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:: Monday 17 March 2008 ::
A Reverend who says "Pussy"
That would be the Reverend Doctor Jeremiah Wright Junior, Barack Obama's chosen pastor of 20 years.
That would Barack Obama, Democrat senator currently engaged in a race with Hillary Clinton to become Democrat nominee for US President in elections in November this year.
The "Doctor" title that the Reverend has earned is a "Doctor of Ministry". It is not a Doctor of Divinity which one might think it would be, given the common title "Reverend Doctor", such as one might obtain from study at Oxford or Cambridge Universities, which is a genuinely respectable academic achievement.
Take a look for yourself what he had to do to get this title. Five 5-day intensive courses, 32 contact hours per course 1 to 4, 6 contact hours for course 5, and One 2 hour exam.
Let us say each of the 5 day-intensives is 8 hours a day, a full working day long. 5 x 5 x 8 = 200 32 x 4 = 128 6 + 2 = 8
That comes to 336 hours. Hmmmm. Divide by 8 for a full days' work, and we come to 42 days. That is 7 working weeks. No wonder the United Theological Seminary offers Doctorates twice a year. It would take 3 years to earn such a title in Oz. In the US too. But not for Wright it appears.
What about the "Masters" degrees? The one from Howard University, which is a black uni, is in English studies. No theological learning there. The one from the University of Chicago of Divinity School? Well, it is not named.
Maybe it was a Master of Divinity, a 3 year academic achievement. But presumably that would be known. If it wasn't, then it has to be a Master of Arts only, being the Master of Arts in Divinity - a 2 year course - or a Master of Arts in Religious Studies - a 1 year course.
Hmmmm. Here's the Reverend Doctor's own page at his Trinity Church site. He does not name his Masters.
I wonder why not.
Atchally, no I do not.
He is a blowhard padding his resume and the best of his academic achievement is, I'll wager, in Religious Studies.
Check him out and tell me he is not a rolled gold embarrassment. To everyone. Whether you are an Obama fan or not (and I am so not - seems to me he is just another isolationist Yank - Pat Buchanan with a tan). I mean, listen to the man speak. Does it not make you wince for the sheer stupidity of it? The clumsy word play, the twiching.
I wonder what Obama was thinking in spending so much time in this charalatan's "church"?
Atchally, no I do not.
He is a bright boy who's led a privileged life, who is rich and married with kids and cannot point to a single instance of deprivation or injury on the basis of his skin. He needs therefore to cuddle up to some noisy blacks cos that is what is expected of black candidates in politics.
By other blacks, I mean.
Got to be a victim, got to testifyyyyy. Can I get a Amen.
Urgh.
Whites, I expect, even the ones who do not care for him as a presidential candidate, would dearly love Obama not to have had anything to do with the Reverend Doctor.
I mean "Pussy" fer chrissakes.
Look at these two try to rub it out as an issue. The gymnastics are gold medal standard. Natch, they're Obama fans.
To whit: I do not know what my Rabbi thinks? Who is John McCain's pastor? What about Bush?
Poor bastards. They have it front and centre. A whiney black charalatan, a hater of whites and US and Jews, who is no better than Al Sharpton, chosen as pastor by their preferred Democrat nominee for US President - preferred because he is nothing like Sharpton - which collides spectacularly with their reason for preferring him in the first place.
I think folks like Yglesias and Douhat should write columns on whether they'd support a Reverend Doctor Jeremiah Wright Jr run for the WhiteHouse and if not, why not? And if not, why is Obama a good thing when he's been swimming in this toxic pond for 20 years?
Of course, no Obama fan worth his salt will stoop to suh a racist analysis.
Whatever. He is just a wog. And he deserves to be taken seriously when he speaks.
Apparently he is going to speak on this tomorrow - we will have to see how he deals with it all. But I think his past form means he will come out spitting about context and multiple sermons and Jesus.
And the word "Pussy" will not enter into it.
There is so much going in the world, to blog about, to read about. There is life to be lived. I know I am slack about keeping up. Would youse believe another pledge to get started up again even if I made it?
UPDATE I: Nevermind my blatherings - how about Shelby Steele's reasoning. Old Reverend "Pussy" is worse than Sharton and Jackson. And Obama chose him for 20 years.
UPDATE II: This was what brought Barack Obama to my attention and now I revisit it, I can see it is Reverend "Pussy" language through and through, as if Barack were channelling the blowhard imbecile:
Obama ... introducing legislation mandating a total U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq by March 2008.
... Australian Prime Minister John Howard - who said Sunday that the proposal would have al Qaeda leaders in Iraq "praying as many times as possible" for Obama to be elected president in 2008.
In turn, Obama said he was flattered "that one of George Bush's allies on the other side of the world started attacking me the day after I announced" for president.
... Australia once again has troops deployed with U.S. forces in a war zone - as it did in both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War and Somalia.
Indeed, the notion that Howard is no more than "one of George Bush's allies on the other side of the world" stunningly understates a political, economic and security relationship that extends back to the 19th century - and obtains to this day.
That Obama doesn't already know this - and respect it - gives deeper meaning to the term "not ready for prime time."
But it gets worse.
Obama then called into question Australia's true commitment to winning in Iraq by noting that while America has upward of 140,000 troops committed to the battle, Canberra has dispatched but 1,400.
"So if [Howard] is ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq," Obama said, "I would suggest that he call up another 20,000 Australians and send them to Iraq. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric."
"Ginned up to fight the good fight".
Why, it is as if Reverend "Pussy" hisself was speaking, so unserious, disrespectful and unengaged is it with the original remarks by the Oz PM.
UPDATE III: More on the Rev which is awful enough, but also on his bloviated academic credentials. If this is correct then I was right above - he did the 1 year Masters in religious studies. Now that is weak. And yet more on his choice, deliberate choice of pastor. Puhleese, Barack.
:: WB 6:54 pm [link+] ::
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