On Arresting Scholars in their Own Homes

Once upon a time I was outside my first floor apartment trying to clear some gunk out of the window sill - this one window had been shut for so long and I wanted to get some natural air into the room. I was out there with a small knife for a while, trying to remove all this sealant crap, when I noticed that weird feeling; that tingly feeling like you're being watched, you know? I turned toward the parking area and, sure enough, some well intentioned neighbor had called the cops on me. Uh, oh. Well, I just went about what I was doing. They saw me see them.

After a while of watching me and my pathetic non handyman ways, they ... just ... left. Not a word. No questioning me about my suspicious activities. No tasering. Nothing.

I guess that's what happens in America when you're not a respected University scholar. You can look suspicious, look as though you're breaking into your own home, and the cops just ...leave you alone! Good thing I never really aspired to scholar-hood. They'd have arrested me, for sure.

Side note: When the President says that police acted stupidly for arresting a black man in his own home, because a neighbor suspected he was a thief - that doesn't mean the President thinks all cops are stupid. It doesn't even mean that the President thinks the particular cops who arrested Professor Gates in his own home were stupid. It means, in this isolated incident, they acted stupidly. Is that so hard to understand?

I guess it is - for some of my fellow non-scholars.

Off the Reservation: Pat Buchanan vs. John McCain

John McCain says something perfectly reasonable in regards to Sonia Sotomayer; implying that she's not at all the monster that some on the rabid-right have made her out to be. The media speculates: "Has John McCain gone off the reservation!?" ~ implying that if McCain says something 'out of line', not in agreement with the Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh crowd, he's somehow less of a Republican.

Meanwhile, about 8 days later, Pat Buchanan, while guesting on the Rachel Maddow show, suggests that America was built by white males and therefore white males have deserved to be the bulk of the Supreme Court ever since the Court's founding.

Where's the outcry about "good old Uncle Pat"? Sure, a lot of Democrats and Liberals are outraged. But why aren't the people who feign umbrage when John McCain says something calm and reasonable calling for Pat Buchanan's head when he says something so asinine, so moronic, so hideous? Why is it the Republican Party allows for someone like Buchanan to be a complete racist, never suggesting for a minute that he's "off the reservation" or out of step with mainstream Republican ideas?

I do have a theory.

The Sotomayer Hearings

You'd think I'd be blogging more. The Sonia Sotomayer confirmation hearings would probably be my big topic - if I was at all interested in the process. I'm not, really. But it's really cool to see Al Franken in the Senate - finally. It's wonderful that a Latin female is going to sit on the Supreme Court. Though, I'm way ahead of you. I'd personally like to see a couple of Rastafarians, an Asian Tranny and at least one American Indian up there.

The only angle I can think to write about is how much she was attacked from the right, even though she has no real record of being a leftist or a Liberal. And I wonder if there's manipulation going on. Does the right now get the left so worked up defending someone they really don't have a problem with in the first place? I mean, is it a part of their "strategery" (as GWB would put it)? She was appointed to a post by George Herbert Walker Bush, of all people, who says that the attacks by "some people" (he doesn't mention they're his own friends, like Rush Limbaugh) have been unfair. It's interesting to me that the Left has been so busy defending her from ridiculous attacks by those very same "some people" on the Right - that the conversation from the Left never managed to be about if she'd be a Progressive or mainstream or Conservative. My guess is she will be very mainstream and agree with the Conservatives in the Supreme Court more often than the Liberals - if you can call them Liberal.

Liberal these days seems to mean: anyone who doesn't agree with Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. And other "some people". What? John McCain said something positive about Sotomayer? He's off the reservation! A Liberal sympathizer! And the Left is dragged even further to the Right to the point where there's only a few Liberals in public office, in any branch of Government.

The Family: Fundamentalist Cult in D.C. with Undo Influence on Congress

I'm pretty sure there was once a guy named Charles Manson who called his little cult "the family". That might be a red flag, you know? If you're looking to join a church (or a house church you can live at) and they refer to themselves as "the family" - yeah, I'd stay clear.

I'm hoping a more mellow church can have some influence over Congress in the near future. Unity? The Unitarian Universalists? Something's got to give. Why should hardcore fundamentalists, drunk with images of power and might, be the only people allowed to influence our leaders in D.C.? Give me someone who believed, like Thomas Jefferson, in the principles of The Sermon on the Mount any day.

Side note: Any church caught on video advocating for one party over another should not be tax exempt. Left or right. Either way. That's not to say a religious person or even a minister can't have a party affiliation but when you're speaking from the pulpit (or a stage in front of your own church members) you have to abide by certain standards in order to keep your tax exempt status. Shouldn't that be obvious?

I'm wondering if I should move to D.C. in hopes of deprogramming Congressmen who have fallen victim to these fundamentalist cults. Hey, I'm available for consultation if anyone up there in Washington needs me.

Tech Problems seem to be Over for Now

Will get back to more serious blogation in a few days. I missed blogging the Sarah Palin resignation. I wanted to mention that even though, yes, her speech was a rambling mess - chock full of self-victimization references - she made one point that seemed right on the money: she is passing the ball so her team can win. She knows the GOP can't win anything if she's the leader of the party so she's passing the ball to someone else. Romney? Likely. I'm no fan of Palins but she certainly does seem to know that she's a liability to her team.

Off Due to Tech Problems but Congratulations AL FRANKEN (FINALLY)

OK, I really, really wanted to include a pic of myself here with the finally newly crowned Senator from Minnesota, Mr. Al Franken (!!!) but my mac mini has given up the ghost. My pix are safe in another contraption but I can't access them at the moment so I'll just say congratulations to one of my favorite people for making the transition from comic to political pundit to Senator. What an amazing life Franken has led. I've seen him perform live on 3 occasions and was able to shake his hand once. Minnesota is lucky to have him. I wish him all the best.