Month: June 2010

A Closed Fist Or An Open Palm?

Marc Lynch and Kristen Lord warn:

If Obama genuinely believes in the urgent strategic imperative of rebuilding relations with the world's Muslim communities, he must quickly–and personally–address the ongoing blockade of Gaza and use the crisis as an opportunity to underscore the need for a peace process and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians. If he tries to ignore the issue or simply defend Israel's actions, then the first anniversary of the Cairo speech will also be its epitaph.

From the very beginning of Obama's election, it seems to me that the prime objective of the Israeli government – both Kadima and now Netanyahu – was to use Gaza to destroy the U.S.'s attempt to reach out to the Muslim world. This is a chance to fight back – for the sake of broader American interests.

Tribalism On The Right

Powerline's Scott Johnson attempts to deny the citizenship of the Turkish-American killed on the flotilla because "Scott Rasmussen published a poll this morning that found 58 percent of voters favor the abolition of birthright citizenship." Serwer counters:

The only constant moral principle in this brand of conservatism is tribalism. There is an "us" and a "them," and there are simply no rules protecting those deemed outside the tribe that those inside are obligated to follow or respect. 

O’Reilly’s Equivalence

Dan Savage is pissed at the Fox News host:

Because, you know, gay teenagers with schoolboy crushes on classmates and the kind of Islamic fundamentalism that inspires Islamic regimes to execute gay teenagers and Islamic immigrants to bash gays and lesbians in France—hey, pretty much the same thing.

I also have to take issue with that statement by the French McDonald's executive: "There's obviously no problem with homosexuality in France today." If that's the case… why isn't this insanely cute gay teenager out to his gruff-but-loving dad? If the ad had ended with the teenager saying, "Dad, there's something I have to tell you…" and then we saw Dad lean across the table as the camera pulled back to put a hand on his son's shoulder in a clearly supportive manner, well, maybe then you could argue that everything's wonderful for gays in France.

The YouTube remix was made before O'Reilly's Al Qaeda comment.  Original ad here.

The Conservatism Of Easy Rider

Jesse Walker remembers Dennis Hopper – an unorthodox Kansas Republican – and the film that made him famous:

A central theme of the western is the tension between the sometimes lonely freedom of the road and the sometimes suffocating security of the rooted community. Easy Rider took place in a modern western landscape, not in the days of the frontier, but it grappled with the same idea. J.F.X. Gillis has argued that the film is, despite its reputation, a deeply conservative movie with parallels to Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale.” In their stops along the road, Gillis argues, the protagonists “were given choices, opportunities to find meaning in their lives beyond that gas tank filled with money, beyond the pleasure of the brothel or the bottle, beyond the aimless wandering, meaning offered through spiritual commitment. Could there be a more conservative theme? The rancher and his family, the commune: first they were given a model of a meaningful life, then they were given an invitation to build that life. Invited to stay and join a family and find God, they refused.”

“If this narrative had been Medieval, could there be any doubt at all of the theme or the moral teaching intended?” Gillis asks. “Sinners wander the countryside on a secular quest, encountering God’s message but failing to acknowledge Him. They seek worldly pleasure at the expense of spiritual fulfillment, finding treasure and discussing it under a tree, only finally to die a horrid death by the wayside.” That might not match the popular understanding of the movie’s message, but it isn’t far from at least one of the filmmakers’ views. “My heroes are not right, they’re wrong,” Hopper’s co-writer and co-star Peter Fonda said. “Liberty’s become a whore, and we’re all taking the easy ride.”