Trump

So it appears that Donald Trump's campaign strategy is going to consist almost entirely on playing on the racial and religious fears and resentments of white Americans. How else to explain his laser focus on Obama's birth? I mean, the birth announcement was in both Honolulu daily papers within a couple of weeks of his birth. So I guess the conspiracy goes like this: A bunch of Muslims in Indonesia, or Saudi Arabia, or who knows where are planning on using this baby born in Indonesia, or Kenya, or God knows where as a plant to become president one day to take over the world. So, naturally, they use someone with black skin, kinky hair, and name him "Barack Hussein Obama" because that will make it easy for him to be elected. But, a couple of days after he is born, the conspirators say, "Hey, we better submit a birth announcement to be printed in the Honolulu papers to cover ourselves 40-some years later in case people question whether he was born in the U.S. and is qualified to be president." So they did. Yeah, that's probably how it happened.

Or it could be that, because Obama is black and has a Muslim-sounding name, had a dad he hardly knew that was a nominal, non-practicing Muslim and lived for a few years in his childhood in the predominately Muslim country of Indonesia, many white Americans don't trust him, and so the birther leaders play on that mistrust. Nah, the first one sounds a lot more believable, right?

And now, Trump is coming out questioning how Obama got admitted to Columbia, then Harvard. See http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/trump_interview
Never mentions race, just dances all over the subject withOUT mentioning it, again trying to play on white American's resentment of Affirmative Action. Yeah, like Obama proved to be incapable of doing the work at those Ivy League schools. Obama has been honest about not being disciplined in his early college years in California. He was not the only 18-20 year old to struggle with issues of life direction, identity, etc.--he had more reason than most to struggle with these issues.

I suppose Trump will next question Obama's Christian faith, then bring up again the photo of Obama without his hand on his heart singing the National Anthem, and then... ad nauseum. What a great, substantive campaign to be leader of the free world. What a joke.

Loving v. VA

Was just reading up on the case that overturned all bans on interracial relationships in the U.S. in 1967. First, the anti-miscegenation statute in Virginia was used to charge them with ""cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth." I thought that wording curious. Would make the good title of a book, too. I hope the Commonwealth's precious peace and dignity have been recovered over the past 43 years. Also found that the Supreme Court handed down the decision on June 12, 1967--June 12th is my wife's and my anniversary! And the day is celebrated as "Loving Day" to commemorate the right to marry whomever one loves apart from racial restrictions (now, about those OTHER restrictions!) So I was married on "Loving Day"--cool! (Ours is not an interracial union, but it is an inter-regional one--breading down the barrier between North and South!)