Sunday, February 16, 2003

But Hey, the Trains Ran on Time Found on Daily Kos I wish I had known this when I wrote the below post about John Ashcroft. Apparently the DOJ filed an amicus brief in support of New York's ban on anti-war protests. In support. The DOJ backed an attempt to stop anti-war protesters from marching. You have to have order to have liberty. But it has to be John Ashcroft's idea of order. And the liberty must be approved by the government in advance. At some point, I'm going to spot being surprised by what the Bush administration does. 7:16:02 PM    comment []trackback []

More Good News From the religion section of Saturday's Toledo Blade. As war looms, Bush sounding more religious Is President Bush using inappropriately religious language as he talks daily about the possibility of war with Iraq? Some religious leaders say they are uncomfortable with Mr. Bush's increasingly strong religious rhetoric, worried that he is usurping the role of preacher or possibly inciting Islamic fundamentalists with his good-versus-evil talk. Others say such language can be appropriate and that the nation has a long tradition of leaders who used it in their writings and speeches. In two recent speeches, to the National Religious Broadcasters and at the National Prayer Breakfast, Mr. Bush said he welcomes faith to solve the nation's deepest problems and was greeted with "amens." Among the scholars expressing reservations about the President's use of religious language is Elaine Pagels, one of the best known religious scholars in the country. [for some reason, the paragraph identifying Dr. Pagels has been left off of the version of the article posted to the web site, though her quote remains intact] Elaine Pagels, of Princeton University's Department of Religion, argues that Mr. Bush is betraying the religious diversity of the nation when he talks of war in absolutist terms. "He's tried very much to appeal to common values that Christians, Muslims, Jews, and many others would have." "This is not political discourse. This is the language of religious zealots, Christian and Muslim. When he speaks of the 'axis of evil,' he is placing those who disagree with him in the realm of evil." She said that the effect of injecting religion into a debate about war is to halt discourse and shock the other side (Iraqis and North Koreans, for example) into a shouting match about who is more evil. She said that while she believes it is appropriate to label some acts, such as the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as evil, much of the world is appalled by the way Mr. Bush seems to be branding countries and blocks of people as evil. 11:17:12 AM    comment []trackback []

This Will Keep You Up at Night A quote from today's New York Times--States' Rights Take a Back Seat in Ashcroft's Justice Department But Mr. Ashcroft's language also reveals how his personal convictions help inform his thinking about the rule of law. "Order and liberty go together, like love and marriage," he told a group of judges in August. "You can't have one without the other." Whose order? His? Hitler and the Nazis, the facists in Italy and Spain and even Napoleon used similar arguments. 11:00:51 AM    comment []trackback []