A Cat's Eye View

Baxter here. The Humans and That Dog are all Excited that the Weather has improved. It's apparently Warm Out and they are Ecstatic. That Dog barked until my Female Human went out and sat on the Deck with her. Apparently she did not want the Female Human to miss the Good Weather. I, of course, do not go Out so I can only appreciate it through an Open Window. But I get by.

It has been a Heck of a Week around here. My Female Human was inundated at Work and did not have Time to Blog or even Read Blogs, and that makes her Very Cranky. Now it is finally the Weekend and she is Catching Up.

Of course, much of this Week's news was generated by that Idiot, Rush Limbaugh. Christopher inquired whether I was going to cover this Subject. A lot of other Good Bloggers have already talked about this Idiotic Blowhard. I find Margaret and Helen already covered him rather Thoroughly so I don't Need to Reinvent the Wheel here. I will quote a couple of Gems from their Blog Post:

"Margaret, do me a favor and ask that Republican husband of yours a quick question: During this very difficult time for the country, who does he want in charge? A Harvard law graduate and former constitutional law professor, or a disc jockey with a drug addiction who flunked out of college, divorced three wives and publicly made fun of a disabled person? Because that is the choice we have between Barack Obama as leader of the free world and Rush Limbaugh as leader of the Republican party."

Truly the Republican Party is in a Terrible State. As a Liberal Cat, this makes me Smile and my Whiskers Bristle with Pleasure. As Margaret and Helen point out, the GOP does not have Much to Work With:

"Truly it must be embarrassing to admit to being a Republican these days. Just look at your current list of alternative leaders to Limbaugh:

The Governor of Louisiana could barely form a complete sentence much less a meaningful metaphor. The Governor of Alaska couldn’t handle an interview with Katie “What magazines do you read?” Couric. Ann Coulter opens her mouth and instantly inserts a size 17 foot. Karl Rove’s nickname in the Oval Office was Turd Blossom. And finally, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are so corrupt that their votes can be purchased for less money than a whore with lockjaw."

Please go read the Rest of the Post as it is all Wonderfully Written and so true.

In Other News, of course, is the Stock Market. I found an Article on CNN.com that talks about how "Animal Spirits" move the stock market. Basically it says that people hear things from one another, or the Media, and this can cause Booms and Busts. All very well, I suppose, but don't blame "Animal Spirits" for it. We Animals are a lot Smarter than that. We don't put any of our Investments in these things you call Markets. That Dog keeps all her Jolly Balls where she can see them at all times, on her Bed. And of course My Toys are all in My Room where they belong except for the Few that I carry around the House to play with. After all, we do need to have some Liquidity.

It certainly has been a Rough Week on Wall Street, though, for those poor Humans who still have any Money left in Stocks. Although the Market was Up on Friday it was not anything to Write Home about since it ended at just over 6600, which is a pretty Paltry Amount. Apparently it could go Even Lower - there are still many Humans Selling Short as they call it.

In a more Cheerful Bit of News, Oprah has a New Puppy named Sadie, which she showed off on her TV show. I was glad to hear that the Puppy came from a Shelter. Although I am not a Fan of That Dog that Lives with Me, this one looks kind of Cute. Maybe if That Dog had been a Puppy when it Came I might have been able to Bend her to my Will before she got So Big. Oh well, no use Meowing over Spilt Cream. Here's a Picture of Oprah with her Puppy:
Now let's take a Look at what President Obama has been up to recently. I think it's All Good, personally. This site has a pretty good list of what he has done so far, including signing the Lilly Ledbetter Act, the expansion of Children's Healthcare, the decision to work to Reverse the Bush Conscience Law (which would have enabled Workers to refuse to provide any Service they didn't believe in), and he's Cracking Down on costly Defense Contracts, and will end no-bid contracts with these folks.

This doesn't even include the improvements in Environmental Policies. With Obama's Backing, there is actual hope for global action on Climate Change. And the Stimulus Bill includes a lot of good Stuff about Alternative Energy incentives.

Another accomplishment was as soon after taking Office as February 4th, the Administration cancelled a bunch of leases that would have allowed Oil Drillers to drill near Arches National Park.

And, Good News - Science is back. President Obama is going to change the Rules for Stem Cell Research and no longer limit Federal Funding for this Important Research. It is to be announced on Monday.

I could Go On, but you get the Picture. This is what Change Looks Like. Anyone who says it didn't matter whether Barack Obama or John McCain got elected is Sadly Deluded!

Well, that's my News for the Week. I'm going to go Snort some Catnip and take a Nap. So until Next Time, play it Safe and Hold On to your Jolly Balls.

Speaking Up

In view of the discussion on the return of Imus to the radio and the many valid comparisons of his brand of hatefulness to the hatefulness of other radio personalities (Limbaugh, Hannity, et al), I thought I'd write today about why it is so important to continue to speak out against these people.

Free speech should never be curtailed. But we must speak out against those whose free speech is akin to shouting "fire" in a crowded theater. They are making intolerant, hateful speech part of our culture. As Tomcat said in his comment on the Imus post, "Bush, the GOP, the neocons and the theocons have made hate mainstream." And this is the real danger of this type of free speech. It makes hate acceptable in our culture.

While we were in the Adirondacks two weekends ago, Leonard Pitts, who writes a syndicated column for the Miami Herald, had a very interesting op-ed piece that was published in the local town newspaper near where we were staying.

His article concerned the remarks Ann Coulter had made about Jews on a recent program:

"Last week, Coulter said that in her perfect America, everyone would be a Christian. She said this to Donny Deutsch, who was hosting her on his CNBC program, The Big Idea. Deutsch, who is Jewish, expressed alarm. Whereupon Coulter told him that Jews simply needed to be ''perfected'' -- i.e., made to accept Jesus as savior. Which is, of course, one of the pillars (along with the slander of Christ's murder) supporting 2,000 years of pogroms, abuse and Holocaust."

Pitts said that many people would be telling him he shouldn't be wasting his time condemning Ann Coulter, and that it would be better to ignore her. But he refuted this idea, saying:

"I suspect the reason some people believe that kind of ignorance is best ignored is that they find it difficult to take it seriously, or to accept that Coulter -- or those who embrace her -- really believes what she says. After all, this is not 1933, not 1948, not 1966. It is two-thousand-by-God-oh-seven, post-Seinfeld, post-Gore-Lieberman, post-Schindler's List. We no longer live in the era when open anti-Semitism could find wide traction. This is a different time.

But time, Martin Luther King once observed, is neutral. Time alone changes nothing. It is people who make change in time. Or not. So you have to wonder if this determined sanguinity in the face of intolerance is not ultimately an act of monumental self-delusion."

Pitts went on to say that in fact, letting remarks like Coulter's pass without protesting them, without shouting out that they are wrong, will just give the impression that this type of hatefulness is acceptable in society.

"While some of us are cheerfully assuring one another that They Don't Really Mean It, the Southern Poverty Law Center reports that the number of hate groups in this country has risen by a whopping 40 percent in just the last seven years. If you had spent those years, as I have, jousting in print the agents of intolerance, you would not be surprised. It would be all but impossible to quantify, but I've noted a definite spike, not simply in the hatefulness of some people, but in the willingness to speak that hatefulness openly and without shame. What used to be anonymous now comes with a name and address.

Like Coulter, many of those people find intellectual cover under the cloak of conservatism. It is a development that thoughtful conservatives (the very need to use that qualifier makes the case) ought to view with alarm. For all that Colin Powell, J.C. Watts, ...and others have done to posit a friendly new ''big tent'' conservatism, Coulter and others have done even more to drag the movement back toward open intolerance.

That will be read as criticism of conservatism, but I intend a larger point. After all, liberalism has had its own unfortunate extremes -- the drug use of the '60s, the Weather Underground, the Symbionese Liberation Army and the like. The difference is, say what you will about Michael Moore or Jesse Jackson, they are not pushing back toward that which has been discredited. Coulter is.

And if some of us are laughing that off, not everybody is.

So this is not about bashing conservatives. It is, rather, about challenging them, and all of us. Within living memory, we have seen Jews in boxcars and blacks in trees and silence from those who should have been shouting. They pretended it wasn't happening until it already had.

So, what about Ann Coulter? What about the push-back against diversity, pluralism and tolerance, that she represents? I keep hearing that we should just ignore it.

My point is, that's been tried before. It didn't work."

(emphasis added)

So we must keep protesting when we hear hateful commentary on the air waves. We have to keep pointing out that this type of speech is wrong and is not to be tolerated. We must urge people not to listen to these voices. Our country has free speech. But we are also free to protest what is said.

I'm going to skip the haiku today and instead quote this, by Pastor Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.