Mad World

"This earth belongs to the mad" (Dr. Fischelson, a character in Isaac Bashevis Singer's "The Spinoza of Market St.")

There’s a disturbing article at www.anti-war.com quoting Israel’s Minister Yossi Peled vowing to take a more aggressive role to undermine the Democratic Party and force Pres. Obama to take a more pro-Israel stance. This came in the wake of Jon Voight’s, better-known as Angelina Jolie’s dad, public attack on Pres. Obama being a “false prophet.” This was followed by TV guestings at Murdoch’s loony lair assailing the US president’s “inexperience and naivety” and branding him a “weakling.”

What leaves me cold about these attacks is that they are personal, image-driven, race-toned jabs, departing from substantive issues. Of late, there’s a spate of wacko white supremacist adventures, you gotta seriously fear for Obama’s life.

A roll-call of usual suspects: First, the military-industrial complex – as long as Obama doesn’t pull out in any of the wars the US is engaged in, this sector is generally happy. Obama scored 2 major plus-points by not making public those controversial torture photos and just today, showing some fangs and claws on North Korea.

Second, the bureaucratic capitalists, the draconian money-politics clique – with the bailouts and the stimulus package, their butts are saved. They have every reason to be grateful.

This leaves us to the extreme right-wingers and their propensity for “isolated acts of violence.”

“Isolated acts of violence,” my sorry ass. Media language is biased. If it were suicide-bombers, it would be reported as “orchestrated, deliberate, acts of violence.” If the perpetrator is a pro-gun, anti-abortion WASP, it’s an “isolated act of violence.”

Two can play this bias-game. Sus, Ginoo.