In a speech yesterday, Vice-President Dick Cheney made the “two plank” WMD argument that I talked about in a previous post. Here is the relevant excerpt from the Vice-President’s speech (the parts in brackets are mine): [1st Plank] Although our coalition has not found WMD stockpiles in Iraq, I repeat that we never had the burden of proof; Saddam Hussein did. [2nd Plank] We operated on the best available intelligence gathered over a period of years and within a totalitarian society ruled by fear and secret police. What this part of Cheny’s speech illustrates is that the Bush Administration’s WMD argument for the war had two planks. First, the administration…
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Who Is Lying About Iraq?
I cannot recommend highly enough Norman Podhoretz‘s recent essay “Who Is Lying About Iraq?” (available in html and pdf). It is a singular word of sane analysis among a din of media reporting that merely parrots anti-war talking points. I have been writing about this topic a great deal lately because opponents of the Iraq War have been making hay out of Scooter Libby’s indictment (read here, here, here, and here). They have used the indictment to slander President Bush by claiming he lied in order to dupe the nation into going to war.
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The New York Times Misses the Point Again (probably deliberately)
I am not surprised at the superficiality of an editorial in today’s New York Times. The editors at the Times are notoriously predictable in their knee-jerk defense of secularist liberal values. Unfortunately, this fact often means that they do not engage the real issues that are at stake in a given debate. In the editorial “The Democrats and Judge Alito,” the Times once again shows its penchant for missing the point. The gist of the piece argues that “there is reason to believe that Judge Alito could do significant damage to values Democrats have long stood for.” It goes on to complain that “Alito showed as a federal appeals court…
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Please Pat, We Don’t Need Anymore Help! (Part 1)
Pat Robertson may have single-handedly done more to undermine the Intelligent Design (ID) movement than any of its opponents. After Tuesday’s elections, he made the following remarks about a Pennsylvania town that voted their school board out of office for supporting ID:
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Finally, Bush Steps up to the Plate
Photo: Charles Dharapak/Associated Press President Bush has been mute for far too long about the baseless charges being leveled at him by his political opponents. This silence has been very frustrating for those of us who have supported this president’s war policy. The silence on his part has given the appearance that everything that the critics of the war are saying is true and that there never was any legitimate basis for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Today in a speech marking Veterans Day, the President finally decided to step up to the plate and take a whack at the unfounded allegations that his critics have made against the case…
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Another Abortion Outrage
Today’s Washington Post reports that there is a new prenatal testing procedure that will allow doctors to determine in the first trimester whether a baby has down syndrome. The outrage consists in how this knowledge is routinely used. Screening women before the second trimester allows those who might opt to terminate a pregnancy to make that decision when doctors say an abortion is safer and less traumatic (source). Aborting babies who have defects has become a routine occurrence in our society. Yet it is a practice that almost no one wants to talk about. Ironically, the Washington Post ran one of the most compelling essays against this practice just a…
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Texas Passes Ban on Gay “Marriage”
The Associated Press reports that early election returns in Texas indicate that the amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman has passed. The good news is that the amendment also outlaws civil unions and any other arrangement that resembles marriage. Here’s how the new amendment reads: (a) Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman. (b) This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage (source). This amendment not only constitutionally prohibits Texas from “marrying” and conferring civil unions on homosexual couples, it also…
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Interview for ABC News Dallas
The interview aired last night on the 10 o’clock news (see previous post). I had been wondering how my comments would come across once they were edited to fit into the report. Having seen it, I have to say that it could have been worse. They have me reading the scripture (1 Corinthians 6:9) to the effect that the “unrighteous” will not inherit the kingdom of God. But they didn’t include the part about the Gospel being for all kinds of sinners. Nevertheless, it’s always a good thing to be able to read scripture, so I can’t complain. If you want to watch the video, click here: Watch Video. If…
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Interview for the Gospel
The reporter who conducted the interview was Gary Reaves (pictured right). I got called on today to represent Criswell College in an interview with a local news program (Channel 8, ABC-Dallas) about the upcoming vote on whether to amend the Texas constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. I only had about an hour or so to prepare for the interview. So I began reading stories from several different newspapers and news sources and tried to brush up on the state of the political debate. I read websites sponsored by interest groups for the amendment and others that are against the amendment. I was well-prepared to…
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CNN Is ‘Dead Wrong’
I am watching in disbelief as “CNN Presents” narrates a misleading account of how the U.S. entered into the Iraq War. Basically, they are alleging that the President built a case for war based “substantially” on faulty intelligence. President Bush’s case for pre-emptive war against Iraq was based substantially on evidence that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction. But a presidential commission described the pre-war intelligence as “dead wrong.” CNN Presents pieces together the chain of events that led to the faulty intelligence (source).