Dennis Prager on Wimps Out Morality

Dennis Prager tosses one out,and likely ticks off the Randian sects among us:

In the Judeo-Christian value system, God is the source of moral values and therefore what is moral and immoral transcends personal or societal opinion. Without God, each society or individual makes up its or his/her moral standards. But once individuals or societies become the source of right and wrong, right and wrong, good and evil, are merely adjectives describing one’s preferences. This is known as moral relativism, and it is the dominant attitude toward morality in modern secular society.

Moral relativism means that murder, for example, is not objectively wrong; you may feel it’s wrong, but it is no more objectively wrong than your feeling that some music is awful renders that music objectively awful. It’s all a matter of personal feeling. That is why in secular society people are far more prone to regard moral judgments as merely feelings. Children are increasingly raised to ask the question, “How do you feel about it?” rather than, “Is it right or wrong?”

His logic at that point falls apart, and he tries to go to bat for ‘situational ethics’.

This is a misunderstanding of the meaning of moral absolutes. It means that if an act is good or bad, it is good or bad for everyone in the identical situation (“universal morality”).

But “everyone” is hardly the same as “every situation.” An act that is wrong is wrong for everyone in the same situation, but almost no act is wrong in every situation. Sexual intercourse in marriage is sacred; when violently coerced, it is rape. Truth telling is usually right, but if, during World War II, Nazis asked you where a Jewish family was hiding, telling them the truth would have been evil.

His problem is, he’s not looking at the situation closely enough, for whatever reason. This is where something I’ve said for years applies very well indeed… that being that there are no grey areas…. “no shades of grey… Only black and white spots, some very small indeed. If you’re seeing a ‘shade of grey’ you’re not close enough to your subject to really understand it. Some of the more pixelized situations take some serious consisderation to get through and yet still hold to the foundational, absolute principles… There’s no question it can be hard, but it can be done. This is not situation ethics, but merely understanding the nature of the situation you’re in, and having the courage to apply your foundational morality to it and see that application through… and Prager, sorry to say, wimps out this one.

To his credit, however, he at least comes up with this:

In secular society, where there is no God-based morality, there is no moral truth to pursue. The consequences may be easily seen by observing that the most morally confused institution in America, the university — where good and evil are often either denied or inverted — is also its most secular.

… and, need I say it, it’s also it’s most leftist- driven.

It’s with respect that I note the passing of Col. David H. Hackworth. Military.com has a nice obit.

Dutch national employed as a satellite-imagery analyst with UNMOVIC, the United Nations weapons inspections agency, has been detained, and was questioned. Apparently they’ve released him for the time being.

The New York police and the FBI said the man was not a suspect. Police said he was detained only because he was asked not to cross a police tape and did so anyway. A police official said the man may have been drinking.

CNN has details.

Well, gee….  Wouldn’t that just fit, if he WAS a suspect?

David Limbaugh speaks to a case I’ve been watching for some days now… it being just 90 miles down the road from me here, at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y…. the case of one Scott McConnell.

Scott McConnell’s apparent crime is not liberal lockstepping. For that, he’s been expelled.
No, it’s not his performance… he was puling a 3.75 gpa. He was expelled for his personal beliefs.

Read the link.

Larry Kudlow expands on the debt going away post I put up yesterday…. well… OK, the topic, anyway…. and suggests the reason for it is simple….

… the real story behind the higher tax payment numbers is the successful supply-side experiment that began in the middle of 2003, when investment tax rates were slashed on capital gains and dividends. With new incentives to counter the deflation of investment in 2000-2002, both capital formation and economic growth have come back from the dead over the past 2 years.

Real GDP since the tax cuts has averaged 4.3% at an annual rate, whereas growth was only 2.4% in the anemic recovery preceding the tax cuts. The latest government data on tax collection for calendar 2004 confirms the tax-cut-led recovery through the explosion of high tax collections at lower tax rates. The Laffer curve is working.

With more people keeping more of what they earn and invest, after-tax, a major new economic boom has been launched. Enormous wealth creation from real estate, stocks, and small business creation is the backbone of this entrepreneurial recovery. Despite naysayers in the mainstream media and parts of Wall St., strong economic expansion will continue for many years.

In short, he blames the Bush Tax Cuts.
So do I.

The Scottsman… hardly a right-wing, war-mongering outlet, this… has decded to print the full text of a letter from Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani to English PM Tony Blair.

Here’s the link, but this is important enough, I think, that I’m going to take the unusual step of posting the text of the letter itself here in this blog.

I cannot begin to explain my emotions, after over five decades of personally fighting for and promoting democracy and human rights, to witness a nation take its first steps towards a dream.

Now the democratically elected parliament has honoured me, a Kurd, with the post of Presidency. This is a symbol of the promise, integration and unity of the new Iraq.

Let nobody mislead you, the Iraq that we inherited in April 2003, following the British and American led liberation, was a tragedy. The Ba’athist criminals had starved the country of an infrastructure and the people of their freedom. Apart from the Kurdish safe haven, Iraq was a playground for thugs and a prison for the innocent.

Saddam’s war against the Iraqi people was ongoing; we have evidence which demonstrates that the regime was executing its challengers until the last days of its rule. It was that war, lasting almost forty years, which was the true war of Iraq.

We have all heard of the genocide, gassing, ethnic cleansing, mass murder and the environmental vandalism of the territory of Iraq’s historic Marsh Arabs. We understand that there is no turning the clock back. Instead, we press ahead with democratisation and justice.

Unfortunately, Saddam’s former henchmen, and religious extremist associates have chosen to fight their losing battle, which in turn has made post-liberation Iraq less stable than we would have wished. Yet true Iraqis have largely shunned the terrorists, and their cowardly acts are increasingly becoming limited and confined to certain areas.

Millions of brave Iraqis defy terrorism and reject dictatorship every day, without fuss, and certainly without attention from the television cameras. We undertake to rebuild a shattered country that has been scarred by decades of tyranny. With unwavering resolve we support plurality, egalitarianism, and the political process.

Building a democratic federal Iraq is a difficult, and slow, but rewarding process. Those who doubt the swiftness of transition must keep in mind that a state such as Iraq is a cultural, ethnic and linguistic mosaic that was only ever held together by brute force, thus, political speed can kill.

Nevertheless, January saw Iraq’s first free and open general election, leading to the first democratically elected government of our desolate history. Yet our struggle for a better, emancipated Iraq is only due to the consistent and unwavering support of Prime Minister Blair, the British people, and the coalition of the willing.

For many Iraqis, the positive role that Britain has played is a welcome change. From our colonial master, Britain has become our democratic guardian. In 1991 I saw at first hand how Prime Minister John Major, fresh from the liberation of Kuwait, bravely led the way in implementing a safe-haven for Iraqi Kurdistan.

For 12 years, heroic RAF pilots, with the support of neighbouring Turkey, flew in Kurdish skies to prevent Saddam from completing the anti-Kurdish genocide that he had started in 1987. We were finally able to start rebuilding the 4,500 villages destroyed by Saddam’s regime and to begin the process of nurturing civil society and democracy. And now thanks to Prime Minister Blair’s courageous and principled decisions, we can recreate this throughout Iraq.

Of course the liberation of Iraq has been controversial, as all wars should be. Sadly in this case, war was not the ‘best’ option, it was the only option. Under Saddam, war was never controversial, never discussed, simply ordered and executed by him and his thugs.

Iraqis sometimes wonder in amazement what the debate abroad is about. Why do people continue to ask why no WMD was found? The truth is that Saddam had, in the past, used chemical and biological weapons against his own people, and we believed he would do so again. Of course Saddam himself was, in the view of those who opposed him, Iraq’s most dangerous WMD.

Instead of continually focussing on the negative, the British, who will soon commemorate the 60th anniversary of VE day, should know that in the eyes of the majority of Iraqis, it was you who brought us our own victory day.

Britain should be proud that the liberation of Iraq has in our eyes been one of your finest hours. History will judge Prime Minister Blair as a champion against tyranny. Of that I have no doubt.

We are not reticent about expressing our great thanks to the British people and paying homage to the tragic British losses. Every Iraqi family, in fact, has lost a loved one because of Saddam’s regime. Every Iraqi understands the pain of conflict, the grief that accompanies war.

We honour those who sacrificed their lives for our liberation. We are determined out of respect to create a tolerant and democratic Iraq, an Iraq for all the Iraqi people. It will take time and much patience, but I can assure you it will be worth while, not only for Iraq, but for the whole of the Middle East.

I will express some annoyance that the Scottsman chose to hold onto this text until after all the votes were counted…. Hey, an anti-war rag like The Scottsman wouldn’t want to make Blair look GOOD or anything…

That snipe aside, though…Read this again, this time out of Ital:

“Iraqis sometimes wonder in amazement what the debate abroad is about. Why do people continue to ask why no WMD was found? The truth is that Saddam had, in the past, used chemical and biological weapons against his own people, and we believed he would do so again. Of course Saddam himself was, in the view of those who opposed him, Iraq’s most dangerous WMD.

Instead of continually focussing on the negative, the British, who will soon commemorate the 60th anniversary of VE day, should know that in the eyes of the majority of Iraqis, it was you who brought us our own victory day.

Britain should be proud that the liberation of Iraq has in our eyes been one of your finest hours. History will judge Prime Minister Blair as a champion against tyranny. Of that I have no doubt.”

So much, my freinds, for the claim that “It wasn’t worth it”

Dean’s World has a discussion going about Circumcision… The comments are coming fast and furious… and will likekly not be cut short.

Apparently, these idiots never learn.

so peaceful, and open-minded, these Democrats.

And Cafe Pres should be ashamed of themselves.
But of course Dmeocrats are beyond shame, anyway.

Interesting how this works.

Both James, at Outside The Beltway and Mark at GOP Bloggers, note the ongoing discussion between among others George will and Chris Hitchens, James Taranto and so on.

As usual, this discussion starts coming down very quickly, to legality, and church and state separation issues.

I submit this entire discussion is mis- cast.

If we understand (as I have argued for years) that the purpose of government is to codify and enforce the values of the culture that gave it life, and also to hopefully extend the influence of that culture within the world… then the influence of religious values in our government will be a product of the degree to which religion is a part of the culture itself. This is not mandating religion; it is simply reacting to,a nd holding respect for the culture, as government should; this is the proper relationship.

This is not, therefore, a matter of church and state (And the mythical separation thereof) as much as it is a discussion about the culture, and the influence of religion in it, which is another matter altogether.

Consider the words of John McCandlish Phillips, a former reporter at the NYT:

The fact is that our founders did not give us a nation frightened by the apparition of the Deity lurking about in our most central places. On Sept. 25, 1789, the text of what was later adopted as the First Amendment was passed by both houses of Congress, and subsequently sent to the states for ratification. On that same day , the gentlemen in the House who had acted to give us that invaluable text took another action: They passed a resolution asking President George Washington to declare a national day of thanksgiving to no less a perceived eminence than almighty God.

That’s president , that’s national, that’s official and, alas, my doubting hearties, it’s God… all wrapped up in a federal action by those who knew what they meant by the non-establishment clause and saw their request as standing at not the slightest variance from it.

While other religions (Or for that matter, atheists, which I will include as a faith unto itself) are accepted by both law and the tradition of western culture, they are never more than a minority influence in our culture. And that seems to be to be the most troubling to Hitches of the world and to the Randians as well.

The fact is, that the Republicans did not win because they’re part of the Religious ANYTHING. In fact, to become overtly religious, and religiously driven in their governmental activity, will be the death knell of the Republican party… or ANY party so consumed and so deployed… (and properly so!) Rather, they have been winning of late because they are aware of and are respectful of the culture that gave the government life… and the people… the voters… are responding to this.

They each understand and respect, as the founders did… the relationship between government and the culture. The majority of Americans… the largest part of the culture…. which, not suprisingly, is made up of Christians and cultural conservatives… see the Republicans as being the better reflector of their cultural values.  Thus, the current Republican majority. It’s really that simple.

And, so the Democrats have managed to work themselves into a proverbial corner; Every one of their big electoral issues is wrapped around radical cultural changes… changes which run directly afoul of the culture.  Until either the Democrats change their tack, or the culture itself changes, the Democrats will continue to lose.

And cultures are not known to change quickly under any kind of stimuli.

Update:

Dale Franks chimes in here, as well.

Slant Point has some fairly decent coverage and links for that British Consulate thing this morning.

(I hesitate calling it a terrorist attack… being so feeble an attack makes me suspicious.)

Chrenkoff provides some rather inteteresting before and after photos.

Be sure and check the comments.

Captain’s Quarters has up new stuff on the Sponsorship scandal in Canada, as promised yesterday.

Tony Blair is moving toward another victory in England. The only question is, will the Conservatives there pick up any seats. I may get into some more extensive commentary on this this weekend, but for now, remember… the Conservatives there are not losing because they’re conservatives… but rather because they’re not… even by the standards of the socialist Brits.

What do you know…. the Debt’s disappearing. And dispite their trying to snatch defeat out of the arms of victory, even the WaPo had to admit it today.

Mother’s day this weekend. Gonna be a nice day here in Rochester come Sunday.

Cinco de Mayo today. Given the leak in our southern border, you’ll forgive me if I don’t celebrate.

Karl Marx’s brithday today, too. Sorry, given the damage he caused the world… Same answer…. I’m not interested in a celebration.

Moonbat Kucinich is all ticked off at Howard Dean… So says Lockjaw… Of course Moonbat’s complaint is Dean isn’t being leftist enough.

Turns out that little puke who went after Ann Coulter the other day at the UT Austin campus, was studying to be a “journalist”, or so says WorldNetDaily. THAT figures.

Over at the Captain’s Quarters Captain Ed has apparently gotten a new source, and will be putting up a major posting shortly.

Update:

He’s posted a taste. This continues to look more and more damning for the Liberals….