Tag: News, Politics, Events

Frontline on Dubya

I watched PBS’s Frontline and its hour long discussion of the faith of George W. Bush, “The Jesus Factor”, this evening and was struck by one passage about the transformation of themes in the speeches of Bush after 9/11.

I generally follow the arguments of evangelicals and believe much the same principles but end up often with different outcomes. This sometime bothers me but questioning the insertion of faith based language and imagery into the political realm does not.  Due to the facts of history and culture, the words of the Bible are some of the most familiar and evocative in English language moral discussion and discussions of justice. These are, however, analogies to one specific reality – being the reality understood by persons of faith within the Christian context. When the words get transferred into the civil context, when scripture is used to describe western culture, democracy or individual experience in themselves, the basis in the context of faith is left behind.

Those unfamiliar with the analogies being made can get caught up by the familiar and persuasive words without the necessity of the reality those words describe. Christianity, for example, never required or promised individual liberty in that it equally and, often, florished more in slavery or imprisonment – consider Onesimus, Boethius or any number of more recent acts of saintliness of the unfree. When, however, the “light to the world” becomes related to freedom rather than faith, a phrase used as an example in the Frontline broadcast, the context is broken and the aim of the persuasion doubtful.  What is not, however, doubtful is the compelling nature of the persuasion and how it becomes useful as a buttress for just about anything.

One other point I noted was the efforts of the Bush administration to include faith-based organizations in the provision of social services supported by tax dollars. What struck me about this was how common it is in certain contexts – homeless shelters run by the Sally Anne, for example. Would anyone suggest tax dollars should not support their work on the street? No, because the majority – whether faithful or not – support the decency of the effort.

Incomplete Mobius Party

I know I should be paying attention to policies, considering how the Leaders would affect the lived of me and my family if elected, but I just can’t stop thinking about the new Tory logo, which is a möbius strip…but one which is not quite formed.

What can it mean?

  • We are almost to the point of leaving no matter hidden?
  • We will cut the shackles of intrusive government?
  • Our logo guy eats Tim Horton’s orange twists as he doodles?

So How Easy Is It?

So Bruce Wark of Halifax’s The
Coast has taken the time, as journalists can, to gently lead a new story
into the world of my reading – apparently,
the little tiny Greens are having a little tiny crisis:

a former Green Party leader named Joan Russow and three
high-profile colleagues had quit the Greens to join the NDP. Russow’s three
colleagues sent blistering, bellicose letters to party members last October
explaining why they were quitting. They accused the new Green Party leader, Jim
Harris, of acting like a dictator.

Over a phone line from Toronto, Jim Harris tells me he was elected Green
Party leader just over a year ago. He says the high-profile resignations were
“strictly a personality conflict” adding, “the people who quit the party were
involved in obstructionism.” Harris acknowledges he was once a Tory worried
about government deficits until he realized in the 1980s that the planet was
carrying a crushing ecological debt with more species going extinct every hour.
“So I shifted from being a fiscal conservative to being an ecological one.” When
asked about his political philosophy, he says the terms “right” and “left” are
irrelevant. “We say we are fiscally responsible, socially progressive and
committed to environmental sustainability.” Harris is a 43-year-old motivational
speaker who conducts seminars and writes books to help business leaders focus on
change, “innovation” and “creating learning institutions.” He co-authored The
100 Best Companies to Work for in Canada—a bestseller that sold over 50,000
copies.

Holy scratchy face tree huggers, Batman. Doesn’t sound
like the drum beaters I voted for in the last Federal and Provincial elections.

This is going to make me have a good hard think over my next camomile tea.

Listening to George

I am listening to George Bush right now during the live speech part of tonight’s presentation and I can’t shake how similar it is to listening to the English lyrics sung by Swedish pop bands like ABBA or Ace of Bass. It is not what he is saying (I don’t care much about debating that) but how he says it: slightly disjointed sentences one following another, within each sentence cliché and familiar word groupings. But no flow…so what comes across to me is grip rather than comfort. But when he starts answering questions his accent reappears, the cadance reappears.

Who was the best public speaker you have heard, the best speech written? What would Trudeau be saying – “just watch me”. Thatcher would be scary, Old Testament. Ronnie Ray Gun would say “weeeell” too often with that little head shake.

Decision Making

The following passage is from today’s The New York Times article
(perhaps needing password) summing up the
9/11 commission hearings of the last few days:

Whatever the missteps of the government in the
months and years before the attacks, there was always a lonely chorus of
experts, mostly at lower levels of the intelligence community, warning that the
worst could really happen, even if they did not know how, where or
when.

It may be that whatever ideology of the persons doing the
governing, rather than the volume of the information, it is the distance between
the person informed and the decision-maker that is the critical weakness. A
failure of hierarchy.