Blaming the Victim

During a visit to my mother at the nursing home this week, Bonnie and I asked her if she had seen the TV coverage of the devastation in Japan. Our jaws dropped in shock when she said that she had and that it "served them right" since it was retribution for "what they did in the war."

Utagawa Hiroshige - The Great Wave

Apparently this racist view of the Japanese people deserving to have the ferocious earthquake and tsunami brutalizing their country is not limited to my mother, as I discovered when I Googled "blaming the Japanese." The list of their "crimes" apparently extends to their killing dolphins, "mistreating their citizens" and a variety of whatever else people can dream up.

The idea of god and/or nature judging an entire people and administering justice reminds me that I made a good choice in being an atheist. With a god like that, it's no wonder I want nothing to do with it. I'm giving my mother a pass because of her dementia, but I know that many people who think this way have no excuse for their vengeful thinking. Such ideas can only be countered by pointing out the fallacy that most of the people now suffering in Japan had anything to do with Pearl Harbor or catching dolphins.

Even my mother had to recognize the validity of this statement--although seeing the logical inconsistency has nothing to do with stopping belief in the vengeful god of their imaginations. People will think what they think and most don't even voice their hateful thoughts unless they can do it anonymously. Apparently those who Twitter such hateful remarks are not able to be as anonymous as necessary to avoid retribution themselves. Here's today's example of not knowing when to tweet and/or being punished for expressing your dumber ideas.

Utagawa Hiroshige - The Sea Off Satta

If you, being a charitable and thoughtful person, want to donate to Japanese relief efforts, here is a link to The Japan Society, where 100% of your donation will be directed to organizations that directly help people recover from the effects of the natural and man-made (from nuclear power) catastrophe.

Defunding National Public Radio
In more current instances of retribution, the Republicans in the House are having a field day running down the laundry list of all their pet peeves now that they're in the majority. Of course many of them do not object to these items solely because of their  ideological opposition; there are also benefits that will accrue to their corporate backers if they are eliminated.

Although they claim that funding NPR forces taxpayers to pay for dissemination of Liberal views, I think what they really want is less access to news of any kind for many radio listeners that is untainted by twisted "Fair and Balanced" radio stations owned by such corporations as Clear Channel and/or operated by Conservative types who feature obnoxious right-wing programs. The nonsense about the O'Keefe undercover video revealing the true beliefs of NPR executives is just the excuse they needed to push their defunding bill forward  as an emergency measure that ignored the three-day rule they had put in place themselves. All the Democrats in the House voted against the bill and all the Republicans but seven voted for it, so the bill passed 228-192. The Senate is expected to let it die without even considering it.

Check out Rep. Anthony Weiner's sarcastic commentary on the bill. He's talking about my favorite guys and I Looooove the Boston accent - being in possession of one myself.


Japan Plus NPR

WAMC.org will hold an on-air fundraiser on Monday, March 21st

My favorite NPR station, that I listen to most of the time I'm in the studio, is WAMC in Albany, NY. They operate 22 stations in the tri-state area of New York, Massachusetts and Vermont. On Monday, March 21st, WAMC is having a fundraiser for Japan relief. If you listen to WAMC, please contribute by phone or internet. They have done this very successfully for 911 relief and for the Haiti earthquake relief.


Coming Soon
Images of new art made in the studio. Imagine that!