The Bosque Boys

I have problems with Keith Ellison, but they are unrelated to his plans to take the oath of office on a Quran. See Powerline and look for all the posts in the archives on Ellison and you'll understand my discomfort with him.

A bit of perspective on swearing-in on Bibles from the Pew Forum. According to this article, Ellison will not be the first to forgo a Bible for his swearing-in. John Quincy Adams used a "law volume," and Theodore Roosevelt used no Bible in his first swearing-in.

Swearing on a Bible is a time-honored custom, but I think that reasonable people can have objections.

My bad. I did not reason this issue all the way through. Ellison will become a member of the House. Those folks (see the linked article) do a mass swearing in without any Holy Book. They have an option to stage a "swearing-in" later that is merely a photo-op with the flag, Bible, etc. Ellison will not be sworn in with his hand on the Quran. He'll have his after-the-fact photo-op with a Quran. Sorry, busy busy week.

The Mainstream Media is failing in Iraq. And its failure is having serious consequences here at home. The Democracy Project has a discussion plus a partial listing of bogus stories reported by the MSM. A big problem is the reliance on local stringers, some of whom turn out to be associated with anti-coalition forces.

Flopping Aces has been doing good work exposing false reports out of Iraq. Here

Tony Snow is a nice guy, but I wish he or a subordinate would hit the MSM hard and consistently on this issue.

I turned 16 in 1972. Although growing up in a rural area far from cities, I had a sense that America was coming apart at the seams culturally. Also, as I grew closer to 18, I assumed that Vietnam and the draft somehow were in my future. I observed the '72 election closely, and favored Nixon over McGovern. Nixon, it seemed to me, represented the people I knew, rather than the strange goings-on I saw on television. And, I trusted Nixon to bring an honorable conclusion to the Vietnam War, rather than the retreat I imagined McGovern would bring about.

I was still too naive then. I knew we had local government corruption, which my outspoken and plainspoken grandfather railed against. But, somehow I thought of the men in Washington as made of different stuff, as statesmen. The last couple of years of high school were disillusioning because of Watergate. I was not too confident about the American future.

In 1974 Nixon resigned, and Gerald Ford became president. He helped my view of things by being who he was--an open, honest man. Ford was the Un-Nixon, what you saw was what you got. Because of his leadership, including his humility and obvious sanity, I regained some confidence. Thank you Mr. Ford.

Ford recently became our oldest living ex-president. Here is a great tribute to him written by Gleaves Whitney in National Review.

A Waco Farmer mentioned in a previous post that several faculty in his building has posted signs reading "Happy Days Are Here Again." I worked out of that building for several years and can guess whose offices he means.

The Bush is bad and evil and stupid, and Republicans are bad people, and Rush is a big fat idiot cartoons and postings on the bulletin boards outside these faculty offices always bothered me. Students of all political persuasions had to pass this material on the way into those teachers' offices. I suspect that conservative students felt unwelcome and on the defensive when entering those spaces. This is not right.

My own view is that a faculty office is not personal, private space in the same way a home is. It is a space provided by the institution to facilitate the education of the students: a semi-public space. My political views are known through this blog, which I have yet to mention to my students whom I now teach online. When I did face-to-face education and had an office on campus, I kept a politically and religiously neutral office and bulletin board. I wanted all students to be equally at ease; plus, the taxpayers of the state of Texas were not paying me to do political indoctrination.

Fly the flag. Attend a ceremony honoring veterans. And read this article on the latest Medal of Honor winner.

Thank you to all our veterans.

Once again we learn what liberals really think of democracy. A sufficient number of voters in Massachusetts signed petitions to begin the process of amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. By Massachussetts law, the legislature is now to meet in Constitutional Session to vote up-or-down on the initiative. If 1/4 of the legislature votes in favor of the petition, then the process moves on to step three. But, the leadership of the legislature is trying to delay a vote in order to avoid passage. Story here from the Boston Globe. Background from Wizbang (warning, strong language).

Liberal's Slogan: We Know Better Than You. So sit down, shut up, and let us build our ideal secular state.

Somewhere the ghosts of John and Samuel Adams are restless. Bostonians, how about another Revolution.

Some preliminary findings are in from Tuesday's election on religion and voting patterns. It looks like evangelicals stayed with the Republicans, while Democrats were able to pick up votes among Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants. From the NYT here.

Victor Davis Hanson has, as usual, wise words for today, if not exactly encouraging words.

A week ago or so I posted on the ruling by the New York Transit Authority that "transgendered" men had a right to use the Women's Restrooms. At that time, I commented on this ruling in terms of our evolving definition of the individual, including our relation to our bodies.

Today I want to revisit this ruling in terms of Rights.

The NTA ruling makes sense if one considers the "rights" of the autonomous individual to be absolute, surpassing all other considerations, and ordered toward "freedom;" "freedom" being understood as the complete liberation of the individual from any and all sorts of constraint; the individual defined almost exclusively in terms of will.

One could be tempted to reply to this ruling in terms of the same understanding of rights, arguing that the women in the restroom have a right to perform private bodily functions away from biological men, if they choose. But, I want to move to a deeper level, to consider the notion of rights. (continued below)

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Frank Warner observes the eighth anniversary of the Iraq Liberation Act. Here. Hat tip Instapundit.

This is one piece of Clinton adminstration legislation that Democrat candidates will not be talking much about today. Here is a portion from Warner's post.

At the heart of the Iraq Liberation Act, it said:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘Iraq Liberation Act of 1998.’

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

The Congress makes the following findings:

(1) On September 22, 1980, Iraq invaded Iran, starting an 8 year war in which Iraq employed chemical weapons against Iranian troops and ballistic missiles against Iranian cities.

(2) In February 1988, Iraq forcibly relocated Kurdish civilians from their home villages in the Anfal campaign, killing an estimated 50,000 to 180,000 Kurds.

(3) On March 16, 1988, Iraq used chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurdish civilian opponents in the town of Halabja, killing an estimated 5,000 Kurds and causing numerous birth defects that affect the town today.

(4) On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded and began a 7 month occupation of Kuwait, killing and committing numerous abuses against Kuwaiti civilians, and setting Kuwait’s oil wells ablaze upon retreat.

Here is a link to the full-text of the law (pdf).

Boy would I love to see the MSM asking Dems about this Act today, but, it also would be interesting to see pigs flying.