An entirely unsurprising poll shows that sixty-seven percent of the registered Republicans in the US support the current administration’s policy of separating children from their undocumented immigrant (or asylum seeking) parents at the border. (Those children are then imprisoned in cages in concentration camps with no plans for their release or reunification with their parents.)Continue reading “The Republican Base’s Malevolent Algorithm”
Tag Archives: bigotry
The Republicans Will Ride Out This Latest ‘He Can’t Survive This’ Moment
As usual, anxious liberals and American citizens all over the nation are waiting, with bated breath and a dollop of some old-fashioned American optimism, for the Great Abandonment: that crystalline moment when the Republican Party will decide that enough is enough, issue a condemnation–with teeth–of Donald Trump, begin scurrying away from his sinking ship, andContinue reading “The Republicans Will Ride Out This Latest ‘He Can’t Survive This’ Moment”
Toppling Confederate Statues Does Not ‘Erase’ The Confederacy From ‘History’
News from Baltimore and Durham suggests a long-overdue of cleaning American towns and cities of various pieces of masonry known as ‘Confederate statues’; young folks have apparently taken it upon themselves to go ahead and tear down these statues which pay homage to those who were handed a rather spectacular defeat in the American CivilContinue reading “Toppling Confederate Statues Does Not ‘Erase’ The Confederacy From ‘History’”
San Bernardino, Selective Surveillance, And The Paralyzed Gun ‘Debate’
Here are two related thoughts running around in my head since the San Bernardino massacre. On past occasions, whenever one of these quintessentially American mass shootings would be carried out, I would wonder about what could happen to jolt the gun-control ‘debate’ in this country out of its well-worn grooves. (The scare quotes are necessaryContinue reading “San Bernardino, Selective Surveillance, And The Paralyzed Gun ‘Debate’”
Samuel Bagenstos On The Mistaken Decision To Jail Kim Davis
Over at The New Republic Samuel Bagenstos offers some spot-on analysis of the decision to jail Kim Davis, ” the Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk who defied a U.S. Federal Court order requiring that she issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples” and concludes: To many observers…the drama is the point. By making a prominent example of those who obstinately refuseContinue reading “Samuel Bagenstos On The Mistaken Decision To Jail Kim Davis”
Thank God, Caitlyn Jenner ‘Looks Great’
The first transgender public figure whom I ‘encountered’ was Renée Richards–thanks to her landmark legal victory in the New York Supreme Court over the United States Tennis Association, which had denied her entry into the 1976 US Open, on the grounds of their supposed ‘women-born-women’ policy. (Richards–formerly Richard Raskind–had undergone sex reassignment surgery in 1975.) Shortly afterContinue reading “Thank God, Caitlyn Jenner ‘Looks Great’”
Marriage: It Ain’t a Religious Thing
Last year, I wrote a post on same-sex marriage, or rather, on Barack Obama’s evolving views on it. In that post, I handed out some unsolicited advice to the President, suggesting he view marriage in its social and economic context, and noting that there were too many similarities between the explicitly institutionalized racism of theContinue reading “Marriage: It Ain’t a Religious Thing”
About Time, Mr. President
The following was intended as today’s post. It has been pre-empted by Obama’s endorsement, today, of same-sex marriage. Barack Obama will soon sit down for an interview in which he will, in all probability, attempt to explain his ‘evolving’ views on gay marriage. Perhaps he will come out strongly in favor of gay marriage. OrContinue reading “About Time, Mr. President”
The Decline and Fall of Christopher Hitchens
I have no talents to speak of; all I can do is read and write. Thus, it would make eminent sense for me to admire those that read a great deal, and write really well. Christopher Hitchens evidently read a lot, and he wielded his pen and keyboard with great flair. He was also aContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of Christopher Hitchens”
Samir Chopra 