2004

Contraception Threatens Marriage

ArchPundit August 8, 2004 5 Comments

I believe Josh Marshall suggested his rants about gay marriage would discuss how that would lead to the weakening of marriage, but Alan takes it a step further, contraception is a cause of marriage breakdown.

No-fault divorce introduced the breakdown of marriage, said Keyes. Contraception greatly advanced it. And now the suppression of the child from marriage from marriage has become a fundamental right – even if the most extreme means are called for.

Now, of course, some people are personally against contraception and that is their business, but claiming it leads to the dissolution of marriage is wacky. As the father of twins, trust me, contraception can strengthen a marriage.

On top of this, we know, Keyes would end Griswold–the case that said contraception was covered under the right to privacy, but would he legislate against the availabitity of contraceptives?

Homosexuality Leads to Totalitarianism

ArchPundit August 8, 2004 No Comments

Did anyone at the Republican Central Committee try google for a couple minutes?

“That would destroy, by the way, the very idea of freedom itself. The whole concept of freedom is based on the notion that human beings do, in fact, have a capacity for moral choice for which they can be held accountable and responsible. . If we are going to turn away from that, and see ourselves as a function of our national passions, helpless in the face of all of these whims of passionate desire that blow us hither and thither, than we are little better, in fact, than animals in a maze. And the best you could hope for is to structure society in such a way that we don’t harm each other and ourselves too much. That’s called totalitarianism – and that is exactly what is implied if we accept the key premise of the homosexual agenda.”
-Alan Keyes

The Church of Illinois

ArchPundit August 7, 2004 No Comments

Oh, that would be fun wouldn’t it? Hell, George Ryan could have sold indulgences instead of drivers licences.

But where does this come from? Alan Keyes who thinks states ought to be able to establish religions:

Americans should demand that they be granted “what the tyranny of the courts has sought to wrest from us — the freedom to live in communities that are governed by laws that reflect our beliefs,” Keyes said, adding that what a state does regarding religion is “none of the federal government’s business.”

When the First Amendment was passed, he noted, “there were a majority of states in the United States … where there were religious tests” and there were “established churches.”

If religious tests and established churches were unconstitutional, Keyes said, then they would have been abolished prior to the First Amendment’s passage. Such a state-sanctioned church would be sanctioned not by the federal government but instead by an individual state, he said.

Of course, what Alan misses is the minor addition of the 14 amendment that actually applied the First Amendment to the states, but, you know, details, schmetails.

Even better, he was at a rally to defend Judge Roy Moore.

Keyes On Evolution

ArchPundit August 7, 2004 3 Comments

It just gets better and better:

Even at the highest level of discourse in our religion, in our faith, in our society, you have folks who are actually willing to act as if this is some kind of secondary matter where one can easily cede to the authority of ?modern science? without much detrimental effect upon anything else. And yet, if you even think about it for a minute, the implications of the understanding of the world, but especially of ourselves, that evolution represents, utterly destroys the foundation for any sense of a transcendent basis for human justice. And as a matter of fact, one ought to see that in the natural paradigm that evolution itself represents, the one that is most often, of course, presented ? and they’ll always tell you that it’s an oversimplification and so forth and so on, but at some level they’re lying ? because whoever stood up and made it clear that you summarize the whole business, at least in terms of what you might consider its social relevance, with the old phrase, ?the survival of the fittest,? right? Well, however you want to and with whatever complexity you want to interpret it, what that really suggests is that outcome validates existence. That’s what you’re really talking about. And in that sense, we’re looking at a situation in which, if there is any standard at all, that standard is simply what works. Whether you want to call it survival, dominance, whatever, the standard is simply ‘what works.’ But not what works in some general or cosmic sense, no, because the whole disappears. By this understanding, what works is to be understood only from the point of view of the particular being. And it reminds me, I think it was the start of an old TV show, ‘Hunter,’ and at the end of the m?lange that used to open the show, the hero would be beating up on somebody, and would be standing over him and they’d be closing out the credits and he would say, ?It works for me!?

Bad science meets bad religion meets bad politics.

Who Is Supporting Keyes?

ArchPundit August 7, 2004 No Comments

Thanks to a tip over at Roger Ailes in comments, I picked out Joseph Scheidler from the Renew America site and at the Leader. He’s holding “Keyes for Senate From Illinois” sign.

Who is Joseph Scheidler? Good pals with Operatoin Rescue’s Randall Terry. These aren’t anti-abortion activists, these are violent men.

For example, in Delaware, Joseph Scheidler and three other large men illegally entered a clinic, trapping the clinic administrator inside. The men put the phones on hold ? effectively cutting her off from the outside world ? and told her they were there to “case the place.” This was shortly after several clinics had been bombed. In another incident, Scheidler went to Pensacola and met with John Burt and Joan Andrews. Together, they discussed and planned an event to take place at the Ladies Center. The next day, while Scheidler was outside doing “P.R.” (he did not want to get arrested), Burt, Andrews and two others burst into the clinic, shoved the administrator to the floor and slammed an escort up against a wall. Then they went upstairs to wreck equipment. Still more evidence of force and violence came as the jury heard from a doctor who had been stalked, her house surrounded, and her life threatened. She was also physically assaulted by Monica Miller and Matt Trewhella. The jury also heard evidence of scores of blockades, which deprived people of access to the clinics, and where people were assaulted for daring to try to enter. One woman, who was going to see her doctor for postoperative surgery (surgery that in no way was related to abortion and that had been done to try and save her reproductive organs), was hit over the head with a picketer’s sign. And the jury heard more.

This guy was outside the meeting to choose Keyes as a supporter. Good people may disagree over abortion, but this kind of violence is out of line. I’d suggest the news media get Keyes on record as to his feelings about such actions. Keyes is a joke that is in many ways funny, but in other ways quite frightening.

The Old I Don’t Believe in Releasing My Tax Records Bit

ArchPundit August 7, 2004 1 Comment

Appears to be about to create another problem for the GOP:

And tax records indicate the State of Maryland in 2001 filed a tax lien on the home owned by Keyes, 54, and his wife, Jocelyn, because of $7,481 in unpaid state income taxes and penalties.

On Friday, Keyes was able to pay off the tax debt with a certified check for a little more than $152, said William Pascoe, a longtime friend of Keyes’ who is volunteering as his spokesman.

A spokesperson for the Maryland state comptroller’s office said, however, that the debt “hasn’t been satisfied,” and was unable to confirm whether Keyes had made arrangements to pay the tax debt.

The lien resulted from what Pascoe called “an erroneous tax accounting” involving payments for speeches by Keyes to a personal corporation he formed to handle money he makes as a public speaker, Pascoe said.

Bill Maher’s Take

ArchPundit August 7, 2004 3 Comments

It’s starting to look bad for Republicans. First they couldn’t find Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Then they couldn’t find weapons in Iraq. Now, they can’t find a black person in Chicago.

The Important Thing To Remember For Obama’s Team

ArchPundit August 6, 2004 3 Comments

Never get in the way of an opponent’s self-immolation. When they start to really get cooking, don’t throw any water on it. The ability to stay out of the way of Jack! was quite impressive. Just keep that up, and you’ll be just fine.

Maybe I should start a set of campaign rules…

1) Campaign workers never make news because when they do, it’s almost always bad

2) Never get in the way of a good self-immolation by your opponent.

Any more?

Just Because the IL GOP Is Participating in the Jim Jones Olympics

ArchPundit August 6, 2004 1 Comment

Doesn’t mean I have to….

Berkowitz is upset that I made fun of Keyes attempt to crash a debate.

Archpundit thinks civil disobedience is conduct unbecoming a U. S. Senate Candidate?

A quick retraction is in order.

Oh, this is rich. My good blogging friend and gung-ho, unabashedly Democratic Blogger Larry Handlin [www.archpundit.com] is now questioning Ambassador Keyes? dignity because Keyes engaged in civil disobedience [protesting the exclusionary policies with respect to Presidential Candidates who were not front-runners for a presidential candidate debate sponsored by an ABC affiliate ].

Larry is, of course, demonstrating once again that political partisans [both Ds and Rs] have no shame when it comes to making baseless partisan arguments against their opponents. But, Larry, would you really want to call one-half of your readers and about one-third of the Democratic Party, not to mention your Party?s fearless leader, undignified? I didn?t think so. So, we can expect a quick retraction?

As Thoreau said[I think]– when the laws are unjust, the place for the just is in jail. Imagine me- having to remind Archpundit Handlin of that. Who would have thunk it?

This all assumes that Keyes had a beef–but the fact is Keyes is a first class loon. That is why he was excluded and the attempt to crash it is another symptom of being a loon. The Hunger Strike was really impressive but really was a definitive moment in answering the question of whether when a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?

I’m sorry the Republican Central Committee is suffering from mass hysteria, but it’s not my fault.