http://darwen.us/southcon: Vote! -- Weird Science -- Elsewhere

Monday, November 06, 2006

Vote! -- Weird Science -- Elsewhere

VOTE!

Just a few last minute comments on tomorrow's election, which I'm feeling a bit pessimistic about.

Allen Vs. Webb, Virginia

I still think it's possible that George Allen is going to win in Virginia, although some polls show his opponent, Jim Webb, with a substantial lead.

Having said that, I'll also say this: If Allen loses, he has nobody to blame but himself. This has been the shoddiest campaign for a statewide office in Virginia since… well, heck, since last year's gubernatorial campaign by Republican Jerry Kilgore. Anyone who really studied where those two candidates stood on the issues knew that Kilgore was the superior candidate… but he lost to Tim Kaine because he campaigned badly, assumed that the death penalty was the only issue that Virginians care about, and presumed that his popularity would carry him into office.

This year we've got two candidates for the Senate, George Allen and Jim Webb, and from my point of view, George Allen is the superior candidate. But not by a huge margin. George Allen doesn't have the advantage that George W. Bush had in '04. That is to say, George Allen isn't running against an obviously incompetent, lying, left-wing extremist. In fact, George Allen's Democratic opponent, Jim Webb, wouldn't be an awful senator. He's an inferior choice to Allen with regard to where each man stands on the issues, but he's not a Kerry-Dean-Clinton style nutcase.

(Now, Webb does support abortion on demand, and he does support harvesting embryos for stem-cell research. Those are the deal-breaker issues for me. I will not vote for anyone who doesn't respect the rights of the unborn. Ever. Period.)

George Allen, just like Jerry Kilgore last year, has run a terrible campaign. The "macaca" thing became a huge tool for the leftists because Allen didn't have the backbone to simply say "Hey, ya know what? I really blew it. I used the first word that popped into my head without thinking about it, and I should have known better. Man, I feel dumb. I'm sorry." He's also attacked the content of novels that Webb has written, saying that Webb's fiction indicates that the author is sexist, which is a desperate and silly ploy. It seems that Allen has expected, like Kilgore did, to coast on his popularity in Virginia. He didn't take Webb seriously until too late, and when he did, he didn't seem to be up to the match.

Until relatively recently, I thought that George Allen would be the next Republican candidate for President. I seriously doubt now that he'll consider a Presidential bid, regardless of tomorrow's outcome … and if he manages to stay in the Senate, he better thank God that Virginians remember his consistent and reliable record as a legislator in spite of his recent foibles.

Santorum Vs. Casey, Pennsylvania

This race is the one that really bugs me, because Rick Santorum is a really good Senator and it looks like he's poised to lose his seat to an apparently under qualified Democratic challenger. Santorum is a strong social conservative and he represents my values very closely … at least as closely as most politicians could. He's been a sterling opponent of abortion on demand and a strong supporter of traditional marriage. Santorum is also a fiscal conservative and when it comes to the world stage, he puts the security of our country first. The Christian Coalition has given him a 100% rating.

He's running against Bob Casey, Jr., the son of a popular Pennsylvania governor ('87 thru '95), and Casey is ostensibly pro-life, although he's soft on the issue. He is, however, just pro-life enough to drive the leftists nuts.

Santorum has had tough races every time he's been elected, but this one is really tough. Social conservatives like myself are preparing to see one of our brightest stars fade tomorrow night.

Steele Vs. Cardin, Maryland

This is the race I'll really be watching … the polls (for whatever they're worth) indicate that Steele is a long-shot, but Michael Steele is my favorite politician in America right now. I've written plenty about Steele in the past, so rather than repeat myself, I'll just say you can click here and read about how super cool I think Steele is.

I don't think it's impossible for Steele to win, but Maryland is a reliably blue state. Besides, even if Michael Steele doesn't win, he's quickly becoming one of the GOP's brightest rising stars … so regardless of tomorrow night's election in Maryland, I don't think we've heard the last of Michael Steele.

Corker Vs. Ford, Tennessee

All of the nonsense about the so-called racism of the GOP's hilarious attack ad on Democrat Harold Ford has been a big MacGuffin. Tennessee is a reliably conservative state, and they'll be sending Bob Corker to the Senate, regardless of the polls and how the media chooses to interpret them.

In summation, although recent events in the George Allen campaign have forced me to back off of my prediction that Allen would be the GOP's man in '08, I'm sticking with my prediction of a House/Senate split between the Republicans and the Democrats. I still think the Democrats will pick up the house and that the Republicans will narrowly retain the Senate.

I can only hope that the Republican party reenergizes the base between now and the next Presidential election. Between the Dubai Port Authority incident, the perception that the Bush White House is soft on illegals, the way Dubya has spent money like crazy and allowed the federal government to grow like kudzu, and the administration's stubborn refusal to keep America updated on the war in Iraq, conservative enthusiasm seems to be really low right now.

This needs to change.

Weird Science

I'm glad to see that modern science is starting to catch up with theology… even if it is drawing all the wrong conclusions from shared observations.

This is from an article about the basic human understanding of right and wrong. I read it in our local paper today:

Marc D. Hauser, a Harvard biologist, (proposes) that people are born with a moral grammar wired into their neural circuits by evolution. In a new book, Moral Minds (HarperCollins 2006), he argues that the grammar generates instant moral judgments which, in part because of the quick decisions that must be made in life-or-death situations, are inaccessible to the conscious mind…

The moral grammar too, in Dr. Hauser's view, is a system for generating moral behavior and not a list of specific rules. It constrains human behavior so tightly that many rules are in fact the same or very similar in every society do as you would be done by; care for children and the weak; dont kill; avoid adultery and incest; dont cheat, steal or lie…

The moral grammar now universal among people presumably evolved to its final shape during the hunter-gatherer phase of the human past, before the dispersal from the ancestral homeland in northeast Africa some 50,000 years ago. This may be why events before our eyes carry far greater moral weight than happenings far away, Dr. Hauser believes, since in those days one never had to care about people remote from ones environment.

This is all very amusing to anyone who's read C.S. Lewis. What Dr. Hauser (working with Noam Chomsky) is calling "moral grammar" is the same thing that C.S. Lewis called "natural law" in Mere Christianity. In that book, Lewis basically argues that God had hard-wired us with an understanding of right and wrong as an essential element of our very nature. It's intrinsic and elemental, it's our most basic tie to God and it's there from the moment of our conception. We don't need to learn it, it's already there; it's God's thumbprint upon each of us and links us all with Him and with each other.

Or, put more succinctly, as Paul wrote to the Romans:

All who sin outside the law will also perish without reference to it, and all who sin under the law will be judged in accordance with it. For it is not those who hear the law who are just in the sight of God; rather, those who observe the law will be justified. For when the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature observe the prescriptions of the law, they are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even defend them.

To Paul, and to C.S. Lewis, the law written on our hearts is evidence of the will of God. Of course, Paul and Lewis were theologians. It was easy for them to make the connection between the creation and the creator. It never occurred to them to conclude that the presence of a blueprint indicates the absence of a designer. To get to that conclusion, mankind had to wait for Marc Hauser and Noam Chomsky. ;)

Elsewhere

I picked up a great bumper sticker today at the Hidden Blog:

There's a compelling item about the Ted Haggard story at The Cafeteria Is Closed. I don't know what to add beyond what you've already read, other than to say that we should all remember the Haggards and the New Life Church in our prayers. They're going through a terrible, painful time and they have a long road back ahead of them.

The abortionists are getting more and more blatant about their agenda all the time:

One of Britain's leading medical colleges is calling on the health profession to consider permitting the euthanasia of seriously disabled newborn babies.

The proposal by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology is a response to the number of such children surviving because of medical advances.

The college is arguing that "active euthanasia" should be considered for the overall good of families, and to to spare parents the emotional burden and financial hardship of bringing up the hardest-hit babies.

"A very disabled child can mean a disabled family," the doctors say.

"If life-shortening and deliberate interventions to kill infants were available, they might have an impact on obstetric decision-making, even preventing some late abortions, as some parents would be more confident about continuing a pregnancy and taking a risk on outcome."

Nobody can be surprised by this… let people kill their children as a matter of convenience while they're in the womb and it's only a matter of time until they'll want to kill them as a matter of convenience once they're out of the womb. Hat tip to the American Papist.

Rhodester

Sims

Permalink -- Posted by Darrell at 19:09

Comments:

I shall be out at the polls at 7:00 AM tomorrow casting my vote for Santorum! I expect a similar comittment from you re: George Allen.

# posted by

The Unseen One : 8:48 PM

Hey, I stuffed envelopes for Santorum. There's not much more I can do now, except for vote.

So, just two months ago, I re-read Mere Christianity. Before I even GOT to that part of your post, I was thinking, "Hey, this sounds remarkably like a secular plagiarism of good old C.S." Maybe I didn't actually think the "good old" part, but the sentiment was there.

# posted by

Kristine : 1:31 AM

Maggie's taking her first stroller ride today with me over to the polls. Should be thrilling for her to see me pull that Santorum lever. :-)

I hope Allen and Santorum both manage victories, but I'm also feeling pretty pessimistic.

# posted by

Kelly : 9:48 AM

I'd vote for Santorum if I could. I did my part here in Florida. Don't despair. The day may provide some surprises.

# posted by

cube : 11:24 AM

I went at 7:10 AM this morning and cast my vote for Santorum / Hart / Swann. The old women that work the polls were complaining about the "high Republican voter turnout so far." This may not mean anything, as I live in a precinct filled with old people, and here, Republicans tend to vote early, then again after 5. Democrats vote steadily all day. Plus it is supposed to rain today, so that benefits Republicans also.

# posted by

The Unseen One : 1:26 PM