Cup o' Joel

Corey Haim is dead. So is our sense of proportion.

Joel Mathis — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:57:32 +0000

Between the John Hughes orgy at the Academy Awards and the explosion of grief at the passing of Corey Haim, I realize that my generation is every bit as mawkish and self-obsessed as the Baby Boomers we used to mock. Hey Generation X: Weren’t we supposed to be a bit more cynical than this? In [...]

JihadJane, the Pakistani VIPs and why racial profiling at the airport may not make us that much safer

Joel Mathis — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:36:17 +0000

A couple of items in today’s newspapers need to be juxtaposed. First, this: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A tour of the United States arranged by the State Department to improve ties to Pakistani legislators ended in a public relations fiasco when the members of the group refused to submit to extra airport screening in Washington, and they are [...]

Eric Massa just gave us the best New York Times headline ever

Joel Mathis — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:30:09 +0000

And beyond that, commentary seems impossible.

Mark Krikorian, the Census and the American race

Joel Mathis — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:16:36 +0000

National Review’s Mark Krikorian is mad about the Census: Fully one-quarter of the space on this year’s form is taken up with questions of race and ethnicity, which are clearly illegitimate and none of the government’s business. One-quarter of the questions are about race and ethnicity? Why is the government so obsessed with race? Why oh why oh… Oh. [...]

Another reason to root for health reform: Rush Limbaugh will flee to Costa Rica. (Will Jonah Goldberg call him an un-American fool?)

Joel Mathis — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:16:49 +0000

Via Think Progress, Rush Limbaugh threatens to leave America if health reform passes: CALLER: If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself? And the second part of that is, what would happen to the doctors, do they have to participate in the federal program, or could they opt out of [...]

Salon: Bush-era waterboarding really was torture

Joel Mathis — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:00:49 +0000

Some hawkish conservatives have made the case that terrorist waterboarding wasn’t really torture — despite a long history of jurisprudence indicating otherwise — because it was done by the CIA in a carefully controlled way designed not to be torture. And that furthermore it’s not torture because American soldiers undergo it during training. That’s wildly incorrect, [...]

The Brady Campaign vs. Starbucks’ gun-totin’ customers

Joel Mathis — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:25:28 +0000

I’m no Second Amendment zealot — I’ve said before that I think the right to bear arms probably isn’t such a hot idea in cities plagued by gun violence. Still, I think there’s a bit of disingenuousness in today’s LA Times op-ed piece by Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence — [...]

Fred Phelps is an evil man – who deserves First Amendment protections

Joel Mathis — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:38:27 +0000

As noted before, the best policy when dealing with homophobic Kansas pastor Fred Phelps would be to ignore him. But the United States Supreme Court has decided to hear a case challenging the right of Phelps and his church/family to set up their “God Hates Fags” protests outside the funerals of soldiers who died in [...]

CNN, Wolf Blitzer and the “Department of Jihad” smear

Joel Mathis — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:45:25 +0000

Adam Serwer points out that CNN’s Wolf Blitzer has apologized for a segment last week that focused on the odorous “Keep America Safe” ads that charge Department of Justice lawyers with being in cahoots with Al Qaeda terrorists. The segment included a grapic — “Department of Jihad?” that drew some angry reactions. Here’s the apology: On Friday, Wolf [...]

Does Glenn Beck think Mennonites are Nazis? (Or: Of liberal churches and freedom of religion)

Joel Mathis — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:22:00 +0000

The Mennonites I grew up among had a consistent “pro-life” ethic that didn’t place them easily in the service of either major political party: Most of the folks I knew were very much against abortion — but they were also anti-war, anti-death penalty and for helping the poor. A number of them didn’t like to [...]