Leonard Pitts looks at another week in the ongoing conflict that defines our age: the clash between Fox and reason.
No it was not the most excruciating thing ever seen on television. We’ve seen worse.
We’ve seen Roseanne singing the national anthem, Magic Johnson hosting a talk show and Paris Hilton, existing. But if it’s not number one on that list of god-awful TV, author Reza Aslan’s recent interview with Fox “News” is surely in the top 10.
Google it if you haven’t seen it. Or just ask some woman to rake her fingernails down a chalkboard for 10 minutes. Same difference.
Over and over again, speaking in the honeyed, patient tone you’d use to instruct a slow child, Aslan answers the question that has been put to him by reciting his bona fides. He is a historian. He is an expert on the New Testament. He is fluent in Biblical Greek. He holds four degrees. He has spent 20 years researching the origins of Christianity. The study of religion is his job.
And over and over again, doing her best imitation of Mike Wallace pinning miscreants to the wall (if Mike Wallace had shilled for a company of rightwing propagandists playacting at journalism) Lauren Green keeps bringing him back to what she regards as the central issue: “You’re a Muslim,” she informs him, “so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?”
Clearly, you have to be a member of a religion to have any opinion or insight into that religion, which is why Fox never lets non-Muslims comment about that religion. No? Well, come on inside, let's talk about it.
Ross Douthat stops just short of calling Fox's attacks on Reza Aslan justified. Instead, he says Fox did Aslan a favor.
...Lauren Green, asking Aslan to explain why a Muslim would write a book about Jesus — with Aslan coolly emphasizing his credentials and the non-Islamic nature of his argument — and then with Green asking variations on the Muslim question, to increasing offense and diminishing returns.
The video quickly went viral, turning Aslan into a culture-war icon, a martyr to Fox’s biases ... and soon enough (as these things tend to go) a martyr with a No. 1 best seller.
See, accusing an author of religious prejudice is good for him! Aslan should be thanking Fox for the boost. Which would be easier to take if Aslan's book was not already on the best seller list before the Fox interview, which it was, and Aslan not already making appearances on many shows with a bigger audience than Green's, which he was. But hey, Douthat has an alternative reading suggestion.
...the theologian David Bentley Hart’s “Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies.”
But... wait a second, Ross. Why would a Christian want to write a book about atheists? I'll just stand over here and wait for Hart to thank me for that boost.
The New York Times hopes Congress is getting an earful about immigration at home.
The House leadership has rejected the Senate bill, saying it will instead move slowly on “piecemeal” measures. That means things like border fencing and visas for farmworkers, but nothing to allow 11 million unauthorized immigrants to become American citizens — a pillar of the Senate’s bipartisan compromise. “Compromise” and “path to citizenship” remain dirty words to Republicans like Representative Steve King of Iowa, who has likened immigrants to dogs and livestock. He has recently taken to calling them mules — drug runners, that is, with “calves the size of cantaloupes” from lugging marijuana bales over the border.
Dysfunction, inaction, demeaning blather — is this any time to be optimistic about immigration reform?
It could be. Because with Congress now out on vacation for five weeks, when it can’t do anything awful, it is the people’s turn to push, to be heard and, if at all possible, to move Congress in the right direction. To that end, an amazing array of determined advocates from all corners of the country has plunged into a month of protests, rallies, vigils, town-hall meetings, phone-calling and canvassing, focusing on Republicans in their home districts.
Actually, considering the
kind of discussions GOP congressfolk have back home, I wouldn't be too hopeful.
Dana Milbank looks at the Republican effort to paint Obama as, hmm, a fiscal conservative?
Ryan, in his brief commentary, protested that Obama is “interested in tax reform for corporations — but not for families or small business.” He further accused Obama of implementing health-care and regulatory policies that favor big businesses and big banks.
That’s rich.
Ryan, after all, is the guy who just a year ago accused Obama of “sowing social unrest and class resentment,” of supporting “a government-run economy” and of “denigrating people who are successful.” He has charged the president with leading the nation toward “a cradle-to-grave, European-style social welfare state.”
Hey,, being a Tea Party Republican demands flexibility... and being utterly shameless.
Kathleen Parker manages to demonstrate how it's done.
...Congress went home without doing much of anything.
As everyone knows, Republicans are to blame. They are the obstructionists, the just-say-no enemies of women, immigrants, health care for the poor, shoes for the born and equality for gay whales, to mention a few.
This “narrative,” as they say, is pure propaganda. President Obama achieved huge legislative victories (Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, bailouts, two Supreme Court appointments) when he had hefty majorities in Congress. Once those margins were lost or reduced in the 2010 election, the president’s focus shifted to scoring political points by shouting, “Obstruction!”
See, the entire media is so in love with Obama hat they never blame anything on him and completely ignore the hard work and oh-so-moderate nature of the GOP lead House. Got it! Now...
Today, as time would have it, McCain is Mr. Establishment. He not only lunches with the enemy but dines with the president. Isn’t this how life goes? Teenagers eventually grow up and become their parents. McCain is the GOP grandpa swatting at ankle-biting upstarts such as fellow Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.
They are the new, out-of-the-box mavericks. And the squabbles that threaten to shut down the government come Oct. 1 may be part of a larger generational struggle to redefine the party. Suicide isn’t as catchy as “Winning!” — but, as Rush Limbaugh has suggested, at least it’s a stand.
Cruz and Paul are the new face of Republicans, backed up by a quote from Limbaugh. Now, won't Democrats get busy compromising with that?
Carl Hiassen follows Snowden's convoluted road to liberty.
Sweet freedom, at last!
I thought I’d never get out of that crummy terminal. After a month of gagging on Cinnabon fumes, even this sooty Moscow air smells like daisies.
...
The Russians have generously given me a Wi-Fi chip and free Internet, so I can go online anytime I want and see what the world is saying about me. A recurring theme in many blogs and chat rooms seems to be: What was that kid thinking?
First of all, I believe with all my heart that Americans have the right to know about the far-reaching surveillance tactics employed by our government to monitor its own citizens. I also believe I’ve restarted an important debate about national security and privacy.
Could I have handled this whole thing differently? Sure. In retrospect, there’s definitely something to be said for anonymity.
But, hey, cut me some slack. I’m only 29 and this was my first time leaking classified intelligence data.
Doyle MacManus. looks at the same information Parker discussed, but draws a different conclusion.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has emerged as Obama's chief partner in trying to negotiate bipartisan deals, praised [the proposed tie between road funding and corporate tax cuts] as "a good start." Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate Republican leader, denounced it as a trick to boost government spending. Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a leader of the up-and-coming tea party faction, said Republicans should stop talking about any deals and threaten to shut down the federal government instead.
And that was only in the Senate. In the House, where Republicans run the chamber, the chaos was even worse. When House leaders tried to pass exactly the sort of deep cuts in transportation and housing programs they've been calling for, they suddenly discovered that they didn't have a majority; some GOP members thought the cuts were too deep, and others thought they weren't deep enough.
How divided are Republicans in Congress? So divided, one conservative joked, that it shouldn't be called a civil war: "It's not organized enough for that."
Wait, Republicans can't fight a new Civil War, at least not until they stop re-fighting the first one.
Oliver Dessibourg looks at how shipping companies are already readying new technology to tackle the thawing Arctic.
The clank of hammers, the grind of machinery and the crackle of welding torches echo in a seemingly endless shed at the Arctech Helsinki shipyard in Finland.
Since June, about 200 workers have been assembling the skeleton of the Baltika, the first of a new breed of ice-breaking ship designed to cut a wide path through Arctic ice with its asymmetric hull. On completion early next year, Baltika will enter service under the Russian flag, clearing the way for large ships bound for ports like St Petersburg in the Gulf of Finland.
Baltika will be in the vanguard of global shipping's rush into the Arctic. Thinning ice is already luring vessels to the waters off Russia's northern coast, which offer a shorter route from Europe to Asia than the typical passage through the Suez Canal. In 2012, 46 ships were granted passage by Russia's Northern Sea Route Administration. This year, the number is already over 250.