Lunacy for sale

The online retailer Amazon is a place where people can find almost anything of a mainstream variety. But it is also a retailer that will do anything for a buck, even allowing itself to be used as a purveyor of the most atrocious, slanderous screeds. Most people wouldn’t know this, because they are just looking for the latest hit movie or bestselling book by a familiar author; generally they are looking for something that they believe is a worthwhile waster of time. They are not looking for the babbling, hate-filled droolings of the lunatic right fringe. But it’s there alright, hundreds of them (maybe thousands). I assume, for some reason, that Amazon doesn’t allow just anything into its warehouse, that it actually scrutinizes this material for fitness for average or below minds. But apparently not. If they think it will sell to some dismal demographic, they will allow it to foul its shelves. Amazon, in fact, doesn’t even bother to edit book descriptions of these tomes, where people named “Ingrid” from Denmark are quoted as if they have the status of literary scholars. Reviewers of these right-wing screeds appear regularly; and they say things like “I dare you to read this and discover the truth.” A rare “negative” review merely states that this was old news to the reviewer, and although she agreed with everything the author said, she was expecting new (i.e. more outrageous) “revelations.”

And so it happened that completely by accident I came upon a book entitled “The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America” by Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, who are apparently a couple of fringe-right bloggers. It is a waste of time describing the book’s contents; if you’ve heard Mark Williams’ racist hysterics on CNN or Fox News, you get the general idea. There are tabs for people who wish to read like-minded tomes, and there are, as I stated before, literally hundreds or more of these pathetic mulings. Many of them are merely pamphlets, and the ones that are more “substantial” merely repeat the same right-wing conspiracy theories we have been hearing since at least the FDR administration. Obama has successfully managed a few less than radical initiatives like health care and finance reform, but otherwise has done little that can accused of being outside the status quo. Yet less than two years into Obama’s presidency, books containing nothing more than sheer racist fantasy—ideas that were already in the minds of hate fanatics (who have the absolute audacity to accuse Obama of being a racist) before Obama was even born, but this time only expanded into Twilight Zone territory.

I won’t waste time doing point-by-point analysis and counter-analysis with funny farm escapees, but I do think that the accusation that Obama is a Islamic Jihadist and anti-Semite—curious seeing that most hate-mongerers are anti-Semitic—deserves some rebuttal, since this seems to have gained some traction in “mainstream” circles, particularly since polls show that a quarter of the population thinks that Obama may be the anti-Christ. Outside his speech in Cairo, Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton haven’t gone out of their way to make a noticeable dent in the status quo in Middle East. I am as strong a supporter of Israel as anyone, and I have not detected these so-called anti-Israel policies. And I’m not blind; Israel has embarrassed the U.S. more than a few times in the past year, particularly with the recent ship hijacking, and one may fairly ask what exactly is Israel’s long-term strategy as it continues to build settlements on the West Bank. Does it want peace, or does it intend to swallow-up the whole of the West Bank? I for one would like some clarity on the issue.

In any case, “people who bought this book also bought” the following, according to Amazon:

“The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran”

“Obama’s Betrayal of Israel”

“Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is subverting America without guns or bombs”

“The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists”

“Obama’s Radical Transformation of America (Year One)”

“How the Obama’s Administration Has Politicized Justice”

“How the Obama Administration Threatens Our National Security”

“How the Obama Administration Threatens to Undermine Our Elections”

“How Barack Obama is Endangering Our National Sovereignty"

“How Obama is Transforming America Through Immigration”

“How Barack Obama is Bankrupting the U.S. Economy” (There are about a dozen or so more of these “How—fill-in the blank—Obama Threatens” pamphlets; I’m wondering when the “How Obama will drain the Oceans” and “How Obama’s Space Alien Friends will Destroy the World” will appear.)

“The Blueprint: Obama's Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency”

“Architects of Ruin: How big government liberals wrecked the global economy---and how they will do it again if no one stops them”

“The Obama Timeline: From his Birth in 1961 Through his First 100 Days in Office” (the book has a red cover with a sickle and hammer emblem)

And the list goes on and on and on. Obama has been president for less than two years, and he has done all of this? Sure has been a busy man, behind the scenes anyways. I am quite certain that no president in this country’s history has received such minute scrutiny in so short a time. And it’s all perfect nonsense. It is also fairly certain that this stuff is mother’s milk to the Tea Party movement.