This post is about politics. First of all, a summary of things thus far, from user "Fascist Funk" in the Something Awful forums: "Hillary Clinton in 2 months went from an empress approaching her coronation to a flaming untouchable wreck. Rush Limbaugh is attacking the GOP frontrunner. Pat Buchanan is praising the Dem frontrunner. Karl Rove is admonishing Republicans to keep it clean. And a young black man with big ears and a funny name is cleaning up at the polls."
And what a funny name it is. Barack Obama. Barak Hussein Obama. And what an unfortunate name given our cultural attitudes toward Arabs... particularly one Saddam Hussein and one Osama Bin Laden.
Couple the name with feeble accusations of anti-patriotism and a Muslim upbringing and, why, you've nearly got terrorist allegations!
First off, it wouldn't bother me in the least if Barak Obama weren't a Christian. It wouldn't bother me if he were a Muslim. Since when is being a Christian an official requisite for being President? The fact that it is an "unofficial" requisite is, frankly, disgusting.
Secondly, it wouldn't bother me if Barak Obama were Arab, rather than African American, as some ridiculous recent column suggested. "Gee, we can't hate on him because he's black, so why don't we find a more modern stereotype to harp on?" Why should his racial heritage make a difference?
Yes, it would bother me if he were lying, publicly, to his supporters about these things. I don't think he is.
Outside of the possibility that Obama is lying, the above allegations don't have an ounce of substance. They rely on triggering the present-day fears of the American public to sway them away from a candidate. What's even sadder are the bigots who use his name to attempt the same thing.
If you have ever heard anyone slam Barak Hussein Obama for his name, know someone who discriminates against him for that reason, or have wondered just what it means yourself, I encourage you to read this article about Barak Hussein Obama, Omar Bradley, Benjamin Franklin, and other Semetically named American Heros. Excerpts from the article follow:
"At Cincinnati, Bill Cunningham, according to the LAT, who "introduced presidential candidate John McCain at a rally here today accused Barack Obama of sympathizing with 'world leaders who want to kill us' and invoked Obama's middle name -- three times calling him 'Barack Hussein Obama.' " John McCain repudiated Cunningham's low tactics and said that using the middle name like that three times was "inappropriate" and would never happen again at one of his rallies.
I want to say something about Barack Hussein Obama's name. It is a name to be proud of. It is an American name. It is a blessed name. It is a heroic name, as heroic and American in its own way as the name of General Omar Nelson Bradley or the name of Benjamin Franklin. And denigrating that name is a form of racial and religious bigotry of the most vile and debased sort. It is a prejudice against names deriving from Semitic languages!"
[...]
"Barack and Hussein are Semitic words. Americans have been named with Semitic names since the founding of the Republic. Fourteen of our 43 presidents have had Semitic names (see below). And, American English contains many Arabic-derived words that we use every day and without which we would be much impoverished. America is a world civilization with a world heritage, something Cunninghamism will never understand.
Barack is a Semitic word meaning "to bless" as a verb or "blessing" as a noun. In its Hebrew form, barak, it is found all through the Bible. It first occurs in Genesis 1:22: "And God blessed (ḇāreḵə ) them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."" (And from thereon, the word appears many times in the Bible)
[...]
"Now let us take the name "Hussein." It is from the Semitic word, hasan, meaning "good" or "handsome." Husayn is the diminutive, affectionate form.
Barack Obama's middle name is in honor of his grandfather, Hussein, a secular resident of Nairobi. Americans may think of Saddam Hussein when they hear the name, but that is like thinking of Stalin when you hear the name Joseph. There have been lots of Husseins in history, from the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, a hero who touched the historian Gibbon, to King Hussein of Jordan, one of America's most steadfast allies in the 20th century. The author of the beloved American novel, The Kite Runner, is Khaled Hosseini.
But in Obama's case, it is just a reference to his grandfather."
[...]
"Obama, being a cousin of Dick Cheney on one side and having relatives in Kenya on the other, is just more and more typical of the 21st century United States.
So, anyway, Obama's first two names mean "Blessing, the Good." If we are lucky enough to get him for president, we can only hope that his names are prophetic for us."
Posted on February 27, 2008 @ 8:21 PM | 2 comments
And what a funny name it is. Barack Obama. Barak Hussein Obama. And what an unfortunate name given our cultural attitudes toward Arabs... particularly one Saddam Hussein and one Osama Bin Laden.
Couple the name with feeble accusations of anti-patriotism and a Muslim upbringing and, why, you've nearly got terrorist allegations!
First off, it wouldn't bother me in the least if Barak Obama weren't a Christian. It wouldn't bother me if he were a Muslim. Since when is being a Christian an official requisite for being President? The fact that it is an "unofficial" requisite is, frankly, disgusting.
Secondly, it wouldn't bother me if Barak Obama were Arab, rather than African American, as some ridiculous recent column suggested. "Gee, we can't hate on him because he's black, so why don't we find a more modern stereotype to harp on?" Why should his racial heritage make a difference?
Yes, it would bother me if he were lying, publicly, to his supporters about these things. I don't think he is.
Outside of the possibility that Obama is lying, the above allegations don't have an ounce of substance. They rely on triggering the present-day fears of the American public to sway them away from a candidate. What's even sadder are the bigots who use his name to attempt the same thing.
If you have ever heard anyone slam Barak Hussein Obama for his name, know someone who discriminates against him for that reason, or have wondered just what it means yourself, I encourage you to read this article about Barak Hussein Obama, Omar Bradley, Benjamin Franklin, and other Semetically named American Heros. Excerpts from the article follow:
"At Cincinnati, Bill Cunningham, according to the LAT, who "introduced presidential candidate John McCain at a rally here today accused Barack Obama of sympathizing with 'world leaders who want to kill us' and invoked Obama's middle name -- three times calling him 'Barack Hussein Obama.' " John McCain repudiated Cunningham's low tactics and said that using the middle name like that three times was "inappropriate" and would never happen again at one of his rallies.
I want to say something about Barack Hussein Obama's name. It is a name to be proud of. It is an American name. It is a blessed name. It is a heroic name, as heroic and American in its own way as the name of General Omar Nelson Bradley or the name of Benjamin Franklin. And denigrating that name is a form of racial and religious bigotry of the most vile and debased sort. It is a prejudice against names deriving from Semitic languages!"
[...]
"Barack and Hussein are Semitic words. Americans have been named with Semitic names since the founding of the Republic. Fourteen of our 43 presidents have had Semitic names (see below). And, American English contains many Arabic-derived words that we use every day and without which we would be much impoverished. America is a world civilization with a world heritage, something Cunninghamism will never understand.
Barack is a Semitic word meaning "to bless" as a verb or "blessing" as a noun. In its Hebrew form, barak, it is found all through the Bible. It first occurs in Genesis 1:22: "And God blessed (ḇāreḵə ) them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."" (And from thereon, the word appears many times in the Bible)
[...]
"Now let us take the name "Hussein." It is from the Semitic word, hasan, meaning "good" or "handsome." Husayn is the diminutive, affectionate form.
Barack Obama's middle name is in honor of his grandfather, Hussein, a secular resident of Nairobi. Americans may think of Saddam Hussein when they hear the name, but that is like thinking of Stalin when you hear the name Joseph. There have been lots of Husseins in history, from the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, a hero who touched the historian Gibbon, to King Hussein of Jordan, one of America's most steadfast allies in the 20th century. The author of the beloved American novel, The Kite Runner, is Khaled Hosseini.
But in Obama's case, it is just a reference to his grandfather."
[...]
"Obama, being a cousin of Dick Cheney on one side and having relatives in Kenya on the other, is just more and more typical of the 21st century United States.
So, anyway, Obama's first two names mean "Blessing, the Good." If we are lucky enough to get him for president, we can only hope that his names are prophetic for us."
Posted on February 27, 2008 @ 8:21 PM | 2 comments
Comments:
Talk about yesterday's news...
By 
, at
10:48 AM, February 28, 2008
Shut up, Kyle. UR a jerk. ;)
By 
Kat, at
11:19 AM, February 28, 2008
