[Xantar]

Jesse Jackson doesn't have any credibility with me any more. It's not even the fact that he has a child out of wedlock. That's not good, but it doesn't make his opinions on racism any more or less valid.

No, the problem is he keeps raising a hoot and cry about what he perceives as racism without even bothering to take a close look at the situation. Stonecutter's story is one example. Another one is when he went on record to criticize the movie Barbershop because one of the characters in there said Rosa Park wasn't all that great. Never mind for the moment the fact that it's just the opinion of one character in a movie that's essentially comedy. When you watch the scene, it's clear that this character is just saying what he's saying to get a rise out of the people he's talking to.

Jesse Jackson has fallen into the same trap that all too many liberals fall into. Before you flame me here, keep in mind that I myself am a liberal. Check out my previous posts on any subject from religion to capital punishment to gun laws if you don't believe me. That said, I am constantly disappointed when liberal celebrities get up in their self-righteousness, go off the deep end and consequently cause most of the people listening to tune out.

Aaron MacGruder (creater of The Boondocks comic strip) came to Swarthmore last year. His beef with American liberalism is that it's playing to lose. "Stop taking yourself out of the game!" he ranted. A few decades ago, organizer Saul Alinsky had the same thing to say. You don't have to compare Bush to Hitler in order to criticize the Iraq War.