Wouldn’t it be good if alternative ideas to Bush-Cheney policies were not automatically deemed heresies? Dreher:
“The right has developed a vicious habit of tagging any dissenting conservative as a closet liberal. This folly has constructed an airtight bubble around the GOP and conservative leaders, not only depriving conservatism of constructive criticism from within its ranks, but also reinforcing the rank-and-file’s worst instincts.”
My Sunday Times colleague, Sarah Baxter, says what a lot of right-leaning non-Americans feel:
Feizel Mamdoo, my brother-in-law, texted me from Johannesburg: “You’d think South Africa was voting! There are all-night election parties here.” Feizel and I haven’t always agreed about politics recently. He thought President George W Bush was a fool and a bully; I thought it was worth trying to make America safer by bringing democracy to some of the world’s most wretched tyrannies. I believe that America is a remarkable force for good. Obama’s achievement is that a world that has been blinkered by Bush Derangement Syndrome can again see America for what it actually is.
"That the supporters of Proposition 8 were motivated by religious beliefs cannot be denied. Now the religious beliefs of some Californians are in our Constitution and, until overturned, govern us all whether we like it or not," – James Brosnahan, San Francisco Chronicle.
Gay rights protests flared across California over the weekend. Over 7,000 marched in San Diego; a black pastor in San Francisco riled a congregation member in defense of gay rights; hundreds protested at a Mormon Temple in Oakland and more protested in Sacramento. There will be a peaceful, respectful rally outside the Mormon Temple in New York City at Columbus Avenue and 65th Street at 6.30 pm this Wednesday evening. Protesting the Mormon church’s decisive role in stripping another minority of basic civil rights seems an appropriate response to me.
"His selection of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff suggests that Obama’s not going to be mindlessly leftist," – Bill Kristol, NYT.
Larison intrudes on the Douthat-Kmiec abortion spat:
If I find Obama’s position on abortion to be be as disrespectful and hostile to human dignity as the right’s torture apologists, indeed more so, which therefore makes him unacceptable in my eyes, it is not so outlandish or bizarre to imagine that there are pro-lifers who understandably feel the same revulsion for the party that created the torture regime. It is not so strange when these pro-lifers act to hold that party accountable. Does that vindicate Prof. Kmiec’s arguments for Obama concerning abortion? No, but it does put them in perspective.
The most important story of the day:
President-elect Obama’s advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.
Ronald Sider reviews Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don’t Give Away More Money:
A small minority of American Christians give most of the total donated. Twenty percent of all Christians give 86.4 percent of the total. The most generous five percent give well over half (59.6 percent) of all contributions. But higher-income American Christians give less as a percentage of household income than poorer American Christians. In the course of the 20th century, as our personal disposable income quadrupled, the percentage donated by American Christians actually declined.
In Chapter 3, the authors evaluate nine frequently offered hypotheses to explain this modest giving. They conclude that five have substantial validity: 1) many Christians have not seriously wrestled with their own tradition’s theological teaching on giving; 2) many churches simply accept low expectations for giving and therefore provide little communal support for generosity; 3) some Christians question the reliability of the churches and organizations requesting funds; 4) because of near total privatization and lack of accountability in the area of charitable giving, there are no real consequences for stinginess; 5) most Christians give on an occasional basis when they feel like it, rather than in a disciplined, planned, structured way.
Tom Kizzia lists seven challenges Palin will face back in Alaska.
Brit mourns the dying art of lunchtime drinking:
All this talk of cider puts me in mind of a chap I used to work with (small publishing company, he was Editor, I his Assistant). Every lunchtime he would slope down to The Oak and indulge in hour of eloquent complaining about his employer, and while doing this he would sink three pints of thick, gut-rotting scrumpy.
Remarkably, this heroic routine didn’t seem to affect his afternoon work one iota (but then he did have a background in the newspaper business).
In my first ever journalistic job – an editorial intern at the Daily Telegraph when it was actually on Fleet Street – I was in awe of the hacks’ liquid lunches. I remember watching the late great Peter Utley polishing off a couple of bottles of champagne for lunch, making it back just in time for the 4 pm leader-writer conference, then tossing back a couple of scotches before dictating a blistering editorial on the sloth of the working classes. I remember asking him, slackjawed, how he did it, earning the righteous reply: "My dear boy, one cannot write a leader for the Telegraph without a double on the rocks."
I am not worthy.
The Dish 
