I saw the documentary "The Weather Underground" and came out thinking that those kids were crazy, had no strategy, and veered perilously close to the kind of logic that extremists use to justify evil against innocents - an act of God or incompetence prevented that by having that one town house bomb, intended for a soldiers' dance, backfire on the bombmakers.

However, in this interview, Ayers vividly explains the general atmosphere of insanity at that time and explains how a group of kids could think that when compared with daily killings of thousands of innocents, their own property destruction didn't amount to a great shakes in terms of condemnable behavior.

If there's one thing the far left still has going for it, even today, it's the reminder that "presidents can't save us" and that it takes social movements to achieve social change. When Obama gets around to grievously disappointing the liberals, the far left will remember that democracy isn't just about finally managing to pull the lever for the right person.

Glenn,

Do you really think that "accusations of antisemitism" are the only reason for the lockstep ideology of Congress on Israel issues?

If that's all it is, you would think that would be a fairly easy obstacle to overcome -- the Congresspeople who would otherwise seek to act more evenhandedly would simply find some easily available Jewish cover.

I think that at this point one has to concede that it is simply a question of entrenchment -- they really believe what they're saying.

S

"No."

OK, so you don't think they're the only reason. And I wouldn't deny that they play some role, perhaps a significant one.

I think it's important, then, to determine just how large of a role such fear plays. Both because it is related to our ability or lack thereof to change Congressional policy on this matter, and because it is directly related to people's urge to scapegoat. A large part of the reaction to Walt and Mearsheimer's book "The Israel Lobby" was due to the perception that they were saying "without the Israel lobby, Congress would behave much better on Israel." Justified or not, people read "the Israel lobby" as "the Jews" and quickly jumped to the notion that W&M were saying "the Jews control our foreign policy."

Like it or not, that's what is behind the notion that otherwise noble-hearted Congresspeople are quivering in fear over what will be said about them if they buck orthodoxy on Israel, which it is their dear desire to do.

S

S

i don't see what is inherently anti-feminist about superman.

sure, lois lane has often been a damsel in distress (in the 50's, mostly), but if you check out the comics from the late 30's you see that she was also way out ahead of the curve as an ass-kicking career woman.

this isn't the only depiction of obama as superman i've seen recently. there was his comment at the al smith dinner, already mentioned, and the old picture on his website where he poses in front of the superman statue.

rebecca traister understandably might prefer that americans stop comparing their political leaders to heroic archetypes. i can't argue with that.

but if you think about what the fact that "the dark knight" was the most popular movie of the last few years says about america's view of itself in the bush years (driven by vengeance, working outside the law, prone to extreme violence), i think a switch to superman can only be an improvement. hope over fear.

it's just always important to remember that these kinds of archetypes should be used as barometers AGAINST which we measure our all-too-human leaders. not as an excuse to worship them as if they could do no wrong.

...and wouldn't he actually BE an effective leader who gets things done? illusion, schmillusion?

At its best, classical anarchism combined the fervor of revolutionary communism with the Kantian moral claim that one should never use another human being as a means to an end -- thus foreclosing many of communism's most powerful revolutionary strategies. It was a profound and contradictory movement, and I'm glad O'Hehir mentioned that most anarchists never supported indiscriminate terrorism, as well as the role they played in the rise of social welfare movements.

it looks as though we're going to have to fight the Obama DOJ as if there were no Obama budget, and fight for the Obama budget as if there were no Obama DOJ.

...and you're wrong about this one, too.

Watchmen simply does not work as a movie. I think that since you've read the book, you filled in a lot of blanks in your head. The movie was nothing but a series of vignettes from the book strung together, some of which worked better than others, but which didn't add up to more than the sum of their parts.

What's more, you're totally off-base about the new ending. First, you neglected to show how the new setup actually COPIES The Dark Knight in a way that totally doesn't work for this story. Second, the new ending doesn't really even make sense within the world of the story.

You people are annoying as hell. This is the last time I read the comments section to one of Heather's columns. Snark, snark, snark, atheists are better than everyone, snark snark, why do you watch TV, snark snark, oh no a TV show about monarchy will somehow indoctrinate us, snark.

Obviously it will be problematic if the show ends up being deeply antidemocratic, but I think it would be interesting even if it went there. More interesting than Project Runway, at any rate. And more interesting than the rantings of luddite atheist squares on the Salon letters column.

(Note: I will not see your "so why did you leave a comment, you hypocrite" responses, so don't bother.)