Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
In the halcyon pre-Obama days, when Prop. 8 meant that gay marriage was a hot blogging issue, I argued that religion organizations, not the state, should be allowed to define what constitutes a “marriage,” with states confined to authorizing “civil unions.” In that context, I commented upon the religious implications
Continue readingOne of the things that profoundly changed my thinking about religion and about liberalism was contrasting the belligerent anti-religious atmosphere in Berkeley with the tolerant Christian environment I encountered in Texas. This is not to say that all non-religious places are belligerently anti-religious, or that all Christian environments are tolerant.
Continue readingToday at lunch, Don Quixote and I ended up talking about predestination and free will. Along the way we touched upon whether prayers are necessary (if God is omniscient, doesn’t he already know what we want?) and funerals (definitely for the living, although one doesn’t want to disrespect the dead).
Continue readingDavid Axelrod’s talk yesterday included a shout-out to the lovable Nancy Pelosi, whom he feels is unfairly maligned by the Rushes of this world. Per David, Nancy is not an effete San Francisco liberal. Instead, she’s a tough political operative — for all the right, i.e., Progressive, reasons, of course
Continue readingThis weekend, Mr. Bookworm and I finally got around to watching “Koran by Heart,” an HBO documentary about an annual Koran memorization contest held in Cairo during Ramadan. The documentary followed three ten-year old children — a boy from Tajikistan, a girl from the Maldives, and a boy from Senegal.
Continue readingDuring the gay marriage debate, I mentioned to a lawyer friend of mine that gay marriage would inevitably set up a church versus state conflict if a church refused to marry a gay couple — especially the Catholic Church, which counts marriage amongst its sacraments. My lawyer friend came back
Continue readingI’m growing very fond of Jill Tucker, a “journalist” at the San Francisco Chronicle who gives me lots of meat for my blogging. A couple of weeks ago, I looked at her incurious (some might say lazy) reporting about the decision the Oakland Children’s Museum’s made to cancel a controversial
Continue readingAs part of a larger rumination about religion, Barney Quick looked at the Christian notion of a woman’s submission within her marriage, since the media is going after Michele Bachmann on that point: The recent dust-up over Michelle Bachmann’s statements on record that she feels Biblically commanded to be submissive
Continue readingYesterday, I wrote a post about the Ten Commandments. Today, Dennis Prager published a long, deeply analytical, intelligent article about the Ten Commandments. He’s right. I’m right. They are the Big Rules for a functioning society, and that is true whether you believe in God or not. (That’s true even
Continue readingWhen he was 6, my son suddenly started stealing things from his classmates. Market value wasn’t the object. Like a magpie, he went for the sparkling, brightly colored stuff. Naturally, he got caught. The school imposed appropriate consequences, but it was left to me to explain to him that stealing
Continue readingThere is a story that Josef Stalin, hearing mention of the Pope, asked dismissively ““How many divisions does the Pope have?” The quotation, if true, is compelling, because it perfectly illustrates the Leftist viewpoint that the only power is that which comes at the point of a gun. The notion
Continue readingThe discussion on my recent climate change post has one side saying “expert consensus” and the other side saying “facts.” Let me state something very important here: An expert consensus is not a fact. Experts used to think the sun revolved around the earth (wrong), that bad air caused disease
Continue reading“Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.” — Deuteronomy, 24:16. One of the things that always struck me as bizarre about old-fashioned Christian antisemitism
Continue readingI read someone today who said that Jesus must have been a socialist, because he didn’t seek profit, which is the hallmark of capitalism. Instead, gave away his time, energy and skills to those who could not pay. Since he didn’t have a profit motive, he must have been a
Continue readingIn connection with the British judges’ decision barring as foster parents people who disapprove of homosexuality, I posited that making gay marriage a Constitutionally protected civil right could expose conservative faiths to lawsuits. Many had a hard time envisioning this, but legal expert Richard Epstein had exactly the same thought:
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