Monthly Archives: June 2009

When I wrote my piece “What Right Wing Threat?” I might have anticipated some humorless criticism from an offended individual, outraged that I might diminish yesterday’s shooting at the Holocaust Museum by joking: “He was there to try to shoot the actual Holocaust…the Holocaust started it; this was simply self-defense.”

The response I got was not a diatribe from PC police, but people apparently offended by my dissing right wing fanatics. And these weren’t snarky comments posted in all caps. These people called my production company. One guy with a Southern accent said something about reaping what I sow. Another woman was outraged that this senile old man who had a senior incident like shooting up the Holocaust Museum was being all exploited by the media. (My poor assistant had to politely field these calls, tying up our phone lines for all those backers who would normally be calling to give us money to produce more social documentaries.) Read More »

Right-wing threats in America? Hasn’t the media jumped the gun, or shark, so to speak?

James W. Von Brunn wasn’t shooting at Jews at the Holocaust Museum because he was anti-Semitic. He was there to try to shoot the actual Holocaust, under the mistaken impression he could stop it still and make up for all the white supremacist mumbo-jumbo he’s been known for. The Holocaust started it; this was simply self-defense. Read More »

For all of the analysis, parsing, and knee-jerking from Obama’s address to the Muslim world, there was one detail that seemed to bypass the pundits.

Obama acknowledged the U.S. role in the 1953 coup of Iran, when the CIA worked to overthrow a democratically-elected secular leader, Mohammad Mossadegh. This isn’t fringe conspiracy theory, this is a widely known history (not so much stateside). And it is an all-time chart-topper on “Why They Hate Us.”

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