I got a funny email today. It was from a Democratic Senator (not a personal email, obviously). It started like this:

“Yesterday's arrests of terror suspects in Britain offered a stark reminder of the threat that America continues to face from Islamic fundamentalists.

It is at times like these when every leader in Washington, regardless of party affiliation, should be united behind the singular goal of keeping this country safe. But Republicans don't see it that way.
Once again, GOP leaders are using terrorism and our national security as a political wedge issue.”

This is how fabulous politics are in the US right now (and perhaps a bit of insight for non-Americans into how it was possible that Bush was elected). These people all just write nonsense (I mean, does anyone believe that opening paragraph has no political aims???).

More than ever before, I feel like objectivity has completely disappeared from the political landscape. Everyone has a lens, and people rarely change their lenses. I mean, we’re leaving a cease-fire in Lebanon up to the US and France, and we still can’t even get anywhere near a consensus on who the aggressor is. I see in the emails going out on the INSEAD server that splits that issue straight down Israeli vs. [non-Israeli] Arab lines (among those who participated in the mailing anyway). You read American or British newspapers, and the big story is a foiled terrorist plot by Islamic fundamentalists with ties to Pakistan. As of late yesterday afternoon, there was no mention of this event at all on Al Jazeera, but plenty of stories on US and Israeli war crimes.

It’s strange…all this technology, which is touted to have made the world so much smaller and communication so much easier (and in many ways it has….the fact that you’re reading this is evidence of that) belies the fact that it seems like the world is getting more and more closed minded and nationalist and insular with its politics, and, well, it’s pretty fucking frustrating. And our media and our leaders aren’t doing anything to help. I feel like we, as a group, should be less vulnerable than other people to this trend. But then again, maybe not.