HERMAN CAIN THEN AND NOW

Back in 1994, Bill Clinton debated Herman Cain on health care policy. Why was the president debating Cain in a public forum? I have no idea. Anyway, the right-wingers went crazy over Cain. According to David Remnick, in The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town", Rush Limbaugh played over and over a clip of Cain saying to the president, "Mr. President, with all due respect, your calculation on what the impact would do, quite honestly, is incorrect."

Remnick also reveals that Jack Kemp was so exuberantly admiring that he said, "Here's a black guy with the voice of Othello, the looks of a football player, the English of Oxfordian quality, and the courage of a lion."

Alas, allegations of sexual harassment (Nein, nein, nein, Mr Cain!) have now slowed the candidate's meteoric rise in the polls, but he still leads with 18% to Romney and Gingrich both at 15%. Cain's down but not out just yet. However, CBSNews says:

Cain has lost support among women since late October. Then, he led among women, garnering 28 percent of their support. Now, his support among women is just 15 percent. He has also lost ground with conservatives, from 30 percent to 23 percent now. And there has been some movement among Tea Party supporters as well; their support for Cain has declined from 32 percent to 19 percent. Romney has lost support among men, while Gingrich's support among that group has increased eight points.

The race to the finish line for the Republican nomination may be between Romney and Gingrich. Still, a lot can happen between now and the convention.

OH JOY!

Thanks to Diane R. on Facebook.

'The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas'

The events at Penn State, the indifference of our politicians to the plight of many citizens of our country, including children, and the 1% who have it all and want still more call to mind Ursula Le Guin's science fiction/horror story titled 'The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas'.

My mind is a jumble about the connection, and my association is not even original, because I read John Scalzi's post on Omelas University on Facebook and immediately connected with it.

I think of the concept of the scapegoat, which is also not original, but comes from it's margaret.

I think that many of us here in the US and the West are culpable, because our comfortable lives depend upon the labor of a good many people, including children, who live desperate and sometimes violent lives in very poor countries.

See? My thoughts are far from coherent. They're scattered all over the place, and perhaps I'd have done better to leave them unwritten and hidden in my mind in their jumbled state. But LeGuin's story haunts me, so perhaps the post serves as a kind of exorcism.

If you haven't read the story and would like to, the link above will take you to the text.

Apropos of perhaps not much, I came across the following quote from Honoré de Balzac's novel Le Père Goriot. From Google Answers, here is the quote in its original French:

Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu'il a été proprement fait.

An English translation:

The secret of a great fortune without an apparent source is a forgotten crime that has never been found out, because it was neatly done.

Picture of William Holman Hunt's The Scapegoat from Wikipedia.

WHO ELVIS?

Whoa there, Big Mama!

H/T to echidne at Eschaton.

STORY OF THE DAY - FIRST THING

He tried hard to tell the truth but it
wasn't always that obvious, so usually he
just said the first thing that came to
mind.

Yes, I do like this story.

From StoryPeople.

HONORING OUR VETERANS

We honor our veterans best by serving them when they return from fighting our wars or leave the service. We honor them by providing compassionate and generous care for those who are broken in body, mind, or spirit, by providing opportunities for them to further their education or training, by providing jobs for them, so the numbers of homeless veterans don't grow. All the fancy, patriotic words in the world will count for nothing if we do not back up our words with actions. Veterans served in the military in place of the rest of us. I thank them from my heart for their service.

A Prayer for Veterans' Day

O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Book of Common Prayer)

SEE HOW THEY LOVE ONE ANOTHER

From the Guardian:

When Toronto zoo bought African penguins Pedro and Buddy from Pittsburgh's National Aviary, they expected them to mate with two females. Instead, despite being trailed by lovelorn lady penguins, they only had eyes for each other, engaging in what naturalists call "courtship behaviour". So Tom Mason, the zoo's curator of birds and invertebrates, ended the relationship on the grounds that it was jeopardising the future of the species. Despite the impression given by programmes such as Frozen Planet, which show carpets of penguins as far as the eye can see, the African penguin is on the verge of extinction. Only 60,000 are left in the wild (down from 225,000 two decades ago), and the zoo doesn't feel it can allow a season to go by without Pedro and Buddy's genes being passed on.

Aren't the penguins beautiful? The appearance and coloration of the two birds are quite different.

If you click the link to the Guardian, you will see the headline: "Is it homophobic to split up gay penguins?" Was the separation of Pedro and Buddy due to homophobia? The African penguins face extinction, and the zookeepers want the penguins to breed. Should the zoo have allowed Pedro and Buddy to stay together?
What do you think?

UPDATE: According to the website Penguins-World, "They [African Penguins] form lifelong mating rituals with one partner."

And thanks to Lapin for the link to the story.

ASBO JESUS - THE WIND OF THE SPIRIT...

Click on the cartoon for the larger view.

From ASBO Jesus.

WANT HIM FOR YOUR PRESNIT?

Or Herman Cain who says about himself:

“For every one person that comes forward with a false accusation, there are probably thousands who will say that none of that sort of activity ever came from Herman Cain.”

Alas, 'tis true. Folks in the audience at the debate booed the questioner who asked about 'that sort of activity'.

H/T for the two entries above to Adrastos at First Draft here and here.

The folks at FD are on a roll today.

'WHOSE TRAGEDY?'

What is happening at Penn State is not a tragedy for Penn State.

It's not a tragedy for Joe Paterno, or Graham Spanier, or any one of a thousand students whose school just became a national punch line.

It's not a tragedy for alumni who will have to answer questions for a week or two from prurient and stupid work colleagues.

It's not a tragedy for football fans, or for student athletes.

This is a tragedy for the children raped by Jerry Sandusky, and that is IT.

From Athenae at First Draft. Read the rest at the link.

Well said. Thank you, Athenae.