Friday, August 29, 2008
From first appearances, I am liking what I'm seeing of McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin. She has taken on her own party when it was right (she cleaned up rampant corruption in Alaskan politics). She has followed the law even when it went against her personal beliefs. But most of all, she has lived her pro-life views out in her own personal life, as Kathryn Lopez points out in her piece today. John McCain could save lives with his vice-presidential pick.
“I’m looking at him right now, and I see perfection. Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?”
That’s Alaska’s Republican governor, Sarah Palin, talking about her infant son, Trig, born with Down Syndrome. When Todd and Sarah Palin learned last December that their baby would have Down Syndrome, they not only saved a life but made a decision that would touch the lives of families living with similar gifts across the country.
...
Not only are children with Down Syndrome people too, they inspire a deep love and enthusiastic appreciation. Especially in the face of a culture that wants to expunge them. According to a study cited in the New York Times last year, “About 90 percent of pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion.” (Emphasis added.) Most American women are given prenatal tests.
At 44, Governor Palin is a bit young and relatively new to the political scene yet. These are no small considerations when electing someone who could assume the role of president (Democrats: Check out your nominee with that reservation . . . ). But if the youngest life she and her husband care for can wake up a nation that’s blind to the eugenics in its midst, a routine part of medicine today, she and John McCain would be offering human rights and dignity a great, honorable service. In contrast to Barack Obama, who would let the survivors of botched abortion attempts be killed, the Palins could serve as a great clarifier for voters this fall — and an education.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The teachers in Dallas have come up with a BRILLIANT new plan: don't penalize students for late or poorly done homework!
[T]he new rules require teachers to accept late work and prevent them from penalizing students for missed deadlines. Homework grades that would drag down a student's overall average will be thrown out.This is genius, why didn't we think of that before? After all, the real world operates just like that: you can turn your work in late and everything is hunky dory.
Monday, August 18, 2008
When asked by Rick Warren at the recent Saddleback Presidential Forum when he thought a baby gets human rights, John McCain said "at conception." Obama, on the other hand, replied that "answering that question is above my pay-grade."Nevermind that he HAS answered that question repeatedly with previous votes and remarks, such as the ones made in front of Planned Parenthood which I posted earlier this summer.
From an interview in 2004...
OBAMA: I’m rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.
OBAMA: I retain from my childhood and my experiences growing up a suspicion of dogma. And I’m not somebody who is always comfortable with language that implies I’ve got a monopoly on the truth, or that my faith is automatically transferable to others.
OBAMA: When I’m talking to a group and I’m saying something truthful, I can feel a power that comes out of those statements that is different than when I’m just being glib or clever.
GG: What’s that power? Is it the holy spirit? God?
OBAMA: Well, I think it’s the power of the recognition of God, or the recognition of a larger truth that is being shared between me and an audience.
GG: Who’s Jesus to you?
OBAMA: Right. Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he’s also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher. And he’s also a wonderful teacher. I think it’s important for all of us, of whatever faith, to have teachers in the flesh and also teachers in history.
OBAMA: There’s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they’re going to hell. … I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell.
OBAMA: What I believe in is that if I live my life as well as I can, that I will be rewarded. I don’t presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. But I feel very strongly that whether the reward is in the here and now or in the hereafter, the aligning myself to my faith and my values is a good thing.
GG: What is sin?
OBAMA: Being out of alignment with my values. {emphasis mine}
GG: What happens if you have sin in your life?
OBAMA: I think it’s the same thing as the question about heaven. In the same way that if I’m true to myself and my faith that that is its own reward, when I’m not true to it, it’s its own punishment.
GG: What are you doing when you feel the most centered, the most aligned spiritually?
OBAMA: I think I already described it. It’s when I’m being true to myself.
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