Politics and Culture

One of my working assumptions is that religious feeling is built into each human being. It's not just me, either: people who aren't dumb like Andrew Newberg believe this as well.

Materialists think that those parts of the brain we now use for religion at one time helped us hunt sabretooths and get jiggy with cavewomen, who may not have been as desirable to cavemen for their ignorance of Nair and toothpaste.

I think that we were created that way.

Raquel Welch in prehistoric times. Religion helped primitive man, who eventually produced Raquel Welch, for whom we should be grateful.

This understanding of human nature allows me to see innate religious feeling in many seemingly secular phenomenon. Remember when environmentalists wanted the world to turn off the lights? What did that accomplish? They actually used more energy.

I'll get back to that later. In addition to the innate impulse to worship, some secular philosophies resemble theologies. Many of my protestant brothers and sisters believe that faith alone- as opposed to the Catholic and Orthodox inclusion of good works- saves (one from Hell).

A similar principle is operative in leftist politics: policy positions alone makes a good man. Think of the Kennedy memorials and Wellstone funerals. Gloria Steinem attacked Clarence Thomas during phony Anita Hill affair, but defended Bill Clinton in the real Lewinsky scandal. The difference? Well, Clinton defended women's choice to abortion. The belief that one's politics is the most important part of one's character has a long pedigree. Paul Johnson points this out in Intellectuals.

In the entertainment world, ultra-aesthetes estimate a man's worth by their "talent" or, when that's not readily apparent, "artistic attitude." Michael Jackson worship is an example of this. So's the current controversy over Roman Polanski. Go here for a list of people who think that talent trumps behavior (by the way, it's very disappointing to see Monica Bellucci on the list. I almost have a "saved by hotness" philosophy).

Too bad Monica Bellucci is a moral fool.

50-50 that they'll follow their advice. 50-50 that we do abandon our allies.

Leftists may not pray, but they certainly hope. One of the things that some leftists hope for is that their political enemies commit violence. We see this in their breathless anticipation of conservative-incriminating evidence in the Kentucky killing of a census worker and their scouring of the tea party protests for Hitler signs.

Of course, anybody who knows history knows the violence in America (much, much more overseas) that has come abut as a direct result of leftism, either formal or emotional. Quick primer (look up in Wiki for details): Sacco and Vanzetti, Black Panthers, Weathermen, Charles Manson, Jim Jones of poison Kool Aid fame (Communist atheist), William Ayers, Colin Ferguson, various eco-terrorism groups like Earth First and the Animal Liberation Front, Columbine murderers, church murders, anti-abortion activist murders, Unabomber etc., etc.

Some politically-motivated conservatives have pointed this out to a constituency longing to feel the same sense of victim-hood. Here's an article from 1999:

A "virile and fertile" anti-Christian sentiment is growing around the country, religious groups said Thursday, a day after a gunman spouting blasphemous rhetoric burst into a youth service at a Fort Worth Baptist church and fatally shot seven persons.

"I believe there is a growing climate of hostility that is directed against Christians . . . who find themselves as the targets of a great hostility in this culture," said William Merrell, a spokesman for the Southern Baptist Convention.

A "disturbing double standard" is evident in the way attacks on Christians are viewed compared with crimes against other groups, a spokesman for the Family Research Council said.

From the Matthew Shepard murder in Wyoming last year to the shootings last month at a Jewish community center in California, the media and many politicians moved swiftly to label those episodes of violence "hate crimes," said Robert Regnier, a cultural studies writer at the FRC.

In the Texas church shootings, he said, "I just don't see any of that."

Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer urged the Justice Department "to determine if a pattern of crimes against men and women of faith exists" in such crimes as Wednesday's shootings at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

Citing the 1997 shootings of a high school prayer group in Paducah, Ky., and the April murders of Christian students at Columbine High School in Colorado, Mr. Bauer said Americans are "witnessing a disturbing pattern."

Attorney General Janet Reno warned reporters that it was too early to characterize the Fort Worth shooting as a "hate crime," but said law enforcement authorities on the scene would uncover the facts.

"We must get answers and must move carefully to make sure that we understand exactly what happened so that we can take the most effective action possible," she said. "We should not jump to conclusions."

It's clear that to get any respect from the Obama administration, a nation has to brutally suppress demonstrators, illegally pursue a nuclear weapons program (preferably both), or place nuclear weapons next to staunch allies (article headline should read: "Russia finally stands up to Poland").

All Honduras did was follow its constitution and, at the same time, resist a malevolent America-hater like Hugo Chavez and his stooges across America including, apparently, in the Obama White House.

Now, through pressure from the U.S., Honduras has allowed the president who attempted to ram through an unconstitutional referendum back inside the country.

Strangely, few, if any leftists cheered when this tiny nation attempted to resist American pressure.

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduran de facto ruler Roberto Micheletti said on Saturday the United States has revoked his visa to pressure him to step down and reinstate exiled President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a June military coup.

Micheletti, however, was defiant of the latest move by Washington, which said earlier this month it was cutting more than $30 million in aid to the poor Central American country.

"We will not back down. Dignity does not have a price in our country," Micheletti told Honduran radio.

Asked if he his visa had been canceled, Micheletti said: "Yes."

"We received letters from the U.S. Consulate in Honduras which say that because of the what happened on June 28, our visas have been suspended," Micheletti said.

It's actually the most angering action by the Obama administration this year. Couple this with it's buffoon-like move over missile defense in Poland and Hungary and you have the dumbest foreign policy since Jimmy Carter.

Thoughts on ACORN:

1. A few employees doing wrong things doesn't mean that ACORN is a bad group. It's hard to have 100% conscientious employees. Maybe the guerrilla reporters just found four or five bad employees (in a row).

2. It wasn't corruption, however. The worker who accepted underage prostitution as a swath of the American mosaic didn't ask for anything in return or even seemed shocked by the whole thing. Perhaps the ACORN ethos of helping people help themselves (to your tax money) overwhelms other considerations. Or, maybe they're just used to dealing with these kind of people in the same way that West Virginia doctors are used to treating people for Opossum poisoning and San Francisco surgeons see gerbilectomies as routine procedures.

3. The problem with ACORN for me is that it's a federally funded group that exists to promote a left-wing agenda. It's like a left-wing faith-based organization. Come to think of it, community organizers are like lefty missionaries, except instead of freeing people from sin, they're enslaving them to the government.

4. Most of the things they try to do are counter-productive nonsense. They help future defaulters get loans. They reduce the availability of housing by making things difficult for renters. Add voter fraud and general obnoxiousness, who needs them?

5. I met an ACORN worker. Nice lady not completely aware of ACORN's political leanings. She told me how ACORN helped a group of people whose landlord wanted them out.

"You mean that the apartment was rent-controlled and the owner was losing money?"
"Yeah, something like that."
"What else do you do?"
"We tell people who want something done in the community how to ask for things in city council meetings and assist people in filling out paperwork."

In other words, things not terribly difficult. Things that mildly motivated people can do on their own.

6. With their emphasis of getting people stuff, ACORN could be part of the Cloward-Piven plan.

7. I'd tell lefties to let ACORN go. Support a good left-wing group that doesn't lie a lot like...well, I'm not an expert.

To think that some people pay for education.

Hmmm, if I weren't working for the government, I'd be doing something important like...full-time blogging.

More below. I have a policy of not posting things I see on the big con-blogs (like The Corner in this case), but the dude asked me to because he relies on viral marketing.

Should Joe Wilson apologize? Let's see:

1. Obama is essentially, though not technically lying. The health care plan isn't "designed" to cover illegal immigrants, but it probably will, as congress refuses to take steps to stop verification. There won't be anything called "death panels," but government will decide "best practices." Government will include abortion coverage as sure as I'm typing on my school's Lenovo R61.

Thus, Obama invokes the Greg Brady "exact words" defense, wherein one can use syntactical analysis to overwhelm the author's intent or craft a phrase in such a way to mask one's meaning.

Greg gets grounded

It’s right for people to point this out.

However, right in the middle of a speech might not be the best time. If the public allows the shouting down of controversial presidential statements, it may set an unpleasant precedent.

On the other hand, Obama indirectly called Joe Wilson a liar, first.

2. Obama abuses his joint-session address privilege. A national crises like 9/11, OK. An oval office talk like what President Bush used for immigration and the Surge would have been more appropriate in this case. Asking opposing congressmen to be the president’s campaign props robs the congress of dignity.

Conclusion: I think Wilson should apologize for being rude, but make clear the points above.

The Politics:

Will Joe Wilson's statement be seen as a ray of truth through deciept, like Joseph Welch's question to McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?" (not saying it was a ray of truth, just that it was perceived as such) or as a burst of mean-ness, playing thus into a Democrat stereotype of Republicans.

**update**

Wilson apologizes.