Metastasis of bigotry

As I just wrote on Twitter, I've never quite seen the likes of this recent national onslaught of bigotry toward Muslims. It's on radio, on TV, and perhaps worst of all on the internet. People are getting this stuff via email from their family members and friends, including devoutly religious ones.

One internet example is a text-photo combination claiming that praying Muslims are blocking NYC streets "every Friday afternoon." The photos are actually from a long-standing annual event (including a parade, a bazaar and children's programs) which is licensed by the city -- just like the St. Patrick's Day parade.

For a close-up of this bigoted foolishness and a clear and appropriate response from Snopes, copy and paste the following link into your browser. (I'm sorry links don't work here, but if you follow me on Twitter, I just put a clickable short link there.) Here is the full URL:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/changingface.asp

We just have to find more ways to offset the bigotry.

They're not all in Phoenix

White supremacists love Arizona. Just about everybody has heard of the high profile, armed-to-the-teeth, neo-Nazi J.T. Ready, and there are plenty more in the Phoenix area that think like him.

But, sadly, Tucson also has its share of racist screwballs. And one of them is again running against Congressman Raul Grijalva. His name is Joseph Sweeney.

Good old Joe tells people he wants to protect them from a Mexican invasion. In fact he recently said that the number of "illegals" ready to invade could be 200 million. He added: "That's just overwhelming us with our Caucasian roots in our society," calling America a "Caucasian-oriented civilization."

Sweeney is such an embarrassment here in Baja Arizona that an independent group of conservatives is running ads against him.

Crazier by the day

Loonies like Glenn Beck or Sharron Angle or Sarah Palin are bad enough But when true looniness reaches the higher echelons, well, one has to fight a lot harder against depression.

The present national craziness of course covers a very wide spectrum, but immigration is always at or near the top.

Sure, US history shows us that in past economic downturns, minorities were always blamed for just about everything by an angry and frustrated majority. Blame those coarse people who have dark skin or an accent or who eat a lot of garlic or chile.

In these weeks leading up to primaries and the November elections, it seems like every other candidate is playing the fear game. You scare people. Then you tell them you're going to protect them. Then you collect their votes.

Even Sen. John McCain, once-upon-a-time partner of Sen. Ted Kennedy in working toward comprehensive immigraton reform, is telling lies about the border and migrants. (At least he's not echoing governor Jan Brewer's claim that most undocumented folks are drug runners and people are being beheaded in Arizona.)

The blatant fearmongering is bad enough. But now there's a new red herring in the pot: the babies of undocumented mothers.

Various loudmouths have been railing about these babies for ages. But now the fumes are emanating from the top floor. Senators John McCain, John Kyl, Lindsey Graham and Jeff Sessions all want to repeal the 14th Amendment.

Which is just plain nuts.

Here are the opening words of the amendment: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

Good old boys, just calm down and leave the Constitution alone.