|
|
 |
Return to the Latest on No Left Turns
|
HRC’s religion
Michael Gerson argues--following Paul G. Kengor’s new book, God and Hillary Clinton--that HRC is sincere about her religion and very sincere about her support for the right to an abortion. Here’s MG’s prediction regarding 2008: How are religious voters likely to respond to a religious believer who is also a social liberal? Roman Catholics, with their strong commitment to the poor, should be open to a Democratic message of economic justice. A majority of Christians, Catholic and Protestant, support the goals of broader health coverage and increased humanitarian aid abroad. But the most intensely religious Americans of both traditions also tend to be the most conservative on moral issues such as abortion. And it is hard to imagine that these voters will be successfully courted by the most comprehensively pro-choice presidential candidate in American history.
That might change under one circumstance: if Rudy Giuliani were the Republican nominee. Whatever Giuliani promised concerning the appointment of conservative judges, a pro-choice Republican nominee would blur the contrast between the parties on abortion. And between two pro-choice options, a larger number of religious voters might support the one with a stronger emphasis on poverty -- because, after all, Jesus did have a lot to say about how we treat the poor. I’ll repeat what I’ve said many times before: there’s also an argument about how best to help the least among us, one that Republicans had better engage if they want to remain competitive in national elections, for the reasons Gerson offers. If you want to read an interview with the exceedingly prolific Kengor (it seems like it was just yesterday that he sent me a copy of this book), go here. Update: Yuval Levin makes a quick political point in agreement with Gerson. Patrick D. goes on at greater length about the problematical character of what he hopes will be "the corpse of the Frankenstein-like Christian-libertarian Republican coalition." He’s less confident than Gerson that a Giuliani-Clinton race will cause loads of bleeding from R to D; but he does think that those who are discontented with modernity might be persuaded to support a new William Jennings Bryan, thus handing the victory to HRC. I’ll suspend judgment until he comes up with a plausible WJB.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [257] | 9/26/2007 7:47 AM
|
|
More on education and the big questions
Peter S. has already noted Anthony Kronman’s book, which will make its way to my nightstand soon. Here’s an interview that gives another taste of his argument about how and why colleges are failing students. By the way, I share Peter’s hesitations about parts of the argument, which is intended to appeal to a certain sort of cosmopolitan.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [246] | 9/26/2007 6:40 AM
|
|
Happy Birthday T.S. Eliot!
He was regarded by some as the greatest poet writing in English of the 20th century. Then he fell out of fashion. Now he may be coming back. He may have been surpassed in his English mythologizing by Tolkien. Or not.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 9/25/2007 10:35 PM
|
|
Thomas Sowell on Moral Equivalence and "Mindless Tribalism" in Jena
Thomas Sowell writes a good piece on the bad spirit animating the recent demonstrations in Jena. The stunning moral confusion that marks so much of American life this week is beginning to be more than a little depressing. I’m going to go read a good novel . . . sorry, Peter L., it’s not going to be Faulkner or Fitzgerald today!
Posted by Julie Ponzi | Link to this Entry | Comments [252] | 9/25/2007 3:40 PM
|
|
Homer Simpson Has Some Allies
Neil Cavuto reports that some Senior Citizens from a Senior Center in New York are protesting the removal of doughnuts. "We’re Seniors, not senile," said one of the protesters. "We’re 75, not 5," said another. I may have to re-think my position on protesting in light of this demonstration. Good grief . . . let them eat cake!
Posted by Julie Ponzi | Link to this Entry | Comments [242] | 9/25/2007 12:41 PM
|
|
HVJ in the Blogosphere
Harry Jaffa blogs here--this time about the nature of his opposition to our aims in Iraq. I don’t know if this will be a regular addition to The Remedy but I’d recommend it.
Posted by Julie Ponzi | Link to this Entry | Comments [249] | 9/25/2007 11:59 AM
|
|
Health Care Can Be a Winning Issue!
Yuval Levin explains that the emerging Republican consensus on health care reform actually addresses the voters’ real concerns. Somebody needs to hire Yuval to get that word out.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments | 9/25/2007 11:04 AM
|
|
Huckabee to Uplift Us All
The new man from Hope calls us to celebrate our verticality with him on a special day. I still say there’s a lot to be said for this smart and inspirational man, although a former Baptist preacher from Arkansas is probably not the ticket to victory this time.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [246] | 9/25/2007 10:14 AM
|
|
Ahmadinejad round-up
Here’s the story from the WaPo. Here’s Dana Milbank shouting "liar, liar, pants on fire." You can read the WaTi story here and the NYT story here. Anne Applebaum thinks that Ahmadinejad was the big winner, and the editors at NRO weigh in here. A bit from Applebaum: Ahmadinejad’s agenda, though, differs from that of the traditional autocrat. His goal is not merely to hold power in Iran through sheer force, or even through a standard 20th-century personality cult: His goal is to undermine the American and Western democracy rhetoric that poses an ideological threat to the Iranian regime. The purpose of his posing, she argues, is to coopt the language, twisting it to his own purposes. And unlike his Communist predecessors who could call on very few open sympathizers in the West, Ahmadinejad has all too many people willing to applaud his evasions and prevarications.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [250] | 9/25/2007 7:30 AM
|
|
My Space, Facebook, and the New Narcissism of Virtual Friendship
Virtual frienship, or networking, is less risky and more reliable than face-to-face friendship. Virtual pokes end up hurting less than real pokes. So what’s the problem?
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [390] | 9/24/2007 8:06 PM
|
|
America’s Greatest Novelist?
Today is the birthday of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tomorrow is William Faulkner’s.
Some say Fitzgerald is the greatest American novelist, or at least that THE GREAT GATSBY is the greatest American novel. And some say Faulkner is the greatest. What say you?
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [228] | 9/24/2007 7:59 PM
|
|
More on Hillary Care
The always delightful Mark Steyn chimes in and in pitch perfect tone. He includes some interesting and compelling statistics about who exactly constitutes this massive class of the "uninsured."
Posted by Julie Ponzi | Link to this Entry | Comments [4] | 9/24/2007 4:28 PM
|
|
Bollinger on Ahmadinejad
I listened to Columbia’s President Bollinger "introduce" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today as a "petty tyrant" and confess to being cheered by his words and hopeful that I was wrong to question the invitation. I hoped that Bollinger was on to something and that he was much more clever than I had been led to believe by his critics. But as I continued to listen (on Dennis Prager’s radio program) I found myself agreeing with Prager that it is extremely unlikely that anyone in Iran will ever hear Bollinger’s words. Then, as I listened to Ahmadinejad’s ramblings, I became even more convinced that the invitation was more than a mistake. It was a colossal mistake. The applauding in the audience as Ahmadinejad argued that the Palestinians should "not have to pay" for Europe’s role in the "so-called" (as he would have it) holocaust, is not only shameful--it is ammunition for our enemies abroad. He further dissembled reason as he discussed the need for "free and open discussion" on the question of whether the holocaust even happened. He papered over common sense as he suggested that there should be openness on the question of whether the holocaust happened, but that in Iran freedom is at the height of its glory because of its oppression of women. There can be no absolutes, you see, except those dictated by his understanding of ALLAH. Ahmadinejad will go home a very important man now. He will be able to puff out his already considerably puffed-up chest. He was able to make the Americans dance. He came here to make Americans look weak and foolish. He achieved his purpose. We do not look stronger for tolerating this "free speech" and this "open exchange of ideas." No ideas were exchanged. Bollinger called Ahmadinejad the names he deserves to be called, but Bollinger was chastised by Ahmadinejad, essentially told to sit down and shut up and a good number of students at his university applauded. I think perhaps I might applaud that suggestion as well--but for different reasons. Lisa Schiffren was there and you can read her impressions by clicking on that link. She has some good insights on the character of the crowd. UPDATE: There is a saying in politics that "perception is reality"--whether or not it is actually reality. If that is true, I have some concerns about the perceptions that seem to be emanating from this Ahmadinejad talk. The first is that--of all the outrageous and hideous things that man said--the only cut that’s getting any negative play from his speech in the mainstream press is his claim that Iran has no homosexuals. THIS is the outrage? The holocaust never happened in Ahmadinejad-land, and we’re worried that he thinks Iranians don’t produce homosexuals?! Beyond that, the media coverage I’ve seen portrays Bollinger as a hero for inviting him and petty for attacking him. I stand by what I said above. This only helped Ahmadinejad--if it stirred up anything in America, it was only more confusion.
Posted by Julie Ponzi | Link to this Entry | Comments [310] | 9/24/2007 3:47 PM
|
|
Syria and North Korea
Please note that there was a meeting
in Pyongyang with a Syrian delegation "amid growing international concerns about weapons technology cooperation between the countries."
Also, Secretary of State Rice says that the U.S. will become "more actively involved in Middle East peacemaking in its final years." Syria will also be invited to a Middle East peace conference that will be held in the United States this fall. Israel has no objections.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [240] | 9/24/2007 10:20 AM
|
|
Hillary Fatalism
Here’s an interesting discussion about the trendy serenity being enjoyed by many sophisticated conservatives when contemplating the inevitability of the second President Clinton. Please click on the entry "New...and Now Improved" to see and put in your two cents about the showdown between passionate Berry students and the distinguished public intellectual John Coleman.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [242] | 9/24/2007 10:04 AM
|
|
Civic Literacy Report
The latest Civic Literacy Report offered up by ISI doesn�t tell us much that is new; there is a crisis in civic literacy. There are some new colleges surveyed, and the most expensive colleges still score the worst, and that is an appealing fact for those of us who are not associated with the so-called elite institutions. Whether or not all this reveals a "crisis" is another matter. The implication is that something has to be done about this now, immediately, before it�s too late. Well, some of us have been working on this for almost a generation. Furthermore, we are not satisfied with just teaching the so-called historical facts. We are most interested in teaching the principles of self-government; why the things for which we stand is a good thing, why a regime instituted to secure civil and religious liberty is a fine and noble thing, and how our Constitution is meant to secure that. So, if this study reveals that there is indeed a crisis, then it�s also an opportunity for those of us who are serious. And we are taking it.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 9/23/2007 4:36 PM
|
|
|
 |
|
