Predictable

Today, President Obama gave a speech at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, in which he took the time in the midst of praising the deceased to offer a statement about the hypocrisy or some world leaders, possibly even intended for a few in attendance:

And so we, too, must act on behalf of justice. We, too, must act on behalf of peace. There are too many people who happily embrace Madiba’s legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality. There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people. And there are too many of us on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard.

It was an eloquent reminder that the way to identify with the struggle is to act in accordance with it. But despite the speech, the eyes of many fell on a handshake between President Obama and Cuba's Raul Castro. And then roooolllllled.

Because we can expect the freakout from people on the right anymore. It's predictable enough to seem more like a nervous tic than an insight. The simple explanation that a handshake is a polite formality that promises nothing and is more civilized than starting drama at a funeral just doesn't signify with these folks, regardless of how, historically, a handshake is sometimes just a handshake. 

Honestly, anyone who blows up the handshake drama has to be put on some kind of pundit probation. But special mention has to go to Sen. John McCain, who not only knocked the handshake, but worked in a Chamberlain-Hitler reference.  How does that even work?

Can we get new material, here? I feel like I keep seeing the same act and the laughs aren't really fresh anymore.

Rick Santorum's Knees Are Made for Jerking

When Rick Santorum compares the fight against the ACA to the fight against apartheid, there really is no reason to go into any kind of argument about how, no, there really isn't anything there to compare. His analogy is not an argument, per se, but a simple formula "Me good, Obama bad." I've long considered the quote from that great old movie, Inherit the Wind, "Do you ever think about the things you do think about?" as being my reaction to many of the oddball things said by far-right figures.

Rick Santorum always seems to prove that the answer is "No."

RIP, Nelson Mandela, Liberator

Despite being a prisoner for three decades, Nelson Mandela was neither held back by adversity or by bitterness, yet strove to build a just and united South Africa:




It takes time to absorb the ways in which Mandela always advanced the twin causes of social and economic justice. He did not just fight against the racial injustice of apartheid, but spoke out and worked against poverty, advocated for the rights of women and LGBT people,  Despite the stigma of AIDS, he was open about the death of his son from the disease. He even advocated on behalf of the environment, recognizing the destruction of ecosystems as yet another form of injustice.

He demonstrated perseverance and set a tremendous example by the life he lived of what can be achieved. It is my opinion that even the quality of his critics ennoble his memory, because their criticisms seem to reveal more about themselves than about Mandela's legacy.

He was a great man and will be missed.