It’s clear that John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin has energized the GOP base: What’s not to love about a reformist, fiscally conservative NRA member with executive experience, a penchant for taking on entrenched power – and winning – with a strong sense of family values married to a blue collar working man? Whose hot? The candidate, I mean. Not the husband.
Your mileage may vary.
It’s also equally clear that many in the Democratic Party are desperate to paint how desperate the desperate McCain choice was. Desperately.
But – although we’re still crushin’ over here at Chez Lex – it’s a new day, and time to take a more sober view.
OK, all done.
Right is right and left is left, each of them do what they must to win. Because of the Vision. The question for McCain came down to what was more important: Standing on a weak base trying to beat Obama for the votes of the center with the legacy media pretty much giving up any pretense of objectivity (watch the fall debates for the tightly framed face shots of the elder senator), or trying to galvanize his base with a true conservative pick who also fires the imagination of working class and libertarian folks in the center? Stipulating that he thought it was important to, you know: Win. The election.
Because of the country and all.
Because losing wars is bad policy, the surge Obama opposed worked and the plan to partition Iraq – foreign policy “expert” Joe Biden’s chief contribution to the debate – was the only choice that was wholly infeasible. Because there are some people we simply oughtn’t talk to as though they had earned an equal right to the microphone.
Because while some folks talk about healing divisions, others have a track record of actually reaching across the aisle to get things done. Because offering to take money from those that have earned it and redistributing it to those that have not is a model we have previously rejected. Because we’re not afraid of free trade on a level playing field.
Because many of us prefer thinking about government – when we think of it at all – for a hobby rather than being forced to fixate on it as an uninvited guest that nags us about the unhealthy things we’re keeping in the fridge and the parlous state of the garage and Simply. Won’t. Leave. After all, for most of us our closest personal experience with government comes in the renewal queue at the DMV, an experience that may not have fully endeared us to the notion of Wise Government Bureaucrats in Charge of Important Things.
Because most of us realize that the quality of our lives is almost entirely dependent upon the quality of choices that we make and the efforts we put for to improve it, and – having reached our majority and moved out of our parents’ houses – resent the notion of further, creeping dependency and constrained choices and just make sure you’re home by 10.
Because most of us, realizing how much of what we fork over to a distant federal government gets stuck papering the walls of the Bureaucracy For Giving Some of It Back, prefer to muddle through on our own, thanks so much.
Because while there are many Pauls eager to have a hand in robbing Peter so long as there’s a payoff in it, and many eager do-gooders fresh off a dorm room chat who would willingly tell them whatever they want to hear in exchange for a chance to get behind the Wheel of State and take it for a spin (and legions of those on either side for whom all of this is just damned good money, and anyway it beats working for a living) ours is fundamentally a conservative nation whose burden in these last days has not so much been a yearning for nanny-state “progressivism” – the liberalism that dares not speak its name – so much as a contempt for the party that calls itself “conservative” for failing to live up to its own ideals.
Because character matters.
If nothing else, it’ll be endless fun this fall watching the identity politics talking shops tie themselves in knots trying to walk through the minefields they’ve laid for themselves over the years. Trying to explain why it’s more important for example, to elect a man whose skin color belongs to a historically disadvantaged group that represents 13.4% of our population than a woman whose historically disadvantaged gender accounts for 51.1%. Or try to argue that a professionally and personally successful woman with five children who calls her husband “the first dude” is somehow inauthentically representative of American feminity.
To say, as many Democrats are already apparently saying, “Palin, you are no Hillary Clinton.”
Saying that like it was a bad thing.
Yeah, and OK and dittos to all that. But I’m still stuck on the Lady Librarian photo. Wowsa.
And another thing . . . and serious this time, too: I’ve been to Alaska several times and know people up there. Alaska is a remarkable place. It’s no place for wimps, that’s for sure. It says a lot about Sarah Palin that she’s survived and thrived up there in what is the true last frontier of the USA. It’s a special and hard place, and it’s special people who make it there and who can stay on.
And she’s a ‘hockey mom.’ How great is that!?
Suddenly there IS hope. McCain has chosen wisely or luckily, and I can’t wait to see “SloJoe” facing the barricuda.
This morning, the world looks a bit brighter.
Saying that like it was a bad thing.
Exactly. Sarah Palin is everything Hillary Clinton has spent her life trying to pretend she is. Or to put it another way, she’s everything Hillary isn’t.
One more bit that SteveC reminded me of: I can’t remember where I read it, but Palin’s apparently from a valley outside Anchorage that is considered hicksville by the city folk. It is mostly farmers/fishers with a lot of people living on a subsistence level. Pure frontier.
John Nance Garner, late of Uvalde Texas, once accurately observed that the job of the Vice President wasn’t “worth a bucket of warm spit”. I suspect that the inclusion of the letter “p” in that phrase was merely a journalistic nod to good taste.
So it doesn’t bother me all that much that Ms. Palin asked “just what does a Vice President do”? Generations of Vice Presidents who were actually elected to the office have been asking themselves that same question.
Obama said that McCain was a good man, but using a tone of “more in sorrow and pity than anger” , claimed that McCain “just doesn’t get it”.
That may or may not be true–but I’m absolutely certain that Ms. Palin “gets it”. She’ll be a good ‘un if her ticket manages to get elected.
I, too, found myself basking in the radiant glow of seaplane pilot/gun nut/MILF Palin.
Then I did some looking. And I think my honeymoon may be over.
-Instituted massive increases in oil taxes in AK, resulting in $14B increase in state revenues. . .which are used to give each Alaskan a $1200 check (what was that about redistribution of wealth?)
-Believes creationism should be taught in schools, as it’s “as equally viable a theory as evolution”
-Brings 2 years gubernatorial experience to the ticket and is billed as a foreign policy heavy. Jimmuh Carter had 2 years as Gov, in a bigger state (population and $$-wise). Look at his foreign policy work. . .
On the plus side, she is still decidedly no Hillary. . .
I’m with you Edward, the VP debate will be the most watched television event ever.
Well struck, sir.
Your commentary was its usual enjoyable read, sir.
As for that $1200 back in the pockets of the citizens of AK, 1390, you don’t suppose that might have gone back into the economy do you?
Oh, I bet it did. But it was ostensibly for “home heating costs” which were hit hard by the tax scheme, which incidentally, made Alaskan oil some of the most expensive in the world and clamped down on oil development in AK.
I suppose my issue with it is, why did the money get taken in the first place?
Instituted massive increases in oil taxes in AK, resulting in $14B increase in state revenues. . .which are used to give each Alaskan a $1200 check (what was that about redistribution of wealth?)
I’m convinced. I’m going to vote for the presidential candidate that advocates massive (punitive) increases in taxes on oil company profits to raise Federal revenues.
I assume his plan too will include remitting those dollars to the taxpayers.
It is also worthwhile to explore the distinctions between a windfall profits tax and an oil and gas severance tax. See Beldar.
Humble 1390, be careful with stories about what Palin supposedly believes. There’s a lot of BAD info out there being picked up by supposedly good sites/journalists.
Here’s the oil profits story: http://beldar.blogs.com/beldarblog/2008/08/dont-be-misled.html And my understanding is that every resident of Alaska regularly receives an oil dividend check.
Ands here’s the “creationism” story. Also untrue/spun wrong: http://hotair.com/archives/2008/08/29/heart-ache-palin-wants-creationism-taught-in-public-schools/
On both of these, click through to the primary documents. It’s truly a case of malicious spin.
My favorite Vice President story regards Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine. He was Lincoln’s first VP, and a pretty good one.
However, in ‘64, Lincoln lets Hamlin know that he won’t be on the ticket. For political reasons, in order to show how well the war is going and all that, Lincoln chooses Johnson, a democrat from Tennessee. Neat move, but now Hamlin is in a bit of a pickle.
Seems Washington, in those days, really WAS a swamp, and a pretty nasty place to live in the summertime. Dead sheep floating down the stream beside the White House, horse droppings ripening on the lawns and streets. Raw sewage and garbage being slowly collected, if at all. Lovely place, that.
So VP Hannibal Hamlin heads home to Maine to spend his last days in office working on the family farm, puttering about the barn and house, etc. However, his sone, good children that they were, had everything done and were on top of the chores. Mr Hamlin was thus left with nothing to do and lots of time to do nothing with. What to do, what to do…
Well, Hannibal hies himself down to the nearest recruiting station and joins a 9 month volunteer infantry company. He is promoted to the rank of Corporal, and he, along with his company, are transferred down to Fort McClary in Kittery, Maine.
Our serving VP, Corporal Hannibal Hamlin spends his tour of duty as the COMPANY COOK, sling hash and boiling coffee. Actually, you know, working and serving, as it were.
There’s the sort of man one can depend on to do the right thing. Would that we had others like him.
As for Mrs. Palin, hell yes! I finally have a reason to vote FOR the McCain ticket, as opposed to voting against the Obama one.
Respects,
Ah, the struggle is indeed on to shape the electorate’s vision of this windfall-tax loving creationist. As though the ones opposing her didn’t care a great deal more about the fact that she’s a traitor to her gender christianist who loves her teh gunz!!!11!
Lex,
All we need now is to find out that she is a home brewer and she will become the perfect woman…..
Folks, the simple fact that she and her husband knew that she had a Downs fetus and carried on smartly to the birth says everything I need to know about her. She is committed. She has morals. She has character, and she sure as hell isn’t afraid of what Washington might bring.
Ya know, for all she may be, Palin only slightly reduces the nausea of voting for McCain. The reason McCain chose her was because he had to–the base of the party was turning his back on him, just as he’s turned his back on them repeatedly over the decades. He threw the base a sop, and to judge by your ejaculations, he pulled it off. Doesn’t change a thing about the straight-faced lies he told you about his support for untrammeled immigration, or his nearly instinctive opposition to Constitutionally protected political discourse. You’re under the illusion his Supreme Court picks will be any better than Obama’s?
Sorry, the shiny object he just flashed doesn’t distract me from the multiple knives he’s left in my back. He’s still stone self-serving and untrustworthy, a bad candidate, and barely the lesser of two evils. Unless he kicks over very early in his first term, we’re stuck with a loser either way, in cahoots with a loser Congress.
Zane, assuming that Congress remains in the control of the Democrats, it would at least be somewhat better to have McCain in the Oval Office, rather than a rubber stamp for whatever the Congress Critters choose to pass.
Wasilla is a neat town – close enough to Anchorage to be close yet far enough away to retain its small-town feel. I don’t know that I’d call it “frontier” any more so than any other town in Alaska.
As for the taxes and the creationism issue, Fuzy beat me to it.
And yes, her husband it HOT. Too.
AW1 Tim, I haven’t seen much difference between McCain and the Democrats, but at least in theory he wouldn’t be a rubber stamp.
Speaking of it, any chance I could get you to post me a case of Moxie? I don’t drink soda anymore, but I’m jonesing for some Moxie.
Zane, maybe the better explanation is that McCain simply thinks for himself.
I’d rather have a president who makes up his own mind and finds practical solutions to complex problems, than a guy who strictly toes the party line, thinks “right”, and gets nothing done.
The fact that McCain is not in 100% alignment with the party textbook is a plus, as far as I am concerned.
“The tree is known by its fruit”
Flatlander, in McCain’s case, it’s not think “for” himself, it’s think “of” himself. His practical solution to campaign finance, a problem which needed no reforming, was to limit your right to speak freely regarding political candidates. Cui bono? Incumbents like McCain, of course. His practical solution to most any problem is more government control. I don’t see any fruit worth pickin’ on or under that tree.
Not talking about hewing to party lines here, talking about hewing to principles. Or in McCain’s case, principal, being himself.
I’m not going to win you over, you’re not going to win me over, so I propose these common grounds. First, he’s better than Obama, no matter how paper thin that distinction may be, and second, if Palin is half what you’re making her out to be, the best thing McCain will have done in all his self-serving years in Congress will have been to raise her to the national stage.
I’ll accept your common ground, Z. Have you actually read any of his policy positions? Because if you had, you would see enormous differences from BHO.
He is in many cases (tax policy as an example) saying exactly the opposite of Obama.
I’m not sure that Palin is the next coming. But I think her selection is smart politics. That says as much for McCain as it does for Palin. A good woman, no doubt, and time will tell how she will do on the national stage.
Zane,
I wpuld respectfully disagree that the difference between McCain and Obama is paper thin.
Off the top of my head, here are a few of those differences:
1. Obama proposes huge tax increases…McCain proposes tax cuts.
2. Obama is rabidly pro choice….McCain is a staunch supporter of the pro-life agenda
3. Obama is against drilling for oil…McCain is coming around to the point of view that drilling is the correct thing to do.
4. Obama is against the war in Iraq; and wants to pull out…. McCain….believes that we should be in Iraq and is in support of all of our actions in Iraq and Iran.
So,as you see, the differences are not paper thin. These four things are just a representative sample of someee of the differences. Shoud I, or anyone else forr that matter, put some work into the researech, the list would grow tremendously.
Regards
Zane,
My apologies. You stated….”First, he’s better than Obama, no matter how paper thin that distinction may be…”
Your statement indicated that M. was marginally better than O. I misread your comment and incorrectly addressed the differeces between the two.
Although, I would point out that it is the differeces between the two, that make M. the better man.
At the end of Lex’s litany of “Becauses” he decides to vent his spleen on poor old me, in what can only be termed a truly Faulknerian sentence which ends his Nicene Creed of Becauses thusly:”
Good grief, I have not commented in his blog in close to a month, and here he is calling me a crook!!!
Be that as it may, McCain’s choice of Ms. Palin as his running mate, AKA potential Vice President, has brought forth what in the old days (my salad days, not to be confused with my halcyon days) would be characterized as a torrent of ink. A few of the strained quills and over used blotters fallows:
Power Line’s John Hinderaker directly zeroes in on a critical point:
There is more comments, but the link is recommended for the variety of photographs of the good Governor, Ms. Palin. The best are those of her with the Alaska National Guard.
The Politico (On line, Center Right Magazine) has an examination of what this nomination implies as to John McCain’s judgment. I will allow Lex’s readership to dip into Politico uncontaminated by selective quotes. It is worth a read…
Meanwhile, over at Five ThirtyEight (if you don’t read this one, you ain’t a political junkie) a brief early analysis of poll data is presented. A must read for those who think Ms. Palin will be a vacuum cleaner for disaffected Hillary Clinton voters.
Ross Douthat, no slouch of a conservative thinker, has this to say:
Yet at the end of his rant, he pleads that we reserve judgment until we see how Ms. Palin performs on the national stage.
My own view may not be profound, and may be simplistic. It is clear from the vetting process, and the number of personal contacts between McCain and Ms Palin that she was not high on the list of potential candidates. When the Democratic Convention ended with no Clinton / Obama split, when a series of powerful speeches (Hillary, Bill, Gore, and others) set the stage for Obama’s speech, the hoped for Center Right dream of a fragmented Democratic Convention evaporated. The fence sitters, the great unwashed, were going to go to their natural home — even if the door keep was black, had a funny name, and had an uppity, wide hip wife, who succeeded only through racial preference… John Hinderaker of Power Line was right, something had to be done…
If the poorly vetted Ms Palin implodes, McCain, the darling of the muscular USA interventionist foreign policy, will be severely damaged. The Christian Right’s Joan of Arc will be found to have clay feet. Two legs of the three-legged conservative stool will wobble, the third, “the magic of the free market place”, AKA unregulated financial structures, is already being gnawed at by those despicable liberal rats.
Time marches on, and only the Shadow knows…
That’s quite a lot to take in, OP. So I won’t, except to point out that there was this whole other Paul I was talking about. That robs Peter.
Not you.
Zane,
If you can give me a zip code I will see what the shipment costs might be like. I don’t mind sending out some Moxie (Maine’s official soft drink) to others of teh faithful. For those not in the know, just google it. It sort of tastes like a carbonated sour root beer filtered through a corroded copper pipe. In other words, marvelous…
As to the good governour Palin, Other Paul might well wish to look at the whole of her resume, rather than the DK talking points. There, of course, many talking heads in both the blogosphere and the MSM who have an ox to gore over her selection. Many were caught flat footed by it, and have a reputation to try and salvage.
In short, she has more executive experience that the two Presidential candidates and sloJoe Biden combined. She comes from a land where you need actual skills to survive, let alone prosper, and she is a doer, not a talker. She doesn’t need a poll to tell her what to think or how to act.
I think that what really runs salt into so many people’s wounds is that she is the real deal. She is one of the people who not only talk the talk, but walk the walk and many of the self-appointed betters in our society simply can’t stand being exposed for the vacuous self-indulgent asshats that they are.
Like Kid Rock says, “It ain’t braggin’ if you do it and you back it up.”
Barack couldn’t tell a Moose from a Deer, but Palin can shoot one, dress it and serve it for dinner, and clean her weapon for the next day’s hunt while it’s on the stove. Plus raise 5 kids (one of whom is an infantryman, thank you very much, set to deploy to Iraq) and, oh ny the way, run a state about 5 times the size of the one SloJoe represents.
Scr@w the naysayers and fault-finders. I am proud as hell to see we finally have a REAL person on the frikkin’ ticket, and don’t even go there about foreign policy experience. She is the ONLY one of all 4 folks on the two tickets who has ANY actual face-to-face foreign policy experience, having negotiated a pipeline deal with Canada. Laugh if you want to, but none of the other three have anything remote like that on their resume.
I suspect that she would make a fine president if it came down to that. Heck, take any of the arguments railed against her by all the spittle-flecked gum-flapping egos on TV or the web, and replace her name with that of Lincoln, and you can find those same sorts of drivel in the 1860’s period papers.
For once, in my entire life, we have an honest-to-God candidate that has an anchor in the real world, not Hollywood, or the Billionare’s club, or a frikken’ lawyer or some pissant elite school fraternity.
Go Palin! Roll Tide!
Oh yeah… how’s that “whole life working towards gaining the White House” thing going for ya there Hillary?
Heh…..
09622. Probably prohibitively expensive, but one of my Dad’s old friends sent me a Youtube link of Frank down at Kennebec’s teaching some TV blowhard how to drink it, and I’ve been jonesing ever since. Frank looks absolutely unchanged since I was in high school some XX years ago, so maybe he’s onto something.
Anything I can ship you from Naples that the PO inspectors won’t blow a fuse over?
Zane,
It looks to come in at just under $17.00, plus the cost of the Moxie. That’s for Priority Mail and will cover the weight up to 20 pounds or so, which should be more than sufficient, depending upon how much you want
Naples, huh? Well, there’s always nice stuff from the Cameo factory on the road to Pompeii, and the oranges are excellent (at least the ones I had). A statue of Appollon, one of those nice bronze or marble/resin copies about 12″ tall or so would be useful. Lemmee dwell on it.
If you decide you want some Moxie, send a note to Lex with your shipping details and he can email it to me and I will dig further into the subject.
Also, there is a small chance that I could find a P-3 headed over there from BNAS, so I could investigate that shipping option as well.
Respects,
Respects,
AW1 Tim,
Thanks, but since I’m FPO it all goes by slowest airplane. However, the priority up to 20 lbs angle may actually be the most cost effective. The wife would shoot me. We’re getting to the tail end of summer harvest season, good time for those supersized lemons they make limoncello out of, too. But I’m betting anything agriculturally derived gets a close scan from the inspectors. Let me know, I’m here for another year, no rush.
Yeah, agra products are right out. The Priority Mail option is actually the least expensive way to ship it, unless, of course, I can find a P-3 crew headed to Naples, but that would entail being at the airbase when they arrive, etc. so timing might be a problem.
Anyway, I’m here for the forseeable future, so if you want some, give me a shout. You can also get me at gwedd AT hotmail DOT com. That’s a general email addy I use for online stuff. Keeps the spam outta my regular accounts.
Respects,
Humble 1390 commented about Palin imposing a tax increase on oil companies and giving the money to the citizens of Alaska.
All oil producing states in the USA impose some sort of “severance tax” on production of oil. The idea behind the tax is that the citizens of the state have some claim on the natural resources underlying the state. You can agree or disagree with the idea, but severance taxes get imposed on the oil industry–and in many cases on other extractive industries such as mining coal, copper, iron ore etc.
The State of Alaska has imposed a severance tax since oil production begain in the state (Cook Inlet Field–and the big bonanzas Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk on the North Slope). And since the state population is small and the severance tax bonanza is large, the State of Alaska has been paying out a part of that severance tax revenue to the citizens/residents of Alaska since at least the early 1970s.
Oil producing companies know that they’re going to have to pay some severance tax–just like the poor guy threatened with jail in a Banana Republic knows he may have to pay some “mordida” to avoid being thrown in the calabozo.
Like the Banana Republic, the amount of the “bite” is subject to negotiation. What impressed me about Ms. Palin is (a) she took the negotiations public and made the process transparent; and (b) she managed to increase the “bite” from 22.5% to 25%–all while keeping things out in the open.
Now you and I may have our own reservations about severance taxes–no businessman likes to pay them. And businessmen fight the amount and try to keep it as low as possible–and the guys from Exxon Mobil, BP and Conoco (the major producers on the North Slope) are as tough a crew as you’re likely to find. She took them on–publicly–and whipped them.
So I say, no shrinking violet is Ms. Sarah. As she supposedly once said the only difference between a pit bull and a “hockey mom” is the lipstick.
If she’s sufficiently prepared for the V-P debates, Slow Joe Biden is going to think he stuck his head in a Waring Blendor.
Alaska: The Coldest State with the Hottest Governor
AW1 Tim, Capodichino is where I’m at, haven’t seen a P-3 here yet, but many local birds cycle between here and Sig, or even Rota. If you get the chance to send a case my way, just give me the tipper (Lex knows how to reach me multiple ways), I’ll worry about it on this side of the water. Too bad you weren’t “in theater” and could use MPS, now that would be a sweet deal.
Lex Just my bad habit of rolling on the floor and giggling at my brilliant sense of humor… I thought my entrée into this conversation (accusing you of calling me a crook) would tickle our collective fun bone, after all, that is almost a compliment when in the past your sneering lips have blessed me with being a, gasp, liberal!!! (fallowed by a chortle or two).
If one takes a giant step back and surveys the scene, the key issue is what does Ms. Palin’s selection portend for the future of the Republican Party. It clearly is a nod to the fundamentalist Christian Right, with all the touch stone issues (abortion, creationism, stem cell research, anti-climate change, and probably gay marriage) covered. What it accomplished today is obvious, it energized one leg of the “base”. But, the future Lex – what is its effect on the other components of that unstable troika that constitutes the Republican Party?
It is for that reason that I listed a series of links in my comments that might prove of interest to you and your readership. You may have found Ross Douthat comments in my above post disturbing, yet he has published a seminal book on how to redirect the governing efforts of the Republican party. I did not link to Bob Joyner, of Outside the Beltway who was appalled by this selection. His comments are worth a read. I will leave you with a segment (a full read is advised) of David From’s thoughts on this matter: So this is the future of the Republican party you are looking at: a future in which national security has bumped down the list of priorities behind abortion politics, gender politics, and energy politics. Ms. Palin is a bold pick, and probably a shrewd one. It’s not nearly so clear that she is a responsible pick, or a wise one.Only in Rochester for 3 or 4 days before we go back to the summer cabin, where the WEB is far away, and not readily available to a slow thinker/writer like myself. Enjoyed exercising mind and typing fingers on your blog, looking forward to the next time.
AW1Tim
Ever since Theodore Roosevelt left the scene I have been pining for a VP and potential President that could
Unfortunately, I suspect that Teddy, like me, would prefer a candidate who was sufficiently grounded in the Constitution of the United States to be able to teach its nuances at an established and reputable law school. Being a gentleman, a conservationist, a hunter, and a scholar, he probably would have raised an eyebrow, yet enjoyed a screed such as yours:
I will fallow suit, and tip my asshat to the Heavens above, where Teddy is admiring the various pictures of our future Vice President (remember, he was once one) posing with National Guard troops, and handling a variety of weapons.
PS: Do you wonder whether Ms Palin thinks that Polar bears, Brown bears, and our own Easter Black bears evolved from a common ancestor, or that puff, they appeared 7,000 years ago, just in time to get on Noah’s Arc ?
Lex
Just my bad habit of rolling on the floor and giggling at my brilliant sense of humor… I thought my entrée into this conversation (accusing you of calling me a crook) would tickle our collective fun bone, after all, that is almost a compliment when in the past your sneering lips have blessed me with being a, gasp, liberal!!! (fallowed by a chortle or two).
If one takes a giant step back and surveys the scene, the key issue is what does Ms. Palin’s selection portend for the future of the Republican Party. It clearly is a nod to the fundamentalist Christian Right, with all the touch stone issues (abortion, creationism, stem cell research, anti-climate change, and probably gay marriage) covered. What it accomplished today is obvious, it energized one leg of the “base”. But, the future Lex – what is its effect on the other components of that unstable troika that constitutes the Republican Party?
It is for that reason that I listed a series of links in my comments that might prove of interest to you and your readership. I will leave you with a segment (a full read is advised) of David From’s thoughts on this matter
Only in Rochester for 3 or 4 days before we go back to the summer cabin, where the WEB is far away, and not readily available to a slow thinker/writer like myself. Enjoyed exercising mind and typing fingers on your blog, looking forward to the next time.
AW1Tim
Ever since Theodore Roosevelt left the scene I have been pining for a VP and potential President that could:
Unfortunately, I suspect that Teddy, like me, would prefer a candidate who was sufficiently grounded in the Constitution of the United States to be able to teach its nuances at an established and reputable law school. Being a gentleman, a conservationist, a hunter, and a scholar, he probably would have raised an eyebrow, yet enjoyed a screed such as yours:
I will fallow suit, and tip my asshat to the Heavens above, where Teddy is admiring the various pictures of our future Vice President (remember, he was once one) posing with National Guard troops, and handling a variety of weapons.
PS: Do you wonder whether Ms Palin thinks that Polar bears, Brown bears, and our own Easter Black bears evolved from a common ancestor, or that puff, they appeared 7,000 years ago, just in time to get on Noah’s Arc ?
Our Paul,
Just because Creationism is encouraged to be taught doesn’t mean that someone believes in the literal word of the bible. There is simply no possible way that the Bible is literally the word of God, each and every dangling participle and run on sentence.
For example, I firmly believe that our world. and everything seen and as yet undiscovered are not the result of some haphazard but rather part of an unfolding plan. I believe, without hesitation, that Divinity created all, though for what purpose is the always unknown.
I also can fully accept that evolution is a part of that plan. Whether or not all mammals evolved from a single organism is something to debate, and something I am unconvinced of. It is true, for example, that most mammals have rib cages and four appendages but to my mind that is not proof of a common ancestor. Most automobiles have 4 wheels and 2 doors, yet that does not mean they evolved from the same set of blue prints. It might well be that we share common traits because those traits are what work best for what we need to do.
Regardless, it might be worth knowing that I am a Pagan. Actually, I am a devotee of the Cult of Appollon, it is the Christians and Jews who lumped everyone else under the title of “Pagan”, but that’s for another time. My beliefs are not far from those of any other religion, inthat all share creation stories, and why should they not?
As long as evolution remains a theory, and that is, in fact, what it is, there is no reason to NOT teach creationism. Both are viable, and are exactly the sort of things that those who teach claim to profess to want: Critical thinking. However, in this instance, the real agenda is towing the party line and teaching only a leftist, humanist agenda, consequences be damned.
The left, which pushes the evolutionary agenda, is full of hypocrites who roundly (and validly) decry censorship and boost education, while at the same time censoring thought, opinion, and funneling a poisoned and inferior education upon our youth.
The left fears the teaching of creationism not because they fear children turning to Christianity. They fear that those students, once exposed to alternate theories, might also start to question what else the teachers are keeping them from learning. If that truly happens, the left will go the way of the DoDo and we might well finally have the kind of REAL liberal education system that we need.
Until then, however, we are pretty well scr@wed.
Our Paul:
I guess it depends on what kind of experience you think is more important: The experience of sitting in meaningless meetings with foreign powers (senators cannot negotiate treaties, just approve them), or the experience of being “the man”, the one person who has to make the decision, has to make the only vote that counts (“present” doesn’t cut it).
Both candidates for president have the first kind of experience, but neither part of the Democratic ticked have the latter. Both McCain and Palin have sat in the hot seat. McCain as CO of VA-175 after his return and Palin as mayor then governor.
To me the second type of experience is the harder one to get. Every leader in the world wants to meet with the President, and most of them want to meet the Vice-President.
PS: The evidence suggests that Gov. Palin does not believe in creationism, or that it should be part of the curriculum. She merely thinks that if the topic is brought up it should be discussed. One of the biggest sticks the creationists have against thinking people (not that that’s saying much) is that we don’t want to discuss it. Indeed Ben Stein did an entire movie recently about that.
Well all, as fallow as this place has recently become I have to ask, is it any greener?
Sometimes Hope fades quickly in the Heat of Reality and only real Audacity counts…
Some have been there.
Some haven’t.
I got to put this sucker to bed. It is after 9:00 PM here in Rochester, NY, and the blood is leaving the rum sodden brain, answering the urgent call of a belly full of food ready to be digested. It always comes as a shock, no matter how often it happens, to find out that your youngest born knows more on a topic than you do… The solution, not to have her over for dinner, is not acceptable.
That said, I really have no desire to get into a cat fight about Ms. Palin’s qualifications for any public office. I viewed my comments as deserving a place in this blog, to wit, others within the broad canopy of conservatism or the Republican Party (they are really not the same) did not think her choice was wise, or that she would advanced what they perceived as their cause/agenda. Do not waste your time arguing with me, go to the links I provided, and argue with them… You will find their voices a lot more cogent than mine, and certainly less caustic.
My apologies AW1Tim. I have no problem with anybody’s relationship to their Creator, or how they wish to express it in public, or in private. I gaze in wonderment at those who visit Lourdes, and those whose belief compels them to embark on hazardous pilgrimages to the temples or mosques of their faiths. Their courage, and their steadfastness forces the mind to consider faith.
I just cannot tolerate those who advance their intimate relationship with God or their superior knowledge of God’s will as a reason to seek public office, or as a reason to impose their morality upon me. That said, I should point out to you that in my formative years I hit the Catholic tri-fecta – Catholic High School, Catholic College, and Catholic Medical School. I should be more accepting that men who put their pants on, one leg at a time, know more about God than I do…
Early in my Medical career I had to confront a very simple question: Do I approach patients from my religious perspective, or do I adjust my medicine to their religious perspective? Not a trivial question, by any means, which I will leave for others to ponder… But, I will help them along, what do you expect from your doctor?
To my mind John McCain has been a mythical figure, a flawed and wounded stalking horse for our dreams, failures, and miss adventures. Savaged by Carl Rove’s personal attacks during the 2000 primaries, he stood tall, and had no problem in identifying the fundamental Christian Right as agents of intolerance.
Times change, I join those who are pained by his choice for Vice President.
re: I just cannot tolerate those who advance their intimate relationship with God or their superior knowledge of God’s will as a reason to seek public office, or as a reason to impose their morality upon me…
But you’d be quite happy, through the democratic process, to impose your morality upon them?
Lex old bud, come back, please, what morality am I imposing upon you, or anybody else?
You are free to impose any moral code upon yourself, and if you deem that it is within your right, to impose it upon any minor member of your family. You may even embrace the Southern Baptist Convention, and impose your moral code upon your wife, who by certain Biblical precepts is to obey your wishes.
What I said, I stand by:
The words were carefully chosen Lex, the comments were revised more than once before submitted. The phrase intimate relationship with God was crafted to emphasize the tension between personal belief, and imposing that belief on others. The rest just fallows, I really do not want anybody, at any time, in any place, impose their interpretation of God’s will on me. And I will not impose my interpretation on you.
Hey mon, it is not the first time this topic has come up. Pierre Teilhard du Chardin provocative book The Divine Milieu, which posited the man was evolving to a greater understanding of God, was suppressed by the Catholic Church, and he was silenced. We have discussed this man previously. Are you trying to tell me, as the good Romans did, that your intimate relationship with your God is superior to that of Teilhard? Are you trying to say that that Sarah Palin’s view of God’s will is superior to that of Teilhard and should be incorporated as the law of the land?
You, your family, and friends are free to practice religion and to worship God in the most intimate relationship that you may chose. Please do not impose those views on me.
OP, you, your family and friends are free not to practice religion nor to worship God in whatever non-relationship you may choose. Please do not impose those views on me.
See how easy it is?
Please don’t pretend that any value structure, no matter how derived, is inherently privileged over any other, or that any class of morality is and ought to be silenced or subjected to prior restraint. This is America, pard. Everybody gets a voice, everybody gets a vote. You even get to be intolerant of it.
It’s just not inherently ennobling.
[...] Lex on McCain – Palin: The question for McCain came down to what was more important: Standing on a weak base trying to beat Obama for the votes of the center with the legacy media pretty much giving up any pretense of objectivity (watch the fall debates for the tightly framed face shots of the elder senator), or trying to galvanize his base with a true conservative pick who also fires the imagination of working class and libertarian folks in the center? Stipulating that he thought it was important to, you know: Win. The election. [...]