Over the past few days we’ve been discussing creationists Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron’s plan to freely disseminate 50,000 copies of a new version of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species which they are putting out and which contains a deceptive, creationist introduction filled with bad science and false history. RichardDawkins.net and Pharyngula have encouraged people not only to [...]
So last night, Kanye proved once and for all that he has no class through a single action which demonstrated an unbelievable lack of grace. Taylor Swift looked so demoralized and her speech had been all about feelings of being surprised to be accepted by this particular voting bloc, when he insulted her by implying [...]
Joe.My.God picks up this video to which World Net Daily is giving promotion: Your Thoughts?
Heretical Ideas just rocked my world: It might seem, to the average person, that the “Birthers” must have a tough time proving their case. After all, Barack Obama has released his Certification of Live Birth (pictured above), which meets all the requirements for proving one’s citizenship to the State Department. The authenticity of the certificate [...]
Having gone to high school as a devout Evangelical Christian in a public high school on Long Island, this video is somewhat surreal to me. A world where everybody prays and atheists are shunned and harrassed? I would never have believed it in high school. But the truth is that both committed religious people and [...]
Russ Douthat has a strange column in The New York Times today arguing that because the pope’s views cross the standard political lines of America’s left and right wings (denouncing both environmental destruction and embryonic) that he shows “that truth may not be served by perfect ideological conformity.” The church is not a think tank, [...]
Here’s the full transcript of President Barack Obama’s July 11, 2009 speech in Accra, Ghana: Good morning. It is an honor for me to be in Accra, and to speak to the representatives of the people of Ghana. I am deeply grateful for the welcome that I’ve received, as are Michelle, Malia and Sasha Obama. [...]
David Brooks’s recent NY Times article is rather eloquent on our first president’s attempts to shape his inner man through adherence to a rigid code for outward behavior. I personally in general inclined to interpret moralities most fundamentally as codes of discipline, whether they be culturally enforced or personally adopted as a deliberate tool for [...]
Ahead of his coming first trip to Africa as president, he provided an online interview. Included in his remarks were demands for governmental responsibility in African nations. From Politico‘s helpful transcription efforts: “I’d say I’m probably as knowledgeable about African history as anybody who’s occupied my office. And I can give you chapter and verse [...]
David Weigel is baffled that such a meme persists: Scarborough’s quasi-co-host Mika Brzezinski followed this up by saying Palin represented “real Americans,” and that some people in “urban America” didn’t get it. This is fascinating. In 2004, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) lost the presidency with 48.3 percent of the vote, [...]
because Obama dares to support gays. And this pastor (Ken Hutcherson) has judged that Obama has no “black experience:” “But I guess we…have to ask, ‘Even though he is black because his father was, what is his “black experience”?’ He doesn’t have any. He was raised by a white mother and a white grandmother, so [...]
Daniel Larison complains Obama’s critics have no sense for important distinctions in their zeal to criticize: When Orwell used the phrase “objectively fascist” during WWII to criticize pacifists, he at least had the advantage of talking about a situation in which there were actual fascists involved. Roger Simon, on the other hand, is complaining about [...]
In case you missed it, here’s a link to the video and one to the transcript. Dan Savage isn’t blown away: my first impression after a quick read is that Obama wants credit for all the great stuff he’s asked Congress to do for gay and lesbian Americans—and he’s only asked Congress to do this [...]
I have always held in this race that while of course we shouldn’t vote for a presidential candidate based on something as skin deep as skin color, that nonetheless all things being equal in terms of character, temperament, policy proposals, principles, and priorities, that there is a crucial psychological bonus to having a black president. [...]
As something of a Rawlsian about public discourse, I have no problem with religious people arguing in government for application of ideals that they personally discovered through their religion or their sacred texts, their religious institutions, etc. as long as they respect the need to give reasons that are publicly accessible, reasons that do not [...]
Flip-flopping on NAFTA, Obama explains his position in his native politician language: “Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,” he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA “devastating” and “a big mistake,” despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy. [...]
From a New York Times profile on quotes Obama: “I love when I’m shaking hands on a rope line and”— he mimes the motion, hand over hand — “I see little old white ladies and big burly black guys and Latino girls and all their hands are entwining. They’re feeding on each other as much [...]
Andrew Sullivan posts an e-mail from one of his readers: I live in SD and I am a candidate for the State House. I was out walking my district last month and spoke to a woman about the primary. She has a statue of the Virgin Mary in her front yard and was wearing several [...]
Well, now it turns out that anyone that Barack Obama endorses is magically endorsed by Jeremiah Wright. By November’s time it is the Republican party’s wish that not only Barack Obama is equated with any one he’s ever been associated with in any capacity but that pretty much every Democrat who aligns him or herself [...]
As the Democratic primary season is winding down, Barack Obama has an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates. Because of the nature of this lead the race is being declared over and done with in his favor. It makes a lot of sense to think that if the superdelegates were to overturn a clear mandate for [...]
