Global Rhetoric: UN-friendly Tidings

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

     Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is at it again. Just hours ago, diplomats from more than thirty countries walked out of the UN General Assembly chamber as Ahmadinejad was delivering a speech, deriding the United States and other western countries for what he referred to as perpetuating wars, causing the current global economic crisis and infringing on “the rights and sovereignty of nations.” The walk-out was led (of course!) by the two U.S. diplomats in attendance, and was joined by the 27 members from the EU, along with other nations.

     It seems as though every time the president of Iran steps behind the podium at the UN, everything that issues from this man’s mouth is composed of equal parts venom, revisionist history and willful ignorance. In today’s speech, he combined his slanted, vitriolic view of history with questions of global cooperation: (The following is an excerpt from an Associated Press article on this story.)

 “It is as lucid as daylight that the same slave masters and colonial powers that once instigated the two world wars have caused widespread misery and disorder with far-reaching effects across the globe since then,” Ahmadinejad said. “Do these arrogant powers really have the competence and ability to run or govern the world?”

     Ahmadinejad also singled out the U.S. during the speech for its use of atomic weapons against Japan at the end of World War II. As most people who lived through that time would inform, it was the decision of the Truman administration to use these weapons to bring about a decisive and rapid end to the war with Japan, instead of engaging in a costly ground invasion of the mainland.

The Bradley Bunch?

     Mahmoud Ahmadinejad forgets that it was Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Japanese emperor Hirohito that instigated WWII. It was Adolf Hitler that oversaw the extermination of over six-million in his concentration camps as part of what Nazi Germany referred to as the “Final Solution”. Ahmadinejad has completely discounted the fact that it was imperial Japan that attacked US without warning on December 7th, 1941. Of course, this is the same Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that has repeatedly called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”

     As a kind-of-related closing thought, I’ve often heard it said that “Islam is a religion of hate.” I honestly don’t think that this generalization is true. I rather think that it comes down to the group or individual. I would assert that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s flavor of Islam is hateful, in much the same way as Pat Robertson’s or Fred Phelps’ version of Christianity is hateful. As for the Iranian president’s comments earlier today, res ipsa loquitur.

American Rhetoric: Spreading The Love

Former Senator Rick Santorum (R. PA)

Well, scratch another GOP candidate from my list for serious consideration in the 2012 primaries. Former Senator Rick Santorum (R, PA) has been “rickrolled” by the LGBT community and its supporters on the internet in a very big, very crass and very public manner it seems, and Mr. Santorum is not at all happy about it. In fact, he has contacted internet search provider Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), in a vain and misguided attempt to get the afore-mentioned provider to censor the search results that come up when one “googles” his name. Google has responded, stating that Mr. Santorum needs to contact the webmaster of the offending site directly. There’s only one tiny, little problem with that…

Back in 2003, Rick Santorum gave an interview to the Associated Press. During this interview, he compared homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality. The following excerpt is from the interview in 2003:

     “In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That’s not to pick on homosexuality. It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be.”

Immediately following the release of this interview, the LGBT community sprang into action. Dan Savage, sex columnist and gay rights activist, started a website that encouraged visitors to come up with an alternative definition for the word “Santorum”, and to promote the winning entry. Well my fine young readers, eight years later and the product from that campaign now comes up as the number one result when you google the name. (I’m not going to list the definition here on the blog, as I’d rather keep this at least a “PG-13” rated show! Instead, I submit this link to the resulting website. Click at your own visual peril…)

My take on this is two-fold; first, if Mr. Santorum can’t stand the heat, then he should stay the frip out of the kitchen. I have to wonder if he was paying attention way back when his parents told him that there were consequenses for the things he said and did. Second, and this is the clincher, if Rick Santorum is successful in this bid to censor internet content, what might he propose to do along those same lines if he succeeds in a presidential bid?

No. This man is trying to force damage control for a slip of the lip he made eight years ago by censoring the internet. In the words of one of my favorite websites, Fail Blog; “GOP candidate EPIC FAIL!”

(See this CNN article for further information on the story.)

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Another in a series of articles, fit to be tucked inside your “Gay Agenda.”