The Nature of Things

The terrible events in Norway yesterday remind us once again, if we needed reminding, that sociopaths with extreme and violent political views exist in all societies, even the most benign and advanced.  The early reporting of those events by news media in this country, as Glenn Greenwald points out in his column in Salon today , reminds us of just how low our journalistic standards have fallen.  The immediate reaction by news outlets here was to assume, without investigation , that Al Qaeda was responsible.  Their stories reflected that slant.  This was true not just of right-wingers but even, as Greenwald shows, of The New York Times , the supposed "newspaper of record."   Greenwald writes: Al Qaeda is always to blame, even when it isn't, even when it's allegedly the work of a Nordic, Muslim-hating, right-wing European nationalist. Of course, before Al Qaeda, nobody ever thought to detonate bombs in government buildings or go on indiscriminate, political...

There was a time in this country when a bigot who wanted to run for president had to hide or camouflage his feelings.  He had to pretend an egalitarianism in which he didn't believe and disguise his prejudices as a strong belief in states' rights.  Not this year though.  At least not in the Republican Party.  No, indeed, this year Republicans are more than happy to welcome bigots to the fray, especially bigots who hate gays or Muslims.  And most especially anyone who hates both. The most egregious example of this hate-filled philosophy is Herman Cain, although he certainly isn't the only practitioner in the race.  Over the weekend, Cain carefully explained to Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that in America it is fully permitted for any community to ban a mosque. Thus he casually tosses aside the Constitution and more than two centuries of judicial interpretation of the right to freedom of religion. His reasoning is that Islam is both a religion and a "law"...