The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

More On Lindsey Graham (Don’t Speak Those Four Words Too Quickly)

Posted on | April 5, 2011 | 31 Comments

by Smitty

Gateway Pundit stands at the brink of a pit and peers over at a US Senator ignoring the First Rule of Holes. It wouldn’t be so bad if Graham wasn’t in an elected office.
Like a flag burner or torcher of anyone’s scripture, Graham should be allowed to make a colossal ass of himself it it makes him happy. Unlike the first two flavors of fool, Graham is in a position to abet the scuttling of liberty via legislation.
In a Twitter conversation with Jimmie Bise a few hours back, it occurred to me that the argument about idiotic actions like flag burning and scripture torching has three dimensions:

  1. Theological–how you feel about your personal, subjective understanding of the Almighty.
  2. Political–how behavior is regulated amongst men through a State.
  3. Practical–how the subjective behavior of others plays into the discussion.

Feel free to accuse me over over-thinking the problem. Every problem has its intrinsic complexity. Oversimplification is as unhelpful as obfuscation. Let me grade Terry Jones in the three categories above.
Theologically, for Nicene Creed values of Christianity, I don’t think the guy has a leg to stand on. Show me, in the Gospels, where Jesus went further than verbal mention of Baal or Mammon. However, it’s not clear where Jone is on the traditional Christian creed.
Politically, you’re either for liberty, or not. Even when actions of that liberty are repugnant. Permitting the government to regulate stupid is, itself, un-bright. I will criticize Jones’ actions as moronic even while defending his right to undertake them.
Practically, the causal relationship argument that person B‘s moronic reaction to the actions of A can be turned into an indictment of A is an excellent litmus test. Maybe there is an exception, but I thought that in general A is responsible for A and B for B, at least among mentally competent adults. So to go connecting A to B, and saying the government should manage those connections, is about the dumbest pile of hooey imaginable. The government can’t balance its godforsaken books, and Senator Graham thinks it can handle some book burning?
Just retire, Senator Graham. You’ve identified yourself as a clueless. Your non-grasp of what the First Amendment is trying to do seems to permeate the policies you support. You seem to care about freedom of speech as much as you care about the integrity of the borders.
Terry Jones, your grasp of Christianity seems dodgy. We all need to repent more, sir. The Beatitudes states “Blessed are the peacemakers”, not pacemakers, though, by your actions, your prescription may require renewal.

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