10.24.08
Itzhak Perlman comments on CA Prop 8
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here, but here’s a moving appeal from violinist Itzhak Perlman for Californians to vote “no” on Proposition 8:
09.01.08
Why Bristol Palin Matters
Monday morning, the McCain campaign quietly announced that would-be Vice President Sarah Palin’s 17 year old unwed daughter Bristol was 5 months pregnant. Apparently, the announcement was to counter growing blog chatter from the likes of DailyKos that Gov. Palin’s youngest child was not actually hers but Bristol’s and that the governor was covering for her daughter. The McCain campaign, for their part, knew about Bristol’s pregnancy when they vetted Sarah, so while it was a surprise to many both within the GOP and without, it was not news to McCain campaign insiders.
The story remained anything but quiet during the day. Anyone watching the news (maybe not Fox News, I dunno) or reading it online must have at least noticed the headline. Each campaign’s response was highly predictable. Barack Obama spoke out strongly that Gov. Palin’s family situation was off-limits. McCain’s campaign was simultaneously feigning their disgust at the rumor-mongering at DailyKos and those who would use the information for political gain, and simultaneously trying to spin the story as a great example of pro-life principles (since Bristol was keeping the child and is reportedly going to marry the ‘baby daddy’).
My perspective on the matter: Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter’s pregnancy is not, and should not be treated as, a statement on the moral failings of her family. Such things happen, they happen to many families throughout the country, despite the upbringing or moral foundations (or lack thereof) the families might strive to maintain. Teenagers have sex, parents rarely approve, but they rarely can do much to prevent it… at least in a country that allow their women out of the house.
These facts, however, show just exactly why the pregnancy story does matter. It’s not because it demonstrates a deficit in the Palin family’s standards. It’s because it demonstrates a deficit in their politics. Bristol Palin has become, whether she likes it or not, the poster child for the failure of abstinence-only sexual education.
Read the rest of this entry »
08.31.08
Stuart Shephard’s Prayers Answered with 115 mph of Irony
Earlier this month, Stuart Shephard, director of digital media at Focus on the Family made a video in which he advocated praying for a torrential downpour to interrupt Barack Obama’s open-air acceptance speech at Denver’s INVESCO Field during the Democratic Convention this past Thursday:
08.23.08
Andrew Sullivan: When An Embryo Becomes A Human Person
Here’s how Steven Pinker describes the actual science in “The Blank Slate”:
“Just as a microscope reveals that a straight edge is really ragged, research on human reproduction shows that the ‘moment of conception’ is not a moment at all. Sometimes several sperm penetrate the outer membrane of the egg, and it takes time for the egg to eject the extra chromosomes … Even when a single sperm enters, its genes remain separate from those of the egg for a day or more, and it takes yet another day or so for the newly merged genome to control the cell. So the ‘moment’ of conception is in fact a span of twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”
[...]
The assumption of Obama’s critics is that a president should always reduce complex issues to simple black and white truisms, unfounded in reality. That’s why they supported Bush. And that’s why they’re supporting McCain.
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
Bit your tongue, Andrew! Americans won’t fall for your Satanist explanations of conception. John McCain knows that every sperm contains within it the complete make up of a good Christian baby. It’s all explained in this cogent diagram from 1695, when McCain was barely an adolescent:
08.05.08
Race Card? What Race Card?
I don’t know how I missed this in May (must’ve been when MSNBC was out at the apartment), but when I came across this video, I simply couldn’t believe it. I’m literally gobsmacked (as opposed to the non-literal form of gobsmacking).
