Friday, June 28, 2013

Nobody Asked Me, But...

1) There are moments when history palpably turns a page. Today is just such a moment.

2) In the event Nelson Mandela does not survive much longer, I would like to throw my wishes into the air and hope they drift on a gentle breeze to his bedside. As I live in a nation that is sitting idly by while the rights of minorities are ripped from their grasp, while we actually wonder whether a bloodthirsty racist is guilty of killing a young man whose only crime was walking down a sidewalk, and the murdered child’s girlfriend is mocked for her command of English, I look to Nelson Mandela and pray to my Lord that somehow his spirit finds its way to America. We have apartheid of the worst kind: hidden, nearly-invisible. And this apartheid is not just racial or ethnic, but economic, egged on by people who would stand to most benefit from true freedom.

3) Irony of ironies: A group of South African Muslim lawyers has called for President Obama to be arrested for war crimes by the Pretoria regime.

4) For me, Sunday will be a day where I am either out on my bike or glued to my TeeVee: the Tour de France will televise its second stage, and then a dream match of reigning World Champion Spain v. 2014 World Cup host and perennial powerhouse Brazil in the finals of the Confederations Cup. In Brazil. Where there have been major protests.

5) The Egyptian Spring seems to be turning into a long hot summer.

6) As odious as provisions of the newly-passed immigration bill are, it seems that Chuck Schumer laid some mines for House Republicans. Good on him.

7) The universe may be stranger than we can know.

8) Could Rand Paul, who pisses off just about everyone except his fanbois, be the 2016 Republican Presidential candidate? God, I hope so! It would be like going into the lion’s mouth and pulling all his teeth to kick his ass.

9) Now that he’s about to be suspended for, well, basically forever, whither A-Rod?

10) The freude, it schadens.