ANTHONY L. HALL takes aim at every important issue of our time with a unique and refreshing perspective. He comments on: Obama accepting the Nobel Prize... "Many people are still wondering what that mysterious light hovering over Norway was on the night before he arrived. But, despite claims that it was generated by a UFO or the failed test launch of a Russian missile, die-hard believers (like me) will tell you that it was just a celestial sign heralding the Nobel coming of Barack Obama." The swine flu pandemic that wasn't... "An Obama advisor has been quoted saying, 'You never want a serious crisis to go to waste'... It is instructive to note that the pharmaceutical companies that produce vaccines, as well as the peddlers of surgical masks and other flu paraphernalia, appear to be heeding this advice." Movie about Nehru's affair with the wife of a British diplomat... "One can only imagine the physical passion they shared, especially in light of Edwina's reputed nymphomania, which, notwithstanding Nehru's efforts, she reportedly satiated by making scandalous booty calls on a black man for over 30 years." Christmas Day underwear bomber... "[W]e had the secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, assuring us on Sunday that 'the system worked' in this case. If this 'good-job-Brownie' faux pas doesn't suggest that our whole airline security system is devoid of logic, nothing does." Cartoon of Obama kneeling and kissing shoe of Chinese leader... "To be sure, the cartoon takes some creative license. But the essential point it conveys is undeniable: America cannot stand like a superpower with China squeezing its balls in a financial vise grip!" Expenses scandal that rocked UK Parliament... "Who knew that the only swine flu Britons had to worry about was an epidemic of MPs feeding at the public trough like pigs?" Tiger Woods's Thanksgiving-Day spat with his wife... "Cheating Tiger, fuming dragon...."

CHANGE We Can Believe In?

Commentaries on the Major Events of Our Times: Volume VBy Anthony Livingston Hall

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Anthony Livingston Hall
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-3312-5

Contents

Introduction........................................................xviiThe Character of Obama's Presidency.................................1Resetting Cold War Relationships....................................53Globalization: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.....................63The Politics and Business of Religion...............................91Social and Cultural Potpourri.......................................101Glorified Misbehavior of Celebrities................................125Sports: Lots to Cheer, More to Jeer.................................139Meanwhile, Around the World.........................................177Deaths of Famous People.............................................337Acknowledgment......................................................357Bibliography: Notes on Source Materials.............................359Index...............................................................361About the Author....................................................367

Chapter One

The Character of Obama's Presidency

In Which His Dating Habits and Nobel Peace Prize Incite Almost as Much Controversy as His New War Strategy and Plan to Reform Health Care

Familiarity Breeding Contempt

New York Post Heralds Obama with Racist Cartoon

I have been an ardent critic of the black-victimology politics that Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have turned into a very profitable business. But even these firebrands occasionally stumble upon a racial slight that warrants public outrage and protest.

Such is the case with the cartoon the New York Post published on Wednesday, which depicts two white cops shooting a chimpanzee under the caption, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." For not even a card-carrying member of the KKK can deny the patently racist (black-man-as-ape) stereotype it reinforces.

Ridiculing the first black president of the United States in this fashion is not only insulting but also dangerous. After all, if the Post indicates that it's okay to laugh about assassinating President Obama because of his economic stimulus plan, some kook might think it's okay to assassinate him because of his health-care plan, which some right-wingnuts have damned as a treasonous, socialist manifesto. God knows JFK, RFK, and MLK were all taken out for much less.

It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill. Period. But it has been taken as something else-as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism. This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.

Meanwhile, this indignant "apology," which presumably was offered today to those (hyper-sensitive blacks and guilt-ridden whites) who didn't get the joke, is sufficient provocation for Sharpton & Co. to picket the Post until kingdom come. There would be a far greater impact on its bottom line, however, if the black professional athletes on whom this newspaper relies to generate interest in its sports pages were to boycott it.

February 21

UPDATE

Murdoch Apologizes

In an extraordinarily conciliatory move (financial motives notwithstanding), Rupert Murdoch personally apologized today for the publication of this offensive cartoon:

As the chairman of the New York Post, I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck stops with me. Last week, we made a mistake. We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted ... We all hold the readers of the New York Post in high regard and I promise you that we will seek to be more attuned to the sensitivities of our community. That's better. Enough said.

February 24

From HOPE to DOOM in One Month

One of the more ironic features of Obama's nascent presidency is the way he's being criticized for not inspiring enough hope that the United States will weather this worsening financial crisis. And it does not matter to his critics that Obama is merely honoring his promise to speak truth to the American people about the state of the Union, which in fact is in pretty dire straits. Even former President Bill Clinton has joined the chorus of those insisting that Obama's doom-and-gloom truth-telling is only making matters worse.

It is not lost on me, however, that these are the same folks who criticized former president George W. Bush for spinning rosy scenarios about the war in Iraq, when it was clear that it too was in dire straits. Frankly, I think Obama has struck the right balance between informing the American people about the serious nature of this crisis and explaining the initiatives he's undertaking to deal with it. And this is precisely what I expect him to do in his first address before a joint session of Congress tonight.

For the record, despite what his critics say, Obama actually has been reassuring the nation that financial recovery will come ... someday. And he will undoubtedly provide further reassurances in his address. But just imagine the deluge of criticism that would be raining down on him (about being nave and too full of hope) if he did not make it painfully clear that the road ahead will be rough.

In any event, it is plainly absurd to blame Obama for the fact that investor confidence on Wall Street is so fickle these days that any idle-minded rumor can cause the market to plummet five hundred points in an instant. But the fact that the Dow closed yesterday at its lowest point in over a decade will only embolden his critics. Yet Clinton of all people should know that Obama's performance should be based more on how many jobs he creates on Main Street than on how much wealth speculators create on Wall Street.

Nevertheless, here's proof that criticisms of him in this context are wholly unwarranted:

If we do not move swiftly to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law, an economy that is in crisis will be faced with catastrophe. I know that people are hurting. I've heard their stories, and I've sensed their deep frustration. But I also know that these struggles have not diminished the strength and decency of the American people ... We can write that next great chapter in American history. If we stay focused on the big picture; if we never forget the people who we are fighting for; if we represent the strength and dignity of the American people, then I know we can answer's history's call and renew America's promise. (Obama addressing the House Democratic Caucus, whitehouse.gov, February 5, 2009)

So what more do these Pollyannas want from this honest, responsible, and intelligent president?! They seem utterly oblivious to the fact that it took Bush eight years to create this mess. Surely Obama should be given at least eight months to clean it up....

Meanwhile,...