Andrew gets the vapors again.
I don't mean to pick on him but the breathlessness he's been showing over so many things over the last year is disconcerting. He announced the war was "lost" after the Abu Ghraib scandal. He reversed himself on that one this week. Now that we have a new pope that is not to his liking; no celebration of gay relationships, no abortion allowed, no birth control allowed (i.e. Catholic) he's off again. All is lost and he's considering leaving the Church. I don't understand this. He was a reasonable man and a logical thinker on so many things until Bush began re-election efforts in earnest. I think he really came unmoored when the whole gay marriage thing was boiling over in California and Massechuesetts. The heartland responded by amending the state constitution to specifically forbid them in their states. 18 of them and counting. This collided with Andy's view of federalism and civil rights. Despite claiming this was a "states rights" issue, he specifically said it was a civil rights issue. Seems to me we tried to separate the two in the past and it didn't work well. Ask Bull Connor.
I think he was expecting a watershed across the country, not just of tolerance but acceptence. When the predicable opposite happened his head exploded. On those matters plus conservatives driving the GOP made him feel intellectually and spiritually homeless. I certainly understand that feeling as I fall outside any one classification.
I think he doesn't realize that as Steyn points out below, there is The Truth which is timeless and immutable. I cannot ever imagine the Catholic Church reversing itself on homosexuality, abortion or birth control. I understand his pain in feeling excluded from the body of the Church but the pope didn't make that rule.
Where he's right:
Gays are not going anywhere. We have to have some sort of mechanism for gay people to have relationships that are legal.
Bush's domestic policy is awful. The only thing that keeps me voting for the GOP is the utter absurdity of Libertarians and sheer stupidity of Democrats.
Abu Gharib was a massive setback (for coalition memebers) and morally abhorrent.
The Church did not do enough to address the sexual abuse cases. Cardinal Law should be in jail, not saying mass. The predator priests should have been defrocked and turned out to pay for their crimes.
Where he's wrong:
You cannot expect people to accept you, only tolerate you.
You cannot expect judges to enforce their will on the legislature and the populace without massive backlash. The judges in MA did gays a grave disservice by reaching well beyond their purview to force change in law. The best way for gays to win the battle for acceptance is to be good neighbors, friends and coworkers. A gay couple living in a middle class neighborhood is going to do far more good than 12 men in black robes forcing their will on an entire state.
The Church cannot and will not liberalize in the fashion that he wants. To do so would simply make it an Anglican church with a pope.
The Royal Family (UK) is nothing to be admired. They are inveterate inbred spongers.
Kerry would have been a catastrophic president. He would have been Carter in spades.
I don't mean to pick on him but the breathlessness he's been showing over so many things over the last year is disconcerting. He announced the war was "lost" after the Abu Ghraib scandal. He reversed himself on that one this week. Now that we have a new pope that is not to his liking; no celebration of gay relationships, no abortion allowed, no birth control allowed (i.e. Catholic) he's off again. All is lost and he's considering leaving the Church. I don't understand this. He was a reasonable man and a logical thinker on so many things until Bush began re-election efforts in earnest. I think he really came unmoored when the whole gay marriage thing was boiling over in California and Massechuesetts. The heartland responded by amending the state constitution to specifically forbid them in their states. 18 of them and counting. This collided with Andy's view of federalism and civil rights. Despite claiming this was a "states rights" issue, he specifically said it was a civil rights issue. Seems to me we tried to separate the two in the past and it didn't work well. Ask Bull Connor.
I think he was expecting a watershed across the country, not just of tolerance but acceptence. When the predicable opposite happened his head exploded. On those matters plus conservatives driving the GOP made him feel intellectually and spiritually homeless. I certainly understand that feeling as I fall outside any one classification.
I think he doesn't realize that as Steyn points out below, there is The Truth which is timeless and immutable. I cannot ever imagine the Catholic Church reversing itself on homosexuality, abortion or birth control. I understand his pain in feeling excluded from the body of the Church but the pope didn't make that rule.
Where he's right:
Gays are not going anywhere. We have to have some sort of mechanism for gay people to have relationships that are legal.
Bush's domestic policy is awful. The only thing that keeps me voting for the GOP is the utter absurdity of Libertarians and sheer stupidity of Democrats.
Abu Gharib was a massive setback (for coalition memebers) and morally abhorrent.
The Church did not do enough to address the sexual abuse cases. Cardinal Law should be in jail, not saying mass. The predator priests should have been defrocked and turned out to pay for their crimes.
Where he's wrong:
You cannot expect people to accept you, only tolerate you.
You cannot expect judges to enforce their will on the legislature and the populace without massive backlash. The judges in MA did gays a grave disservice by reaching well beyond their purview to force change in law. The best way for gays to win the battle for acceptance is to be good neighbors, friends and coworkers. A gay couple living in a middle class neighborhood is going to do far more good than 12 men in black robes forcing their will on an entire state.
The Church cannot and will not liberalize in the fashion that he wants. To do so would simply make it an Anglican church with a pope.
The Royal Family (UK) is nothing to be admired. They are inveterate inbred spongers.
Kerry would have been a catastrophic president. He would have been Carter in spades.
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