Killing Kirk Was Wrong - But He Was NOT A Hero Or Martyr!

The American right-wing is now trying to portray Charlie Kirk as a martyr for this country. Donald Trump wants you to believe Kirk was a hero, and plans to give him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Such nonsense! Kirk's killing was a heinous crime, and should be punished harshly. And Kirk, thanks to our freedom of speech, had the right to spread and defend his political views. But he was no hero or martyr, because his rabid right-wing views were both false and anti-democratic.

David Corn (in Mother Jones) tells the truth about Charlie Kirk:

Here’s the problem: Kirk built that movement with falsehoods. And his advocacy was laced with racist and bigoted statements. Recognizing this does not diminish the awfulness of this act of violence. Nor does it lessen our outrage or diminish our sympathy for his family, friends, and colleagues. Yet if this is an appropriate moment to assess Kirk and issue bold statements about his participation in America’s political life, there ought to be room for a true discussion.

Kirk, a right-wing provocateur who founded and led Turning Point USA, an organization of young conservatives, was a promoter of Trump’s destructive and baseless conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Two days before the January 6 riot, Kirk boasted in a tweet that Students for Trump and Turning Point Action were “Sending 80+ buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this president.” . . .

Even prior to the election, Kirk helped set the stage for Trump’s attempt to subvert the republic. In September 2020, the Washington Post reported that Turning Point Action was running a “sprawling yet secretive campaign” to disseminate pro-Trump propaganda “that experts say evades the guardrails put in place by social media companies to limit online disinformation of the sort used by Russia during the 2016 campaign.” The messages Turning Point generated spread the charge that Democrats were using mail balloting to steal the election and downplayed the threat from Covid. . . .

Kirk’s advocacy of vigorous debate ought not be separated from what he said while jousting in the public square. He hosted white nationalists on his podcast. He posted racist comments on his X account, including this remark: “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.'” He endorsed the white “replacement” conspiracy theory. After the October 7 attack on Israel, he compared Black Lives Matter to Hamas. He called for preserving “white demographics in America.” He asserted that Islam was not compatible with Western culture. He derided women who supported Kamala Harris 2024 for wanting “careerism, consumerism, and loneliness.” Or, as he also put it, “Democratic women want to die alone without children.” When Paul Pelosi, the husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, was brutally attacked in 2022, Kirk spread a conspiracy theory about the crime and called for an “amazing patriot” to bail out the assailant. He routinely deployed extreme rhetoric to demonize his political foes. . . .

Moreover, as a movement strategist, he relied upon and advanced lies and bigotry—including falsehoods that fueled violence and an assault on our national foundation. That was not a side gig for Kirk. It was a core component of his organizing. He did not practice politics the right way. He used deceit to develop his movement and to weaken the United States. His assassination is heinous and frightening and warrants widespread condemnation. It should prompt reflection on what is happening within the nation and what needs to be done to prevent further political violence. It should not protect him or others who engage in such politics of extremism from critical review. 

Trump And Hegseth's Racist, Misogynistic, And Homophobic View For Our Military

Pete Hegseth has said he wants to improve our military by making it a merit-only organization. But his actions show otherwise. 

He has taking action to drive transgendered people out of the military - regardless of whether they are doing a good job or not (merit be damned).

But he's not stopping there. He's also making it clear that no members of the LGBTQ community are welcome. He has ordered the Navy to rename a ship - the USNS Harvey Milk (a fleet replenishment oiler).

This makes no real sense. Harvey Milk was a great American who made a mark on our culture as the first openly gay person to hold elected office. It does, however, send a message to LGBTQ soldiers - you are not welcome in the U.S. military (regardless of merit or job performance). 

He's not stopping there. On his list of ships to be renamed are ships named after Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harriet Tubman, Dolores Huerta, Lucy Stone, Cesar Chavez, and Medgar Evers - all American heroes in their own right. Why? Because none of them are white males.

He's making it clear that no one is welcome in the military unless they are white, male, heterosexual, and a MAGA-lover. 

And this is OK with Trump, who is also trying to rewrite and whitewash American history.

When Trump took office, and before Hegseth was named Secretary of defense, the United States had the most effective and most powerful military in the world. One reason was the diversity it embraced. Trump and Hegseth's racist, misogynistic, and homophobic views are destroying that.

We can only hope that too much damage will not be done to to our military before both can be replaced. Our national defense is at stake.

Trump's Desperate Effort To Keep The White Patriarchy Intact

The following is part of a post by Dan Rather: 

Of all the complaints, grievances, and gripes coming from the White House, the great majority have been directed at an aspect of 21st century America that Donald Trump just can’t seem to handle: diversity, equity, and inclusion. These three words tie him in knots. DEI raises his IRE.

Several of the executive orders he’s signed since taking office are aimed at eliminating DEI programs within the federal government, in education, and in the private sector.

Trump has weaponized DEI in the ever-worsening culture wars. It has become the go-to for killing any program that enables a diverse workforce or student body, studies underserved communities, or tackles institutional bias. He also uses it to absolve himself. Midair collision? Blame DEI.

For Trump, rooting out any and all DEI is fulfilling a campaign promise to end “wokeness” and “leftist indoctrination” in education. Some might call it a blanket excuse to blow up programs he doesn’t like. Just tag it DEI and be done with it.

This White House wants everything to be “merit based.” Trump has convinced his supporters that DEI stands for “didn’t earn it.”

This is hypocrisy, especially when you consider some of his Cabinet appointments. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pretty much kills their argument for merit-based hiring.

Let’s take a step back for what’s known in television as the wide shot. Here’s what this is really all about: white men whining.

You can’t call it a dog whistle, because that would suggest Trump is trying to hide his derision for DEI. He is not. His executive orders are announcing that it is open season to be brazenly, unapologetically racist, sexist, homophobic, ageist, xenophobic, ableist — pick your bigotry.

The MAGA backlash to DEI is an outgrowth of the identity politics that have taken a greater hold in the United States over the past 10 years. The reaction has been building for a while but has recently grown deeper and stronger. . . .

White males have had a disproportionate share of power in the United States since its founding. But the country’s demographics are changing, with the U.S. becoming less white. In the year 2000, 69% of the population was white; just 20 years later, that percentage was down to 58%. The group making the biggest population gain is Latinos. Is it any wonder Trump still wants to build that wall on the Mexican border?

And recent trends will continue. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, white people may still be a plurality but no longer a majority in America by 2045. Trump is desperately trying to stop the clock, and even reverse it, with his executive orders.

So far the orders have:

• Put all government DEI employees on administrative leave and ordered each federal agency to eliminate their positions.

  
  

• Ended all diversity programs in the U.S. military and federal agencies.

  
  

• Rescinded a 1965 executive order prohibiting racial discrimination in federal contracts.

  
  

• Directed his Cabinet secretaries to “prepare up to nine civil investigation targets” along with “other strategies to encourage the private sector to end illegal DEI discrimination and preferences.”

  
  

• Required all federal contractors to eliminate DEI programs, which includes all grant recipients.

Cumulative far-right outrage over programs seen as helping and promoting people of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and immigrants, combined with the fear of straight white men losing status and power, has brought us to this crossroads. . . .

Trump’s anti-DEI bent is more than a bigoted policy. It is anti-science, anti-education, and anti-American. The country cannot afford to have this covered over or forgotten.

Trump Did Not Change The GOP - He Just Exposed It

There is a belief going around that Donald Trump changed the Republican Party. This is especially popular among the few moderates left in that party. They would like you to believe that after Trump is gone, the GOP will return to normalcy and work in a bipartisan fashion again (like it did several decades ago). There's only one thing wrong with that idea -- it is just NOT TRUE!

The party has not been bipartisan for years now. During the term of President Obama, the Republicans opposed everything he tried to do -- even when he moderated his agenda in the hopes they would compromise. They were even honest about it. Some of the moderates were honest enough to admit the party's congressional delegation met after Obama's election and decided to oppose anything he tried to do, whether it was good for the country or not.

Trump did not create the partisanship of the GOP. He just recognized it and used it.

The same was true of race. The GOP had a large part of its base that was racist and white supremacist. Back in the 60's, millions of racists abandoned the Democratic Party after President Johnson pushed three civil rights bill through Congress and signed them. The Republican Party welcomed those racists with open arms, giving them a majority in the South (something they had never had). Party leaders may have thought they could control the racists after admitting them, but they were unable to do that. And the party became a comfortable home for racists and white supremacists.

Trump did not create the racism in the GOP. He just recognized it and used it.

The same is true of misogyny and homophobia. Thanks to the inclusion of the white evangelicals in the party, it has long been anti-woman and anti-LGBT. Republicans consider women second class citizens, and won't even let them control their own bodies. Republicans also opposed giving the LGBT community the same rights that other Americans enjoyed (including the ability to marry the person they loved).

Trump did not create the GOP's misogyny and homophobia. He just recognized it and used it.

Trump was also very anti-immigrant while campaigning and serving in office. But he didn't create that either. The GOP was anti-immigrant long before Trump. The GOP killed several attempts to reform our immigration laws long before Trump became a politician. In fact, Trump used many immigrants in his businesses. But he changed when he decided to run as a Republican.

Trump did not create the GOP's anti-immigrant fervor. He just recognized it and used it.

The Republican Party had a dark and ugly core in its base. That had been true for a long time. And it's why Trump decided to run as a Republican. Although he was a moderate Democrat for most of his life, Trump knew he could not win a Democratic nomination. But he saw the ugliness in the Republican base, and he knew he could use that to make himself popular among Republicans. And he had the lack of character and morals to do that.

The Republican Party will not return to a bipartisan "normalcy" when Trump is gone. The racists, misogynists, homophobic, and immigrant haters will still be there, and they will still make up the majority of the party's base. Having Trump appeal to their base instincts has emboldened them -- and they are not going to be quite or go away. 

The Republican Party is the party of hate. That's not going to change anytime soon.

New "University Of Austin" Is Just A Right-Wing Scam

 

Right-wingers can no longer be scammed out of their money by taking courses from Trump University. But some discredited journalists and teachers have formed another "university" to continue the grift. It's called the University of Austin, and it will teach racist and anti-LGBTQ ideas. It is not accredited, offers no degrees, and its courses cannot be transferred to a real college or university. 

Here is part of the op-ed on the new "school" by Katelyn Burns at MSNBC.com:

Earlier this week, a group of conservative and contrarian academics and journalists announced they were launching a new venture called the “University of Austin.” The “school” purports to teach to students “unthinkable” ideas that the founders say they are currently being persecuted for espousing in traditional academia.

But the supposed university is unaccredited — and it doesn’t offer any degrees. Instead, it appears to be the latest, and largest, in a long line of cancel culture-related grifts. . . .

Polls have revealed that an increasing number of people are afraid of being “canceled” over their opinions. And what sprang up in response was an ever-increasing network of resources designed to garner support for celebrities, academics and journalists who’ve been canceled. . . .

The general idea is that there are certain social rewards that come with being canceled. So-called controversial or forbidden ideas have a veneer of guilty pleasure. Things that are illegal or taboo have always been attractive to people, like having your first drink of alcohol when you’re a teenager.

It’s this attractiveness that helps cancel culture grifts pay off. There’s no universally agreed upon definition of “getting canceled” and it’s claimed for a wide variety of consequences for terrible speech or actions, from losing a job to getting doxxed to mild intellectual disagreement.

This open-ended definition allows nearly anyone to claim canceled status and subsequently rake in the increased attention and financial rewards that now come with that status. . . .

It appears that a group of self-described “heterodox” academics and journalists (who all happen to have the same opinions on the the two topics they collectively discuss most often, trans rights and racism) want in on the action.

The list of founders and those listed in the university’s initial launch announcement reads like a who’s-who of contrarian personalities, including: former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, who appeared to spearhead the organizing; British academic and gender critical former professor Kathleen Stock, who recently resigned from the University of Sussex, first claiming she was driven out by protesting students before shifting the blame onto another professor she says had a disagreement with; and journalist Caitlin Flanagan, who always seems to be in the middle of these discussions.

But there appears to be no substance behind the allegedly academic effort. None of the instructors are expected to produce research in their field; none of the programs provide credits that could be accepted at actual colleges. Instead, the University of Austin appears to be a clearinghouse for online videos or classes, where people like Stock can say whatever she wants about trans people or columnist Andrew Sullivan can lecture about racial IQ without official consequences. And students will presumably be paying money to access this material, of course. . . .

As New York Magazine’s Sarah Jones noted, the University of Austin’s founding ideal is nothing new. But the grift at play here is clear. The University of Austin isn’t designed to benefit its students. It’s meant to be a soft landing spot for formerly disgraced academics, or controversial journalists, who it should be noted, mostly have no experience in academia. And while the instructors rake in cash from the aggrieved masses, the only value the school will deliver to students is an ability to indulge in the guilty pleasures of racism and transphobia.

Republicans Have Told Us What They Are - BELIEVE THEM!

(Cartoon image is by Monte Wolverton at cagle.com.)

Although I am a solid Democrat, I mourn what has become of the Republican Party. They used to be a party capable of compromise for the good of the country. That is no longer true, as they have demonstrated conclusively in the last few weeks. They are now the party of angry white men -- racist, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT, and rabidly anti-woman.

The following is most of an op-ed by Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post. All I can say is -- she's right!

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) barked at female sex-crime victims, “Grow up!” He called Christine Blasey Ford a “pleasing” witness. He shooed women away with a flick of his wrist. Hatch also posted “an uncorroborated account from a Utah man questioning the legitimacy and sexual preferences” of Julie Swetnick, one of Brett M. Kavanaugh’s accusers. . . .

Not a single Republican spoke up to criticize him. One would think someone would point out that he brought dishonor on himself, his party and the Senate. But clearly Republicans take no umbrage at such conduct.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) attempted to excuse the lack of a single Republican woman — ever — on the Judiciary Committee. “It’s a lot of work — maybe they don’t want to do it.”

Kavanaugh snapped and sneered at female senators on the Judiciary Committee. Republicans didn’t bat an eye or hold it against him. He was just mad, you see.

President Trump repeated the calumny that if the attack was “as bad” as Ford said she’d have gone to the police. He declared it was a “scary time” for young men. He openly mocked Ford at a rally to gin up his base’s anger. Republican apologists said he was just explaining the facts. He actually misrepresented her testimony, falsely claiming she couldn’t recall many facts — the neighborhood of the house where she was attacked. William Saletancalled out Trump and his defenders: “It’s true that Ford can’t recall important details about place and time. It’s true that she can’t recall how she got to the house or how she left. It’s true that every accused person is entitled to a presumption of innocence. But Trump’s portrayal of Ford’s testimony wasn’t true. It was a pack of lies. And people who defend it, like Lindsey Graham, are liars too.”

Trump and other Republicans accused sex-crime victims protesting Kavanaugh as protesters paid by George Soros (a Jewish left-wing billionaire whose name is routinely invoked in anti-Semitic attacks). The GOP Senate whip, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), called the victims a “mob” and echoed the bogus claim that they were paid protesters. They deny victims’ very existence; they are non-persons — props sent by opponents to ruin a man’s life.

Graham snorted that he’d hear what “the lady has to say” and then vote Kavanaugh in. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he’d “plow right through” (more like plow over) Ford’s testimony and confirm Kavanaugh. Republicans’ defense of Kavanaugh — that Ford and others were props of a left-wing plot and therefore lacked agency of their own — evidences the party’s attitude toward women.

You cannot say a party that embraces a deeply misogynistic president who bragged about sexually assaulting women and mocked and taunted a sex-crime victim; accepted a blatantly insufficient investigation of credible sex crimes against women in lieu of a serious one that the White House counsel knew would be disastrous; repeatedly insulted and dismissed sex-crime victims exercising their constitutional rights; has never put a single woman on the Judiciary Committee (and then blames its own female members for being too lazy); and whips up male resentment of female accusers is a party that respects women. Its members resent women. They scorn women. They exclude women. They use women to maintain their grip on power. But they do not respect them. . . .

The Republican Party no longer bothers to conceal its loathing of immigrants, its contempt for a free press, its disdain for the rule of law or its views on women. Indeed, these things now define a party that survives by inflaming white male resentment. 

A Portrait Of Bigotry In U.S. (By Using Twitter Remarks)

I found this interesting, and I thought you might also. It is from Mic Network Inc, and uses the Twitter remarks to judge how bigoted the parts of the country are:

Remembering The Tragedy In Orlando

(This collage of the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting is from WPRI.com.)

It's been one year today since the Orlando shooting at the Pulse nightclub that killed 49 people and wounded 58 others -- the deadliest mass shooting by a single person, and the deadliest terrorist attack since September 11, 2001 in the United States. As we remember this tragedy, there are a few facts we should not forget.

* This terrible tragedy would not have been prevented by Trump's bigoted travel ban. The shooter was born in the United States, and his parents did not come from one of the countries on that travel ban.

* This was not just a terrorist act, but also a hate crime -- leveled against the LGBT community.

* Even though gays and lesbians can now marry the person they love (thanks to the Supreme Court), they are still discriminated against in myriad other ways (housing, employment, etc.).

* Nothing has been done in the last year to close the loopholes in the background check program for gun buyers (even though 80% to 90% of Americans want those loopholes closed). Terrorists, homophobes, misogynists, racists, and other criminals can still buy any kind of firearm they want (including assault weapons) without having their background checked -- and 40% of the guns sold in this country each year are sold without a background check being done.

Republicans See Less Discrimination Than Other Americans

I have said for a while now (and so have others) that many Republicans are racists, bigots, misogynists, and homophobes. This chart tends to show that is true. When asked if there was a lot of discrimination against the groups listed (muslims, gays/lesbians, Blacks, Hispanics, women, Jews), significantly less Republicans said no -- compared to Democrats and the general population.

This shows how the Republicans could vote for a known racist, bigot, misogynist, and homophobe named Donald Trump. They will claim they are not any of those things, but if you vote for someone known to be all of them, then you must also wear those labels.

There were two groups that more Republicans than Democrats or the general public said there was a lot of discrimination against -- evangelicals and whites (neither of which is actually discriminated against). The Republicans (a party almost exclusively composed of whites) seem to be afraid of the diminishing white privilege. They voted to "make America great again", which is code for going back to a time when white privilege was not questioned.

The chart was made from information contained in a new survey by the Pew Research Center -- done between November 30th and December 5th of a random national sample of 1,502 adults, with a margin of error of 2.9 points (5 points for Democrats and 5.7 points for Republicans).

Hate Actions Have Increased Since Trump Election

It seems like the election of Donald Trump has given the proponents of hate permission to spread that hate . The charts below, from Think Progress, show the number and distribution of those hateful acts (from the election through last Monday). States with the darker colors have the most incidents of hate. Sadly, my own state of Texas shows up in every chart (meaning there are incidents of hate there against all groups).

There Have Been Over 400 Reports Of Hateful Intimidation And Harassment Since The Election Of Donald Trump

(Cartoon image is by Clay Jones at claytoonz.com.)

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is reporting that there has been at least 437 incidents of intimidation and harassment against members of minority groups between November 9th and November 14th -- only a six day period following the election of Donald Trump (or about 73 incidents each day).

After watching Trump spout racist, bigoted, and xenophobic values for moths while campaigning, this should surprise no one -- although it should disgust everyone. Religious bigots, immigrant-haters, and white supremacists have been encouraged by Trump's campaign of hate, and feel vindicated by his election.

They now see their sick views as being the norm in the United States, and believe the public is now on their side. Sadly, they may well be true for a large segment of the population. It's hard to see how Trump could have been elected without that.

We can expect to see these hateful actions to increase in the coming days and months. The haters haven't felt this good in years, and they will take the opportunity to get back at the minorities they hate, and they people they see as having held them down (i.e., liberals).

But this is not a time for decent Americans to stop the fight for equality. In fact, there has never been a time when that fight has been needed more.

The chart below is from the SPLC:

Most of the reports involved anti-immigrant incidents (136), followed by anti-black (89) and anti-LGBT (43). Some reports (8) included multiple categories like anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant. The "Trump" category (41) refers to incidents where there was no clear defined target, like the pro-Trump vandalism of a "unity" sign in Connecticut. 

Young People Are Fleeing Religion In Large Numbers

These charts are from a scientific study published at PLOS/ONE. The top chart shows the percentage of young people who never attend church. The chart below that shows the percentage of young people who claim no religious affiliation.

It has been a fact that for several generations now there have been a smaller percentage of people accepting religion with each generation -- but there is an explosion of growth in young people fleeing religion today. Religious leaders, especially those on the right, want to blame this on secular teachings at "liberal" colleges, but as you can see, it is not just college students fleeing the church -- it is young people of all ages.

The truth is that young people today just can't accept the homophobic, misogynistic, and racist teachings they encounter far too often in churches today -- especially in the fundamentalist evangelical churches.

Our schools teach the Constitution and its guarantee of equality, but then on Sunday the church teaches something different -- that there are groups that don't deserve the same rights as other people. Today's youth are not stupid. They know that both cannot be true, and to their credit, ever larger numbers are opting to believe in equality.

Dueling Tweets From The Presidential Candidates

(Cartoon image is by Dave Granlind at davegranlund.com.)

Any reasonable person would admit that Donald Trump has won the hearts of racists, misogynists, bigots, and homophobes all across this country. That is just a fact, and Trump has gone out of his way to appeal to that sick crowd. But he's very thin-skinned when anyone points that out.

Last Friday, Hillary Clinton pointed it out:

You know, just to be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of those folks, they are irredeemable. But thankfully they are not America.

Clinton was right, but Trump was quick to respond with a tweet. His response was just another lie, and Clinton also pointed that out. Here are those dueling tweets:

Ouch! She stung him with that reply. When you've gone out of your way to preach hate, it's more than disingenuous to claim you respect the very people you've spent months demonizing.

Homophobia

Found at tickld.com.

Silence Is Not A Neutral Position

This is very true, and it extends to all kinds of violence -- even the violence of words. When you let a bigoted or racist remark (or "joke") go unchallenged, you have encouraged the hater to continue promoting his hate. You have taken sides -- the side of hate and bigotry. Silence is never a neutral position when it comes to hatred. You either stand against hate, or you allow it to continue (and silence in the face of hate will be interpreted as support for it). There is no middle ground, nor should there be.

You Don't Create Change By Running Away

(The image above is from the Facebook page of Terry Nicholson.)

While many of the world's nations have been moving toward equality, and the granting of equal rights to all (including members of the LGBT community), Russia seems to be headed in the opposite direction. In June, the Russian legislative body passed an "anti-gay propaganda" law, and it was signed by President Putin. The law makes it a crime to publicly endorse or advocate the LGBT lifestyle, and violating that law could result in fines or imprisonment.

With the winter Olympics only a few months away, this has many people worried. Those Olympic games are scheduled to be held in Sochi, Russia. While it is unlikely that athletes or tourists attending the games will publicly protest the law, many wonder if the law will be used to punish openly gay individuals and couples attending or participating in the games. This is a valid concern, and Russia needs to address it.

The Russian Sports Minister has said that the rights of the athletes would be protected unless they go out "in the streets and start to propagandize". The question is just what does "propagandize" mean. Will two LGBT athletes or tourists holding hands be considered public propaganda? How about kissing or hugging in public? The IOC has asked the Russian government for clarification on how the new law will affect Olympic tourists and athletes -- and they deserve to get that clarification.

There is now a move to either boycott the Olympics or move them to another country (Canada has been suggested). I am against both of these options. I feel it is premature at this point, although I do believe the Russian government should give assurances to the Olympic committee, and then take action to back up those assurances.

A boycott should be considered out of the question. The United States has already tried that, and it accomplished nothing except to deny hundreds of American athletes the right to compete (after spending years training for it). And moving the Olympics to another country is not much better. You don't solve problems by running away from them.

This has been compared to the 1936 Olympics, which was held in Hitler's Germany. While it's not an invalid comparison, I don't think those Olympic games glorified Hitler's regime as much as it humiliated it. Remember Jesse Owens? Didn't he destroy Hitler's ideas of "Aryan superiority" before the entire world? I'd like to see some gay athletes do the same, to humiliate the homophobic stance Russia has taken.

I doubt that Russia would seek to take any action against tourists or athlete's attending the games. After all, they will be in the glare of the public spotlight -- and any homophobic moves would bring quick condemnation from most of the world press, especially in the economically powerful developed nations (nations that Russia has a vital economic interest in being friendly with).

Both the IOC and the nations sending athletes to the Olympics need to put pressure on the Russian government to insure the safety of their athletes and tourists. They must make it clear that there will be consequences if the rights of those people are violated. But we need to take moving the Olympics off the table (at least right now). This is an opportunity to further human rights across the world, and we should not bypass this opportunity by running away from it.

Bigotry

Well put and very true. All forms of bigotry are the province of weak and small-minded people -- the kind of people who are so afraid to live their own lives that they screw everything up for the rest of us. Personally, I consider bigotry to be a violent crime (even if its just thought or spoken). I can understand that our Constitution guarantees free speech (even bigoted hate speech), but what I don't understand is why anyone (no matter how weak, fearful, or stupid) would want to engage in that type of behavior.