Okay, so my paragraph on Kerry was a little over the top. But I have just discovered the most hyperbolic statement of the U.S. Presidential campaign thus far, embedded in a mainstream opinion article on the website of a paper with a normally blisteringly right-wing editorial policy, the Jerusalem Post. Here it is:
"Despite his frequent talk of eradicating "Evil," Bush's religious fundamentalism has helped trigger an explosion of "Evil" the likes of which the world has never known."
The likes of which the world has never known. Gosh. I suppose the inverted commas make it alright... But if 'Evil' isn't Evil, why should an explosion of it be bad? Most astonishingly, the writer, Eli Valley, is the "editor of Contact, the journal of Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation and author of The Great Jewish Cities of Central and Eastern Europe." (my italics)
2 comments:
[jaw drops] This was written in a *Jewish* newspaper? For people who are, like, Jewish? Like all those people that died in that, like, Evil Thing sixty years ago?
Bizarre.
Just to drag this back to what I hope sounds a bit more like reality, the trouble with the current campaign is that nobody appears to be able to define a good reason to vote for Kerry except to oust Bush. Now for me (and I appreciate you may differ on that point) that would be good enough, because I do refute the sanity of the Bush neo-conservative/preemptive/unilateral approach to world affairs. But the Democrats could have made it a bit easier on themselves by putting up someone with some convincing credentials. I would have voted for Gore, for example, because he was boring, but he cares about the environment.
Anyway...
I like reading the Jerusalem Post because all of our country's problems seem unimportant when you get back to them, and also because *all* the columnists are extremists of one sort or another...
It is strange how the Democratic primaries turned out, Kerry just seemed to materialise at the end like the ghost of Christmas past. A reversed ticket (Edwards/Kerry rather than Kerry/Edwards) is more appealing to me.
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