Sun, 4 August 2019
My dad thought teenagers were just putting a finger in the eye of grownups. Half a century later the debate about the same kids has a ring to it. |
Sat, 16 March 2019
The most devoted Trump support comes from those impatient with the traditional code words and dog whistles offered by Republicans for the last half century. A fictional advertising executive explains what they want instead.
Direct download: Why_Trump_Followers_Are_Devoted_to_Their_Leader_-_He_Is_Not_Toasted.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 9:08pm EDT |
Sat, 15 December 2018
In 1948, a plane carrying migrant workers crashed in Los Gatos Canyon. Those deaths were nearly ignored by the press and public of the day. An echo comes to us as a small child traveling in hope from Guatemala to America is lost to dehydration and neglect.
Direct download: A_Small_Dehydrated_Child_and_a_Crash_in_1948.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 11:29pm EDT |
Sat, 16 June 2018
Those of us who grew to adulthood in a atmosphere of derision toward others know a terrible truth we hope will never be known by our great-grandchildren. We know what it is to accept without question the prejudices of a deeply bigoted society. |
Wed, 14 February 2018
It is especially tragic when someone who accepts danger in order to protect the rest of us, a law enforcement officer, is killed. How must we react when that death is used to attack an ethnic group?
Direct download: Tragic_Death_Exploited_to_Smear_Immigrants.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 11:13pm EDT |
Wed, 18 October 2017
Traditional logic does not explain the elements of childhood insularity, willful ignorance, and ethnocentric hatred.
Direct download: A_Venn_Diagram_Explains_Trumps_Hostility_Toward_Puerto_Rico.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 11:12pm EDT |
Wed, 20 September 2017
When Conservatives attacked President Obama as "arrogant," that word held a very special, very specific meaning.
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Wed, 30 August 2017
President Trump has pardoned Joe Arpaio. Good folks are angry. They have a good case. Why aren't they making it?
Direct download: Sheriff_Joe_is_Not_a_Good_Guy.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 11:05pm EDT |
Thu, 17 August 2017
He had been forced to betray his most loyal followers and his own deepest beliefs. Then the fury erupted and rage spoke in his place. |
Wed, 4 January 2017
Leaders of countries once at war now spoke of peace. The message of hatred replaced by partnership, of conflict yielding to compassion, seemed innocent, uncontroversial. Then guilty minds became angry at imagined insult. |
Wed, 30 November 2016
The first harm from the new President will not come through law or policy. It will be felt on American streets.
Direct download: The_Mean_Streets_of_a_More_Hostile_America.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 10:12pm EDT |
Wed, 12 October 2016
The immigrant was ambushed and killed walking home from work. So why hold an anti-immigrant rally a few doors down on the same street? |
Wed, 21 September 2016
The famous creationist visited me many years ago. Today's Trump supporters remind me of the man's favorite argument. |
Thu, 18 August 2016
Mr Trump tells evangelical Christians he is a self-made man.
Direct download: The_Self-Made_Man_and_His_Religion.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 12:00am EDT |
Wed, 10 August 2016
The cynical among us may regard the sudden surge of Republican office holders away from Donald Trump as rats deserting the ship. There is an alternate view. |
Wed, 3 August 2016
The father of a fallen soldier asks whether Donald Trump has even read the Constitution. Actually, the Constitution guarantees that right. And it gives the rest of us the right to call Mr. Trump a godawful jerk.
Direct download: Mr._Trumps_Right_to_Attack.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 11:57pm EDT |
Wed, 1 June 2016
Hey Pocahontas! Our parents taught, and popular culture reinforced, how we see those who snarl such things at women and ethnic minorities.
Direct download: Politics_Accidentally_Borrows_from_Old_Television_Scripts.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 8:44pm EDT |
Wed, 25 November 2015
What will we do when Muslims are ordered to register? A wartime story of occupied Denmark might give us inspiration.
Direct download: Requiring_American_Muslims_to_Register.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 6:33pm EDT |
Fri, 20 November 2015
The revulsion I feel when bigots speak for Jesus won't tell me what Muslims must feel when zealots kill for Islam.
Direct download: Empathy_and_the_Religion_of_Bigotry.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 9:10pm EDT |
Wed, 23 September 2015
The base is on a journey far down into the blood soaked logic of religious and ethnic division stains too much of human history. We know they would kill us. We know this because we would kill them. That is why we must get rid of them first.
Direct download: Base_Hatreds_and_Conservatives.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 11:10pm EDT |
Wed, 16 September 2015
Mike Huckabee is right that the Dred Scott decision was a moral and legal monstrosity. He is only wrong about Gay Rights, American history, the law, the courts, and every President since Thomas Jefferson.
Direct download: Mr._Huckabee_Meets_Mr._Lincoln.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 11:33pm EDT |
Wed, 6 May 2015
Satire can be a mighty weapon when humor is used to puncture the pretensions of the privileged, the pretentions of the elite. When it directed at the downtrodden, those who struggle to overcome hardship, satire mutates to something less noble. It becomes simple meanness, petty and cruel. Free speech includes freedom of malevolence. We can and we must defend the rights of those who bully and hate. That full and vigorous defense does not obligate us to join them in their hatred.
Direct download: Supporting_the_Rights_of_Pamela.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 9:56pm EDT |
Wed, 4 March 2015
The political whispering campaign resembled the one from 80 years before. Both resulted in death. Both came from the same cynicism. Both happened in the same environment of casual bigotry.
Direct download: Political_Whispers_of_Bigotry_and_a.mp3
Category:Politics and Bigotry -- posted at: 11:55pm EDT |