Bullfrog
[2008-04-30 13:25]

I was gonna rant about the Jeremiah Wright controversy, but I'll condense it down to a few bullet points -- who doesn't love bullet points?

• 80/20 rule: about 80% of what the Rev Wright said in the original soundbytes (the ones about "God damn America" and "America's chickens are coming home to roost") seems valid; 20% of it was over-the-top. They really weren't as bad as people were out to make them (who hasn't cursed out our government at one point or another?). So, I understand why Obama had a hard time denouncing Wright altogether. No sense in throwing the baby out with the bathwater, you know. Wright's recent performances, however, were bizarre and, I think, deliberate attempts to gin up controversy.

• I don't have any evidence to believe that the US Government deliberately created HIV to attack African-Americans or gays. On the other hand, google "eugenics in America" or read/watch this 60-Minutes segment on the Fernald School, particularly the bit about the radioactive oatmeal that was fed to the kids. America isn't as squeaky clean as we'd like to think.

• Obama's speech on race was logical and accurate, I think, both in how it explains where Wright's anger comes from, and in explaining why that anger is not helpful in advancing race relations in America or the world. That speech proved to me that Obama understands the current race issues in America better than Rev. Wright. So, Obama's denunciation of those statements satisfied me that he doesn't share the same beliefs.

• Those folk who are out for Rev. Wright's blood have personal issues that they need to address if we are ever going to progress with race relations in America.

• Different people appear to have different ideas about what a pastor or reverend means to a parishioner. Based on what Obama said in his race speech, I think Obama has a healthy amount of skepticism when listening to the sermons in church. That is, he doesn't necessarily agree with everything his pastor says. On the other hand, those who make a big deal about Wright being Obama's pastor (I'm looking at you, Tim Russert) imply that they do believe everything their pastor says. That notion is far scarier to me than any of Rev. Wright's rants. I suspect that there are a lot of folk who follow their pastors blindly, but I don't think Obama is one of them.

• I am very disappointed in how the mainstream media has handled the whole Wright affair. Their misuse of the "throw under the bus" metaphor (by the pundits who claimed that Obama threw Wright under the bus, and vice versa) reveals how poor their comprehension is and/or how deliberate their attempts at sensationalizing the whole thing is. I am happy to have discovered that Newsweek has this blurb about that dumb metaphor, however. And yeah, I think throwing someone under the bus has jumped the shark.

Speaking of which, I stumbled across this comment on The Huffington Post:

The obvious seems always to escape you youngsters! Hillary espouses moderate liberal philosophies and holds sacred the traditional religious and proletariat morays and behavior memes's held and possessed by the great silent majority! That is the simple reason she is gaining ground!

Thems a lot of big words, but s/he misspelled mores. Still, I like the idea of proletariat morays, slaving away under the oppressive dire sharks in the Bourgeoise Sea. I also like stupid fat hobbitses and their behavior memes's.