Month: October 2007

Mark Shea is an irascible fellow at times, but his strong defense of Catholic teaching on the absolute evil of torture sets him apart from many of his rightwing peers. This post is particularly strong. We have heard a lot, mercifully, of the liberal case against torture. We haven’t heard enough of the conservative case – especially the religious one. It is one overwhelming moral issue that doesn’t even make it onto the Family Research Council’s agenda. Why am I not surprised?

A beaut:

"Kid Rock jailed in Georgia waffle house brawl."

God bless America.

What on earth is this ad doing on NRO? And what, pray, is an Iran ring-tone? Do NPod and JPod do a duet?

A counter-Christianist blast, reflecting his own family’s painful choice to end the life of his own daughter, Elizabeth "Betsy" Thompson:

"I had to make those decisions with the rest of my family," Thompson said. "And I will assure you one thing: no matter which decision you make, you will never know whether or not you made exactly the right decision."

GOP hopeful Thompson said that "making this into a political football is something that I don’t welcome, and this will probably be the last time I ever address it. It should be decided by the family. The federal government — and the state government too, except for the court system — should stay out of these matters, as far as I’m concerned."

For all his weaknesses as a candidate, Thompson has one attribute now rare among Republicans: a lack of zeal. 

A reader writes:

I can’t bear to watch them anymore, but this has nothing at all to do with either gent, or their humor — they’re both incredibly talented, and their shows are consistently excellent. But in the end, I think they’ve become part of the problem, and not part of the solution. The problem lies in the role they play in the overall mediasphere, especially among Gen X and Gen Y; namely, the fact that for many of these viewers, Stewart/Colbert have become a surrogate for actually engaging with politics and current events more deeply, or treating it all as anything other than an ongoing joke.

I know this makes me sound like a fuddy-duddy — I’m only 40 — but still… I can’t tell you how many people I know who get their political news exclusively from Stewart/Colbert, and that’s pathetic.

It’s news commentary, after all, not the news itself. Worse, because Stewart and Colbert are so clever, they make their viewers feel clever — or at least smug — as well.  But that smugness breeds a kind of complacent cynicism, with the take-away message being something like, "Politicians are just liars and clowns, and politics itself is just a form of kabuki, so let’s just treat it as the joke that it is and leave it at that."

That’s not an irrational conclusion.  But it’s also no substitute for taking the time to develop a deeper engagement with politics and public policy, because, like, you know, if there’s one lesson we all should have learned while watching the follies of the Bush Administration, it is this: Politics really matters. And while politics is a topic that naturally breeds cynicism, our political process won’t be improved by treating it cynically.

News from fundie-land:

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a charity that funnels millions of dollars in evangelical donations to Israel every year, is promising $10,000 to every Iranian Jew who comes to Israel, said the group’s director, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein.

The project is another example of the alliance between the Jewish state and evangelical American Christians, many of whom see the existence of Israel and the return of Jews to the Holy Land as a realization of biblical prophesy that will culminate with Christ’s Second Coming.

Look busy.

It continues:

For the fourth year in a row, marijuana arrests in the U.S. set an all-time record in 2006, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports.

Arrests totaled 829,627, an increase from 786,545 in 2005. Similar to previous years, 738,916 or 89 percent were for possession, not sale or manufacture, and marijuana possession arrests again exceeded arrests for all violent crimes combined.

Close to a million people a year being entangled in the criminal justice system for smoking something that is less harmful than alcohol: and this isn’t even on the table for discussion in the election. Mercifully the crazy policy – against hemp farming as well – has some opponents speaking out. No, not hippies: farmers in North Dakota:

In one of several legal actions that cut to the core of the principle of states’ rights in challenging the federal government’s authority to prohibit states from legislating limited use of a comparatively harmless substance like marijuana and a completely harmless substance like industrial hemp, North Dakota farmers Wayne Hauge and Dave Monson filed filed a lawsuit against the DEA.

The federal agency says that it’s merely enforcing the law.

The farmers say comparing industrial hemp to marijuana is like comparing pop guns and M-16s. They’ve successfully petitioned the state legislature — of which Monson is a member — to authorize the farming of industrial hemp.

Vive la resistance.

Simsbury, Connecticut, 10 am.

A counter-intuitive idea that might just do some good in Africa.

The Iraqi government refuses to allow permanent US bases in the country.