Has the record got stuck?

I've resurfaced from the Christmas break. Still rotten news on the TV. It seems the Arab/Israeli conflict will be with us for all time. Neither side will back down. Back down from what exactly, I hazard to guess. "He who keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps" and that is true today as it was in Biblical times. So this is one recurring theme we should do our utmost to halt. My son today saw some of the mayhem. "Is Bethlehem a real place?" he asked. "Yes, it is," was the feeble reply. Not much peace on earth there, though.

For those old enough to remember the great invention of the record changer on a gramophone player will remember when it got stuck. It happened in that wonderful film Sea of Love with Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin, in the opening credits. But a stuck record was always something of a nuisance. Kids today will never have that to cope with. The Israeli conflict is a stuck record. So is the attitude of some white Americans to their black countrymen. It always makes me laugh (in a very sad way, that is!) over the palpable hypocrisy of some in US politics.

There is a portly chap running for the National chairmanship of the Republican Party. His name is Chip Saltsman. Good name for someone like him to have. A chip off the old block, eh? Salt of the earth? A man's man? I doubt he's any one of the three at the moment. The silly man thought it fun to put out a CD song entitled "Barack the Magic Negro". Now you have question whether he's got all his marbles, haven't you? Does the Republican Party really want this kind of person at the helm?

It's fair cop to have a go at Obama over his policies, his political actions or his connections with other people, but not to slur him racially. Saltsman must have been on some bender when he came up with this wheeze.

I'm all in favour of good political debate. This is not that. It is cheap, childish and rather nauseating. That a few black Republican colleagues have defended him does not change the situation. The word "Negro" is offensive to the vast majority of people these days when used in this way. He knows that, but chose to be cocky and arrogant.

According to CNN, Republican Party reaction is divided. Pity! I'd have hoped for something better. Maybe 2009 will be the year for a change in this small part of American politics.