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At n+1 Panel, the Cat Got Douthat's Tongue on Topic of of Gay Marriage | The New York Observer
A tiny little column that opens up a really interesting issue, when conservative -- sort of -- commentator Ross Douthat admits that he opposes same-sex marriage but is "uncomfortable discussing the issue in public," mainly because he can't think of a non-religious reason for his views. Fascinating example of the way public and private discourses can collide in one individual's experience.
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At first Mr. Douthat seemed unable to get a sentence out without interrupting himself and starting over. Then he explained: "I am someone opposed to gay marriage who is deeply uncomfortable arguing the issue in public."
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Mr. Douthat indicated that he opposes gay marriage because of his religious beliefs, but that he does not like debating the issue in those terms. At one point he said that, sometimes, he feels like he should either change his mind, or simply resolve never to address the question in public.
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Project to eliminate liberal language from the Bible - thestar.com
The Toronto Star actually interviewed Andrew Schlafly for this piece.
Under God: God's Liberal (or Conservative) Bias - David Waters
David Waters (a blogger for the WaPo's On Faith) mocks the Conservative Bible Project.
Ron Suskind, "Why Are These Men Laughing? (on Karl Rove)," Esquire (August 13, 2007, orig. pub. Jan. 2003)
Archived: http://www.webcitation.org/5kHnEQxTQ
Ron Suskind, "Without a Doubt," The New York Times (Oct. 17, 2004)
Webcite: http://www.webcitation.org/5kFWxrqmd
Iterasi: http://sqrl.it/?46up7
Has Modern Conservatism Become a Cult? » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog
A very smart and insightful blog post by Joe Carter (I think this is the same guy who does the Evangelical Outpost). He criticizes modern American conservatism for falling prey to a kind of personality worship and for substituting a kind of cheap Ayn Rand-ism for any serious, substantive thought about values. It's the personalism part that I find most fascinating, as this is something that has been interesting me for some time.
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Add Sticky NoteOne of the key concepts in this weird era—adopted from Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged—is “Going Galt.” From Tea Party protestors to think-tank intellectuals, folks talk about Going Galt without the slightest hint of irony. The problem is not such much that it’s a silly hollow threat, but that it exemplifies a trait that is prevalent in conservative movement: The embrace of personality driven ideas that are often incompatible with some of our most basic philosophical, religious, or political beliefs.
- I like his phrasing -- "personality driven ideas." - on 2009-10-03
Lib Dems send ‘Happy Eid’ greeting to Asian Christian | News | The Christian Institute
The Liberal Democrats (in the UK) mail an Eid card to a constituent because his family name is "Suleman." Turns out Mr Suleman is a Christian convert and he doesn't like getting the card. A spokesperson for the party remarks that the card was sent to Mr Suleman based on so-called "'best guess' data" (in other words, because his name sounded Muslim).
Frank Rich, "Even Glenn Beck Is Right Twice a Day," The New York Times (Sept. 19, 2009)
Frank Rich on why Democrats should be paying attention to Glenn Beck. This is actually a really good opinion piece.
Working Class Zero - Timothy Egan Blog - NYTimes.com
From the article: "For average Americans, the last 10 years were a lost decade. At the end of President George W. Bush’s eight years in office, American households had less money and less economic security, and fewer of them were covered by health care than 10 years earlier, the Census Bureau reported in its annual survey.... [T]he decline started before the collapse in the housing and financial sectors — and it was calculated, in the eyes of some. Harvard economist Lawrence Katz called it “a plutocratic boom.” If anything comes close to defining the era, that would be my nomination. President Bush cut $1.3 trillion in taxes — and the biggest beneficiaries by far were the top 1 percent of earners. At the same time, Wall Street was inflated by the helium of a regulation-free economy that eventually gave us Bernie Madoff and banks begging for bailouts."
Intrepid Flame: The Political Mind
Comments on George Lakoff and current events from Jabiz Raisdana.
Rick Perlstein -- Birthers, Health Care Hecklers and the Rise of Right-Wing Rage - washingtonpost.com
Cf. David Brion Davis and the "paranoid style" in U.S. political culture. Archived: http://sqrl.it/?fsq7a
NYT: ‘Death panel’ rumor has familiar roots - The New York Times- msnbc.com
The ludicrous idea that Obama will engage in forced-euthanasia policies doesn't come from random Internet mouth-breathers. It comes from respected conservative opinion leaders.
'Evil and Orwellian' – America's right turns its fire on NHS | World news | The Guardian
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Add Sticky NoteOn Rupert Murdoch's Fox News channel, the conservative commentator Sean Hannity recently alighted upon the case of Gordon Cook, a security manager from Merseyside, who used superglue to stick a loose crown into his gum because he was unable to find an NHS dentist. The cautionary tale, which was based on a Daily Mail report from 2006, prompted Hannity to warn his viewers: "If the Democrats have their way, get your superglue ready."
- pretty clever idea ... i mean, hell, i HAVE private dental insurance (through my job) and i STILL can't afford to get any real dental work done - on 2009-08-12
The patriotic duty to die » GetReligion
GetReligion's MZ Hemingway on a recent NYT editorial in the Times by Peter Singer. In the op-ed, Singer discusses the idea of "rationing" health care, saying that it is basically inevitable, whether the rationing is done by the government or by insurance companies. Hemingway identifies this, somewhat bizarrely in my view, with a new vogue for "eugenics." I find the post (like all Hemingway's posts) to be little more than a conservative opinion piece, and I don't get how it jibes with GetReligion's mission. But it's worth thinking about. I think that what Hemingway (and many other critics of the current health-care reform discussions) finds objectionable is the idea that the rationing process will be made visible and intentional, instead of being left to impersonal (and basically invisible) market forces -- or, more to the point, instead of being left to the fictional "individual" who supposedly is now in charge of his or her own care. Everyone knows that individuals' health-care decisions are dependent on financial considerations, and that rich people get better care than poor people. Apparently, though, that state of affairs, for Hemingway and others who hold similar views, is somehow fairer than launching an open, values-based discussion about how health care ought to be distributed. Instead, using the language of rationing and individual rights, they seem to be implying that under the current system, health care is essentially unlimited -- everyone can have as much as they can afford -- and that individual people are making fully-free decisions about their care, unaffected by material constraints.
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