|
|
|
|
|
by Fred Godinez |
|
As
I have a fairly lengthy commute to and from work every day, I sometimes
find myself listening to a local radio station which denominates itself
“Radio on the Right”, a sobriquet indicative of the neo-conservative
global-interventionist bent of most of the featured programs (this, of
course, in stark contrast to the left-egalitarian
global-interventionist bent of the most of the featured programs on the
other local radio stations). As
it is not uncommon to hear one of the program hosts defending free
enterprise (or what precious little remains thereof) and Western
Civilization (ditto), or exposing some particularly egregious
manifestation of loony-left feminism or multi-culturalism, the
experience of listening to the station is often genuinely enjoyable. Then
it happens: the discussion turns to foreign policy. At
this point, almost sans exception, voices are raised, fists are
clenched, and brains either ossify or melt into a sort of smoldering,
simmering soup. In any event, the results usually are not pretty. A
shining example of the aforementioned phenomenon is the program of
nationally syndicated radio talk show host Michael Savage (whose real
name is Michael Weiner, according to Brad Kava of the San Jose
Mercury News). Weiner’s
analysis of domestic affairs sometimes demonstrates no small degree of
perspicacity, and can even be trenchant and genuinely amusing at times.
However, let the topic turn to 9-11, the “War on Terror”, Israel,
Islamic fundamentalism, or any matter related, however loosely, to any
of the foregoing, and Weiner erupts (hahaha). On
or soon after 9-11, e.g., over the airwaves Weiner repeatedly and
bombastically stated the names of each and every Islamic nation with a
national commercial airline, in what appeared to be a not-so-subtle hint
to George Bush (who apparently had the good sense not to listen) that
the U.S. ought to commence bombing the populations of these countries,
post-haste. Though we now
know, of course, that the 9-11 suicide pilots received their flight
training in the U.S., what is at once instructive and repulsive about
this episode is the ease with which Weiner was able to advocate the
slaughter of countless innocents. Weiner
has also conducted a fulsomely approbatory interview of Randian
cultist/would-be mass murderer (by proxy of the U.S. military) Leonard
Peikoff, whose genocidal ravings would be merely laughable were it not
for the legions of excitable Randroids eagerly awaiting the latest
pronunciamento from the Objectivist Pontifex Maximus. As
to the Palestinians struggling for some semblance of the freedom and
dignity of which “liberals” usually are so effusively enamored
(except, often, with regard to Palestinians), Weiner is predictably
hostile. Though he often,
and correctly, decries acts of violence against Israeli civilians, he
seems not have heard of the many acts of terrorism perpetrated against
Palestinian civilians by various Zionist groups in the years leading up
to the establishment of Israel, and by the Israeli government subsequent
thereto. Though these facts
of inconvenient history have for the most part long since disappeared
down the Memory Hole, one might hope that a man who tirelessly puffs
himself up as a fearless opponent of political correctness would deign
to mention them every so often. Of
course, one might also hope that Santa Claus will bring a big bundle of
toys down the chimney next Christmas. February 15, 2002 |
| Fred Godinez is an attorney, a fact he hopes the readers here will not hold against him. |
