Author: New Neo

On Syria, it seems Obama's made up his mind about what to do but then again perhaps he's not made up his mind at all. Maybe it's all a clever strategic head-fake on Obama's part. I doubt it, however; his slowness to come to a decision...

Tomorrow President Obama plans a twofer, donning the mantle of two previous American giants:

President Barack Obama will make remarks on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28 as part of a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the demonstration best remembered for Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The White House announced that Obama – the first African-American president of the United States -- will speak at the “Let Freedom Ring” event, which will be held to recall the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. That civil rights movement demonstration drew some 250,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his unforgettable remarks.

I would ordinarily consider it to be completely fitting for the first African-American president to make such a speech on such an occasion. But at this point in Obama's presidency it seems to me to be the height of the exploitative hypocrisy in which he specializes---associating himself by pageantry with real American heroes such as Lincoln and King while working hard to counter some of what they stood for. Let's take a look at the words of King's 50-year-old speech. It is very famous---and rightly so---for its inspirational "I have a dream" passage, although many people have since pointed out the irony of King saying "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" in light of the growth of race hucksterism in America. But when I looked back at the entire speech, other words caught my attention, too:

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

I also noticed that, in quite a few of the somewhat condensed versions of King's speech that appear online, that warning does not appear (for example, this site omits it). In fact, it was so often omitted in online versions that I began to wonder whether it only appeared in the published text and King had actually omitted it in his delivered remarks.

Yesterday the WSJ published an editorial on the Christopher Lane case: Some are focusing on the ease of obtaining a gun in the U.S., as (inevitably) is the reflexive CNN, and it would almost be a relief if we could blame such a murder on guns. Then we...

Through no fault of his own, aspiring baseball player Christopher Lane of Australia was in the wrong place at the wrong time. "The wrong place" was jogging on a street in Duncan, Oklahoma. The wrong time was when a trio of teens with random murder in...

Has politics become so divisive that a new intolerance keeps left and right from connecting emotionally? Research purports to show that left and right are that different, according to this post at NPR titled For Democrats And Republicans, It's Happily (N)ever After: Political preferences seem to come...

We in America have been pretty lucky for quite a long time. Despite the fact that our method of electing presidents hardly guarantees greatness or even competence, we've mostly had presidents who displayed at least the latter, competence. And we've even be blessed with quite...

Anne Frank's diary is widely read---or at least parts of it, in some form or other. And even those who have never read it are probably familiar with a few quotes from it, the most highly publicized of which may be Anne's observation: "in spite...

...the way much of it has now turned on Weiner? That's the question asked by a commenter at this post about The New Yorker's new cover mocking Weiner. My answer, in a nutshell, is no. After all, there is no real cost to turning on Weiner. The...

Here's the story: “The Clintons are upset with the comparisons that the Weiners seem to be encouraging — that Huma is ‘standing by her man’ the way Hillary did with Bill, which is not what she in fact did,’’ said a top state Democrat...

Pat Smith has something to say to President Obama: The mother of a Benghazi victim is furious about the new White House strategy of calling the terrorist attack and many other scandals plaguing the Obama administration “fake” or “phony.” Patricia Smith, mother of Sean Smith, who was...

The Southern states, that is. Or any other state that has the temerity to tighten up its own voting regulations in ways that would appear to make perfect sense. A mere month ago, in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that Obama...