gdp's Comments

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Ministering to gays

Tue, 5 May 2009 05:55:12 +0000

Frank, you and I have had this conversation before. I agree that it is the act of homosexuality, and not the status of being a homosexual, which is the sin. I think I parsed that correctly in my comment, and I stand by it, with the exception that I would change "a homosexual" in line 1 to "an active homosexual".

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Environmentalists' new language games

Mon, 4 May 2009 21:53:25 +0000

I believe I said I respect him. I didn't say I listened to him. At least he appears to actually believe the environmental tripe he espouses.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Environmentalists' new language games

Mon, 4 May 2009 21:52:08 +0000

tODD, the point of the post was messaging and image of the environmental movement, not the science. Whether you like it or not, the environmental movement trades on celebrity publicity as a way of reaching the public. You may not care, but the enviros do. They threw the science out the window a long time ago, anyway. I completely agree with you. I don't care about celebrities, and I oppose the current environemental movement because the science is unproven, and it is really a political power play. So, all I am saying is that if you are going to use celebrities to promote your causes, including Al Gore, you had better keep them on message, and impress upon them the importance of consistency As for Bush, last I checked he isn't president, so how is he relevant? No one seriously took him for an environmentalist, and his "addiction to oil" statement was clearly a political sop, and more of a statement about addiction to foreign oil than anything else.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Environmentalists' new language games

Mon, 4 May 2009 21:46:31 +0000

Nope, can't see it ... Guess I'm just thick-headed, but it seems to me that an administration has the right to identify its policies using language. And "War on Terror" is a lot more descriptive than "Overseas Contingency Operations".

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Environmentalists' new language games

Mon, 4 May 2009 21:13:37 +0000

The lone exception to the above point, of course, is Ed Begley, Jr. He actually practices what he preaches, and I greatly respect him for it.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Environmentalists' new language games

Mon, 4 May 2009 21:11:10 +0000

And, by the way, I noticed you didn't have anything to say about the 1988 senate hearing. The environmental movement has a long history of attempting to manipulate the public. Which explains why it is given so little credibility today.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Environmentalists' new language games

Mon, 4 May 2009 21:08:52 +0000

So, tODD, do you disagree with the point? Do you think it is cool to fly a 747 4000 miles to plant a tree? Do you think that signals an impending crisis to the population? Do you think it is cool for celebrities to jet off to an environmental conference at luxury digs in the south pacific? Why should people be willing to make personal sacrifices to respond to an alleged crisis when the elites pushing the "crisis" meme are not making any apparent sacrifice whatsoever? Do you think that makes sense? Gore or no Gore, the environmental movement suffers from an elitist mentality. The message is that the peasants need to sacrifice, reducing their gasoline consumption, paying more for electricity, etc., while the elites continue their energy hog ways, purchasing the occasional indulgence (I think they call them "carbon credits") as justification. Turning it into a "but Bush was also a hypocrite" argument doesn't change anything. It just indicates that you have nothing substantive to say on the issue.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Environmentalists' new language games

Mon, 4 May 2009 21:00:30 +0000

These are "word games"? You are really reaching today, tODD. So, the Bush administration wasn't allowed to use language to describe their policies? What I thought you meant by "word games" was the cynical "marketing" approach being used by the environmental movement, changing language mid-argument in an attempt to appeal to emotional response and to change the dialogue.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Environmentalists' new language games

Mon, 4 May 2009 20:57:37 +0000

tODD, read your own post: "This can be seen when, any time Al Gore speaks somewhere and it snows, several thousand yahoos post something on their blog about how a snowy March day clearly fly in the face of global warming". YOU MENTIONED HIM. Sheesh.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Ministering to gays

Mon, 4 May 2009 18:17:57 +0000

"If someone was to admit to being a homosexual or if someone who struggles with homosexuality were to begin attending the church they would ostracize this person" -- this statement, from the original post, is wrong. We all struggle with sin, and the church needs to be opened to all of us. It is our accountability to the Body of Christ which enables us, in His grace, to overcome the flesh. Ryan, in an above post, is right that sexual sins are different than other sins, because, as Paul says, they are sins against our own body. Giving ourselves over to sexual lusts and thoughts entangles us ever deeper, the more we do so. But how many Christians sit in our pews each Sunday who are living with their girlfriend/boyfriend, enslaved by pornography, or otherwise sexually addicted, either as a hetero or homosexual? These are all sins equal in God's eyes. We don't much practice Biblical church discipline anymore, to our detriment, but the key is the struggle. Those believers who desire to overcome their sin, regardless of its nature, should be welcome in the body, and those who love their sin, after going through a process of church discipline, should not be welcome. No matter the sin.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Environmentalists' new language games

Mon, 4 May 2009 16:44:19 +0000

The environmental movement would do a lot better if it tried harder to constrain its own advocates, rather than worrying about wordsmithing. Obama flying 4,000 miles in a 747 to plant a tree on Earth Day is not smart. Gore is a huge energy hog. Environmental conferences held on remote islands, with the attendees all arriving by private jet. Celebrities going on "environmental tours" with entourages that would put the Queen of Sheba to shame. The message is your actions, not your words. Show by your actions that you think we are in genuine crisis and people will respond. But right now, they're laughing.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Environmentalists' new language games

Mon, 4 May 2009 16:38:02 +0000

"global warming" -- no evidence of any in the past 10 plus years. "carbon dioxide" -- not a pollutant, by any reasonable definition. People understand old fashioned pollution that they can see and that they are forced to breathe. But when folks are struggling to put food on the table, and are finally recognizing that this "global warming" movement is really an attack on western civilization and will necessarily severely reduce economic productivity, they are not buying.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Environmentalists' new language games

Mon, 4 May 2009 16:33:47 +0000

And tODD, what "word games" did Bush engage in "all sorts of"?

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Environmentalists' new language games

Mon, 4 May 2009 16:30:38 +0000

tODD, I'm sure there are plenty of "yahoos" who think every hot day is evidence of global warming and every cold day is evidence that there is no warming. But the deal with Al Gore's poor scheduling habits lately, wherein he seems to always be giving his apocalyptic global warming speeches on unusually cold days is delicious irony. If you don't remember, he started this whole "global warming" craze back in 1988 by scheduling a senate hearing on global warming on the historically hottest day of the year (they actually researched that). Then, they opened the windows the night before to ensure that all of that hot air was in the room and made sure that the air conditioning wasn't working during the hearing. Made for nice "sweat" pictures on the evening news as Hansen delivered his alarmist message. Here's a link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hotpoliti...

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Air Force One's joyride

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:58:27 +0000

Well now, getting back to the topic at hand, we will never know what President Obama knew about this incident, but the point Dr. Veith makes is well taken. Government power is absolute. Everything the government does is accomplished by force (euphemistically, "regulation"), and those subject to "regulation" have no option but to comply. Thus, the bigger government is, the fewer liberties the citizens enjoy. Government employees become used to operating in this world, and become used to the exercise of authority. Couple this with the labor protections afforded to civil servants and there is not a lot of accountability when events like this happen. Unfortunately, this is the environment in which it appears we will soon be receiving our health care.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Publicizing torture

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:26:08 +0000

I am exiting the subthreads as well, because half of the time various comments seem to disappear and reappear. Frank, in general response to you, your assertions that the law is unequivocal that waterboarding is torture are nuts. The things you are citing are nowhere near specific condemnations of waterboarding under all circumstances. Any prosecution of officials based on this policy, especially since both parties were involved and approved the tactics, would be very detrimental to the country. That is all I am saying. Your assertion concerning Clinton is irrelevant. First, I actually did oppose the impeachment of Clinton. I thought it was a silly waste of time, and a political loser for Republicans. But, that being said, in that case there was a specific felony by a sitting president, which was indisputable. Not so in the present case. If we want to clarify policy for the future, I'm all for it. We should do that, using the political process. But the idea of engaging in a politically-motivated prosecution to score political points for Democrats is not healthful for our nation.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Publicizing torture

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:47:13 +0000

Wow, the comment thread this relates to seems to have disappeared from the site right now. Anyway, Frank, I went back through those footnotes (they appear to source statements made by John McCain and Paul Begala regarding the Tokyo War Crimes trials held in 1946-48). Here is a link to an account of those trials, and the outcomes: http://www.cnd.org/mirror/nanjing/NMTT.html /> There is nothing in that account about so-called \"water cure\" charges. I won't at this point dispute that they were made. I doubt, however, that they were the sole charges made against any particular person charged. Also, I don't dispute that we would still bring charges against anyone waterboarding our properly uniformed soldiers. That is clearly inhumane treatment under the Geneva Convention, with respect to properly uniformed POW's of fellow signatory nations.

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Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Publicizing torture

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:53:51 +0000

(cont'd) It is best for everyone concerned to move on. Make whatever policy changes you want, but don't look back and apply today's standards to yesterday's activities. Even liberal lawyers recognize, and have stated, that a successful prosecution cannot result. We don't need more political theater. Obama ran on the notion of healing the country -- this kind of move is not healing and its not bipartisan.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Publicizing torture

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:53:22 +0000

Frank, I agree with you that if Obama or Bush or any president committed a felony in office they should be prosecuted. Nixon was on the verge of that when he resigned, and Clinton was prosecuted for the felony of perjury. Presidents are not above the law. But here, we are talking about political policy which both parties signed onto, during a period of great turmoil and fear about terrorism within our borders. Despite your pronouncements, waterboarding is not specifically prohibited under either international or national law (at least prior to the 2006 statutes, which I have not closely reviewed). It's just not. The mental torture provisions specify a period of long duration -- waterboarding is a matter of a few seconds. Also, many of the treaty provisions do not apply to stateless terrorists, but rather only to legally constituted combatants. (cont'd below)

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Publicizing torture

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:17:48 +0000

Regardless of what anyone today thinks about waterboarding, the idea of going back on a witch hunt and prosecuting Bush administration officials, CIA interrogators, etc. for what was done years ago is nuts. First, officials of both parties and in both the executive and legislative branches at that time acquiesced to waterboarding, including Nancy Pelosi. Of course, she conveniently forgets her attendance at those meetings where she was informed of the waterboarding tactics now that the political winds have shifted. Second, what a horrible precedent to set. One of the great things about America is the peaceful seamless transition of government from one administration to the next, even when power shifts between political parties. For what reason would we want to jeopardize the historic cooperation outgoing administrations give to incoming ones? What goes around comes around. Does Obama want this kind of scrutiny on every political decision he made after he leaves office? No one should be in favor of this kind of ridiculous, vindictive talk respective to legitimate political policy decisions.