Knowledge and Priorities

"Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it's important."
- Eugene McCarthy

Aware

Through a proxy, John McCain: "I am aware of the Internet."



I like the comment on Politico that notes:

It's pretty bad when the best we can say for McCain is that he is "aware" of his surroundings.

Bad Except When They're Good

Victor Davis Hanson posting at The Corner on National Review Online makes an interesting remark while commenting on Iran and its nuclear implications.

He writes about the "moral equivalence" of Prof. John Mearsheimer at the YearlyKos convention, who surmised that Iran had the right

"to have a bomb since Israel has one too-as if an anti-American theocracy run according to Sharia Law is no more a nuclear threat than a pro-American liberal democracy."

So anti-American theocracy is the bad and pro-American liberal democracy is good. Catch that? Liberal is good, says the conservative.

Okay, just checking.

True believers

The Rev. Al Sharpton has gotten himself into some hot water for saying:

"And as for the one Mormon running for office, those that really believe in God will defeat him anyway. So don't worry about that. That's a temporary, that's a temporary situation."

His statement came during a debate with Christopher Hitchens, the author of the recent book, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

NewsBusters notes that:

"...Sharpton and [Paula] Zahn discussed the fact that until 1965 [according to CNN], or 1978, according to Sharpton, the Mormon church did not accord blacks full status. That engendered the following exchange:

SHARPTON: ...prior to '65, '78, whenever it was, they did not see blacks as equal, I do not believe that as real worshippers of God, because I do not believe that God distinguishes between people."

Considering that the founders of this country and several generations of its people afterwards put into place and accepted laws that "did not see blacks as equal" this is a curious statement. Sharpton is supposed to be clergy, hence the "Reverend" (licensed and ordained a minister at age 9, says Wikipedia).

Sharpton was ordained by someone who was ordained by someone who was ordained by someone who was ordained by someone who was white. And that person's religion (Christianity) had members who did not view blacks as equal.

I am so thrown, I cannot elucidate my point.

BattleCry on Nightline

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis

Evil thoughts

"My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?"

- James 2:1-4

Second Amendment

"If I were writing the Bill of Rights now there wouldn't be any such thing as the Second Amendment... This has been the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word 'fraud', on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime. The real purpose of the Second Amendment was to ensure that state armies - the militia - would be maintained for the defense of the state. The very language of the Second Amendment refutes any argument that it was intended to guarantee every citizen an unfettered right to any kink of weapon he or she desires."
- Warren Burger, former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, Parade Magazine, 1/14/90

And this from Robert Bork, failed Reagan Supreme Court nominee:

"[The] National Rifle Association is always arguing that the Second Amendment determines the right to bear arms. But I think it really is the people's right to bear arms in a militia. The NRA thinks it protects their right to have Teflon-coated bullets. But that's not the original understanding.
- Robert H. Bork, former Federal Appeals Court Judge (Distinguished Lecture Series, UC Irvine, 3/14/89)

H/T to Free Republic

Quote of the Week

"For some reason, the military seems more afraid of gay people than they are against terrorists. They're very brave with the terrorists, and if the terrorists ever got a hold of this information, they get a platoon of lesbians to chase us out of Baghdad."
- Rep. Gary Ackerman, regarding the U.S. military's resistance to letting homosexuals serve openly.

Science and Religion

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
- Albert Einstein

Will Rogers' wisdom

"I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat."
- Will Rogers

So true.

Denominations

My general feeling is that God's plan does not involve splitting believers into groups such as a Catholics and Protestants . Furthermore, even the multiple Protestant and Catholic denominations seem to not be in the Bible. Pope Benedict said something smart for once:

"The divisions which exist among Christians are a scandal to the world."
- Pope Benedict XVI

Just now figuring that out.

"Actually, I thought we were going to do fine yesterday, shows what I know."

- President George W. Bush, addressing the midterm elections.

Sapere aude.

Latin for "dare to know" or "dare to be wise."

"Democracy is necessarily despotism, as it establishes an executive power contrary to the general will; all being able to decide against one whose opinion may differ, the will of all is therefore not that of all: which is contradictory and opposite to liberty."
(Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace, II, 1795)