And thanks for the kind words about Dad and my sympathies go out to you as well.

The godless commie mayor of Moscow agrees with Pat Robertson that holding a gay parade is a “satanic act“.

I think the more germane point here is not that Yury Kuzhkov is a communist — Mr. Kuzhkov is an odd sort of communist, at least by pre break-up standards* — but that he is a devout Christian and traditionalist conservative. Obviously traditionalist conservative in the context of what was not all that long ago the communist Soviet Union is something different than those terms suggest within the United States of America today. Nevertheless, a traditionalist conservative Christian there is likely to be as anti gay rights as a traditionalist conservative Christian here. My point, here, is that I see nothing strange at all about both Yury and Pat coming to similar conclusions about gay rights; it’s not about right-left — by the way, United Russia considers itself a centrist party to begin with and Yury, being a self-described traditionalist Christian, is likely to be found to the right of center at least on cultural issues — but rather about traditional religious values. That’s just my take on this, of course.

* Given that pre break-up Communism was officially atheistic and anti-Christian in both principle and practice. Current United Russia Party platform, while communistic, is not of the far-left, revolutionary sort.

Likewise, to a certain degree, the China thing you linked. From the linked article:

“It totally has to do with moral standards and culture,” said contestant Emilio Liu, 26. “If most people can’t accept it, then the government won’t let it happen.”

Chinese culture, I think, tends to be quite traditional, long antedating the revolution and communism in the country. Assuming that Liu’s take is correct, then this was not about communism or even particularly about left-right politically but rather about traditional moral standards.

Likewise with detention and torture: these are not positions that have anything to do with right-left political ideology, in my opinion. They are, rather, means to an end that might be used by anyone of any political persuasion if that means seems likely to achieve an end deemed important enough and if other means are deemed unlikely to achieve that end.

In short, then, I think none of these particular examples has much if anything to do with far left-far right politics.

On the other hand, there may be something to the observation that the left-right spectrum is not a straight line but a circle such that if one goes far enough in either direction, the left and the right end up appearing almost indistinguishable in important ways so I could be wrong about my above points.

Holte,
Unfortunately, politics and humor do come together way to often. Even when it is true satire, it’s a melancholy sort of satire.