The Embarrassment of Not Getting the Joke
Poor
Desiree Cooper of the Detroit Free Press didn't get the joke. Cooper is quite upset that the normally erudite New Yorker magazine didn't fall for Mr. and Mrs. Obama's sanitizing of their image, even though they went through all that trouble of dragging their children into the public eye, using them as campaign fodder, in order to make them seem like the all-American middle class family. For as she says,
Only two weeks ago, the Obamas gave an interview with their two young daughters to help America see them as a typical family.
and
His wife -- who was a recent hit on "The View" wearing a chic summertime frock.
Those are the official party-approved images of the Obamas that we're supposed to keep in our heads, at the risk of being called "racist". They look like regular folks, so they must be just like the rest of us. What woman in the world could possibly be objectionable who is wearing a "chic summertime frock"? We're supposed to forget that Obama has
surrounded himself with domestic terrorists, racists, criminals, and various America haters. Not only are they his friends, but they are his advisers, both political and spiritual. Don't we all have people like that among our associates?
But this anti-Obama sentiment is wrong and hateful. And we're not supposed to be disturbed by the fact that a man who wants to become President of the United States doesn't seem to like the United States very much. We have to ignore that though because,
Our country has not yet come to grips with the aftermath of 9/11, our shameful backlash against Muslims, the violation of human and constitutional rights of many probable innocents at Guantanamo Bay, the death of thousands of American troops in an ill-conceived war, and, of course, our long-term dysfunction about race. To heap all of those fears and stereotypes upon the Obamas and call it satire misses a critical step.
Actually, Cooper misses a critical step; removing herself from her fantasy world where Americans are the bad guys and Muslims who are murdering people all over the world are victims of American imperialism, colonialism, etc. Cooper doesn't seem to care much for the U.S. either. She needs to open her eyes to what's really happening in the world and open her mind to the vicious immorality inherent in the jihadist mindset of Islam. They are the ones refusing to live in peace with the rest of the world, and that's been their position for the past 1300 years. But according to Cooper,
The added insult here is the collateral damage done to Muslims. People are upset over how the Obamas have been depicted, but not about how Muslims are once again shown as extremists and terrorists. Instead of shedding light on the religiously biased, xenophobic, racist thinking that persists in America, the New Yorker has served only to reinforce the worst of our irrational thoughts about who the Obamas are, what it means to be Muslim and what will happen if Barack Obama wins the White House.
In light of the over
11,000 terror attacks that have taken place since 9/11, the determination of Muslims all over the world to destroy Israel - because it is a Jewish country, and the changes happening in Europe due to growing Muslims minorities, it's quite rational to be wary of Muslims and Muslim organizations.
And then there's
Leonard Pitts. He recognizes the New Yorker cover as satire, but it's those others who don't.
So, as absurd, as over the top, as utterly outlandish as the New Yorker image strikes the more sophisticated among us, there is a large fringe out there for whom it will represent nothing more or less than the sum of their fears.
Indeed, as I sat down to write these words, there beeped into my mailbox an e-mail with this subject line: "WOW, the New Yorker got it exactly right, for once." Said without a trace of irony.
But increasingly, that's who we are in this country: ignorant, irony-impaired and petrified. So maybe we should just cancel the campaign and ask that the last intelligent person turn off the lights when he or she leaves. And bring the last book with you. Nobody here will need it.
See, even though the Left has been foaming at the mouth over this cartoon, Pitts knows that it's really conservatives who are so humor impaired that they don't get the joke. Thanks for the clarification.
Michelle Malkin has reprinted some cartoons that probably didn't offend Desiree Cooper or anybody else on the left for that matter.
Labels: cartoons, Desiree Cooper, Detroit Free Press, Leonard Pitts, Michelle Malkin, New Yorker, Obama
If a Gay Man Dies, Is it a Hate Crime?
According to this Detroit Free Press
article,
As the story went, Andrew Anthos was beaten to death in February for simply being gay.
But it was arthritis -- not hatred -- that ultimately led to the death of the 72-year-old Detroiter, the Wayne County medical examiner told the Free Press on Wednesday.
The Detroit Police Department said it has accepted that Anthos died of natural causes and closed its investigation, saying no witnesses have been found to confirm a beating.
However,
It is a decision that has surprised and upset his family and a growing list of gay-rights advocates and politicians who cited his death to promote the prosecution of hate crimes based on sexual orientation.
"That sickens me," said Athena Fedenis, the dead man's cousin and the person who widely promoted the account that Anthos was taunted and beaten by an assailant with a pipe. It is an account she said she heard directly from her cousin as he lay dying in a Detroit hospital. "They're going to say it didn't happen?'
because,
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, implicated religious conservatives soon after the death.
"The hatred and loathing that led to the vicious murder of Andrew Anthos only because he was gay is not innate," Foreman said in a statement. "Instead it is being taught every day by leaders of the so-called Christian right and their political allies."
Bummer for Mr. Foreman. Reality doesn't fit his twisted world veiw in which those accursed right wing Christians spend their days arguing about the best way to
execute gay men. I have to wonder if Mr. Forman sees the death of every homosexual as a right wing inspired plot.
According to doctors,
Wayne County Medical Examiner Dr. Carl Schmidt said Anthos succumbed to a degenerative condition, known as spinal stenosis, that developed and worsened over many years.
Schmidt said that his condition, which narrows the spine and compresses the spinal cord and nerves, caused him to suddenly lose the use of his legs that night and fall. Following surgery, the paralysis spread through his body, ultimately resulting in respiratory failure.
Schmidt said his examination of Anthos did not support the widely reported accounts that Anthos was attacked outside his Detroit apartment after leaving a city bus. Police said they could not find evidence that a pipe-wielding assailant shouted antigay slurs.
and
it was likely a simple movement, not a whack on the head, that felled the man, Schmidt said.
"He probably just flexed his neck," which caused arthritic spurs to compress his spinal cord enough to cause paralysis of his legs. After spinal surgery in the hospital, that numbness later spread to his upper body and caused Anthos to stop breathing, Schmidt said.
The only injury noted in the autopsy was a 2-inch-wide bruise on the back of Anthos' head, which likely came when he fell, Schmidt said. The injury was minor, he said.
A CT scan "of his head disclosed no skull fracture, no injury to the brain, no bleeding to the brain," Schmidt said.
But who are you going to believe, an experienced doctor, or your own ideology of victimhood?
Also twisting the story, but in her own subtle way, to maintain the sacred aura of victimhood, is Detroit Free Press columnist Desiree Cooper.
Now, with the possibility that he died from natural causes, I can't help but recall the Rev. Al Sharpton after the Tawana Brawley scandal. In 1987, the nation was outraged when Brawley, an African-American teenager, accused six white men of raping her, covering her body with feces and racial epithets and leaving her for dead.
After all the high emotions and investigations, it was ruled that she'd faked the whole thing.
And so, all of that righteous indignation was squandered.
Ah, yes,
Al Sharpton, squanderer of rightous indignation, rabble rouse, Jew hater; since those days elevated to the exalted position of "spokesman". My final farewell to the Democratic party came when he was taken seriously as a presidential candidate by the Democrats, with no mention being made of Tawana Brawley or his history of anti-semitism and race baiting. I remember silently begging Joe Leiberman through the TV to confront this creep, but in that instance, he comformed to party orthodoxy. From this, one would think that Ms. Cooper is calling for readers to wake up and smell the reality. But Ms. Cooper doesn't want to waste another dose of rightous indignation. She continues,
But this is not an elaborate hoax; Anthos has gone. Today there may be questions about how he died, but there's no question about how he lived -- as a gay man often weathering hideous acts of unspeakable hatred.
His death, however it happened, has engendered positive change. Just last week, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, introduced legislation to include crimes based on sexual orientation in federal hate-crime legislation.
State Sen. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit, plans to do the same at the state level.
Such legislation would not only help track the incidence of hate crimes against gays, but it would allow more resources to be put into the investigation of those crimes
So there it is, folks, heroic legislators are going to bat to protect gay men from us. You and I will no longer be able to freely engage in "hideous acts of unspeakable hatred". We will be forced to cheer for the
Gay Pride Parade as it passes our house. We will have to write scholarly reports on our favorite episodes of Will and Grace. We will have to shop with the "Queer Eye" guys. We will all have rainbows in our windows. No longer will we have to read the daily news reports of poor, abused gay men "weathering hideous acts of unspeakable hatred". It's going to be a brave new pink rainbow colored world. Of course, gay men will continue to be "gay men" rather than people. Otherwise how will we know who the latest victims are?
Labels: Al Sharpton, Andrew Anthos, Desiree Cooper, gays as victims
CHALLAH AKBAR
