You would never hear me attack Obama or Clintons because Chelsea or some other daugher got pregnant. I would attack them for advocating bad or evil policy. I would scream bloody murder if it came out they promoted abortion in such a case.
I’m operating under strict equality before the law here at this blog.
Trying to research a project I stumbled on this. Here’s the quotation that has raised my blood pressure, with links:
Or perhaps we could consult Mrs. Hope Steffey of Salem, Ohio, who had the cops called to assist her after being beaten by a cousin and ended up being the victim of a perfectly “legal” sexual assault by Sheriff’s deputies at the Stark County jail. They threw her to the ground and forcibly removed all of her clothes while she screamed in blood curdling terror. This gang of thugs with badges included male officers as well. This happened to her after being beaten by the cop called to the scene and then arrested on a bogus “disorderly conduct” charge meant to cover up the arresting officer’s crime. Of course the brave, strong Sheriff of Stark County, a piece of worthless garbage named Timothy Swanson, has defended the conduct of his officers. He claims it was done for Steffey’s own protection because she was suicidal! Because we all know that suicidal people don’t need gooey, “liberal”-sounding things like care and compassion, but ruthless violence. Knowing that a lawsuit would be filed, Swanson invited the politically-embattled now former-Attorney General of Ohio, Mark Dann, to investigate, and, surprise, surprise, no wrongdoing was found! (Who you gonna believe, the Government or your own lyin’ eyes?)
It seems to me that lots of people advocate the legalization of all drugs–not just marijuana but cocaine and heroine and every other drug–without feeling at all compelled to defend those drugs as harmless. They don’t argue that injecting heroine is completely safe, let alone healthy. They simply defend the right of people to make their own decisions and enhance or degrade their lives as they see fit. Doctors who report on the adverse health consequences of smoking crack are not often mocked as politically-motivated hacks, even when they are attempting to defend the current policy of prohibition (the one exception to all this might be marijuana, where there are arguments about the claims which led it to be listed as a controlled substance).
But when it comes to porn, everything is different. Even people who favor legalized porn get angrily attacked simply for not liking the effects that they argue have followed from its widespread use. Anyone who claims that porn is addictive is ridiculed as a psuedoscientist. All links between continual consumption of porn and other wrong behaviors are all assumed to be based on delusions.
It seems like the libertarian position on porn doesn’t even exist in the population. Either porn is harmless and even healthy or else you must believe in destroying the First Amendment which our forefathers wisely crafted to protect the rights of teenagers to download hardcore movies over P2P networks. You would think that someone somewhere would figure out that this stance is actually going to produce more opposition to legalized porn.
If the only alternative to drug criminalization was to teach that cocaine is good for everyone, then I would expect fewer people to favor legalization.
Honestly, one could make a case that the entire past year and a half was a giant trap for the Democrats.
If someone will make a bumper sticker for Palin for President ASAP, I’ll put it on my car. It’s a risk, since we might get World War III first. But Obama with Biden is not that much different, and then with the Obama’s radical pro-abortion pro-infanticide stance, I don’t think it will be that hard for me to avert my eyes from the name of the current presidential candidate and make a chadless hole in the ballot.
In short: if you love GWB, you’ll love President Saakashvili. Therefore it’s no surprise John McCain is portraying the Georgians as the good guys and demanding that Russian troops leave “sovereign Georgian territory” without preconditions or delay. After all, when your chief foreign policy adviser has up until very recently been a paid shill for the Georgian government, what else could we expect? As I’ve pointed out on a few occasions in this space, Mad John has been spoiling for a fight with the Russians – in the Caucasus and elsewhere – for years, going so far as to travel to Georgia to proclaim his sympathy for Saakashvili’s cause.
What’s really interesting, however, is how Barack Obama has taken up this same cause, albeit with less vehemence than the GOP nominee. As Politico.com reported:
“When violence broke out in the Caucasus on Friday morning, John McCain quickly issued a statement that was far more strident toward the Russians than that of President Bush, Barack Obama, and much of the West. But, as Russian warplanes pounded Georgian targets far beyond South Ossetia this weekend, Bush, Obama, and others have moved closer to McCain’s initial position.”
While calling for mediation and international peacekeepers, Obama went with the War Party’s line that Russia, not Georgia, is the aggressor, as the Times of London reports: “Obama accused Russia of escalating the crisis ‘through it’s clear and continued violation of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.'” While his first statement on the outbreak of hostilities was more along the lines of “Can’t we all get along?”, the New York Times notes:
“Mr. Obama did harden his rhetoric later on Friday, shortly before getting on a plane for a vacation in Hawaii. His initial statement, an adviser said, was released before there were confirmed reports of the Russian invasion. In his later statement, Mr. Obama said, ‘What is clear is that Russia has invaded Georgia’s sovereign – has encroached on Georgia’s sovereignty, and it is very important for us to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.'”
Reading without unbiblical chapter divisions can really bring things to light:
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
The “Romans 13 passage” (to use the common fiction of passages) is not some anomaly in the Gospel ethic of love and self-giving. It is essential to it. Christians are supposed to submit and obey the civil magistrate because God promises to use him or her to bring about justice. And Christians can be at peace with their neighbors because God has means that they can pray for which will rectify injustice.
We see this in Acts. Sometimes the powers persecute the Church, but Paul is always respectful (less so with the Israelites, interestingly). And several times the magistrates vindicate the Church against her attackers. Luke obviously doesn’t see this as some regrettable barbarism, but as God’s salvation in history.
Thanks to Derrick for pointing this out to me.
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/7354M1QmGYQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
Link for those who can’t see the video
My personal hope is that Bush is letting the Iran stuff drag on just as a favor to the oil industry to make sure they have a place for him when he leaves office. He can’t possibly want to an another undeclared war, can he?
June 12, 2008
By David Warren
The pen is reputed to be mightier than the sword — and probably is, over the longer stretches of history. Over the shorter stretches, the sword is definitive; or, as that great Leftist sage, Mao Tse-Tung, expressed it: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” With its monopoly on power, the State is equipped to suppress the truth. And yet the truth will not die, no matter how many people are punished for expressing it. They may die — or be imprisoned, fined, compelled to publicly recant, or otherwise silenced and humiliated — but the truth will survive.
Yes, this is a statement of my Catholic faith. But it is also a candid reflection on all of the history I have read: that political power passes away, that truths about God and man resurface, that human freedom is never fully extinguished. Much of the history we know may itself be false, owing to the disappearance of evidence over time; and justice in this world may not be availing. Yet in broad outline, a time always comes when we may review the past, freed from the shackles of the past. The chains of history always rust away.
This is a point worth recalling, as we head into a period in Canada when, owing to malice from an ideological camp, to cowardice on the part of our elected representatives, and to indifference on the part of the people, free speech and freedom of the press will disappear in Canada. Those who deviate from the officially-sanctioned lies of “political correctness” will emigrate, perhaps mostly to USA, or experience that peculiar form of internal exile — of enforced silence — that good men have shared in many times and places.
OK, I don’t remember mentioning that I am engrossed in Jon Krakauers’ Into The Wild, except to include it in my sidebar links under reading. So how did Blockbuster.com know to tempt me with the dvd in a facebook ad directed at me?
Weird and a little bit creepy. I’ve pretty much decided that privacy is extinct. But this is still somewhat surprising to me.
Or is it all coincidental?