US politics – Page 7

Silly Palestinians, this isn’t about you

Published on July 31, 2012Leave a comment

So, presidental candidate Mitt Romney has been on a whirlwind foreign tour making incredibly stupid and offensive remarks, the latest of which blamed the Palestinian mentality for not doing as well as Israel, economy wise:

Palestinian leaders expressed offence and outrage at comments by Mitt Romney during his lightning visit to Israel, in which he said the Jewish state’s economic success compared with its Palestinian neighbours was due to “cultural” differences and the “hand of providence”, and declared Jerusalem to be “the capital of Israel”.

The presumptive Republican candidate in the the US presidential race told a $25,000-a-head (Â£16,000) fundraising event in Jerusalem: “As I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognise the power of at least culture and a few other things.”

He cited a climate of innovation, the Jewish history of thriving in adversity, and the “hand of providence”.

Anybody with even a casual grasp of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict knows how wrong or offensive this is, nor should his nominal Israeli audience be flattered by nonsense like this; they know the truth. But of course it’s neither aimed at them or the Palestinians: this is for the know-nothings at home, who know for sure Israel is the eternally innocent victim of Palestian malice, that if only the latter renounced their evil, antisemitic, terroristic ways and recognised Israel’s right to exist, they too could become wealthy. Even Romney himself knows that what he was saying was twaddle, but he forced himself to believe it because that’s what it takes to please the Republican base these days. You can’t get away with just mouthing the right shibboleths, you have to believe them.

Life expectancy for girls in the American south is deteriorating

Published on May 4, 2012Leave a comment

Life expectancy of girls born in 2009

â€œItâ€™s tragic that in a country as wealthy as the United States and with all the medical expertise we have that so many girls will live shorter lives than their mothers,â€ Mokdad said.

Coincidence that it’s in the heartlands of the American south that this development is the most pronounced?

Missing the forest for the trees

Published on May 1, 2012Leave a comment

Zunguzungu links to a hard luck story in the Marie Claire about an “accidental sex offender”. A nineteen year old boy who had sex with his 15 year old girlfriend, whose mother shopped him to the cops to “teach him a lesson”, which landed him on the Texas sex offenders register where he still is, fifteen years later, even though he’s now married to the same women and they have children together. It’s a tragic illustration of how sex offender registration laws can ruin the lives of people who were never supposed to end up on them, but whom political considerations keep on these registers — no politician up for re-election wants to be accused of being soft on rapists or pedophiles…

It’s a good argument against such registers: sex offender registration is for life, regardless of the severity of your crime and you can never get off it, except in very special circumstances. In effect sexual offenders are considered so dangerous that they have to be punished for life with all kinds of restrictions even when clearly they are not, something most other criminals do not have to deal with: a murderer can be rehabilitiated, a rapist cannot. Which is why sexual offender registers are quite likely doing more harm than good and should be abolished. You would think that the people in this case, being victims of this policy themselves, would understand. You’d be wrong:

Today, Nikki, 30, and Frank, 34, both say they unequivocally support laws that put sexual predators behind bars and protect children from attacks. “The registry isn’t a bad thing,” says Nikki. “It’s a good thing. It’s just that Frank shouldn’t be on it.”

Picard Riker double facepalm

The bullet next time

Published on March 28, 2012Leave a comment

Ajani Husbands sends a letter to his unborn, Black son:

You will not survive your encounter, so it is important to remember to show investigators, the courts, and critics alike that you were in fact the victim. This will be difficult as the assumption is ever-present that somehow, in some way, you did something wrong. That perhaps there was something different you could have, should have done. Perhaps you should have worn something different or walked in a less suspicious manner. I assure you, my son, this is not the case. Regardless of your actions, you were not meant to survive. All you can hope for is an easier postmortem investigation. This will be of some comfort to your mother and I as we cope through your loss, and so I ask you to follow these directions carefully.