Positive Liberty

On September 4, PZ Myers posted the following on his blog Pharyngula.

Poll…but you’ll have to see Ken Ham’s homely face to do it
Category: Pointless polls

This is a danged ugly poll, accompanying an interview with the slimy Ken Ham. It asks,

Regarding creation and evolution, I believe:

The universe was created in six days as described in Genesis.

Evolution is true, but God began and/or directs it.

Evolution is true, and religion has nothing to do with it.

Answer 2 is winning, with answer 3 dead last. Can you all fix that, please?

Today, September 5, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time (U.S.), I checked the poll, and the results had changed to:

Regarding creation and evolution, I believe:

The universe was created in six days as described in Genesis. 7%

Evolution is true, but God began and/or directs it. 9%

Evolution is true, and religion has nothing to do with it. 84%

Is PZ Myers all powerful?

Tags: PZ Myers

I’m very pleased to report here that Suzanne Scholte, a friend, fellow William & Mary graduate and the wife of my college roommate, has been chosen as the ninth winner of the biennial Seoul Peace Prize. As the linked article notes, several former winners have subsequently been selected to receive the Nobel Peace Prize as well. My heartfelt congratulations to Suzanne and to her family.

Based on what little of the Republican National Infomercial I managed to catch (read: failed to avoid), their message is strong and clear: America needs a president whom only the Republicans can provide – a man who can make America once again safe, secure, prosperous and free after eight years of a disastrous and failed, um, Republican presidency. While not quite rising to the remorseful, tear-soaked morning-after promises thuggish husbands tell their battered wives, there’s nonetheless something that’s almost as thrillingly brazen as it is breathtakingly desperate about this gambit.

And it just might work. Continue Reading »

The somewhat overlooked, but most remarkable, aspect of Palin’s nomination is that conservatives seem to have embraced a potential woman president without the slightest reservation.  That is, while some may have reservations about Palin as an individual, none seem to have reservations about her gender.  Even though the number of Republican women political leaders has been growing steadily, it was not so long ago that this would have been unthinkable.  Remember Elizabeth Dole’s brief run for the Republican nomination in 2000?  She was unable to raise sufficient funds to even make it to the first primary. 

William F. Buckley famously said that the role of a conservative was to

stand athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.

A few years later, Freidrich Hayek–whether consciously responding to Buckley or not I can’t say–took issue with just that aspect of conservatism. Continue Reading »

I’ve become pretty cynical over the years, but down inside I’m still sort of the naive little country boy, and that’s where John McCain’s acceptance speech hit me, deep inside, right in the gut, and it made me sick. Continue Reading »

Tags: McCain

Of course it’s impossible to judge the ultimate effect of this type of political event in real time, which is why pundits–which I seem to have become–are so often wrong. But Obama’s campaign raised between $8 and 10 million just in the 24 hours following Palin’s speech, equalling in one day what the Republicans claim to have raised in the week since Palin was announced as the veep nominee. Given that Obama’s fundraising kicked into high gear after her speech, rather than after she was introduced, I’d say the nastiness Jason and I both sensed was sensed by a goodly number of others (note: I wasn’t moved to contribute to anyone except my local beer distributor).

No doubt she’s energized the Republican base, but she’s been a great energizer for the Democrats, too, which I don’t think is what McCain had in mind when he picked her.

As I said, judging these things in real time is tricky. It’s possible Palin has the charm to bring in enough voters to help McCain win a couple of key swing states. But I have a feeling in my gut that I’m watching a slow-motion train wreck, the unfolding of a classic political blunder that we’ll be talking about for years to come.

Tags: Palin

Douglas Feith’s War and Decision was difficult to read. It was difficult because the author’s view of his own time in office diverges so fundamentally from the view found in nearly all other media that it’s hard to say whether the two even came from the same planet. Except, of course, that Feith is constantly pointing out these differences, and arguing that he is the only one who ever sees things as they really are. Everyone else is just plain mistaken. Some amount of this is expected in any memoir, but Feith piles it to new heights.

To be sure, as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, he had an unparalleled perch from which to watch events unfold during the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and through the early phases of our actions in Iraq. Unlike many of those with whom he disagrees, he also appears to have taken meticulous notes, and often he is convincing. At other times, although he does not convince, his view of the situation has been persuasive enough to change my own, even if I’m not entirely brought around to where he stands. And finally, on many more occasions he is so far into the minority that I can’t accept his version of events at all. That’s a lot to sort out; as I said, it was difficult to read.

To summarize Feith’s view of things from September 11 through the end of the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority…. Continue Reading »

Sarah Palin’s “lipstick on a bulldog” ad lib was all too accurate, even if the substantive points of the speech were not: For starters, she was for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it.

And altogether, the speech was a rather nasty piece of work, wasn’t it? I suspect most commentators wouldn’t be calling it “brilliant” or “a home run” if she’d had a suit, a tie, and a penis. Some commentators all but say it, too. And of course the Republican base liked it. They like anyone who attacks the Democrats and happens to be female. They like Ann Coulter, for crying out loud, so we have to admit the bar is set pretty low.

I know there are these huge impulses to over- or under-sell Palin’s performance, but: It was a typical vice-presidential attack-dog speech, no more and no less. With a few family bits thrown in. That’s all.

Tags: Sarah Palin

Hi. My name is Jim, and I have a political addiction. I can’t stand any political party. I don’t like either of the major candidates. I’m so disgusted by the process that I rarely vote for humans (I don’t trust their kind; but I do vote on ballot initiatives, particularly when I can vote against a levy). However, I can’t help watching the coverage and offering my opinion. It’s a disease. And I thank you for being part of my therapy. After I write this, I’ll be able to go back to work!

Last week, I wrote that gridlock was the best of bad alternatives (“Why I Don’t Want United Government”) — that both candidates represented great evils, but McCain would accomplish less with a Democratic Congress (Democrats controlling Capitol Hill seems inevitable). This is an argument that I think the Republicans could use to great advantage.

Jack Welch, former CEO of GE (who thinks Clinton was a good President), appeared on CNBC’s Kudlow & Co. last night and he too made a case against “united government.” He said the worst alternative was Continue Reading »

Tags: gridlock, Jack Welch, McCain, Obama, Palin, Pelosi, Reid

One of the biggest problems with presidential campaigns in the contemporary era is that we let the public vote for the parties’ nominees.  In the old days, party activists and elders chose the nominees at the national convention, which mostly led to nominees who had managed not offend any major factions within the party–often they were bland, unimaginative men who neither promised nor delivered much.  Today nominees have to be ambitious self-starters, people with the drive to appeal to mass publics, because the selection process takes place through state primaries and caucuses.  This forces them to engage in a game of “promise early, promise often,” which leads to unrealistic expectations. 

But that’s only the half of it.  Continue Reading »

Tags: Presidency

This post is really about the importance of Ohio and Colorado. These are the two states to watch in this Presidential election. If Obama wins either state, it probably means that he wins the Presidency. Continue Reading »

Tags: Biden, Colorado, Jim Webb, McCain, Obama, Ohio, Palin, Psephology, Tim Kaine

So serving your country is good, but being a community organizer is bad? What to make of this strange new development? Could it be that:

Conservatives, help me out here. I’m genuinely puzzled. Given McCain’s campaign themes of service and “country first,” what’s wrong with helping the disadvantaged in your community through the private sector or the public?

I often use the phrase “historic Christianity” to denote longstanding traditional orthodox Christianity. Note this tradition goes back thousands of years; if something occurred in Christendom, for instance, 150 years ago, I consider it relatively “novel” looking back at the big historical picture. I also understand there is a long tradition in Christianity of heresy and dissent (prompting orthodox Christians to reply: “This isn’t ‘historic Christianity’”). And I have no personal problem with theologically liberal, unorthodox and heretical faiths (indeed were I to become a Christian it would probably be that kind; and then the orthodox could tell me, “no, you really aren’t a Christian”).

I especially try to remove 20-21 Century, and even late 18th Century cultural “prejudices” when examining “historic Christianity.” Doing so permits me to conclude that much of what the American Founders claimed to do under the auspices of Christianity is either incompatible with such, or, at the very least had an alien origin. For instance, Locke’s a-biblical, perhaps anti-biblical notion of the “state of nature” was preached from Christian pulpits during the Founding era to justify revolt. Similarly, today the Christian pulpit might lecture on the need for “self-esteem,” which is either a) anti-biblical (I thought Christians were supposed to despise themselves as wretched sinners) or b) at the very least, not of “biblical” origin and thus, not part of “historic Christianity.” Continue Reading »

Not our Georgia, though.

OK, I was wrong about the evangelicals. Apparently they’ve stopped caring about witchcraft and satanism, as they’re not, as I thought they might be, concerned that Sarah Palin named her daughters after television witches. And they’ve also stopped opposing teenage sex, based on their praise of Palin’s daughter (”F*** as much as you want kids, just don’t abort the consequences!”)

The traditional conservatives have obviously abandoned foreign policy experience as a qualification, by choosing someone whose only foreign policy experience is going down to the post office to order a passport.

So apparently it comes to this–a person can be qualified for the presidency based solely on not aborting their babies.

If that doesn’t worry you, nothing will.

Perhaps we’re focusing too obsessively on Palin lately, but the more I think about it, the angrier I get. It seems to me that McCain has been tremendously cavalier with this pick, and it seems to me that the religious right is being exceptionally shallow. As much as I am pro-choice, I can’t object to the legitimacy of being pro-life as one of many political attributes. But when it turns out that being pro-life is the only qualification that really matters for being leader of the free world, it’s clear that the evangelical wing of the Republican Party has jumped the shark. They’re deep into tinfoil hat territory now.

Really, wouldn’t it have been just a little bit reassuring if James Dobson, instead of gushing about how wonderful Palin is, had said, “Well, I’m glad she’s pro-life, but I think that someone who’s going to be a heartbeat away from the presidency needs to know something about dealing with foreign leaders”?