Archive - Oct 2007 - Blog entry

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Democratic Debate open thread review

Posted October 31, 2007 - 12:34pm by Expat Teacher

I had a debate watch party with Richardson supporters in DC yesterday and we were pleased with the Governor's solid performance. Although, he clearly didn't catch any of the headlines. It would be tough when Dennis Kucinich admits that he has seen a UFO or when Edwards sharpened knives started slicing and dicing Hillary.

This isn't the first or the last debate, but it was a pretty substantial one at two hours. What did you think?

October 18th

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

Posted October 18, 2007 - 2:45pm by Will Hinton

I just couldn't help myself. I know that some of my readers may have delicate sensibilities. But if there was ever a time to say the word "bullshit", it is in relation to politics and politicians. This from America's great news source, The Onion.

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October 17th

Does Obama's Message Match the Moment?

Posted October 17, 2007 - 11:21pm by Expat Teacher

Rarely does the WaPo have a good political article on the front page, but today's print edition led with an article wondering "Does Obama's Message Match the Moment? - Reconciliation May Be Hard Sell to Angry Party":

The gist of the article is that loyal Democrats are not convinced the system is broken, but instead they are just convinced the wrong people are in power. They aren't interested with reconciliation. They are interested in regaining power.

Now, much will be written about the Obama campaign's inability to capitalize on the hype surrounding his campaign. I've got my own theories about the moribund campaign, but this article really does hit at an important question. Is Obama selling something that primary voters don't want?

unChristian: To Write Love On Her Arms

Posted October 17, 2007 - 3:01pm by Will Hinton

Last week I wrote this meme about some of the common perceptions of Christians and what Christians should be known for. This meme has spread quite a bit and while the perceptions differ, there is a common thread in what people say Christians should be known for. Love.

Too often Christians aren't known for love. They are known for making stances against things, protesting for "family values", and for showing anything but love for others.

Well I am sick and tired of hearing about Pat Robertson, Ann Coulter, James Dobson, or worse, Fred Phelps. They are no more representatives for Christians than Osama Bin Laden is for Muslims.

Today I'd like to highlight a friend of mine who people should think of when they think of Christians.

Last year Jamie Tworkowski found himself spending five days helping a girl that a treatment center wouldn't take and who was struggling with addiction, depression, and suicide. Since then, Jamie has accidentally founded a non-profit organization, To Write Love On Her Arms, to bring hope and help for young people dealing with depression, self-injury, and suicide. I'm not going to attempt to retell the story; Jamie has told this girl's story here.

Kant and the New Atheists

Posted October 17, 2007 - 1:00pm by Marc Porlier

I appreciate Dinesh Dsouza's linking the New Atheism to the fallacy of the Enlightenment, but Kant is not an ally to revealed religion as he suggests. Kant did attempt to make room for faith against the Enlightenment skepticism of his day, but he accomplished this by putting faith in a completely separate room from science. Hardly anyone questions whether these two should be separated anymore, but that move made the objects of faith utterly unknowable to reason. It turned religion into a subjective sentiment.

Kant's noumena—reality as it is in itself before the human mind filters it through its categories—is no friend to revealed religion.

October 15th

A little help with a survey

Posted October 15, 2007 - 9:27am by Expat Teacher

This is outside the normal realm of GWH stuff, but I'm hoping that folks can do me a favor. A friend is taking a Public Opinion class at GWU and her group created a survey, and now they're distributing it to collect responses, so that eventually they can analyze the results. Could you please take about 10 minutes (or less) and go through the survey? They're not professional pollsters, so I apologize in advance if anything in the survey feels awkward. It would be wonderful if people with conservative political leanings could take the survey. She's worried about ending up with a liberally-skewed sample :)

October 10th

Recent evangelical cooperation in fostering a civil public square

Posted October 11, 2007 - 4:36am by GL

I came across an interesting article/interview in Newsweek about recent activity by some evangelicals to work with players across the spectrum to foster dialogue about deepest differences. Joel Hunter, who enjoyed about a month as head of the Christian Coalition before his alleged liberalism became unpalatable, is interviewed in this article.

My personal context: Joel Hunter was (and maybe still is) a professor of practical theology at RTS-Orlando when I was there. He's a good man, the real deal, well-read and thoughtful.

October 10th

El-Masri, Hassan Nasrallah, Peace and Violence

Posted October 10, 2007 - 11:28am by r.johnson

In 2003, a German businessman was kidnapped near Macedonia (or 'detained without charge and flown to another country for questioning' if you prefer) and taken to a US run prison in Afghanistan, where he was held for four months. It was a case of 'mistaken identity' that caused heated relations between Germany and the European Union on one side, and the US on the other. Condoleezza Rice apologized to Angela Merkel in private in an attempt to defuse the situation, but when Khaled al-Masri sued the United States for his wrongful detention, US courts chose not to hear his case. Why, you may ask? The US government argued that hearing the case would involve disclosure of "state secrets" so the court declined to hear the dispute.

October 7th

State lotteries and education

Posted October 7, 2007 - 10:11am by Joseph Knippenberg

I’ve long ridden this hobbyhorse and am happy to see the NYT join the good guys, even offering this cool interactive graphic.

For me the bottom line is this: it’s ironic that a program often touted as being good for education relies, first of all, on the economic ignorance of its "core" customer base (quick: what’s the expected value of a dollar "invested" in a lottery ticket, compared with a dollar put in an interest-bearing bank account?) and, second of all, on an attitude (wishfully thinking that one can get something for nothing) that is antithetical to the connection between hard work and self-discipline, on the one side, and reward, on the other that we’d presumably wish to cultivate.

To me, lotteries indicate a failure of political leadership: they’re a so-called "voluntary tax" imposed by legislatures unwilling or unable to make the case for spending more public money on education.

October 4th

Gay Marriage and the Hypocrisy of the Religious Right

Posted October 4, 2007 - 11:46am by Will Hinton

Update: I thought it would be good timing to re-post this.

Yesterday I was listening to a piece on NPR about Fred Thompson's presidential campaign and how he was making sure that Republican audiences knew for sure that he is conservative enough. There was a mention of Thompson being adequately pro-life and adequately anti-gay rights to satisfy social conservatives and especially evangelical Christians.

I find this so troubling. No wonder the average person thinks that Christians are anti-homosexual and hypocritical.

I'm trying to think through how a typical evangelical Christian might view the issue of gay rights/gay marriage. Usually the thought process is through the lens of "family values" and cultural norms; that is, gay marriage will undermine the institution of marriage and is therefore bad for families and our society.