This week's strange and convoluted tale of black Agricultural Department official, Shirley Sherrod, proves that America is no longer "a nation of cowards on matters of race," as Eric Holder famously proclaimed. Instead, America is now a nation of idiots on matters of race.
A videoclip of Ms. Sherrod had surfaced on the Internet in which she said she gave less help to a white farmer than she would have given a black farmer. The video went viral, with many on the Right claiming it was proof of reverse discrimination. Not wanting to be on the wrong side of the issues yet again (as with the New Black Panther / voter intimidation case), the NAACP declared that Ms. Sherrod was a racist, and high government officials (as high as the Whitehouse, maybe?) demanded Ms. Sherrod's immediate firing...without letting her tell her side of the story. And so she got the axe.
Which is when she was able to point out that the incident she was talking about happened 24 years ago...and that if anyone had taken the time to watch the whole video of her speech, they'd have seen that she said it was wrong to discriminate against anyone, black or white, and that she learned her lesson and did everything possible thereafter to help the white farmer (whose family, even today, credits Ms. Sherrod with helping save their farm). So the NAACP declared they'd been "snookered" and apologized, and the Whitehouse said Ms. Sherrod should be reinstated to her job...but as of this writing she isn't sure she even wants it anymore. And everyone involved is still running around screaming, pointing fingers, looking for someone to accuse of racism, and hopefully they'll all melt into butter.
The moral of this sad, stupid story is that people should get full, accurate information before jumping to conclusions...let alone firing anyone over unfounded accusations of racism.
But on the positive side, there is one clarifying insight which has emerged from this foolishness. In the NAACP's initial attack on Sherrod, they declared "Racism is about the abuse of power. Sherrod had it in her position at USDA. According to her remarks, she mistreated a white farmer in need of assistance because of his race."
And so the NAACP concedes that it is racism if a black person is empowered to mistreat someone, and does so because the victim is white.
For instance, if an empowered black Attorney General refuses to prosecute Black Panthers for voter intimidation because the victims were white.
Or if an empowered black president admits "not having all the facts," but declares a policeman to have "acted stupidly" because he was white.
That's racism.
And hopefully, someday, we can all quit running in circles and talk about it.
In yet another devastating setback for the Obama administration and its unindicted co-conspirators in the mainstream media, Hope n' Change Cartoons just reached its offical 250th Follower!
Oh sure, it's not the biggest number on the Internet...but look what 300 Spartans did when outnumbered at the Battle of Thermopylae! All we need is another 50 Followers and an infinite number of sit-ups and tummy-crunches and we're there! Seriously, I want to say how grateful I am to EVERYONE who visits Hope n' Change each day. It's fun to count the followers, but it's not really important...because everyone who visits is equally appreciated!
I'd like to point out that there are new little buttons under each day's post, allowing you to send an easy (and non-spamming) link to friends on Facebook, Twitter, and other services. That's the best possible way to help Hope n' Change grow...and I'm extremely grateful to everyone who either shares a link or puts our cartoons on their own blogs and websites.
You'll note that Hope n' Change is still an ad-free website. I don't make a dime from what I do here, but still feel it's important because A) it gives me a chance to vent, B) it allows me to cheer and hopefully inspire others, and C) because it helps create a sense of community for everyone who visits...a place to be with like-minded friends, and to be reminded that there's not only strength in numbers, but that it really rattles the opposition when they hear us laughing.
I am sincerely honored and humbled by the opportunity to create cartoons and commentary for such a diverse and discerning group of people. Keep coming back, keep spreading the word, and please visit the "comments" section each day to add your voice to the mix! I can put out the pretzels and beer...but it's up to all of you to make this into a party!
Speaking of which: "Obama!" Now you have to chug your drinks and pour a fresh one!
-Stilton Jarlsberg, MD
And don't forget...
Johnny Optimism is Stilton Jarlsberg's new webcomic, updated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Johnny faces a lot of challenges, but always tries to keep a good attitude no matter how bad things may get. Or when they get worse. And worse than that.
In other words, Johnny is just like the rest of us...coping with Life's indignities and unpleasant surprises the best way he knows how. And taking us along for the hilariously disturbing ride.
Shocking stories continue to come out about "JournoList" - an Internet website, closed to outsiders, where liberal journalists could meet, decide which stories to bury (like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's anti-American diatribes) and, better still, which conservatives they'd like to bury.
Sarah Spitz, a producer for NPR, opined on the site that she'd like to be present to see Rush Limbaugh dying of a heart attack...and that rather than call for help, she would "laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out." She continues "I never knew I had this much hate in me - but he deserves it."
Ms. Spitz's biographical information has been pulled from NPR's affiliate website, but the organization - which employs a "Chief Ethics Officer" - hasn't commented further on the ethics of publicly fantasizing about agonizing deaths for political opponents. Other JournoList revelations include the fact that many alleged journalists wanted the government to take Fox News off the air...presumably because audiences were (and are) flocking to Fox News in hopes of hearing actual news.
All of it is sad, but none of it strikes us as surprising.
Because, unlike Sarah Spitz, we did know they have this much hate in them.
On July 20th, 41 years ago, newspaper headlines proclaimed "Men Walk On Moon!" It was an incredible accomplishment, and the whole world cheered.
But where are such headlines now? In fact, in this era of "Hope and Change," where's the good news period?
We can't blame the president for circumstances that are beyond his control. But we do blame him for what seems to be the death of national optimism. Far from inspiring us to rise to great challenges and accomplishments, Barack Obama shows no passion except when criticizing America's past, disparaging free enterprise, and denigrating his political opponents.
And the future he both predicts and shapes is not one of achievements, but one of entitlements and debts which have been described by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the single greatest threat to our national security.
To paraphrase the movie title, we'd like to go "Back To A Future" - back to a time in which our nation believed the future really would be better, and presidents inspired us and challenged us to accomplish great things.
In 1961, John F Kennedy made it NASA's primary mission to put a man on the moon.
In 2010, Barack H Obama made it NASA's primary mission to increase the self-esteem of Muslims.
And increasingly, the only good news is very, very old news.
Pressure - both physical and political - continues to build as concerns grow that the containment cap placed over BP's leaking oil well may actually be causing "seepage" of oil and hydrocarbons through multiple locations in the seafloor.
Should that occur, it may be almost impossible to stop the new leaks (or collect the oil) on a permanent basis...and the first 3 months of Obama's "Katrina" will be looked back on fondly as "the good old days."
It's highly ironic that a proposed fix for a problem could potentially make it so much worse. But, as is the case with Obamacare, it's not all that surprising.
Thanks to Barack Obama's decision to leave large portions of America's southern border open, and Eric Holder's decision to sue Arizona for attempting to enforce immigration laws, July is on track to break the record for the most people who have died in the desert while attempting to enter our country.
In just the first two weeks of this month, 40 corpses have been collected from the blistering no-man's land...so many that Arizona's Pima Country morgue was overwhelmed, and a refrigerated truck had to be rented to store the overflow of bodies. Federal law, of course, prevents the medical examiner from "racial profiling" and saying how many of the deceased looked Hispanic... and he presumably risks being charged with "existential profiling" if his report states that the victims "look dead."
Death by dehydration is a slow and excruciating process...an indescribable torture. And it's a torture that Barack Obama could order stopped, by truly sealing the border instead of callously leaving open the deadliest crossing spots.
But as the president made clear to Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, the democrats feel their best chance of passing "comprehensive immigration reform" is to keep the borders open and immigrants flooding in, as a form of pressure and extortion against the GOP.
And if hundreds of men, women, and children die horribly to advance the president's agenda, it's an acceptably small price to pay.
Plus, the president can count on getting the vulture vote.
Washington has announced that every American's federally required "electronic health records" will soon have to include their "Body Mass Index" - a determination of how fat you are.
The government will collect the records and distribute them via computer network to a variety of national, state, and local entities.
Presumably, they could also post your records at FatAssNeighbor.gov if they feel like it, or use the records to create a "watch list" of chubbies who will be turned in if they show up at fast food restaurants, buffets, or other known lipo-terror organizations.
More realistically, the records will be used to help determine who will receive healthcare and who doesn't...and establish the basis for a so-called "fat tax" on larger people, who selfishly endanger the health of our nation by simply existing.
Or just maybe the government is requiring collection, computerization, and monitoring of everyone's body mass index for no reason at all, and won't do anything with it!
