National View: How Do You Know When a Candidate Goes Too Far?

Answer: They change the subject.

Just after the attack on the Libyan consulate, Mitt Romney accused the President of being apologetic in his response.  This ignited some pretty heated backlash, including from other Republicans.

It saddens me that someone acknowledging reality, despite party affiliation, is remarkable.  But never mind that just now.

Romney knows he went too far in trying to appeal to the militant right wing here in America, and we can tell because he's not talking about the Libya attack or any other Muslim unrest.

This bothers me more than a little.  As President, would be able to ignore one of the major foreign policies crises of the last 6 months?  "Well, I muffed that--time to focus on education reform for a while."  A sitting President doesn't have the luxury of changing their focus.

What I see out of this whole mess is a candidate trying to fire up his base--the people who hate that black bleeding heart in the White House.  By accusing Obama of not defending the American way of life, of being ashamed of American values like freedom of speech, Romney's just trying to piss off our own reactionary radicals.  The ones who don't necessarily like Romney, but will vote for him if they're sure a vote for Obama is a vote for evil.

Romney doesn't have the first idea how he'd react to such a wide-spread problem.  Those who can, do.  Those who can't, throw up smoke screens.  You can strengthen yourself, or weaken your obstacle--and I think it's pretty clear how Romney approaches his problems.

International Angle: Moronic, Irrational Rage in Egypt and Libya

The attacks on the US Embassy in Cairo, and the deadly one on the Consulate in Benghazi which took 4 lives, can only be described as a clusterfuck.  BBC has the details, in politer terms.

I almost have too many words for this situation.

1. This has nothing to do with Islam.  No god, no religion, no rational human being views these attacks as anything good or wholesome.  I see these actions and I see many things: Ignorance, crime, blind hate, people with no future, people who do not use their brains.  They're just Libyan Ku Klux Klan members--useless individuals who are not indicative of their parents societies.
2. Why are people making deliberately-offensive films knowing this is a likely outcome?  All the subject matter in the world, and you make a movie about a man who's not supposed to be portrayed at all.
3. Why on earth is it ok for this to even BE a likely outcome?  Rioting and killing people is not an acceptable way to express your feelings.
4. Where were the Marines to shoot these rioters?  What about local cops?  I realize we're talking Libya here, but there has to be some sort of rule of law.  If not, right back to the first question--where were the Marines?
5. Until every citizen in the world is able to buy into peace and prosperity, they have no reason to protect life or property.  Until all children can grow up without knowing hunger, they will learn to steal and kill as a means to survival.  They will know only one problem solving method--to kill those between you and resources.
6. Senseless, tragic, utterly useless deaths.  Keep the victims and their families in your thoughts.
7. This is why we don't have warp drive.  We're too busy pissing each other off and killing each other to even think about evolving as a race.  Until we can genuinely respect each others differences (that's a two way street, everyone), we will be stuck in this never ending cycle of violence.

Sometimes I'm amazed we haven't managed to kill ourselves off completely.  Utterly disgusted with humanity right now.  We're better than this.