"President Clinton's actions to have Kendrick Meek withdraw from the campaign sends a chilling signal to all voters, but especially African Americans. One can only imagine the response if Republican leadership tried to force out of the race – in the 11th hour – a qualified black candidate like Kendrick Meek."
"I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they're identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."
Reading Sebastian Junger's riveting book, War, at work about a combat unit in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. It's an intense work. The stories are so personal, you actually feel like you're getting to know some of the soldiers. The portrayal of combat is so visceral, you get nervous along with them. And, of course, you mourn their losses. It is such a good book, I highly recommend it to everyone. Of course, with a younger brother about to ship off to Afghanistan (after he's already survived Iraq) was just a fucking bad idea.
Today, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that German multiculturalism "utterly failed". Now, there are waaaayyyyyyy too obvious jokes we can make here ("Are we talking 1940 or 2010?" "Have you come up with a Final Solution yet, Angela?") that I'll refrain from making (oh, wait a second ...). I can deliver a whole bunch of rants about how Europeans love immigrants to lighten their load but not darken their doorsteps or, worse yet, their bloodstreams. I can go on and on about how fucked up race-baiting for votes is. I can even get smug and scoff about how this is just your colonialist past coming to bite you in the ass (though that wouldn't be too accurate in Germany's case--but when has being factually wrong stopped a blogger from ranting?).
Now look, I often say and/or write the wrong thing. I often even revel in my own irreverence. But, truth be told, I actually do believe in the mission of the "Politically Correct." I believe that language can indeed influence and betray thought. If someone constantly uses the word "fag" in "polite" conversation, we can pretty much surmise how they feel about homosexuals, and, if I constantly called white people "honky," you'd know I was a 60-year-old former Black radical who lives in Hawaii with his Norwegian wife, eating tofu barbecue while puffing on that patchouli."If someone breaks into my house, is that a new member of my family that night? It's not new Americans. [It's] illegals."
