Blogcritics Comments on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Comment by Heloise on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:27:02 EDT

Yes, I watch the markets. I should have bought BSC when it was 5 dollars a share. After the welfare for Wall Street went through it is now up to 12 dollars a share. So I paid more for it. But now the stock will go up from the 2 bucks it fell to. I could write articles on markets but no one would read it. Heloise

Comment by Clavos on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:26:29 EDT

Answers to some of your questions, bliffle, can be found in this article in The Economist, which says, in part: "Rescuing Bear Stearns and its kind from their own folly may strike many people as overly charitable. For years Wall Street minted billions without showing much compassion. Yet the Fed put $30 billion of public money at risk for the best reason of all: the public interest. Bear is a counterparty to some $10 trillion of over-the-counter swaps. With the broker's collapse, the fear that these and other contracts would no longer be honoured would have infected the world's derivatives markets. Imagine those doubts raging in all the securities Bear traded and from there spreading across the financial system; then imagine what would happen to the economy in the financial nuclear winter that would follow. Bear Stearns may not have been too big to fail, but it was too entangled." I suppose you would have preferred the administration remain true to its "...brave talk about 'Free Markets'," and allowed the chips to fall where they may?

Comment by bliffle on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:40:17 EDT

I hate to break into the BC "All Race News All The Time" format, but did anyone notice that the Bush administration bailed out Bear Stearns last week? This, after they let 1 million USA families lose their homes to repossession? After all that brave talk about "Free Markets"? After all the provisos about "consequences"? And 2 million more USA families may lose their homes this year? Did anyone notice that the Bush Administration has opened the national piggy bank to almost anything that calls itself a financial institution? Even if it's never paid a cent in premiums? Even if it's NOT regulated by federal law as ordinary banks are? Oh well. Go back to sleep. Sheep.

Comment by Heloise on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:23:13 EDT

Pablo add this to your count: the form of AIDS that Africans have is MUCH more virulent, i.e., deadly than the form contracted here in the states. Why, because it was made and bred in Africa. There are different DNA strains of AIDS. Everyone does not get the exact same AIDS or HIV virus. Therefore, the argument should be why don't those with the most virulent form get greater treatment? Well the leaders in Africa are denying there is a problem...oh well. Heloise

Comment by Heloise on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:15:24 EDT

News flash: Obama's race speech has been tagged as appealing to or done for "the elitist" meaning the superdelegates, not us simple folks. Heloise

Comment by Dan on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 15:13:10 EDT

"Since I am an American white, and a Southern one at that, Dan's comment makes little sense. His method is to seize upon one phrase or bit of logic and cynically generalize that an entire argument, or the entire mindset of a commenter, is beneath contempt." logically I would simply ask what being "an American white, and a Southern one at that" has to do with the sensibility of my comment. I'm guessing though that Handyguy has some bigoted assumptions about Southern whites. Although I reckon he's somehow overcome whatever it is that afflicts them. "To seize" upon logic or fact that demonstrates the dishonesty of anothers argument is something I'm not ashamed of doing. I'm not the one attempting to dehumanize here. "I challenge him to prove he's really a thinker and not just a creepy hate-spewer." It's a challenge for me to figure out what causes handy to engage in such ugly, childish name calling, when he doesn't articulate any example to draw conclusions from. To my thinking, If the Tuskegee myth is a lie, then exposing it would be a crucial step in bringing the races together. Only a "creepy hate spewer" would want to perpetuate a false myth to dehumanize 1930's whites, and encourage resentment, and grievance in todays blacks. Handyguys ugliness toward me is probably just easier for him than adjusting his view to conform with reality.

Comment by handyguy on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:13:32 EDT

Since I am an American white, and a Southern one at that, Dan's comment makes little sense. His method is to seize upon one phrase or bit of logic and cynically generalize that an entire argument, or the entire mindset of a commenter, is beneath contempt. Yet I have never seen Dan make any comment on this site that is not steeped in cynicism, negativism, in fact, hate. He won't admit to actual bigotry toward gays, blacks or anyone left of Rush Limbaugh; yet nothing in his 'oeuvre' would suggest otherwise. If I am off base here, I challenge him to prove he's really a thinker and not just a creepy hate-spewer. On the issue at hand, I was objecting to Dave's post about Tuskegee, which, whatever its intention, had the very real effect of implying, "It wasn't as bad as all that. Blacks and white liberals have blown it out of proportion." And Dan's chiming-in "yeah" was quite offensive to me. But I didn't then and don't now blame "all American whites" for that execrable crime. It's just one example of the poisonous racism that used to be routine in this country and that still exists in some people, often just below the surface. If Dan can't see that Obama's speech was remarkably, unusually honest and even-handed, and that Ann Coulter's reaction to it was ludicrous and dripping with contempt for...what, exactly? -- well, then, it's hard for us to have a conversation. He has no interest in a real exchange of ideas, anyway. In his mind, any minority group or sympathetic majority-group member who suggests that prejudice is real and pernicious and deserves our attention is just a whiner who should be attacked, the more viciously the better. I choose my targets rather carefully on here. Only the most objectionable words and commenters get this kind of response from me. You don't care? Fine. But don't expect me not to react to this stuff.

Comment by Dan on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 10:04:05 EDT

Handyguy demonstrates the willfully ignorant mindset of those wanting to vilify American whites. He seems to think that by reiterating a deceptive, omission laced account of history, he can overcome the truth. Syphilus in the latent stages, as these men were, is not contagious. Someone please tell NPR.

Comment by Zedd on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:46:51 EDT

Dave, Don't you think I read up on Mbeki's comments the day he made them? He made them a billion years ago by the way... At that time some studies had come out stating that a lot of Africans who were thought to have died of AIDS had actually died of other illnesses but because of the AIDS wave internationally, many people were being lumped into the AIDS category, especially in poor nations and not being treated or even treating themselves for other less "striking" diseases, dying needlessly.... Combine that with a new nation that was to serve 5x it's previous constituency creating the most basic of services with warnings that he current infrastructure could not sustain the numbers that would be entering the grid. Now a major costly diseases enters the picture, there is massive crime and a hysteria is looming. While it was a dumb statement couched in the situation of the moment. He then went on to say that the biggest killer in Africa is poverty. He made an appeal to the world to forgive the debt of AIDS stricken nations so that they may better address the issue and attack all of the other poverty related matters which are affecting mortality. Not quite the voodoo medicine that you'd hoped was being suggested. Sorry. What I was commenting on earlier was your statement about Wright. The HIV controversy is such as I stated it. It is not founded on mambo jumbo as you suggested.

Comment by handyguy on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:46:59 EDT

Agreed, Dave, your post was merely condescending, making a "correction" where one was not required. It did not stoop to the very low level of Dan's #34: Quoting approvingly at length from Ann Coulter's quite remarkably hateful comments on the Obama speech merely demonstrates again the actual depth of Dan's thinking - 'bout an inch and a half, though wrapped up in totally fake 'reasonableness.'

Comment by JustOneMan on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:56:36 EDT

Ruvy, Please stay on topic...we are not bashing racist and bigoted jews...we however bashing racist and bogoted negros. And due to the BC Affirmative Action Bashing quoata please step to the rear of the line or back of the bus please. Your turn will come! Thank you for your cooperation JOM

Comment by Dave Nalle on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:38:31 EDT

Handy, I acknowledged every one of the points made in the article you quoted in my comment on Tuskegee, except that I wasn't aware of the wives and children issue. You're looking for a fight where there isn't one. I don't disagree that Tuskegee was unacceptable, but it wasn't some sort of racially based death camp. It did have a legitimate medical purpose and wasn't that different at its inception from the way other medical studies are conducted. Zedd, you might want to read up on Mbeki's beliefs about AIDS. He doesn't think it's caused by HIV, thinks condoms are evil, and thinks that better nutrition and herbal remedies can cure it. He thinks that AIDS is a western conspiracy to oppress black Africans and even though offered free treatment drugs he refused to distribute them until recently and may resume that policy having fired his health minister who supported AID treatment and replaced her with someone who is essentially a witch doctor. Dave

Comment by handyguy on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:48:41 EDT

Disingenuous Dave's all-too-typical attempt to provide a "liberals-are-so-stupid" rationalization of Tuskegee glosses over a few [thousand] things. The Tuskegee case was a horror, and no purpose is served by "setting the facts straight" in a smug tone designed to make the case sound more minor and less awful than it was. From a 2002 NPR piece: The Public Health Service, working with the Tuskegee Institute, began the study in 1932. Nearly 400 poor black men with syphilis from Macon County, Ala., were enrolled in the study. They were never told they had syphilis, nor were they ever treated for it. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the men were told they were being treated for "bad blood," a local term used to describe several illnesses, including syphilis, anemia and fatigue. For participating in the study, the men were given free medical exams, free meals and free burial insurance. At the start of the study, there was no proven treatment for syphilis. But even after penicillin became a standard cure for the disease in 1947, the medicine was withheld from the men. The Tuskegee scientists wanted to continue to study how the disease spreads and kills. The experiment lasted four decades, until public health workers leaked the story to the media. By then, dozens of the men had died, and many wives and children had been infected. In 1973, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed a class-action lawsuit. A $9 million settlement was divided among the study's participants. Free health care was given to the men who were still living, and to infected wives, widows and children. And a presidential apology. Just more dumb liberal piety, I guess.

Comment by Brian aka Guppusmaximus on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:33:12 EDT

Imus was on the public airwaves. Wright was in a church. Oh Yea, I forgot... So as long as people in a power position project their racist, fascist & anti-American ideology only on those people behind closed doors that makes it okay? Sorry, but people have done far more damage to this nation from a pulpit than from any radio station!

Comment by Ruvy in Jerusalem on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:21:21 EDT

Hey JOM! Think you could hit the side of a ~~mosque~~ barn with an M1 - an M16? How about the side of a circus tent? How about the side of a dirigible? I mean a dirigible tied down with ropes: I wouldn't want to overburden a hardworking firefighter like you with a moving target. I'll think about what a competent partner you'd make when I'm on patrol with the police Sunday night and sitting guard for the village Tuesday morning. I can use the laughs.... You can sink back into swampy sleaze you call New Jersey now. You have my permission. Laters! Oh yeah - where you're concerned, I AM a condescending SOB. It's hard to be anything else.... JOM "sliding down the fireman's pole of truth - into the muck of sleaze"

Comment by JustOneMan on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 08:43:22 EDT

Fat the Exfat "I wouldn't have wanted him beside me in the thick of it." Hey...I was a great Patrol leader and Eagle scout...you would have wanted me in the "thick of it" who would show you how to pitch a tent, start a fire or make smores? Speaking of fire...as a volunteer fire fighter I like your address. If your house is on fire I want be sure that either no one shows up or they take their time... It's funny to hear minorities complain how tough they have it. They want to blame whites for their limited status in the world. JOM "On my honor..."

Comment by Pat the Expat on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:24:54 EDT

"Now, how does Imus' remarks measure in comparison to a man that is supposed to be "of the cloth"?" Imus was on the public airwaves. Wright was in a church. "I forgot, JOM, what was your excuse again for not serving?" From the comments in this thread, it is likely because he was too stupid to be let in. I wouldn't have wanted him beside me in the thick of it. It's funny to hear white guys complain how tough they have it. They want to blame other minorities for their limited status in the world, but in a one race world, a more capable white person passing these morons by.

Comment by Zedd on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:40:15 EDT

Didn't mean to say needles. The benadryl is kicking in...

Comment by Zedd on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:39:03 EDT

Dave, Why is it implausible that AIDS came about as a result of contaminated needles? The theory is that the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) was accidentally introduced to humans by scientists who used chimp tissue to cultivate polio vaccines. Now the question is, if at least 1/5 of the bush meat (monkey meat.. yuck) that is sold in markets in certain parts of West Africa has SIV, why are the rates of HIV not greater and why did the virus not spread sooner. Not saying that these are my beliefs but that is the theory. Doesn't sound that pixie-fide does it.

Comment by Pablo on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:02:25 EDT

Dread, What is was referring to was "googled google", the exact phrase which has some 5000 hits. I am so glad however that out of that particular post that is what you chose salient to right about. Spot On Dread! You must be takin lessons from Clavy baby.

Comment by Dr Dreadful on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:33:42 EDT

I then googled google, (hey I like that :) Out of curiosity, I just went to Google and typed in 'Google'. Over two billion results. That's even more than for the word 'thing'. (Actually, Google didn't much seem to like me Googling 'thing'. It wanted me to search for 'thong' instead... Only 70 million results for 'Pablo'. Don't be too downcast, though. I'm sure it's nothing personal.

Comment by Dave Nalle on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:17:06 EDT

Pablo, you'd fit right in with the current president of South Africa who apparently thinks AIDS is spread by magic pixies and/or may not exist at all. Dave

Comment by Dr Dreadful on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:07:40 EDT

4. Drege..."I was for Obama befor I was against him" Well, JOM - all I can say is don't let me catch you griping about anyone flip-flopping. You slagged off Obama pretty much constantly before announcing - quite enthusiastically, I might add - that you were going to vote for him, and then instantly reverted to your 24/7 anti-Obama rants.

Comment by Pablo on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:42:48 EDT

I got to thinkin about the Rev Wright's preachin on HIV/AIDS. I then googled google, (hey I like that :), hell I may have even coined it, a future google search will settle that.)wondering what the aids count was in Africa, it came back with some 22,500,000 human beings currently living with this virus there. Also there's about a billion people. These are people that currently are carrying the disease, not the millions that have already died from it. Suppose for a second that you the reader are from a particular geo/ethnic culture. That many in your culture in the past had been kidnapped, enslaved, then denied anything even closely resembling equality for several more centuries. Then suddenly an epidemic occurs, but mostly to your particular subculture, I wonder how many of you the reader, if you were in those shoes, would not suspect that your racist adversaries with their fancy medical shit, were up to no good. Try puttin yourself in another's shoes sometimes, and see how it fits.

Comment by Zedd on Obama Walks on Hot Water: Addressing America on Race, Religion and Rev. Wright

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:30:13 EDT

JOM "7. Obama is really qualified and is not there just because he is black..." This is the stupidest thing that is being suggested. Considering that ALL of Americas Presidents have been White AND that there has NEVER been a viable Black candidate, why would anyone think that Barak Obama's Blackness is what is propelling his chances of being President of THESE united states? Logic. Gotta love it.