Tuesday Open Thread
Welcome to your Tuesday open thread. Are you all watching the track of Hurricane Earl like I am? It could be a big factor in our Labor Day weekend weather.
An op-ed by Stanley Fish points out the general hypocrisy of the anti-mosque crowd. Haven’t we learned the lesson about collective guilt?
But according to the same folks who oppose the mosque because of what it stands for, Michael Enright’s act doesn’t stand for anything and is certainly not the product of what Time magazine calls a growing “American strain of Islamophobia.” Instead, The New York Post declares, the stabbing is “the act of a disturbed individual who is now in custody,” and across the fold of the page columnist Jonah Goldberg says that “one assault doesn’t a national trend make” and insists that “we shouldn’t let anyone suggest that this criminal reflects anybody but himself.”
The formula is simple and foolproof (although those who deploy it so facilely seem to think we are all fools): If the bad act is committed by a member of a group you wish to demonize, attribute it to a community or a religion and not to the individual. But if the bad act is committed by someone whose profile, interests and agendas are uncomfortably close to your own, detach the malefactor from everything that is going on or is in the air (he came from nowhere) and characterize him as a one-off, non-generalizable, sui generis phenomenon.
The only thing more breathtaking than the effrontery of the move is the ease with which so many fall in with it. I guess it’s because both those who perform it and those who eagerly consume it save themselves the trouble of serious thought.
Yes, this is what we’ve been saying. It seems so obvious that we didn’t think we actually had to point this out, but apparently we do. Not that it will stop the anti-mosque hysteria.
Finally, a win for the good guys. Rightwing nutcase AG Ken Cuccinelli is not allowed to go on a witchhunt against climate scientists. Since he’s in a court, he has to produce actual evidence.
An Albemarle County Circuit Court judge has set aside a subpoena issued by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to the University of Virginia seeking documents related to the work of climate scientist and former university professor Michael Mann.
Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. ruled that Cuccinelli can investigate whether fraud has occurred in university grants, as the attorney general had contended, but ruled that Cuccinelli’s subpoena failed to state a “reason to believe” that Mann had committed fraud.
…
According to Peatross, the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act, under which the civil investigative demand was issued, requires that the attorney general include an “objective basis” to believe that fraud has been committed. Peatross indicates that the attorney general must state the reason so that it can be reviewed by a court, which Cuccinelli failed to do.
Sometimes courts can do the right thing and act as a check on the power of politicians. I’m sure the RWNJs are already howling with outrage about this since Mann said mean things in an email once.
Tags: Open Thread
In case you missed this New Yorker article and are in the mood to have the beedoobers scared out of you, check out the Koch Brothers class war on Americans at . . .
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer
Are “beedoobers” the same as “Beejeebers?”
The skeptical environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg now thinks global warming is the world’s biggest issue and wants to spend $100B/yr fighting it.
Hurricane party in Rehoboth this weekend.
the drink? or the storm (with what i assume will also be the drink)
a.price – yes.
Understatement of the day – at the end of his FAUX News show on Sunday, Glenn Beck was asked if was going to run for President in 2012 with St. Sarah as his running mate. His response: “Not a chance. I don’t know what Sarah is doing. I hope to be on vacation,” Beck said, adding: “I don’t think that I would be electable.”
This is just moronic:
So Izzo’s campaign was googling her name or something and came across a dummy AP post. They then started trumpeting the news thinking this was a poll?
Governor Jan Brewer’s worst nightmare – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc9xq-TVyHI&feature=player_embedded.
Now we know the reason behind the anti-immigration bill in AZ.
UI,
That’s utterly priceless. She probably has a Google alert with her name on it.
Lisa Murkowski has conceded the Republican primary in Alaska to Joe Miller. Joe Miller might move into first place in the crazy Republican candidate category!
President Obomba tonight: “Yet no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security.”
Of course, no one could doubt that.
Killing our troops = supporting them
Destroying America’s economic and Constitutional foundations = love of country
9/11 = commitment to our security
What a republican sycophant Obomba has become.