Talking Out Your Ass

In theater terms [...] there was one new and actually striking part [of president Obama's speech on Sunday], which came toward the end when he called on Muslims to decry ISIS, or ISIL as he insists on saying. He used the usual liberal language about how most Muslims are great, but he also said that religious fundamentalism is “a real problem that Muslims must confront, without excuse.” At times he sounded like he was even about to utter the words “radical Islam,” which Democrats for some silly reason have decided they shouldn’t use.

This is the first time Obama has issued this challenge to Muslim Americans, or at least the first time he’s done it in such a public way that it will sink in on the collective public mind that the president said it. That’s actually kind of a huge deal. It says to Muslim Americans that the rights you have as Americans have to be earned, fought for. And you know, that’s OK, because every ethnic and religious group outside the Pilgrims has had to do that earning and fighting. They’ve all faced suspicion, and they’ve all proven that they were better than that. Muslim Americans will have to do the same.

  Daily Beast

And, how, pray tell do they do that? How do they prove that, right now, so non-Muslim Americans will be comfortable?

But, even more fundamental (if I may use that word without causing fright) to the issue:  No, the rights anyone has as an American do NOT have to be earned or fought for.  They are rights.  Period.  And they are rights by virtue of being an American.

If anything Obama should have been more emphatic about this. He should now go around to Muslim communities in Detroit and Chicago and the Bay Area and upstate New York and give a speech that tells them: If you want to be treated with less suspicion, then you have to make that happen.

What the hell happened to "innocent until proven guilty?"  Isn't that an American value?  Does it exclude certain groups of people?  If they haven't done anything to merit suspicion, why is it up to them to make you less suspicious?  And again, I have to ask: how would they DO that?

Why don't white Christians have to PROVE they don't condone killings by white supremacists?

And, once again, as he has been throughout his presidency, Obama is being led by the nose by rabid Republicans. He hasn't the courage to stand up and say, "Enough!  I won't condone this kind of anti-American bullshit."  That most rabid of Republicans, Donald Trump, is advocating no Muslims be allowed to enter the U.S. until we "figure it out" whatever the hell that means, and Rand Paul, who sometimes manages to sound fairly reasonable, has introduced legislation to keep out anyone from "nations with known radical elements while a new system is developed to screen properly." WTF, Rand? That would cover essentially every First World country, including our own! Just go ahead and pull a Trump: close all the borders.

In the fifties, people were hounded and lives were destroyed because of their political beliefs. Now the same is being done because of religious beliefs. What a fine showing of progress.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  Fox News correspondent called Obama "a total pussy" on air.  He's not calling him a coward for the same reasons I have, and I strongly object to the term being used.  (So perhaps I should stop calling people dicks?)

FURTHER UPDATE:

A Duke University study found more terrorism suspects and perpetrators were brought to the attention of law enforcement by members of the Muslim-American community than were discovered through U.S. government investigations.

  CNN

What does Mr. Obama have to say about that?

EVEN FURTHER UPDATE: