Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
April 4, 2011
Anti-Muslim prejudice is hurting America at home and abroad: at home because it divides Americans from each other and hurts our Muslim citizens, and abroad because it signals to many of the world’s billion Muslims that America is their enemy. Sometimes it leads directly to anti-American savagery, like last week’s murders in Afghanistan over the burning of the Quran by a deranged Christian pastor.
The prejudice can take root and spread because too many non-Muslim Americans know too little about their Muslim countrymen, or, indeed, about Islam. Katie Couric recently proposed, apparently in all seriousness, that to combat bigotry against Muslims, “Maybe we need a Muslim version of The Cosby Show.”
Faisal Abdul Rauf, imam of the make-shift mosque now holding prayers 2-1/2 blocks from Ground Zero in New York, is doing his part to contribute to inter-faith understanding. Last year he authored What’s Right with Islam is What’s Right With America, called by the Christian Science Monitor “An invigorating glimpse into the heart and mind of a wise Muslim seeking the higher ground.” Now he’s published a column in the Washington Post called Five myths about Muslims in America. The five myths are:
- American Muslims are foreigners.
- American Muslims are ethnically, culturally and politically monolithic.
- American Muslims oppress women.
- American Muslims often become “homegrown” terrorists
- American Muslims want to bring sharia law to the United States
The column is easy reading. If you care one way or the other about Muslims in America, I urge you to read this short article.
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Tags:Afghanistan murders, anti-Muslim prejudice, burning of the Quran, Christian Science Monitor, ethics, Faisal Abdul Rauf, Five myths about Muslims in America, Ground Zero mosque, Katie Couric, Muslim Americans, Muslims, prejudice, The Cosby Show, Washington Post, What's Right with Islam
Posted in Ethics-general, International, Politics, Religion, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
March 7, 2011
Planning for a Muslim community center in lower Manhattan, 2-1/2 blocks from Ground Zero, was proceeding in an orderly fashion. A sponsor had purchased the former Burlington Coat Factory outlet, slightly damaged by debris from the 9/11 attack, and a Muslim Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, was holding regular Friday prayers while the municipal rules were being followed to get final approval, which came last July, when New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission declared that the building wasn’t a historic landmark. I wrote about the process here.
But the hate-mongers had just barely started their ugly work, Blogger Pamela Geller got traction with her rants equating Islam with 9/11, and now boasts about her “SRO crowd at CPAC [the Conservative Political Action Committee—a powerful force in republican politics] and a packed house at the St. Luke’s Theatre in Manhattan,” for her “documentary,” The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks.
The trailer is short, and all fair-minded people should see it, as the guiding force behind opposition to the Park 51 project in lower Manhattan, and to other mosques in California, Tennessee, and around the USA.
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Tags:9/11 Attacks, Anti-Muslim, Burlington Coat Factory, CPAC, ethics, Feisal Abdul Rauf, Ground Zero, hate-mongers, Landmarks Preservation Commission, Muslim community center, Pamela Geller, Park 51, St. Luke's Theatre, The Ground Zero Mosque
Posted in Ethics-general, Politics, Religion, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
February 24, 2011
Here’s another difference between the revolution in Wisconsin and the one in Egypt: Mubarak sent thugs into the middle of peaceful demonstrations to intimidate and maim his opponents. Gov. Scott Walker didn’t.
Oh, he thought about it, rolled it over on his tongue, but finally decided against—not because it was wrong, but because it might backfire. Walker was the victim of a prank phone caller who fooled the governor into thinking he was billionaire industrialist and big time political contributor David Koch.
Here’s the relevant part of the conversation. (Redstateupdate.com has the audio of the entire call here.)
Koch impersonator: We’ll back you any way we can. What we were thinking about the crowd was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.
Walker: Y’know, the only problem with that, ’cause we thought about that. He then goes into a halting explanation that he’s winning, that the legislators and the public has turned against the teachers. Then:
We thought about that. My only fear would be if there were a ruckus caused is that would scare the public into thinking maybe the governor has got to settle to avoid all these problems.
Impersonators brought down ACORN and damaged Planned Parenthood. Has one just mortally wounded Gov. Walker and his anti-union campaign? You don’t have to be an ethicist to be horrified that he would consider for a second sending thugs into a peaceful mass demonstration Stay tuned.
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Tags:ACORN, David Koch, Egypt revolution, ethics, impersonators, Planned Parenthood, prank caller, Redstateupdate.com, Scott Walker, teachers, troublemakers, Wisconsin governor
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Politics | 1 Comment »
February 21, 2011
Revolution in the air in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Libya, and…Wisconsin? The Wisconsin brouhaha, unlike the others, seems not to have any good guys: EthicsAlarms.com does its usual good job of fairly laying out the good and bad, the credit and the blame. Republican Gov. Scott Walker, the runaway Democratic senators, the public employee unions, and the teachers all have some right and some wrong about their positions. Except the teachers, whose behavior is totally reprehensible.
Thousands of Wisconsin teachers, prohibited from striking by state law, falsely claimed to be sick and took days off to demonstrate in the state capital. They scored a twofer, both neglecting their young charges and setting an example that lying to your employer in your own self interest is acceptable.
Public servants are under fire all over the US in this time of budget crises. The Wisconsin teachers by their dishonest and irresponsible behavior seem to confirm the worst stereotypes about public employees.
When the Boston police went out on strike in 1919, Gov. Calvin Coolidge stood by his commissioner who fired the strikers, famously announcing, “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.” When America’s air traffic controllers broke the law prohibiting strikes by federal workers in 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired over 11,000 who had refused to return to work.
Coolidge and Reagan showed backbone and the public embraced their actions. Time for the Wisconsin school boards to show their backbone and fire the teachers who lie to their employers and harm the children they are supposed to teach.
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Tags:air traffic controllers strike, Boston police strike, budget crises, Calvin Coolidge, Egypt, ethics, EthicsAlarms.com, Gov. Scott Walker, public employee unions, Public servants, Reagan, Revolution, runaway Democratic senators, schoolteachers, Wisconsin
Posted in Education, Ethics-general, Government, Politics | Leave a Comment »
February 17, 2011
Everybody in politics knows that federal spending is unsustainable: ending earmarks, eliminating waste, cutting non-defense discretionary spending won’t make more difference than baling out a sinking ship with a teacup. Drastic action is called for. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security have to be cut back or they’ll bankrupt the nation.
But our political leaders run from the problem. In the debate last year over health care reform, Republicans accused proponents of wanting to ration health care, and the Democrats, instead of saying, “Yes, it’s rationed now and we’ll have to ration it a lot more,” denied and denied. “Not us!”
Now come three prominent Republicans to speak truth to power—to the voting public.
Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) grabbed the third rail of American politics when he told an American Enterprise Institute audience, “You’re going to have to raise the retirement age for Social Security. Oh, I just said it. And I’m still standing here. I did not vaporize into the carpeting, and I said it.”
Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN) was even bolder—and more comprehensive—in a thoughtful speech to CPAC ( the Conservative Political Action Conference) in Washington. He told the right wing audience that his own party hasn’t tackled the problem, dealing instead with trifles: “Talking much more about [earmarks], or ‘waste, fraud, and abuse,’ trivializes what needs to be done and misleads our fellow citizens to believe that easy answers are available.” Instead Daniels proposed cutting defense, and radically changing Social Security and Medicare (more…)
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Tags:American Enterprise Institute, and abuse, Chris Christie, Conservative Political Action Conference, earmarks, ethics, federal entitlements, federal spending, fraud, health care rationing, health care reform, House Budget Committee, Medicaid, Medicare, Mitch Daniels, Paul Ryan, Politico, Republicans, retirement age, Sam Goldwyn Awards, Social Security, third rail, truth to power, waste
Posted in Ethics-general, Finance, Government, Health care, Politics | Leave a Comment »
February 15, 2011
While I believe that political leaders of all stripes have an ethical obligation to speak out against hate speech, distortions, and lies coming from their own side of the political divide, I have to respect the opposite opinion of Jack Marshall in his excellent blog, EthicsAlarms.com. Jack is often right and has often clarified the ethical issues for me. Just not this time.
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Tags:birthers, ethics, EthicsAlarms, Glenn Beck, hate speech, Jack Marshall, lies, Republican leaders
Posted in Ethics-general, Media, Politics, Tolerance | 2 Comments »
February 13, 2011
We’re responsible for what we tolerate. If I stand next to a friend who slanders you and say nothing, then I’ve accepted that slander and am responsible for it. John Boehner Told David Gregory on NBC’s Meet the Press that he believes Obama’s a Christian, born in Hawaii, but if a third of Republicans believe different, that’s apparently OK with Boehner: “It’s not my job to tell the American people what to think.”
Why not, Mr. Speaker? You’re complicit in the lies if you don’t challenge them.
And Glenn Beck says that a giant conspiracy comprising Obama, the Egyptian demonstrators, the Muslim Brotherhood, the communists, and the AFL-CIO is dedicated to creating a new caliphate that will govern all of Europe and the Middle East under Sharia law. And Americans, he beseeches, wake up before it’s too late.
We haven’t seen the polls or focus groups yet, but you can bet that a third of Republicans will swallow it, hook, line, and sinker.
The Republican Party has one adult, Bill Kristol, who publicly rejects Beck’s conspiracy rant:
Hysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. (more…)
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Tags:AFL-CIO, Bill Kristol, Bill O’Reilly, birthers, caliphate, communists, conspiracy, David Gregory, Egyptian demonstrators, ethics, Fox News, Glenn Beck, John Birch Society, John Boehner, Meet the Press, Muslim Brotherhood, National Review, Obama, Republican Party, Rich Lowry, Robert Welch, Sharia, slander
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, International, Media, Politics, Religion | 4 Comments »
February 11, 2011
What next for Egypt? Last night was a huge letdown, today’s a high. Up to now the crowds have been united–they all wanted Mubarak to go. Now comes the divisions. Turkey offers a promising model, in which a popular military takes over and shepherds the country to a civilian democracy. This ARTICLE from the Turkish paper, Hurriyet, lays out the promise and the pitfalls.
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Tags:Egypt democracy, Hurriyet, transition, Turkey
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, International, military, Politics | Leave a Comment »
February 5, 2011
The videos from Cairo show happy peaceful demonstrators by the tens of thousands, interspersed with videos of Mubarak supporters battling the demonstrators in a chaotic scene. When the action dies down the TV talking heads ruminate over what outcome would be best for America. Or as Joe Scarborough put it, “Who is behind Door #2?”
Jack Marshall explains in his Ethics Alarms blog why Americans should be uncompromisingly for Egyptian freedom from the Mubarak dictatorship. Simply stated, America’s very meaning is about the rights of all men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Declaration of Independence doesn’t assert these rights for Americans, it asserts them for all men.
So what’s best for America is an Egyptian government by the people. Whether that government follows the superficially pro-American policies of Mubarak is irrelevant. The Declaration of Independence is what’s relevant. That’s why all Americans should cheer the demonstrations.
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Tags:and the pursuit of happiness, anti-Mubarak demonstrators, Declaration of Independence, Egyptian freedom, ethics, Ethics Alarms, Jack Marshall, Joe Scarborough, liberty, life, Mubarak dictatorship
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, International, Politics | 2 Comments »
Anti-Muslim prejudice is hurting America at home and abroad: at home because it divides Americans from each other and hurts our Muslim citizens, and abroad because it signals to many of the world’s billion Muslims that America is their enemy. Sometimes it leads directly to anti-American savagery, like last week’s murders in Afghanistan over the burning of the Quran by a deranged Christian pastor.
Ethics Bob 
