Take a good look: This is the right

Not everyone whose political beliefs fall somewhere on the right side of the spectrum are racist, ignorant, violent people. But unless and until the smart, sane, and humane folks on the right stand up and speak out, this is the face of their movement. The pictures here come from a collection of similar beauties. Please take a look at these horrifying pictures from the DC this weekend and pass them on.

And do not think for a moment that this will simply go away. Ignoring hate and violence has NEVER resulted in it disappearing.

Special thanks to Tim Wise for the heads-up on these pics. And more broadly, thanks to Tim for being an articulate, intelligent voice trying to draw attention to dire state of affairs related to our collective social consciousness, or more appropriately the lack thereof.

And check out Tim's latest appearance on CNN yesterday. Reacting to this segment and the several others Tim has done recently, today Lou Dobbs called Tim a "self-loathing creep." Responding to this comment, one that he takes as a compliment, Tim said, "Once again, to say that a white person condemning white racism is 'self-loathing' is like saying the very essence of being white is to BE a racist: that loving oneself as a white person requires endorsing white racism. Wow, Lou apparently doesn't think very much of white people...ironic, dontcha' think."

Religion, lovely religion

Been slacking on the posting, so thought I'd post something to feel better about myself. Seems sort of redundant to say that, as having a blog is presumably all about engaging in activities in the general realm feeling better about yourself.

Nevertheless, working on a post that, like all my other posts, is much longer than I anticipated. I'm such a long-winded gasbag. Anyway, I wanted to draw attention to a couple items in the media from the past couple days that caught my eye.

First is a great piece in yesterday's (Sept 13) NY Times Sunday Magazine on the advocacy/activist/lobbying group J-Street. J-Street is pro-Israel group that acts as an alternative to AIPAC and other such hawkish, neo-con, anti-Palestinian/Arab/Muslim groups. As Founder & Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami said in the piece

We’re trying to redefine what it means to be pro-Israel. You don’t have to be noncritical. You don’t have to adopt the party line. It’s not, 'Israel, right or wrong.'

You should check out the piece and contribute to the work J-Street is doing.

The second piece is from Friday's online version of the Daily Telegraph. The piece discusses the difficulties a British film about Charles Darwin is having finding a distributor in the US because folks in the film industry think the subject is too controversial. In other words, the US is too religious and conservative to understand and appreciate a film about a man whose scientific discoveries came at a time after a profound crisis of faith. Or, and perhaps more to the point, too many Americans believe in magic, people returning from the dead, giant boats that housed two of every animal, and talking shrubbery (ie are dumb as shit) to even see a movie that may question their beliefs.

And you thought the tea party dumbasses were an aberration? Come on now.