Because most philosophies that frown on reproduction don't survive.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Six Degrees of the Campaign Trail

My 17-year-old sister Anna played hooky from school on Tuesday and headed up to Lebanon, OH to go to a McCain/Palin rally. She and her friends were able to get fairly close to the stage, and she tells me that John McCain looks much younger in person than on camera, and that he spoke well. As Sarah Palin passed through the crowd afterwards, Anna called out something to the effect of, "Stand up for life, Governor Palin! We're counting on you!" She said that Sarah Palin seemed pleased and surprised, made eye contact and greeted her, and gave her an autograph. Here's a picture (the curly head in front belongs to Anna):


First Dude is lookin' pretty fine as well.

(Don't be jealous, but I can also connect myself to Kevin Bacon in less than six degrees.)

4 comments:

TS said...

Oh drats! I've been wanting to see Sarah in person and shake her hand if possible, and here she was in my neck of the woods, more or less.

My wife has also made similar mention of the first dude's looks.

Anonymous said...

Sarah Palin is not a pro life candidate she believes in the death penalty - against the express teaching of the Church

Anonymous said...

Oh, but the death penalty doesn't matter because criminals are evil and babies are good. Oh wait...

I'm also impressed that "McCain looks younger in real life." The sad fact of the matter is that if the man becomes president, he won't survive 8 years. We'll be lucky if he makes it through 4. I like the fact that some of his supporters are bothered enough by this to project some extra youth onto him. Of course, this won't inspire anyone not to vote for him -- even Catholics, who shouldn't be especially enthusiastic about voting for war mongers who oppose abortion in word but not action, will do nothing to end or even mitigate capital punishment, support virtually unregulated embryonic stem cell research, refuse to take human life seriously (though of course taking American life seriously is an important rhetorical strategy), and think that the government's only legitimate role is defense. Anybody who pays any attention to the teachings of the Catholic Church ought to be at least equally troubled by McCain-Palin as by Obama-Biden. Of course, if you'd be honest enough to admit that it's your conservatism and not your Catholicism that makes you softer on war, the death penalty, and social welfare institutions than most progressive Catholics are on artificial birth control, then maybe things could get rolling. On the off chance that you haven't realized that the two don't necessarily go together, you might remember that the vast majority of non-American Catholics are not political conservatives by American standards, and that the vast majority of American Catholics were not either until Roe v. Wade convinced us that nothing else matters except reinstating largely ineffectual laws.

But anyway...

Darwin said...

I'm amused by the repeated, snide, anonymous comments...

Anybody who pays any attention to the teachings of the Catholic Church ought to be at least equally troubled by McCain-Palin as by Obama-Biden.

I would certainly not say that as a Catholic one must prefer McCain-Palin over Obama-Biden, but I am fully prepared to agree with prelates such as Abp. Burke and Abp. Chaput in regards to the much more extensive difficulties with Obama's absolutely unlimited support for abortion. Issues such as the Iraq war and capital punishment are not anywhere on the same scale -- in the case of the war because there it is a matter of judgment whether it failed to meet just war standards (I would tend to say that it did -- though I take seriously the fact that majority of the bishops and the current and previous pope judged differently) and in the case of capital punishment because it is not always and everywhere wrong, but rather only wrong when it is used unnecessarily.

In regards to ESCR, McCain's position is bad, but not nearly as bad as Obama's, in that Obama support the creation of unlimited numbers of embryos for such purposes via cloning (though he and other supporters try to avoid using the word "cloning") while McCain endorses the still unacceptable but ultimately inherently dead end strategy of using "discarded" embryos produced for in vitro fertilization.

As for being a conservative -- I make no bones about the fact I am a principled conservative. Were I instead a principled progressive I would find myself without any candidate I could in good conscience support -- because to my mind Obama's policies really are far too monstrous when it comes to abortion, same sex marriage, and other moral issues for me to ever support.