Skip to main content

Where did she come from?

Has the US spawned Palin Mark II?

The latest GOP candidate - from the Tea Party - seems even more incredible than Sarah Palin. If that is possible!

Professor of Literature at University of America in Washington DC, Charles Larson, writing on CounterPunch provides a pen-portrait of the newest candidate on the American scene, Christine O'Donnell:

"Where do Conservatives find these candidates? That is the troubling question that we wake up to the morning after the final state primaries. Christine O’Donnell—newly anointed as the GOP candidate for the senate in Delaware this fall—actually makes Sarah Palin look like a genius. True, she did have the support of the sometime Governor of Alaska, but you have to ask yourself why. Was this blessing simply because Palin realized that O’Donnell would make her look smart for a change?

O’Donnell, who may be the weirdest (read the most naive) person ever to be listed on a ballot for such high office, is, apparently, exactly what the Tea Party admires. She’s one step above poverty, living on campaign donations, with a train wreck past concerning tax questions, lies and distortions which are the centerpiece of the Tea Party Peeps. Make up your own reality. If you can’t get the United States to eliminate all taxes, well, then, bilk the system in whatever way you can.

But, these actual gaffs and distortions of O’Donnell’s life and career pale in the face of some of her beliefs. Obviously she doesn’t believe in evolution but creationism—hardly a big surprise given the percentage of people in the United States who share that belief--but, worse, she believes that the Bible is to be taken literally. Presumably, that means that she also supports slavery, though no one has yet asked her.

With such Biblical literalism, consider Christine O’Donnell’s feelings about masturbation. She’s against it. Why? As she said several years ago when she was the head of a splinter abstinence group, masturbation is the same adultery. This may be news to eleven or twelve-year-old boys who have just discovered that their penises actually have two functions. The question is: Are these boys marked for life as adulterers?

One thing is certain: O’Donnell’s anti-masturbation platform is going to add some levity to this fall’s political morass."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Reading the Chilcot Inquiry Report more closely

Most commentary on the Chilcot Inquiry Report of and associated with the Iraq War, has been "lifted" from the Executive Summary.   The Intercept has actually gone and dug into the Report, with these revelations : "THE CHILCOT REPORT, the U.K.’s official inquiry into its participation in the Iraq War, has finally been released after seven years of investigation. Its executive summary certainly makes former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who led the British push for war, look terrible. According to the report, Blair made statements about Iraq’s nonexistent chemical, biological, and nuclear programs based on “what Mr. Blair believed” rather than the intelligence he had been given. The U.K. went to war despite the fact that “diplomatic options had not been exhausted.” Blair was warned by British intelligence that terrorism would “increase in the event of war, reflecting intensified anti-US/anti-Western sentiment in the Muslim world, including among Muslim communities in the

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives?  In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t

An unpalatable truth!

Quinoa has for the last years been the "new" food on the block for foodies. Known for its health properties, foodies the world over have taken to it. Many restaurants have added it to their menu. But, as this piece " Can vegans stomach the unpalatable truth about quinoa? " from The Guardian so clearly details, the cost to Bolivians and Peruvians - from where quinoa hails - has been substantial. "Not long ago, quinoa was just an obscure Peruvian grain you could only buy in wholefood shops. We struggled to pronounce it (it's keen-wa, not qui-no-a), yet it was feted by food lovers as a novel addition to the familiar ranks of couscous and rice. Dieticians clucked over quinoa approvingly because it ticked the low-fat box and fitted in with government healthy eating advice to "base your meals on starchy foods". Adventurous eaters liked its slightly bitter taste and the little white curls that formed around the grains. Vegans embraced quinoa as