Hypothetical Dystopia

As we saw during the controversy over the proposed cultural center near Ground Zero, or the polls that show surprising percentages of Americans believe Obama was not born in America or is not a Christian, otherness fear-mongering, specifically targeting Arab people and Muslims, has been permitted to fester for too long. The result is a less globally competitive, internally divided country, unable to embrace change and move forward as a multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic, multireligious America bound by a Constitution that calls on us to respect the rights and freedoms of every citizen.

— The Hill: Punish Bachmann (via kileyrae)

[Michele] Bachmann’s concept of Christian love brims with hate, and she has a deep satchel of stones to throw. From what kind of messiah did she learn that? … My aim here isn’t to re-litigate Bachmann’s crimes against reason and decency, all widely documented. It’s to wonder why we accept her descriptions of herself, and in turn describe her, as a deeply religious woman. That grants too much credence to her particular, peculiar and highly selective definition of piety. And it offends the many admirable people of faith whose understanding and practice of religion aren’t, like hers, confrontational and small-minded.

— Frank Bruni in his column, The Divine Miss M - NYTimes.com (via bohemiansouth)