Left-handed Complement

MUDGE’S Musings

This post was almost going to be MUDGE’s classical music trifecta (I, II) but this terrific post from Talking Points Memo (highly recommended, and an inexplicably late addition to the blogroll) jumped up to the top of MUDGE’s consideration.

By M.J. Rosenberg | bio

Michael Gerson, the former White House speechwriter, wrote in his Washington Post column yesterday that he and his fellow neocons worried that this was going to be the summer in which opposition to the Iraq war overwhelmed the Bush administration.

It sure looked that way in the spring when Democrats were mobilizing and popular support for the war and Bush dropped to levels reminiscent of LBJ and Vietnam after the Tet offensive.

But now the ship of state has been righted. The President’s popularity has risen a bit. More Americans think the war is succeeding. And the Democrats have lost their zeal about ending it.

As I keep asking: where is the outrage?

This is a country where millions of people can hardly stop weeping, wailing and gnashing their teeth about Michael Vick and those poor animals he tortured and killed.

How many dogs did Vick kill anyway. 25, 50, a hundred. I don’t know. But 3739 Americans have been killed in Iraq and maybe 600,000 Iraqis — not to mention the US destruction of a whole country and society.

Isn’t the above what many of us have been thinking, but haven’t been able to articulate nearly so well?

The rest of the post is terrific, and some of the replies and comments are thoughtful also. Please take a look.

[Per L-HC’s reformed process, please click the link below for the complete article — but then please come on back!]

Michael Vick: Crimes Worse Than The Iraq War | TPMCafe

So, there’s another element of the Michael Vick story, one that was very clearly articulated by one of MUDGE’s absolute hands down favorite writers, Gregg Easterbrook, writing as ESPN’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback.

Next, I feel sympathy for Vick because there is racial animus in the current turn of events. If Vick really is guilty of cruelty to animals and associating with lowlife gamblers, these things leave him open to a kind of condemnation that has nothing to do with race. But don’t you just sense there are loads of people who are happy to have the chance to condemn the first African-American quarterback who was drafted first overall — via an accusation that has nothing to do with race? That there might be racial animus against Vick is not an excuse; he is responsible for his actions regardless of what others do or think. But suppose everything about the Michael Vick controversy was exactly the same except Vick was a white quarterback from an upper-middle-class family in Winnetka, Ill., Newport Beach, Calif., or Coral Gables, Fla. Can you say with a straight face that the public reaction and government action would the same?

Next, I feel sympathy for Vick because he tripped into a “summer scandal.” Starting around mid-July, legislatures recess, business executives and heads of state go on holiday, Hollywood airheads fly their private jets to Sag Harbor, N.Y., to relax in 10,000-square-foot mansions while complaining about greenhouse gas emissions: The news world slows down. Every summer, there is a scandal that is magnified beyond its inherent importance, owing to lack of other news. The Michael Vick accusations are this year’s summer scandal. His indictment came in late July. Had it come in October or March, far less attention might have been paid.

Note that Easterbrook’s second point above (actually about the fourth in his original post) emphasizes the seasonal factor that M. J. Rosenberg picks up on.

TMQ is always wonderful, in Easterbrook’s fulsome way about much more than professional football. During the season, I relish his columns even more (most years up until the last few) than watching MUDGE’s home town team, the Bears. Finish his Vick reflections and hurry back!

[Per L-HC’s reformed process, please click the link below for the complete article — but then please come on back!]

ESPN Page 2 – Easterbrook: Sympathy for Vick

WIWICWLT! But I can’t, and I’m grateful for your readership despite the inelegance and worse.

Let’s summarize our reasons for outrage: The ongoing tragedy of Iraq should have us storming the bastions to get our representative government to make changes now to literally stop the hemorrhaging. Not happening, in or out of Washington.

And the fact that so many U.S. citizens who aren’t up to the task of activating themselves and their friends and neighbors to get behind ending Bush and the neocons’ military misadventure are happy enough to feel outrage over a wealthy young man’s mistreatment of some dogs.

And, aren’t most of those most upset reacting for only slightly submerged racial reasons? Now, that’s outrageous!

To quote M. J. Rosenberg:

I’ll tell you. If we were sending dogs over to fight this war, and they were dying and being maimed like our soldiers, this war would have ended before it started.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE