The New York Times Magazine did an interesting interview with South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Among some of the topics discussed are her disqualification as a 5-year old from a local pageant because she could not be classified as either 'White' or 'Black' to fit into the two categories of the pageant as well as her conversion to Christianity from Sikhism.
Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker first floated the idea a few years ago of Haley being part of a national ticket. With the dearth of viable candidates on the Republican Side in 2012, the GOP is starting to look like the 2004 Democratic Party, who essentially chose the least objectionable establishment candidate that ended up being overshadowed by a new upstart at the convention (some guy named 'Obama' or something like that.)
Could Nikki Haley be the 2012 GOP version of the 2004 Barack Obama? After reading the interview, I have a feeling she's hoping for a very happy 45th birthday for the presidential inauguration in 2017.
Showing posts with label Kathleen Parker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kathleen Parker. Show all posts
Monday, March 7, 2011
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Why aren’t more people talking about this article?
Why haven't more people talked about William Dalrymple's op-ed that appeared in Monday’s New York Times? Seeing as how he's a British historian well versed on topics relating to the Middle East and South Asia, he provides a perspective worth reading about the Sufis that are building the community center. A key passage in the piece:
"[The people against the community center] show a dangerously inadequate understanding of the many divisions, complexities and nuances within the Islamic world - a failure that hugely hampers Western efforts to fight violent Islamic extremism and to reconcile Americans with peaceful adherents of the world's second-largest religion.
Most of us are perfectly capable of making distinctions within the Christian world. The fact that someone is a Boston Roman Catholic doesn't mean he's in league with Irish Republican Army bomb makers, just as not all Orthodox Christians have ties to Serbian war criminals or Southern Baptists to the murderers of abortion doctors."
The sad part is most people don't realize that the animosity against the community center in lower Manhattan is identical to radical fundamentalists Muslims decrying the “Descendants of Crusaders occupying their sacred lands” in Saudi Arabia. In fact, History Channel had a great documentary a few years ago about the Crusades. One of the first acts of the Muslim rulers that retook Jerusalem from the Crusaders was to reopen not just the mosques but also the synagogues and Orthodox churches that were shut down or destroyed by the Crusaders. (Oh, and they left the Catholic churches open too.)
It just goes to show that when a tolerant society bends to the whims of intolerance, nothing good can or will come of it. That’s why conservative columnist Kathleen Parker also supports its construction. As Parker states in her column today, “The mosque should be built precisely because we don't like the idea very much.”
"[The people against the community center] show a dangerously inadequate understanding of the many divisions, complexities and nuances within the Islamic world - a failure that hugely hampers Western efforts to fight violent Islamic extremism and to reconcile Americans with peaceful adherents of the world's second-largest religion.
Most of us are perfectly capable of making distinctions within the Christian world. The fact that someone is a Boston Roman Catholic doesn't mean he's in league with Irish Republican Army bomb makers, just as not all Orthodox Christians have ties to Serbian war criminals or Southern Baptists to the murderers of abortion doctors."
The sad part is most people don't realize that the animosity against the community center in lower Manhattan is identical to radical fundamentalists Muslims decrying the “Descendants of Crusaders occupying their sacred lands” in Saudi Arabia. In fact, History Channel had a great documentary a few years ago about the Crusades. One of the first acts of the Muslim rulers that retook Jerusalem from the Crusaders was to reopen not just the mosques but also the synagogues and Orthodox churches that were shut down or destroyed by the Crusaders. (Oh, and they left the Catholic churches open too.)
It just goes to show that when a tolerant society bends to the whims of intolerance, nothing good can or will come of it. That’s why conservative columnist Kathleen Parker also supports its construction. As Parker states in her column today, “The mosque should be built precisely because we don't like the idea very much.”
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Parker: The GOP's suicide pact
Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker writes about the GOP's so-called "purity test". This is significant because it's usually when party members start calling out their own kind that progress eventually happens. Such was the case of the Democratic Party, which led to the creation of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in the 1980's, whose most prominent members at the time were Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and Tennessee Senator Al Gore (and we know they weren't in those two jobs for long after the creation of the DLC.)
I don't often support most Republican positions but that doesn't mean I never would and never will. Remember, this is the party that started as a movement for the abolition of slavery. In any democracy, there need to be many political parties and in our democracy specifically, there need to be two vibrant ones.
Conservatives of today have forgotten, much like the liberals of the 1970's did, that the purpose of a political party is to get its members elected however possible. If you cast a wide net, you may catch some fish that stink but if you like fish, they'll all be delicious when you put them in the pot together and cook them.
I don't often support most Republican positions but that doesn't mean I never would and never will. Remember, this is the party that started as a movement for the abolition of slavery. In any democracy, there need to be many political parties and in our democracy specifically, there need to be two vibrant ones.
Conservatives of today have forgotten, much like the liberals of the 1970's did, that the purpose of a political party is to get its members elected however possible. If you cast a wide net, you may catch some fish that stink but if you like fish, they'll all be delicious when you put them in the pot together and cook them.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Two Columns in Today's Washington Post
Washington Post's progressive columnist, Ruth Marcus, and conservative columnist, Kathleen Parker, both have very good columns in today's paper. Marcus writes about all the lies being presented as facts on the healthcare legislation that passed in the House Saturday night and Parker writes about the heinous ways in which China violates human rights to maintain their one-child policy. Both columns got me thinking and I hope they generate a great deal of thought with you too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)