Today’s Reading List – September 15, 2006

Posted by: John Schroeder at 05:49 am, September 15th 2006 — Comment on this post »

Hewitt blasts McCain with both barrels. I don't think McCain has any staying power when it gets down to brass tacks. Too much "rebel" in him for the breadth of the GOP. Lowell: What is most infuriating about this, the latest bit of infuriating behavior by McCain, is that President Bush had the Democrats right where he wanted them. After the Supreme Court decision telling Bush he needed Congressional authority to do what he was doing with detainees, Bush put the matter before Congress. Democrats would have been forced to take a position on exactly what to do with those detainees. I was looking forward to watching the Dems squirm, but McCain and Co. have now given them excellent political cover. They can now stand by and watch Bush fight with his own party. Thanks, Senator.

This guy reports a rumor (5th item) that Romney is Bush's secret pick for '08. Given the tendency of ex-Presidents on the other side of the aisle to continue to play politics, Bush sure could go a long way to grant Romney credence with Evangelicals, if indeed he lacks it.

So, when the religious denounce same-sex marriage it's bigotry and a moral issue, but when liberals attack religious expression, fear of same is just a political tactic? That's what the lead in this piece implies. I wonder if it ever dawned on this bean brain that there could be reality behind the fear? That maybe consvative religious people are genuinely so, and not just posturing over same sex marriage? Lowell: What a concept!

A continued discussion about Heather MacDOnald's piece on a place for secular conservatives. Great Stuff. Lowell: I loved the author's concluding paragraph:

There are some of us who doubt the ability of America to advance the idea of freedom around the world, but, if we don’t believe in a transcendent sanction for the effort, we will surely fail. The self-evident nature of the idea simply won’t work. We already see the limits of that idea among liberals, who lack the stomach to defend our way of life in the war on terror. Their lack of will has much to do with the present bounty of our material life, which has led to an increase in “rationality” at the expense of the more primitive instincts with which people survived in the fourteenth century. In the end, will is not enough. The Muslims have the will, and it’s definitely not a product of the Enlightenment.