Rep. Wackadoodle strikes again!

There really is no excuse for Michele Bachmann. One wonders what ever possessed the good people of Minnesota to elect her to represent them. Of course, the good people of Minnesota might reasonably respond with a question of their own: What possessed the people of Texas to elect Louis Gohmert to represent them? They really are two of a kind and neither of them is competent to serve in elective office of any kind, in my opinion.

The two are almost always found using the same hate-filled rhetoric and chasing the same chimera that only they and their kind can see. They are at it again. This time their bug-a-boo is the Muslim Brotherhood. "The Muslim Brotherhood is taking over the country and must be stopped from forcing Sharia law on all of us!"

Bachmann, Gohmert and a couple of their fellow wackadoodles have sent letters to the inspectors general of five government agencies demanding that they investigate infiltration by the Muslim Brotherhood into the highest reaches of the federal government. In particular, they singled out for investigation Huma Abedin, the wife of former congressman Anthony Weiner and a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Bachmann questions her loyalty to the U.S., asserting that Abedin has three family members who are connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The family members' connection to the Muslim Brotherhood may or may not be true. I certainly would not accept Michele Bachmann's word for it. But even if it is, so what? I've had relatives who have been members of some pretty questionable organizations and who may still be for all I know. It doesn't affect my feelings about my country. But Abedin is different, you see. She is Muslim and all Muslims are suspect and dangerous in the view of people like Bachmann and Gohmert.

By all fair-minded accounts, Abedin is a loyal and hard-working employee of the State Department and she has the confidence of Secretary of State Clinton, which is good enough for me. But the haters will never accept that and she has been targeted before by anti-Muslim activists. Bachmann asserts that since Abedin, the dangerous Muslim, holds a position that “affords her routine access to the Secretary and to policy-making” she might be able to further Muslim Brotherhood interests.

We've heard all of this before, of course. Back in the 1950s it was Joseph McCarthy who saw not Muslims but Communists under every bed in Washington, especially at the State Department. But the rhetoric then sounded much like that of the Bachmann/Gohmert crowd today. The words used are eerily the same. The spirit of McCarthy is alive and still troubling our national discourse.

Keith Ellison, a Democrat and a Muslim, who is also a representative from Minnesota, wrote a letter to Bachmann and her co-signers yesterday demanding they provide evidence to support their accusations, or drop their claims and clear Abedin and others’ names. “I request that you provide my office a full accounting of the sources you used to make the serious allegations against the individuals and organizations in your letters,” Ellison wrote.

Ellison is unlikely to get a coherent reply. People like Bachmann/Gohmert don't need no stinkin' "evidence." They just know in their hearts what is true because they have a pipeline to God.

Yes, at long last, they have no shame. Perhaps the voters will muster enough shame to turn them out in November. Well, Minnesota voters, anyway. I don't think there's any hope for Texas.

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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