ROGER SIMON: END THIS TEDIOUS DEBATE ROAD SHOW NOW
IT'S BEEN A VERY LONG DAY for ending careers. Both Graham Spainer, president of Penn State, and Joe Paterno famed PS football coach have been fired effective immediately due to fallout from the horrendous child sex abuse scandal there. Then Texas governor Rick Perry stumbled badly in tonight's presidential debate, and most likely will never recover from his frozen gaffe. In all three cases, it may have been a while in coming, but in the end, it was over very quickly.
Sobering how quickly life and aspirations can turn on a dime. Meanwhile, mayhem and riots have broken out at Penn State tonight, while this one is on the way out.
CNN:
ReplyDeleteIn the never-ending debate over whether the United States is a Christian nation, recent events support the nay-sayers. I am referring to the troubles of Herman Cain and Joe Paterno.
How we respond to ethical conundrums often boils down to empathy. In the abortion debate, do you identify with the woman who wants an abortion or with the fetus? Concerning the federal deficit, do you identify with the wealthy person who might see his taxes rise or with the poor person who might see her unemployment benefits extended?
One purpose of the world's great religions is to widen our circle of empathy beyond ourselves and our families to others in our community, and in the wider world. Christianity, for example, has long taught that we should empathize with “the least of these,” and particularly with the poor and oppressed (see Luke 4:18).
The morality plays we are now witnessing—the sexual harassment allegations swirling around Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and the sexual assault charges swirling around the Penn State football program headed by former coach Joe Paterno — provide an opportunity to assess just where our collective empathy lies.
When we look as a nation at the Herman Cain campaign, do our hearts go out to the wealthy businessman and White House contender or do they go out to the women who are accusing him of sexual improprieties? In pondering this case, and trying to determine where we stand, how do we approach the evidence? To whom do we give the benefit of the doubt? To the “least of these”? Or to the most powerful?
Mr. Prothero and I don't share the same worldview on anything. Empathy may be the basis of making his life choices but not mine.
ReplyDeleteAnd his choosing between the rich who might find their taxes higher and the poor who need to extend their unemployment benefits is downright silly....how about the rich getting to keep enough profits to create jobs and hire more people in need of work, taking them off the public dole and giving them the opportunity to better themselves and their families. Now there's a novel idea.
His abortion arguement is silly too. He lives in an either or world instead of a both/and.
" the rich getting to keep enough profits to create jobs and hire more people"
ReplyDeleteLast year, Koch Industries - one of the biggest corporate supporters of Republicans - increased their net worth by $7 Billion in just one year. The same year, Koch cut 3,000 jobs. Since 2007, Koch Industries net worth has grown from $34 Billion to $50 Billion. In that same period of time, Koch decreased their workforce from 80,000 to 67,000 .... layng off 13,000 workers while their profits soared.
If Dicken's 'A Christmas Carol' was performed by the Tea Party Dramatic Society, it would be a cautionary tale about how the hero, Scrooge, a blameless job creator is turned into a socialist through the corrupting influence of Tiny Tim. And the play would end with a simple plaintive question from Mr. Scrooge. Just how much of my wealth does Mr. Tim think he’s entitled to?
Have you been watching the GOP debates? I have.
I've watched audiences applaud a large number of executions, applaud letting an uninsured man die, booing a gay soldier in Afghanistan, applauding torture.
Do you think these demonstrate good moral and Christian values?
Whine, whine, whine.
ReplyDeleteDidn't your mother teach you life isn't always fair? Most of the true job creators in America are middle/upper middle class hard working, tax paying citizens. Most would tell you government regulations and taxation is strangling their ability to make a profit and offer more jobs. You choose to highlight only the most extreme cases as if they were the norm, which is clearly not so.
"government regulations and taxation is strangling their ability to make a profit and offer more jobs"
ReplyDeleteIn three straight recent weekly addresses, Republicans have asserted that “excessive government regulations” are keeping businesses from creating jobs.
False talking point.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) asks executives to report the biggest reasons for layoffs. Data released last week showed that out of 1,870 layoffs, only six — or about 0.4 percent — in the third quarter of 2010 were due to “Governmental regulations/intervention.” That number dropped even further in the first two quarters of 2011.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/mslo.t02.htm