Tuesday, July 27, 2004
We completed Chapter 2 last night in RCIA instead of moving on to Chapter 3. We discussed St. Thomas Aquinas and how he described the characteristics of God.
I haven't seen Al Gore's or Jimmy Carter's speeches from last night, but I did watch Bill Clinton's. Really, really a great speech. The way he framed the speech around John Kerry's swift boat duty, the imagery of the next president being the commander of a boat, guiding the country, the "send me" theme. If the speech had been all that, I would have no problem, but it wasn't all that. ex-Pres Clinton also spend quite a bit of his speech comparing and contrasting Democrat solutions with Republican solutions by putting a soft, glowing light on Democrat ideas and horrible, unChristian spin on Republicans. An example is below, but read the speech for many more.
We Americans must choose for President one of two strong men who both love our country, but who have very different worldviews: Democrats favor shared responsibility, shared opportunity, and more global cooperation. Republicans favor concentrated wealth and power, leaving people to fend for themselves and more unilateral action. I think we’re right for two reasons: First, America works better when all people have a chance to live their dreams. Second, we live in an interdependent world in which we can’t kill, jail, or occupy all our potential adversaries, so we have to both fight terror and build a world with more partners and fewer terrorists. We tried it their way for twelve years, our way for eight, and then their way for four more.
If we notice Clinton shaping the truth to make Republicans out to be people who seek to enrich the rich, go it alone in the war against terror and leave the poor and weak to fend for themselves, then must he not also be shaping the truth about his praise for John Kerry? If President Clinton says that I, as a Republican, desire poor children to go without their food and education, which I know is a lie, what am I to believe about his statements about John Kerry's character? If President Clinton says that I, as a Republican, desire veterans to be without healthcare, what am I to believe about his statements about John Edwards? Just how much affect do statements of support for someone have when they are sprinkled among lies about others. Am I supposed to ignore what actually happened in the lead up to war with Iraq and thus also ignore John Kerry's Senate votes? Are we to forget Clinton's rhetoric about regime change and WMD's in Iraq when HE was president? Are we to forget John Kerry and John Edward's conflicting positions on Iraq when Howard Dean was just a gleam in Michael Moore's eye? Are we to forget Saddam's attacks on our planes while we enforced the no-fly zone? Post 9/11 are we to assume that a Democrat president would have let Saddam continue to flount the U.N. and the peace agreements and continue to fire at our airmen? Oh, all the arguments are tiresome.
Anyway, that was my take.
I haven't seen Al Gore's or Jimmy Carter's speeches from last night, but I did watch Bill Clinton's. Really, really a great speech. The way he framed the speech around John Kerry's swift boat duty, the imagery of the next president being the commander of a boat, guiding the country, the "send me" theme. If the speech had been all that, I would have no problem, but it wasn't all that. ex-Pres Clinton also spend quite a bit of his speech comparing and contrasting Democrat solutions with Republican solutions by putting a soft, glowing light on Democrat ideas and horrible, unChristian spin on Republicans. An example is below, but read the speech for many more.
We Americans must choose for President one of two strong men who both love our country, but who have very different worldviews: Democrats favor shared responsibility, shared opportunity, and more global cooperation. Republicans favor concentrated wealth and power, leaving people to fend for themselves and more unilateral action. I think we’re right for two reasons: First, America works better when all people have a chance to live their dreams. Second, we live in an interdependent world in which we can’t kill, jail, or occupy all our potential adversaries, so we have to both fight terror and build a world with more partners and fewer terrorists. We tried it their way for twelve years, our way for eight, and then their way for four more.
If we notice Clinton shaping the truth to make Republicans out to be people who seek to enrich the rich, go it alone in the war against terror and leave the poor and weak to fend for themselves, then must he not also be shaping the truth about his praise for John Kerry? If President Clinton says that I, as a Republican, desire poor children to go without their food and education, which I know is a lie, what am I to believe about his statements about John Kerry's character? If President Clinton says that I, as a Republican, desire veterans to be without healthcare, what am I to believe about his statements about John Edwards? Just how much affect do statements of support for someone have when they are sprinkled among lies about others. Am I supposed to ignore what actually happened in the lead up to war with Iraq and thus also ignore John Kerry's Senate votes? Are we to forget Clinton's rhetoric about regime change and WMD's in Iraq when HE was president? Are we to forget John Kerry and John Edward's conflicting positions on Iraq when Howard Dean was just a gleam in Michael Moore's eye? Are we to forget Saddam's attacks on our planes while we enforced the no-fly zone? Post 9/11 are we to assume that a Democrat president would have let Saddam continue to flount the U.N. and the peace agreements and continue to fire at our airmen? Oh, all the arguments are tiresome.
Anyway, that was my take.
