I don't post much about "politics in the news" because I almost never (OK, never) have anything value-added to say. That being said, I do want add something to the Jesse Jackson comment about wanting to cut off Barack Obama's testicles. Many people are framing this at Jackson's irritation at Obama talking down to black people and putting a specific focus on their social pathologies as opposed to broader societal dynamics. I think it is important to remember that Jesse Jackson isn't an exemplar of bourgeois probity himself (unlike Obama, at least what we know of him). He had an extramarital affair which produced a child. No one's perfect, but it wouldn't surprise me if Obama suggesting that black men should take some responsibility might irk an individual whose failings were exposed in public in such a manner.