September 2004

Spanking

ArchPundit September 8, 2004 1 Comment

So I think we all had one thing in mind when we heard the Good Ambassador was upset over spanking. It’s harder to be more of a selfish hedonist than when Spanking the Monkey. But no, he was referring to a comment by Barack,

“I don’t want to just win, I want to give this guy who is running against me a spanking,” Keyes quoted Obama as saying.

The conservative from Maryland said Obama then said that he wanted to give Keyes a spanking because he exemplified the “kind of scorched-earth, slash-and-burn negative campaign that has become the custom in Washington and it is the reason why we can’t get anything done.”

Now, most folks would take this as a basketball reference. But, not the Good Ambassador–it’s a slavery reference:

Keyes, whose rhetoric concerning gay marriage and abortion has stunned Illinois Republican Party leaders, said Obama’s use of the word spanking was “colorful language” and is “the language of the master who, when he is displeased with the slave, gives him a whipping.”

If he had made such comments, Keyes speculated that the media would accuse him of “some horrible crime against the dignity of my opponent.”

“I am sure if I had used this language about my opponent, one of you would have followed up with that kind of question, suggesting that I was showing the utmost insensitivity to the racial heritage of America and to the indignities that black Americans have suffered during the course of that heritage,” Keyes said.

No, but you might have been fitted with a straightjacket. Then again, you might still be. Though you might have asked what great moral principle in the Declaration spanking is related to or perhaps a cheeky joke about Spanking the Monkey.

McLean Cubed

ArchPundit September 7, 2004 No Comments

Who is running the Keyes effort in McLean County?

On one side you had the moderates and on the other you had Alan Keyes and Co. Keyes comments on homosexuality were widely condemned by some top party brass. To any observer who watched what happened in McLean County a few years ago, the ideological split that is tearing at the party’s fabric is nothing new.

You might recall former Illinois Christian Coalition chief John Parrott’s rise to power as county GOP chairman. The Bloomington businessman’s conservative brand of politics wasn’t well liked by what became known as the “old guard” Republicans in McLean County.

Eventually, Parrott was ousted in a power play and things seem to have returned to normal.

So normal, in fact, that Parrott is now heading Keyes’ election efforts in McLean County.

Keyes the Diplomat

ArchPundit September 7, 2004 No Comments

What Zorn says

Condemning homosexuality in general but refusing to condemn an individual gay person because of partisan or personal sensitivities would be craven hypocrisy.

Perhaps inadvertently, Keyes’ candor reminds us of another truth that can be spoken: When you rail against homosexuals, you’re not railing against faceless beings whose sole attribute is that they “use the organs intended for procreation for purposes of pleasure,” as Keyes is known to say disapprovingly.

You’re railing against real people–daughters, sons, friends, colleagues, neighbors–who are really hurt by scornful rhetoric that trivializes their relationships.

Unyielding, in-your-face application of one’s moral certainty works well in academia, in the pulpit and, often, on talk radio and in newspaper columns–where provocation is a tool in the quest for insight, and invoking the judgment of God against your foes is just another gambit.

The first section is excellent too–so read it all, but I’m trying to be a good fair use boy today.