As usual, the Democrats were apparently told there would be none.
Just add the stadium fiasco (from the very beginning — Bank of America Stadium? Really?) to the list of this week’s convention disasters.
The DNC Got All Biblical Yesterday
…and didn’t even know it.
That’s what happens when you substitute a political ideology for religion.
Ah, well. As the Anchoress says, Peter got in, so maybe there’s hope for them yet.
[Update a few minutes later]
…it’s not a matter of one word more or less, one or more mentions of God. The real heart of the issue is that most of the people in that hall, in the Democratic convention, really don’t accept the understanding of rights contained in the Declaration of Independence: The Declaration appealed first to “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” as the very ground of our natural rights. The drafters declared that “self-evident” truth that “all men are created equal,” and then immediately: that “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” George Bush was not embarrassed to insist that these are “God-given rights,” as opposed to rights that we had merely given to ourselves. For if we had given them to ourselves, we could as readily take them back or remove them. Newt Gingrich made this point during the primaries; it’s not as though the point were so esoteric as to seem mystical or somehow remote from the understanding of ordinary folks. And Paul Ryan touched on this understanding of natural rights during his own speech at the convention. He could surely respond even now by putting the question to Obama and the Democrats, and putting it in the terms of a dare and wager: If we took a survey on this matter, we bet that about 70–80 percent or more of the delegates at the Democratic convention would be too embarrassed to say that these rights were given to us by our Creator, the Author of those Laws of Nature. And we could bet that, in contrast, about 80 percent of the delegates at the Republican convention would assent to that proposition without a trace of hesitation. Why not put the question so that the heart of the matter does not fade?
I would say that I do believe in natural rights, but I don’t need to believe in God for that, any more than I need a god to provide gravity. But when people like Touré Neblett deny natural rights, they might want to consider this:
…his is not an isolated view; it is/was shared by a number of world figures: Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Amin — just to name a few. So take heart, Touré, you’re not alone.
Sadly true.
Unsure Robots
…make better teachers than know-alls.
This doesn’t surprise me at all. I’ve always found that the best way to learn a subject is to teach it to someone else.
The Housing Bubble
Bill Clinton helped build that.
Yes. That needs to be part of the critique of the Romney administration.
That “You Belong To The Government” Video
…was no gaffe:
Later this summer, Obama notoriously argued that government created the environment for success through infrastructure spending. “If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that,” Obama told a crowd in Oakland. Obama later claimed he meant that businesses didn’t build the infrastructure that allowed them to be successful, and that government deserves the credit. But where did government get the capital to build the infrastructure in the first place? From the successful businesses that produced that capital, not from the Progressive Sunshine Forest.
The reference to churches in the video is another interesting point, although not one that Democrats want voters to notice. This administration imposed a mandate on employers to provide free birth control and sterilization to employees, even those employers whose religious values prohibit them from facilitating such access. Explicitly religious organizations such as schools, health care providers, and charities did not get an exemption, either. The message was very similar to what the video argued: you can join a church, but you belong to the government.
Yup.
Burial At Sea?
That’s the rumor about the disposition of Lt. JG Armstrong’s earthly remains.
I think it would be more appropriate to inter him on the moon, but that’s still a little pricey right now.
The False Narrative Of The Obama Campaign
My thoughts on what the Romney campaign should do to combat Democrat lies about the economy in the last weeks of the election.
The Dutch Slave Owners
These people shouldn’t be allowed to vote, let alone to vote on legislation. If I lived in her district, it would be multiple face palms per day.
Ted Strickland
…and economic patriotism. As Kevin points out, another name for “economic patriotism” is fascism. But these clowns are so historically unaware that they have no idea how they come off those those who do understand both economics and history.
A Not-So-Green Space Program
When I first heard that Los Angeles had won the competition to house an orbiter at the science museum on Exposition Boulevard, I scratched my head, trying to imagine how they were going to get it there. At the Space Technology Expo, the museum had a booth, and I asked the young lady working there. “Oh, we’re still working it out.”
[shocked voice] “You didn’t have to submit a plan with the proposal?”
“No, not a detailed one.”
At the SpaceUp LA a couple weeks ago, we saw a description of the plan, using a very precision crawler, in which it was noted that a “few” trees might have to be removed.
Well, “a few” has turned into four hundred mature trees, and the locals, justifiably, aren’t happy about it. I wonder how much support the project would have gotten if they’d known this up front?
Anyway, one of the amusing things about the LA Times piece is the technical ignorance on display:
Several alternatives for the Oct. 12 move were considered but ultimately discarded.
Taking the massive shuttle apart would have damaged the delicate tiles that acted as heat sensors.
Ummmm…no.
The tiles are not “heat sensors.” They are heat protectors, insulating the vehicle from the hot plasma of entry. The heat must be shielded against, not just “sensed.”