I grew up in a traditionally white Jewish family in a neighborhood where blacks were supers and their kids lived in the basement. My dad was absolutely clear that we are not to discriminate. I was invited to a party and "the super's kid" who was my friend, wasn't invited so I didn't go. My parents would have accepted my going. I'm sure that even Linda, "the super's kid" would have understood but I didn't understand.

Linda's mother, Miriam, was an awesome woman and my mom was her friend. She was welcome in our home and we were welcome in hers. Indeed, when my dad, who had some emotional issues, was too much for me to take, I would escape to Linda's house down in the basement and talk to Miriam, who would help me get some perspective.

I guess I grew up in a typically (or not so typically) tolerant environment for the late '40's and early '50's. The word "n***r was never spoken in my house. Indeed, it was one of the dirtiest words in the lexicon for us and I was horrified when my uncle used it. My mom explained that he wasn't all that smart.

I am also smart. I know the stuff that's out there. In the rooming house my grandparents lived in, one of the transients was a girl named Sally from "Down South" whose mom and dad hated "n**rs and Jews." Neither group was white to her. She attended the local Baptist church and got more of the preaching about that.

I can understand race baiting on the part of the fetid armpit of America but I cannot understand people like Hillary and Bill, who should know better, making it an issue. That hurts and it makes it probable that I will vote for whomever runs against her for her next Senate term. I no longer respect or trust her. I never respected or trusted the right-wing talk meisters and never listen to them but our own team should know better.

He's not worth all these spilt words and "updates." This is why I rarely read Greenwald. Life is short.

Forgive me if I'm covering old ground, the number of comments grew large faster than I could keep up with.

I don't know if Obama is toast. I hope not. But many commentators listened to Obama's speech and thought they heard, for the first time in many, many years, a politician talking to us like adults. Deal with this issue, dammit, he is saying. Both white and black, deal with it. Get it out in the open; express your frustration and then, horrors upon horrors, really listen to the other side.

briefer

Just getting it out and having the discussion isn't everything. Because of another seemingly distant subject, I've been looking at the situational psychological conditions that lead to evil, and because of quite a different set of interests, I've been watching the Pakistani elections and the Tibetan protests. There are layers within layers to all of it. Like, why do the Pakistani elections bring a yawn and the Tibetan protests a lot of media activity? Hmm? Is it that the Pakistanis are Muslims, and therefore deserve their hundreds dead to hold an election, and the Tibetans are Buddhists and everybody's got a soft spot for those exotic looking thankas? It's a good thing that the media keeps a light shining on Tibet, there's a shudder forming in each and every watcher's heart, its spelled bloodbath. Our media has gone back to feeding us the Administration line on Pakistan, though, the new leaders said they wanted to try Truth and Reconciliation, and ya jus don' do that with Muslims.

Getting it out. People got it out at Abu Ghraib, too. Let it all hang out, didn't they? Acted it, spoke it, took pictures of it. The Lucifer Effect (Philip Zimbardo) details what causes evil from a contextual point of view. Zimbardo and others have outlined it at Abu Ghraib. You need anonymity, authority, and control. Anonymity - a caller on a talk show. Authority - a pundit who encourages callers and provides subject matter. Control - the political process of swiftboating, of media attacks, of manipulating primaries.

The reason the Instapunk stuff seems out of line, even though he/she is letting it out, getting it out, doing the 'isn't this what Obama wanted' thing, is its institutional/structural target. It isn't aimed at Truth and Reconciliation, and everybody knows it. It's aimed at inflammation. It's an attack.

Some forms of getting it out in the open only make average citizens drink beer in uniforms spattered with the blood and bone matter of the Jews they killed that day.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,542245,00.html

So we need to get it out, and there's a lot to get out, but it does matter how we do it, and what we do about it.

I see that Reynolds is all pissed off at you, and so is his wingnut amen chorus. They don't like it when people lie about them, but what really gets them is when people tell the truth. Good show!

Hope we all have the stomach for it. And we all thought calling Gore a liar and a nerd was bad -- this is mind-blowing.

I have had three children go through the public education system. The teachers are arrogant, stupid and most seemed to be medicated. The elementary schools, one of which I volunteered to assist in the computer lab for, are run like prisons, sans shackles and locks. It was bad when I was kid, but now it is just scary.

Sorry you think you are doing a good job.

Schools are there to condition drones for their roles in society. They are supposed to be educating and teaching. That is why we have the culture and leadership which afflict us with celebrations of stupidity, banality and evil.

You probably can tell that i will not be voting for Clinton, Obama or McCain. Each and every vote for those three will indict our failed educational system. Jay Leno makes jokes about it.

Nothing funnier than being stupid.