilities.
A: The Republican opinion machine decided this was not a fight they could win, and spread the word to their internet minions to just let this one slide. After all, it’s not gun control, it’s not pharmaceuticals or pesticides, it’s not the prison industry.
B: This is just a tactical retreat. In a couple of weeks, after everybody’s forgotten about the Charleston church shooting, the flags will go back up and all the Southerners will crow “The South will rise again!” and claim there’s nothing racist at all about it.
C: A genuine attack of conscience. A lot of the people in the South are racist, but that doesn’t mean they would actually kill anybody. Maybe they were shocked that somebody did, and it was clear as day that ‘Southern Heritage’ was a big part of his mental make-up.

Call me naive if you like, but in this case I think it was actually C.

I was talking with a friend earlier this evening and the subject of Bernie Sanders came up, as we are both supporters, and he said “They’re nervous because they don’t have any scandal on him. They’ll probably just make something up.”

And they probably will. But it struck me, that as forthright as he’s been about his positions, we really know very little about his personal life, and that’s usually where the scandals arise.
So, I looked him up on Wikipedia. I was kind of surprised at the lack of detail. He grew up in Brooklyn. His father was an immigrant from Poland, a lot of whose family died in the Holocaust. His wife, Jane O’Meara Driscoll, was president of Burlington College. No more info on her. She uses her own last name, which is O.K., and it doesn’t sound terribly Jewish, which is also O.K.
Sanders has one child with Driscoll, and three step-children. He has a brother, Larry, who lives in England.
That’s about it. The entry focused – perhaps as it should – almost entirely on his political positions and his electoral record.
One thing that struck me about his electoral record: in all of the 3 public offices he has held (mayor of Burlington, congressman from Vermont, and Senator from Vermont), once elected, he would get re-elected and re-elected, sometimes by very large margins. That’s a sign that he does a good job.
And that’s what counts.

How important is a symbol? That’s a real question, I don’t know. I don’t think there is a specifically quantified, official, scientifically researched answer. And it certainly depends on the symbol. A lot of people wear crosses around their necks even

though they never set foot inside a church, and some people will wear a star of David or a Chai without being Jewish at all, just because it looks cool, but if somebody has a swastika tattooed on their arm, we can pretty much assume they are a Nazi.
Which brings us to the subject of tonight’s blog: The Confederate Flag. I am glad South Carolina has decided to take it down, if they for sure actually have. I’ll believe it when I see it.
It would be an admission that they have a race problem, and a small step (in fact, merely a symbolic step) towards fixing the problem. It would be better than leaving it up and, at this stage, the best thing we’re likely to get out of the situation.
D. Storm Roof has been arrested, charged, and will undoubtedly be found guilty of his crime. I don’t know if he’ll get the death penalty. I’m opposed to the death penalty, myself, but if they don’t give it to this guy they can’t, in good conscience, give it to anybody in the future unless they kill, on purpose and with premeditation, at least 9 people. If he doesn’t get at least life in prison, though, that will be a serious symbolic kick in the teeth to all of South Carolina’s black people. Far worse than the Stars and Bars.
It’s not likely that this crime will lead to more reasonable gun laws. Even Sandy Hook didn’t do that, so I really don’t know what will ever do that.
So, the removal of the flag from the South Carolina statehouse, and increased public awareness that it is symbolic of a deservedly failed ideology, is all we’re going to get out of this. But that is something.

A lot of people are arguing about whether or not Dylann Storm Roof is a terrorist, and whether or not his slaughter of 9 people inside a church should be considered an act of terrorism, or maybe a hate crime, or the work of a lone, deranged gunman.
I don’t think it makes a great deal of difference.
Oh, it might be useful in debating the issues. Precision of thought, range of opinions, no two cases are exactly the same, stuff like that.
But, as far as how Dylann Storm Roof is charged, and punished, it should make no difference at all. You are not allowed to kill people because you hate their race, or their religion. You are not allowed to kill people to further your political agenda – well, unless you’re the government, anyway. You are not allowed to kill people because you want to steal their money, or their car. You are not allowed to kill people for pay. You are not allowed to kill people if you are really, really pissed off at them. Even if you are pissed off at them for a good reason.
This is why I think hate crime laws, and anti-terrorist laws, are silly. Murder is already illegal, and motive does not matter. Which is as it should be. Once motive becomes a factor, once one kind of murder is deemed worse than another, then some kinds of murder become not so bad. And that is unacceptable.
Especially to the person who gets murdered.