December 22, 2008
There has been quite a bit of attention focused on Barack Obama’s choice of conservative evangelical minister, Rick Warren, to deliver the invocation at the Presidential inauguration ceremony on January 20. Most of the outrage over that choice stems from the fact that Warren was actively involved in promoting Proposition 8, the controversial California ballot initiative banning same-sex marriages.
A large number of objections to Warren’s participation in this historic ceremony are coming from Hollywood. As Tina Daunt reported in the December 20 Los Angeles Times, the entertainment community’s reaction to Warren’s role in the inaugural was “swift, angry and bitter”. Her article quoted Hollywood publicist, Howard Bragman who said the following about Barack Obama:
“What he didn’t realize was how much untapped energy there was in the gay and lesbian community because of the passage of Prop. 8,” said Bragman. “Obama didn’t realize, after all the support he got from the gay and lesbian community, we feel betrayed right now.”
Meanwhile, back at the nation’s capitol, Barney Frank, the openly gay Senator from Massachusetts, had much to say about Warren’s role in the inaugural ceremony. As Jason Blum reported on December 21 at the Bloomberg website, Senator Frank said this about the inclusion of Warren in the event:
“Giving that kind of mark of approval and honor to someone who has frankly spoken in ways I and many others have found personally very offensive, I thought that was a mistake for the president-elect to do.”
I particularly enjoyed the piece written by Christopher Hitchens for Slate on December 19. I thought the televangelist lobby would have been run out of Washington in the wake of the 2008 elections. Chris Hitchens appears to be sharing my disappointment over that group’s enduring presence on Capitol Hill, despite the efforts of many to preserve the separation of church and state. The most impressive point made in this article concerned Warren’s insistence that there are no Jews allowed in heaven:
It is a fact that Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., was present at a meeting of the Aspen Institute not long ago and was asked by Lynda Resnick — she of the pomegranate-juice dynasty — if a Jew like herself could expect to be admitted to paradise. Warren publicly told her no.
Similarly, Time magazine’s Joe Klein had this to say in his December 16 posting on his Swampland blog at Time.com, concerning Warren’s insistence that Jews can’t go to heaven:
I am not a big fan of Rick Warren’s. He thinks I’m going to hell. He said so in mixed company, at an Aspen Institute forum. He was asked if Jews were going to hell. He said yes. He can go ahead and feed every poor child in Africa and I’m still going to think he’s a fool for believing that. Reverend Rick is also not too big on gay or women’s rights. (Indeed, if Jews–and all other non born-again Christians–homosexuals, feminists, and anyone who has either had an abortion, performed an abortion or reluctantly agrees that it’s none of our business who has abortions … if all those people are going to hell, then heaven’s got to be about as interesting as linoleum.)
Regardless of the controversies over Proposition 8 and same-sex marriage, is it really appropriate to have a man deliver the invocation at the Presidential inauguration ceremony, when that man professes that Jews are not allowed into heaven? Does Warren believe that there is a big “No Jews Allowed” sign at the pearly gates? Has heaven been getting away with something that American country clubs have not been able to do, since the 1970s?
There is obviously plenty wrong with having someone of Warren’s ilk speaking at the Presidential inauguration. Gay weddings constitute just one of many issues these characters have on their list of things to not tolerate. Chris Hitchens suggested three questions to be asked of the Obama transition team, before the inauguration proceeds:
— Will Warren be invited to the solemn ceremony of inauguration without being asked to repudiate what he has directly said to deny salvation to Jews?
— Will he be giving a national invocation without disowning what his mentor said about civil rights and what his leading supporter says about Mormons?
— Will the American people be prayed into the next administration, which will be confronted by a possible nuclear Iran and an already nuclear Pakistan, by a half-educated pulpit-pounder raised in the belief that the Armageddon solution is one to be anticipated with positive glee?
Remember John McCain’s old expression, “agents of intolerance”? Who would have thought that one such agent would deliver the invocation when Barack Obama is sworn in as our next President?
Jackass Of The Year Award
January 1, 2009
At year’s end, we see retrospectives of the most important events, numerous top ten lists and recognitions of achievement in one area or another. 2008 brought a record level of cynicism to the American people because of the economic catastrophe, the Bernie Madoff scandal and the cartoon-like escapades from the Presidential campaign. Accordingly, it seems only appropriate to pay homage to the biggest Jackass of the Year. Since I advertise this website as a “Blago-free zone”, the current Governor of Illinois is automatically disqualified from the competition. So, let’s take a look at some of the runners-up and finally, the winner of the Jackass of the Year Award.
Our first contestant is John Ensign. He is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, representing the State of Nevada in the United States Senate. On November 2, 2008 he appeared on the CBS television program, Face The Nation with Bob Schieffer. Election day was two days away and Ensign found it necessary to blame the likely Republican losses on the economic downturn. He described the Republicans’ fate in these terms:
That’s right. Ensign Douchebag thought he could convince the public that the economic crisis was the result of over-regulation of the financial system, rather than the deregulation described by everyone else in the world. That noble statement certainly rates runner-up status for the Jackass of the Year Award.
Our next contestant is Reverend Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ and embarrassment to Barack Obama. Thank God Reverend Wright’s fifteen minutes of fame are finally over. Although his infamous sermon with the less-than-patriotic remarks about America was given in 2003, by April of 2008, Rev. Wright made a point of resurrecting the controversy concerning his disappointing association with Barack Obama. At that time Wright hit the road, appearing on Bill Moyers Journal, speaking before the NAACP and giving a grand performance before the National Press Club. He made a fool of himself all three times and (perhaps to his disappointment) his bad karma never rubbed off on Barack. The pastor has also been a disgrace to the name of the Right Reverend Carl Wright (comedic sidekick of Chicago blues maven, Pervis Spann). Although Jeremiah Wright rated recognition, the competition for the Jackass Award was tough this year.
We cannot overlook the valiant efforts of Joe “The Tool” Lieberman to win this honor. Although the people of Connecticut elected Joe to represent their state in the Senate, The Tool spent most of 2008 looking like a stray dog, following candidate John McCain around the campaign trial. You can find my prior rants about Senator Lieberman here, here, here and here.
We must also give consideration to Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. John McCain was on to him. It just wasn’t fair that poor, old Senator McCain took so much heat for pointing out that Cox had to go. McCain made the mistake of stating that he, as President, would have authority to fire Cox. Although he was wrong about that, he was right about the notion that Cox had been a problem for the SEC. On December 16, Jessie Westerbrook of Bloomberg news reported that Cox was blaming his subordinates for the enforcement lapses that allowed the scam, perpetrated by Bernie Madoff, to continue for several years after the SEC should have stopped it. Cox apparently believes in the doctrine that “the buck stops” several levels below himself on the SEC food chain. The environment at the SEC, with Cox at the helm, was best summed up in a December 27 article from the Los Angeles Times by Amit Paley and David Hilzenrath. Here’s what they had to say about the tenure of Chairman Cox and his performance during the economic crisis:
Heckuva’ job, Coxey! Nevertheless, you have been overshadowed in this year’s competition.
The winner of the 2008 Jackass of the Year Award is a professor from Russia, named Igor Panarin. He is a former member of the KGB, who is apparently so upset over the breakup of the Soviet Union, that for the past ten years, he has been predicting that the United States would also break up. On December 29, Andrew Osborn reported in The Wall Street Journal that Panarin has been doing two interviews per day, discussing how “an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S.” The article explained:
Worse yet, the other five parts of the country will supposedly become republics that will be part of or under the influence of Canada, the European Union, Mexico, China or Japan. Osborn’s article included a picture of Panarin’s map, showing how the various segments of the country would be apportioned. Panarin’s ideas have brought him quite a bit of publicity . . . and TheCenterLane.com’s Jackass of the Year Award for 2008! Congratulations, Jackass!