Desiring Machine

This is a chilling news story about how Iraqi barbers face brutal intimidation by radical fundamentalists because they believe the barbers shouldn’t be shaving beards. The thuggery amazes me. And I am under no illusion of the grave threat these wackos present to society. It is because of this absurdist religious nonsense that the founding fathers so strongly believed in separation of church and state. Jefferson and his contemporaries understood quite clearly why it is important to not let this radical religious thinking take a foothold in society. This is why we on the left worry about the radical christian fundamentalist strains in our own society.

But after reading this news, the islamofascist nutjobs killing barbers seems to take the cake. And when they talk about car bombs I have more than a vague sense of the danger. Several years ago I missed a car bombing in Cape Town, South Africa by a few hours when I walked through a mall parking lot there. The bombing was reportedly attributed to radical islamic extremists who went on to do a series of other bombings in Cape Town while I was there. I will never forget the feeling of recognizing that had I simply been in the same place just a few hours later I might not be alive. This is one of the personal experiences that does tend to color one’s thinking. So I am under no delusions about islamic extremists, or IRA extremists, or anti-abortion extremists, or even your garden variety lone wolf nutjob.

The fight against these fundamentalists is not an easy one. And I deeply sympathize with the barbers. It must totally suck to live under that kind of daily threat and intimidation because some nutjobs have decided that they must take an absolutist stand on facial hair. Perhaps, and I don’t mean this flippantly, we should air drop gillette razors across the country to send these radicals a clear message that they cannot win.

But there needs to be an outcry and real action from the muslim community. They will need to take an aggressive stand against the intolerant elements of their religion. The Saudis should start right away in the dismantling of the wahabi sects and schools in their society. The Iranians should curtail the hate filled mullahs. The jews and Israelis should curb the militaristic elements of their society. And we could do well to brush back the fringe Christians in our society. People of good faith everywhere need to take a stand.

“Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.”

Who said these infamous, and vicious words? Why none other than Mr. “Straight Talk Express” himself John McCain.

For a long time I have been a little star struck by McCain. I was captivated by the story of how he was viciously sandbagged in South Carolina by team Rove, and the way Bush snarled at him in the 2000 debates after being called out on the Thomas Birch nonsense, had garnered my sympathy for McCain.

But this comment really does reveal something about McCain’s instincts and sense of taste. And I think poor taste is really a sign of poor judgement.

But this is the difference between the right and the left. The folks on the right don’t see anything wrong with making a little jab here or there attacking those they deem “beneath them”. Look at the way republican senate hopeful Mike McGavick goes after welfare recipients more or less assuming they are mostly drug addicts. His proposal to screen people for drugs may make sense in some policy context, but it is another kind of vicious and cynical politician to make it a major campaign pillar. And much of the world is well informed of the absurd racist speech of 2008 hopeful George Allen. And then there is the infamous and dismissive comments that Barbara Bush made about Katrina survivors. And there are countless other examples out there of prominent Republicans making downright vicious statements.

But you don’t find this kind of speech on the left among prominent democratic politicians. I am sure many vicious things have been said and alluded about the Bush daughters in the more fringe blogs and by hack comedians. And these comments are certainly as despicable as McCain’s comments about Chelsea Clinton. But the difference is that you would be hard pressed to find a democratic politician, much less a presidential hopeful make these kinds of comments.

The off handed slurs that easily seem to fall from the lips of too many Republicans really betray who they are at heart, a bunch of woman hating, gay bashing, blame the victim, piss on the poor, racist thugs. Strictly speaking this is not all Republicans. There are decent minded members of the party. But too many prominent leaders either let slip their true thinking or others through their complicit silence allow for the thuggery that affronts our nation today. Now that may seem harsh but I do believe in holding up public officials to a high moral standard. They may not be perfect individuals but whenever I see someone make a comment in really poor taste I immediately understand that ultimately it is a sign of poor judgement. It is not merely a matter of character but more importantly an indication of the inability to understand the point of view of others.

For the record McCain quickly apologized about his joke, and the press graciously covered it up for him. But his apology would never had been necessary if he had had the good sense to understand that the joke was inappropriate in the first place.

And it is so easy for people to bash the Clintons. But it is always refreshing to see the big dog defend his record on things that actually matter: