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A few days after 11/2, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel did some local enterprise reporting, trying to find out if there was a common theme among African-American voters who went against decades of conventional wisdom and voted for George W. Bush over John Kerry.
This story is old, but still very important. I ran into it while cleaning out the newspaper clips pocket of my shoulder bag after the last road trip. Why is it worth calling to your attention? Reporter Paul Wiseman has packed it with color and information and it contains the following paragraph: “Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, an Islamic scholar by training, is trying to promote what he calls Islam Hadari. Roughly translated, it is Arabic for ‘Islamic civilization.’ Abdullah’s somewhat vague version of Islam emphasizes economic and technological development, social justice and tolerance for other religions.” However, as a legal activist there puts it: “While all of us are equal some of us are more equal than others.”
OK, do the math. Let’s say that a president wins a second ticket to the White House with the help of a “values vote” coalition built, in part, on people that have very old-fashioned beliefs on issues of morality, family, marriage and the existence of eternal, transcendent moral truths.
Yasser Arafat was laid to rest Friday at his former West Bank headquarters. As Reuters related the story, "A chaotic crush of mourners filling the air with gunfire forced a hasty burial." In response to this mob action, "only a small clutch of beleaguered senior officials and security officers in a tight circle saw his casket lowered into a black marble grave."
Reason managing editor Jesse Walker on the Jihadist/Reality-Based divide: “I hate the Red America/Blue America cliché, this idea that the country can be painted in just two colors. But if I had to speak in terms of that map, I’d say the most successful culture warriors come from the blue states. The authoritarian conservative wants to maintain the old taboos. The authoritarian liberal wants to introduce some new ones, and he’s had a lot more success.”
Saturday’s edition of A Prairie Home Companion was called a Bonus Joke Show and it followed the presidential election, so the mind naturally turns to Christian-bashing — or, to use host Garrison Keillor’s more specific target, "born-again Christian"-bashing. Keillor poured himself into fundraising for the Democrats this year, as the Associated Press reported in September, so his indignation about the election’s results is not surprising.
I was stuck in a Southern California airport for a few hours the other day and, of course, this meant spending some quality time with a dead-tree-pulp edition of the Los Angeles Times.
The web elves at Christianity Today have compiled what they’re calling the “longest CT Weblog ever.” Well over 400 links on Arlen Specter, Democrats and Religion, Human Rights, and Sports, plus a few dozen other subjects. To call it comprehensive would not do it justice. Go. Read. Marvel at the determination of Olsen and Moll to cover every topic under the sun. Solomon in all his glory did not think to produce a weblog like this.
Satirist Harry Shearer makes explicit the comedic Stonehenge elements of the Episco-Druid story during Apologies of the Week (requires RealPlayer) on Le Show, his weekly broadcast of music, comedy and sketches.
