By Laurie Baron
SAN DIEGO―Eric Shinseki tendered his resignation after weeks of revelations about lengthy waits for appointments at VA hospitals for returning veterans, some of whom died before they could be seen. The problem was discovered when insurance actuarial tables revealed that the mortality rate for injured soldiers in Afghanistan was lower than for their discharged counterparts seeking treatment from VA hospitals.
*
The House of Representatives passed a law criminalizing the desecration of cemeteries as a violation of religious rights. Earlier this year the House prohibited the use of any federal funding for abortions. Critics of the House observed that it appears the house is more concerned about the rights of the unborn and the dead that that of those of the living.
*
An arrested Hamas official confessed that the organization is paying protesters to throw stones at Jews who attempt to enter the Temple Mount. Right-wing Israelis who marched through Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter shouting “Death of the Arabs” were outraged because they don’t receive a salary for doing similar things.
*
When two Indian American students were named co-winners of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a flurry of hate messages against the “non-American” recipients of the prize were posted on Twitter and Face Book. It was telling that most of the words in these rants were misspelled.
*
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has offered to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers for two billion dollars, half of which will go to disgraced former owner of the team, Donald Sterling. Although crime doesn’t pay, bigotry apparently does.
*
Baron is professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University. He may be contacted via lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com He will be on vacation next week but his column will return two weeks from today.