Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) says indefensible things now and again, but what is most interesting about her is how she manages to highlight the media's hypocrisy about its own conduct.
On Monday, Greene visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and apologized for comparing coronavirus restrictions to Nazi laws imposed on Jews. Her visit and apology were appropriate.
Leading news outlets, including the Washington Post and Reuters, tried to make her apology about other remarks. The Post complained that she compared Democrats to Nazis (something the Post does all the time with Trump and Republicans), and Reuters complained that she defended Trump for allegedly saying that white supremacists in Charlottesville were "very fine people" -- which he did not say. In fact, Trump said that the neo-Nazis and white supremacists ought to be "condemned totally."
The Charlottesville lie has become known as the "very fine people" hoax. It was comprehensively destroyed in the second impeachment trial. It's amazing -- or not? -- that a congressional reporter for Reuters continues to flog the hoax. But it shows how little accountability there is for the media.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...