In the course of my reading on this MLK morning, I happened upon something that caught my attention. On Talking Points Memo, at the top of the front page was a Google banner ad for three unrelated entities, one of which is "Rockets Red Glare," a site that boldly proclaims that it is selling "Republican Bumper Stickers." This is an odd enough placement for Republican advertising, so I clicked over to look at the inventory. As you can read from the link, it's pretty unattractive stuff, but doesn't go much beyond borderline incendiary. There are, however, several offerings invoking prayer for Obama with a biblical reference that bears closer examination. All of these "prayerful" novelties refer to Psalm 108:8, which reads as follows:
"May his days be few; may another take his office."
Harmless enough, one might suppose; until you read what follows that slyly truncated text. As The Christian Science Monitor observed back in 2009, the cited passage takes on a sinister significance when the thought is completed:
"Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."
If the Republican Party would argue its complete lack of culpability for the atmosphere of menace that wafts in from the trigger-happy fringe, perhaps they would be wise to have their name removed from this "humorous" novelty company's advertising. |
