Politics

From an article of the same title by Neil Steinberg in the Chicago Sun-Times:

A dozen American soldiers are ordered to swim the Atlantic Ocean. Imagine any scenario to explain why: The president wants them to demonstrate the supremacy of our way of life, perhaps. All 12 drown, of course. Was their sacrifice a waste? I would say yes -- a doomed endeavor initiated for a bad purpose by a deluded leader. Does this mean I don't support a strong military? No. Does this mean I don't respect those doomed soldiers, who bravely followed orders and waded into the surf? Not at all. We are allowed to differentiate between individual heroism and a larger pointlessness.

From an article of the same title by Ray Rivera in the NY Times:

As he prepares for a possible run for president - a road that goes deep into the heart of conservative America - Rudolph W. Giuliani takes with him a belief in abortion rights that many think could derail his bid to capture the Republican nomination. But in recent weeks, as he has courted voters in South Carolina and talked to conservative media outlets, Mr. Giuliani has highlighted a different element of his thinking on the abortion debate. He has talked about how he would appoint "strict constructionist" judges to the Supreme Court - what abortion rights advocates say is code among conservatives for those who seek to overturn or limit Roe v. Wade, the 1973 court ruling declaring a constitutional right to abortion. The effect has been to distance himself from a position favoring abortion rights that he espoused when he ran for mayor of New York City, where most voters favor abortion rights. "I hate it," he said of abortion in a recent interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News. "I think abortion is something that, as a personal matter, I would advise somebody against. However, I believe in a woman's right to choose. I think you have to ultimately not put a woman in jail for that."

Those who have followed Mr. Giuliani's career say he is unlikely to undergo a radical shift in his views in the manner of Mitt Romney, a Republican rival and former Massachusetts governor who advocated abortion rights until about two years ago. Fred Siegel, author of "Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life," said Mr. Giuliani would likely be careful to avoid anything perceived as a flip-flop on the issue. "Part of his appeal is that he doesn't bend in the wind," he said. But Richard Land, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, said Mr. Giuliani's position was even more offensive than that of someone who believes abortion is morally acceptable. "To say I think it's morally wrong, but I think it's a woman's choice is like saying I'm opposed to segregation but it ought to be left up to the store owner to decide," Mr. Land said. "That's a preference, not a conviction."

Andrew Sullivan has a different take on Giuliani, that he isn't shifting to satisfy the party base but that he is taking the reasonable view that such divisive issues should be decided on a state level. Mitt Romney seems to be becoming the posterchild for someone whose convictions are shaped by his politics and not the other way around...a flip-flopper. Kathleen Parker had a recent column emphasizing that what is sometimes characterized as flip-flopping is really changing ones mind based on careful study and contemplation, that kind of thing that a leader should be prepared to do. We have plenty examples lately the inability to admit mistakes or adjust course early enough leads to bad situations getting even worse. So that's the rub...as we evaluate our leaders and potential leaders, we have to suss out (h/t for vocab expansion: Scott Freeman) whether they are stubbornly determined and unwilling to deviate from a path we happen to support even when common sense says otherwise or are they willing to change their mind sometimes in a direction different from ours or are they simply a flip-flopper that happens to currently speaking words we like at the current moment...and which of those types of people we prefer to have running our country.

Some people claim that Bush lied. Some people claim that if Bush lied, so did Hillary, Edwards, British intelligence, etc. I tend to agree that "lie" is probably a little too strong. A little. But I keep going back to the joke from The Colbert Report from a year ago: "Makes facts based on decisions" (as opposed to the normal phrase, "makes decisions based on facts"). Maybe the current administration didn't lie, but it's been pretty clear that they made facts (cherry-picked intelligence and took a skewed view of what was there) based on decisions (the decision to find a way to take out Saddam). More evidence of that recently: WaPo article and NY Times opinion.

Tonight we watched Kingdom of Heaven (2005,R) (ScreenIt! Review). From the Wikipedia entry:

The story deals with the Crusades of the 12th century, and involves...a village blacksmith who goes on to aid the city of Jerusalem in its defense against the great Islamic leader Saladin, who battles to reclaim the city from the Christians. The script is loosely based on the life of Balian of Ibelin. Professor Hamid Dabashi of Columbia University was the film's chief academic consultant.

So much violence. So much battling of God's enemies. So many cries of "God wills it." From both sides. I give it 3 out of 5. Coincidentally (before I started watching Kingdom of Heaven, I didn't realize that it was all about war between Christians and Muslims), today I also watched the Fox News special Radical Islam: Terror in Its Own Words (on the recommendation of a relative). I thought it was instructive in emphasizing the danger, in giving more full attention to what we usually only hear in brief soundbites...the chants of "death to America", the way children raised to be martyrs. Much emphasis was made that the special was addressing radical Islam, not its moderate relative, but that moderate Islam is too reticent in condemning the radical fringe. I guess these are all points that have some validity. This violent, radical Islam is not something that human society should tolerate. But the coincidence of watching these two things today reminded me again of the obvious parallels between then and now. A battle between a Christian king and a Muslim general from Tikrit. The infamous reference by king George to crusades. The spiritual significance tied to death as a crusader...to death as a Muslim martyr. It's tempting to think that we have progressed so far since then but that they are still stuck in such a primitive place, but many of us still think of what we've been doing lately as going to war in God's name, with his blessing. I was brought back to the feeling of how important it is that we not sink to the level of these murderous extremists...not to torture, not to trust in nor embrace violence. Not to allow our enemies to draw us away from the things that are so noble and wonderful about our country.

From an article of the same title in USA Today by Emily Bazar:

At least a half-dozen states are considering broadening the death penalty, countering a national trend toward scaling back its use. Lawmakers have proposed legislation that would increase the range of crimes eligible for execution. In Texas and Tennessee, for example, legislators want to include certain child molesters who did not murder their victims. "The hope is that these monsters will see that Texas is serious about protecting children," says Rich Parsons, spokesman for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Dewhurst, a Republican, is working with state senators to draft legislation that would make repeat offenders subject to capital punishment in some cases. "If they understand they could face the ultimate punishment," they might "think twice," Parsons says.

Lawmakers or courts have temporarily halted all executions in 11 states in the past year, most of them over concerns that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment, says Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, which he says takes no position on the death penalty but has been critical of how it is applied.

In my opinion, this is BAD news.