Sunday, March 20, 2005
An observation
Normally on big questions, both sides are fuelled by equally short and repetitive lists of talking points. Normally, you could replace any pair of 'debaters' by a pair of tape players, each containing a 20-second loop, and miss nothing.
The debate on Terri, both in Congress and on the yakkity-yak shows, is strikingly unbalanced. The Commies have exactly two talking points:
1. 19 judges have ruled
2. It's a personal tragedy, and we shouldn't insert ourselves into it.
Rather nicely, the Commies in the House are continuing to use the 19-judge point after the first Repub speaker totally debunked it; always pleasant to see fools running off a cliff. (It wasn't 19 independent judges looking at the case on their own; it was Judge Greer making the basic determination each time, and a couple of times his decisions were reviewed by panels of state or federal judges.)
But I can't distill the civilized side down to a list of talking points. Each speaker appears to have done his own homework; each has an individual passion. Some points may be valid, others not; but they all seem to come from the heart.
And speaking of hearts, a special tip o'the fishing pole to Tom Harkin. He has long served as the point man in Congress for the community of disability activists, and he appears to have undergone a true change of heart: from the standard leftist refusal to do anything that might harm the abortion industry, to an actual concern for actual human lives. ¶ 7:19 PM
The debate on Terri, both in Congress and on the yakkity-yak shows, is strikingly unbalanced. The Commies have exactly two talking points:
1. 19 judges have ruled
2. It's a personal tragedy, and we shouldn't insert ourselves into it.
Rather nicely, the Commies in the House are continuing to use the 19-judge point after the first Repub speaker totally debunked it; always pleasant to see fools running off a cliff. (It wasn't 19 independent judges looking at the case on their own; it was Judge Greer making the basic determination each time, and a couple of times his decisions were reviewed by panels of state or federal judges.)
But I can't distill the civilized side down to a list of talking points. Each speaker appears to have done his own homework; each has an individual passion. Some points may be valid, others not; but they all seem to come from the heart.
And speaking of hearts, a special tip o'the fishing pole to Tom Harkin. He has long served as the point man in Congress for the community of disability activists, and he appears to have undergone a true change of heart: from the standard leftist refusal to do anything that might harm the abortion industry, to an actual concern for actual human lives. ¶ 7:19 PM
