Month: December 2008

Dreaming Of A Pink Christmas

by Chris Bodenner
Dan Savage highlights two nutty dispatches from the culture war:

from the left…

A Dutch gay group has organized a "Pink Christmas" festival for the first time in Amsterdam, featuring a manger stall with two Josephs and two Marys. … The organization Christians for Truth says the idea "mocks the core concepts of Evangelism."

and the right…

Pentecostal Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, who shared the sanctuary’s wide altar with three gleaming sport utility vehicles, closed his sermon by leading the choir and congregants in a boisterous rendition of the gospel singer Myrna Summers’s “We’re Gonna Make It” as hundreds of worshipers who work in the automotive industry … gathered six deep around the altar to have their foreheads anointed with consecrated oil.

Paging Kanye

by Chris Bodenner
Bush just can’t catch a break:

But the exclusive Dallas community the Bush family will soon join has a troubled history of its own. Until 2000, the neighborhood association’s covenant said only white people were allowed to live there, though an exception was made for servants.

The man did build the most racially diverse Cabinet in American history; can’t we cut him a little slack?

(Hat tip: Slog)

In Denial

By Patrick Appel

Megan whacks progressives shocked that Obama isn’t going to do their bidding:

First rule of politics:  small groups get favors from the politicians they support only to the extent that it does not annoy large groups who voted for those politicians.  Check the progressive agenda.  See which bits do not annoy large groups who voted for Obama.  That is what the progressives are going to get.

The other group who is in denial, of course, is the conservatives. While the progressives are shocked, shocked that Obama hasn’t made Bill Ayers attorney general and Ingrid Newkirk Secretary of Agriculture, many of the conservatives who were mad about my supporting Obama continue to assure me that he is making card check and confiscatory taxation the centerpiece of his administration. Maybe the hard conservatives and the progressives should be consoling each other.

“To Return, Unscathed”

by Chris Bodenner
McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace waxes poetic on her boss’s "exquisite" concession speech:

Drafted by Mark Salter, and handed to him on election night in a somber suite at the Biltmore hotel in Phoenix, the speech set a new standard for grace in defeat. That night as we waited for the polls to close so Sen. McCain could publicly concede the election to Barack Obama, McCain said to Salter, “It’s your best ever, my boy, your best ever.” The pit in my stomach turned into a lump in my throat. … The speech sent a powerful signal around the world about the strength of our democracy. It also opened the door for the McCains to return, unscathed, to their previous lives of impressive service—Cindy McCain as an advocate for international aid and relief efforts and John McCain as a powerful, pragmatic senator known, liked, and respected by a sizable swath of Democrats, Republicans, the media, and world leaders.

In a vacuum, yes; McCain’s speech was gracious.  But it was sort of like putting, well, lipstick on a pig.  And naturally, with no chance left for victory, it was in McCain’s self interest to be a good sport.  True grace doesn’t need an audience. However, even if you could shut out all the smears of the previous six months, the speech was still tainted with the crowd’s persistent jeering of Obama (and only perfunctory claps for the country’s history-making). McCain did show unscripted class as he emphatically hushed them, but it was an atmosphere he helped create in the first place.  (I may lack class for the postmortem cynicism, but so be it.)

One last thing: Here’s a coupling of quotes from McCain (that night) and Obama (referencing the March on Selma) that captures the political sensibility of both men:

"This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight."

"No, no, no, no, no. That was not a great celebration of African-American history. That was a celebration of American history."

Update: I just watched the "unaired Wright attack ad," and it ends with the ironic line, "Character matters, especially when no one is listening."

The Baby Trade, Ctd.

By Patrick Appel
A reader writes:

I am mother to two children adopted from abroad (Cambodia, Nepal). During our first adoption we found out that there were ethical problems in the system and agonized for months, deciding finally to adopt the one year old boy who awaited us. We did more research when we approached our second adoption, making sure that the process was ethical, that our child would not be "bought" and that no one would profit monetarily from the adoption. According to our research, our son was an orphan whose extended family could not care for him; we do not know about our daughter, but she was in a large orphanage in Katmandhu which reminded me of something out of Dickens (yes, children lived and grew up there, no it was most likely not better than being adopted out of country).

E.J. Graff has written a devastating piece, one that you linked to your blog without comment.

I would not argue with her facts, though there are many I’m sure she does not have.  What I would argue with is her ethical approach, which is black or white.  Either children are orphaned and adopted or they are not orphaned and they are "bought."  Consider the many shades of gray that develop in countries where poverty is the rule, where people sometimes cannot support their children, where there are wars, civil and otherwise. Needless to say, everything should be done to cure the ills in the places they are suffered.  Barring that, adoption is a real option, both for people in these countries, and for Americans.

The warmest support my husband and I have received is from people who are from Cambodia and Nepal. I find that telling. In any case, our children are thriving, as are we.  When they ask about their adoptions, we tell them everything we know, the good, the bad, and the unknown. Honesty is all we can offer, apart from the larger blessings of family.