Thursday, November 18, 2004
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
Check out this hilarious article in the AMERICAN PROSPECT. Titled MORON, EH? and written by Charles B Pierce, this one scewers the president, Canada, and the NHL all in one very funny article.
Hoyt Axton was right. "Work your fingers to the bone whad'ya get? boney fingers, boney fingers" (perhaps my all time favorite line from a song)
Sears and KMart merge. Does that mean I now have to go to KMart for my Craftsman tools, or Sears for my Martha Stewart Living sheets and pillow cases?
Dollar again hits new low against Euro. Anyone starting to worry yet?
Bad news.... Congress had to raise the ceiling on the national debt. WORSE NEWS..... they are expected to have to do the same this time next year.
Check out excellent article by Peter Beinart in New republic online titled MORALLY CORRECT... here's an excerpt or two:
" For a time, combating this culture of punitive sensitivity was one of the right's primary concerns. Not anymore. In the wake of their recent triumph at the polls, conservatives have found their own supposedly disrespected minority: evangelicals. And they are playing victim politics with a gusto that would make campus radicals proud..........But, most of the time, what conservatives call anti-evangelical bigotry is simply harsh criticism of the Christian Right's agenda. (Joe) Scarborough seized on a recent column by Maureen Dowd, which accused President Bush of "replacing science with religion, and facts with faith," leading America into "another dark age." The Weekly Standard recently pilloried Thomas Friedman for criticizing "Christian fundamentalists" who "promote divisions and intolerance at home and abroad," and Howell Raines, for saying the Christian Right wants to enact "theologically based cultural norms."
This isn't bigotry. What these (and most other) liberals are saying is that the Christian Right sees politics through the prism of theology, and there's something dangerous in that. And they're right. It's fine if religion influences your moral values. But, when you make public arguments, you have to ground them--as much as possible--in reason and evidence, things that are accessible to people of different religions, or no religion at all. Otherwise, you can't persuade other people, and they can't persuade you. In a diverse democracy, there must be a common political language, and that language can't be theological."
entire article:http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041129&s=trb112904
Hoyt Axton was right. "Work your fingers to the bone whad'ya get? boney fingers, boney fingers" (perhaps my all time favorite line from a song)
Sears and KMart merge. Does that mean I now have to go to KMart for my Craftsman tools, or Sears for my Martha Stewart Living sheets and pillow cases?
Dollar again hits new low against Euro. Anyone starting to worry yet?
Bad news.... Congress had to raise the ceiling on the national debt. WORSE NEWS..... they are expected to have to do the same this time next year.
Check out excellent article by Peter Beinart in New republic online titled MORALLY CORRECT... here's an excerpt or two:
" For a time, combating this culture of punitive sensitivity was one of the right's primary concerns. Not anymore. In the wake of their recent triumph at the polls, conservatives have found their own supposedly disrespected minority: evangelicals. And they are playing victim politics with a gusto that would make campus radicals proud..........But, most of the time, what conservatives call anti-evangelical bigotry is simply harsh criticism of the Christian Right's agenda. (Joe) Scarborough seized on a recent column by Maureen Dowd, which accused President Bush of "replacing science with religion, and facts with faith," leading America into "another dark age." The Weekly Standard recently pilloried Thomas Friedman for criticizing "Christian fundamentalists" who "promote divisions and intolerance at home and abroad," and Howell Raines, for saying the Christian Right wants to enact "theologically based cultural norms."
This isn't bigotry. What these (and most other) liberals are saying is that the Christian Right sees politics through the prism of theology, and there's something dangerous in that. And they're right. It's fine if religion influences your moral values. But, when you make public arguments, you have to ground them--as much as possible--in reason and evidence, things that are accessible to people of different religions, or no religion at all. Otherwise, you can't persuade other people, and they can't persuade you. In a diverse democracy, there must be a common political language, and that language can't be theological."
entire article:http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041129&s=trb112904
