Jim Lane
Jim Lane's JournalGlenn Beck: ‘I Will Stand with GLAAD’ Against Russia’s ‘Hetero-Fascism’
I'm not enough of a Beck scholar to know if this is completely consistent with his prior statements (despite his overall right-wing orientation), or if he's open to the charge of embracing LGBT rights only because he sees an opening for bashing Putin. (As the old saying has it, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.) Either way, it's interesting to hear this from a prominent right-winger. Here's a Mediaite piece about one portion of an hour-long Beck appearance on CNN:
Hetero-fascism, Beck called it. And he said hed gladly stand with GLAAD in taking a stand against Russias anti-gay legislation.
. . . .
So Id consider this an even greater step forward. With this one soundbite, Beck has done more to speak out against Russias war on homosexuality than any of his conservative radio colleagues, thereby showing a willingness to admit that while his religious views may say one thing about homosexuality, he does not believe any government has any place legislating such morality. Not only that, but he mentioned fighting arm-in-arm with GLAAD, one of the rights biggest bogeymen.
At the link -- "Glenn Beck: 'I Will Stand with GLAAD' Against Russia's 'Hetero-Fascism'" -- there's a clip of 93 seconds from the hour, and even that short clip is mostly about whether Santa Claus is white. As Mediaite says, the "hetero-fascism" part is really just a soundbite. If I'd been the interviewer (S.E. Cupp), I would've followed up to get a better idea of his overall view on LGBT issues, but she apparently wasn't interested.
ACORN's latest insidious plot revealed by an intrepid FReeper!
Over at the FReakshow, they're in the middle of yet another of their interminable FReepathon fundraising drives. In raising the needed money, though, they face a wily bunch of adversaries, as FReeper 2ndDivisionVet has discovered. In a thread titled "FOLKS: Let's put this FReepathon to bed. We have more pressing problems to work on", he or she writes:
So, even though ACORN faces the obstacle that the Republican-led (led? c'mon, don't quibble with me) House of Representatives has repeatedly defunded the organization, and even though it faces the possibly more serious obstacle that it entirely ceased to exist a few years ago, ACORN is still able to join with the DUmmies (that's us) and all those other evildoers in somehow frustrating the FReepathon.
Mr. or Ms. Vet sees dire consequences ahead: "Jim may have to make this site members only or allow ads or some other radical thing." Uh, excuse me, "radical"? It sounds like "Jim may have to compete in the free market if he doesn't get enough handouts." What would Ayn Rand say?
An overlooked A-bomb issue: the wait-a-couple-weeks argument
Most of the defenders of the bombings assume that the bombings shortened the war and that nothing else would have done so. This is the implicit assumption behind all the posts about thousands of American deaths in an invasion of Japan.
But is that assumption accurate?
In early August 1945, the Japanese had drawn some encouragement from the Soviet Unions failure to act against them, even after the end of the war in Europe. They thought that there might be some kind of Asian solidarity against the Western allies, so that the Soviet Union might remain neutral and help to broker a peace agreement. The Japanese government had begun communications with Moscow to explore that possibility.
What the Japanese didnt know, but Truman did, was that a secret provision of the Yalta agreement called for the Soviet Union to declare war on Japan 90 days after V-E Day. Germany surrendered in early May. Right on schedule, three months later, after shifting troops thousands of miles, the USSR declared war. The largest army in the world (the Red Army) invaded Manchuria, where Japan held important conquests that the United States had not attacked. Japan surrendered a few days later. See the detail provided by former9thwar in this post in another thread.
Now, would Japan have surrendered without the atomic bombings? We cant know for sure. What we do know for sure is that Trumans decision made it impossible to find out. He had an easy and obvious alternative to hold off on the bombing for a few weeks and wait to see what effect the Russian attack would have. He could have continued preparations for any invasion, which even if it proved necessary would not have occurred until November 1 at the earliest. A short delay would not have imperiled any American lives.
In fact, one reading of the situation is that a major purpose of the bombing was that American planners wanted the power of the weapon to be graphically demonstrated not to a prostrate Japan, but to the Soviet Union. They were looking ahead to a postwar world in which the United States and the Soviet Union would be the two superpowers vying for influence. They thought that the atom bomb would give the United States an advantage in that struggle. They wanted to intimidate Moscow. That goal would not be achieved if the Soviet attack caused Japan to surrender with no need for (excuse for) the dropping of the bomb.
A cynical interpretation, therefore, rejects the contention that the bombing was prompted by a fear that, otherwise, many American lives would be lost because Japan would not surrender. The real motivation was a fear that Japan WOULD surrender. Planners in Washington didnt wait a few weeks because they wanted to get the bombing done while they still had the chance to kill scores of thousands of people, instead of just dropping it on some uninhabited island.
If, by late August, Japan had refused to surrender despite the Soviet Unions involvement, then consideration could be given to dropping the bomb. The arguments so common in the other threads we murdered civilians, Japan started the war and committed atrocities, etc. could be weighed then. People who support the bombings may argue about Nanjing all they like, if the context is A-bomb versus amphibious invasion, but I dont see the relevance of any of that to the alternative of a short delay.
Anyone who wants to defend the bombings must explain not only why killing all those people was preferable to not using the bomb at all, but also why dropping the bombs in early August was preferable to dropping them a little later if there was still no surrender.
A Pop Quiz About Federal Spending That May Surprise You
http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2013/03/05/a_pop_quiz_about_federal_spending_that_may_surprise_you_100179.htmlThe quiz consists of four true-false questions:
Question 2: The federal government is collecting a larger share of national income in taxes than at any time since World War II - true or false?
Question 3: Social Security is currently running a deficit - true or false?
Question 4: Health care spending is outpacing the growth of income - true or false?
The author speculates that most Americans would get at least one question wrong, and would perhaps blow all four. He provides the correct answers, with supporting data, but I've reached my four-paragraph limit and I wouldn't want to include a spoiler anyway.
This piece is hosted on Real Clear Markets, which is affiliated with Real Clear Politics, which is a right-wing site -- so I'm a little surprised to find an article by a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. The comments, reflecting the site's normal orientation, are largely right-wing demands for lower taxes and attacks on government spending.
Profile Information
Name: Jim LaneGender: Male
Hometown: Jersey City
Member since: Fri Nov 12, 2004, 11:22 AM
Number of posts: 11,175