Spinor Info

Republicans in the US are criticizing Obama for his hands-off approach concerning the events in Iran.

So here is my question: what, exactly, do Republicans want?

Do they want to help Iran? Because in that case, the best thing to do is to shut up. Twenty years ago another Republican, the elder President Bush, explained in an interview why he did not go to gloat and “dance on the top of the Berlin Wall”: because if anything, it would have just encouraged the ruling elites of the East Bloc to crack down instead of facilitating a largely peaceful transition to democracy. The same is true today: loud protests by Obama about election fraud and crackdowns in Iran would only help the ruling elite.

Do Republicans not realize this? I doubt that they are that dumb. But then, I have to conclude that they are just turning this, along with everything else, into a partisan issue. They couldn’t care less as to what happens in Teheran, so long as they can bash Obama.

Hmmm, there’s an even worse alternative. Perhaps they actually want the ruling elite in Teheran to stay in power. How else could they continue to demonize Iran, and Islam in general?

David Letterman finally apologized for the joke he made last week about Sarah Palin and her daughter, a joke that was clearly in bad taste.

When I first heard about Sarah Palin, just after it was announced that she would be the running mate of John McCain in 2008, I remember the disbelief that I felt. Whatever temporary insanity possessed the inhabitants of Alaska when they elected her (or is it just that we live in an era of political populism, be it the case of the once small town mayor now popular governor of Alaska or, say, the once Teheran mayor now popular president of Iran?) my immediate reaction when I saw governor Palin and her family on television was to wonder if I might have accidentally set on my remote and switched to The Jerry Springer Show without noticing. Everything about governor Palin: her mannerisms (including how she manages to include wannabe beauty queen phrases like “the great state of Alaska” into every second sentence she utters), her family life, the names she gave to her children… about the only thing missing from the picture was a fight on stage, to be broken up by security.

Now I don’t wish to fall into the same trap as Letterman… family members, especially underage family members of a politician are not fair game, not even for late night comics. Yet, if the Palin family accurately reflects “conservative family values”, then perhaps it is appropriate to question the validity of those values, and possible to do so without insulting unwitting members of the Palin family. On the other hand, if the Palin family does not accurately reflect conservative family values, then perhaps it is right to accuse conservatives of hypocrisy, again without ad hominem insults.

In his celebrated speech at Cairo University, Barack Obama’s main message was that we should focus on those things that unite us, not those that divide us. To quote, “It’s easier to start wars than to end them.  It’s easier to blame others than to look inward.  It’s easier to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share.  But we should choose the right path, not just the easy path.  There’s one rule that lies at the heart of every religion — that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.”

Unfortunately, many refuse to listen and instead, pursue their own extremist agendas. And this is not limited to followers of Al-Qaeda or the leaders of Iran. Self-appointed protectors of the West from Jihad also managed to pick apart Obama’s speech, ridiculing every sentence, responding to every request to find that which is common by rejection and calls for hatred.

Fortunately, members of this particular nuthouse no longer run the show in the White House.