kanesrealm

Former U.S. Senator Jim Webb has been criticized for defending the Confederate Battle Flag. But did he really? The answer is a nuanced yes and no. Webb's contention is that the issue is more complex than some, according to him, are allowing it to be. He states that Confederate soldiers fought with honor and that the use of the flag by racists have twisted the issue. I don't think anyone has cast aspersions on the honor of Confederate soldiers for this reason, a Civil War naturally contains within it a reconciliation at it's conclusion. As a nation we have already done this. The Confederate Flag certainly became a tool of defiance to Civil Rights and therefore a symbol of intolerance. There are still those who wish to  advance a narrative that slavery was not the main issue for the Civil War. They will often massage it as a states rights issue conflict. Which is the same thing. It was a states rights issue of those states that believed it was perfectly acceptable to own hu...

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced his bid for the Republican nomination for President today. It was a pretty good fiery speech ala Christie. He's gonna tell us like it is, not how we wanna hear it. He's not going to listen to his political advisors on how to answer questions. How refreshing and how mavericky, I do believe we've seen this show. Christie should have ran in 2012 when there were far more people who actually thought he had pizzazz and star quality. Now a staggering number of New Jersey citizens despise him. They, who know him best, say he shouldn't be President. The credit down grade of his state does not convey confidence in his economic stewardship. Bridgegate is an issue, folks can pretend that it never happened or that he didn't know about it but they are delusional. We're supposed to believe he's a hands on get it done governor but on the other hand knew nothing about his senior aides taking revenge on a non-compliant Mayor? I do...

On June 28th, 1969 at a gay bar in New York City, called Stonewall Inn, the patrons that night had reached the breaking point of being raided and abused by the N.Y.P.D. simply for existing. They fought back and riots began. The police beat them back but by the next morning word had spread throughout the gay community and over 1,000 people took to the streets around Stonewall and the riots began again and so did the birth of the Gay Rights Movement. Today in 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of equality of marriage for all. It was a 5 to 4 vote, it should have been unanimous. No where in the U.S. Constitution does it state that marriage is for heterosexuals only, given that, the Justices that voted against the right of equality have no justification beyond personal prejudice. Although Chief Justice Roberts dissent is conciliatory, he is wrong. To those who continue to believe that this issue should only have been decided at the state level, you also are wrong. This issue was ...

The wonderful yet tragic aspect of politics is that logic need never interfere. President Obama announced today that U.S. citizens who consider paying ransom demands of terrorists will no longer face the possibility of criminal prosecution. Seems reasonable, even makes one think there should never have been such a possibility to begin with. Some politicians, including Speaker of the House John Boehner, aren't so sure it's a good idea. They think it might encourage terrorists to take more Americans. Really? Terrorists need an incentive to harm Americans? Kidnapping is on that list of crimes that has been around as long as man first linked thoughts and wanted what someone else has or can agree to. Sometimes it's for money, the phrase a king's ransom is not simply the clever droppings of a wordsmith. Sometimes it's about the acquiescence of power and sometimes it's just to horrify. The F.B.I. deal with kidnapping on a regular basis. Americans have faced this cri...

Yes, yes, yes, cut, edit out the rest, play on a loop lose our minds and call it a day. President Barack Obama discussed race relations in a podcast interview over the weekend. He said it  wasn't enough that we have simply decided it's bad to use the "N" word publicly. He's right and there's nothing wrong with him using the word in the context in which he used it. Some folks seem to be apoplectic or at least slightly upset. My advice is get over it. That word exists and it is used in a variety of ways. I find it disgusting and reprehensible but that doesn't make it go away. It would be nice if it simply faded away but it won't. What brought this discussion is of course the mass murders in Charleston. Nine African Americans gunned down in their church for no other reason than the color of their skin. The monster who did this is an evil racist bastard plain and simple, call him what he is. If you accept that there are good people in the world then yo...

Media reports and punditorials (not a real word but it should be) are trying hard to spin the narrative that we have a brewing battle between rival political dynasties. In one corner the Bushes and in the other the Clintons. Our crack editorial team or is it cracked, has consulted with the prestigious word consultants Funk and Wagnell. According to them the analogy is slightly off. In our beloved country we do have some families that seem to have members that are always running for something. They prefer to think of themselves as civic minded individuals following proud family traditions. Speaking of dynasties wouldn't it be exciting if there had been a Presidential battle royal between Blake Carrington and Alexis Carrington-Colby, oh, even better, J.R. Ewing versus Angela Channing. Are these T.V. references too old? Angela Channing was played by Jane Wyman, who was Ronald Reagan's first wife, so by the  transformative laws of celebrity this could have all happened. Now bac...

Which is more powerful, the truth or the lie told so often that it becomes reality? God and our Founding Fathers are invoked with the ease of spreading peanut butter. What follows are not my words. "Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize..." Thomas Paine "When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself and God does not take care to support it, so that it's professors are obliged to call for the help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one." Benjamin Franklin "Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony & irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from ...