The Insanity Continues

I want to direct you toward an excellent piece today by Maureen Down, highlighting the total lunacy involved in the return of Newt Gingrich to prominence in the Republican party.

Who knew he wrote his Ph.D dissertation on the Belgian rule of the Congo, attempting to justify a colonial regime which was so barbarous that it shocked and disgusted even the other European colonial countries:

"Of the Europeans who scrambled for control of Africa at the end of the 19th century, Belgium's King Leopold II left arguably the largest and most horrid legacy of all.

While the Great Powers competed for territory elsewhere, the king of one of Europe's smallest countries carved his own private colony out of 100km2 of Central African rainforest...the king unleashed new horrors on the African continent.

He turned his "Congo Free State" into a massive labour camp, made a fortune for himself from the harvest of its wild rubber, and contributed in a large way to the death of perhaps 10 million innocent people."

And yet Newt's take on this was, "hey, let's look at the good side!"

There's much more in Dowd's piece, which is a great example of her patented sarcasm, which at least today has found a deserving target.  But just consider that Republicans are apparently willing to have our country led by a man who demostrates a life-long willingness to advocate for the most brutal exploitation of other people and other countries.  If you don't get where this is leading our country, you have your head buried in the sand.

Comments

Grung_e_Gene said…
Yeah, I highlighted Newt's doctoral thesis back when Gingrich was remarking about President Obama's "Kenyan Anti-Cololnial mindset" Dinesh D'Souza's book came out last year.

It makes sense Newt hates Obama because President Obama's quiet composed intelligence undercuts Newt's belief in the lesser nature of some peoples.
mastercynic said…
And yet, the National Defense Authorization Act passes the Senate 93 - 7. An totally unconstitutional suspension of our rights in the name of fighting terror.

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