Skip to main content
That guy was a jerk-face. All I did was say that Todd Akin is a good man who made a mistake. Unfortunately, it might mean that Senator McCaskill will win re-election. I said I would pray she picked up an economics textbook (among other things) should she be fortunate enough to win. Well, this guy didn't like that at all. I may have speculated that she would switch parties if she did that. Whereupon this guy pointed out that Akin voted against raising the debt ceiling, as if that was the equivalent of putting puppies in blenders. I said maybe we need a default to wake up our whole political class. At which point, he consigned me to whatever mental holding-tank he has for storing his subhuman political opponents. He said, "I don't think you have any idea what a sovereign default would entail, so I can see why you feel right at home with the Republican party, where knowledge is weakness." I added the period for the aid of my readers and for him, since he was so full of sputtering rage that he couldn't finish his sentence. But I wanted to tell my friend Cole Williams, Professor of Philosophy at Moberly Area Community College, that your friend Jory Hansen is a real gem.

I know that Cole is kinda liberal, and I'm kinda not, but we became friendly acquaintances years ago, and we've kept in touch through Facebook. I love that he teaches philosophy, because he has the mental equipment not only to reason through things, but to reason about reasoning. I'm not a philosopher, but I'm trying to pick it up here and there. Since Cole is a spiritual man--though less defined than I would like--we can always talk theology if the politics gets too heated.

If you show me a flash of humanity amidst the fracas of politics as an elected official, I'll probably like you, even if you're not on my side. Russ Feingold used to be the Democratic Senator from Wisconsin. I've always sorta liked him. Why, you ask? Because he was a real progressive, all the time. Not when it was advantageous or popular. He wasn't a liberal for sport; he was a liberal by conviction. Same with Paul Wellstone, may he rest in peace. I liked Feingold when he had the guts to ask now-Justice Alito about the morality of the death penalty, in light of what we know about wrongful convictions and the like. He asked it because he wanted to know what Alito thought, and he wanted to raise the awareness of the national audience during a confirmation hearing about an issue where liberals are 1000 percent right. And it's not cool to be an anti-death penalty crusader.

It may well be that our friends at the Innocence Project are the commiest commies ever to live, but they do good work. So other than letting you know that I may not be warm and fuzzy with all of Cole's friends, I wanted to add that I am a pro-legal reform, anti-death penalty Republican.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hilarious Com-Box Quote of The Day: "I was caught immediately because it is the Acts of the Apostles, not the Acts of the Holy Spirit Acting Erratically."--Donald Todd, reacting to the inartful opposition of the Holy Spirit and the Magisterium. Mark Galli, an editor at Christianity Today, had suggested that today's "confusion" in evangelicalism replicates a confusion on the day of Pentecost. Mr. Todd commented after this reply , and the original article is here. My thoughts: By what means was this Church-less "consensus" formed? If the Council did not possess the authority to adjudicate such questions, who does? If the Council Fathers did not intend to be the arbiters, why do they say that they do? At the risk of being rude, I would define evangelicalism as, "Whatever I want or need to believe at any particular time." Ecclesial authority to settle a particular question is a step forward, but only as long as, "God alone is Lord of the con

A Friend I Once Had, And The Dogmatic Principle

 I once had a friend, a dear friend, who helped me with personal care needs in college. Reformed Presbyterian to the core. When I was a Reformed Presbyterian, I visited their church many times. We were close. I still consider his siblings my friends. (And siblings in the Lord.) Nevertheless, when I began to consider the claims of the Catholic Church to be the Church Christ founded, he took me out to breakfast. He implied--but never quite stated--that we would not be brothers, if I sought full communion with the Catholic Church. That came true; a couple years later, I called him on his birthday, as I'd done every year for close to ten of them. He didn't recognize my number, and it was the most strained, awkward phone call I have ever had. We haven't spoken since. We were close enough that I attended the rehearsal dinner for his wedding. His wife's uncle is a Catholic priest. I remember reading a blog post of theirs, that early in their relationship, she told him of the p
My wheelchair was nearly destroyed by a car last night. That's a bit melodramatic, I suppose, because it is intact and undamaged. But we'd left my power chair ("Red Sam" in the official designation) in-between the maze of cars parked out front of Chris Yee's house for Bible Study. [Isn't that a Protestant Bible study?--ed.] They are good friends, and it is not under any official auspices. [Not BSF?--ed.] They're BSF guys, but it's not a BSF study. Anyway, I wasn't worried; I made a joke about calling the vendor the next day: "What seems to be the problem, sir?" 'Well, it was destroyed by a car.' As it happened, a guy bumped into it at slow speed. His car got the worst of it. And this only reinforces what I've said for a solid 13 years [Quickie commercial coming] If you want a power wheelchair that lasts, get a Quickie. They're fast, obviously, and they're tanks. Heck, my old one still would work, but the batteries ar