In Defense of Politics

Tom of Disputations doesn't like the devaluation of truth that seems to attend political discussion.

But if there were truth in politics, where would the humor be? Who would even follow politics if there weren't delicious howlers like Barack Obama's promises? Or did you hear the latest from the Republican side, the one that goes: Reporter: "Doesn't Sarah Palin lack foreign policy experience?" Campaign Aide: "No, Alaska is right next to Russia!"

Now that's just plain funny.

Even worse, if there were truth in politics, how would James Carville find work?

So I see Tom's point though I prefer to disputatio it. We all work from first principles. For example, we all work from the conclusion that the scientific method is effective, notwithstanding the possibility of miracles. Theists work from the conclusion that God exists and atheists* from the conclusion He does not. Conservatives work from the conclusion that big government is bad and liberals the opposite. John Paul II wrote, "there are in the life of a human being many more truths which are simply believed than truths which are acquired by way of personal verification. Who, for instance, could assess critically the countless scientific findings upon which modern life is based?"

The definition of a first principle seems a sort of line-drawing in itself. I think that part of what is irritating about democratic politics is that everyone draws their own line and people resent that some have drawn a line different from them. For example, I dislike that many Catholics will vote for Obama, and I also dislike that some won't vote for McCain simply for his stance on embryonic stem cell research. But that's democracy. And sometimes, though not very often, I actually appreciate the fact that we entrust power not to one flawed human or a group of flawed humans but to our collective body. In this, it's ironic that democracy works more the way Communism was supposed to work than Communism itself. I love that democracy is not elitist. We see just how pernicious elitism is in our abortion policy, now that we have entrusted the fate of millions of babies to nine people in robes.

But we also see the downside of democracy every day. One instance I was reminded of on MSNBC today, that of immigration and how "nuance" doesn't work too well when things get personal. For example, it just seems patently unfair that McCain might lose the election simply because the Republican party wants to control U.S. borders.

McCain has much less support among Hispanics than George Bush, if you can believe that. And according to the McCain campaign manager this is a reaction to the "nativist discussion" going on in the Republican party the past 2-3 years. He says you can't "bifurcate the message" in saying we like legal immigration but not illegal immigration. That nuance is simply not seen by Hispanics as nuance. For them, it sounds like Republicans are against Hispanics. Their conclusion is "if you're against illegal immigration, you don't like Mexicans". What can you do? Tom K. makes a lot of sense because it shuts down the debate. But that's their core principle so what you gonna do?

_______________
* - By the way, had a dream in which there was an atheist school that taught kids only up to the number 90,000 because the atheists didn't want any sliver of God into the schools and they worried that numbers very large might indicate the concept of infinity and thus God...

Elsewhere Spotted...

From Phil Albinus, father of autistic child:

A nice passage

From Gov. Sarah Palin’s knockout speech last night:

Sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge.

And children with special needs inspire a special love.

To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters.

I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House.

I’m not made of stone, people. This one worked for me. Bravo

He also wrote:

After asking Regina what she thought of Palin’s speech last night, she said she liked it quite a bit. Then she added this, which hit me like a lightening bolt:

“She looks like a real working mom. Hilary looked like a professional who happened to have a child.”

The following, from one of the Kos haters, has the distinction of being simultaneously one of the saddest and stupidest comments that I've read recently:

If health insurance for all, an end to the Iraq War, an end to torture and illegal wiretapping, and a sane energy policy can be obtained at the price of destroying one teenage girl, her family, and the surrendering our self-respect [sic] I see that as a cheap trade.

In other words, "for an end to torture, we'll torture a young teenage girl." Makes a lot of sense. Not.

From Rich Lowry:

Sarah Palin works fast. She instantly became the object of the kind of partisan hatred that most politicians can raise only after prosecuting an unpopular war and lying about their misconduct in office (Nixon), after making sanctimonious dishonesty an art form and getting caught in flagrante with an intern (Clinton), and after winning a disputed election and botching a foreign occupation (Bush)...she’s the object of the cultural disdain of a Left that loves the working class in theory, but is mystified or offended by its lifestyle and conservative values in reality. If there’s ever been an exemplar of the rural America that, in Barack Obama’s telling, “bitterly” clings to its guns and religion, it’s Sarah Palin.

"Our mama beats your Obama" - Palin supporter's T-shirt

Conventioneerin'



The Ballad of Sarah Palin (to tune of Jed Clampett):

Come and listen to a story about a gal named Sarah
An Alaska mountaineer always kept her family fed,
Then one day McCain was lookin' for some help,
When out from the brush came this hockey mom...

Reformer, that is, and mother of five...

Well the first thing you know ol' McCain's a millionaire,
Voters said "Hey where'd you find that girl?"
Said, "Washington is the place you ought to be"
So they loaded up the truck and headed to D.C.

The White House...1600...Pennsylvania...

Mark of Irish Elk has some fine convention round-up lately, including one post with the line: "If you must weep, weep in the cuspidor" before quoting some of the Kos haters.

Palin's Big Moment

Wow. It was about as well-delivered as anyone could've imagined or hoped. Didn't seem nervous at all.

Much harsher towards Obama than I expected; there were certainly some eviscerating lines cast his way. (Think: "The Emperor has no clothes!") I enjoyed them immensely, almost involuntarily clapping, but then I'm not the one she's trying to reach and I felt a tad guilty afterward. She's certainly complements McCain in this respect, who shows way, way too much respect towards Obama.

They say you gotta watch those quiet ones, well you gotta watch those cute ones too. Baracuda no lie.

She even took on the media, whoa! And we thought the press was sour on her now? Of course, they couldn't get worse so there is nothing to lose. (Funny line in the 'pre-game show': Chris Matthews ridiculously said that the press likes Palin because she is new and Pat Buchanan said, "so after her speech are you going to say you have a tingle going up your leg?". Helluva line.)

I do understand the VP's job is to throw red meat and be the "attack dog" and in this case she certainly let everyone know that she's not going to cede that role simply because she's new to the D.C. scene. But I would've liked it slightly less mocking. How do you use humor without mocking? I don't know. But you have to have a twinkle in your eye ala Reagan, but then she's not running for President. McCain, like Obama, is the one who has to stay somewhat above the fray.

The overall impression is that she's a doer, not a bloviator, action-oriented, not ivory-tower oriented. In this sense she's the perfect foil for Biden, who must think he gets paid by the word.

I would've liked less biography and familial introductions and more policy direction or political philosophy. I felt uncomfortable when Obama trotted his family out at the convention and likewise now. But the speech was not the least bit pretentious. She didn't try to be someone she wasn't, but instead amply displaying her strengths.

One thing is patently obvious: I've watched Dan Qualye, I've heard Dan Qualye, Sarah Palin is no Dan Qualye. As I recall, by this time, Dan Qualye was already flopping. But Palin? She's good. No deer-in-headlights and tough as nails.

Peggy, We Hardly Knew Ye?

       "Say it ain't so, Peg"

Is our dear Irish Ms. Noonan going beltway on us? Or rather, is she going Jim Wallis on us and wondering if Christians should worry less about pro-life issues and focus instead on universal health care?

Today was live mic night at the Apollo, or rather at MSNBC. Peggy Noonan was caught saying "Why Not Kay Bailey Hutchinson?" (me: uh, how about because she's pro-choice, a weak communicator?) instead of Palin, just as she said "Why not Dick Lugar?" back in '88 instead of Dan Qualye. Qualye was a gamble that didn't work, but his heart was in the right place. He was no RINO and he did the country no harm.

I thought Noonan was more interested in a candidate's world view than how much beltway experience (i.e. political hackdom) they've acquired. I thought the reason Peggy doesn't like "narrative" is because she preferred a grounded, principled conservative -- that is someone who calls for a limited role of government, including limiting constitutional mandates allowing the killing the unborn.

For heaven sakes, Hutchinson (according to Wikpedia) thinks Roe was rightly decided! Even some of the pro-choice law clerks at the time thought it hung on an awfully thin reed, a right to privacy, not mentioned in the Constitution.

So I'm shocked by Noonan's take. She's met Palin, so maybe she thinks she's a lightweight and if so this will make a lot more sense. But I thought the problem with the party was not so much narrative as a lack of guts and a disbelief in basic economics, such as that higher taxes are a drag on the economy. I thought our problem was we simply nominated "whoever's turn it was" regardless of past performance or view of the role of government, such as Bob Dole in '96 and George Bush in '88. Well it's not Palin's turn all right, and I for one am glad.

Experience is overrated. I'm voting against Obama because of the issues and not because of his lack of experience. Nobody had more experience that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell and together they got us into Iraq. Joe Biden wanted to partition Iraq into three separate countries. He voted against the surge. He voted for the war.

Since when did Noonan become the advocate for beltway insiders like Lugar & Hutchinson? I'm sorry, but part of leadership, like it or not, is looks. Does anyone really think George Washington would've been as successful if he didn't look like God Himself? Do you think Washington would've been president if he was 5'2'' instead of 6'2''? Lugar has the hangdog face of that Deputy Dog cartoon. Hutchinson looks fine if benevolently grandmotherly. So you have to appeal to extrinsic things like looks or gender or race, but that doesn't mean you have to give up substance. The two can go together. I don't know if they do with Palin but they don't with Hutchinson or Lugar. Or Dole or Papa Bush. Where am I going wrong? I must be, because I respect Noonan too much. I don't want to think that she feels sympathy for Lugar and Hutchinson simply because they are older, a subject concerning which none of us is completely neutral or envy-free.

So I wish Peggy had "said more words" as an old boss used to say to me when he wanted a clarification. She's fascinating but I think she's "evolving" leftward, as the Beltway types put it. Or, perhaps the good spin is that she's become convinced that there needs to be more efforts at poverty reduction and income redistribution in a country where the wealthy are getting wealthier by the minute.

But I do have this premonition that one day I'll wake up and I'll get her confused with NY Times "house conservative" David Brooks, who works the plantation for Massa Times, tilling the soil of the pro-abort, pro-gay marriage lobby.

More on Palin...

One of the things so attractive about Sarah Palin is that she's gutsy -- which she showed in spades by taking on corrupt Republicans. (I could never understand how the politically repulsive Sen. Ted Stevens lasted as long as he did.)

But one of the more interesting columns I've read thus far about Palin is from David Brooks, who says that she lacks a core political philosophy. I find that troubling and it could well be true. Not that I've read much Burke or Hayek (or even Kirk) but I'd like to think our party nominees have. I doubt McCain has and don't know about Palin, but I suspect that she's been too busy dealing with life than with the abstract. (Although the former is a big help to the latter obviously and vice-versa.)

"Conservative rebel" is almost oxymoronic, which is why William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan stood out so much. Both were conservatives but not temperamentally so. Temperament often tracks political preference, as George Will pointed out, and it takes a freak of nature for someone with a well-reasoned conservative vision and guts to appear on the national stage. It's part of the appeal of former Speaker Newt Gingrinch.

Conversely, I think a large part of Obama's appeal is that he appears to be smart and cool and in control despite having radical politics. He is the sort of hybrid that people long for. A conservative with a vision or a liberal who is smart and self-disciplined are most likely to be successful.

Palin's pro-life position matters politically only in the sense that the VP usually becomes the defacto leading candidate for president in the next election. (Cheney took himself out of it on day one in 2000.) So it matters not a whit to me that her her pro-life position is "pure"; McCain is plenty pro-life for me (by which I mean that I believe he will appoint pro-life judges). Ronald Reagan was a pure pro-life'r and it did nothing for the movement; in fact his choice of Supreme Court Justice O'Connor left a lot to be desired.

Brooks calls Palin a "dazzling political performer". The problem is that, like a star pitcher in double-A ball who can throw 100 mph, you wonder if you're bringing her up too soon. Primarily this is a worry because she could get tied to an unpopular presidency. If she fails because she's not the star we think she is that's one thing. But if she ultimately fails because she was tied to a McCain anchor, well that would be a real shame.

* * *

I've heard women say how tough women are on other women, and we see many of so-called feminists like Mo Dowd and Sally Quinn wanting to destroy one of their own. You could see this as primarily a fact of ideology, but a lawyer recently said that women are so hard on each other that in rape trials prosecuting attorneys want men rather than women on the jury. Certainly there's a reason "cat fight" has taken on a certain resonance and why women seem to put up with adulterous male behavior far more than men doing so with women. Do women blame the "other woman" more than her spouse?

I'm not sure what to make of womanly self-sabotage other than it sounds familiar in that the Irish used to hold up to scorn anyone who would dare "rise above their station". Perhaps it is part of the psychology of those who are prejudiced against. Of course if that is true then blacks would not be voting overwhelmingly for Obama, or perhaps that suggests that blacks feel more entitled than persecuted now.

I've heard anecdotally of at least one "older" person who doesn't want to vote for McCain because of his age. Perhaps there's some self-distrust among women and the elderly which carries over to the candidates?

Limbaugh says flatly that women don't like women who can still wear skirts.

* * *

It's humorous that because I subscribe to the New Yorker, Newsweek thinks I'm a natural for them. So much so that they gave me a free subscription.

My newsflash for Newsweek: many don't read the New Yorker for the politics or news. If I don't read Newsweek for the politics or news, what exactly am I left with? Ads? I've been circular filing the mag. Life's too short to needlessly raise your blood pressure.

* * *
Personally I'm chagrined that likely two of the four presidential candidates could beat me in a game of one-on-one basketball. Obama is an excellent shooter and is likely a step or two quicker than me. Palin led her high school team to a championship. I think I'd prefer to play Palin.

Continuing Our Palinoscopy

From Curt Jester:

President Clinton committing adultery and having sex with an intern - Media says move along.

Presidential Candidate John Edwards committing adultery while his wife has cancer - Media says move along.

Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter committing fornication and keeping the baby - Media says what a moral outrage and front page story!

Kathryn Lopez of NRO:

Contrary to popular pundit belief, Sarah Palin is no Harriet Miers.

And it’s a funny thing: When conservatives like myself opposed Miers’s nomination to the Supreme Court on the grounds that she was under-qualified and an affirmative-action pick, we were slammed as being sexist and elitist. Does that mean the Left and others railing against Palin are sexist and anti-Eskimo (her husband is part Eskimo)?

Of course not. That would be silly — as it was in the case of the Miers debate. Instead, lefty columnists and pundits should admit they don’t like her because she’s a conservative, not because they’re concerned about a rot in the conservative movement.

The choice of Sarah Palin is not like Harriet Miers in a number of debatable ways — including that Palin has executive experience, something Barack Obama lacks — in one big and clear way: There were no real alternatives.

From Darwin Catholic:

One of the complaints I've heard a number of women, particularly Catholic women, about the modern ideal of feminism is that it seeks to achieve "equality" for women by essentially turning them into men. Whether it's achieving a "masculine" detachment from relationships, or not allowing being a mother to interfere at all with one's ability to hold down a 60-hour-a-week job...

Governor Palin very much breaks with this mold. Here we have a woman who is still young looking and has young children who are not kept strictly out of sight. A governor who's been seen at work wearing her baby in a sling. A family load-balancing ethic: apparently she's had her older daughters along on the campaign bus much of the time to help take care of the baby when she's not available.

While most women in politics fit a "professional woman" mode, in which the woman has to essentially function as a man; Governor Palin seems to have more of a "pioneer woman" ethic, taking on massive tasks but remaining clearly a woman and clearly a mother while at her work. It seems to me a more encouraging type of feminism from a cultural perspective, one that takes human nature into account better and is less artificial. And it may also be one of the reasons why she is being seen as such a different (and generally scorned) creature by the mainstream press.

From Peggy Noonan:

Because she jumbles up so many cultural categories, because she is a feminist not in the Yale Gender Studies sense but the How Do I Reload This Thang way, because she is a woman who in style, history, moxie and femininity is exactly like a normal American feminist...because conservatives can smell this sort of thing -- who is really one of them and who is not -- and will fight to the death for one of their beleaguered own; because of all of this she is a real and present danger to the American left, and to a future Obama candidacy.

She could become a transformative political presence.

So they are going to have to kill her, and kill her quick.

And it's going to be brutal. It's already getting there.

There are only two questions.

1. Can she take it?
Will she be rattled? Can she sail through high seas? Can she roll with most punches and deliver some jabs herself?

2. And while she's taking it, rolling with it and sailing through, can she put herself forward convincingly as serious enough, grounded enough, weighty enough that the American people can imagine her as vice president of the United States?

I suppose every candidate for vice president faces these questions to some degree, but because Palin is new, unknown, and a woman, it's all much more so.

Pat Buchanan:

The lady has more executive experience than McCain, Joe Biden and Obama put together. None of them has ever started or run a business as Palin did. None of them has run a giant state like Alaska, which is larger than California and Texas put together. And though Alaska is not populous, Gov. Palin has as many constituents as Nancy Pelosi or Biden...And her experience as governor of Alaska, dealing with the oil industry and pipeline agreements with Canada, certainly compares favorably with that of Barack Obama, a community organizer who dealt in the mommy issues of food stamps and rent subsidies. Where Obama has poodled along with the Daley Machine, Palin routed the Republican establishment, challenging and ousting a sitting GOP governor before defeating a former Democratic governor to become the first female and youngest governor in state history.

Why's My Bookbag (or Bookbag Equivalent) So Heavy?

Some recent tasty reads. This quote is from "The Education of Henry Adams" concerning a friend of his father:

Born to be a man of the world, he forced himself to be clergyman, professor, or statesman, while, like every other true Bostonian, he yearned for the ease of the Athenaeum Club in Pall Mall or the Combination Room at Trinity. Dana at first suggested the opposite; he affected to be still before the mast, a direct, rather bluff, vigorous seaman, and only as one got to know him better one found the man of rather excessive refinement trying with success to work like a day-laborer, deliberately hardening his skin to the burden, as though he were still carrying hides at Monterey. Undoubtedly he succeeded, for his mind and will were robust, but he might have said what his lifelong friend William M. Evarts used to say: "I pride myself on my success in doing not the things I like to do, but the things I don't like to do."

In O'Neill's novel "Netherland", he spoofs Bush haters who seem to have psychologically longed for an Iraq War in order to test their anti-war verbal fighting ability, just as it's often said that many young men long to test their courage in actual war:

For those under the age of forty-five it seemed that world events had finally contrived a meaningful test of their capacity for conscientious political thought. Many of my acquaintances, I realized, had passed the last decade or two in a state of intellectual and psychic yearning for such a moment — or, if they hadn’t, were able to quickly assemble an expert arguer’s arsenal of thrusts and statistics and ripostes and gambits and examples and salient facts and rhetorical maneuvers.

Elsewhere:

"Hans, you’re supposed to be the great rationalist.” As I’ve said, I never laid claim to this trait. I merely saw myself as cautious about my pronouncements. The idea that I was a rationalist was one Rachel had nurtured—albeit, I must admit, with my complicity. Who has the courage to set right those misperceptions that bring us love?

Another:

One recipient of this missive copied his reply to all of Chuck’s addressees:

Whoever
Could you please stop sending me crazy junk mail?!

Although I glanced at them, I didn’t respond to Chuck’s communications. My instinct was to keep him at a distance, at that distance, certainly, that we introduce between ourselves and those we suspect of neediness.

One more:

But I was also drawn to Chuck. I had him down as a lover of contingencies and hypotheses, a man cheerfully operating in the subjunctive mood. The business world is densely margined by dreamers, men, almost invariably, whose longing selves willingly submit to the enchantment of projections and pie charts and crisply totted numbers, who toy and toy for years, like novelists, with the same sheaf of documents, who slip out of bed in the middle of the night to pitch to a pajama’d reflection in a windowpane. I’ve never been open to the fantastical aspect of business. I’m an analyst—a bystander. I lack entrepreneurial wistfulness. In other respects, of course, I’m as faraway as they come.

My Claim to Fame!

...'cept that "painless" part is turning out a bit more painful than expected, at least for Gov. Palin & family.

Not So Fast

E.J. Dionne gleefully licks his chops at the selection of Palin, comparing her to Harriet Miers:

“At the time Bush chose Miers, he was under pressure to pick a woman to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor…So Bush picked his close White House aide, hoping that his own standing with the right would push her through. Conservatives would have none of it. They assailed Miers' lack of judicial grounding. And they certainly had a case. But what really bothered them was that they had no idea how she would vote on the court. Fearing she was a closet moderate, they blocked her.”

While there may well be an element of truth to what Dionne says, what he is missing is that a Supreme Court position is very different from the VP slot and involves a whole different skill set.

The Supreme Court is far more intellectually demanding while not requiring any visible leadership ability. In our society leadership ability is far rarer than intellectual ability, and yet it's obvious that Gov. Palin has already demonstrated leadership skills in rising from the local PTA to mayor to the governor of one of the fifty states. If Harriet Miers had demonstrated in her background the intellectual firepower that Gov. Palin has already shown in terms of her leadership and character, then the Miers nomination probably would’ve gone forward.

No doubt Gov. Palin is very smart, though as implied above leadership skills are far more in demand than intellectual ones. Republicans, like Democrats, have a slim bench, which is why both tickets have inexperienced candidates on the slate. But there is a world of difference between nominating an inexperienced presidential candidate and a inexperienced vice-presidential candidate.

Agape & Eros Together at Last

It's easy to get cynical listening to old '70s pop hits in which the singer declares his love forever only to have several divorces under his belt by the time he's singing it as a "golden oldie". No golden anniversaries for these romantics.

You can begin to think eros and agape are mutually exclusive, such that love songs are contrary indicators of marital fidelity since they tend to be infused with emotional high of receiving rather than a self-sacrificial giving. (Think: "You fill up my senses...".) It's easy to come to the conclusion that feeilngs don't matter, that only giving matters - including in our relationship with God. And yet Pope Benedict wrote that eros and agape are not mutually exclusive*, going so far as to say that man cannot live on agape love alone. Feelings, sentiment matter. (Kudos to Culbreath for recognizing that and drawing a balance.)

It was refreshing to hear that one of the best female country songwriters of all time, Donna Fargo, is apparently still on marriage numero uno, a marriage that is going on 40 years strong according to the Kindle reference gurus.

Fargo's biggest hit was "Happiest Girl in the Whole USA", which includes the delightful lyric "I'll fix your lunch, and you fix mine". There is a taste of agape for ya, at least if food is important to you as it is to me. *grin*. She also wrote "You Can't Be a Beacon if Your Light Don't Shine" which is a testimony to the fact that you can't give (agape) what you haven't received (eros) - as Pope Benedict stated in his encyclical.

Fargo now pens inspirational books that if to my taste seem overly saccarine and leaning towards cliche, reminds me that literary creativity is as nothing compared to fidelity to God and spouse.

Now, with a nod to nostalgia (with the obligatory truth-stretcher that I was still in the womb when this was popular), here are the lyrics to the giddy "Happiest Girl" song:

Shine on me sunshine
Walk with me world
It’s a skippidity do da day
I’m the happiest girl, in the whole U.S.A.

Good morning morning
Hello sunshine
Wake up sleepy head
Why’d we move that bojangle clock so far away from the bed
Just one more minute
That’s why we moved it
One more hug will do
Do you love waking up next to me
As much as I love waking up next to you

You make the coffee
I’ll make the bed
I’ll fix your lunch
And you fix mine
Now tell me the truth
Do these old shoes look funny
Honey it’s almost nine
Now you be careful
Gotta go I love you
You have a beautiful day,
And kiss the happiest girl, In the whole U.S.A.

Skippidity do da
Thank you oh Lord for making him for me
And thank you for letting life turn out the way
That I always thought it could be
There once was a time when I could not imagine
How it would feel to say
I’m happiest girl, in the whole U.S.A.

* * *
* - From the encyclical:

"In philosophical and theological debate, these distinctions have often been radicalized to the point of establishing a clear antithesis between them: descending, oblative love—agape—would be typically Christian, while on the other hand ascending, possessive or covetous love —eros—would be typical of non-Christian, and particularly Greek culture. Were this antithesis to be taken to extremes, the essence of Christianity would be detached from the vital relations fundamental to human existence, and would become a world apart, admirable perhaps, but decisively cut off from the complex fabric of human life. Yet eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized. Even if eros is at first mainly covetous and ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to the other, it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants to “be there for” the other. The element of agape thus enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature. On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative, descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift. Certainly, as the Lord tells us, one can become a source from which rivers of living water flow (cf. Jn 7:37-38). Yet to become such a source, one must constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God (cf. Jn 19:34).

Labor Day '08

Long runs and bike rides
under the blue mantle
til sweet exhaustion
lends Bukowski visions;
the sun Petrine
the trees poignant
as geese float about
the muddy Olentangy.

I sing the sun electric
while cicadas rev the amps and
gobble the bike path like
the old Pacman game
and I remember my surprise
at learning Mother Teresa
once tapped her foot
and nodded her head
to an old Hank Williams song
as if reconciling God & vergnügen.

Why They Hate Her

The visceral reaction of the MSM is remarked upon here. I think there are three reasons:

Both the right and the left loathe it when the other side even feints in the direction of stealing your issue. Thus Bill Clinton was hated by the right because he triangulated, "stealing" conservative issues like welfare reform. Palin is hated because she's a feminist and touts Ferraro & Hillary. In fact, Palin is more feminist than most feminists since she includes even unborn females in her area of concern.

Hate is especially reserved for women or blacks or other minorities who think independently. Hence the special place in Liberal Hell for Clarence Thomas. Being pro-life is for liberal women what being anti-Affirmative Action is for liberal blacks.

It may work. In a close election liberals recognize that for a VP pick to simultaneously enthuse the base and possibly help narrow the gender gap is huge. More than anything else liberals hate a Republican who is successful, ala Ronald Reagan, and to the extent the McCain/Palin ticket is successful it will draw ire.

They see it as hypocritical that complaining about the experience of a prospective President (Obama) and then putting up an inexperienced candidate for VP.

So it's a perfect storm for Palin. Fortunately for her the press is acting emotionally and not intelligently and there will be a backlash. According to MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, the NY Times today mentioned Sarah Palin daughter's pregnancy in three different articles on the front page. That sort of bias doesn't go unnoticed, and Americans like an underdog and dislike unfairness of those who purchase ink by the barrel.

We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live, a right that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons. They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being “chooses” to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name. - Cardinal Egan of NY responding to Nancy Pelosi's comment about abortion on Meet the Press

Our Church is no longer a place where telling a few 'Pat and Mike' jokes and stories about Notre Dame football or Georgetown basketball can take the place of basic Catholic beliefs. - Deal Hudson, on the end of strictly cultural Catholicism

The question, "When does ensoulment occur?" is interesting, philosophically and historically. But…you can go off and put together the historically most complete and philosophically most unassailable answer you like, but when you bring it to them you'll find they were just messing with you. They will tell you, as Nancy Pelosi herself said immediately after burning herself on the flame of St. Augustine, "The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose." - Tom of Disputations

<- Speaker Pelosi's new book as imagined by Curt Jester

There is a treatise to be written on the transient brevity similar to protesters' signs and e-mail spam. This hypothetical document could cite Alisdair MacIntyre's remarks on protest and emotivism. What do these people praising peace, anarchy, or Fox News hope to accomplish besides appearing in a digital photo to be forgotten with haste? - Kevin Jones of Philokalia, at the Democratic party convention

90% of everything is crap. But we're alive now, and so let's have more crap, please, because telling people to stop is just arrogance. I even enjoy the stuff which I myself feel is rather of a lower quality, the way Enbrethiliel mentions liking Nancy Drew. Nothing wrong with it. Or with Enid Blyton, the most prolific author of childhood books that I ever
encountered. - Commenter on "Sancta Sanctis"

One thing I’ve noticed about this [Democratic] convention — it’s impossible not to — is that America is portrayed as a deeply suffering place. It’s a Grapes of Wrath nation, plagued with injustice, want, and desperation. We are one big lousy dust bowl. Needless to say, economic problems have not been eliminated in America (along with other problems). Man still lives here. But this is a very prosperous, comfortable nation — one of the envies of the world (which is why so many seek to come here). Complacency is inadvisable; we should always strive to do better. But a little perspective, please. By the way, you know the story about the man from Calcutta, decades ago, whose greatest desire was to visit America? “Why?” asked his friends. “Because I want to see a place where poor people are fat.” Does that sound cold to you? It wouldn’t to many Third Worlders, I can tell you. - Jay Nordlinger on NRO

He's a career Congressman, which is akin to saying he's accepted early retirement on the backs of the American Taxpayer. - My bro-in-law, reacting to Sen. Biden as VP pick

He knew the hypnotic fascination of family trees. Genealogy 'has a curious, personal interest, which history lacks.' - from a Henry Adams biography

A picture is worth a thousand assumptions. - Zippy of "Zippy Catholic", on the inexplicable resignation of a college president simply for drinking with reportedly of age students

Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship. - Harry Truman

The Republicans now have a completely lawyer-free ticket... all the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President since 1984 have been lawyers (or, in the case of Al Gore, whose only real career has been in politics, a former law student). On the Republican side, the only lawyers in that period have been Dan Quayle and Bob Dole. Not only Senators Obama and Biden, but Senators Clinton and Edwards–all lawyers. What does that tell us? - Henry of "A Plumbline in the Wind"

The Divine Harley

Intermixing Dante with a Harley Davidson advertisement...