Bob Lord Posted by Bob Lord I'm a little late to the party with this one, but it looks like none of my BfAZ posted on it either. Apparently, two our freshmen reps, Ron Barber and Kyrsten Sinema, in their infinite wisdom, have joined the Blue Dog caucus in the house. It's just a tiny little itty bitty caucus … Read more
Posted by Bob Lord I received a little pushback on Debate on Snowden Over, So Why No Pardon? My only suggestion to those who don't see it my way is to check out Chris Hedges post today, What Obama Really Meant Was… The post, written as if Obama is the writer, is long, but awesome. It's … Read more
Posted by Bob Lord
This may be a long one. I recently finished two lengthy books on Israel-Palestine, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, by Ari Shavit, and Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, by Max Blumenthal. In addition, I had an interesting exchange of emails with a Jewish friend who is a self-proclaimed moderate.
I've posted previously on Goliath. It's a masterpiece. Is it one-sided? Absolutely, as it was intended to be. But the case it makes is compelling. Many in the "Israel can do no wrong" community are demonizing Blumenthal, but the great majority have not read the book. Nor will they. As Larry Gross of Truthdig so aptly noted, Goliath contains many inconvenient truths. Actually, the better term may be "uncomfortable truths."
My "moderate" friend provides a great example on that front. He'd read a negative review of Goliath and emailed it to me for my thoughts. I emailed back Larry Gross' review, and suggested that he should have the intellectual curiosity to read Goliath himself and form his own conclusions. His response was that he didn't have time to read many books, so he only could read one on Israel-Palestine, and that would be Shavit's My Promised Land, because it was reported to be balanced. He didn't take kindly to my teasing him about his fearing inconvenient truths, but his explanation regarding his limited capacity to read brought to mind that old expression, "the lady doth protest too much."
More on my email exchange later, but let me turn to My Promised Land. Please join me after the jump.
Posted by Bob Lord From today's lead NY Times editorial: In the days after Edward Snowden revealed that the United States government was collecting vast amounts of Americans’ data — phone records and other personal information — in the name of national security, President Obama defended the data sweep and said the American people should … Read more
Posted by Bob Lord
So, how would I describe the latest right-wing email I received? In a word: Adorable. Adorable in the way a pre-teen discovering and clumsily experimenting with sarcasm is adorable. Check it out:
The administration has passed a new law titled: "The Affordable Golf Club Act" declaring that every citizen must purchase a new set of golf clubs, before April 2014.
This law has been passed, because until now, typically only the wealthy or financially responsible have been able to purchase new golf clubs without the assistance of their government.
This new law ensures that every American can now have "affordable" golf clubs of their own, because everyone is equally entitled to new golf clubs. And if you want to keep the golf clubs you already have, you can do that, until April 2014.