Religious zealots will be the death of society. I truly believe that, even more so after my conversation this morning with Rachel Tabachnick. Rachel has long been researching and writing about the impact of the Religious Right on politics and, of late, has turned much of her attention toward the New Apostolic Reformation. Much of her past work is found at Talk2Action.org, and she has recently begun amassing info about NAR at NARwatch.org.
As she often writes about religious extremists and their impact on politics, I was happy to see that she has a piece in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz about him – basically warning Israelis about him “With Friends Like Glenn Beck…”
In the second hour of the show this morning, I was joined by GottaLaff of The Political Carnival to shoot the shit about the shit in the news… Today, we talked about these stories and more…
Perry stuff:
VIDEO: Rick Perry fumbles abstinence question… badly. Really badly.Rick Perry Distances Himself from His Own Book
Video Quote of the Day : “Rick Perry’s an idiot, and I don’t think anyone would disagree with that.”
VIDEO: Karl Rove gets blasted by former Obama White House spokesman
————————-
Quickie:Facebook “parody” page posts racist photos of the Obamas
VIDEO- Maxine Waters: “The Tea Party Can Go Straight To Hell!”
Mitt Romney to Quadruple Size of Vacation Home
Rep. Joe Walsh: Glenn Beck’s events aren’t “political in nature… I think they’re educational.”
PLUS Rep Joe Walsh (Hey Chris) had license suspended twice in three years
And finally :
A message from Russ Feingold: “I have decided not to run for public office during 2012
This afternoon, I’ll once again be guest hosting The Randi Rhodes Show, which you can hear live on any of her affiliate radio stations, XM channel 168, or online via RandiRhodes.com from 3-6pm ET.
My guests today will include Cliff Schecter, who writes a weekly opinion column for Al Jazeera English. His latest is “Beware of Rick Perry, the french cuff cowboy” .
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will talk about his demand that federal regulators obey the law and limit oil speculation!
Juan Cole is professor of modern Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan and the author of “Engaging the Muslim World,” and writes the “Informed Comment” blog at www.juancole.com
His must-read column– The Top Ten Myths About The Libya War -answers all the questions that were raised about Qadaffi and Libya during yesterday’s show!
My quibble with Juan Cole’s myths about Libya is that he stated the falsehood first. It’s one of those “don’t think of an elephant” situations. Now he’s planted the false idea and not all readers, or hearers of excerpts, will recall which was which. I was half listening as you read it, and I perked up from hearing things I thought were wrong. It took me a bit to realize they were being debunked. I think it’s always best to state the facts, and only then explain that something else is wrong, to avoid planting the falsehood in the first place.
Maybe one more quibble. I don’t agree at all about Obama being France and Britain’s junior partner. They pushed for intervention, but nothing happened or would have happened without Obama becoming convinced and making it happen. That US involvement seriously scaled back after the first couple weeks doesn’t change that. Without Obama, the Arab Spring would have come to a sudden, violent end in Libya. No dictator would have missed the lesson that using large amounts of force at the start would work and would be allowed by the outside world. Maybe that’s a bit bigger than a quibble.