As IF Times

link Protesters dispersed in Cairo; fury over anti-Islam film hits Australia – CNN.com.

In a long forgotten movie from 1983 entitled “Yellowbeard”, there is a scene in which a blind man is offered a roast chicken but is actually a loaf of bread.  The blind man takes a bite and says, “mmm, great chicken”.   The ongoing narrative about the uprisings in the Muslim world is an amusing parallel to this.  What we hear from news outlets of all stripes is that the rioting, shooting, setting ablaze of buildings and killings of ambassadors is rooted in anger over an obscure YouTube flick in which their religion is slighted.

Purveyors of news think that the public are just like the blind man in the movie, willing to accept the narrative as allegorical chicken when it is in fact, bread.  Think about that.  In many of those muslim nations, having a change of clothes would qualify you as middle class, yet we are to believe that because of some YouTube video, young men are willing to get their hands on RPG’s, riot and murder people.   For this kind of over reaction, you would think their hockey team lost a playoff game.

You would have to believe that on the anniversary of 9-11, in simultaneous attacks across a dozen countries,  young muslim men collectively decided to protest a crappy video.  (Imagine if they had seen any of Will Ferrell’s movies )  Somehow, en masse, they decided that freedom of expression in another country would not be tolerated.  This dubiousness is perpetuated by no less than the Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton who denounced the video as inflammatory and disgusting.  As well, UN ambassador Susan Rice also chimes in with her condemnation of the video.  So we have the entire world condemning some low budget video as being the root cause of the violence towards Americans.  Except for Al Qaeda.  They actually issued a statement saying that the violence was in response to the killing of their number 2 guy.   http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/12/world/africa/libya-attack-jihadists/index.html  Of course, Al Qaeda doesn’t have as much credibility as the New York Times or the Huffington Post.

Because of this narrative, subtly but surely, a free western world has to be on eggshells worrying about what words  may or may not invoke anger among  otherwise peaceful and tolerant muslims.  This of course is an extension of an entire generation of people in the west being fed the bs of ‘root causes’, as in “the root cause of the axe murderer’s rampage was being denied candy at the age of 5”.

Let’s hope that the muslim world doesn’t catch on to the new Wendy’s triple bacon burger.  The very idea that people can consume something like that has to be offensive at some level.

link Bill Clinton, Obamas New Secretary Of Explaining Stuff, Takes Show On Road : Its All Politics : NPR.

People can easily mistake what’s going on now on the U.S. political stage for resembling re-runs of Friends episodes.  Getting Bill to speak to the enamoured is not only smart, since he was much admired by them before, but also effective since they still think he’s a saint.   Apparently, unable to rally the faithful to the cause, the DNC brings back the old master with trumpets and rainbows, who earnestly endorses the White House incumbent.

This really makes very little difference to those “independents” who are wavering, but it does pick up the spirits of the legion who are already sold.  You can literally hear strains of Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” in the background…

“Now I think I’m going down to the well tonight and I’m going to drink till I get my fill

And I hope when I get old I don’t sit around thinking about it but I probably will

Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture a little of the glory of,

well time slips away and leaves you with nothing mister but boring stories of glory days ”

It’s political distraction at it’s best.  There is absolutely nothing that the incumbent can talk about which has been a success, so they bring out the entertainment.  It’s as if they were distracting a crying baby with a shiny thing on a string.  Hitching your faltering wagon to a shooting star is not a bad idea actually and the strategy is brilliant but expected.

What’s amusing though is Bill’s actual record. The narrative about Bill’s White House term has now morphed into 8 years of economic success and tranquil peace across the land.  The truth is at variance with this popular narrative.  As columnist John Stossel reveals in a recent column, the “Sainthood” conferred upon Clinton is revisionism at its best.  See here: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/09/12/exploding-myths-about-saint-bill-clinton/?cmpid=GoogleNewsEditorsPicks&google_editors_picks=true

The salient point is that Clinton was able to preside over a period of tranquility ONLY because he was forced by a Republican congress on economic policies.  Sort of like Christopher Columbus being given credit for discovering America, except for the fact that he was headed to China at the time and was just stopping for a bathroom break.  And come on, do people really believe it when Bill looks them in the eye and tells them something is the absolute truth?